The purpose of this action research study was to investigate pre-service physical education teachers' and their teacher educator's perceptions regarding the implementation of a tactical approach in an 8-week tennis class. Participants were 13 pre-service teachers and the teacher educator, as researcher, in a tennis activity course. Data collection techniques included teacher educator's self-reflective journal, participants' reflections, videotaped class observations, structured interviews, pre- and post knowledge test and a demographic questionnaire. Game play was videotaped for analysis before and after instruction and the Game Performance Assessment Instrument (GPAI) was used to code the data. Reflections and field notes from videotaped class observations, and interviews were analyzed through constant comparison. Demographic questionnaire was analyzed using descriptive statistics while pre- and post knowledge and game performance were analyzed using ANOVAs. Based on results from the questionnaire (years and type of playing experience, self-rating) pre-service teachers were grouped as either inexperienced or experienced. Results from the ANOVA, with the exception of Base Index, yielded a non-significant interaction effect. The inexperienced group's Base Index was significantly higher at post-test (M = 4.32) than at pre-test (M = 1.13), p < .05. Knowledge test results indicated that at the pretest the experienced group scored significantly higher (M = 13.33) than the inexperienced group (M = 10.57), p < .05. Both groups significantly improved from pre to posttest. Teaching using a tactical approach resulted in an increased content knowledge for the teacher educator as well as a shift in overall beliefs about games teaching. For example, learning to use the question/answer (Q&A) segment of lessons occurred in a three-step learning continuum: imitation, rephrase, and dual-directional conversation that shifted the role of teacher from information giver to facilitator. Pre-service teachers indicated that the Q&A segments made them adjust their tactical thinking and as such provided an important source of feedback during game play. Pre-service teachers indicated that learning via a tactical approach was a meaningful experience for the following reasons: (a) the combined learning of tactical and skill execution elements, (b) the skills were immediately applied in game situations, (c) the class was enjoyable (interesting, challenging), and (d) students learned a new assessment instrument.

Over the past decade, politicians, businesspersons, and educators have pushed for “higher,” “tougher,” and “world-class” standards for K–12 students. This standards movement includes state standardized, curriculum-based tests. Massachusetts recently developed the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS). MCAS is considered a high-stakes test because a passing score determines graduation for students, and sanctions and rewards for teachers and schools. The experiences of 16 Massachusetts English teachers in teaching under the MCAS high-stakes testing requirement were explored using a qualitative research method known as in-depth interviewing from a phenomenological perspective (Seidman, 1998). These participants taught a variety of students in a range of Massachusetts public schools. Over the course of three 90-minute interviews, each participant established context through life histories, detailed their current teaching experiences, and made meaning of these experiences. Using an inductive process of analysis, data were reduced and coded; essential features, relationships, and patterns were explored. The findings were organized into three major themes. This study found that teachers narrowed their curriculum, changed instruction, and designed classroom assessments to match the content and skills that MCAS tests. Teachers associated both gains and losses with these changes. Moreover, this high-stakes test both enhanced and undermined their professional identities. MCAS and related professional activities empowered teachers; MCAS also disempowered teachers by imposing policies that controlled curriculum and instruction, threatened sanctions, and damaged reputations. Teachers voiced their socio-political analysis of the theories that underpin this high-stakes testing movement, the motives behind MCAS, and the current state of education. The findings reveal that the line between educational reform and improved education is neither unidirectional nor linear. Rather, it is a complex web of influences, motives, and actions. How policy winds its way into practice depends on the varied contexts in which teachers perceive and experience reform. This study suggests implications for policymakers, politicians, teachers, teacher educators, and researchers. Among other things, it makes a plea to policymakers and legislators to define what they mean by standards, re-examine the narrow content of the test, and include teachers as legitimate participants in making policy decisions that affect them and their students.

This dissertation explored the perspectives of mentor teachers, program supervisors and interns in a preservice licensure program in a research-based flagship university in northeast on the roles, influences and preparation of mentor teachers, program supervisors, and peer coaching. Surveys were designed and administered to all 15 program supervisors, 69 mentor teachers and 69 interns in the program (with effective responsive samples of 12, 50 and 52 and responsive rates of 80%, 72% and 75% respectively) to capture a quick snapshot of the samples' descriptive characteristics, such as attitudes, opinions, and preferences towards the three components and to provide additional prompts of inquiry. An interviewing approach was utilized. Totally 24 participants were selected—program coordinator, 8 program supervisors, 7 mentor teachers, and 8 interns. Each participant received two semi-structured in-depth interviews, each of which lasted about 90 minutes. Program documents were collected to reveal the requirements and expectations of the program. Results demonstrated that mentor teachers were the most vital to interns learning to teach; that program supervisors helped interns the most in learning about clinical supervision; and that peer coaching was the most helpful to interns in emotional support. Each role was compared to a unique set of analogies, the utilization of which concretized the descriptions of each role's responsibilities and influences. Each member of the triad was not programmatically prepared for his/her specific role. Based on the issues and concerns emerged from the practice of each component, a rationale and an implication plan of action for the preparation of each role were developed.

In the community of adoption and throughout its related literature, the needs and experiences of "invisible" or non-adopted children in transracial families have been largely overlooked. This study attempts to address that void by documenting the meaning and influences of transracial adoption in the lives of twelve non-adopted white adults who grew up with a transracially adopted brother or sister. The research used discourse analysis to document the narrative identities of the non-adopted siblings as they were enacted during interviews about transracial adoption. Five composite narrative identities are discussed, with distinctions made between those that were characterized as transracialized or un-transracialized. Transracialization is presented as a participant's active engagement with discourses of race and adoption in ways that may result in "post-white" identities in non-adopted siblings. Transracialization is discussed in terms of its benefit to members of adoptive families and the professionals who serve them, including social workers, psychotherapists, and educators. Implications for the community of adoption and the field of education are offered, along with recommendations for future research.

This dissertation examines the impact of technology coaching on teachers' use of technology as a professional and instructional resource in a higher education and public school technology coaching partnership called e-TEAMS. In this project, teachers who had identified themselves as generally "not confident" or "somewhat confident" in their abilities to integrate technology into classroom practice were paired for a semester with e-coaches who were college students possessing up-to-date knowledge of computers and other information technologies, to design and teach lessons that infused computers, the Internet, videos and other technologies into English, mathematics, science, and history teaching. Teachers found that the presence of an e-coach helped them to envision new ways to use technology in teaching. Generally, teachers who used inquiry-based teaching methods tended to incorporate technology into instruction more easily than did teachers who tended to use traditional teaching methods. Teachers noted that e-coaching was a new experience, making the process of working with an e-coach one of new learning through gradual progress with some setbacks.

This study is a narrative history with a biographical focus that traces the evolution of the Shady Hill School from a neighborhood cooperative school to a thriving independent school with a national reputation for innovative curriculum, excellent classroom teaching, and a distinctive teacher training program. Three theses guide the narrative: (1) Katharine Taylor's leadership, her personal characteristics and her vision of school as a unified community of teachers and learners were primary forces in the transformation of the Shady Hill School. (2) Katharine Taylor's commitment to faculty development and her corresponding interest in teacher education programs were crucial factors in the evolution of the Shady Hill School; moreover, these commitments and interests were important factors in the development of Taylor's personal identity. (3) Katharine Taylor's personal values, motivations and professional concerns indicate the influence of her formative life experiences within the progressive social and educational reform networks in Chicago during the early years of the twentieth century. The study contributes to research in the field of American educational history with respect to the following issues: first, the study adds to the documentation of the diversity of educational experiments in the progressive era of American education; second, it illustrates how examining the social, political and philosophical influences upon individuals associated with the development of schools adds to our understanding of reactions to conventional pedagogy in the progressive era; third, the study calls attention to the relevance of Taylor's ideas, leadership style and innovate programs for educational policy and practice today. These issues are introduced in the first chapter of the study and they are developed in chapters two through four; then the major points of the study are reviewed in the last chapter for the purpose of recommending directions for further research based on the conclusions of this study.

Previous research does not address the integral role art plays in early childhood education and preschool teachers and providers are rarely trained to teach art creatively. This study presents a framework for training early childhood providers in the developmental and psychological aspects of early childhood art, and the methodology of formulating and teaching creative art activities. The study assessed the effectiveness of this training in changing attitudes and behaviors of preschool teachers and day care providers, regarding the value of art for the young child and methods of teaching art to children. The sample was composed of 73 preschool teachers, assistant teachers, and family day care providers in Western Massachusetts. The treatment group received training in creative art activities. Both groups were administered pre- and post- tests regarding attitudes towards children's art, a demographic survey and a researcher-designed preschool and day care questionnaire. After the training the subjects' styles of teaching art to young children were observed and evaluated. The treatment group completed an evaluation of the training, a self-evaluation form and participated in post- training interviews. The effectiveness of the training program was confirmed by the evaluations. Subjects found the training was important to their professional growth. Statistical findings reveal significant differences for 11 of the 23 items on the Likert-type attitude pretest and posttest. Non-significant findings show a change in the expected direction for almost all items. Although the control group also showed change on some items, their change was always smaller than that of the treatment group. The data showed that overall, educational level made no difference in participants' attitudes towards the value of children's art. The methodology and behavior of teaching art by treatment group subjects were more effective than the control group. When observed, treatment group subjects displayed a smaller percentage of dictated art activities. Both groups displayed an equal percentage of creative art activities in their facilities. The results of this study indicate the importance of teaching art creatively with an awareness of the developmental and psychological implications for preschool children. It depicts positive implications for future research.

This research study uses a descriptive approach and systematic observations to examine the nature of nonverbal teacher-student interaction in a second grade inclusion classroom. Its purpose is to compare the nonverbal behaviors of children who are considered average in ability with those who are perceived as cognitively challenged, while they are engaged in regular classroom instruction in both large and small group settings. This study also examines the nonverbal behaviors of one teacher as she interacts with a select group of students within the context of a naturalistic classroom environment. The data collection involved classroom observations noting context, formal and informal discussions with the classroom teacher regarding lesson instruction, student profiles, and overall study validity and the videotaping of small and large group math lessons. For purposes of analysis, each videotape was viewed numerous times in an effort to capture the nonverbal interaction in the categories of Verbal Eye Contact, and Nonverbal Eye Focus (i.e., attending to teacher/student, attending to procedure, non-attending) in three situations: Student-teacher, Teacher-student, Student-student. Intra-observer agreement was established. The role of teacher/student proximity and teacher voice tone were addressed separately. The results indicate that the most common nonverbal behavior exhibited by both the special education students (SES) and regular education students (RES) was attending to procedure under the category of Eye Focus. The SES varied more among themselves in the verbal eye contact category, teacher eye focus and non-attending subcategories than did the (RES). Verbal eye contact and attending to student and attending to procedure in the Eye Focus category were the predominant nonverbal behaviors used by the classroom teacher. In most cases the majority of nonverbal interaction occurred between students who sat in close proximity regardless of their cognitive ability. The small group setting lent itself to greater frequencies in each of the nonverbal categories for both RES and SES. The data from this study also indicate a relationship between teacher voice tone and effective classroom management. Taking into consideration the possible nonverbal behaviors which engage all students may assist teachers as they attempt to meet the diversity in today's inclusion classroom.

Elementary preservice teachers often struggle with their relationships with their students. Research suggests that they have internalized robust teaching scripts that limit their learning of progressive pedagogical methods. As a result of these scripts and relational patterns learned in their family of origin they become progressively more authoritarian and controlling under the situational pressures of traditional classrooms. From the perspective of narrative psychology our sense of self is constructed from meanings that we attach to critical early childhood events, the stories we tell about ourselves, and the way we habitually position ourselves towards others. This critical phenomenological study explored with preservice teachers the ways in which the meanings they attached to early childhood events influence who they become as teachers and how they relate to students. Fourteen preservice elementary school teachers selected from a teacher education program shared their life stories during an interview prior to a two-day orientation circle meeting at the beginning of their prepracticum semester. Participants met in two support circles meeting four times during the semester. The interviews and circle meetings were tape-recorded. The data were analyzed to identify their stories and the way they navigated the discourses of power in their narratives and any emerging cultural themes. The data from five of the participants were analyzed in detail using Stanton Wortham's tools to determine how they were positioning themselves within their narratives and in the storytelling event. All the participants identified critical early childhood events that influence how they construct themselves as students and teachers. They employed the same discipline practices that they experienced in early childhood. Binary opposites of culturally valued concepts were used in self-construction. Their narratives revealed multiple, interwoven, mutually supportive, conflicted and contradictory stories and clashing societal discourses as they struggled to become teachers in relation to students. Implications for teacher education included using circles along with written collaborative autobiographies and case studies of young students to identify and critically analyze the discourses that interpellate themselves and their students. Further research is required to follow students through two years of teaching. More diverse groups should be studied.

Physical Education teachers, non-physical education teachers, administrators, parents and students were surveyed regarding their perceptions of six basic issues in physical education. The purpose of the study was to establish a foundation of systematically collected information providing insight into determining the status of public school physical education. To do this, the Delphi Technique was employed to gain group consensus on the following issues: goals of P.E.; departmental organization; curriculum; comparative subject matter importance; grading procedures; and graduation/participation requirements. Descriptive statements are provided regarding the group consensus results on each issue. Differentiation between elementary, junior high and senior high results are reported where appropriate. Implications for physical educators and recommendations for further study are discussed.