<p> Current population trends have revealed a huge influx of non-native English speaking students in the mainstream classroom across the United States. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore what mainstream teachers are doing to meet the academic needs of English Learners (ELs) in their classrooms on a daily basis. The researcher used semi-structured open-ended interview questions in order to gather data to answer five research questions; 1) How do teachers use data to plan for differentiated instruction? 2) How do teachers describe their experiences with differentiated instruction methods in planning reading lessons? 3) What processes do teachers go through when differentiating process, content and product during differentiated instruction? 4) What training do teachers receive to help them become effective at teaching EL students? 5) What challenges do teachers have when using differentiated instruction? Participants of the study were purposefully selected from a title one school in the Southeastern, United States with a high population of ELs. In order to be eligible to participate within the study teachers were required to teach either the third, fourth or fifth grade and have had at least 80% of their EL students meet expectations on the state mandated test in reading. The data analysis revealed six themes; 1) Collaboration 2) A huge inventory of research bases instructional strategies 3) Data-driven instruction 4) Well trained 5) Rigor 6) Learning community (7) Courage and Resilience Findings also suggested that differentiation of choice as well as interest is essential for creating an environment to meet the academic needs of ELs. Further perceptions included; using differentiation in the mainstream classroom was time- consuming, difficult to plan for, and often was met with a lack of resources. Even though, participants identified these challenges they felt that differentiated instruction was the only way to meet the academic needs of ELs. Recommendations for further study included broadening the research study to include classroom observations as well as teachers who are new to teaching ELs in the mainstream classroom setting. Further recommendations for qualitative studies included EL student perceptions of their successes and failures when participating differentiated instruction in the mainstream classroom.</p>

<p> This study explores the shared narratives of males who are African American, come from low-income families, struggled with school success, and may have been identified as needing specialized instructional services or having learning disabilities. This study includes three participants' narratives on the obstacles and supports they faced during their high school years and when transitioning beyond. It identifies shared themes of sports, reputation, and instruction, transitioning, and mentoring &mdash; including the relationship between each and how it impacted their school success.</p><p> The development of these thematic elements are related to developing networks and resources related to culture values, identities, and access to social capital. Participants ranged from 22-23 years of age, all having officially graduated from high school, transitioned to college to play sports, but failed to meet the academic requirements necessary to maintain eligibility.</p>

<p class="Abstract">This thesis has examined the phenomenon of pupil disaffection in State Schools in Scotland from a Christian perspective.&nbsp; From an overview of literature concerned with pupil disaffection, I noted the absence of theological studies concerned with the phenomenon in the UK.&nbsp; Therefore, I located the study within the discipline of practical theology, developing a critical correlative practical theology model as the framework to guide the research. <p class="Abstract">I undertook research into the retrospectively reported lived experience of six young people who experienced disaffection at school, and who, after a ten year gap from leaving school, re-engaged with education.&nbsp; Having selected hermeneutic phenomenology as both methodology and method, but within my theological framework, I interviewed the young people and utilised Hans Georg Gadamer’s principles of prejudice, horizons of understanding and the hermeneutic circle to gain a deeper understanding of the stories told to me.&nbsp; Having given voice to those so disaffected as a first step I compared and contrasted the themes that emerged from their firsthand accounts with educational literature. To deepen my understanding of the meaning of pupil disaffection, I similarly compared and contrasted the research themes through a theological lens. <p class="Abstract">Using Martin Luther’s theology of the cross, I reconstructed the lived experiences of my research participants within a framework where power and authority turn out to have quite a different meaning to understandings within State Education. I noted that a great deal of educational thought can be viewed as a theology of glory in a world where little significance is given to the vulnerable God of the cross. <p class="Abstract">Having urged Christian teachers to become educators of the cross, I introduced the concept of “bearing witness” to explore how they might begin to address the education system to find new ways of responding to disaffection. Central to my understanding of what it means to “bear witness” as a Christian teacher, is the practice of Christian hospitality.

<p> The quality of early caregiving and educational environments has a significant effect on children&rsquo;s later cognitive outcomes. Early childhood teachers are an important determining factor in the quality of these environments. Due to inconsistencies in practice across the early childhood field, there is a call for better prepared teachers. Teacher preparation itself is criticized for its lack of innovative and effective practices. While research finds that more effective teacher preparation programs are those that are steeped in clinical practice, these types of experiences are inconsistent and fragmented in the early childhood field. Part of the issue is the lack of knowledge on how to integrate highquality clinical experiences carefully into early childhood teacher preparation in order to prepare all preservice teachers successfully for the classroom. </p><p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to propose a middle-range, systematic theory for the types of practices and ideologies that the most successful early childhood teacher education programs use to prepare their preservice teachers for the education profession. A more focused purpose of this grounded theory study was to describe the ways in which early childhood preservice teachers learn about children&rsquo;s cognitive development as well as how they describe their application of this knowledge to developmentally appropriate pedagogical practices. A secondary purpose of this study was to examine these various clinical models as described by experts in the field. Analysis was completed on semi-structured interviews with preservice teachers and faculty members, open-ended surveys completed by preservice teachers, and university documents. As a result of rigorous data analysis, a theory emerged to explain clinical practice at three model early childhood teacher preparation programs. Findings suggest that there are seven layers of strength that contribute to the model programs&rsquo; expertise in preparing their preservice teachers. This study is significant in that it reports researchbased elements that may contribute to policy regarding models for teacher preparation and meaningful clinical experiences.</p>

<p> I conducted this autoethnographic research study to explore how I as a freshman orientation instructor meandered into college teaching through writing, which I used to develop my pedagogical content knowledge. Focusing my research as college faculty development, I reached back in the past and also in the present to select particular experiences to portray as vignettes, thus creating a kaleidoscopic lens. This kaleidoscopic lens serves to provide insight into my perspective of how my teaching philosophy based on the use of writing prompts developed. By connecting the personal experiences that had established my teaching philosophy using writing prompts to the classroom culture of first year students in a northeastern Alabama public two-year community college, the scholarly significance will be perused through integrating the theoretical framework of Lee S. Shulman&rsquo;s (1986, 1987) pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) with additions of Otto and Everett&rsquo;s (2013) context knowledge and Zepke&rsquo;s (2013) threshold concepts. </p><p> I as a differently-abled instructor-researcher self-narratively depict how writing prompts supported my teaching experience as pedagogical content knowledge. Thus, my use of writing prompts as pedagogical content knowledge is purposefully intended for providing significant learning experience for my students, improving their readiness for writing college papers and also for communication skills as a potential employee and productive citizen. Over the course of spring and fall 2015 terms totaling four different seventy-five minute Orientation 101 courses, the data purposefully sampled from the students&rsquo; written responses to the prompts given and also from dyadic interviews with several peers ranging from active and retired faculty to acquaintances serve to support my own perspectives and experiences that determine use of writing prompts as effective pedagogical content knowledge.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to chronicle the experiences of an elementary music educator incorporating composition and improvisation activities into her elementary general music curriculum. I interviewed a primary music specialist with the purpose of discovering her background in teaching music. The questions focused on the teacher&rsquo;s experience with music composition. After this interview, I observed the teacher in a third-grade general music composition lesson. I documented how the teacher approached the lesson and any steps she took to adapt the lesson to the needs of their students and her teaching style. </p><p> After the observation, I interviewed the teacher again to record her reactions to teaching the lesson. After coding the transcripts of the interviews and observation, four themes developed from the data: Personal Initiative, Teacher Reassurance, Student Engagement, and Teacher Improvement. The participant involved in this study received training in improvisation and reported that it had a positive effect on not only how she taught composition and improvisation, but also how comfortable she felt while teaching. As the training this teacher received was not through her teacher training program, her case may be unusual among experienced music teachers. Although this teacher was successful in teaching composition, her positive reactions to professional development indicate a desire for more training among in-service music education specialists. This study supports the idea that there is a need for more pre-service and in-service teacher training in how to teach younger students to compose. </p><p>

This thesis examines the cultural background of students and investigates differences in the way teachers interact with students of different cultural backgrounds. The study comprises three parts. Firstly, it validates the new classroom environment measuring instrument, the Cultural Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLEQ). This instrument is used for the first time to assess the cultural factors that students bring to their classrooms. Secondly, as well as providing validation data for the use of the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI), it investigates associations between students' cultural background and their perceptions of student-teacher interactions. The third part of the study looks at whether the students' cultural background affects their attitudes and achievement. This study is significant because teachers in multicultural classrooms need to be informed about how cultural factors interact with student perceptions of their preferred student-teacher interpersonal behaviours. As a result of this study, a tool is now available that can be used by teachers to monitor what is occurring in their own classrooms and to guide improvements in their teaching, thereby leading to improved learning among students.

Collaborative data-driven decision making| A qualitative study of the lived experiences of primary grade classroom teachers

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Renee Clift. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 197-210) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> Nursing shortage in the United States has led to difficulties in the orientation of new nurses in critical care units. Preceptors are experienced nurses who possess the necessary skills in the care of patients with complex problems but do not necessarily posses the required teaching skills. </p><p> New graduate nurses are hired to bridge the gap in staffing shortage and look upon preceptors as role models and mentors. When preceptors assume the role of teacher and mentor they need to demonstrate the necessary characteristics for effectively imparting knowledge and skills to new nurses. A preceptor training program is designed by some hospitals as a strategy to provide preceptors with the necessary guidance in the supervision of nurse orientees. Other hospitals do not provide preceptor training and depend solely on the clinical expertise of preceptors utilizing them as teachers and mentors. This study investigated the impact of preceptor training on the effectiveness of preceptors based on the core characteristics of effective teachers: teaching ability; nursing competence; evaluation; teacher personality; and interpersonal relationship. </p><p> Survey questionnaire developed by Knox and Mogan (1985) describing the core characteristics of effective teachers was used in the study. Sample participants were preceptors and orientees in critical care areas in four hospitals in New York. A quasi-experimental design was used in the study and data analyzed through correlation and multiple regression. </p><p> Keywords: preceptors. orientees, preceptor program, critical care</p>