This correlational study examined the relationships between undergraduate music education students' early field experiences and student teaching performance. Subjects were 40 music student teachers from eleven universities. Student teaching performance was determined from video samples using two teacher effectiveness forms, the Rehearsal Effectiveness Scale and the Survey of Teaching Effectiveness. Two independent judges were used and interjudge reliability was found to be .73 on the Survey of Teaching Effectiveness and .69 on the Rehearsal Effectiveness Scale. Reliability between forms is .88. Subjects were interviewed to collect data on both curricular and non-curricular undergraduate field experiences. These data were correlated with each subject's score on the teacher effectiveness forms. No significant correlations were found between total early field experience and student teaching performance. Significant correlations were found between early field experiences with feedback and student teaching performance (r = .439 and .507; p < .01). A significant negative correlation was found between early field experiences without feedback and student teaching performance (r = -.316, p < .047). No significant correlations were found to exist between the non-curricular index and student teaching performance. Based on their average student teaching performance ranking, five subjects were identified as a subsample for closer analysis. Data on dieir backgrounds, high school experiences, curricular experiences, and non-curricular experiences is presented. Conclusions include the following: 1. Early field experience widi feedback and peer microteaching are positively related to student teaching performance. 2. Early field experience regardless of feedback, non-curricular experience, degree type and student background are not related to student teaching performance. 3. Early field experience without feedback has a negative relationship with student teaching performance. 4. A methods/conducting lab is an effective setting for microteaching experiences. Implications for education and future research are presented.

A supplemental Saturday Youth Arts Program was examined to determine whether or not its implementation into a preservice art education program better prepared students for student teaching. This work presents two case studies. Data from the first study, which looked at sixteen preservice art teachers, found that: (1) students lacked adequate knowledge on how to write discipline-based lesson plans; (2) community outreach was undervalued by students and (3) there was a lack of sufficient preparation time to take on all the variables involved in operating the lab school. The second study followed one of the students into her student teaching to look for professional growth in four areas: (1) classroom management; (2) curriculum and lesson planning; (3) community outreach and (4) organizational skills. Findings indicated that students can achieve high levels of professional growth as a result of this kind of experience, thus they are better prepared for student teaching.

This is a study of six elementary school teachers' personal constructs about learning. I used ethnographic methods to interview each teacher twice. The questions guiding this study are: How do these teachers believe learning happens? How clearly do they express these beliefs? And who are these teachers as learners themselves? My premise is that teachers must also be learners, and must be aware of their own learning if they are to help others learn. Besides being interested in whether or not these teachers were familiar with their beliefs, I was interested in their view of knowledge, whether constructivist (knowledge created by the learner) or objectivist (knowledge transmitted to the learner). I found that some teachers were more familiar with their beliefs about learning than others. This seemed to be related to the kinds of opportunities they had had for discussion and reflection: workshops and inservice sessions, or long-term training programs.

This thesis stemmed from the idea that the museum can be used as an educational resource for both teachers and students. It examines how preservice art education majors worked with classroom teachers and students as part of a museum/university collaboration. The study was guided by three questions: (1) How did the student docents feel the experience enhanced their preservice teacher education? (2) How were student docents able to adapt activities developed around a museum exhibition to fit the needs of the host teacher and their class? (3) How can the museum and preservice teacher education programs collaborate to bring a variety of experiences to future art educators? Findings indicate that preservice teachers found classroom experiences and opportunities which link them with community resources beneficial as part of a teacher training program. The study asserts that programs which offer preservice teachers opportunities to work with teachers in schools should be included in preservice teacher course work.

This qualitative study analyzed and described new teachers' experiences of their first year in their communities of practice. Using a theoretical framework of phenomenological and narrative research, social learning theory, and alternative representations of research, the research design consisted of in-depth and focus group interviews and the creation of collage. Communities of practice research (notably the work of Lave and Wenger) was used as a lens to explore the experiences of first year teachers. Data were analyzed and described using the constant-comparative method. In addition, participants' profiles were reconstructed in the participants' own words using Seidman's (2006) method. Research is needed to assist administrators and experienced educators to understand and support the efforts of their newest colleagues. Attracting, nurturing and keeping our best teachers are goals that are essential to providing quality educational services to our students. As such, this research will have implications for universities, school boards and in-school administrators, teachers' unions, and others who are interested in supporting new teachers in effective and efficient manners.

<p> This mixed methods, case study research examined the teacher education program at Illinois State University (ISU-Normal, Illinois) as related to the views and assessment practices of the dispositions of its teacher candidates. Five years of quantitative and qualitative data from ISU&rsquo;s Disposition Concern form was collected and analyzed currently and formulated the basis for a sequential qualitative study through interviews in order to gain a more holistic picture of dispositions and the dispositional process at this university. In teacher education, content knowledge and pedagogical skills are easier to teach and assess than the subjective nature of dispositions. This grounded theory study found that the very system that views and assess dispositions of teacher candidates may augment the subjectivity of dispositions and its essentials for &ldquo;responsive&rdquo; (Thornton, 2006) teaching which systematically should include clear definitions, assessment practices, communication, and support for both faculty/staff and students.</p>

<p> This qualitative study examines the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices (Gay, 2010) within two African American elementary teachers' classrooms. Teacher interviews, classroom observations, and classroom documents were collected and analyzed to examine the supports and barriers these teachers encountered as they attempted to enact culturally responsive teaching practices. The descriptive case study reveals that both teachers engage culturally responsive teaching in similar ways. However, the difference in school context makes this effort more challenging for one teacher than another. Barriers included institutional requirements, classroom disruptions, student issues, and teacher isolation. Additionally, by implementing a collaborative coaching model as part of the study design, I briefly explored the role a teacher educator might play in supporting practicing teachers' engagement of culturally responsive teaching. Based on the findings, school structures are critiqued and suggestions for developing systems to support the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices are introduced.</p>

<p> Previous research has identified student engagement as an important antecedent to student learning in higher education. Although student engagement is viewed as important for learning, a significant number of college students still report frequently feeling bored in their courses. The use of music as a pedagogical tool is believed to be beneficial for promoting student engagement and student learning in higher education sociology courses, yet it has been suggested that sociology faculty members do not commonly incorporate the technique into their courses. The purpose of this comparative interview study is to explore higher education sociology faculty members' understandings of the use of music as a pedagogical tool, and the perceived importance of student engagement to student learning among higher education sociology faculty members. </p><p> In this study, it is found that higher education sociology faculty members believe student engagement can lead to increased student learning. It is also found that higher education sociology faculty members generally identify music as an effective pedagogical tool for promoting student engagement and learning in higher education sociology courses. Interestingly, participants believed the use of music as a pedagogical tool to be an uncommon practice in higher education sociology courses in the United States. As part of their efforts to explain their choices to use or not use music as a pedagogical tool, faculty participants described potential barriers that may impact faculty member choices to use music in their higher education sociology courses. </p><p> Sociology faculty participants in this study agreed that a lack of discussion of pedagogical tools among colleagues and in teaching courses might serve as a potential barrier for the use of music as a pedagogical tool. Higher education sociology faculty participants also identified a lack of knowledge of how to use music as a pedagogical tool as a potential barrier for the use of music in sociology courses. This research suggests that the lack of faculty knowledge of music as a pedagogical tool may be due to the lack of discussion of pedagogical tools both among colleagues and in the teaching courses completed by higher education sociology faculty members. </p><p> Past research has suggested that sociology faculty members need to create an environment that encourages students to be active and engaged participants in their own learning through building a community of learners. This study suggests that higher education sociology faculty members may successfully build a community of learners through using music as a pedagogical tool in their courses. This study recommends that changes at the departmental level need to occur in order to make it easier for sociology faculty members to gain the knowledge required to use music effectively in their courses. Suggestions for practice and future research are provided.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study is to determine the degree to which activities within an undergraduate teacher education course in classroom assessment prepared preservice teachers for engaging parents in their children's education. Research indicates that few preservice teachers enter their first classrooms prepared, specifically in the areas of complex tasks such as assessment and parent engagement. Moreover, sound practices in assessment and parent engagement have been demonstrated to have positive impact on student achievement. If designed appropriately, professional development activities for preservice teachers can develop their knowledge, skills, and professional efficacy to enhance student achievement. To address this, preservice teachers enrolled in a classroom assessment course in an elementary teacher education program in a Midwestern U.S. university were given a set of role-playing activities requiring them to consider and respond to typical assessment conversations teachers often have with parents. These role playing activities included (a) explaining to parents the instructional and assessment frameworks used to address the learning needs of students in a class, (b) discussing a recent change in performance with two parents (one whose child improved and one whose child declined), (c) resolving a complaint from a parent about a child's grade, and (d) explaining and interpreting a child's standardized achievement results with a parent. Through a secondary analysis of data, the degree to which these activities did, indeed, prepare the preservice teachers for engaging parents through assessment was studied. As such, a pre-post measure design was used to test whether the experimental group improved as compared to another section (control group) of the assessment class that did not participate in the role-playing activities. Results indicated that participants in the experimental group gained more knowledge about parent engagement and communicating with parents than the control group but did not change in efficacy as compared to the control. Coding and analysis of the preservice teachers' role-playing assignments demonstrated that most of them gained valuable skills in working with parents on assessment issues, and the preservice teachers in the experimental group endorsed the role-playing activities as being valuable for their education as teachers. Results are discussed in terms of possible implications for teacher education.</p>

<p> In the wake of new teaching standards and evaluation systems introduced in the United States, teacher collaboration has emerged as a common theme. However, despite these recent changes, teaching is still largely a private act, in which teachers are often secluded from their colleagues. This study investigated the range and variation of the characteristics of teacher collaboration and their impact in a small, suburban school district in Westchester County, NY. These data were initially gathered through a survey and later through interviews and focus groups. The results were analyzed through a mixed methods lens, using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. This study found that district teachers have some of the structural and many of the interpersonal characteristics favorable to collaboration, the impact of which has led to a strong sense of efficacy and some instructional change. In terms of teacher groups, there was a positive association between the structural and interpersonal characteristics of teacher collaboration and a positive correlation between teacher collaboration and its impact on sense of efficacy and instructional change. It was concluded that the District should enhance the structural characteristics favorable to teacher collaboration in order to impact further instructional change.</p>