Residency II teacher candidates seeking education licensure at the southeastern public state university had low evaluation scores on their ability to provide feedback and modify instruction based on assessment. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how 27 Residency II teacher candidates modified instruction based on assessment data during their field experience as indicated by the Tennessee Educator Acceleration Model (TEAM), Educational Teacher Performance Assessment (edTPA) Rubric 15 score, and self-reported qualitative surveys. The focus of the research questions included a conceptual framework for examining the level of assessment proficiency on the local and national assessments. The congruency of these three measures of data analysis addressed the courses and field experiences of Residency II clinical teacher candidates. The major findings were that teacher candidates were meeting expectations of the edTPA and TEAM; however, the preexisting teacher candidates' surveys indicated that there was a lack of satisfaction with their data training. Evidence indicated that the EDTPA and TEAM provided the quantitative measurements but did not provide the qualitative feedback to address any modifications in the instruction. The possible social change implications of this study involves the Residency II teacher candidates participating in an organized, 3-day workshop to have a purposeful experience where they learned collectively and enriched their field experiences while exceeding the required expectations of the edTPA and TEAM assessments.

Teacher educator preparation programs play a central role in preparing teachers and practitioners who work with children with exceptionalities, immigrants, and English language learners (ELL), among others. Research indicates that immigrants, ELL, and children with exceptionalities benefit from effective family-professional partnerships in several ways. Family-professional relationships are also key in producing positive educational outcomes for vulnerable and children who are at-risk. The following layers of partnerships and relationships are discussed: university-based educator preparation programs (EPPs) and K-12 schools; immigrant families and K-12 schools; and teachers/caregivers in K-12 schools and immigrant children/ELL, including children with exceptionalities. The benefits of positive partnerships and relationships are discussed. These include positive educational outcomes for children and their families, positive outcomes for children's school readiness, enhanced quality of life for families and their children, family engagement in children's programs, strengthening of home-school program connection, and trust-building for all stakeholders.

Thesis advisor: Audrey A. Friedman / Through adventure-based learning (ABL), individuals analyze unique experiences in order to generalize and apply critical skills and dispositions to their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities (Dillon, Tannehill, & O’Sullivan, 2010).  However, there is a lack of research documenting the transferability of ABL to other contexts (Kraft, 1999; Furman & Sibthorp, 2012). In educator preparation programs, coursework in ABL has been found inadequate for its incorporation into practice (Sutherland & Legge, 2016; Dillon, Tannehill, & O’Sullivan, 2010). Expanding this research base is critical in justifying “adventure programming [as] more than just fun and games, and to support it as the powerful form of change that practitioners tacitly know it to be” (Priest & Gass, 1999, p. 478), and understanding how that change can impact teachers. This research is informed by the overall question: In what ways can experience as an adventure-based learning (ABL) leader impact the subsequent epistemologies and practices of professional educators? Utilizing qualitative, collective case study methodology (Yin, 2018; Hancock & Algozzine, 2017) and grounded in Mezirow’s (2000) transformative learning theory, this research studies ten professional educators who, as college students, had served as ABL facilitators. Findings indicate that participants’ experience in facilitating ABL aligned with Mezirow’s criteria for transformative learning both personally and professionally. While participants rarely incorporated the physical challenges and fantastical premises typically associated with ABL, they reported their pre-professional experiences deeply influenced their pedagogical practice.  This research posits a new framework for these connections, adventure-informed pedagogy, to explore how ABL philosophies and processes, but not practices, impacted former facilitators and their classrooms. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2021. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

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This purpose of this study examined the effectiveness in technology integration among Texas educator preparation pathways and identified successful approaches in developing the technology competencies of preservice teachers. Existing data collected by the Texas Education Agency's Exit Survey by preservice teachers completing an educator preparation program was used to conduct a quantitative study. Data was imported into SPSS to conduct statistical analysis. The findings are discussed and recommendations for future research are provided to inform future development of technology integration in educator preparation programs.

The Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP) has replaced its predecessors, the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) and the Teacher Education Accreditation Council (TEAC) as the new sole accreditor for educator preparation in the United States. As the new accreditor, CAEP has established a new set of accreditation standards and cross-cutting themes by which it intends to measure educator preparation programs (EPPs) worthiness to received accredited status. These new standards and cross-cutting themes are untested and need to be researched in order to determine the degree to which they constitute valid and reliable measures of an EPP's potential to produce quality teachers. To evaluate one aspect of CAEP's new standards and cross-cutting themes (i.e., diversity), this study used hierarchical liner modeling to regress elementary candidates' student teaching performance assessment scores on school- and classroom-level diversity variables to evaluate the impact that being placed in a diverse field experience might have had on candidates' performance during student teaching. The analysis found that the levels of diversity in the student teaching placements had little to no impact on the elementary candidates' performance on diversity items on their teacher performance assessments completed by university supervisors and mentor teachers during student teaching. A confirmatory factor analysis also determined that the diversity related contextual factors of the schools used in the study could not be reduced to a single diversity score. Diversity is clearly a complex multidimensional construct comprised of a variety of interdependent yet distinct constructs. Developing competency in diversity and multiculturalism clearly requires more than simply being placed in a diverse student teaching placement. This does not discredit the practice of providing candidates a variety of field experiences; however the findings from this study call into question CAEP's assumptions regarding diversity and multicultural education embedded in its standards and cross-cutting themes.

<p dir="ltr">The overarching purpose of this three-paper dissertation was to investigate the affordances of technology in educational settings and gain insight into how preservice and inservice teachers integrate technology as they design, develop, implement, and manage learning experiences. To meet this goal, three studies were conducted. In study 1 the purpose was to describe how preservice teachers identify educational problems and suggest solutions in which educational technology can be meaningfully implemented by using a problem-solving lens. Participated in this study 100 preservice teachers enrolled in an introductory educational technology course. Students’ technology integration activity was analyzed for this study. This activity, divided into three parts, required that students (1) shared and reflected on their best academic learning experience, (2) described how they could integrate technology into that learning experience, and (3) revisited their suggestions for technology integration, evaluated their ideas, and suggested revisions. Data were analyzed using an ill-structured problem-solving model synthesized from previous literature: identifying problems, generating solutions, making justifications, and monitoring. Results of this study indicated that preservice teachers had a simplistic understanding of technology integration, likely resulting from underdeveloped problem-solving skills. In study 2 the purpose was to identify the instructional strategies and technology affordances used while integrating technology that facilitated the development of student creativity by completing a systematic literature review about how technology (i.e., social media) is being used by educators to foster creativity. After the process of identification and screening, a total of 27 articles met the inclusion criteria and were selected for further analysis. The results indicated that, in most studies in which the use of technology was associated with promoting student creativity, a student-centered approach was used. Students had autonomy and flexibility to produce content, express their opinions, and share their experiences using social media. Also, participants used social media to create their own products, communicate with others, and collaborate virtually. In the studies, we identified that the social media affordances of ownership, association, and visibility lead to fostering student creativity. In conclusion, social media, when integrated with appropriate instructional strategies, can be successfully used as an educational tool to build an environment that promotes student creativity. In study 3 the purpose was to analyze the forms in which special education teachers design learning experiences that provide an environment for creativity development for students from special education and how their proposed technology integration plays a role in it across different settings (i.e., face-to-face, blended, and online learning). Three practicing teachers enrolled in an online graduate program in special education participated in this study. For the purpose of this study, the primary data source consisted of assignments (i.e., artifacts and reflections) submitted by students to the Technology Integration - Blended and Online Teaching (Ti-BOT) program, a licensure required as part of their Special Education program. Artifacts were analyzed through the lens of the existing literature on learning environments for creativity. Reflections were analyzed using a thematic analysis approach, applying a combination of inductive and deductive coding. The artifacts presented by the participants included elements of a creative environment and technology often facilitated the development of such an environment. However, the participants did not appear to explicitly and intentionally design activities to foster creativity, but to make modifications to learning activities and assessments that reflected the level of individualization and adaptations that are typically expected from special education teachers, described in individualized education plans (IEPs), and guided by Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles. With the findings from this three-paper dissertation, the goal is to provide recommendations for how educator preparation programs can improve how they are approaching technology integration, gain deeper understanding of technology integration across diverse contexts and tools, and offer strategies for supporting the deeper consideration of how technologies can be meaningfully used.</p>

The purpose of this research study was to explore how college alternative teacher certification (ATC) participants experience mentoring support. The goal was to obtain a rich and deep understanding of the nature of the mentoring experience in a college ATC program through the perspectives of mentees and their mentors. The ATC program was the Educator Preparation Institute (EPI). Semi-structured interviews were conducted. Eight individuals participated in the study, four were mentors and four were EPI students. A triangulated set of research methods for data collection and analysis was used, including member checks, validation forms, and peer reviews. All the interviews were transcribed; data was subsequently analyzed for patterns. The findings indicated that students believed, while the course work was clear and well structured, the fieldwork aspect of the program was not. The topic of fieldwork disconnect between the college and the host schools was repeatedly observed as a challenge by the EPI students and identified as lack of support. All eight of the EPI study participants discussed lack of time and span of control issues in their interviews. Some implications that surfaced from this study included the desire for more one-on-one time, eliminating confusion in arranging field experiences, and assistance in learning to direct their own experiences. Other implications that emerged from this study included offering diversified instruction to college EPI students, such as different courses depending on the intended grade level, and building a working relationship with the host schools that would expedite the training of the EPI students. Finally, more in-depth knowledge, and hands-on practice in the field was a perceived need by all the EPI students which calls for alterations in the EPI program design and number of faculty to operate each EPI program.

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