<p> To effectively meet students&rsquo; needs, educational reform in science calls for adaptive instruction based on students&rsquo; thinking. To gain an understanding of what students know, a teacher needs to attend to, probe, and analyze student thinking to provide information to base curricular decisions, upon. These three components make up the skill of noticing. Learning to notice is not easy for any teacher, but is especially difficult for preservice teachers, who lack the experience these skills require. Additionally they lack the professional knowledge needed to inform responses. </p><p> The purpose of this study was to discover how a combination of scaffolds: video-based reflection on practice, a professional learning community, and a content specific moderator as a guide can be embedded into a methods course to support preservice teachers&rsquo; learning to professionally notice elementary students&rsquo; scientific thinking in order to provide a responsive curriculum. The study was designed on the premise that the skill of professional noticing is critical for preservice teachers to acquire the knowledge and ability to develop their personal PCK and topic specific professional knowledge. </p><p> It was situated in a methods course as this is the structure provided within teacher education programs to tie theory to practice. This qualitative case study, studied one section of an elementary science methods course during teaching of their science unit. In general participants&rsquo; skills progressed from noticing the class as a whole to attending to specific students&rsquo; thinking and from a focus on evaluation to interpretation. By the end they were connecting teaching strategies to student thinking. How participants&rsquo; responded to what they had noticed progressed as well, moving from frontloading information to creating additional constructivist based learning experiences when encountering student confusion demonstrating growth in their professional knowledge as well as their noticing skills. </p><p> They attributed certain aspects of their growth to different parts the intervention, for instance learning to probe thinking to video, learning to construct learning experiences to the content specific moderator, and learning to decide next steps to the professional learning community. </p><p> This study points to the efficacy of employing these scaffolds, found useful in other contexts, within science education.</p>

<p> Student engagement is a prominent indicator of a student&rsquo;s academic success (Harbour, Evanovich, Sweigart, &amp; Hughes, 2015). Leavy (2015) continued the engagement dialogue by stating the arts can be highly engaging and a high-yield strategy leading to academic success. Research has been conducted on arts integration, but little research specifically aligns arts integration with student engagement (Mason, Thormann, &amp; Steedly, 2004). Further, there is a lack of depth within arts-integration research on all of the &ldquo;arts&rdquo; (including music, visual arts, drama, and dance) (Mason et al., 2004). In this qualitative study, student engagement was viewed from teachers&rsquo; perspectives within one urban elementary school which focuses on arts integration. Seven teachers were interviewed and 10 observations were conducted in various classrooms at the same arts-integrated elementary school. Commonalities among teacher perceptions from those interviewed were identified from the analysis of data. Participants agreed arts integration was a teaching strategy students appreciated and preferred. Additionally, participants reported they enjoyed teaching in an arts-integrated setting; however, interview data revealed teachers at the school site did not have collaborative planning. Teachers in an arts-integrated school must collaborate on lesson planning to effectively create an integrated, collaborative plan (Riley, 2012). The findings from this study may help teachers and school leaders identify the components of student engagement in an arts-integrated classroom within the elementary setting.</p>

<p> Students receiving special education services for an emotional and/or behavioral disorder (EBD) have shown minimal gains academically and behaviorally in longitudinal studies conducted since the 1980&rsquo;s (Bradley, Doolittle, &amp; Bartolotta, 2008). The purpose of this study was to investigate the functional relation of a self-monitoring strategy with a cross-aged peer-mentoring intervention on the disruptive behaviors of elementary students with EBD who struggle to regulate their behaviors in the classroom. This study used a multiple-baseline across participants and changing conditions combined design to investigate the functional relation of self-monitoring with a cross-age peer mentor component for students with EBD. The results from this study did not indicate a functional relation between the use of a self-monitoring checklist and the use of a self-monitoring checklist with a cross-age peer mentoring component. However, there were promising components to continue to build on intervention research for students with EBD.</p>

The purpose of this investigation is to study a given school situation with which the writer is familiar to determine as objectively as possible the various social attitudes present and their resultant behavior. To what extent these attitudes depend upon the home environment of the child is to be studied. The influence of the age-grade range in the development of various attitudes is to be considered, and the influence of the school environment as a factor in the process of attitude formation and social adjustment is to be determined.

<p> Noticeably absent from the critical literacy field are accounts of critical literacy written from the experience and perspective of school leaders. This qualitative practitioner study examined the enactment of critical literacy by four elementary teachers and an elementary school principal in a small rural school in south central Pennsylvania. A critical literacy practitioner inquiry community was an important feature of this study, an importance that cannot be overstated. The interdependence of critical literacy and the inquiry community enabled the participants to disrupt notions of learning, teaching, and leading and what it means to be a student, teacher, and leader. This practitioner action research study contributes to the field of critical literacy in important ways. The study took place in a small rural elementary school in south central Pennsylvania, and the participants/co-researchers were all White, female, Christian educators of predominantly White students. During the study, the participants transformed learning, teaching, and leading by developing stances of critical inquiry and spaces of mutuality. The transformation changed the roles of teachers, learners, and leaders. The participants also confronted the state&rsquo;s system of accountability and educator effectiveness, and through that confrontation re-imagined their own professional identities. I am the principal, co-researcher, and author of this work.</p>

<p> The ability to read is the foundational skill which is taught in elementary schools across the state of Indiana. It is a complex process which allows children to derive meaning from printed text. Reading is the basis for learning and growth to continue during a child&rsquo;s educational life (Opitz &amp; Rasinski, 1998). Over time throughout history, the ability to read is and has been the great equalizer for people (Ruddell, Ruddell, &amp; Singer, 1994). </p><p> Reading has been taught and evaluated in many different ways (Groves, 2009). The state of Indiana has developed a standardized assessment to measure a child&rsquo;s reading ability and comprehension skills at the end of third grade. This summative assessment is known as the Indiana Reading Evaluation and Determination or IREAD-3 (IDOE IREAD-3, n.d.). The assessment is based on Indiana Academic Standards to measure the foundational reading skills a child has developed by the end of third grade. It is used to determine promotion to fourth grade or retention in third grade (Title 511 Indiana State Board of Education, 2011). </p><p> A mixed method study was conducted to determine if relationships existed between the predictor variables of vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and teacher pedagogy and the criterion variable of passing percentage rates on the IREAD-3 assessment. In the quantitative survey, two null hypotheses were tested. The first null determined if the composite scores for vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and classroom pedagogy of elementary primary literacy teachers predict a statistically significant proportion of the variance on the IREAD-3 pass rate among schools of affluence. The second null determined if the composite scores for vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, and classroom pedagogy of elementary primary literacy teachers predict a statistically significant proportion of the variance on the IREAD-3 pass rate among schools of poverty. A multiple linear regression was utilized to examine both hypotheses. The results of the regression analysis found that a linear combination of predictor variables did not explain a statistically significant amount of variance with IREAD-3 passing rate percentages for schools of affluence or schools of poverty. Therefore, the null hypotheses were retained. </p><p> The second part of the mixed method study focused on qualitative case study interviews with three building level principals and one teacher. During the interviews, five themes developed after the field notes and interview transcripts were coded and analyzed. The common themes which emerged were: </p><p> 1. Teachers have time during the school day to meet together to collaborate, plan, and discuss literacy skill development of their children. 2. Schools promote and embrace parents and volunteers as essential components which are included in the learning process during the school day. 3. Teachers voluntarily spend time after school to tutor students on a school-wide basis. 4. Learning is intentionally broken down into small groups based on reading level or ability. 5. Schools have a support network in place and literacy professionals to assist classroom teachers in teaching children to learn to read based on the use of data. </p><p> Several implications for teachers, principals, and district administrators were discussed as a result of the findings and conclusions. Finally, recommendations for further research were proposed.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Curriculum and Instruction / Gail Shroyer / Research regarding dispositions dates back seven decades; but because of challenges in measuring, identifying and monitoring dispositions, teacher education programs have only recently developed procedures to document and assess candidates’ dispositions (Albee, & Piveral, 2003). The question remains, are teacher educators prepared for this challenge? Dispositions can be difficult to identify and measure and teacher educators are not necessarily trained in the development of assessments. By using data gathered at an NCATE accredited teacher education institution, the researcher hoped to examine one institution’s approach to assessing dispositions as part of an overall system to assess successful teaching. The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between the results of disposition assessments completed by university supervisors at the end of Block 2 and the results of final student teacher assessments completed by university supervisors at the end of Block 3. Scores from the Block 2 Coordinator’s Evaluation of Intern form and the final University Supervisor Assessment of Student Teacher/Intern form were collected and correlated using the Spearman’s Rho. The resulting scores were analyzed to determine if there was a statistically significant relationship. It was concluded that there was no significant relationship between the Block 2 Coordinator’s Evaluation of Intern form score and the final University Supervisor Assessment of Student Teacher/Intern form score. This study underscores the difficulty of assessing dispositions, and shows that teacher education programs need to establish reliability and validity on forms used to assess candidates’ dispositions.

<p> This correlational study examined the relationships among half-day and full-day public prekindergarten participation and the attainment of social and personal skills, evidenced by the Maryland Model for School Readiness assessment. The chi square test for association was used to test the correlation between the variables and the subgroups of ethnicity (Hispanic), race (Caucasian and African American), and socioeconomic status. A statistically significant correlation emerged; therefore the data were further analyzed using Cramer&rsquo;s V to determine the effect size of the correlation. </p><p> This study included seven Maryland counties that offered both half-day and full-day public prekindergarten in the 2011&ndash;2012 year. Of those prekindergarten students, data were collected from a sample of 3,538 students who participated in either half-day or full-day public prekindergarten. The public extant data were arrayed in the aggregate and then disaggregated by ethnicity, race, and socioeconomic status. Data revealed a statistically significant correlation between half-day and full-day prekindergarten and the attainment of social- and personal-readiness skills. Findings indicated a higher percentage of participants in half-day public prekindergarten programs demonstrated readiness in social and personal skills over those participating in full-day public prekindergarten programs.</p>

<p> The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore how the facilitation of clinical experiences for early childhood education candidates impacts the cooperating teacher. The tenets of school reform initiatives often require longer and more frequent clinical experiences for pre-service teachers. The success of student teaching relies on the effectiveness of cooperating teachers; however, research has not addressed the development and sentiment hosts experience while facilitating this process. </p><p> Qualitative interviews and observations produced four single case studies and one cross-case comparative. All of the participants taught in Northeast Georgia and hosted student teachers prepared by a single school of education. Research themes included control and autonomy, personal and professional impacts, and the benefits or costs associated with hosting pre-service candidates. </p><p> Findings indicated that cooperating teachers had complete autonomy in the facilitation of the student teaching process but expressed a strong preference for collaboration. Self-preservation and student achievement influenced decision-making and were associated with minimal shifts in control. Professionally, host teachers felt their roles were ambiguous and evidence indicated key concepts were undefined. Participants did not experience an increase in professional capital although they did request professional development in several areas. These hosts described their experiences as intense and stressful yet personally rewarding. Future implications for practice include strengthening selection and pairing processes as well as training members of the student teaching triad to utilize collaborative methods. The study also exposed a need to research implementation errors in outcome-based evaluations of teacher education programs.</p>

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