A prototype treatment developed to significantly reduce symptoms of stress among inservice teachers was tested in this experiment. Thirty participants selected for high stress levels were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. They were assessed on environmental, personality, and emotional variables, using self-report and expert-judge measures, both pre- and posttreatment. The experimental treatment was holistic, incorporating all processes previously found to be related to reducing teacher stress. At posttreatment, the treatment group averaged 1.02 standard deviations lower on the stress measures than the control group. Significant differences in the posttest means, favoring the experimental group, were found for 23 of the 39 variables measured on the three self-report instruments. As a group the participants demonstrated substantially lower stress levels than the control group after the treatment, with a substantial decrease from their pretreatment stress levels. Since the control group received no treatment, some of the difference nay be due to Hawthorne Effect.

Elementary school teachers teach a variety of subjects requiring a range of content and pedagogical knowledge, and substantial professional development to support this knowledge often is lacking (Clements & Sarama, 2008). Mentoring, an important aspect of professional development, is particularly useful for developing content and pedagogical knowledge. However, content mentoring, i.e., mentoring support in a specific content area such as mathematics, has received little attention in research on elementary teachers. To address this gap in the research, this study examines support in a master’s program that provides mentoring specifically in mathematics for elementary school teachers. Using a sequential explanatory design, this mixed methods study employs the Mentoring for Effective Mathematics Teaching (MEMT) survey with twenty-six (26) graduates of the program. The 34-item Likert scale survey reveals perceptions of their mathematics mentoring experience. In order to obtain a deeper understanding of the perceptions, four (4) of the teachers participated in semi-structured interviews. This last data source provides additional insights into the role of school context in mentoring. The results reveal qualities of mentors that inservice elementary mathematics teachers found to be important beyond mathematics content knowledge, specifically, differences in school contexts that impact elementary mathematics teachers’ mentoring experiences. The results suggest direction for future research on mentoring for elementary school teachers who teach mathematics.

This dissertation presents research that addresses the question of how professional development influences inservice teachers' professional identity. In three journal articles, specific inquiries address research questions drawn from this broader conversation. In article one, we answered the question of what unifying characteristics democratic educators exhibit in their pedagogies and methods. By conducting an integrative literature review, we find that those who indicate that they are democratic educators used four major pedagogical categories including inquiry methods, artistic methods, oral methods, and student-centered methods. In the second article, we addressed the question of how professional development influences teachers' professional civic identities. In an analysis of a qualitative descriptive survey, we found five major representative identity themes: innovative classroom practice, empathetic learning environments, relationships of trust, voices of confidence, and social connectedness. In the last article, we addressed the question of how affective identity may impact teacher practice. This qualitative exploratory study identified six potential intersections of affective outcomes and practice including gratitude and enhancing partnerships, empathy and building relationships, curiosity and focusing on improvements, excitement, and changes in classroom practice, hope and stronger advocacy, and passion and understanding diversity. By studying the lived experiences of teachers in a specific professional development program this dissertation captures aspects of inservice teachers' growth that can serve to influence the continued development of theory and research on professional identity growth and professional development programs.

No description available.

Although the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has shown a lot of promise as a theoretical perspective, researchers find it difficult to use it in particular environments because the requirements of the framework change in specific contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore and produce more flexible ways of using the TPACK for inservice mathematics secondary teachers. Three such teachers at an urban public school were observed in their classrooms and interviewed about their experiences of teaching mathematics and integrating computer technology in their day-to-day activities. Each participant had over 10 years experience in teaching mathematics in secondary schools in Ontario, and expertise in using computers in mathematics curriculum. The research questions were: 1) How do secondary school mathematics teachers describe their ways of integrating technology? 2) What difficulties do teachers have when they try to integrate technology into mathematics classrooms? The findings from the first research question show that teachers displayed a high degree of integration of technology. Their activities were very clearly designed, conferring clear roles to the use of integrating computer technology in mathematics classes. Teachers had specific approaches to integrate computer technology: a) to allow students opportunities to learn and experiment with their mathematical knowledge; b) to help them pass the content to the students in the process of teaching mathematics; and c) to assess and evaluate students’ work, and give them feedback. The findings from the second research question reveal that teachers had difficulties in purchasing and maintaining the computer equipment. They had some difficulties in trying to integrate new technologies as these required time, preparation, and dedication. In addition, teachers had some difficulties in making students use computers in a significant way. The implication for teacher education is that inservice teachers should have opportunities to update their computer and pedagogical skills, a long term perspective in integrating technology in mathematics education, and professional and technical support from teaching colleagues and administrators. Finally, the integration of computer technology in mathematics requires more intensive teamwork and collaboration between teachers, technical support staff, and administrators.

Although the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework has shown a lot of promise as a theoretical perspective, researchers find it difficult to use it in particular environments because the requirements of the framework change in specific contexts. The purpose of this study was to explore and produce more flexible ways of using the TPACK for inservice mathematics secondary teachers. Three such teachers at an urban public school were observed in their classrooms and interviewed about their experiences of teaching mathematics and integrating computer technology in their day-to-day activities. Each participant had over 10 years experience in teaching mathematics in secondary schools in Ontario, and expertise in using computers in mathematics curriculum. The research questions were: 1) How do secondary school mathematics teachers describe their ways of integrating technology? 2) What difficulties do teachers have when they try to integrate technology into mathematics classrooms? The findings from the first research question show that teachers displayed a high degree of integration of technology. Their activities were very clearly designed, conferring clear roles to the use of integrating computer technology in mathematics classes. Teachers had specific approaches to integrate computer technology: a) to allow students opportunities to learn and experiment with their mathematical knowledge; b) to help them pass the content to the students in the process of teaching mathematics; and c) to assess and evaluate students’ work, and give them feedback. The findings from the second research question reveal that teachers had difficulties in purchasing and maintaining the computer equipment. They had some difficulties in trying to integrate new technologies as these required time, preparation, and dedication. In addition, teachers had some difficulties in making students use computers in a significant way. The implication for teacher education is that inservice teachers should have opportunities to update their computer and pedagogical skills, a long term perspective in integrating technology in mathematics education, and professional and technical support from teaching colleagues and administrators. Finally, the integration of computer technology in mathematics requires more intensive teamwork and collaboration between teachers, technical support staff, and administrators.

No description available.

No description available.

The overall purpose of this collected papers dissertation was to examine the utility of a cognitive apprenticeship-based instructional coaching (CAIC) model for improving the science teaching efficacy beliefs (STEB) of preservice and inservice elementary teachers. Many of these teachers perceive science as a difficult subject and feel inadequately prepared to teach it. However, teacher efficacy beliefs have been noted as the strongest indicator of teacher quality, the variable most highly correlated with student achievement outcomes. The literature is scarce on strong, evidence-based theoretical models for improving STEB. This dissertation is comprised of two studies. STUDY #1 was a sequential explanatory mixed-methods study investigating the impact of a reformed CAIC elementary science methods course on the STEB of 26 preservice teachers. Data were collected using the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief Instrument (STEBI-B) and from six post-course interviews. A statistically significant increase in STEB was observed in the quantitative strand. The qualitative data suggested that the preservice teachers perceived all of the CAIC methods as influential, but the significance of each method depended on their unique needs and abilities. STUDY #2 was a participatory action research case study exploring the utility of a CAIC professional development program for improving the STEB of five Bahamian inservice teachers and their competency in implementing an inquiry-based curriculum. Data were collected from pre- and post-interviews and two focus group interviews. Overall, the inservice teachers perceived the intervention as highly effective. The scaffolding and coaching were the CAIC methods portrayed as most influential in developing their STEB, highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationship aspects in successful instructional coaching programs. The teachers also described the CAIC approach as integral in supporting their learning to implement the new inquiry-based curriculum. The overall findings hold important implications for science education reform, including its potential to influence how preservice teacher training and inservice teacher professional development in science are perceived and implemented. Additionally, given the noteworthy results obtained over the relatively short durations, CAIC interventions may also provide an effective means of achieving improvements in preservice and inservice teachers’ STEB more expeditiously than traditional approaches.

<p>Content about learners with gifts and talents is not necessarily a part of most teacher education programs. Without high quality training and professional development opportunities, preservice and inservice teachers are left with no tools to identify and serve the students with gifts and talents. However, adding more content is not enough. The successful translation of training and professional development into effective practice depends on understanding teacher motivation, debunking misconceptions, building adequate knowledge base, and building teacher identity. I adopted several theoretical perspectives in this study: teacher identity formation (Gardner & Kaplan, 2018), Teacher Efficacy (Tschannen-Moran et al., 1998), Teacher Goal Orientations (Butler, 2007), beliefs about gifted learners and gifted education (Gagne & Nadeau, 1991; McCoach & Siegle, 2007), desire to teach (Watt & Richardson, 2007). My participants were 236 preservice teachers who desire to teach learners with gifts and talents and inservice teachers in gifted education.</p><p>The objectives of this mixed-methods investigation were: (1) identifying the differences between preservice and inservice teachers in measures of identity, beliefs, motivation, and desire to teach learners with gifts and talents, (2) modeling the structural relationships among dimensions of identity, motivation, beliefs, and desire to teach, and (3) understanding how participants experiences and perceptions inform their identity, motivation, and belief systems. I used a combination of Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA), Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and qualitative thematic analysis to answer my research questions.</p><p>Findings revealed inservice teachers (n=155) have high levels of relational goals, instructional efficacy, positive beliefs, and teacher identity, while preservice teachers (n=81) have high levels of intrinsic motivation and social value for gifted education. SEM showed that teacher identity, mastery goals, influenced positive beliefs; teacher identity was influenced by efficacy, mastery and relational goals. The strongest predictors of desire to teach learners with gifts and talents were teacher identity, teacher efficacy, and relational goals. Qualitative findings indicated that self-perceptions as gifted played a meaningful role in participants deciding to become teachers, understanding the needs of gifted learners, and advocating for gifted education.</p>