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The purpose of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study was fourfold: examine the pre-service science teachers' pedagogical orientations about science teaching; examine the pre-service science teachers' beliefs about science teaching; establish the extent to which the pre-service science teachers' pedagogical orientations correlate with their beliefs; and establish factors that shape the pedagogical orientations and beliefs of pre-service science teachers. A sample comprised 140 secondary school pre-service science teachers at three universities in Zambia. There were 102 males and 38 females. In the first phase, data were collected using the Pedagogy of Science Teaching Test (POSTT) that was adapted to suit the Zambian curriculum, and the Teacher Beliefs Interview (TBI) protocol. Whereas, in the second phase, a semi-structured interview was used to collect data. Twelve pre-service science teachers were interviewed to solicit in-depth information on the findings from the POSTT and TBI protocol.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which six cognitive and attitudinal variables predicted pre-service elementary teachers' performance on line graphing. Predictors included Illinois teacher education basic skills sub-component scores in reading comprehension and mathematics, logical thinking performance scores, as well as measures of attitudes toward science, mathematics and graphing. This study also determined the strength of the relationship between each prospective predictor variable and the line graphing performance variable, as well as the extent to which measures of attitude towards science, mathematics and graphing mediated relationships between scores on mathematics, reading, logical thinking and line graphing. Ninety-four pre-service elementary education teachers enrolled in two different elementary science methods courses during the spring 2009 semester at Southern Illinois University Carbondale participated in this study. Each subject completed five different instruments designed to assess science, mathematics and graphing attitudes as well as logical thinking and graphing ability. Sixty subjects provided copies of primary basic skills score reports that listed subset scores for both reading comprehension and mathematics. The remaining scores were supplied by a faculty member who had access to a database from which the scores were drawn. Seven subjects, whose scores could not be found, were eliminated from final data analysis. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted in order to establish validity and reliability of the Questionnaire of Attitude Toward Line Graphs in Science (QALGS) instrument. CFA tested the statistical hypothesis that the five main factor structures within the Questionnaire of Attitude Toward Statistical Graphs (QASG) would be maintained in the revised QALGS. Stepwise Regression Analysis with backward elimination was conducted in order to generate a parsimonious and precise predictive model. This procedure allowed the researcher to explore the relationships among the affective and cognitive variables that were included in the regression analysis. The results for CFA indicated that the revised QALGS measure was sound in its psychometric properties when tested against the QASG. Reliability statistics indicated that the overall reliability for the 32 items in the QALGS was .90. The learning preferences construct had the lowest reliability (.67), while enjoyment (.89), confidence (.86) and usefulness (.77) constructs had moderate to high reliabilities. The first four measurement models fit the data well as indicated by the appropriate descriptive and statistical indices. However, the fifth measurement model did not fit the data well statistically, and only fit well with two descriptive indices. The results addressing the research question indicated that mathematical and logical thinking ability were significant predictors of line graph performance among the remaining group of variables. These predictors accounted for 41% of the total variability on the line graph performance variable. Partial correlation coefficients indicated that mathematics ability accounted for 20.5% of the variance on the line graphing performance variable when removing the effect of logical thinking. The logical thinking variable accounted for 4.7% of the variance on the line graphing performance variable when removing the effect of mathematics ability.

The study of self-efficacy in pre-service bilingual education teachers is not a thoroughly researched topic. This dissertation provides qualitative research about the inception of Spanish language self-efficacy of pre-service bilingual education teachers from a large university in Texas. By juxtaposing the experiences of two students with high levels of Spanish self-efficacy with two students who have low levels of Spanish self-efficacy, data gives insight to what influenced varying perceptions of self-efficacy amongst students who are in their last semester of coursework prior to student teaching. An extensive literature review provided the foundation for the conceptual framework. The framework includes individual backgrounds, societal influences, personal interactions, and modeling by others to note the evolution of each individuals' perception of self-efficacy in the Spanish language. Explicit instances of what experiences have had an impact on participants' Spanish language self-efficacy are highlighted. The resulting impacts to bilingual education and self-efficacy are discussed. Finally, the conclusion focuses on how this research can assist in promoting language equity for bilingual and multilingual students at varying academic levels.

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The purpose of this phenomenological case study was to understand how passion is used by participating teachers at Hugo High School and if its use is intentional in the classroom. A qualitative research design was used for this study. The case study was determined to be the most appropriate method for this research because it provided an opportunity to get a deeper understanding of the research topic. This study used Fried’s definition of passion as one who is “in love with a field of knowledge, deeply stirred by issues and ideas that challenge our world, drawn to the dilemmas and potentials of the young people who come into class each day – or captivated by all of these” (Fried, 2001, p. 1). The research data were collected from nine teachers about their use of passion in the classroom. The constant comparative method is an important tool to sort data in the coding process; it was used to take information from the data, compare it to previous data, and sort it into six themes. The findings indicate that teachers used passion as a teaching tool and that passionate teaching was used by all teachers in the study. Passion was experienced through the care that teachers felt for their students. Teachers who did not plan to use passion used passion when the opportunity was present and realized by the teacher. Using passion was a positive experience for teachers. Teachers who did not plan to use passion recognized changes in their behavior and felt good about themselves as teachers. Teachers who intended to use passion planned many of their own behaviors and felt good about themselves as teachers when experiencing passionate lessons. Teachers’ feelings were fueled by positive student feedback and perpetuated passionate teaching moments.

Research states that reflection is the foundation for improved teaching (Dewey, 1933). As a result, educators have used many methods to facilitate teacher reflections. Some of these methods include keeping reflective journals, conducting peer teaching sessions, providing written feedback, giving lesson critiques, conducting action research projects, and using reflective conferences (Cook, Young & Evenson, 2001). As video has become more accessible, educators have also become interested in using video analysis tools to facilitate teacher reflections. However, very little has been published on how the use of video analysis tools influences teacher reflections. If reflection is the foundation for improved teaching, it is important for educators and researchers to understand how the use of these tools impacts teacher reflections. Therefore, the focus of this study was to understand the experience of a supervisor and student teacher as they used a video analysis tool to reflect on teaching. The researcher included thick descriptions of participants' experiences, so researchers and educators interested in using video analysis tools to facilitate reflection will be able to transfer the findings to their individual circumstances. This study compared a student teacher's experience reflecting with a video analysis tool to her experience participating in her department's traditional reflection method, which was a post-lesson conference with her supervisor. The researcher investigated how these reflection methods influenced the student teacher's ability to collect data about her teaching, make judgments about her teaching, design intervention plans for future teaching situations, and evaluate her intervention plans. The participants indicated that both video analysis and the traditional reflection method were beneficial for reflection. Although both methods were beneficial, the student teacher felt that using video analysis to reflect was more useful than the department's traditional reflection method for helping her understand the changes she wanted to make in her teaching. The student teacher felt that video analysis was more useful than the traditional reflection method because it allowed her to notice things that she did not remember or attend to during her lesson, it helped her focus her reflections on specific aspects of her teaching, and the video clips provided evidence to support her discussions with her supervisor.

Addressing training in Response to Intervention at the pre-service level has potential to reach educators during their formative years; preparing them to implement research-based practices upon entering the field and building the capacity to do so with more fidelity and less support. While the knowledge levels and perceptions of pre-service teachers are critical to the future success of RTI implementation, the level of training among pre-service educators is less understood relative to their colleagues in the field. This exploratory study was designed to examine pre-service general and special education teachers' perceptions of RTI, and self-efficacy in implementation. A survey, created and distributed to measure teacher candidates' (TCs) opinions and self-efficacy in RTI, found that TCs have positive opinions of RTI. They believe it to be effective for students, but have less ability to implement specific components in the classroom. The outcomes from this study suggest that special education majors had significantly higher ratings of their self-efficacy than elementary education majors. This has implications for curriculum changes in teacher training programs to better prepare educators to implement RTI in the classroom.

Research has shown that preservice teachers participating in traditional student teaching programs tend to focus on classroom management, with very little focus on student mathematical thinking. The student teaching program at BYU has been redesigned in the hopes of shifting the focus of student teachers away from classroom management toward student mathematical thinking. This study compared conversations between student teachers and cooperating teachers before and after the redesign of the program to work towards determining the effectiveness of the refocusing of the new student teaching program. The study found that STs and CTs in the different student teaching structures were talking about different things. Not only were the frequencies of conversations about pedagogy, students, and mathematics different, but the ways those individual topics were discussed was also different.