Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Tweed R. Ross / The purpose of this research and development study was to design and develop an affordable, computer-based, pre-service teacher assessment and reporting system to allow teacher education institutions and supervising teachers to efficiently enter evaluation criteria, record pre-service teacher evaluations, and generate evaluation reports. The system design supports pre-service teacher evaluators and the data collection, evaluation, and reporting needs of pre-service teacher training institutions. The researcher used a literature review and a needs assessment to determine the need for the system and to define the system prototype’s functional requirements. The researcher used a modified ten-phase development approach (Borg & Gall, 1989) to develop the system. Three separate evaluator groups reviewed the system during development. Teacher licensing officers from private colleges and the Regents Universities in Kansas participated in the needs assessment phase of the study. Past and present National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) evaluation team members served as expert evaluators who provided feedback regarding the validity and functionality of the system prototype. Supervising professors from Regents University colleges of education and from private universities represented the target users and provided feedback regarding the validity, user friendliness, and usefulness of the system. Prior to sending the system prototype to evaluator groups, the prototype was reviewed by a select group of educators and information technology professionals to make sure the prototype was functioning properly and that it could be easily installed by evaluators. The overall results of the needs assessment indicated that the computer-based, pre-service teacher evaluation system that was developed would add value to and improve the evaluation process for teacher training institutions that use spreadsheet and paper-based systems. Survey respondents determined that the system prototype could meet important data collection, analysis, and reporting needs and could increase reporting and data retrieval efficiency for teacher evaluators and teacher training institutions. Target user evaluations found the system to be useable, functionally adequate, and a useful assessment tool.

The following question and sub-question guide this thesis project: 1) How does a service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology? 2.) What are some barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers? A positive service-learning experience provides good learning models which have the potential to address the barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers by influencing their self-efficacy. Included in this thesis is a unit plan which responds to these research questions. There are many barriers to teaching technology for teachers including lack of funds, availability and quality of computer hardware and software, teaching models for using computer technology in instruction, time to learn to use computer technology, and teacher attitude (Rogers, 2000). A service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course could increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology by addressing these needs, the most important of which is providing pre-service teachers with a model for using computer technology in their instruction. Computer hardware and software availability is a problem which the teacher educator can address through writing a grant for funds, computer hardware and software, introducing the pre-service teachers to free and open source software, and negotiating with the partner school's administration and classroom teachers. Equally important is discussing this process with the pre-service teachers so they may learn from that experience. A positive experience teaching using computer technology has the potential to change pre-service teacher attitude about the ability of a teacher to influence students and their personal ability as a teacher (Wade, 1995; Root & Furco, 2001). Through service-learning, K-12 students and pre-service teachers have the opportunity to teach each other about digital art. It is through these unit plans that a mutual relationship is formed, which enables learning to occur on both ends. Throughout the unit plan, pre-service teachers are given time to reflect on their learning experiences and discuss what they are learning by working with the students. When teaching digital art to pre-service teachers, while it is important to give goals, guidelines and some basic instruction to lay the ground work for future discoveries, pre-service teachers and students alike need the opportunity to find the solutions to their own technical and artistic problems. The curricular ideas and unit plans contained within this thesis may serve as idea-generators for teacher educators interested in enriching their computer technology curriculum for pre-service teachers by incorporating service-learning into their practice. The big ideas were chosen to emphasize the idea of a learning community. Students and pre-service teachers develop a relationship over the course of teaching in which both learn from each other through the pre-service teachers' lessons and how the lessons are interpreted by the students. In effect, these unit plans are a beginning for future projects which integrate service-learning and the digital arts.

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In California, 55 teacher preparation programs have embedded a standardized four-task teaching performance assessment (CalTPA) as a requirement for initial teacher licensure. Guided by the frameworks of transactional experience and the theory of formative assessment, this phenomenological study addressed the meaning and role ascribed to the CalTPA by those who complete it. Research questions examined participants' perceptions of their CalTPA experience with respect to preparation, completion of the tasks, feedback, remediation, activities between tasks, and overall experience Data were collected through 3 semi-structured interviews of 8 participants who had successfully completed the CalTPA tasks, chosen by reputational case selection from 1 teacher preparation program. Data were coded for elements of process and overarching themes using inductive descriptive coding in 2 cycles, beginning with discrete codes and then grouping those into themes. Results indicated that the CalTPA played a significant role in the development of completers. Themes included common process elements, emotions, perceptions of tasks, key success factors, and overall influence of the experience. Implications for positive social change include informing stakeholders in teacher preparation programs on best policies and practices to support the development of pre-service teachers into effective in-service teachers, whose future students will benefit from improved educational quality.

As students begin secondary school, they are charged with learning more content, at a faster pace and with increased pressure from accountability measures (Dreschler, Shumaker, & Woodruff, 2004). If secondary students' reading difficulties are not identified and remedied, the gap between struggling readers and their peers widens every academic year (Edmonds, Vaughn, Wexler, Rutebuch, Cable, Tackett, and Schnakenberg, 2009). The task of reading instruction primarily falls on English teachers, but Strickland and Alvermann (2004) note that while secondary English Teachers do have more preparation in reading instruction compared to other content area teachers, they are not as prepared as they need to be and do not provide reading instruction even when given the opportunity. Additionally, little attention has been given to how teacher should be taught to teach reading (Moats & Foorman, 2003) and even less attention has been given to reading instruction at the secondary level (Edmonds, et al., 2009). Pre-service teacher's beliefs influence how they take in information presented in their teacher education program and classroom instructional decisions (Holt-Reynolds, 1992; Richardson, 2003). However few studies have examined English education pre-service teachers beliefs about teaching struggling readers at the secondary level. The purpose of this study is to describe and explain secondary English education pre-service teachers' beliefs about teaching struggling readers using Photovoice. This study uses a combination of constructivism, Lakoff and Johnson's concept of metaphor, and interpretivism as the theoretical framework. Research methods examining beliefs often involve using surveys or interviews (i.e. Sadaf, Newby, & Ertmer, 2012; Sandvik, van Dall, & Ader, 2013). However, these methods may not provide as representational responses as a method that allows participants to respond through multiple mediums and through metaphor. This study uses a modified version of the Photovoice method to examine secondary English education pre-service teachers' beliefs. Because Photovoice has not been used to examine beliefs of this population, an additional aim of this study is to examine Photovoice as a reflection method. The research questions guiding this study are: 1. What are English education pre-service teacher beliefs' about teaching struggling adolescent readers? 2. What are English education pre-service teacher beliefs about themselves as readers? 3. In what ways, if any, did Photovoice facilitate reflection on beliefs about reading instruction? Findings suggest English education pre-service teachers had not considered struggling readers as part of their classrooms, did not understand the complexities of the reading process, held a deficit view of struggling readers, assumed a teacher's identity, saw reading as an experience/event, found the discussion in the Photovoice process helpful in reflection, Photovoice helped address some issues with teacher reflection, and Photovoice helped develop as well as capture beliefs. Implications for teacher education are discussed.

This study examined teachers‘ knowledge for teaching algebra, with a particular focus on teaching the concept of function and quadratic relations in China and the United States. An embedded mixed methods design was adapted, a design in which the main data set consists of written answers to a questionnaire, while the supportive data set is comprised of the written answers to open-ended questions and follow-up interviews. A structural equation model was adopted to analyze the status and structure of teacher knowledge for teaching algebra in China and the U.S. A qualitative analysis of the answers to the open-ended questions and follow-up interviews is aimed to further illustrate and interpret the quantitative findings. Three hundred and seventy six Chinese and 115 U.S. prospective middle and high school mathematics teachers participated in this survey. Based on an extensively quantitative and qualitative data analysis, the following conclusions were made. First, the Chinese participants demonstrated a stronger knowledge for teaching algebra when compared with their U.S. counterparts. Second, the structure of knowledge for teaching algebra of the Chinese participants is much more interconnected than that of their U.S. counterparts. Third, the Chinese participants showed flexibility in choosing appropriate perspectives of function concept and in selecting multiple representations in contrast to their U.S. counterparts. Fourth, this flexibility is found to be closely related to school math and teaching math. Finally, the number of college math and math education courses taken impacts teachers‘ knowledge for teaching algebra. The findings of this study hold several implications for mathematics teacher preparation in general and studies on mathematics teachers‘ knowledge in particular. Theoretically, the complexity of understanding and measuring mathematics teachers‘ knowledge for teaching was examined and discussed. This study also enriches the understanding of mathematics teachers‘ knowledge for teaching at middle and high schools in China and the United States. Specifically, the Chinese practice of developing teachers‘ basic knowledge, skills, and flexibility provides an alternative for U.S. mathematics teacher educators to reflect on their practice. Practically, what we can learn from this study to improve mathematics teacher preparation in China and the U.S. is discussed. Finally, the limitations of this study are discussed and further studies are suggested.

This was a case study which aimed to examine how blogging enhanced reflection among pre-service English language teachers in Practicum. 12 pre-service English language teachers enrolled in the undergraduate program of English Teaching Education in the Department of Foreign Language Education at Middle East Technical University participated in the study which comprised a 12-week time span in the 2007-2008 spring term. Data collection consisted of archival records of participants&rsquo / blog posts and comments, pre- and post-study interviews with each pre-service teacher, and field notes taken by the researcher throughout the study. All the blog content was archived and available on the Internet throughout the study. Recurring patterns in pre-service English language teachers&rsquo / blog postings were used as a measure of their reflectivity. Earlier and later blog postings were compared to check evidence of change in the level of the pre-service teachers&rsquo / reflective thinking. Results indicated that: (1) the pre-service English language teachers frequently discussed their personal theories of teaching, the problems that they formulated based on their practicum observation, and topics related to their self-awareness in their blog postings / and (2) they were reflective in their blog postings, to a certain extent, although there were individual differences in the degree of reflectivity in the identified categories. In this respect, this blogging experience provided a different approach to develop reflectivity in Practicum. Therefore, this study may be an example to investigate the effectiveness of blogs in language teacher education, especially in a Turkish context where English is learned and taught as a foreign language.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of electronic portfolio building in development of self-directed learning by fostering reflective thinking through electronic journals and by compelling individual to take responsibility and control of one&rsquo / s own learning in a practicum course among pre-service teachers from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Middle East Technical University. A qualitative case study research method was applied to analyze the data gathered from pre- and post-ICT surveys, pre- and post Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scales, interviews, and the electronic journals and artifacts demonstrated in pre-service teachers&rsquo / web-based electronic portfolios. The data were collected from eight 4th grade undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in School Experience course of the English Language Teaching program at METU during 2008-2009 Fall Term. Electronic portfolios, having the opportunity to provide multimedia displays, allow the pre-service teachers to monitor the outcomes of their learning goals and strategies regularly and by monitoring their studies and reflections they review their own work and have a chance to evaluate their learning and teaching process. Essentially, portfolios transfer the responsibility of learning and decision making to the student with its dynamic process / when students are required to reflect on the information they acquire and on how they acquire this information, they begin to accept their learning practice as a process under their control. This study recognizes the notion that information and communication technologies are crucial to teacher education for both learning and teaching / and takes the constructivist stance that using ICTs tools, mainly electronic portfolios in this case, enhances reflective thinking, authentic self-assessment, self-management, and ownership over learning process and facilitates technological competence which all in all foster self-direction in learning.

The purpose of this study is to understand the attitudes of pre-service teachers, who are studying at the departments of early childhood education in universities in Turkey, towards the profession of early childhood education. Specifically, this study investigated the effect of sex and gender role on the attitudes of pre-service early childhood teachers. The sample of this study includes 1528 participants from 11 different state universities of Turkey. 278 of them are male pre-service teachers and 1250 of them are female pre-service teachers. The data were collected through two different scales, Turkish version of Bem Sex Role Inventory (Kavuncu, 1987) and Attitude Scale Related to Teaching Profession (Erkus et al., 2000). Additionally, a demographic information form was also sent to the participants. The data were analyzed through PASW. Results of the study indicated that there was no interaction effect between sex and gender role, however main effects of sex and gender role was significant. Two-way between-groups ANOVA results indicated that there is a significant difference among female and male pre-service teachers in the total attitude score. However, the difference was small according to Cohen&rsquo / s (1988) criterion. Furthermore, statistical analysis also indicated that there is a mean difference between masculine pre-service teachers and the other three groups of gender roles which were feminine, androgynous and undifferentiated. Results of the current study suggest that the following implications. First, the findings indicated that gender role is more influencing than sex in developing attitudes towards the profession of ECE. Additionally, there is no interaction effect between sex and gender role on attitudes towards the profession of ECE.

The present study was a case study which aimed at exploring pre-service teachers’ perceptions of PPG-SM3T program for their professional development. PPG-SM3T program is a professional development program for pre-service teacher in Indonesia. Research design of this study was quantitative design and used convenience sampling. The sample was 60 pre-service teachers who graduated from PPG-SM3T program in a state university in central Indonesia. Instrument used to collect data for the present study was questionnaire and analysis consisted of Principal Component Analysis, Reliability test, and Exploratory Data Analysis were done in order to analyse the data. From the results of analysis, it was found that generally pre-service teachers who took PPG-SM3T program in the mentioned university response positively toward the program. It was found to be very effective for most of them as a preparation to be professional teachers. Workshop and field teaching practice were two features in the program that particularly helpful to prepare them to be professional teacher. However, it was also found that more supervision is needed for pre-service teacher during the program as well as non-teaching activities. Some specific cases also need to be considered for future improvement.