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.

This study explored how preservice teachers perceive the influence and value of an embedded, school-based field experience. Information was gathered from preservice teachers using surveys and a focus group interview. The data collected showed that an embedded field experience tied to a language arts methods course was generally a positive influence leading to great self-efficacy. Further, the data compared similarly to research supporting the notion that embedded field experiences generally have the effect of strengthening preservice teachers’ self-efficacy. Looking at Bandura’s work in Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change, it shows that early interactions and successes will boost the self-efficacy of preservice teachers. This study found that successful experiences help preservice teachers value their embedded, school-based field experiences and help view it as something positive. Even if the experience had its difficulties, preservice teachers were able to learn from the situation and if they ever find themselves in a similar circumstance, they will feel more confident about handling things. Therefore, when these preservice teachers become in-service teachers, they will feel more confident about their abilities compared to in-service teachers who did not have similar experiences in their teacher preparation program.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the lived experiences of former McNair Program participants at a regional postsecondary institution in northeast Tennessee. More specifically, the study examined how past participants of a McNair Program perceived their program experiences related to their post-undergraduate educational endeavors and career pursuits. Although research has been conducted on McNair Programs, no research has been conducted on the lived experiences of individuals who participated in a McNair Program in northeast Tennessee within the last two decades, and little to no research has been conducted to identify the program components that former participants believe benefitted them in their post-undergraduate academic and career pursuits. This research involved interviews with ten former participants of a McNair Program at a university in northeast Tennessee. Participants described their experiences as they related to three key phases in their lives: their undergraduate years, their post-undergraduate academic experiences, and their post-undergraduate professional experiences. They shared how participating in the McNair Program provided them with opportunities to develop their academic skills, connect with students from similar backgrounds, and learn more about graduate school. Participants spoke positively about the summer trip offered to them at the end of the pre-research internship as well as the support they received from program facilitators and mentors that encouraged them to persist. They described the rigorous pacing and increased pressure to succeed as disadvantages of the program. Participants also commented on the program components they found most beneficial as they pursued graduate education and went on to their chosen career fields. Several findings emerged related to existing literature, including help overcoming barriers, support and persistence, developing academic skills and preparing for graduate school, confidence and development as a scholar, ability to adapt to graduate school, and educational and career success. Recommendations for further research include examining how attending or not attending the site-selected institution during the academic year-long internship impacts participant experiences and replicating the study at other McNair Programs to better understand the lived experiences of program participants nationally.

Dropping out of high school is a nationally recognized problem which has significant implications for both the individual and society as a whole. Increasing the high school graduation rate will reduce the risk for multiple problem behaviors and poor mental and physical health among at-risk adolescents. GED preparation programs are continually regarded as a second chance mechanism for high school dropouts. Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) has a foundational basis in the rigorous research that has been conducted, which clearly indicates that our emotions and relationships affect how and what we learn. SEL attempts to enhance the development of what are perceived to be fundamental social and emotional skills and competencies. This study explores the incorporation of SEL in a GED preparation program for adolescent high school dropouts between the ages of 16 and 18. Due to the exploratory nature of this study, the Delphi Method was used to gather consensus through a panel of experts. / Master of Science

The purpose of this study was to investigate East Tennessee State University alumni's perceptions of the effectiveness of internship experiences as students learned the PSEL and TILS standards and the role of mentor support as they prepared for principalship. The participants obtained their administrative license and worked currently with an administrative license that is current in the state they reside. This research focused on the perception of the PESL and TILS standards, the effectiveness of the 540-hour internship experience, and the value of the site based and university mentor as the participants completed their activities in multiple settings. Findings supported that 16 out of the 17 ideas investigated had a strong positive significance, indicating they were highly supported by the data. These findings highlight the effectiveness of various aspects within aspiring principal preparation programs. Particularly noteworthy is the significance of internship experiences, which are guided by mentors from both the educational institution and the site of practice. This underscores the pivotal role these mentorship arrangements play in shaping future educational leaders. Findings revealed that participants in the program facilitated the practical application of the PESL and TILS Standards in preparation for assuming the role of a principal. Findings also supported the positive experience when participating in the 540 hours of internship hours required by the program.

Submitted by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-08-09T14:51:38Z No. of bitstreams: 1 PaulaLeiteAntunesdeMacedoDissertacao2018.pdf: 1676113 bytes, checksum: 93657b0a1ac65e9c8619795abc199bfb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sara Ribeiro (sara.ribeiro@ucb.br) on 2018-08-09T14:51:47Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 PaulaLeiteAntunesdeMacedoDissertacao2018.pdf: 1676113 bytes, checksum: 93657b0a1ac65e9c8619795abc199bfb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T14:51:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 PaulaLeiteAntunesdeMacedoDissertacao2018.pdf: 1676113 bytes, checksum: 93657b0a1ac65e9c8619795abc199bfb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-06-20 / Leisure is a human dimension related to what gives pleasure, and is commonly associated with a better quality of life, aimed at throughout life. At the time of retirement, the greater availability of free time opens the doors to make reality the dream of practicing more leisure. However, not everyone is prepared to experience this possibility. Thus, the objectives of the present study were to verify the perception of leisure, its importance and the place it occupies in the life of retirees of the National Fund for Education Development, as well as: to compare leisure practice and quality of life by age group, sex and time of retirement; to evaluate if leisure practice has an influence on the quality of life of retirees of said public agency; identify satisfaction with retirement and achievement with the work that the retirees performed in the institution and their relationships; to identify whether there is a relationship between participation in the Retirement Preparation Program and leisure practices. A quantitative and qualitative descriptive and exploratory study was carried out with a non-probabilistic sample of 37 federal public employees retired from the autarchy, 12 men and 25 women, aged between 50 and 95 years. In order to reach the proposed objectives, the following instruments were applied: semi-structured interview, Quality of Life Scale, Leisure Practices Assessment and socio-demographic questionnaire. For the quantitative analyzes descriptive data were used by means, standard deviations and frequency, as well as diverse statistical analyzes. For the qualitative data were analyzed Textual Corpus. The main results pointed out, on the part of the interviewees, the aspects of pleasure, time and space, as well as the antithesis of the obligations as being the meaning of leisure. They consider it is important to give meaning to life and to replenish the energies. There was also a great dedication to the virtual and physical cultural interests of leisure, as opposed to the desire to devote more attention to tourism and social cultural interests. The quality of life of the sample in question was considered high, according to the data found. Differences were identified regarding leisure practice and quality of life when compared by sex, and in leisure practice when compared by age group and time of retirement. Although there was no statistical correlation, it was identified the tendency of those who practice more leisure to have a better quality of life. Two groups were identified regarding satisfaction with retirement: those who see it as a crisis and those who regard it as freedom. The sample presented, even with caveats, high levels of achievement with the work performed at the institution. Finally, participants in the Retirement Preparation Program had higher rates of leisure time than those who did not. Thus, it is concluded that leisure is an important theme in retirement, for which special attention is needed throughout life in order to experiment and reflect on the subject, so that one can reap good fruits in the time of old age. / Lazer é uma dimensão humana relacionada àquilo que proporciona prazer, sendo comumente associado a uma melhor qualidade de vida, visada ao longo de toda a vida. No momento da aposentadoria, a maior disponibilidade de tempo livre abre as portas para tornar realidade o sonho de praticar mais lazer. Todavia, nem todos encontram-se preparados para vivenciar essa possibilidade. Assim, os objetivos do presente estudo foram verificar a percepção de lazer, sua importância e o lugar que esse ocupa na vida dos aposentados do Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Educação, bem como: comparar a prática de lazer e a qualidade de vida por faixa etária, sexo e tempo de aposentadoria; avaliar se prática de lazer tem influência na qualidade de vida dos aposentados do referido órgão público; identificar a satisfação com a aposentadoria e a realização com o trabalho que os aposentados desempenharam na instituição e suas relações; identificar se há relação entre participação no Programa de Preparação para Aposentadoria e práticas de lazer. Para tanto, foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva e exploratória, de caráter quantitativo e qualitativo, com uma amostra não probabilística de 37 servidores públicos federais aposentados da autarquia, sendo 12 homens e 25 mulheres, com idade entre 50 e 95 anos. A fim de alcançar os objetivos propostos, foram aplicados os seguintes instrumentos: entrevista semiestruturada, Escala de Qualidade de Vida, Avaliação de Práticas de Lazer e questionário sociodemográfico. Para as análises quantitativas foram utilizados dados descritivos por meio de médias, desvios padrões e frequência, bem como testes inferenciais. Para os dados qualitativos foram realizadas Análises de Corpus Textuais. Os principais resultados encontrados apontam, por parte dos entrevistados, os aspectos do prazer, tempo e espaço, bem como a antítese das obrigações como sendo o significado do lazer. Esses o consideram importante para dar sentido à vida e para repor as energias. Verificou-se também grande dedicação aos interesses culturais virtuais e físicos do lazer, em contraponto com o desejo de se dedicar mais aos interesses culturais turísticos e sociais. A qualidade de vida da amostra em questão foi considerada alta, de acordo com os dados encontrados. Foram identificadas diferenças no que se refere à prática de lazer e à qualidade de vida quando comparados por sexo, e na prática de lazer quando comparada por faixa etária e tempo de aposentadoria. Apesar de não haver correlação estatística, identificou-se a tendência de aqueles que praticam mais lazer terem melhor qualidade de vida. Foram identificados dois grupos com relação à satisfação com a aposentadoria: os que a encaram como crise e os que a encaram como liberdade. A amostra apresentou, mesmo com ressalvas, altos índices de realização com o trabalho que desempenhou na instituição. Por fim, participantes do Programa de Preparação para Aposentadoria apresentaram índices mais altos de práticas de lazer do que os que não participaram. Dessa forma, conclui-se que o lazer é um tema importante na aposentadoria, para o qual faz-se necessária uma atenção especial ao longo da vida no sentido de experimentar e refletir sobre o assunto, a fim de que se possa colher bons frutos no momento da velhice.

Using queer and Afrofuturist frameworks, this Black feminist qualitative study explored queer Black pre-and in-service teachers' cultural and intersectional practices as they navigated traditional heteronormative educational spaces. This research study relied on counternarratives and storytelling and drew from Afrofuturism to understand the use of their lived experiences to counter monolithic queer narratives. The queer Black teachers in this study examined and negotiated how their Blackness and queerness showed up in teacher preparation programs (TPP) and K-12 classrooms. Moreover, they eventually refused to hide or censure their authentic selves. An analysis of the narratives and counternarratives showed that queer Black teachers drew from ancestral traditions to create queer Afrofuturist spaces in TPPs and educational places. Furthermore, due to their queer Black intersectional approaches, their classrooms, assignments, curriculum, and pedagogy disrupted normative teaching practices. Implications, recommendations, and future research are discussed.

There currently exists a challenge in higher education to improve undergraduate education. The development and more adequate preparation of future faculty, who are current graduate students, is one of several options identified as a viable strategy to address this challenge. This dissertation explored the quality of motivation as a factor affecting the preparation or socialization of future faculty at two top-tier universities. The quality of motivation is believed salient to preparation and socialization. This study focused on the motivation types of teaching-focused future faculty preparation program (FFPP) completers, their programmatic experiences, and various personal and social factors, such as gender, program, and academic discipline, as reason for motivation type. This mixed methods research study was based on the tenets of self-determination theory and revealed quantitatively, through inferential statistics, that a significant difference exists in the motivation type of participants based on gender, program, and academic discipline. Qualitative findings, from focus group interviews, were that FFPP design characteristics included elements to satisfy the innate psychological need for competence but fell short in meeting the need for relatedness. The findings offer insights into aspects that affect the quality of motivation in program participants. They also suggest that in order to more adequately prepare and socialize future faculty, consideration must be given to the importance of satisfying innate psychological needs in an effort to enhance the quality of participant motivation. Both findings support the importance of relatedness in affecting the quality of motivation. The findings of this study support the notion that certain demographic or contextual factors, as well as the satisfaction of innate psychological needs are critical to motivation quality, internalization, behavior, and socialization. The results of this study will contribute to program developers' awareness of motivation quality and its effect on behavior to enhance the design of teaching-focused future faculty preparation programs and socialization. Through the use of motivation quality, this study serves as a catalyst for the more adequate preparation of future faculty to improve undergraduate education.

The goal of this study was to explore technology experiences from a preservice teacher preparation program that requires every preservice teachers and instructors to own a laptop. The participants were a) preservice teachers who were in the program and b) novice teachers who are the program graduates. The setting of this study was a preservice teacher preparation program that involves one-to-one computing throughout in a college of education in a large southwestern university. The research conducted a cross sectional case study. Two preservice teachers across the first, second, and third semesters of the program and two novice teachers in the first year of teaching participated in this research. Various data sources were collected with: a) technological skills and attitude survey, b) related documents such as lesson plans, assignments and school documents, c) observation, and d) interviews. Results of this study showed each participant’s learning environment, technology experiences and technology skills, attitudes and knowledge. All preservice teachers mutually had media cart, instructors’ laptops, students’ laptops, and wireless internet in university classes, and had innovation station, teachers’ computers, printer, telephone, students’ computers, headsets and wireless internet in PK-6 school classes. Throughout the program, university instructors mutually required Email, word processing and electronic submission of assignments to the preservice teachers. The instructors mutually modeled using PowerPoint and Learning Management System (LMS). Preservice teachers in the first semester mutually used video creation, preservice teachers in the second semester used Email and LMS, and preservice teachers in the third semester mutually used search engine, PowerPoint and innovation station. All participants’ technology attitudes were overall positive. Most of the preservice teachers’ technology knowledge was rated accepting level, except Neal, one of the preservice teachers in the third semester, who was rated adapting level. Novice teachers mutually had innovation station, web conferencing devices and students’ laptops in their school. Both of the novice teachers experienced barrier of technology integration due to the necessary devices were already checked out. The novice teachers mutually used innovation station, had overall positive technology attitudes and had technology knowledge at the accepting level. The results led six discussion issues, including a) alignment of technological infrastructure, b) accessibility of technologies, c) limited exposure to technological activities, d) preservice teachers’ technology skills, e) technology experiences from the program and preservice teachers’ technology attitudes, and f) programmatic impact on novice teachers. / text

本研究旨在參照美國跨州學校領導標準證照聯合會（ISLLC）所提出的「ISLLC學校領導者標準」為例，藉以建構出國民中小學校長領導能力指標權重體系。研究方法運用分析網路程序法（ANP），研究工具則採用編修之「國民中小學校長領導能力指標權重體系調查問卷」，並以校長學、校長培育、學校行政等領域之13位學者專家為研究對象，對國民中小學校長領導能力指標之內容進行重要性評比。 本研究依據研究結果，得到以下二項研究結論： 一、學校文化與教學方案為最重要之校長領導能力向度 二、提升教師專業能力為最重要之校長領導能力指標 而依據研究結論，本研究提出以下建議，以作為教育行政機關、校長培育機構等之參考。 一、對教育行政機關之建議 （一）儘速研擬設立校長培育標準及專責單位 （二）校長領導能力指標可作為校長評鑑與校長證照制度之基礎 二、對校長培育機構之建議 （一）校長培育課程中其校長領導能力的規劃，以「學校文化的建立」與「教師能力的提升」作為初階能力的養成 （二）「提升教師專業能力」、「合作發展與共享」、「發展績效評估系統」作為校長培育課程的首要目標 此外，本研究亦針對後續研究者在研究對象、研究方法及研究範圍等三方面，提出相關建議。 關鍵字：校長領導能力、校長培育課程、分析網路程序法 / The purpose of this study is to construct a weight system of principal’s leadership competence indicators for the elementary and junior high school, and this study refer to “Interstate school leaders licensure consortium: Standards for school leaders” as an example. The main method of this study is Analytic Network Process (ANP). The research instrument of this study is a modified questionnaire which is used to survey the elementary and junior high principal’s leadership competence. 13 scholar experts most in principalship, principal preparation and school administration are taken as the research object to estimate the importance of indicator for the elementary and junior high school principal’s leadership competence. According to the research results, two conclusions are as follows: 1. School culture and instructional program is the most important dimension of school principals' leadership competence. 2. Enhancement of the professional competence of teachers is the most important indicator of school principals' leadership competence. This study provides the following suggestions from the conclusions to the educational administrations and the organizations of principal preparation for reference: 1. For education administration authority (1) Plan to establish the standards of principal preparation and set up an unit in charge of them. (2) The indicator of school principals' leadership competence can be a basis of principal evaluation and principals’ licensure. 2. For the institutes of principal preparation (1) Planning of principals' leadership capacity in the principal preparation courses as entry-level capacities are “The establishment of school culture” and “The enhancement of the professional competence of teachers”. (2) The principal of the primary objective of the course are “The enhancement of the professional competence of teachers”, “The cooperation and development and sharing”, and “The development of performance evaluation system”. In addition, this study also provides future researchers in three areas of the object of study, research methods and scope of the study to make recommendations. Keywords: principal leadership capacity, principal preparation program, analytic network process