During the fall 2013 semester, a group of seven preservice theatre teachers engaged in a devised playbuilding project with the aim of exploring and interrogating their own identities. This thesis uses identity theory and the methodology of playbuilding as qualitative phenomenological research to interrogate the multiple identities of the preservice theatre teacher. Through qualitative analysis of that playbuilding process, this thesis reports on the perceptions, experiences, and stories of seven participants currently enrolled in the BFA Theatre Studies program at The University of Texas at Austin as they explored identity. Their experiences and perceptions reflect the multiple, and sometimes simultaneous, identities of the participants such as Student, Student-teacher, Teacher, Artist, and Person. / text

Recognizing the need for U.S. students' mathematics learning to be built on a solid foundation of conceptual understanding, professional organizations such as the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000) and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (2001) have called for an increased focus on building conceptual understanding in elementary mathematics in several domains. This study focuses on an exploration of two aspects of Hill, Schilling, and Ball's (2004) mathematics knowledge for teaching: specialized content knowledge (SCK) and knowledge of content and students (KCS) related to fractions concepts, an area that is particularly challenging at the elementary level and builds the foundation for understanding more complex rational number concepts in the middle grades. Eight grades early childhood through four preservice teachers enrolled in a mathematics methods course were asked to create concept maps to describe their knowledge of fractions and interpret student work with fractions. Results showed the preservice teachers to be most familiar with the part-whole representation of fractions. Study participants were least familiar with other fraction representations, including fractions as a ratio, as an operator, as a point on a number line, and as a form of division. The ratio interpretation of a fraction presented the greatest difficulty for study participants when asked to describe student misconceptions and create instructional representations to change students' thinking.

Science education studies show that many preservice science teachers have negative attitudes toward teaching science, yet they are expected to teach it in an effective manner. Previous studies on preservice science teachers’ attitudes have focused on studying their attitudes toward teaching science as a single concept, yet the literature shows that attitudes should be studied as a psychological construct consisting of cognitive beliefs, affective states, and perceived control beliefs. There is a dearth of research on preservice science teachers’ attitudes toward teaching science. Specifically, no such study has been conducted before in Saudi Arabia using this manner of exploring attitudes. As such, this convergent parallel mixed-methods study had threefold aims: to explore Saudi preservice elementary teachers’ attitude dimensions toward teaching science, including their cognitive beliefs, affective states, and perceived control beliefs; to establish the relationship between preservice elementary teachers’ cognitive beliefs, affective feelings, and perceived control dimensions; and to determine the underlying reasons for preservice elementary science teachers’ attitude dimensions toward teaching science. The data was collected by using a questionnaire made up of two sections: the quantitative section was a DAS survey developed by van Aalderen-Smeets and Walma van der Molen (2013), and the qualitative section comprised open-ended questions. The reason for using a mixed-methods design was to gain a comprehensive understanding of the collected information. The study was conducted among 92 Saudi preservice science teachers at a large university in western Saudi Arabia. Data was analyzed by using T-tests, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation for the quantitative data, and a thematic analysis approach for the qualitative data. The results of the survey showed that most preservice science teachers have positive attitudes’ dimensions toward teaching science. The results of the qualitative data also supported these results and yielded 19 themes regarding the factors that impact preservice science teachers’ attitudes’ dimensions. The implications of these results for future research and practicum training are discussed herein.

Despite the advancements and availability of computers and digital technologies in today's schools and colleges, too many graduating K-8 teachers enter the teaching profession without the skills, knowledge, and experience to use technology as a teaching and learning tool. These issues directly affect whether teachers use technology in their schools. Too often preservice teachers lack the basic computer skills they need before they can use technology as a teaching and learning tool. Preservice teachers also need learning opportunities such as educational technology classes, faculty who model and demonstrate technology, and field placement schools with supervising teachers who use and encourage teaching with technology. Furthermore, preservice teachers need opportunities to acquire hands-on experience using hardware or software. A survey developed for this study collected demographic information about the participants and included sections about their technology skill levels, learning opportunities, and specific technologies preservice teachers used or did not use when student teaching. The survey was administered after the preservice teachers completed their student teaching requirements for a bachelor’s degree in elementary education. This study suggests that preservice teachers lack the skills, knowledge, and experience they need to use technology as a teaching, learning, and administrative tool. The findings suggest that preservice teachers are low-level users of technology for educational purposes. Even though this generation of students uses digital technologies more than other generations, their technology use centers around communication, convenience, and entertainment. Many preservice teachers only use technology for educational purposes when it is required of them, and then only at the most basic levels. Several recommendations were developed from this study. Require teacher education candidates to take and pass a computer competency skills exam. Provide a compulsory digital technology course devoted to educational issues concerning teaching and learning. Require faculty to teach and model technology in technology rich classrooms and during preservice teachers’ methods classes. Require supervising teachers to use and model technology for student teachers during their student teaching experience. Require education students to have and use personal laptop computers during their professional, methods, and student teaching placements.

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Much attention, both nationally and internationally, has been given to mathematics teaching and student mathematical performance (e.g. No Child Left Behind Act (2001), National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1991, 2000) standards, Common Core State Standards Initiative, Trend in International Mathematics and Science Study (2013), and Program of International Student Assessment PISA (2013)). Teachers of mathematics have come under greater scrutiny and demands for student success have been placed upon them. Research has shown that teacher efficacy and mathematics teaching efficacy, forms of self-efficacy beliefs (Bandura, 1977, 1997), can have a positive impact on teaching and learning. Yet, there has been limited research on the mathematics teacher efficacy of preservice elementary teachers (Swars, 2005). This study examined the impact of the student teaching experience on the mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice elementary teachers. What happens to the level of mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers during the student teaching experience? What are the characteristics of preservice teachers with low and high levels of efficacy beliefs? What factors from the student teaching experience influenced efficacy beliefs? A qualitative case study (Merriam, 2009) with an embedded survey was used to address the previous questions. The results of this study demonstrate that mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers rose significantly during the student teaching experience. However, the change was not uniform. Personal mathematics teaching efficacy (PMTE) increased significantly. Although mathematics teaching outcome expectancy (MTOE) increased, it was not significant. Furthermore, the research indicates four characteristics influenced mathematics teaching efficacy beliefs: attitude toward mathematics, use of manipulatives, motivation to teach, and persistence. Four factors appear to impact the development of efficacy beliefs of preservice teachers: prior experiment with mathematics, student teaching experience, relationship with cooperating teacher, and students served by the preservice teachers.

Preparing teachers to teach in the diverse classroom has become one of the most important goals for universities and teacher training programs. The main purposes of this study included to examine what type of multicultural concepts were taught preservice teachers who sought certification in Grades 4-8 and how these preservice teachers understood and implemented multicultural concepts in their educational portfolios and coursework, field experiences, and student teaching. The population of the study consisted of 53 undergraduate, preservice teachers enrolled in the last two years of a 4-8 teacher certification program. A modified grounded theory methodology and interpretive approach was used in the analysis of the course syllabi, required readings and student coursework. The study found that this particular program exposed the preservice teachers to a significant number of multicultural concepts in preparation for teaching in the ethnically diverse schools in the area. In addition, the study looked at which of Grant and Sleeter's five multicultural approaches were found most often in the course syllabi and required readings, as well as the preservice teachers' portfolio artifacts, key assessments, and reflective writing samples. The research found the majority of the course syllabi and assigned readings covered concepts in the human relations and multicultural education approaches. The majority of the preservice teachers in this study identified most often with the multicultural education approach, although all five multicultural approaches were found in various portfolio artifacts, key assessments, and reflective writing samples. The study further indicates it was a combination of the multicultural courses, the field experiences, the student teaching, and the preservice teachers' adaptability to ethnic diversity that helped the preservice teachers experience successful opportunities with the students. The adaptability of the preservice teachers in the study also appears to match recent research that suggests that university students in general may be growing more accustomed to the ethnic diversity in the communities around them as the population demographics changes.

This study explored beginning and advanced pre-service teachers’ Internet use and their experience, confidence, and competence in using new literacies of the Internet. In addition, this study compared the pre-service teachers to same-aged business and engineering students. Through using an online survey, this study recruited 1350 students from the various disciplines. This study conducted comparisons between a) underclassmen across the three majors, b) seniors across the majors, and c) underclassmen and seniors within the majors. This study found that as digital natives, education, business, and engineering students used the Internet frequently. However, they were relatively unfamiliar with using new literacies of the Internet during their high school and university educational experiences. Overall, the three majors’ students were confident but they were not competent in using new literacies of the Internet including locating and evaluating information on the Internet. Comparisons between and within the majors revealed that education underclassmen were less confident and competent than engineering underclassmen peers and senior education students in evaluating information on the Internet. Education seniors were comparable to business and engineering seniors in their confidence and competence in both locating and evaluating information on the Internet. The findings imply that teacher educators need to understand the weaknesses of their pre-service teachers and provide them with appropriate opportunities and training to know how to effectively use and furthermore teach new literacies of the Internet.

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the characteristics of student-teacher interactions between Korean EFL preservice teachers and elementary school students during online exchanges and of the preservice teachers’ overall impressions and perceptions of teaching English to elementary school students and interacting with them online. The participants in this study were 31 Korean preservice elementary school teachers and 10 Korean elementary school students who were learning English as a foreign language. Ten groups with an average of three preservice teachers were paired with one child partner per group and engaged in one-on-one email exchanges, mostly using English, in discussing English books. Data came from multiple sources, including transcripts of the online exchanges between the preservice teachers and the child partner, preservice teachers’ collaborative dialogue scripts, their responses to questionnaires, their group reflection journals, individual final reflection papers, and researcher field notes. These data were analyzed using a combination of inductive and deductive data analysis methods. Through inductive analysis using the constant comparative analysis method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1985), I derived themes that captured the experience of online interactions and the strategies that the preservice teachers used to maintain the exchange. Through deductive analysis, I identified groups that were more and less successful and described their experiences. Results indicated that the online exchanges with elementary students provided Korean EFL preservice teachers opportunities to practice teaching skills, as well as to develop close personal and social relationships with their child partners. Also, how the preservice teachers approached the exchanges and their specific online “actions” seemed to make a difference in their child partners’ responses, thereby yielding results in which some groups were more successful and others less successful. The preservice teachers reported that their participation in the project was beneficial for them as future elementary teachers of English and that they enjoyed interacting with their child partners online. Finally, the participation in the project appeared to have many benefits for the preservice teachers’ professional development, including newly-gained insights into the benefits of using technology as a valuable instructional tool in their future teaching practices as well as an increase in their confidence in using English to teach English to elementary students. / text

The purpose of the study was to measure gains in the development of elementary education teachers’ reading expertise, to determine if there was a differential gain in reading expertise, and last, to examine their perceptions of acquiring reading expertise. This research is needed in the field of teacher education, specifically in the field of reading. A quasi-experimental design with a comparison group using pretest-posttest mixed-method, repeated measures was utilized. Quantitative data analysis measured the development of reading expertise of elementary preservice teachers compared to early childhood preservice teachers; and, was used to examine the differential gains in reading expertise. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted on pre- and posttest responses on a Protocol of Questions. Further analysis was conducted on five variables (miscue analysis, fluency analysis, data analysis, inquiry orientation and intelligent action) using a univariate analysis of variance (ANOVA). A one-way ANOVA was carried out on gain scores of the low and middle groups of elementary education preservice teachers. Qualitative data analysis suggested by Merriam (1989) and Miles and Huberman (1994) was used to determine if the elementary education preservice teachers perceived they had acquired the expertise to teach reading. Elementary education preservice teachers who participated in a supervised clinical practicum made significant gains in their development of reading expertise as compared to early childhood preservice teachers who did not make significant gains. Elementary education preservice teachers who were in the low and middle third levels of expertise at pretest demonstrated significant gains in reading expertise. Last, elementary education preservice teachers perceived they had acquired the expertise to teach reading. The study concluded that reading expertise can be developed in elementary education preservice teachers through participation in a supervised clinical practicum. The findings support the idea that preservice teachers who will be teaching reading to elementary students would benefit from a supervised clinical practicum.