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Preparedness, efficacy, and commitment to a teaching career are important products of the teacher preparation process. Yet research on how the context of field experiences influences the development of these products is limited. The purpose of this study is firstly to confirm the existence of hypothesized differences between urban and suburban field placements and secondly to investigate the relationship between individual components of these contextualized field experiences and the outcomes of preparedness, efficacy, and commitment. Field experiences are examined through the lens of Bandura's (1997) sources of teacher efficacy belief development (mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, emotional arousal) and their interactions with student teaching contextual influences. The results suggest that urban-based student teachers have a qualitatively different experience from their suburban-based counterparts. Although the study did not find significant differences in resultant teacher efficacy, or preparedness for assuming fulltime teaching responsibilities, urban-based teachers report less long-term teaching commitment, but are more likely to be seeking an initial placement in an urban school. Regression analyses were performed to identify those components of the field experience and individual student characteristics that predict preparedness, efficacy and commitment. Location and on-site school contextual variables (school climate, school poverty) play an integral role in prediction of teaching efficacy. While long-term teaching commitment was most strongly predicted by emotional interpretations of the experience (satisfaction, stress, confidence) together with feeling supported by the field supervisor, intentions regarding teaching location were more dependent on support and encouragement received from mentor teachers in those locations, and viewing the mentor as a good career model. The findings of this study have important implications for teacher training since the results confirm that student teachers have very different experiences based on field site location and that these experiences do contribute differentially to the development of preparedness, efficacy and commitment. / Educational Psychology

The purpose of this interpretive qualitative case study was to explore how possible selves of four pre-service EFL teachers changed during their last 10 months at university and what factors were involved in developing and changing their possible selves. The concept of possible selves is a future-oriented self-concept that involves one's motivation to move toward one's ideal future selves and move away from one's feared selves. Ought-to selves are also believed to work as motivators. The main data sources included two written possible selves stories from each participant, four sets of semi-structured interviews, short e-mail messages with emoticons, and official practicum reports. Through a narrative analysis of these data, I found that participants' rather general possible teacher selves changed to more realistic, elaborated ones after they had experienced practicums. These revised possible selves were not always in the direction of more positive, more ideal selves, but also toward feared and ought-to teacher selves. The data analysis also revealed that the participants found a large gap between their actual L2 selves and ought-to L2 selves, and consequently they developed feared L2 selves who would likely get embarrassed in front of others because of their poor English speaking ability. However, they took no action to prevent their feared L2 selves because becoming fluent in English was possibly seen as a temporally distant unreachable goal that did not merit an investment of time and energy. The study also found that interpersonal relationships with parents, teachers in the past, cooperating teachers during practicum, students at school, and peers were important factors contributing to participants' developing and changing possible selves. I end with suggestions that policy makers, universities, teacher educators, and supervising teachers of student teachers seriously consider issues that will help improve English education in Japan as well as lead to better teacher education programs to prepare EFL pre-service teachers for the rather harsh conditions in the teaching profession in Japan. / Teaching & Learning

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Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Gail Shroyer / David Allen / This study was designed to gather input from early career elementary teachers with the goal of finding ways to improve elementary mathematics methods courses. Multiple areas were explored including the degree to which respondents’ elementary mathematics methods course focused on the NCTM Process Standards, the teachers’ current standards-based teaching practices, the degree to which various pedagogical strategies from mathematics methods courses prepared preservice teachers for the classroom, and early career teachers’ suggestions for improving methods courses. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used in this survey study as questions were of both closed and open format. Data from closed-response questions were used to determine the frequency, central tendencies and variability in standards-based preparation and teaching practices of the early career teachers. Open-ended responses were analyzed to determine patterns and categories relating to the support of, or suggestions for improving, elementary mathematics methods courses. Though teachers did not report a wide variation in the incorporation of the NCTM Process Standards in their teaching practices, some differences were worth noting. Problem Solving appeared to be the most used with the least variability in its frequency of use. Reasoning, in general, appeared to be used the least frequently and with the most variability. Some aspects of Communication, Connections and Representation were widely used and some were used less frequently. From a choice of eight methods teaching practices, ‘Observing in actual classrooms or working with individual students’ and ‘Planning and teaching in actual classrooms’ were considered by early career teachers to be the most beneficial aspects of methods courses.

This study is a qualitative meta-evaluation of the early field experience (EFE) program at a small, private, undergraduate teacher preparation program in Virginia focusing on the perceptions of preservice teachers, cooperating teachers and course instructors about the EFE evaluation objectives, evaluation experience, and resulting data usage. The EFE evaluation protocol at the study site is explored using a participatory-oriented evaluation model that solicited the perceptions of stakeholders. Analysis of EFE evaluation documents and semi-structured interviews with the stakeholders were conducted to explore the extent to which (1) official EFE objectives are congruent with the EFE evaluation, (2) the intended evaluation experience is congruent with stakeholders’ perceptions of the evaluation experience, and (3) intended data usage is congruent with reported data usage. The findings indicate that the EFE evaluation process is logistically sound, but does not assess and facilitate preservice teacher learning. Recommendations to improve the merit and worth of the evaluation process are presented.

The purpose of this mixed-method study was to investigate digital native preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs regarding their technology experiences and skills at the beginning and at the end of their field placement semester. Digital natives, as defined by Prensky (2001), are students born after 1980 who have been raised with digital media and spend a great deal of time engaging with digital devices. Factors that could impact changes in these participants’ technology integration self-efficacy beliefs were also analyzed. This study used pre- and post-surveys, face-to-face interviews with a portion of the respondents, and a document review of course materials and lesson plans. Twenty-one preservice students, enrolled in the second to last semester of a teacher preparation program, at a small mid Atlantic university during the fall, 2011 semester participated. The quantitative portion involved the online administration of the Technology Integration Survey at the beginning and at the conclusion of the field placement experience. For the qualitative portion, nine participants were purposefully selected for interviews in an effort to more fully understand participants’ experiences and how these experiences impacted their self-efficacy beliefs about technology integration during the semester. In order to triangulate the data, results of the quantitative phase of the study were then compared with the results from the qualitative phase of the study. The findings of this mixed-method study suggested that digital native preservice teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs to integrate technology into their teaching improved slightly over the course of the semester. In addition, a strong relationship was found between participants’ Post-Test Technology Skills scores and Post-Test Self-Efficacy scores, indicating that an increase in technology skills corresponded with an increase in self-efficacy (r = .684, p = 0.001). Qualitative results pointed to mentor support, time, and access to technology during their field placement experiences as factors for integrating technology into their instruction. Additionally, results indicated that participants had access to and spent a considerable amount of time on computers every day. They were proficient with basic technologies but reported lower proficiency with more difficult technologies. Yet, results also suggested that, while this group of digital native preservice teachers has grown up in the digital age, their practice and, more importantly, their fundamental understanding of integrating technology into their instructional practices was limited.

Currently in the United States there are more than 4 million lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students in K-12 public schools (Bochenek, Brown, & Human Rights Watch, 2001). Despite the prevalence of LGBT youth and the diversification of family populations, teacher preparation programs rarely acknowledge "queer" aspects of multiculturalism (Letts, 2002). As a result, a majority of K-12 educators enter the field of teaching unwilling and/or unprepared to engage with queer issues as they relate to students and families, curriculum, and instruction. The culture of silence around homosexuality can put queer youth at risk and deter school stakeholders from addressing queer issues, the discussion of which can lead to deepened understanding, increased empathy, and social action. Employing critical social theory as a theoretical framework, this paper examines the promise of increased awareness about and use of queer-inclusive pedagogy and curriculum in pre-service teacher education. It is argued that such inclusion is necessary to counteract heterosexism in schools that reinforce gender norms and impart heteronormative values. Guided by interpretivist inquiry, the current multiple-case study describes how eight pre-service teachers encountered, made sense of, and responded to sexual and gender diversity in their K-8 field placements. Findings are presented in individual case descriptions followed by a cross-case synthesis and suggest that pre-service teachers came into direct and constant contact with queer issues. Participants' overwhelming desire to process and make sense of their encounters as a means of supporting students as well as negotiating their own personal sense of identity also emerged from the data. The implications of these findings for pre-service teacher education are discussed as is a proposed framework for queer inclusion and next steps for future research.

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences and perceptions of early childhood preservice teachers in a southeastern university as they worked for mastery of phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness. Mastery was set at 90% accuracy in a series of tests, which required them to perform different tasks related to the said concepts. One aim of the study was to investigate the preservice teachers’ description of their experiences as they worked for mastery of phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness. Another aim was to examine how working for mastery of said concepts influenced their perceptions of preparedness to carry out literacy instruction. This research used a multiple case study method involving 8 preservice teachers who were taking their first literacy methods course. Data were gathered through an online survey, analysis of answered test papers, written responses, individual interviews, and a focus group interview. Qualitative analysis of data revealed the experience brought about awareness of insufficient knowledge, apprehension to teach, and perplexities related to phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness among the participants. The most salient perplexities were found to be related to phonemic awareness tasks, application of phonics key terms to real words, and splitting words into morphemes. Findings also revealed that improved understanding of phonemic awareness, phonics, and morphemic awareness enhanced the participants’ perception of preparedness to teach these concepts. Engaging in reflective thinking while working for mastery of these concepts deepened their awareness of unpreparedness, reconnected them to their goal to be effective teachers, and caused them to deliberately act on their challenges in obtaining content knowledge required for quality literacy instruction. The results of this study will have relevance for teacher educators, policy makers, school administrators, and researchers as they address issues related to literacy instruction during teacher preparation, especially in terms of acquisition of strong content knowledge.

Instructional time for social studies in elementary classrooms has decreased since the passage of Goals 2000 and No Child Left Behind, with content contracted to align with reading goals. Consequently, opportunities for preservice teachers to observe and teach social studies lessons have diminished. This qualitative multiple case study examines the practices that preservice teachers develop and apply in making decisions concerning social studies curriculum. Three elementary level preservice teachers who had, or were earning, another degree in addition to their degree in education were participants in the study. The study offers insights into three research questions: 1) How do preservice elementary teachers construct an understanding of the teachings of social studies? 2) What knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes do preservice teachers draw upon as they make decisions about social studies teaching? and 3) How do preservice teachers reflect upon and revise their own teaching of social studies? Data from student-produced texts, interviews, classroom observations, a focus group, and researcher memos were analyzed using an inductive approach drawing on Charmaz's Constructing Grounded Theory (2010) and situational analysis (Clarke,2005). Five factors intersected for each participant in constructing their understandings of social studies instruction: academic background, learning preferences, beliefs and attitudes regarding education, a conception of the teacher's role, and aspects of college coursework in education. The participants' academic background, knowledge of students' prior learning, content standards, curriculum emphasis at school sites, and beliefs about purposes for social studies shaped their decisions about social studies instruction. Each participant reflected on technical aspects of lessons primarily using descriptive language. Reflection considering multiple perspectives and the social and historical contexts for lessons occurred when the participants had academic backgrounds related to social studies fields, or when there were multiple lessons related around a topic. In these cases, reflections demonstrated greater depth and complexity. Participants' opportunities to revise lessons varied. In general, the findings suggest that when background knowledge was related to social studies fields, preservice teachers found alternative ways to approach subject matter and multiple occasions to integrate social studies. This study has implications for the coursework and practicum components of preservice teacher education. / Graduation date: 2012