AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF LAWRENCE KOFI AMETEPEE, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in CURRICULUM AND INSTRUCTION, presented on OCTOBER 19, 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale TITLE: A CASE STUDY: EXPLORING THE INCLUSIVE EDUCATION DECISIONS TEACHER EDUCATORS MAKE AND EXAMINING HOW PREPARED PRESERVICE TEACHERS FEEL TO TEACH DIVERSE STUDENTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. D. John McIntyre The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to explore the decisions teacher educators make while training preservice general education teachers for inclusive classrooms; (b) to examine the preparedness of the preservice general education teachers to teach all students, including students with disabilities in general education settings; (c) and to find out how the decisions teacher educators make may influence the preparedness of the preservice general education teachers to teach all students, including students with disabilities in general education settings. In this concurrent mixed methods study, 14 faculty members completed interview protocol, and 62 preservice general education teachers provided background information and completed Likert scale questionnaire. I also gathered data from teacher education program (TEP) documents. I used content analysis approach to analyze qualitative data and I analyzed quantitative data as Likert scale data. Results show that whereas the TEP offers a significant percentage of content knowledge courses more than methods and inclusive education courses, only three out of the 14 faculty members indicated specifically that content knowledge was more important than the other components of inclusive education. Results further show that 11 (78.57%) of the seniors who completed student teaching stated they felt confident, 18 (54.55%) of seniors who were on campus indicated they felt somewhat confident, and 11 (73.33%) of the juniors stated they felt somewhat confident teaching diverse students in general education classrooms. Furthermore, all the seniors who completed student teaching (14, 100%), twenty-seven out of the 33 (81.82%) of the seniors who were on campus, and eight (53.33%) of the juniors stated they thought they would be fully prepared to teach diverse students in their classrooms at the end of their programs. The results have implications for teacher education programs in regard to the competencies teacher education programs should emphasize and the professional development to faculty members. I also discussed recommendations that could place teacher education programs in a better position to effectively prepare preservice general education teachers.

Producing highly skilled elementary mathematics teachers capable of facilitating mathematics learning in ways aligned with The Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM), is a common objective of teacher preparation programs (National Governors Association & Chief Council of State School Officers, 2010). After decades of effort, Brown (2003) argues, teachers continue to teach in the way they were taught; thus, they disregard mathematics standards. As Abell, Appleton, and Hanuscin (2010) note, students’ preexisting ideas relevant to the nature of learning and teaching stem from experiences in their schooling, life, and formal classes. Specifically, related to mathematics, these experiences often reflect the difficulty in learning mathematics, fear of mathematics, and consequently, a dislike for the subject (Abell et al., 2010; Wilson, 2014). These preconceived beliefs influence how preservice teachers (PSTs) perceive subject matter. Beliefs also impact the decisions they make about teaching and learning mathematics. In this exploratory descriptive case-study I investigated in what ways three PSTs describe their experiences as K-12 mathematics learners, how the PSTs perceive their abilities to teach mathematics prior to participating in an introductory elementary mathematics methods course, how the PSTs perceive their abilities to teach mathematics after participating in an introductory elementary mathematics methods course, and what catalysts, relative to their experiences, do the PSTs consider noteworthy in the development of their beliefs and concurrent pedagogy about teaching mathematics to elementary students. I utilized constant comparative methods (Strauss and Corbin, 1998; Denzin and Lincoln, 1994; Strauss, 1987; Miles and Huberman, 1984) to analyze the data and identify overarching themes related to the goals of the study.

The gap between increased diversity of students and the level of multicultural competence of preservice teachers at a local university was investigated in this qualitative case study. The purpose of this study was to describe preservice teachers' experiences with multicultural competence in teaching diverse students. The study's conceptual framework was based on Dewey's theory of experience, Knowles's theory of adult learning, Kolb's theory of experiential learning, and Gay's culturally responsive teaching. Two models incorporating cultural competence by Mason, Benjamin, and Lewis and Pedersen were used to frame professional practice and develop understanding, acceptance, and skills in working with diverse students. Inquiry into how preservice teachers characterized their multicultural competence in relation to their experiences teaching diverse students formed the guiding research question. Data collection included semistructured, individual interviews with 10 preservice teachers selected by purposeful sampling. Lesson plans, class profiles from participants, and handwritten notes of participants' nonverbal expressions during interviews were also analyzed. Inductive data analysis results indicated that preservice teachers perceived a need for additional multicultural competence including increased awareness, knowledge, and skills in working with diverse students. A 3-day professional development workshop training project was developed to address cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills among preservice teachers in grades K-12. Preservice teachers' experiences revealed the need to build and strengthen multicultural competence in order to bring about social change by improving educational outcomes for minority culture students.

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The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which participating in lesson study was perceived to have an impact on teacher effectiveness. Secondary STEM graduates who come into education need a model of collaborative reflective practice for continuous improvement. Lesson study is one possible model of professional learning that is both reflective and collaborative (Sims & Walsh, 2009, p. 731). The cyclical nature of lesson study makes it a natural fit for continuous improvement. Yet, little research into the effectiveness of lesson study as a tool for new teacher preparation or for middle and high school teachers exists. As part of the University of Central Florida's RTP3 program, resident teachers from three school districts participated in lesson study. Their reflections on participating in lesson study were analyzed and interviews with designees from each school district were conducted. The resident teachers' reflections and the interviews with partner school district designees were analyzed using the constant comparison method (Parry, 2004). The reflections were closely examined for trends and patterns, and as commonalities emerged, they led to the findings of this study. After review of the school district lesson study models, they were confirmed and explored during the interviews with school district designees. Analysis showed lesson study was perceived to be beneficial by the resident teachers and two of the three school district designees described positive effects gained from participating in lesson study through RTP3. The literature review and the results of this study demonstrate that lesson study is a valuable tool for professional learning in both novice and veteran teachers. Themes frequently observed in lesson study reflections included increased focus on students, the value found in collaboration, and a desire to participate on future lesson study teams. Teachers, teacher preparation programs, and school administrators should consider the benefits of participating in lesson study and attempt to develop a plan to include this method of professional learning in their school or teacher preparation program.

Metalinguistic awareness (MA) in the context of the present study is the ability to deconstruct and analyze a language's intricate systems, and by doing so, better understand how these systems work. More specifically for the present study, the investigation focused on preservice teachers' MA in relation to grammar and its importance for their future students' understanding of language. Language is at the core of any content area in students' academic lives and it will continue to permeate all aspects of their studies at all ages. As such, language-related issues should be at the front and center of preservice teachers' preparation. The present study, a quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest (Shadish, Cook & Campbell, 2002) investigated the metalinguistic awareness of preservice teachers who were enrolled in a face-to-face, undergraduate applied linguistics course at an urban research university in the United States. The metalinguistic awareness in the scope of the present study was directly related to the grammar knowledge of participants, and it was measured by an adapted instrument called ALAT. The results of the current study demonstrate that overall increase of MA is feasible (as attested by the results from research question 1). Nevertheless, further investigations (research questions 2, 3, 4, and 5) demonstrated that teachers' levels of metalinguistic awareness vary significantly. These results echoed previous findings that demonstrated that preservice teachers are not language-knowledgeable enough to deal with myriad issues that involve language, both in relation to students who are native speakers of English and also concerning ELs (Kolln & Hancock, 2005; Nutta et al., 2012; Pappamihiell, 2007). Preservice teachers' lack higher level metalinguistic awareness, as evidenced by their limited ability to explain grammar errors and use proper metalanguage while doing so. The main implication of the present study lies in the recommendation that more can and should be done in order to ensure that preservice teachers are receiving the appropriate amount of language-oriented preparation during their college years. The present study offers a confirmatory perspective to previous research findings which found that preservice teachers are not knowledgeable enough in relation to language. Previous studies also pointed out to this lack of preparation as a generator of feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in preservice teachers while foreseeing their future students' language struggles. Nonetheless, the present study also demonstrates that improvement can be achieved in regard to MA teacher preparedness in relatively little amount of time, especially for recognition of grammatical items such as parts of speech and parts of sentence. However, the findings demonstrate that more time is needed to ensure better results for complex grammar analyses such as explanation of grammatical errors.

The purpose of this study was to examine the content knowledge of 64 elementary preservice teachers for the concepts of dissolving and density. Vygotsky’s (1987) theory of concept development was used as a framework to categorize concepts and misconceptions resulting from evidences of preservice teacher knowledge including pre/post concept maps, writing artifacts, pre/post face-to-face interviews, examination results, and drawings. Statistical significances were found for pre- and post-concept map scores for dissolving (t = -5.773, p < 0.001) and density (t = -2.948, p = 0.005). As measured using Cohen’s d values, increases in mean scores showed a medium-large effect size for (dissolving) and a small effect size for density. The triangulated results using all data types revealed that preservice teachers held several robust misconceptions about dissolving including the explanation that dissolving is a breakdown of substances, a formation of mixtures, and/or involves chemical change. Most preservice teachers relied on concrete concepts (such as rate or solubility) to explain dissolving. With regard to density, preservice teachers held two robust misconceptions including confusing density with buoyancy to explain the phenomena of floating and sinking, and confusing density with heaviness, mass, and weight. Most preservice teachers gained one concept for density, the density algorithm. Most preservice teachers who participated in this study demonstrated Vygotsky’s notion of complex thinking and were unable to transform their thinking to the scientific conceptual level. That is, they were unable to articulate an understanding of either the process of dissolving or density that included a unified system of knowledge characterized as abstract, generalizable, and hierarchical. Results suggest the need to instruct preservice elementary science teachers about the particulate nature of matter, intermolecular forces, and the Archimedes' principle.

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Extant research focusing on rural teacher education programs emphasizes the urgency of teacher preparation investigation and professional development which is needed to successfully work with ELs (e.g. Fry & Anderson, 2011; Hansen Thomas et al., 2014; Manner & Rodriguez, 2012; O’Neal et al., 2008). However, little research has included preservice teachers’ perspectives related to their own preparatory programs. This study fills the gap in previous research by investigating preservice teachers’ perceptions of how their teacher education programs are preparing them to teach ELs in poor rural areas. This study was conducted in Mississippi, a state in which over 50% of schools are located at poor rural areas. At the time of data collection, 3 preservice teacher participants of this study were studying secondary math education at a university in Mississippi and conducting their intern teaching at poor rural schools. Data related to EL teaching and learning in Mississippi were also collected from teacher educators of this university and other stakeholders. The data revealed that preservice teachers who possessed different levels of satisfaction with the preparation received to teach ELs interpreted their coursework and field experiences in diverse ways. The post-secondary teacher educators who participated in the study provided reasons why courses specifically related to EL teaching and learning were not included. Other stakeholders described the sources and development of the EL students in their school districts, indicating a low incidence of ELs in rural schools and providing reasons for why there existed a slim chance for preservice teachers to have EL students in their intern-teaching classrooms. This study extends the previous research by exploring preservice teachers’ perspectives on how their current teacher education programs prepared them for teaching ELs in poor rural areas. Data suggest that preservice teachers possessing greater solid subject knowledge felt more prepared to teach ELs. Other suggestions related to strengthening EL teaching preparation included adding explicit instruction related to teaching ELs within methods courses and offering a course related to SLA as an elective; providing preservice teachers with the opportunities to practice teaching EL students; and affording teacher educators regular professional development sessions related to EL teaching.