Thesis advisor: Katherine L. McNeill / Science education is shifting from a vision of students memorizing facts towards engaging in figuring out the natural world as students build ideas from their own experiences and backgrounds. This shift is hard for teachers. One way to support teachers is curriculum-based professional development, which pairs high-quality instructional materials with professional development to help teachers understand the philosophy of those materials and what that looks like in practice. This three-paper dissertation uses the OpenSciEd middle school field test, a curriculum-based professional development program, as a context to investigate how to support teachers with this shift. The first paper is a quantitative look at teacher surveys taken across the first two years of the OpenSciEd field test. I tracked changes in teachers’ beliefs about science instruction and confidence in implementing OpenSciEd. I used Hierarchical Linear Modeling to identify teacher characteristics associated with differences in those changes. Beliefs and confidence changed initially and leveled out over time, but confidence took longer to change than beliefs. Teachers who had more experience and found the PD more valuable were less likely to hold traditional beliefs and more likely to have higher confidence. The second paper is a conceptual look at practice-based professional development activities focused on one new one: the student hat. Student hat is when teachers engage in science activities while considering ideas and experiences their students might bring to them and sharing those ideas using students’ language. Student hat uniquely helps teachers to consider students’ relationship to the science ideas under discussion and their cognitive and affective responses to reform science instruction. The third paper is a qualitative look at the use of the student hat in one professional development workshop. I engaged in thematic analysis of interviews and video to determine what student hat helped teachers to learn and how. Student hat provided safety for teacher confusion, allowing teachers to learn science ideas. It also helped teachers develop their epistemic empathy for students, helping them to learn about their students and the OpenSciEd instructional approach. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

The professional development of teachers in South Africa needs critical attention, particularly in the area of early grade mathematics. The Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education and Development in South Africa 2011–2025 (ISPFTED) (DBE, 2011) proposes the creation of professional learning communities as a school-based initiative to this end. In a South African context, Japanese lesson study is a relatively undocumented professional development tool. This inquiry is a case study exploring the effect of introducing lesson study in the early grades of a primary school, particularly in the subject of mathematics. Findings suggest that lesson study has a marked and positive effect on the professional development of early grade teachers in a local context. Seven teachers from Grade R to Grade 2 participated in a lesson study programme for a period of four months, meeting weekly to plan and provide feedback on lessons. Key findings of the study reveal that lesson study is a highly effective collaborative tool for improving both the subject content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge of early grade teachers. This was evidenced in a more problem-centred approach to teaching. Furthermore, improvements were noted in teacher creativity, self-confidence and learner-centeredness. Lesson study provoked intergrade collaboration, curriculum development and lesson flow. The findings suggest that learning extends beyond the scope and confines of the actual lesson study sessions to provoke extensive self-reflection and self-analysis. Through lesson study, the professional development process becomes highly contextualised. Findings furthermore suggest that teacher motivation to participate in lesson study remains a multi-faceted problem and the cooperation of school management is critical for making time allowances and working within the school timetable. An inherent fear of demonstrating lessons in front of others, as well as the fear of inadequate input during group sessions are additional personal challenges to the process. This study proposes a model for the effective facilitation of lesson study sessions and navigating the dynamic and interrelated variables of goal-setting, content exploration, activity planning, resource selection and peer feedback. The scientific importance of the study lies in building a knowledge base by gaining an understanding of the outcomes, viability and practical challenges facing schools as they implement this collaborative and contextually-based professional development method. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Early Childhood Education / PhD / Unrestricted

In a Georgia middle school, general and special education teachers expressed concerns about the challenges of working collaboratively in the inclusive classroom. Effective teacher collaboration is pivotal to ensure academic success of all students. The purpose of this qualitative bounded instrumental case study was to explore middle school teachers' perceptions and attitudes toward shared teacher collaboration in inclusion classrooms. Lave and Wenger's situated learning theory was the conceptual framework. Purposeful sampling was used to select 4 general and 4 special education teachers who worked in middle school coteaching classrooms. Face-to-face interviews and teacher lesson plans were the data sources. Data were analyzed using inductive analysis and open and axial coding strategies. Teachers identified ongoing training emphasizing coteaching models, collaboration, and classroom management strategies, coplanning periods, teacher selection guidelines for inclusion classes, and administrative involvement in collaboration as challenges of and optimal opportunities for working collaboratively. Based on these findings, a 3-day professional development project was designed to support effective teacher collaboration and foster positive communication with administration teams. These endeavors may contribute to positive social change when administrators establish and cultivate a school culture of positive teacher collaboration between general and special education teachers involved in coteaching, thereby improving teachers' coteaching experiences and improving the academic environment for all learners.

Teachers at the local study site continue to leave the elementary school and profession at increasingly high rates creating a teacher shortage. The school staff consists of 33 teachers, with an average of 10 resigning each year. Because of the shortage, state and local school boards, school districts, and school-based administrators share the need to understand this phenomenon. Guided by Herzberg's 2-factor theory, which noted that people are motivated by attributes such as recognition and by Maslow's motivational theory, which refers to human needs and personal beliefs as motivational factors, this study investigated factors that contributed to teacher attrition and retention, as well as strategies used to improve retention of novice teachers. Nine novice teachers employed at the local site participated in e-mail interviews. Participants provided their perception of factors that influenced their decision to remain or stay in the profession. Data were analyzed with an emphasis on seeking emerged themes through the process of open coding. Data analysis revealed a gap in the level of support from mentors and administrators that affected novice teachers' professional growth, as well as their decision to leave or stay in the profession. Participants listed incentives, acknowledgment, and training as the primary strategies for retaining teachers. The findings led to the creation of a professional development program. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators a deeper understanding of the problem of teacher attrition and by identifying strategies to manage teacher turnover to improve retention efforts.

Public school instructional coaching programs are designed to improve pedagogy via collaboration between teachers and coaches. However, the utility of literacy coaching is limited because teachers may lack understanding of the instructional coaching model. The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' expectations of literacy coaching in order to enhance professional development and teacher-coach partnerships. Guided by Knowles adult learning theory which states that adults benefit from designing and understanding relevancy of learning, this study examined elementary teachers' perceptions of the coaching model. The guiding questions explored ways to optimize teacher professional growth through coaching. Four teachers who had partnered with literacy coaches were selected as participants. Qualitative data were collected from the participants through in-depth interviews and a researcher-created, open-ended questionnaire. The interviews allowed for probing questions, and the questionnaires provided time for detailed reflections on the part of participants. Qualitative data were analyzed to determine coding categories, and consistent with Knowles adult learning theory, prominent themes regarding self-direction and relevancy of learning emerged. Results indicated that the teachers believed literacy coaches to have a positive impact on their pedagogical growth, but current methods provided inadequate clarity about the coaching model to be relevant to teachers. Based on the results, professional development sessions were designed to support teacher-coach partnerships which will benefit students, teachers, coaches, and administrators by providing a collaborative foundation to promote student success.

This study investigated the understanding of digital copyright issues among business career and technical educators in Mississippi. The areas considered were knowledge; perceptions of knowledge; areas of copyright knowledge including computers and software, the Internet, video, and multimedia; and demographics of teaching level, gender, participation in professional development activities, and teaching experience. Participants included 75 Mississippi business career and technical educators at both the secondary and postsecondary levels. The knowledge level of participants was judged to be low; only four participants reached the established competency level of 70%. Their self-rated perception level was higher than their knowledge level, with the largest number of participants indicating that they had an average level of knowledge concerning digital copyright issues on a scale of ratings from no knowledge to excellent knowledge. A Spearman‘s correlation indicated that there was no significant correlation between the participants‘ knowledge and their perceptions of their knowledge (Spearman‘s rho = .162). Pearson‘s correlations were performed to investigate any significant correlations among computers and software, the Internet, video, and multimedia. A significant correlation was found to exist between the computers and software area and the video area, r = .327. Analyses of any significant correlations between knowledge and the demographic variables of teaching level, gender, participation in professional development activities, and teaching experience were made by performing Spearman‘s rho correlations. There were no significant correlations. However, the professional development variable had a negative correlation with the knowledge scores, teaching level, and teaching experience. Conclusions based on the findings indicated that Mississippi business career and technical educators should be provided with training on specific digital copyright areas. These educators will then be better equipped to determine appropriate use of copyrighted materials and model this use to their students.

While much research has been conducted on train-the-trainer models for diffusing curriculum innovations at the K-12 level, not much is known about how such models play out at the undergraduate level, especially with newer curriculum innovations using student-centered instruction. I present findings from one such project: a case study on the second-generation facilitation of a professional development group focused on supporting instructors teaching with the Inquiry-Oriented Abstract Algebra (Larsen et al., 2013) curriculum materials. I investigate the relationship between the intent of the instructional support model and the facilitator's beliefs and goals for the professional development, using video data collected from a series of online meetings and from the facilitator's classroom in the year prior to his facilitation. Results indicate that the facilitator's orientations and goals around sharing authority and creating supportive learning environments, especially for women participants, both modify and stabilize the intentions of the TIMES project (NSF Awards: #1431595, #1431641, #1431393) as a whole, and the train-the-trainer model as a subsidiary. / Master of Science / While much research has been conducted on train-the-trainer models for spreading curriculum innovations at the K-12 level, not much is known about how such models play out at the undergraduate level, especially with newer curriculum innovations using student-centered instruction. I present findings from one such project: a case study on the second-generation facilitation of a professional development group focused on supporting instructors teaching with the Inquiry-Oriented Abstract Algebra (Larsen et al., 2013) curriculum materials. These are student-centered instructional materials designed to engage students with developing and formalizing mathematical ideas as members of a classroom community, as opposed to passive lecture-based teaching. I investigate the relationship between the intent of the instructional support model and the facilitator's beliefs and goals for the professional development, using video data collected from a series of online meetings and from the facilitator's classroom in the year prior to his facilitation. Results indicate that the facilitator's orientations and goals around sharing authority and creating supportive learning environments, especially for women participants, both modify and stabilize the intentions of the TIMES project (NSF Awards: #1431595, #1431641, #1431393) as a whole, and the train-the-trainer model as a subsidiary.

Children with disabilities experience barriers to meaningful engagement in science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) learning activities and course options. While inclusion is widely professed, general education teachers report being uncomfortable in adapting coursework or including children with disabilities. However, informal professional development opportunities could potentially impact general education teachers' attitudes and dispositions towards including children with disabilities. The UCF Go Baby Go Kids Building for Kids workshops offers a one-time informal professional development experience that incorporates STEM content along with concepts of disability awareness and social justice. Little to no research exists on the impact of this type of informal program on the attitudes and disposition of general education teachers on children with disabilities. The researcher employed a mixed methods design to examine the attitudes and dispositions of eight general education middle school teachers before and after a UCF Go Baby Go Kids Building for Kids Workshop. Quantitative instruments included the Educator Attitudes Towards Disability Scale (EADS) and the Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion Scale (TATIS), and qualitative methods included semi-structured interviews and the researcher's informal observations of the procedures, process, and outcomes. Results of this study did not produce statistically significant differences in pre and post workshop scores on the EADS and TATIS. However, the qualitative data and informal observations offered additional insights into teachers' perspectives on this informal and novel professional development opportunity. Triangulation of the data from this study shows positive trends on the attitudes and dispositions of teachers towards students with disabilities and inclusion.

The major purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teaching practice, student achievement, and the degree to which professional development in low-achieving elementary schools in one suburban Virginia district met the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) standards. Research methods included a self-assessment survey developed by NSDC, teacher interviews, and analyses of student achievement scores using the Virginia Standards of Learning assessments. According to survey results, participating teachers agreed that the NSDC standards were reflected in professional development activities. The standards of Equity and Quality Teaching were reported to be implemented to the greatest degree in professional development activities, while Resources was the standard implemented the least. On both the self-assessment surveys and the interviews, teachers in 100% of the schools reported changes in their teaching of English as a result of professional development. The percentage agreeing that their teaching of mathematics had changed as a result of professional development was much lower (83% according to survey results and 50% according to teacher interviews).;A significant correlation was not observed between the survey results and teacher interviews. Further, a correlation between the level of implementation of the NSDC standards and student achievement as measured by the Standards of Learning assessments was found to be not significant.

This study contributed to the body of knowledge on the implementation of professional learning communities (PLCs) and mathematics student achievement change in a school district in Florida. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the PLC self-reported stages of collaboration on the Seven Stages of Teacher Professional Learning Teams (SSPLT) Rubric and FSA Mathematics, FSA Algebra 1 End-of- Course (EOC) Assessment, and FSA Geometry EOC scores in Grades 3-8 in the school district of study. Quantitative methods were used to analyze relationships using archival data from the school district of study for two school years, 2017-2018 and 2018-2019, to determine changes over time. Three research questions were designed to find (a) differences in self-reported ratings on SSPLT between elementary Grades 3-5 and middle Grades 6-8, (b) differences on SSPLT among individual Grades 3-8, and (c) the relationship, if any, between changes in SSPLT self-reported ratings and FSA Mathematics, FSA Algebra 1 End-of- Course (EOC) Assessment, and FSA Geometry EOC scores in Grades 3-8 in the school district of study. Quantitative analysis found statistically significant correlations between changes in SSPLT self-ratings and changes in FSA Mathematics mean scale scores in Grades 3-8, Grades 3-5, and the Geometry EOC for Grade 8. There was growth over time from start of school year 2017-2018 to end of school year 2018-2019 in the stages of implementation of PLCs. These findings are aligned to literature on teacher collaboration, professional learning, change in education, and collective efficacy. This study expanded on the literature on teacher collaboration and effective professional learning through the implementation of PLCs. Findings from this study could be used to assist school districts with school district-wide and school-based practices on implementation of PLCs with guidelines and strategies to provide meaningful structures for higher stages of teacher collaboration.