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This mixed methods study investigated changes in preservice teachers' affective response to disruptive student behavior within the TeachLivE, immersive simulation classroom. Preservice teachers completed two simulation teaching sessions, during which they were exposed to five different disruptive student behavior events in each. All teaching sessions were recorded and post-processed using iMotions Affectiva Affdex software to collect data on preservice teachers' emotion expression and valence during their teaching experiences. At the end of each teaching session, participants completed a self-report survey on their level of stress. Simulated teaching sessions were followed-up with video stimulated recall sessions where participants reflected on their feelings during the simulation. The goal of this research was to examine changes in preservice teachers' affective response to stress, with repeated exposure to disruptive student behavior, to determine if it had a "desensitization" effect, potentially increasing emotional regulation ability and decreasing negative emotional responses. Descriptive statistics were used to examine differences in emotional valence by disruptive student events and teaching sessions. Paired samples t-tests were conducted to examine if mean differences existed in self-reported stress within and between teaching sessions. Additional qualitative analysis of video stimulated recall sessions was conducted using thematic analysis. Analysis revealed minimal difference in preservice teachers' positive or negative emotional valence in response to disruptive student behavior events within and between teaching sessions. There was a statistically significant change in self-reported stress from the first simulated teaching session to the second. Analysis of video stimulated recall reflections revealed themes of cognitive dissonance, behavior-induced stress, and difficulty with virtual behavior management.

This explanatory sequential mixed methods study was guided by two questions: (1) does the quality of preservice teachers' writing improve over the course of one semester and (2) in what ways do two teacher educators' writing instruction affect preservice teachers' quality of writing within the timeframe of a single methods course? The Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to test for statistically significant differences in the writing quality of 48 preservice teachers. Participant writing samples were collected before and after taking a single writing methods course. The criteria used to measure the writing quality was the 6 + 1 Writing traits: ideas, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, conventions, and presentation. Semi-structured interview verbatim transcripts were collected using an online recording and transcription application. Additionally, observations of teaching and field notes were used. These data were collected to better understand which instructional strategies for teaching writing were used in an attempt to improve preservice teacher writing quality. Quantitative results showed a 1.46 increase between the pre sample mean (50.27) and the post sample mean (51.73). This was not considered a statistically significant difference as reported by the Wilcoxon signed-rank test (z = 1.15, p =.252). The qualitative analysis found the presence of six research-supported writing pedagogies: modeled writing, choice in writing topic, extensive opportunities to write, explicit instruction in the writing process, providing feedback, and engaging in genre specific writing strategies. Inductive codes such as experience, collaboration, and mentoring were also present and collapsed into themes. The results did not yield a statistically significant difference in the quality of writing produced by the preservice teachers over the course of one semester. This study may help teacher educators and those responsible for teacher preparation program writing instruction to provide different ways to increase writing quality of preservice teachers. The findings may also guide future research on which teacher educator instructional strategies should focus for improving preservice teacher writing quality.

Over 95% of states in the nation experience teacher shortages in at least one subject or certification area (Espinoza et al., 2018). Specifically, special education is acknowledged as an area with a critical shortage of teachers (Florida Department of Education, 2018; U.S. Department of Education, 2018). The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher shortages through the analysis of the relationship among first-year teachers, teacher licensure, teaching assignment, professional learning, and teacher retention. This study examined the relationship between first-year teacher retention and whether a cohort of first-year teachers remained within the same school, moved to another school within the school-district, or left the school-district and/or the profession between 2015 and 2019. This study used descriptive statistics, chi-square of independence, and cross-tabulation tables to analyze first-year teacher retention as it related to type of licensure, teaching assignment, and professional learning. The results of this study indicate that there are statistically significant differences in retention based on type of licensure (p < .05) and professional learning (p < .001). The results of this study could assist school-district and school level instructional leaders to design targeted programs to support groups of teachers taking into consideration their unique needs based upon practices, guidelines, and programs that are consistent with retaining first-year teachers.

COVID-19 has changed the world we know, especially our educational system. This study explores the impact of schools' lockdown during COVID-19 on teachers' preparation programs in Kuwait. This qualitative research explores the adjustments that higher education institutes in Kuwait adopted to fulfill their teachers' preparation programs. Two public higher education institutes were the focus of this study by investigating the available syllabi and curricula of their teachers' preparation programs. The reviewed data revealed in-school learning stopped as institutions adhered to the government's closure directive. This study also revealed that higher learning institutions introduced changes to their training curriculum to prepare teachers for new teaching models. The findings established in this project accentuate the need for all higher learning institutions to modify their teacher-training curriculum to make technology integration a fundamental learning component.

High ability learners are students with outstanding abilities in one domain or more and have varying learning abilities, interests, and needs. Due to their diversity, these students require curriculum and instruction that can address their needs and facilitate them to reach their full potential. In Indonesia, high ability education is rare to be found as the curriculum is oriented to meet the needs of students of all abilities. However, Indonesia's current national curriculum, Curriculum 2013, has the potential to address the needs of high ability learners in the regular classroom. Using the qualitative literature review method, this study analyzed the content of Curriculum 2013 and its ability to address the needs of high ability learners. It also examined the strengths and weaknesses of Curriculum 2013. The results revealed that this curriculum has the ability to meet the needs of high-ability learners in the regular classroom. All four critical components (objectives, learning materials, instructional strategies, and learning assessments) of Curriculum 2013 contain essential aspects to educating high ability learners, such as 21st century skills, higher order thinking skills, differentiation, and mastery of cognitive and non-cognitive skills. Its ability to address the needs of high-ability learners demonstrates that this curriculum has several strengths in terms of its objectives, learning materials, instructional strategies, and learning assessments. This curriculum also has weaknesses that inhibit it from addressing the needs of high ability learners, such as the provision for high ability learners is not clearly stated in the objectives, there is no acceleration at all grades, differentiation only occurs at higher grades (11 and 12), limited learning time, and orientation of high-stakes examinations.

In order for democracies to survive, citizens need to be knowledgeable, active members of society. Schools in the United States, more importantly teachers, are often tasked with the responsibility to pass on the knowledge and skills to future generations. The purpose of this research study was to examine and describe how civics teachers' personal experiences, perceptions and ideas influence their pedagogical approaches. While past research has examined the attitudes and dispositions of students, as well as self-report measures of what teachers indicate they are doing in their classroom, no studies have actually observed civics teachers' pedagogical approaches. Five participants were selected to participate in interviews and observations. Lesson plans and student work samples were also collected to supplement the findings of the interviews and observations. Based on the outcome of the analysis, it was determined that the participants implemented their perception of the purpose of civics education, their perception of democratic education and their idea of a good citizen in their instructional practices.

Teacher efficacy often declines for beginning teachers and is frequently accompanied by feelings of burnout. Additionally, beginning teachers have not yet perfected the craft of teaching reading as they require more experiences with diverse learners and time to apply what they learned in college. Even after decades of studies examining self-efficacy beliefs, reading pedagogical knowledge, and feelings of burnout for educators, these trends continue. Self-efficacy has been studied from numerous perspectives, including motivation, emotions, mathematics instruction, and setting goals. The present study is beneficial to educational leaders to help them better understand the ways to support beginning teachers as they apply guided reading instructional practices. Additionally, this research provides a glimpse into beginning teachers' beliefs regarding self-efficacy and feelings of burnout. The mentoring program in this study was designed to focus on best practices for supporting teacher efficacy beliefs, strengthening reading pedagogy, providing opportunities to apply guided reading instructional practices in diverse learning settings, and time for reflection on personal beliefs, philosophies, and reading pedagogy.

The current study examined the impact that professional development has on teaching history. A total of nine middle school and high school teachers, with varying degrees of teaching experience and content backgrounds, participated in the study. Through an artifact analysis, field notes, interviews, dilemma analysis, and lesson plans, the study asks two questions: (1) What characterizes the approaches to professional development at one cultural institution, and how do teachers respond to that professional development? (2) To what extent and in what ways does the professional development impact teachers’ approaches to teaching history? Findings suggested that there was almost no impact from the professional development on their teaching. For example, only two of the teachers showed the potential to be influenced by the professional development. Additional findings suggested that the professional development almost exclusively adopted the exposition-recital approach and teachers saw the professional development as a source of content knowledge and not teaching. In examining the impact that the professional development has on teaching history, these findings have implications for the developers of professional development, for teachers and teaching, and for future research on the influence that professional development can have on teaching. / Literacy & Learners

This research study presents data on three pre-service elementary teachers in an ethnographic study outlining the experiences of the pre-service elementary teachers during the semester of their first education internship. During the first internship semester, the three pre-service teachers completed a 12-week internship placement, 6-weeks at a hospital-based school program and 6-weeks at a brick-and-mortar public school, and three co-requisite courses (i.e., elementary mathematics methods, diagnostic and corrective reading, and teaching exceptional students). The data collected includes the pre-service teacher applications to participate in internship at the hospital-based school program, pre-interview questionnaire, end-of-day reflections, post-interview questionnaire, and background information questionnaire. The questions of study were: (1) How prepared do pre-service teachers feel to educate children with critical illness and address the needs of children with critical illness in the classroom as a result of completion of a 6-week internship at a hospital-based school program? (2) How prepared do pre-service teachers feel to teach mathematics to children with critical illness after completing a 6-week internship at a hospital-based school program? The results show that the participants' reported an increase in preparation to teach children with critical illness and teach them mathematics, but their views about the education of children with a critical illness and mathematics remain consistent. Thus, the results illuminated two themes across all participants: 1) children as a homogenous group 2) procedural mathematics. Study implications include the need to add specific professional learning on the educational impacts of a critical illness and the need to involve pre-service teachers in reflective practices of what they learn and observe and how that informs actions in the classroom.