This study was designed to collect data to determine the specific characteristics (gender, level and area of degree status, certification status, pedagogical training, gender, number of years of teaching experience, number of years teaching at the current school, and courses currently taught) of language arts teachers at Florida's low-performing pubic high schools and compare these characteristics to teachers' sense of efficacy (the extent to which teachers' believe they have the ability to bring about changes in student achievement independent of the student's background, behaviors, or motivation level). A total of 615 teachers representing 84 schools in 36 districts participated in the study. Teachers completed a researcher-created survey questionnaire and the Teachers' Sense of Efficacy Scale Long (Tschannen-Moran and Hoy, 2001). The data were collected and analyzed using descriptive and multiple regression statistics.The majority of the respondents meet the minimum re quirements of highly qualified teachers as defined by NCLB. However, only 37% of responding language arts teachers at Florida's low-performing public high schools have degrees in English education, and only 15% of responding reading teachers have degrees in reading or reading education. Additionally, the majority of the responding teachers have been only been teaching at the school site for five or fewer years.Although the majority of responding teachers reported moderate to high sense of classroom management and instructional practice efficacy, over 43% reported low sense of student engagement efficacy, suggesting the teachers do not believe they possess the skills or knowledge necessary to engage students in learning. The study suggests that improving student achievement for our lowest-performing students may require more than providing students with highly qualified teachers defined by NCLB. Districts and schools must examine more closely the characteristics of highly effective teac hers in order to recruit and retain teachers who can truly impact student achievement for students who have previously demonstrated a lack of success. Additionally, schools would benefit from professional development designed to provide teachers with classroom strategies that engage students in learning and which helps develop a school-wide literacy culture reflecting high expectations for student achievement.

No description available.

In recent years, professional development programmes that have been made available to teachers in New Zealand and other western countries have not often achieved the desired outcomes of improved teacher practice and decision making, or increased student achievement. The professional development research literature implies that the reason for this situation, is the inadequacy of programmes that do not acknowledge the teacher as a learner with individual knowledge, experience and priorities for their learning. As resources and attention continue to be focused on improving curriculum policies and classroom decision making to enhance student literacy achievement and reduce disparities, it is important to continue the search for teacher learning opportunities that achieve the desired goals. While teachers have often been viewed as knowledge recipients, the research literature alerts readers to the dearth of knowledge to inform the decision making in classrooms and in the wider realms of schooling and education. Moreover, teachers have often been positioned simply as the subject of research that once published appears to have little bearing in their work. Developing Teachers� Theory and Practice in Literacy Teaching is a study of four teachers and a facilitator, who is also the researcher, engaging in four teacher researcher partnership projects. The aim of these projects was to provide the teachers with professional learning opportunities while simultaneously producing knowledge about literacy teaching and learning. This alternative approach to professional development sought to investigate the outcomes of teacher researcher partnership projects, each designed by individual teachers who worked with the facilitator to address their self-identified �questions about practice�. The facilitator and the teachers worked together over a fifteen month period during which time they had individual and group meetings to learn about the research process and to design and implement their individual projects. The facilitator as researcher, gathered data from the teachers using qualitative methods and the teachers in turn gathered their own data to inform the progress and outcomes of their projects. While there were a number of factors that contributed to the outcomes of each project, the way in which the facilitator and the teachers conducted their projects and managed the partnership was central to the success of the teacher learning and their ability to produce findings to inform curriculum decision making. The teachers� and facilitator�s knowledge of the theory and practice of research, literacy and professional learning were shown to be important. It is argued that in order to produce and disseminate knowledge, a body of prerequisite knowledge that transcended that which would previously be expected of the teachers and of the facilitator, had to be acquired. The study recommends that further attention be given to such partnership projects as a means to increment the knowledge about teaching and learning, at the same time that teachers learn and improve their curriculum decision making. The teacher researcher partnership project approach that was implemented is discussed and analysed and an alternative �four tier� approach is advocated as more likely to result in the production and dissemination of information to enhance the curriculum of the classroom.

The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on March 25, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Phillip E. Messner. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 27, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-47).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Toronto, 2009. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 48-02, page: .

"A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Georgia Southern University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Educational Administration." Title from PDF of title page (Georgia Southern University, viewed on May 1, 2010). Sharon Brooks, major professor; Charles Reavis, James Green, committee members. Electronic version approved: December 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 131-144).

The effectiveness of long-term staff development (Reading Academy Project-RAP) on students' reading scores on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) test was examined to determine if teachers transferred newly learned teaching strategies into practice and changed their beliefs about reading instruction. In a four-year cohort longitudinal study in an East Texas rural community, the effects of long-term staff development on third grade students' TAAS test reading scores, teacher practices, and teacher beliefs were explored. Populations included a teacher group (N = 17), an experimental (N = 419), and a control (N = 419) group of students. Children's groups were matched pairs based on five demographic characteristics and membership or non-membership in one or more of six categories. An application survey and four end-of-the-year surveys provided teacher data regarding classroom practices. One interview question provided information about teacher beliefs. Results indicate students who had a RAP teacher for at least one year scored significantly higher on the TAAS reading test in the third grade than those without a RAP teacher. Examination of students having more than one year with an academy teacher failed to produce statistically significant differences in TAAS test reading scores; however, an upward trend was noted. Statistically significant differences were found in 6 of the 20 items on the survey investigating classroom practices. All teachers reported the RAP affected them positively, and 82% confirmed that changes took place in their classroom practices, student behaviors, and teacher responsibilities. Validation of or strengthening existing beliefs accounted for 76% of the teacher responses. Recommendations include adding a population of kindergarten through third graders and following them through high school to determine ultimate reading success, continue surveying teachers to see if effective strategies persist, add a parental involvement component, and replicate this investigation in suburban and metropolitan areas.

Orientador: Guilherme do Val Toledo Prado / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T23:18:36Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Morais_JacquelinedeFatimadosSantos_D.pdf: 938978 bytes, checksum: bf1f7b658eaf5d669d8932ef6f9aeb10 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: Este trabalho traz ao diálogo uma experiência de formação continuada compartilhada que acontece há mais de dez anos no espaço de uma escola pública carioca. Formado por um conjunto de professoras, especialmente das classes iniciais, este grupo vem se reunindo mensalmente para discutir aspectos de sua prática docente, buscando sobre ela também, coletivamente, construir novos olhares. A partir do registro em áudio dos encontros e da análise das narrativas produzidas pelas professoras, vou buscar compreender os acontecimentos que no grupo se passam. A análise de alguns desses acontecimentos nos permite perceber como o conhecimento é tecido, as tensões, limites e possibilidades de um trabalho de formação continuada de longa duração / Abstract: This work brings to the dialogue an experience of shared continued formation that happens more than has ten years in the space of a Carioca public school. Formed for a set of teachers, especially of the initial classrooms, this group it comes if congregating monthly to also argue aspects of its practical professor, searching on it, collectively, to construct new looks. From the register in audio of the meeting and the analysis of the narratives produced for the teachers, I go to search to understand the events that in the group if pass. The analysis of some of these events in allows them to perceive as the knowledge is weaveeed, the tensions, limits and possibilities of a work of continued formation of long duration / Doutorado / Ensino, Avaliação e Formação de Professores / Doutor em Educação

No description available.