Increasing numbers of mathematics teachers must be recruited in coming years, because of a growing student population, teacher attrition, calls for smaller class size, and the need to replace out-of-subject teachers. Recruitment can be made more effective and efficient, if better information on career paths is provided to decision makers. This study attempts to analyze the academic decisions which lead to the outcome "becoming a mathematics teacher". Four groups were compared and contrasted: mathematics teachers, science teachers, other teachers, and non-teachers. Science teachers were removed from the "other teachers" category because of their many similarities to mathematics teachers on the variables examined. The question of whether these groups differ in ways that could help predict the outcome of interest was examined using the NCES dataset Baccalaureate &Beyond:93/97, which provides thousands of variables on academic path, demographics, and labor market histories for over 8,000 individuals. It was analyzed using the NCES online analytic tool DAS to generate tables showing percentage distribution of the four groups on variables organized according to the concepts demographics, family environment, academic path, and academic achievement. Further examination was conducted by entering the variables into a discriminant analysis. Mathematics teachers were found to differ from teachers of other K-12 fields on all of the four conceptual categories. However, only a few such differences were statistically significant. More significant differences were observed when the analyses were conducted separately for women and men. The trend observed was that those who became mathematics teachers were more likely to have attended public high schools and to have first attended two-year colleges; to have lower GPAs, more mathematics credits, and midrange CEE scores; and to be female.

The purpose of this action research project was to determine how my practice of implementing Universal Design for Learning-Representation (UDL-R) principles influenced my students’ understanding of content and enhanced their ability to organize their knowledge using concept maps. A secondary purpose of this action research project was to determine if student created concept maps served as a useful tool to enrich students’ written scientific explanations. Students in this study completed concept maps and wrote explanations about adaptations before and after participating in lessons enriched with UDL-R principles that included the use of multimedia sources, website searches, and trade books. The processes used to collect data for this action research project were concept maps, written explanations, student notes, and videotaped accounts of learning from UDL-R principles. The themes that emerged were deeper content understanding for students and greater engagement in learning through UDL-R practices as evidenced through student notes, student discussions and videotaped accounts. The students in this study showed minimal change in the total average scores on concept maps with mixed results for males versus female students’ scores. Although students’ concept maps and written explanations indicated minimal improvement or change, their notes listing thirty to over one hundred facts and their comments indicated their interest and engagement in the learning process supported by UDL-R practices.

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate my own practice of teaching writing word problems with fraction subtraction and fraction multiplication using appropriate context. I wanted to see how focusing my instruction on the use of the area model and manipulatives could develop students’ understanding of fractions when writing word problems. I chose this topic because Florida has adopted the Common Core State Standards and will be implementing them in the coming years. These standards encourage the development of deeper understanding of mathematics, including fractions. I hoped this research would give my students the opportunity to make sense of fraction subtraction and fraction multiplication word problems on a deeper level, while giving me insight into my own practice in teaching context within word problems. Through this study, I learned that my students continued to switch the context of subtraction with multiplication within word problems. Students did make clear gains in their writing of fraction subtraction and fraction multiplication word problems. Although there is a limited amount of research on students mixing their context within fraction word problems, this study offers additional insight into a teacher’s practice with writing fraction word problems

This action research thesis was performed to explore the research questions: How did the use of formative assessment affect student performance data in understanding the concepts of the Sun-Earth-Moon system?, How did the use of learning scales as formative techniques impact student self-assessment of their knowledge of the Sun-Earth-Moon system?, How did the implementation of formative assessment techniques affect student discourse on the topic of the Sun-Earth-Moon system? Formative assessment techniques including "talk-friendly" probes, sticky bars, and agree-disagree statements were used in the classroom to expose gaps in knowledge, to facilitate discourse, and promote self-assessment. A triangulation of data included a district-provided pre/post-test, teacher observation, written and oral student responses of formative assessment, self-assessment, discourse, and student self-assessment on a learning goal tracker. Data gathered from student responses to formative assessment techniques given during discourse, lab experiences, in written responses, and from the student learning scale tracker were analyzed to expose misconceptions and gaps in knowledge and guide classroom instruction. Data showed that student performance data improved overall and students narrowed gaps in knowledge of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. Improvement in student participation and skill of discourse was evident; however students needed more practice developing written explanations for phenomenon within the Sun-Earth-Moon system. Through the use of self-assessments students showed improvement in ability to self-assess and realized gained knowledge toward their learning goal.

The purpose of this action research study was to observe the influence of teaching mathematical problem solving strategies on students’ attitudes in middle school. The goal was to teach five problem solving strategies: Drawing Pictures, Making a Chart or Table, Looking for a Pattern, Working Backwards, and Guess and Check, and have students reflect upon the process. I believed that my students would use these problem solving strategies as supportive tools for solving mathematical word problems. A relationship from the Mathematics Attitudes survey scores on students’ attitudes towards problem solving in mathematics was found. Students took the Mathematics Attitudes survey before and after the study was conducted. In-class observations of the students applying problem solving strategies and students’ response journals were made. Students had small group interviews after the research study was conducted. Therefore, I concluded that with the relationship between the Mathematics Attitudes survey scores and journal responses that teaching the problem solving strategies to middle school students was an influential tool for improving students’ mathematics attitude.

The purpose of this action research study was to document 8th grade students' experiences at a residential marine learning facility as they discovered the interconnections between life on Earth and its dependency on ocean health. My goal was for students to take their new knowledge and share it with others in a quest to become educated and caring stewards of the Earth's ocean. Students in this study participated in open peer and instructor discussions, performed full and guided inquiry activities, and snorkeled among the shallow water habitats that transition from mangroves toward coral reefs to discover the interconnections among shallow water marine habitats and the critical necessity of biological diversity among habitats. The processes used to collect data for this action research study were a pre/post knowledge assessment about coral reefs, videotaped conversations among peers and instructors, photographs documenting student engagement in activities, and interviews conducted at the conclusion of the trip. The themes that emerged included a mindset of ocean stewardship, deep engagement in inquiry-driven activities while interacting among peers, the ability to clearly articulate the effects of human impact on biological diversity and the need to maintain sustainable shallow water ecosystems that are biologically diverse. Although this study was only conducted over a three day weekend, the emergent themes highlight the value of providing students with opportunities to interact with nature. Experiential learning not only contributes to the various ways of knowing but such experiences help students develop a stronger sense of self perception and values as they begin formulating their sense of relationship to and responsibilities toward their own communities and the larger, natural world.

The primary goal of this case study using qualitative and quantitative methods was to investigate pre-service elementary teachers’ initial self-efficacy beliefs about science and science teaching by exploring the K-12 science experiences of these prospective elementary teachers. Of the 108 participants who completed the science teaching efficacy belief survey (STEBI-B) (Enochs & Riggs, 1990), 12 participants were selected to be interviewed using Flanagan’s (1954) critical incident technique. Participants were asked to share their past positive and negative incidents during their K- 12 years with science and science teachers. They were also asked to report how past incidents affected them at present and how they believed they would impact them as future teachers of science in elementary schools. The past positive and negative incidents were analyzed using Bandura’s (1977) four sources of self-efficacy (mastery, vicarious, social persuasion, and physiological/emotional) and by school level; and the impact of the past science incidents on the subjects’ present and future beliefs as science teachers were categorized. The results of this study revealed that pre-service elementary teachers’ self-efficacy and beliefs were largely influenced by their past experiences with science in the K-12 years, and mastery experiences dominated as a source of self-efficacy. Implications for practice and recommendations for future research were made based on the findings of the study.

Effective teacher questioning during whole group instruction remains an important pedagogy in science education, especially the importance of helping novice teachers to guide student thinking using effective questions. This study examined how novice secondary science teachers’ understand the relationship between student thinking and teacher questioning. The sample was seven novice secondary science teachers’ enrolled in the University of Central Florida’s job embedded Resident Teacher Professional Preparation Program (RTP3 ). All participants received instruction and guided practice with the use of questions to elicit, probe, and challenge student ideas in the secondary science pedagogy class. Participants completed a questionnaire describing their teaching experience and science content knowledge. The primary data were think aloud interviews describing their thinking while observing two science instruction videos. Protocols, critical incident interviews, and field notes were transcribed and coded for analysis. Descriptive codes identified properly classified question types and the purpose or value of questions, student thinking, and student reaction to teacher questions. Pattern codes identified student engagement, feedback, wait time, and communication patterns. The think aloud used in this study provided insight into what the participants were thinking about the purposes of questions to elicit, probe, and challenge student ideas and gave insight into the decision process. Evidence from the protocol analysis provided insight about what the participants were thinking about the decisions made when attending to teacher questions and student thinking. All seven participants identified question types using language suggesting they understood the differences, but at a naïve level. Although participants used the iii correct language to show understanding of the question types, they had a fairly naïve understanding of the pedagogical purpose of the questions. This was especially true of the questions to elicit student ideas, but perhaps less true of the probing and challenging questions. The participants had more of a ritualistic understanding of the questions to elicit student ideas; they noticed them but perhaps did not have a deep understanding of this question type. Analyses of this study also revealed novice teachers learning is framed by the priorities of the public school system. All participants attended to teacher instruction, especially wait time and student engagement, while a few participants focused on feedback, praise, and higher- and lower-order questions. This study suggested school culture and the way teachers are now assessed may scaffold and support these teachers to have a more nuanced and sophisticated understanding of questioning and student thinking than has previously been reported for novice/beginning teachers. While some aspects of school culture and assessment may be problematic- i.e. wait time, feedback, praise, higher-order questions, etc.-on the whole it seems to be leading them in the right direction.

This action research study was conducted with 7th grade life science students at a public middle school in central Florida. The author used Reciprocal Teaching (RT) as described by Annemarie Palincsar and Anne Brown (1984) to examine changes in student comprehension when reading their life science textbook and changes in how the students used the predicting, questioning, and summarizing strategies. The RT strategies ask students to employ 4 strategies: predict what they will read, generate questions about what was read, clarify any ideas that were not understood in the reading, and summarize the main idea of the reading. Students were given a pre and post reading comprehension test, they completed reading response worksheets to record their predictions, questions, clarifications, and summaries. Students were explicitly taught the 4 strategies prior to using them and the strategies were reinforced through teacher modeling (using think aloud teaching to show students how to use the strategies) and expert scaffolding (giving students the support needed while using the strategies). The teacher-researcher also examined if the students showed change in their level of proficiency when using the strategies after they had been taught them. Analysis of data revealed that student comprehension did increase after being taught the four reading strategies. Data also showed that students became increasingly more proficient when using the strategies as the study progressed. Data analysis also uncovered the unexpected pattern of increased student participation during whole-class and reading group discussions. Further research is needed to examine the effects of teaching highly proficient students specific reading strategies and to see how the explicit instruction of reading strategies affects student participation and achievement during inquiry-based laboratory investigations.

Research has shown that there is a positive correlation with student performance when there are members of the family, primarily a parent, who are actively involved with the student and their education. The following action research plan was designed to determine how increasing parental involvement affected student performance in a scientific inquiry program. This was done by offering "parenting a middle school student" workshops, encouraging family run practices at home, and inviting parents to attend a class with their student. This research was conducted in a large middle school in a central Florida school district with two 7th grade classrooms. One classroom served as the control group, while the second served as the experimental group. The teacher researcher was responsible for increasing communication with the parents in regards to student behavior and/or performance. Implementation of increased communications are associated with keeping parents informed, however they only work to increase student performance if the parent uses the increased communication and applies the information to use at home. Analysis of the data indicated that there was no difference between the two classes. The majority of the invited parents in the experimental group did not participate in the parent workshops. Students in the experimental groups showed little or no difference in grades on the post unit exam or in their overall grades. Additional research with smaller sampling sizes would be a recommendation of this researcher. When working with an average of one hundred and twenty students on a regular basis, working with twenty five sets of parents to increase communication was a daunting task. The researcher would recommend having an experimental group of no more than ten for future ii i studies. Although a small sample may be sufficient for a descriptive study, it's recognized that a small sample will likely not have sufficient power to detect statistically significant differences if they exist.