Teacher evaluation systems were developed and implemented to increase accountability but also to increase teacher effectiveness. A review of the research and findings of previous teacher evaluation studies demonstrated the need to further examine the feedback in evaluation systems and their role in teacher professional growth. The purpose of the study was to identify the perceptions of teachers and administrators regarding the feedback teachers receive from the teacher evaluation process, how they perceive the impact of feedback on teacher growth, and what professional development has been offered because of the feedback. This descriptive study used qualitative data and quantitative data derived from a modified version of the Teacher Evaluation Profile (TEP) survey. The findings from this study indicated that teachers perceive the quality of feedback they received to be lower than administrators perceived the quality of the feedback they gave, specifically in regards to the frequency of the feedback and quality of the information contained in the feedback. In addition, there was a significant difference in the perceptions of the quality of feedback between elementary teachers and administrators and secondary teachers and administrators. Though teachers and administrators both perceived the working relationships as positive, few teachers reported making adjustments to their teaching practices in response to the feedback received. Teachers did not perceive teacher professional growth from adjustments made in their teaching practice in response to the feedback. Teachers also noted few opportunities for professional development suggested in feedback. As suggested by the findings, professional development needs to be specific in regards to providing effective feedback. Finally, teachers, with the help of administrators, need to focus on creating goals and growth plans with specific professional opportunities to help teachers grow professionally and positively impact student outcomes. / Ed. D.

Many school divisions throughout the U.S. are having a difficult time retaining teachers (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Ingersoll, R. M., 2004). 'High levels of attrition, estimated to be nearly 8% of the workforce annually, are responsible for the largest share of teacher demand' (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, and Carver-Thomas, 2016, p. 2). According to Ingersoll and Strong (2011), Ingersoll and Perda (2011), and Skaalvik and Skaalvik (2016), reasons as to why teachers decide to leave the profession or change teaching locations include: job satisfaction, school demographics, student discipline, lack of administrative support, lack of teacher autonomy, and new teacher mentor programs. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify mentor and mentee teachers' perceptions about the current mentoring program and their recommendations for future revisions that will increase teacher retention. An urban, central Virginia school division was selected for this study. Participants selected for this study have served as a mentor teacher for new teachers hired into the selected division or have recently been hired into the division. The division has approximately 260 full-time teaching professionals. From the beginning of the 2013-14 school year to the conclusion of the 2015-16 school year, 125 teachers were replaced. The attrition rate of the selected division is approximately double the attrition rate in the Commonwealth of Virginia (Pitts, 2017). Mentoring programs appear to be among the prominent approaches to teacher retention (McCann and Johannessen, 2010). The researcher sought to determine perceptions of mentor teachers regarding their suggestions for improvement in the current mentor program as a determining factor in whether teachers decide to remain in their current positions. This study yielded eight findings and six implications. / Ed. D.

<p> Classroom management has been the focal point of many different studies and research projects. Unfortunately, it has also been cited as one of the top three reasons teachers leave the field of education not only today, but for the last 40 years (Berry, 2010). There is a need for an understanding of the implications of past classroom management research trends, styles, and strategies that are popular but have not worked in the past. Realizing further research in teacher training programs was needed, this study included examinations of perceptions of teachers about how well prepared they were for the classroom environment, how effective they felt when dealing with issues in the classroom, and what teachers feel prepared them most to handle classroom management issues. To collect data, a mixed method study was conducted. A quantitative survey was used to gather perceptions of teachers using a Likert scale. A qualitative interview was conducted to gather perceptions of teachers, and a custom matrix was used to record responses from interview transcriptions. To validate data from the survey and interview, a literature review was compiled and compared to survey and interview results. Findings indicated mentoring and feedback from mentors and administrators helped teachers to feel better prepared for classroom management. Teachers felt more prepared for classroom management after their first year of teaching and after accepting their first job than they did prior to teaching, and those who had prior life experiences outside of teaching felt more prepared than those who did not. Likewise, engaging lessons and positive teacher and student relationships helped teachers to feel more effective in handling classroom management issues.</p>

The purpose of this study was to investigate teacher motivation and the issues and challenges facing school management teams in motivating teachers. The study was guided by research questions, namely: What is the nature and scope of teacher motivation'? What is the relationship between leadership and teacher motivation? What are the challenges that the SMT members face when motivating teachers? How could teachers be assisted to regain their passion regarding their educational work? quantitative (survey) method was employed to gather information from the SMTs. particularly the principals of schools. deputy principals and the heads of departments on the role of SMTs, the interrelationship between them and their subordinates. challenges encountered in motivating teachers, and SMTs' views on the recognition or excellence in teacher performance. A quantitative data analysis programme was used to analyze the quantitative data. The statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS version 16.0) was utilised to compute frequency distribution, standard deviations, percentages, means and ANOVA. Open-ended qualitative data were subjected to theme analysis involving a simple identification and summarization of key themes. The findings revealed that the respondents have a feeling that there is no co-operation among teachers: there are many criticisms against the Developmental appraisal System (DAS) and some teachers have no interest in the motivation process. It is recommended that the Department of Education should endeavour to change teachers attitude towards their career. to strengthen and build healthy relationships amongst teachers. and to find better ways of developing teachers generally. One of the conclusions drawn from the study is that the negative attitude of most teachers is a barrier to motivation. The other is that the developmental strategies that are implemented are not achieving their objectives because not all SMT members know their responsibilities as managers, and communication is still a problem in schools as it is not flowing the way it is expected. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.(Education) North-West University, Mafikeng Campus, 2010

<p> By 2018, STEM occupations are projected to grow twice as fast as all other occupations combined (Olson &amp; Riordan, 2012; Craig Thomas, Hou, &amp; Mathur, 2012). The need to educate and produce more STEM graduates is eminent, and research shows that the pipeline to prepare students for STEM fields begins in elementary school. Research also shows that many elementary teachers lack the pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) and confidence to teach STEM subjects (Dorph, Shields, Tiffany-Morales, Hartry, &amp; McCaffrey, 2011). Meanwhile, opportunities for elementary teachers to develop their STEM PCK and confidence in teacher preparation programs or professional development are limited. </p><p> To address this problem, programs like Raising the Bar for STEM Education in California are emerging. A yearlong case study utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods was employed to examine the program&rsquo;s effectiveness in preparing future elementary teachers to effectively teach STEM subjects through a STEM-rich, clinical, co-teaching model of student teaching. Data collection methods included qualitative interviews, observations through videotaped lessons, documents, and quantitative pre- and post-surveys. The key findings from this study include that the STEM-rich, clinical, co-teaching model of student teaching was successful in increasing pre-service teachers&rsquo; confidence and expanding their pedagogical knowledge of teaching inquiry-based lessons. Pre-service teachers were willing and excited to teach STEM subjects in their future elementary classrooms at the conclusion of the program. However, the growth in content knowledge and confidence was uneven among the four STEM content areas and there was a lack of integration. \</p><p> Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that future STEM professional development programs emphasize the vital importance of STEM fields as the rationale for teaching STEM subjects; build pedagogical content knowledge; integrate STEM subjects through a focus on engineering; explicitly link STEM to Common Core State Standards and Next Generation Science Standards; design the STEM professional development around the characteristics of Adult Learning Theory; and foster reflective, collaborative communities of practice. Further recommendations for policy and research are presented and discussed.</p>

The teacher shortage problem is a national and state concern. In 1998, the Texas State Board of Education Certification reported that school districts in Texas had to hire teachers to fill over 63,000 vacancies. Teacher resignations, other than retirement, contributed to over 46,000 teachers who left the profession about 19 % of the state's total teacher workforce. A significant number of Texas teachers left the profession in the first five years. The National Commission on Teaching and America's Future (1996) called the attrition of new teachers a chronic problem for American schools. Reducing the teacher shortage in Texas must begin with reducing the teacher turnover rate. Most studies concerning teacher attrition or turnover either address salary, or working conditions. Many of the studies deal with affective and subjective data regarding teacher turnover. The studies on teacher turnover often do not address quantifiable data collected uniformly across districts. Few studies address a comprehensive set of quantitative data to determine the variables associated with teacher turnover. This study addressed teacher turnover through quantitative research of data from the Texas Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) with multiple analysis to provide insights to teacher turnover conditions and trends. The population for the study included all 1042 Texas school districts, and 61 Charter schools. The Academic Excellence Indicator System (AEIS) was used to determine the variables and supply data for the study. The study addressed only district data not individual school or campus data. The data captured for this dissertation were analyzed using descriptive statistics, correlational methods, and regression tools of research.

In this qualitative study of middle school English teachers, I investigated the phenomenon of why teachers stay, year in and year out, despite challenges brought on by educational reforms and negative depictions from the general public. The teachers’ experiences illustrate the dedication and perseverance of professionals committed to working with students year in and year out. I framed this case study (Merriam, 1988) in theories of sensemaking (Maitliss & Christianson, 2014; Wieck, 1995) and critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970; Giroux, 2011). The participants were three teachers who taught middle school English for over ten years. Within this time frame, they were exposed to multiple, ongoing reforms: No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, and Common Core State Standards. I used sensemaking and critical pedagogy lenses to explore how these teachers experienced issues of power and interpreted educational reforms. I also examined the reasons why they persisted in the profession. I employed grounded theory (Charmaz, 2006; Glaser & Strauss, 1967) and Gee’s (2011) Seven Building Tasks for analysis to identify four categories to illuminate the teachers’ stories: 1) Public Perception of the Profession, 2) Pedagogy and Curriculum, 3) Relationships, and 4) Being a Teacher. The teachers’ experienced ongoing struggles and yet had longevity in the profession. Implications of the study point to the perils and promises of long-term teaching. The perils were challenges of the profession: demands from administrators, new and limiting curriculum, a negative public perception, and long hours. The promises these teachers kept were commitments to decision makers and the public, middle school students and their families, and to the profession. It is these promises that they kept each year that motivated the teachers and sustained them over time.

Norah, an urban voice: [Teaching is not what I expected!] Not at all! I guess I really expected it to be a lot more enjoyable than it has been. I know it has been rough because it is the first year. And it is always going to be rough in your first year. But I never expected it to be like this. I never thought I’d feel so down and so incompetent. It has been very difficult and I think a lot of it didn’t have to happen. A lot of my grief and a lot of my uncertainties about myself as a person, about myself as a teacher, and about the teaching profession—I just don’t think they were necessary…I have always been a go-getter and throughout the I [have] always continued to do my best. But there have been times this year when I felt so small that I couldn’t even scrape myself off the floor. False expectations, shattered dreams, and serious attacks on one’s competence and self-worth— these are the all too common experiences of beginning teachers. Teaching is a demanding and at times debilitating job that requires extraordinary expertise in human relations, tremendous organizational abilities, profound patience, and the wherewithal to makes hundreds of situation-specific decisions over the course of a school day. And, as Norah so vividly illustrates by her comments, the first year of teaching is often an especially trying and even traumatic time for those new to the profession. The difference between a beginning teacher and an experienced one is that the beginner asks, "How am I doing?" and the experienced teacher asks, "How are the children doing?" In Educating Esme: Diary of a Teacher's First Year, Esme Raji Codell reports that her own mentor shared that wisdom with her. Probably most teachers would find that the comparison rings true: The survival priority is no joke for those aspiring to join the ranks. What beginners and career teachers have most in common, however, is care for children. To be an effective and a caring teacher, a new teacher must ask many more questions than "How are the kids and I doing?" during the first years. Among them: How do I get their attention; lead a class discussion; keep, but expand, their interests; discipline fairly; organize a classroom; make curriculum and assessments meaningful; value diversity; build character; use technology; and continue learning as a teacher? The list goes on. It will not do for those who want to be master teachers to put off asking questions that do not begin with the how word; from the very beginning, they must attempt to discover whom, what, and why they teach. Besides offering advice and sympathy (a stapler and an aspirin, as one teacher put it), what can the profession of teaching do to support its newest colleagues? That it is becoming increasingly necessary for the profession to do more for beginners than it has in the past is clear. A baby boomlet combined with a retirement boom will result in a need for 2 million new teachers in the next 10 years. The cost of preparing and recruiting teachers grows higher in light of the statistic that tells us that 50 percent of newcomers will quit within their first five years in the classroom. The public is expressing its concerns, too--concern with unprepared teachers, concern with out-of-field teachers, concern that the best teachers are spread too thin. Teaching is one of the few careers in which the least-experienced members face the greatest challenges and the most responsibilities. The problems that beginners experience are intrinsic to the teaching profession and to the conditions of the school environment (Brock & Grady, 2001; Gordon, 1999). Beginning teachers are making decisions and judgments about themselves in their first-year of teaching. What will these decisions and judgments be if they are not given the opportunities to reflect, both personally and professionally about themselves around the following three concepts: 1) competence, 2) performance, and 3) effectiveness (Debolt, 1992). This research looks at the three beginning teachers as they make their way through the first year of teaching. The voices of the beginning teachers studied will provide eloquent and authentic testimony to the importance and vital nature of teaching and the impact of relationships begun, sustained and renewed along the way.

<p>There is an unyielding relationship between poverty and underperforming classrooms (Flores, 2007; Harding, 2003; Kopp, 2011; Lauen & Gaddis, 2013; South, Baumer & Lutz, 2003). Research concluded that quality teachers make the biggest difference in underperforming classrooms (Chester & Beaudin, 1996; Eckert, 2013; Faez & Valeo, 2012; Hill, Konstantopoulos, & Hedges, 2004; Konstantopoulos & Sun, 2012.) Yet, these urban and rural classrooms experience teacher shortages as many teachers leave these challenging spaces for suburban venues or leave the profession definitively. In this way, Teach for America?s goal was to fill these classrooms with candidates that would counteract this problem. TFA recruited high-achieving recent college graduates without education degrees and trained them for eight weeks during a Summer Institute and placed them in underperforming classrooms (Kopp, 2011). This qualitative interview-based study including 17 TFA corps members and alumni examined the levels of preparedness and self-efficacy that they had during the first years teaching in underperforming classrooms. In addition, the interviews elucidated the perceived training mechanisms that TFA employed during training. This study drew on the conceptual framework involving Bandura?s Social Learning theory (1977) and self-efficacy (1993) as well as Bourdieu?s (1977) concepts of social reproduction, ?organization habitus? as proposed by Horvat and Antonio (1999) and ?institutional habitus? (Roofe & Miller, 2013). Participants described the ways in which they perceived themselves to be prepared for their classrooms both from TFA training and from their own background and prior work and classroom experiences. Although participants acknowledged the value of TFA training especially in lesson planning and some basic pedagogical theories they noted that they did not always perceive themselves to be fully prepared or have a high self-efficacy and therefore acted as agents by seeking additional training and colleague observations to enhance their self-efficacy. Based on participants? lived experiences, this study offers a deeper understanding of Teach for America?s corps members? perceptions of preparedness of self-efficacy after their Summer Institute training and during the beginning of their teaching careers.

Creativity in school teachers