The development of teacher resilience is important in improving teacher retention. This study identified reasons veteran teachers have remained in the classroom; individual and contextual factors of resilience; significant challenges the teachers have encountered; and strategies the teachers used for dealing with the challenging situations. This was a qualitative study that included interviews with 15 teachers in a rural school division in Central Virginia. Data analysis occurred through deductive coding of the transcribed interviews using qualitative data analysis software. The findings for this study identified seven factors that veteran teachers indicated were important in their decision to remain in the classroom. The study also identified 22 individual factors of resilience and 10 contextual factors presented through the experiences of the veteran teachers. The veteran teachers described four challenges that they have faced in their school division and the strategies they used to overcome those challenges. The study concludes with the discussion, implication, and conclusion of the findings. / Doctor of Education / The development of teacher resilience is important in improving teacher retention. This study identified reasons veteran teachers have remained in the classroom; individual and contextual factors of resilience; the most significant challenges the teachers have encountered; and strategies the teachers used for dealing with those challenging situations. This was a qualitative study that included interviews with 15 teachers in a rural school division in Central Virginia. The findings for this study provide practitioners with a framework to develop a resilient culture within their schools.

Teacher evaluations have always been a part of school leaders' jobs (Horng, Klasik, and Loeb, 2010). Teacher evaluation is used as a factor in determining whether or not a teacher receives a continuing contract in Virginia, and it has also been a part of the process in determining if a teacher is labeled as highly effective. In some school divisions, the rating a teacher receives may be tied to their merit-based compensation. In 2012, the Virginia Department of Education released the Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Principals, which provides school divisions a structure for their teacher evaluation instrument (Virginia Department of Education [VDOE], 2012). This document requires that Virginia school divisions include a quantifiable measure of student performance as a component of their teacher evaluation instrument. When teachers transfer from one school to another within the same school division many aspects of their job change. For example, the school leader who performs the teacher's evaluation changes and the student population changes as well. The presence of these variables may have an effect on a teacher's evaluation, but they are not controlled by the teacher being evaluated. The purpose of this basic qualitative study is to determine teachers' attitudes toward teacher evaluation when the teacher has transferred schools within the same school division. Eight teachers were interviewed regarding their attitude toward teacher evaluation. The data indicate that the change in evaluator when a teacher transfers work sites has a stronger impact than any other variable in the transfer process. The data also indicate that a change in the context for the teacher being evaluated does not affect their attitude towards evaluation. / Ed. D. / A significant part of a school leaders' job is to evaluate the teachers that work at the school. The evaluation can be used as part of the decision making process surrounding whether the teacher receives a continuing contract. There are school divisions that tie their salary compensation for teachers to their performance, often measured by teacher evaluation. The Virginia Department of Education provided guidance for Virginia school divisions on the criteria for evaluating teachers in 2012. The criteria requires that school divisions in Virginia include a quantifiable measure of student performance as 40% of the total evaluation for teachers. When teachers transfer from one school to another within the same school division many aspects of their job change. For example, the school leader who performs the teacher’s evaluation changes and the student population where they teach changes as well. These different changes may have an effect on a teacher’s evaluation, but are not controlled by the teacher being evaluated. Teacher attitudes towards the evaluation process may be affected by the transferring process. The purpose of this study is to determine teachers' attitudes towards teacher evaluation when the teacher has transferred schools within the same school division. Eight teachers were interviewed regarding their attitude towards teacher evaluation as a result of transferring schools. The results of the study indicate that the change in evaluator has a stronger impact than other variables and the context of where a teacher teaches does not play a large role in their attitude towards evaluation.

<p> The quality of teacher education allows first-year teachers to meet mandates at federal and state levels (Darling-Hammond, 2010a). The teaching profession is complex and requires new and innovative quality preparation programs (Wei, Andree, &amp; Darling-Hammond, 2009). This study involved examination of the perceptions of 17 building principals and 16 first-year teachers to determine the effectiveness of teacher preparation. First-year teachers identified essential elements of teacher preparation and weaknesses of programs. The study addressed building principals&rsquo; perceptions of differences, if any, in the effectiveness of first-year teachers graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs and first-year teachers who choose alternative routes to the profession. Perceptions of first-year teachers and building principals were identified in regard to the skills of first-year teachers in the classroom. Building principal perceptions indicated first-year teachers are prepared as effective classroom teachers in the areas of content knowledge, creating positive environments, classroom management, cooperative learning, cooperative partnership, implementing curriculum, use of technology and communication; understanding student learning, growth, and development; and performing roles, responsibilities, and collegial activities. Identified weakness in the effectiveness of first-year teachers were in the areas of instruction and assessment. Building principals indicated first-year teachers from traditional programs were more effective than those who chose alternative programs. First-year teachers indicated essential elements of teacher preparation programs to be organization, classroom structure, positive reinforcement, classroom management, and implementing a variety of instructional strategies. Areas of weakness identified were time-management, parent teacher conference experiences, preparing the classroom environment, and time for realistic opportunities to experience classroom teaching. First-year teachers perceived their preparation to be more positive than building-principal perceptions in the areas of analyzing instructional goals and differentiated instructional strategies, teaching for critical thinking, effects of instruction on individual/class learning, use of student assessment data to analyze and modify instruction, assessment data to improve learning, and self-assessment. </p>

<p> The purpose of this paper is to answer research questions related to this capstone project that evaluates how peer and/or individualized professional development impacts teacher comfort and usage of technology. The analysis, measures and processes utilized to answer these questions are outlined within this paper in order to determine significant factors that affect technology usage within the classroom.</p>

Throughout the 1980s increasing attention was paid to the quality of teacher education by the government, culminating in the publication of Circular 9/92 (DFE 1992). It decreed that schools were to play a larger and much more active role than before, as the practical side of the training was to be enhanced at the expense of the educational theory provided by the HEIs. The government believed that encouraging more practical training through a partnership of equals between the HEIs and the schools would improve the professional competence of the NQTs and eventually raise standards in the classroom. An aura of co-operation and consensus pervades the notion of partnership, but this research suggests that the concept is imprecise and open to many different interpretations. It also supports the view that there is a significant difference between the image of partnership projected by the government and the intentions, values and practices of those immediately involved in initial teacher education. The resulting disparity between the rhetoric of policy and the reality of partnership is pinpointed and explained by a critique of the Universities of Sussex and Brighton and twelve of their respective partner secondary schools. This investigation adopts a case study approach. Evidence collected through surveys, interviews and observation of participants within the partnership - such as university tutors, trainees, mentors and professional tutors, together with a review of the contextual literature, are used to illuminate the problems experienced by the practitioners. The evidence presented shows that the success of the partnership and its continued existence in its present form is dependent upon a variety of factors: adequate communication, effective mentorships, clearly-defined assessment and standardisation procedures and the development of a professional ethos to avoid undue reliance on good-will. Major restrictions are also placed upon the delivery of effective initial teacher education by inadequate funds and the shortage of time. More importantly however, the straightforward perception of partnership promoted by the government is in itself seen to be flawed, because there are inherent tensions between the HEIs and the schools. This results in conflicting expectations over key issues, which if unresolved will continue to jeopardise the development of partnership and affect the quality of initial teacher education.

This is a formative evaluation study of the "Class-Teacher" pre-service teacher education programme at the University of Jordan. The aim was to identify and evaluate the programme as perceived by the programme's participants. The choice of the topic was inspired by the researcher's perception that there were negative faculty and students' attitudes toward the programme. The programme's evaluation was intended to be responsive to its participants' needs and concerns. It was also planned and implemented within the interpretive paradigm of research. Stake's countenance model of evaluation was used mainly to guide the process of data collection. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection including questionnaires, formal and informal interviews and document analysis were used. The fieldwork took place in two different contexts, the university where the theoretical (on-campus) part of the programme has been implemented and the cooperating schools where the student's teaching practice took place. The target groups were student teachers, university faculty members and supervisors, co-operating teachers and headteachers at the co-operating schools. The findings of the study indicate that there is a lack of clarity regarding the objectives of the programme among the majority of its participants. Concerning the programme's curriculum, the findings show that the student teachers welcome the variety of its content. However, the students criticised certain aspects of the programme's content, particularly the professional sequence, of lack of relevance to the school curriculum and therefore to their needs as student teachers. The findings also show that there is a need to increase the weight of the school-based component of the programme since there is a perceived lack of balance in the content. Although there is a perceived lack of communication between The University and the cooperating schools that has an effect on the training process, student teachers seem most satisfied with their school-based training. The final chapter further discusses the above as well as many other main findings, reports the problems raised and posits a set of recommendations intended to resolve the identified problems.

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<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to look at how teachers use micro-blogging, in this case Twitter (www.twitter.com), for their own personalized professional learning and how effective Twitter is as a professional development (PD) tool. In order to measure the effectiveness of the tool, the researcher first gleaned nine essential characteristics of effective PD from the literature. This list was validated by experts in the PD community. The significance of this study was to reveal how participants actually used Twitter for PD, what their perspectives on the tool were, and how effective their experiences were with Twitter as a PD tool. Results of this study can be used to improve current practice, and provide a low cost, accessible, and available mechanism to foster an on-going, learner-centered, approach to PD, thus allowing teachers to become more involved in their own professional growth. For the 4 participants in this study, Twitter use for PD and its effectiveness varied greatly. The effectiveness of the tool depended on the participant&rsquo;s fluency with the technology and attitude towards social media. For the most fluent participant, Twitter met most of the requirements for effectiveness; however, Twitter use did not automatically provide a mechanism for reflection or self-assessment; nor did Twitter use provide an evaluation of the experience, both requirements of effective PD. With added evaluation and self-assessment processes, and with a fluent practitioner, Twitter does have the potential to be a very effective PD tool with its low cost, accessibility, and availability.</p>

<p> As education evolves in the 21st century and students learn to develop knowledge from the ground up, educators step into the role of facilitator. Critical to this paradigm shift is a connection with places that develops knowledge from local experiences into broad global understanding. This thesis explores the literature on how people develop a connection with place, the importance of learning about the world through appropriate developmental stages, and the relevance of place-based education as part of learning in the 21st century. Through qualitative research methods&mdash;including surveys, interviews, and focus groups&mdash;this thesis demonstrates the ways in which educators in an elementary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico develop a personal sense of place. It also asks how an educator&rsquo;s understanding of place is integrated into her or his teaching practices and addresses where there is room for place-based education principles in a wide range of classrooms. The findings of this study suggest that through relationships to place and people, young learners can develop a sense of belonging that drives a love of and responsibility for places on both local and global scales.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to research the gap between teachers and leadership. There is a disconnection in addressing characteristics that are represented by the transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire teacher leaders. This study was focused on teachers and the type of leadership they are more inclined to display (transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire) in the classroom. The types of leadership were correlated with certification type, years of experience, and self-efficacy (personal and teaching). The 241 participants in the study were from two academically successful school districts in Texas as determined by the Academic Excellence Indicator System. The findings of the study did not produce statistically significant results between teacher leadership type and certification type nor years of experience. Leadership type and teacher and personal self-efficacy, demonstrated statistical significance. Recommendations for future study are made. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> teachers, leadership, transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, certification type, years of experience, self-efficacy.</p>