<p> What are the most effective coaching practices in the context of school-wide professional development? Teacher coaching is onsite professional development aimed at working with teachers with what they need most. Although coaching holds much promise, there is little agreement surrounding the role of the coach and what the coach should be doing in the context of school-wide professional development to make the greatest impact on teacher practices. The purpose of this study is to explore practices that contribute to a change in teacher instructional practices relating to four major components: (1) Leadership Team; (2) Whole School Coaching; (3) Group Coaching; (4) Teacher Coaching; to determine the relationship between these four components; to offer a comprehensive teacher coaching model. Due to the complex nature of change, this research is seated in the context of change variables such as environment, management, coaching styles, and change theory.</p>

<p> An online study was conducted to ascertain the potential of two independent variables, teaching self-efficacy and critical thinking skill (via a self-efficacy survey and a critical thinking appraisal) to predict four aspects of professional engagement (via a teaching career aspirations survey) among 95 self-selected early-career K-12 teachers. A regression model was attempted across the four aspects of professional engagement surveyed: planned persistence (PP), professional development (PD), professional leadership (PL), and planned effort (PE). However the data violated regression assumptions, necessitating non-parametric analysis. Analyses using Kendall&rsquo;s tau showed a significant correlation between teaching self-efficacy and all four dependent variables (&tau;_PD = .34, <i>p</i> &lt; .01; &tau;_PL = .29, <i>p</i> &lt; .01; &tau;_PP = -.09, <i>p</i> &lt; .01; &tau;_PE = .41, <i>p</i> &lt; .01). Critical thinking did not show a significant relationship with professional engagement. Two post hoc studies investigated these results. Non-parametric analysis showed a significant relationship between critical thinking scores and the critical thinking appraisal completion time (&tau; = .15. <i>p</i> &lt; .05). <i>T</i> tests showed no significant differences between a sample (<i>n</i> = 27) of the main group (<i>N</i> = 95) and a retained group of participants who completed the surveys but did not complete the critical thinking appraisal (survey only group, <i>n</i> = 27). The significant relationship between teaching self-efficacy and career engagement in this study warrants further attention.</p>

Since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) in 2001, public school systems have been engaged in a system of educational reform fueled by a level of accountability that includes not only the performance of the students, but also the performance of the teachers and the administrators. Recent studies have found that student achievement has been negatively impacted by teacher absenteeism; however, there have been scant studies conducted in the United States regarding teacher absence behaviors. The purpose of this study was to examine the teacher absence data of a school division in central Virginia in order to determine teacher absence behaviors. This study focused on two specific research questions: What is the frequency of teacher absence? What are the predictors of teacher absence? The design of this quantitative study was secondary data analysis. The data set included absence data for 1,198 classroom teachers who were continuously employed for the 2005-06, 2006-07, and 2007-08 school years. Data analysis included running descriptive statistics in order to determine the frequency of teacher absence, and by performing bivariate and multivariate analyses to determine the predictors of teacher absence. The dependent variable was the total number of absences taken, and the independent variables included demographic information, days of absence, teaching assignments, and types of leave. Analysis of the data found that absences occurred most frequently on Fridays and that sick leave accounted for most of the absences. There is evidence that teachers use leave to extend weekend or holiday leisure time. The use of leave under the Family Medical Leave Act rose from .1 percent to 1 percent of the total leave days over the course of the study. The total number of absences increased by almost 4 percent after the introduction of an electronic absence reporting system. Women are more likely to be absent than are men. Teachers at the specialty schools had the highest rates of absenteeism, and high school teachers had the lowest absence rates. As age advanced, teachers were less likely to be absent, but as years of experience advanced, teachers were more likely to be absent.

The purpose of this research, based on Tönnies’s theory of Gemeinschaft and Durkheim’s theory of mechanical solidarity, was to determine if there were differences between rural Virginia teachers from rural areas and those from nonrural areas in their perceptions of salary, isolation, working conditions, NCLB requirements, and job satisfaction, as well as their plans to remain in rural schools. It also was to determine if there was a relationship between rural and nonrural backgrounds and the rural teachers’ intentions to remain employed in rural schools. Rural teachers from each of Virginia’s eight Superintendents’ Regions were selected and were asked to respond to an on-line survey. Their responses were collected and the data were analyzed using SPSS. The findings of this research showed that perceptions of isolation and working conditions were significant predictors of teachers’ plans to remain in rural schools. Although the findings of this research did not show rural origin to be significant, the concept of community that is inherent in ruralness was indicated by the significance of the relationship between feeling membership in the community and plans to remain in a rural school. In addition, the findings of this research supported the development of the grow-your-own programs discussed in the literature review. This research showed that established residency in the rural area and feeling membership in the rural community significantly influenced the decision to remain in a rural school.

No description available.

<p> This study investigated the role of the school administrator in helping teachers to use instructional practices that led to improved student learning outcomes. The data indicated that teachers were comfortable learning from other teacher-leaders in the school. Teachers responded favorably to opportunities to participate in collegial observation and being provided specific feedback to stimulate growth. The study also confirmed that teachers looked to the school administrator to provide necessary resources and funding for professional development opportunities. Teachers need to be provided ongoing opportunities to learn and grow together through meaningful grade-level team meeting. </p><p> This study took place during the 2010&ndash;2011 school year, and investigated individually and collectively four initiatives: reorganizing grade-level team meetings to facilitate better coordination, collaboration, and peer consultation; gearing professional development opportunities toward proven learning strategies; engaging the teachers in reflective practices for self-improvement; and engaging the teachers in keeping professional growth logs. Teachers were asked to respond to a questionnaire created by the principal, to complete feedback forms as a follow up to each professional development workshop, and to evaluate the effectiveness of grade-level teams using a scoring guide. An analysis of MAP and Tungsten data, teacher created goals/outcomes, and walk-through data was used to evaluate student growth, as well. </p><p> A narrow focus on analyzing and using data to make instructional decisions had an impact on standardized test result. The instructional leaders were responsible for helping staff to understand and interpret data, create short-term and long-term goals, monitor the progress and celebrate success. </p><p> An underlying theme evolved during the study, encompassing the importance of the school leader to build positive relationships and lines of communication with the staff to guide them toward the improvement of instructional practices. </p>

The purpose of this study was to ascertain pre-service teachers' perceptions of the defining aspects of a mathematics methods course that aided in the development of a conceptual understanding of mathematics. These perceptions emerge from the narratives of four pre-service teachers in a mid-size metropolitan university in the southeastern part of the United States. Grounded in the theory of constructivism this study focuses on the educational experiences of pre-service teachers, as reported by pre-service teachers, creating a portrait of their journey. These pre-service teachers' learning experiences were based on national standards with a constructivist instructional approach and included field experience in a school environment. Analysis of the data revealed that pre-service teachers attributed their increase in conceptual understanding of mathematics to 'touching/doing activities' that required them to 'explain why'. Use of models and manipulatives aided in helping the pre-service teachers verify and justify their solutions to others, providing concrete items to use in explaining abstract concepts. Ultimately, requiring pre-service to explain their own thought processes, with and without manipulatives, aided them in developing a conceptual understanding of mathematics.

<p> Our nation faces a daunting challenge in assuring that we have a sufficient supply of well-educated, well-prepared teachers for our children. There presently exist several quality teacher preservice programs, nationally and internationally. Unfortunately, each institution varies greatly in its content and emphasis. </p><p> This research project examines a related, but often neglected, aspect of teacher success in the classroom: Are new teachers being given the content and experience that they need and desire? The results of qualitative anecdotal research find the answer to be an emphatic &ldquo;no.&rdquo; This project examines this question through a holistic approach that looks at teacher preparation through a variety of related topics. A few of these include credentialing and licensing practices, retention of teachers, teacher training programs, importance of teachers, and current challenges, to name a few.</p><p> The fact is that the success of our students is ultimately affected by the quality of the teachers that enter the classroom. It&rsquo;s the purpose of this study to raise the question of what our new teachers feel they need to be successful and whether or not those needs are being fulfilled.</p>

<p> The debate over the effective preparation of pre-service teachers is not new. Often this debate concerns what might be considered successful methods for all pre-service teachers. However, preparation for career and technical education (CTE) teachers could look quite different than that of academic teachers, whether they are prepared through traditional or alternative routes to education. In this qualitative study, the researcher examined two iterations of the alternative-route program designed to prepare new CTE teachers in Mississippi and considered the level of self-efficacy of the teacher participants, the perceived effectiveness of the specific elements of each program, and the perceived significance of teacher/administrator and teacher/mentor relationships. The results of this study indicate that participants in the most recent iteration of the alternative-route program have a higher level of self-efficacy in teaching. The study also found that the specific elements of the newer version of the program are perceived as more relevant than those of the older version of the program and that teacher/administrator and teacher/mentor relationships play a key role in self-efficacy and job satisfaction among new CTE teachers. The results of this study also revealed that new CTE teachers desire opportunities to grow their pedagogical content knowledge by interacting and learning from veteran teachers in their respective content areas. Additionally, some of the more effective teachers who participated in this study rated themselves lower than their less effective colleagues on a self-efficacy survey and vice versa, indicating the presence of the Dunning-Kruger effect, which posits that, when an individual is unskilled in a certain task, they not only make poor choices in that area but also lack the metacognitive ability to realize it.</p>

<p> Each year, a growing number of K&ndash;12 students participate in some form of online instruction (Watson et. al, 2015). This transition to online learning environments raises questions about the design and distribution of curricula in K-12 educational systems. This dissertation explored the perceptions of K-12 online educators regarding the significance and challenges associated with teaching social and emotional learning (SEL) and character education skills in online learning environments. The SEL related efforts of current online instructors are compared to the best practices in character education and SEL known to be effective in traditional classroom settings. A mixed-methods approach of using a questionnaire to gather data and then conducting interviews was employed. Seventy-one K-12 online educators responded to the questionnaire with a smaller group of six participating in follow-up interviews. The ethics of care (Noddings, 2005) and social responsibility (May, 1996; Dewey, 2009) provided the theoretical lens for this study. Additionally, the Social Development Model (Hawkins &amp; Weis, 1985; Catalano &amp; Hawkins, 1996) was used as an analysis tool to gauge whether the online educators&rsquo; purported integration of social and emotional learning and character education met what the Social Development Model proposes is necessary to develop prosocial behaviors. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>