<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>

<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>

<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

<p> Culturally responsive teaching is seen as a promising practice that will enhance teachers&rsquo; ability to meet the needs of today&rsquo;s diverse student population. The purpose of this study was to understand how White supervisors talk about race and culture in the classroom, and in regard to their role of preparing pre-service teachers. Because supervisors&rsquo; work is grounded in student teachers&rsquo; classrooms, they are uniquely positioned to respond to specific incidents in the student teacher&rsquo;s experience and thereby have a primary role in shaping teachers&rsquo; instructional practices. </p><p> This dissertation research examined 12 White university supervisors. Prior to this study, supervisors participated in professional development offered by the college aimed at raising awareness of culturally responsive teaching. The professional development was part of Griffin, Watson, and Liggett&rsquo;s (2014) initial study, and offered opportunities for supervisors to discuss topics of race, culture, ethnicity, class, and gender, and to engage in reading Gay&rsquo;s (2010) text: <i>Culturally Responsive Teaching: Theory, Research, and Practice.</i> Griffin et al. collected data, including a pre- and post-survey, a November interview, and artifacts from the professional development. Their study established the starting point for this research. </p><p> All 12 supervisors were interviewed following participation in the professional development. Findings indicated supervisors defined and described culturally responsive teaching by relying on elements congruent with the literature. Even when supervisors used language similar to Gay (2010), they held misconceptions and formed incomplete definitions about culturally responsive teaching. Other findings indicated supervisors lacked a clear vision in their role in supporting culturally responsive teaching. Lastly, supervisors used hegemonic understandings when talking about race and culture. The results of this study suggest supervisors need more opportunities to talk about race and culture, and their role in preparing culturally responsive teachers.</p>

abstract: The majority of the teacher preparation programs in the US adhere to a traditional curriculum that includes foundational work, liberal arts classes, methods courses, and student teaching (Boyer & Baptiste, 1996; Kozleski, Gonzalez, Atkinson, Lacy, & Mruczek, 2013). Unfortunately, this approach rarely provides sudent teachers with opportunities to explore the role that culture plays in identity, learning, and community building--activities that are considered hallmarks of culturally responsive teaching (Artiles & Kozleski, 2007). To address this issue, Urban Teacher Education Program (UTEP) was created in 2010. UTEP was a one-year program designed to better prepare teachers currently in the classroom to work with children who have been marginalized. The present study examined the opportunities that UTEP provided for teachers to interrogate their own thinking about issues related to (1) identity, (2) culture, (3) learning, and (4) assessment, and the impact it has had on their professional practices in urban settings four years later. To understand if the teachers' experiences in UTEP were transformative and sustained this study addressed one primary question: In what ways have teachers professional practices changed as a result of being in UTEP? Using a grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) lens, the study used a constant comparative method (Strauss and Corbin, 1990) in which codes were developed, categorized, and analyzed to identify themes. The teachers were interviewed, their classroom teaching practices were observed, and their applied projects (archived documents) were examined. Thematic analysis (Riessman, 2008) was used for the applied projects to categorize themes during each semester across all participants. The study revealed that as a result of UTEP all five teachers' made a transformation in their thinking, which is still maintained today and continues to impact their professional practices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2015

abstract: Undergraduate teacher preparation programs face scrutiny regarding pre-service teachers' preparation upon graduation. Specifically, scholars contend that teacher preparation programs do not adequately prepare pre-service teachers to plan for effective instruction. Situated in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University, this action research study used the Theory of Pedagogical Content Knowledge to examine (a) how pre-service teachers developed unit planning practices using the Backward Design framework and (b) the pedagogical teaching practices used as they implemented the unit plan in the classroom. During the student teaching course, pre-service teachers received instruction on how to use the Backward Design framework to plan a unit of instruction to implement in their placement classroom. Results from the mixed-methods study provided evidence that Backward Design was an effective way for pre-service teachers to plan instruction. Results from the study indicated that implementing and reflecting on lessons taught from the unit plan contributed to the pedagogical teaching practices used in the classroom. Furthermore, results demonstrated that designing, implementing, and reflecting on the unit plan contributed to a shift in how participants viewed themselves. Through the study, they began to view themselves more as a teacher, than a pre-service student teacher. Keywords: teacher preparation programs, unit planning, instructional practices / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2014

<p> This research investigated the experiences of six elementary preservice teachers as they learned to teach writing during a language arts methods course where they were immersed in a Writing Workshop. In addition, this study illuminates how five preservice teachers' experiences were transformative, according to Mezirow's theory of transformative learning (1991, 2000). A qualitative case study methodology was employed and data collection included three in-depth phenomenological interviews, observations of 13 course meetings, and documents written by participants as requirements of the course.</p><p> First, participant data were analyzed inductively to describe each preservice teacher's experience. Across all cases, seven common categories of findings emerged: learning to write, start of course beliefs, course experiences, sharing writing, intern placement, course learning, and change in beliefs. Cross-case analysis revealed that preservice teachers experienced learning to teach writing through their beliefs about writing and themselves as writers; beliefs were informed by their prior experiences with writing, primarily K-12 school experiences. Strategies used by the instructor and course experiences - especially, ample opportunities to write, share writing, and take writing through the writing process - contributed to preservice teachers having more confidence in themselves as writers and less fears about writing.</p><p> Five of the six preservice teachers had learning experiences that could be classified as transformative. Their transformation process included: 1) experiencing a disorienting dilemma sparked by an aspect of the course; 2) engaging in critical reflection to examine assumptions; 3) participating in discourse to better understand their experiences with writing; 4) trying out new ways of being a writer or writing teacher and gaining confidence in those new roles; and, 5) making plans to act on reframed perspectives of themselves as writers and writing teachers.</p><p> This study concludes with a discussion of how the findings relate to the extant literature on learning to teach writing. In addition, the discussion suggests how using Mezirow's theory of transformative learning as a lens can enhance teacher educators' understandings, but also describes the five ways the researcher found using the framework problematic. Finally, recommendations for teacher educators are offered and future research topics are suggested. </p><p>

<p> Many independent boarding schools have customarily hired significant numbers of novice faculty who are not certified teachers and who do not have significant teaching experience. Additionally, the time available to help such novice faculty learn about the many aspects of their jobs is quite limited. Therefore, the methods used to help novice faculty learn, while they already enacting their roles as educators, are important. As a result, this study examined the effectiveness of using school context based learning scenarios as a tool for teaching novice faculty at independent boarding schools. Specifically, the study tried to determine if such scenarios helped novice faculty feel greater self-efficacy and helped them to more effectively gain the benefits of their own experiential learning, thus acquiring more quickly the important knowledge of their craft that senior teachers developed through their own experiential learning. I theorized that this would ultimately lead to their achieving better educational outcomes with their students in all facets of their jobs. First, the researcher interviewed six master teachers from three different junior boarding schools to gather information about the key experiential learning events of successful teachers and then analyzed this data to identify common themes and types of experiences. These narrated, real experiences and the analyses of them were used as the basis for the construction of learning scenarios. These scenarios attempted to both highlight important concepts and approaches to working with adolescents that the master teachers felt they gleaned from the actual experiences and reflect the specific details of the independent boarding middle school where they were used. These scenarios were then read and discussed with the novice faculty at the school as part of their induction to life and work there over the course of a four-month period. To assess the impact of the use of scenarios, the researcher audio recorded, video taped and analyzed two of the scenario learning sessions; had the new faculty respond, in written form, to two scenarios; conducted a focus group with the new faculty, and administered a pre and post scenario learning experience self-efficacy scale.</p>

New understandings of human potential and ways of learning have contributed to the possibility of radical change in education. Research has demonstrated that children have vast learning potential and has suggested a wide range of methods for enhancing creativity in the classroom. It is the responsibility of educators to develop a climate that encourages creativity and the discovery of the self. However, there are limited opportunities available for teacher training in creativity. When creativity training has been conducted with teachers, it has made a difference in their approaches to teaching and has expanded their own creativity. Testimonies from teachers who have explored creativity in the classroom are encouraging, but so far they are sparse in the literature. Through in-depth phenomenological interviewing of six teachers from pre-school through high school, this dissertation explored the impact that teacher training in creativity has had on teachers' perceptions of themselves and their students, whether they provided more opportunities for creative expression and self-discovery in the classroom, whether they felt empowered to make change in their environment, how they think education needs to change to accommodate teachers' and students' creativity, and their visions for education. It was found that coursework in creativity does make a difference. These teachers' self-esteem was enhanced and creativity became a value which was implemented in the classroom. The teachers in this study were empowered to make changes and to empower others to change, including both their students and colleagues. They were willing to try new methods and to take risks because they enjoy facilitating growth and creativity in themselves and their students. Teachers' ideas for educational change include creating community in the classroom, addressing different learning styles, including emotions, intuition, and cooperative learning in the curriculum, and extending the classroom beyond four walls. They realize that teachers need to know how to bring creativity out in themselves in order to foster students' creativity, and that for this to occur, teachers must have educational opportunities, time to plan creative curriculum, and support from colleagues and administrators.