Teacher knowledge enhances instruction. Of particular importance for spelling instruction is literacy-related content teacher knowledge. This knowledge includes awareness of individual speech sounds, syllables, and morphemes in the English language. Teachers who possess this knowledge are better able to assess student needs and design instruction that meets those needs so that students learn to spell well. In this study, 36 preservice teachers and 38 inservice teachers completed a survey and three measures. The survey asked teachers to calibrate their knowledge of phonemic awareness, phonics, and spelling. The measures assessed the teachers’ literacy-related content knowledge and their ability to use this knowledge to analyze student spelling errors and choose appropriate instructional activities to meet student needs. Overall, the preservice teachers were more positive in their assessments of their literacy-related content knowledge while the inservice teachers demonstrated greater literacy-related content knowledge. Neither group was adept in analyzing students’ spelling errors although the inservice teachers were better able to choose appropriate instructional activities.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) has declared reading failure a national public health issue. Approximately 15-20 % of the US population displays one or more symptoms of dyslexia: a specific learning disability that affects an individual's ability to process language. Consequently, elementary school teachers are teaching students who struggle with inaccurate or slow reading, poor spelling, poor writing, and other language processing difficulties. However, studies have indicated both preservice and inservice teachers lack essential knowledge needed to teach struggling readers, particularly children with dyslexia. Few studies have sought to assess teachers', either preservice or inservice, knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia in conjunction with knowledge of basic language concepts related to reading instruction. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation was to examine elementary school preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of basic language concepts and their knowledge and perceptions about dyslexia. Three separate studies were conducted, all addressing the overarching question: Are elementary teachers (K-5) prepared to teach struggling readers? In study one, research that has addressed teacher knowledge of basic language concepts was reviewed systematically. In studies two and three, a basic language constructs survey was used to assess the self-perceptions/knowledge of basic language concepts and knowledge/perceptions about the nature of dyslexia of preservice, first year, and more experienced teachers involved in teaching reading in grades K-5.

Approximately 80% of students with learning disabilities (LD) experience difficulties learning to read (Shaywitz, Morris, & Shaywitz, 2008). Many schools have begun offering intensive summer reading programs in an effort to enhance the reading of students with and at risk for LD. Yet, remarkably little is known about the teachers who staff these programs and are tasked with teaching students with some of the most significant reading needs. For this reason, this study investigated the relationship between characteristics of summer reading teachers, their knowledge of reading, and the code-focused reading instruction they provided in the classroom during an intensive summer reading program for students with and at risk for LD. Data for this study were collected by the Iowa Reading Research Center as part of its Intensive Summer Reading Program (ISRP) study. In total, 74 teachers participated in this study. In addition to completing the Teacher Knowledge of Early Literacy Skills test, each teacher’s classroom was observed one day each week during the ISRP study. Findings of multiple regression analysis indicate that summer reading teachers certified in special education spent 4.1% less of their overall instructional time on code-focused instruction in comparison to general education teachers. Additionally, summer reading teachers who scored higher on the TKELS spent less time on code-focused instruction. Finally, years of teaching experience and years of experience teaching students achieving below grade level were not useful in predicting variation in the amount of code-focused instruction teachers provided during the intensive summer reading program.

Given the importance placed on probability and statistics in the PK-8 curriculum by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (2000) and on teachers by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (1995) and the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (2001), it is important to know how well preservice teachers understand topics that are vital to a thorough understanding of the probability and statistics topics emphasized by national standards. It is necessary for a teacher to thoroughly understand the subject matter in order to teach effectively, but that is not sufficient. A teacher must also be able to successfully communicate with the students about that material. Therefore, this study utilized a standards- and literature-based assessment to study 210 preservice teachers with the goal of taking the first step in determining whether current PK-8 preservice teachers are prepared to teach select probability and statistics topics specified in standards documents. The assessment contains 11 probability and statistics items with a total of 23 parts in a variety of shortanswer, multiple-choice, and extended-response formats. It is described in detail in Chapter III and reproduced in Appendix A. A confirmatory factor analysis indicated that for this sample of PK-8 preservice teachers, the assessment measured the underlying constructs on which it was based. Preservice teachers?? ability to answer these items varied greatly. For short-answer and multiple-choice items, the percentage of preservice teachers incorrectly answering an item was as high as 87% and as low as 18%. For extended-response items, incorrect answers were provided by as few as 12% of the participants on one item and by as many as 83% on another. Individual responses were analyzed to illustrate correct conceptions and misconceptions of these preservice teachers. There was not a statistically significant difference between responses based on the grade band the participants were preparing to teach, but students specializing in mathematics and science did perform better than other participants. Although effect sizes were small, the amount of time elapsed since an elementary statistics class was taken and the number of methods courses taken were positively associated with performance on this assessment.

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Elucidating the knowledge base of those who teach adult learners in ESL (English as a Second Language) programs, this research is a qualitative study incorporating multiple data collection techniques and involving practitioners with various backgrounds from different program settings. Although educational opportunities targeting adult ESL students play an essential role in equal and extensive participation in society and academia, the status of teachers who assist these learners achieve their goals is rather marginalized, often because the students themselves are marginalized and ESL teaching is considered an undertaking that does not require special preparation. One way to enhance the professionalization of those involved in ESL is through an explication that the task of providing instruction to ESL learners is indeed an endeavor filled with complexity and requiring a strong knowledge base. This study was an attempt to contribute to this effort in fostering such professional recognition. Data were collected via a series of focused interviews, consecutive classroom observations, and a stimulated recall procedure with each of 10 teacher participants. Analysis of the data revealed that ESL teachers possessed an intricate knowledge base with multiple categories of knowledge that they called upon to deliver instruction effectively and efficiently, particularly through the management of student responses and the management of learning. The interconnection among the seemingly discrete knowledge categories further highlighted the complexity and difficulty involved in the provision of instruction to adult ESL learners. By comparing the teacher participants’ instructional effectiveness and various backgrounds, the study also illuminated the impact of ESL teachers’ professional preparation and language learning experience. Implications derived from the findings are offered for theorists and researchers, and for practitioners and administrators of programs that serve adult ESL learners. / text

This study investigates developments in the practice of teachers who have engaged in a series of workshops on the integration of new technologies into their work in the English for Academic Purposes (EAP) classroom. It looks specifically at developments in actions and knowledge during and after a teacher education programme, and how these developments shape or reshape teachers' specific professional practice of using technology in EAP teaching. Added to this, it explores ways in which teachers articulate their sense of EAP as a subject and EAP teaching as a profession, and tries to situate technology's role within that. Drawing on a theoretical framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006; Koehler & Mishra, 2009), and second-generation Activity Theory (Engeström, 1987), this story of development unfolds through a case-study narrative over the bounded timeframe of eighteen months. The setting is a university language centre in the United Kingdom, where the workshops took place, and three teachers have been selected as cases to represent the story of developments, and changes in practice occurring in line with the delivery and aftermath of this teacher education programme. Significant changes were noted in the teachers' specific professional practice of using technology in their teaching, and the study suggests that as technology becomes embedded in EAP teaching, there is an associated re-thinking of practice in other areas, particularly the role played by, and nature of, EAP content. As such, this supports one of the central arguments for the development of TPACK, in that the introduction of technology to existing conceptualisations of Pedagogic Content Knowledge (PCK) (Shulman, 1986) has demanded that teachers question their existing pedagogy, and lay the foundations for development in their practice as a whole (Mishra & Koehler, 2006, p. 1063). This study then is a story of development and teachers' personal reflections on practice, giving shape to a final report that hopes to make a contribution to understanding, defining, and opening the way for further research into EAP practice in the digital age.

This project is framed by a dilemma: representations of teaching practice are critical in teacher education, and yet the representations we rely on dangerously oversimplify teaching. My central questions emerge from this dilemma. In telling stories about teaching, how messy can the story be before it becomes unintelligible? Why does messiness matter and what does it produce for teachers-to-be? After examining both canonical accounts of teacher knowledge and emergent research that is productively disrupting the field, I draw on the work of Karen Barad to help me imagine both a new way of telling teaching stories, what I call diffractive storytelling, and a new way of thinking about their use in teacher education. In particular, I take up Barad’s concept of apparatus to consider what knowing is made possible by traditional teacher stories, what knowing is foreclosed, and what these possibilities and limitations mean for teacher education. Finally, I turn to other apparatuses at work in teacher education, especially standardized assessments such as edTPA, the new performance-based assessment of teacher readiness being implemented across the country. I argue that attending carefully to the apparatus-ness of the instruments used in teacher preparation allows us to contest the naturalization of narrow conceptions of teaching practice and sustains the paradox of holding to standards while resisting standardization.

One of the key thrusts in Singapore’s Thinking Schools, Learning Nation (TSLN) educational vision, launched in 1997, is the emphasis on critical thinking in schools. This entails pedagogical changes and challenges for teachers, especially, in terms of their knowledge, dispositions and practices of critical thinking, which are argued to be fundamental in fulfilling the TSLN thrust. Although TSLN is now 10 years into its implementation, to date, there has been little research undertaken to determine the efficacy of the implementation of the critical thinking policy thrust through the perspectives and voices of both teachers and students — the key stakeholders of education and the ultimate agents in the successful implementation of educational initiatives. Therefore, in gaining an in-depth understanding of teachers’ and students’ perspectives of the implementation of critical thinking from the ‘swampy lowlands’, a qualitative case study approach was used. Six government school teachers and their students participated in the case study and data were gathered through lesson observations, interviews, and the analysis of documents. / Findings suggest that a multitude of interrelated systemic and contextual factors, which are predisposed by underlying ‘technocratic and instrumental rationalities’ that govern Singaporean education, remain major barriers to the realisation of TSLN’s critical thinking thrust. The study found that there are gaps and uncertainties in the teachers’ knowledge base of critical thinking and that the incorporation of critical thinking as part of their pedagogy and classroom practice is marginal. Student data corroborate the general lack of emphasis and the limited role of critical thinking in the classroom and they indicate that the hegemony of both school curricula and high stakes examination perpetuate rote learning and didactic pedagogies. / Implications of the study suggest the need to reorientate teacher education and professional development programmes with the explicit aim of transforming teachers’ knowledge base and dispositions to engage with the pedagogical changes that TSLN’s critical thinking policy thrust necessitates. However, to effect deep change and realize the core aspiration of ‘thinking learners’, there must not only be restructuring; reculturing also needs to occur across and beyond the educational system. Importantly, such changes need to be primarily informed by the reconceptualisation of teachers — from mere ‘technicians’ to ‘transformative intellectuals’ — and teachers’ work — from ‘technical work’ to ‘intellectual work’. It is also vital that teachers who are entrusted with the task of developing ‘thinking learners’ under TSLN teach curricula and work in school contexts that explicitly encourage, value and reward critical thinking.

This dissertation describes the results of two studies that examined preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of social and emotional learning (SEL) and its impact on academic achievement. Components of SEL, such as self-efficacy and self-regulation, play an important role in academic attainment and can be especially beneficial to young readers. One hundred and seventy inservice and 155 preservice teachers completed surveys that measured their overall knowledge of SEL concepts and perceptions regarding their preparedness for teaching SEL, its importance, and implementation. The descriptive results indicated both inservice and preservice teachers had some underlying knowledge regarding SEL, but performed poorly in identifying definitions of fundamental SEL terms. The large majority of preservice and inservice teachers felt SEL was important to academic achievement, but seemed conflicted about the role of SEL in classroom instruction. Responses from inservice and preservice teachers indicate they may feel underprepared for teaching SEL in their classrooms. Multiple regression analyses revealed preservice teachers' responses to items on the perceptions scales predicted overall knowledge scores. Analysis of Variance results indicated there were no differences by demographic variables on overall teacher knowledge scores and responses to perceptions scales. The results are consistent with previous findings on teachers' perceptions of SEL's importance. Implications for teacher preparation programs and classroom instruction are discussed along with directions for future research.