The teacher of the primary education at elementary school is becoming an important authority in the process of school attendance of every student. This is the reason for a preparation and knowledge in a variety of different subjects from various fields, more than in the case of the specialized teacher, because the general outlook and professionalism is expected. This diploma thesis is divided into a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part deals with the problematic of preparation of the teacher for the profession in Czech Republic and abroad. Further it contains chapters touching the personality of the teacher and the key teacher's competences. The practical part presents the results of mixed research realized on students of the first and fifth years. For the purposes of the research survey the method of interview and questionnaire were used. The aim of this diploma thesis and the research survey is to outline the view and the expectations of the first and fifth year students of the primary education at the pedagogical faculty. Together with this aim the comparison of the results of the Hana Reifova's diploma thesis dealing with a similar question from the point of view of the beginner teacher is noticeable.

abstract: Mentor teachers have a significant impact on pre-service teachers. Unfortunately, mentors are often underprepared for their role, and thus, the potential learning from a student teaching experience is not maximized. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University provides training to mentors who host pre-service teachers during their student teaching experience. Training is delivered in two formats: online prior to the start of the semester and face-to-face each month throughout the semester. This action research study looked at how training contributes to mentor understanding and actions in supporting teacher candidates and how mentor support impacts teacher candidate performance. The study included two mentor/teacher candidate dyads and one university site coordinator. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a variety of sources including observations of mentor trainings, teacher candidate lessons, and coaching conversations. Additional data sources included semi-structured interviews with mentors, teacher candidates, and the site coordinator. Analysis of data found that training may contribute to mentor understanding, but other factors matter too. The data also indicated that current training is insufficient at producing all desired mentor behaviors. With respect to the ways that mentors support teacher candidates, this study found that mentors play a multifaceted role, provide ongoing feedback, and employ various strategies during coaching conversations. This study found mentors help teacher candidates see their performance through the eyes of an experienced educator. Modeling and coaching helped teacher candidates improve. This study also suggests a positive, professional relationship between mentor/mentee and certain teacher candidate characteristics such as openness to feedback facilitate learning from a mentor. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Leadership and Innovation 2014

Orientador: Lucia Helena Reily / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Artes / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-20T07:59:23Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Pizza_DulcineiaGalliano_M.pdf: 37700626 bytes, checksum: 0656e5ea33b77009996212a1cf94a131 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012 / Resumo: A pesquisa com o material pedagógico Pasta Arte br, criado pelo Instituto Arte na Escola para oferecer suporte a professores em programa de formação continuada, teve por finalidade refletir sobre questões relativas ao conceito de imagem e também sobre proposições para a leitura, compreensão e interpretação de imagens de arte. Teve como objetivo, ainda, considerar a capacidade de professores de arte de reflexão e utilização do repertório imagético e as múltipas possibilidades para a atribuição de sentido a partir das reproduções de obras apresentadas. No projeto, a imagem é tratada como algo que vai além da forma visível e que tem como princípio formador a percepção e a capacidade do observador de elaborar significados. Para tanto, foram relacionados autores que tratam a leitura da imagem sobre esta perspectiva. Foi utilizada a pesquisa qualitativa para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho com grupo focal. Os participantes foram quatro professoras da rede pública de ensino, atuantes no ensino fundamental e médio que discutiram sobre a aplicação do material em suas aulas. Dos trabalhos do grupo focal, resultaram diversas formas de ler as imagens apresentadas, e impressões sobre a utilização do material pedagógico e das imagens como mediadoras da ação do professor de arte. Este material foi analisado para a elaboração de críticas construtivas sobre possibilidades de melhora do conteúdo e sugestões da Pasta Arte br do ponto de vista de professores / Abstract: The aim of studying the Pasta Arte br, pedagogical material created by the Instituto Arte na Escola to support art teaching, was to reflect on issues related to image concepts as well as to discuss propositions that had the objective of enabling reading, understanding and interpretation of art images. Another aim was to look at art teacher's capacity for reflecting on and using image repertoire and multiple possibilities for attributing meaning based on the reproductions of the works that were presented. In this project, the image is considered as an element that goes beyond the visible form; the underlying principle is the aim to develop the observer's perception and his or her capacity for elaborating meanings. To this end, authors that discuss image literacy on this perspective were selected. Qualitative research methodology was used to carry out the study with a focal group. The participants were four elementary and secondary level teachers who discussed their experience applying the material in their art classes. During the focal group sessions, several ways of reading and working with the images were presented, as well as impressions on the use of the pedagogical material and images as mediators in the art teachers' practices. The data was analyzed in order to elaborate constructive criticism on the possibilities for improving the content and suggestions of the Pasta Arte br from the teachers' point of view / Mestrado / Artes Visuais / Mestre em Artes

The purpose of this study was to explore the integration of family involvement in the courses and field experiences in an undergraduate special education program. This study also explored preservice teachers’ perceptions about what they learned in their program and the perceptions, and understandings of pre-service teachers regarding collaboration with families based on their past experiences with their families. This study used qualitative research methods to answer questions about perceptions of pre-service teachers’ perceptions of collaborating with families and the extent to which their perceptions are influenced by their own family backgrounds as well as their perceptions about what they learned in their program. In order to address the goals and related research questions of this study, the research design will be a descriptive case study. Interviews with six preservice teachers and two professors and document analysis used in this study as a source of data. Three themes emerged from the data. The themes are as follows: perceptions of preservice teachers about family-school collaboration, preservice teachers’ past experiences when they were at K-12 in terms of family involvement and teacher education program experiences of preservice teachers.

English Language Learners (ELLs) are students who speak a language other than English; they are the fastest growing student population in United States’ (US) public schools and will include over 17 million students by the year 2020 (NCES,2015). The dramatic increase in the ELL student population means that all mainstream classroom teachers will teach at least one ELL within their first year of graduating from a teacher preparation program. However, most US teachers hold misconceptions about ELLs and feel unprepared for ELL instruction (Coady, Harper, & de Jong, 2011). More empirical research is needed to inform teacher preparation programs on the practices that work best to prepare teachers for effective ELL instruction. Video refection and video annotation tools have become increasingly popular in teacher preparation (Calandra & Rich, 2015; Rich & Hannafin, 2009). Video annotation tools provide affordances to teacher candidates’ understanding of pedagogy and support teacher professional development (Borko et al., 2008). Still, most of the empirical research that has been done on teacher candidates’ use of video reflection reports on general education, English-speaking student learning contexts, and the research that has been done on teacher candidates use of video to reflect on ELL instruction is limited. This research aimed to fill the gap in what is known about video reflection for ELL teacher preparation, and examined how three, undergraduate, final semester teacher candidates used V- Note (a video annotation tool), and instructional coaching to reflect on instruction for elementary-aged ELLs. Sociocultural Theory was used to answer the following research questions: (a) How does video-elicited reflection shape undergraduate teacher candidates’ beliefs about ELLs and instruction for ELLs? (b) How does video-elicited reflection affirm, challenge, or reconstruct teacher candidates’ beliefs about ELLs and instruction for ELLs? Data included interviews, written reflections, and a researcher’s journal. A qualitative multiple-case study analysis (Stake, 2013) was used to generate case and cross case findings surrounding Taylor, Susan’s and Erica’s cases. Taylor’s case revealed that as Taylor used video-elicited reflection, her instruction increasingly included more language accommodations and began to include student-centered learning, video-elicited reflection reconstructed Taylor’s beliefs about using one-on-one instruction with ELLs, and collaborative coaching behaviors influenced Taylor’s instruction of ELLs more than directive coaching behaviors did. Susan’s case findings showed that video-elicited reflection challenged Susan’s misconceptions about ELLs’ language needs, Susan needed more explicit modeling to demonstrate how teachers can intentionally support ELLs’ language needs with accommodated instruction, and instructional coaching supported Susan’s understanding of ELLs’ English language proficiency levels and how these levels could be used to inform instruction. Erica’s case findings revealed that video-elicited reflection reconstructed Erica’s beliefs about collaborative learning, video-elicited reflection created a space where Erica explored using accommodations to support ELL comprehension, and video-elicited reflection developed Erica’s beliefs about language. Cross case findings reported on similarities across Taylor’s, Susan’s and Erica’s cases. The first cross case finding showed that video-elicited reflection challenged teacher candidates’ misconceptions about ELLs. The second cross case findings reported that video-elicited reflection allowed teacher candidates to develop an understating of language through appropriation, and the third cross case findings illustrated that video-elicited reflection mediated teacher candidates’ ELL pedagogical development. Findings from this research led to a discussion on the continuous use of video annotation and instructional coaching as permanent scaffolds that promote teacher candidates’ understanding of ELL pedagogy. Additionally, a discussion surrounding a cyclic model of teacher professional development that employs video-elicited reflection is shared, and the use of video-elicited reflection to facilitate teacher candidates’ participatory appropriation is discussed.

Throughout the history of teacher education, the final fieldwork experience has often been called the single most influential experience in teacher preparation programs (Burns, Jacobs, & Yendol-Hoppey, 2016; Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1986; Parker-Katz & Bay, 2008). Though this experience has been expanded to include fieldwork experiences throughout many teacher education programs (Guyton & McIntyre, 1990), the final fieldwork experience remains the closing activity and the lasting image of teacher preparation (Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1986; Rosaen & Florio-Ruane, 2008). Given its importance, though, researchers know relatively little about it. “The knowledge thus produced is akin to the quantum theory of physics; we know what goes in . . . and what comes out . . . but not what occurs in the interim” (Guyton & McIntyre, 1990, p. 524). Given the current reforms in mathematics education and mathematics teacher education (National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education, 2010; National Governors Association Center for Best Practices & Council of Chief State School Officers, 2010), Guyton and McIntyre’s observation is still relevant today. During the final fieldwork experience, university-based and school-based mathematics educators must work together on behalf of the novice to marry university-promoted theory (especially reform-oriented theory) with the practical classroom expectations of day-to-day teaching life. Though there is much research on how this kind of work should be done and the dilemmas that have arisen during fieldwork (e.g., Knight, 2009; Loughran, 2006; Nolan & Hoover, 2004; Sergiovanni & Starratt, 2006; Sullivan & Glanz, 2013), we have little information about the experiences of the mathematics educators who collaborate during final fieldwork. Furthermore, we have very little information on how these educators navigate mathematics reforms to prepare teachers of mathematics. This multi-case study was designed to investigate three novices, their school-based mentors, and their university-based mentor (me) who collaborated during a year-long final fieldwork experience at the close of a middle school mathematics teacher preparation program. To write single case reports that illuminated our collaborative experiences, I wrote the “stories” of each triad. To collect these stories, I used individual and group interviews, paired conversations, asynchronous text interviews, conference observations, collaborative fieldwork artifacts, my own practitioner-researcher journal, and three cycles of participant member checks. After verifying the veracity of the stories of each triad, I engaged in cross-case analysis to make assertions about the commonalities and unique circumstances that defined these fieldwork cases. This study adds to teacher preparation fieldwork literature by evoking a response from educators working in the field and providing them with examples of open dialogue that created more empathetic collaborative experiences. The study also provides evidence that the empathy generated by sharing stories can create more productive and effective learning experiences for the novices involved. In particular, open dialogue provided the collaborators in these cases with a platform for acknowledging pedagogical differences, negotiating fieldwork expectations, and setting and meeting novices’ professional goals. For future investigations of teacher preparation fieldwork collaboration, this study provides evidence that a practitioner approach to research affords the researcher exceptional access to the stories of novices and mentors and establishes empathetic bonds that can make the telling of those stories both illuminating and respectful of the voices they represent.

The purpose of this study was to examine if there is an association between effective supervision and communication competence in divisions of student affairs at Christian higher education institutions. The investigation examined chief student affairs officers (CSAOs) and their direct reports at 45 institutions across the United States using the Synergistic Supervision Scale and the Communication Competence Questionnaire. A positive significant association was found between the direct report's evaluation of the CSAO's level of synergistic supervision and the direct report's evaluation of the CSAO's level of communication competence. The findings of this study will advance the supervision and communication competence literature while informing practice for student affairs professionals. This study provides a foundation of research in the context specific field of student affairs where there has been a dearth of literature regarding effective supervision. This study can be used as a platform for future research to further the understanding of characteristics that define effective supervision.

A well-prepared and qualified special education teacher is crucial to the performance of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). The prominent educators and federal government encourage the use of extended field experiences in preparing qualified special education teachers. The study examined the strengths and weaknesses of extended field experience in terms of the perceptions of the prospective teachers and teachers of students with EBD. Both individual interviews and a focus group were used to collect data. The results revealed that extended field experience benefits prospective teachers in showing the reality of the teachers' world, self-motivation assessment, and professional development. However, there were some improvements that could be made, including more placement selections and more practical knowledge.

Educators today are faced with a worthy goal. Every student, including those with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), must be taught by a qualified teacher. However, recruiting, training, and retaining quality special education teachers continue to confound the field. The purpose of this study was to determine if the completion of a NCATE/CEC (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education/Council for Exceptional Children) approved masters program specializing in EBD from a well-known university increased the confidence in knowledge and skills of special educators, the numbers of special educators, and/or the retention of special educators working with students with EBD. The sample in this study was composed of 199 students who had completed the master's degree in special education who specialized in emotional/behavioral disorders from 1985 to 2005. Data were compiled from 80 students at a response rate of approximately 40%. Additionally, five respondents participated in face-to-face interviews. The data did not lend themselves to the quantitative analysis and thus pose a limitation to the generalizability of this study. However, combined with the qualitative analysis, the study provided a rich analysis of a program whose graduates stay in the field of special education providing services to students with EBD.

This study was developed to examine the motivations of individuals who chose alternative routes to teacher certification and what they believe were the strengths and weaknesses of their alternative certification preparation (ACP). Data accrued from this study were based on a 55-item online survey and participant information from an online focus group. The study compared the differences between general and special educators in regards to the motivating factors affecting the decision to become a teacher, remain a teacher, and in choosing a non-university-based ACP, as well as the perceived strengths and weaknesses of the ACP. The results from the survey suggest there are differences in the motivating factors affecting general and special educator's decision to become a teacher and to remain a teacher. Additional survey results suggest there are no differences in the reason these two groups chose a non-university-based ACP. The results of the survey and the online focus group were comparable for these two groups. The remainder of this dissertation includes a review of literature related to teacher shortages and teacher preparation including alternative certification. Additionally, information on the results and analysis of the study are discussed, as well as recommendations for future research.