This study examines the use of instructional coaching in one urban school as a form of professional development for teachers. The use of instructional coaches in the classroom has become more and more popular in many school districts across the nation as they look for ways to improve student performance by improving the performance of their teachers. With higher academic standards placed on schools, there is greater demand on teachers to make certain that all of their students are successful. The need for professional development and coaching for teachers of English language learners (ELLs) is discussed. The research site for this study, City View Middle School, is located in a large urban school district where approximately 176,000 students are English language learners. The participants include 1 principal, 14 teachers, and 2 coaches. At the school, all students are considered English language learners and 40% are also considered Students with Interrupted Formal Education (SIFE). This case study employed qualitative methods in the form of observations and interviews of each participant. From the teachers' perspective, three themes emerged as their greatest challenges in working with English language learners. These included: student stressors related to adapting to a new country, the wide range of literacy levels in the classroom, and teaching academic language. Even with these challenges facing them, were teachers willing to work with coaches in an effort to improve their classroom practice? Were teachers receptive to the feedback they received from coaches? Were they willing to try new strategies? Were there any signs of teacher resistance? How were coaches able to create change? The coaches offered a professional development program that included training in the following areas: vocabulary, reading, writing/lesson planning, and cooperative learning strategies. Two types of coaching were implemented at the school: 1) peer observations and group debriefing sessions in Teacher Learning Communities (TLCs); and 2) individualized coaching sessions, which included: a one-on-one pre-meeting, an observation, and a one-on-one debriefing session. The results of this study suggest that there were several preconditions for change. In order for change to occur there were several interrelated factors that needed to take place in the coaching relationship. The professional and personal qualities of the coaches became key factors in how coaching was established at the school. These qualities affected the ways in which they established trust, how they set the tone for their work at the school, how they provided teachers feedback and opportunities for reflective dialogue, and how they created a supportive and nurturing environment. These elements of coaching allowed teachers to feel comfortable to: ask questions, seek help, change their perceptions about what works and what does not work with ELLs, and the confidence to try something new. The support from the principal was also a key element in creating change. Without the principal's support, coaches would not have been able to accomplish their goals with the teachers. This study contributes to our understanding of how schools can support teachers who are experiencing an increasing number of English language learners in their classrooms and do not have the credentials to effectively teach them. / Urban Education

This dissertation poses the question, “Who cares and who does not care for poor, black, brown, red and economically disadvantaged children in urban school settings?” The study takes a deeper look at some of the underlying human dynamics that inform teacher retention and student academic achievement as an education problem, specifically related to notions of care and emotions in the urban school environment. The central focus of the study is on identifying what might be the factors that contribute to the development of a “pedagogy of care” by white female teachers, and the impact of hidden dimensions of affect in the environment on their motivations and commitment. Exploring care and fear is central to the framing of this study and is done by looking beyond the cognitive structures that inform the perceived rational processes of the teachers’ engagement in the environment. This study explores the process by which the phenomenon of care and emotions is connected to the personal and professional developmental tasks of the teachers and is viewed through the interactions of their biographies and event episodes across their life story. Phenomenological Variance of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) (Spencer, 2006) is used as a human development frame for situating this study. This work provides the context for understanding how pre-service teachers’ beginning identity formation is impacted by their perceptions and experiences when they enter the urban environment, and how practicing teachers’ real time experiences can help us understand the ways in which veteran teachers have negotiated perceptions and developed emotional resilience to remain in the environment. The findings of this study identified the process by which veteran white female teachers vulnerabilities led to aspects of their generative caring concerns and served as supports towards the development of their emotion-capacities and caring motives for becoming resilient in the urban environment. Data from this study could be used to help schools of education, teacher educators, professional development initiatives, and policy makers to construct and implement more appropriate and stage specific trainings, curriculum, in-service supports, and legislation that would provide a variety of critical supports to help retain teachers in urban schools. / Urban Education

Occupational therapy (OT) is a rehabilitation profession in which licensed therapists facilitate functional independence, to the greatest extent possible, of an individual with disabilities. Education for OT is at the Master’s level consisting of a two-year academic program followed by clinical Fieldwork II, a required 12-week internship under the mentorship of a licensed therapist with at least one year’s experience. In light of the fact that clinical fieldwork sites differ in size and resources, and clinical instructors may have only one year’s experience and no formal training in instruction, there is great variability in students’ clinical fieldwork experiences. The purpose of this study was to determine novice rehab OT’s perceptions of four key factors in clinical education: First, skill areas in which they felt most prepared; second, areas perceived as obstacles in adjustment to entry-level practice; third, essential elements of an ideal clinical learning environment; and fourth, the need for credentialing clinical instructors. Participants were 1-3 years post rehab fieldwork with first job in rehab. An online survey (N=45) and audiotaped interviews (N=9) were utilized to collect data on the perceptions of new OT’s on Fieldwork II experiences. Interviewees represented a convenience sample independent of survey participants. Most participants reported feeling prepared to perform basic clinical skills, communicate on interdisciplinary teams and seek mentorship in the workplace. Less proficiency was perceived in the areas of patient/family communication, and coping with reality shock (adjustment to real life practice). Over half of the participants felt that there should be some kind of mandatory credentialing for clinical instructors. There was consensus among OT’s regarding the ideal Fieldwork II setting which included well-trained instructors, availability for onsite learning and a well-equipped clinical site. / Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a one-semester combined mathematics content/methods course based on Simon's (1994) Learning Cycle framework for the mathematical preparation of preservice elementary teachers was more effective at aligning preservice teachers' beliefs with the philosophy of the Standards documents (NCTM, 1989, 1991, 1995, 2000) and other reform literature than another content/methods course. While the six-cycled Learning Cycles framework has been used in separate content and methods courses (Simon, 1995), it has not been used in a combined content/methods setting. The preservice teachers enrolled in two sections of the course Teaching Math to Children: N-6 were involved in the study with one section investigating the topics measurement, geometry and fractions using the Learning Cycles framework while the other section used a different framework to investigate number concepts and place value; addition and subtraction strategies; multiplication and division strategies; geometry and spatial sense; ratio, proportion, percent, similarity and scale; and probability, counting techniques and statistics. Beliefs about the nature, teaching and learning of mathematics were measured both quantitatively and qualitatively. All participants' beliefs were assessed quantitatively at the beginning and the end of the course using a beliefs instrument with three subscales that measured beliefs about the nature, teaching and learning of mathematics. Five preservice teachers from the Learning Cycles course served as case studies and provided qualitative data through interviews and journal prompts. Analyses of Covariance were calculated for course of enrollment and each of the three beliefs subscales. For beliefs about the nature of mathematics, there was a significant difference between the adjusted post-test scores of the Learning Cycles group and the comparison group favoring the Learning Cycles group. Similar results were found regarding beliefs about the teaching of mathematics. While significant differences were found between the groups with regards to beliefs about the learning of mathematics, the scores on the corresponding subscale changed only slightly. Qualitative analyses confirmed the findings regarding the beliefs about the nature and teaching of mathematics. Differences were also found in the preservice teachers' beliefs about learning mathematics. The case study participants attributed certain characteristics of the course with their changing beliefs. These results indicate that the Learning Cycles course was somewhat successful at aligning preservice teachers' beliefs with those of the reform movement. / CITE/Mathematics and Science Education

There are several effective treatment methods and evidence based practices (EBP) for teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The use of EBPs is federally mandated, but it is often overwhelming for teachers to identify and implement available best practices with fidelity in the absence of ongoing training and support (Alexander, Ayres & Smith, 2015). Teachers often display low implementation fidelity, and, specifically, special education teachers often struggle with progress monitoring and data collection, which are essential elements of EBPs. Although most teachers are familiar with direct and frequent measurement for data collection, less than half reported using this type of progress monitoring in their classroom, stating several barriers including lack of time and knowledge (Wesson, King & Deno, 1984). One way to affect teacher implementation and behavior change is through different consultation styles, including performance feedback or a commitment emphasis approach. Performance feedback is a widely used and effective method to improve teacher implementation and treatment fidelity (Burns, Peters & Noell, 2008; Sanetti, & Kratochwill, 2009; Solomon, Klein & Politylo, 2012). A commitment emphasis model is a social influence strategy, which also shows continuing support for teacher behavior change (Noell et al. 2005). This study evaluated a strategy for increasing teachers’ completion of the Student Learning Profile (SLP), a curriculum-based student assessment that is administered as part of the Strategies for Teaching based on Autism Research (STAR; Arick, Krug, Loos & Falco, 2004), using a randomized control group design to compare a performance feedback model with a commitment emphasis plus prompt model of consultation. Overall, the study found a significant effect for teacher SLP completion at time-point one for teachers’ in the experimental group using a commitment emphasis model, but less so over time. Implications for researchers, clinicians and educators are also explored. / Special Education

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The use of instructional technologies has an impact on students' content acquisition and adds to class performance (Baylor and Ritchie, 2002). However, Beggs (2000) notes that research has shown that it is not only the technology that is important, but also how it is used that improves learning and increases pupils' interest. In view of this, since not much was known about the use of technologies in teacher training colleges in Malawi, this study was designed to establish how instructional technologies were used by tutors in those colleges. The technologies studied were chalkboards, flip charts, overhead projectors, videos, computers, and local resources from the environment. The research questions were (a) How often did tutors use instructional technologies in their teaching? (b)What reasons did tutors have for using and not using instructional technologies in their teaching? (c)How did college tutors perceive their competence levels in using instructional technologies? (d)What attitudes did the college tutors have towards the use of instructional technologies? (e)What did tutors consider important factors in influencing their use of instructional technologies? The sample consisted of tutors from Karonga, Lilongwe, St. Joseph's, Blantyre, and Montfort Teacher Training Colleges, who completed a survey designed to address the research questions. In addition to the tutors, a snapshot study was conducted with faculty at Domasi College of Education to establish how use of computer technology was established and sustained and what lessons could be learned that could assist the teacher training colleges as they encourage computer use among their tutors. The results of the survey that was conducted with the tutors revealed that there was infrequent use of higher order instructional technologies i.e. overhead projectors, videos, and computers, which was attributed to lack of training, unavailability of the technologies, and lack of maintenance. The failure to use the locally available resources by some of the tutors was attributed to lack of creative thinking as well as lack of initiative to use the local environment in their teaching. Constant training and peer support on how to use the instructional technologies are some of the lessons to be learned from Domasi College of Education. The study concludes with a suggested process for how government and the teacher training institutions can work collaboratively to maximize the use of instructional technologies in the teaching and learning process for prospective teachers. Several possibilities for further research on the use of instructional technologies have been highlighted. / Ph. D.

The goal of this research was to assess the Virginia three-year provisional teaching license preparation path for earning a teaching license with an endorsement in Business and Information Technology (BIT) and Marketing Education (MKED). The study examined BIT and MKED teacher preparedness as it relates to core teaching and program management competencies for CTE educators who enrolled and completed Virginia's three-year teacher provisional licensure route to determine the effectiveness of the routes themselves. The research studied how the participants teacher preparation path impacted teachers' preparedness and how the elements of the provisional path contributed to the teacher's confidence in teaching. The study had one main research question and two sub-questions. The first sub-question emerged into five themes. They include lack of support system, struggle to implement essential teaching competencies, struggle to implement essential program management competencies, taking coursework while teaching does not work, and slight improvement by third year, but still a struggle. The second sub-question emerged into three themes. They include the need for effective support system, need for increased funding for teacher pay and required college courses, and need for focused training on specific CTE competencies. Three key conclusions from the study were BIT and MKED teachers need specific preparation training focused on core CTE teaching and program management competencies prior to entering the classroom, need a student teaching and/or co-teaching experience prior to entering the classroom by themselves, and need effective and active mentoring as well as administrative feedback and support during the entire three-year provisional licensure process. / Doctor of Philosophy / The study examined BIT and MKED teacher preparedness as it relates to core teaching and program management competencies for CTE educators who enrolled and completed Virginia's three-year teacher provisional licensure route to determine the effectiveness of the routes themselves. A qualitative research design was used for this study to determine the factors that affect the first year and third year provisionally licensed BIT and MKED teacher competency obtainment in the state of Virginia. A pre-survey of essential core teaching and program management competencies was given to create awareness of the interview topic to the interviewees. This survey was followed by an in-depth interview to gather rich data relating to the obtainment of core competencies. Three key conclusions from the study were BIT and MKED teachers need specific preparation training focused on core CTE teaching and program management competencies prior to entering the classroom, need a student teaching and/or co-teaching experience prior to entering the classroom by themselves, and need effective and active mentoring as well as administrative feedback and support during the entire three-year provisional licensure process. The results of the research may help improve the provisionally licensed teacher path route for prepare beginning BIT and MKED teachers in Virginia. The research will add to the literature by providing (1) information on how to improve provisional-teacher license preparation programs, (2) suggesting methods of training in these programs, and (3) showing the significance of beginning CTE teachers' professional relationships with administrators and mentor teachers. The results of the study could also assist school districts to better allocate resources and staff to effectively help provisionally licensed teachers.

The way in which a school division addresses the problem of an unsatisfactory teacher varies. A school division may choose to tolerate the problem, dismiss the teacher, or provide assistance to foster the development of the skills needed to meet minimum performance standards. The design of teacher assistance programs varies in the type of personnel who provide remediation and the extent to which events in the program are documented. This study describes the status of teacher assistance programs that were operational in Virginia during the 1988-89 school year. A survey instrument was distributed to each school division in the Commonwealth of Virginia. First, all of the existing programs were identified. Each program was classified by degree of formality: informal, semi-formal, and formal. Each program was further classified by the type of staff utilized: school-based and central office-based staff. Secondly, the categories were developed into a model of teacher assistance programs for comparison. / Ed. D.

The purpose of this study was fourfold: to further our understanding of the effect of training on teachers' use of "bridging strategies"; to identify variables that influence teachers' use of the strategies; to explore the feasibility of using the Bridging Strategy Rating Scale (BSRS) as a feedback/evaluation tool for members of the child care and school community; to establish which strategies were least/most used. A series of two-way, 2 x 2, ANDV As, !-tests, and descriptive statistics revealed that training was partially effective in assisting teachers in their use of the "bridging strategies"; comfort with, clarity of concept, and simplicity, were identified contextual variables that influenced teachers' use of some of the strategies. T-test of control group's pretest and posttest mean score was statistically significant whereas the experimental group's was at a level that approached significance. Observing, validating, participating/conversing, managing/organizing/providing were the most used strategies and extending, problem initiating, role modeling and instructing were the least used. Interpretations and implications for early childhood teacher educators are discussed. / Ph. D.