The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes about art and art education held by elementary art teachers, classroom teachers, and principals, and how an involvement in a discipline-based art education (DBAE) program through participation in the Florida Institute for Art Education (FIAE) might affect these attitudes. The FIAE has adopted the educational change model of the Getty Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts as a vehicle for implementing change. The main focus of this study addressed two issues: (1) how attitudes concerning art and art education held by elementary teachers and principals who participated in the FIAE might differ from the attitudes of nonparticipating teachers and principals, and (2) how attitudes of FIAE elementary teachers and principals might change as a result of intensive training in the teaching of art using the DBAE approach facilitated by an educational change model. / In order to identify specific attitudes about art education, a questionnaire was developed and tested, and a survey was conducted. The population for this study included eleven county school districts in Florida who have participated in the 1988, 1989, and 1990 summer institutes of the FIAE and eleven county school districts who did not participate. Data analysis was completed using an analysis of covariance and descriptive statistics. / The results of the study revealed a statistically significant difference between the attitudinal mean scores of participants of the FIAE and nonparticipants.. Implications of these findings indicate that existing attitudes can be altered, and that educational change can occur. Recommendations were made for creating new art programs, and enhancing existing programs by a discipline-based approach to teaching art implemented through an educational model. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0693. / Major Professor: Jessie Lovano-Kerr. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The professional development of teachers is a continuing issue that concerns both teachers and organisational administrators. This study is concerned with one aspect of this broad issue: the manner in which teachers determine their professional development needs in the context of the varying individual and organisational changes they face. To conduct this study a process to assist teachers determine their professional development needs was developed, implemented and evaluated. This occurred as a series of case studies with a group of teachers drawn from the N.S.W. Department of School Education. Throughout the study a number of key issues are considered. These include teachers' responses to professional and personal change, an examination of a holistic range of potential needs, and techniques that teachers are able to use to appraise and validate their needs. The study sought to gain new understanding of the processes used by teachers in their professional development needs analysis, and to develop a model that can be used by teachers and schools for these purposes. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

State educational agencies are charged with following provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), and when components such as adequate yearly progress (AYP) are not met, consequences follow such as lack of school choice and loss of federal funding. A school district in the southeastern United States was found unable to meet the AYP reading requirement for 4 consecutive years. Research suggests that exposure to various forms of informational text is needed in order for students to develop into successful readers, achieve state requirements, and be successful on standardized tests. This qualitative phenomenological study was based on the premises of constructivism and theories of learning motivation that encourage interactive learning, exposure to a variety of reading forms, and opportunities for creating meanings and reflecting. The purpose of this study was to address the research question that involved understanding teachers' perceptions of what information and components of informational texts are needed to improve students' reading abilities. Interviews were conducted with 10 third-grade teachers at one particular school within the district. Emerging themes were identified through open coding of interview data. Results suggested that informational texts could be beneficial for increasing student achievement if student ability level, instructional content, and educational standards were taken into account. Based on past research and on the findings of the current study, a professional development plan and manual for utilizing informational texts in the classroom was developed. Implications for positive social change include improvements in professional development on informational texts for teachers in order to enhance student achievement and reading success.

Even the most caring teachers need to feel appreciated by their students. Noddings proposed a circle of care in which teachers develop a caring classroom environment and initiate care for students. A positive response from the student is required in order to close the circle of care. Although researchers have described the characteristics of caring teachers, there is little research to examine the diverse ways that students reciprocate. / The purpose of the current ethnographic research was to examine the class environments that physical education teachers created for their students. The research question that guided this study was: "What was the place of caring in three physical teachers' class environments." / To address the question, I conducted an ethnographic, multi-site, case study involving sixth-grade classes from three different middle schools in a suburban school district. In each school I observed one teacher teach two classes. I used qualitative research to collect class observations and teacher and student interview data, focusing on the identification of interpersonal interactions between teachers and students. At the conclusion of the observation period, the three physical education teachers administered a 15 min. written questionnaire to all the students in their two classes. I also conducted one-on-one interviews with 28 students. After the student interviews, I conducted semi-structured interviews with each teacher. I analyzed data inductively and deductively using open, axial, and selective coding and adopted specific strategies to enhance the trustworthiness and transferability of these findings. / Results suggested that the three physical education teachers created and maintained effective classroom environments and held expectations for students associated with learning. However, each teacher's approach to teaching was unique and produced characteristic influences on student learning. The class environments maintained by the teachers led to a wide range of student responses. The students' satisfaction with the classroom environments seemed to be influenced by their interpretation of relationships with their teachers. / One physical education teacher in this study facilitated a variety of interpersonal interactions with students assisting each other in building skills and performing. This environment provided for interpersonal exchanges and relationships, closing the circle of care.

This study explores how teachers think about the usefulness of shared knowledge they obtain from external sources, such as educational theories, research, professional programs, their colleagues, and how and why they use, modify, or did not use these resources. The author interviewed fifteen lower elementary teachers, asked them to generate examples of knowledge they had obtained elsewhere on their own, and gave them knowledge artifacts to evaluate. Teachers' self-described responses to these various resources suggested that their main goal was instrumental use of knowledge, but there were various ways of using it. In addition to instrumental uses, the teachers used shared knowledge to expand and change their perspectives on teaching and learning, used it as a source to develop and produce their own practical knowledge, used it to reflect on their practice, to confirm and justify their practice, and used it as a reminder of other ideas. The teachers also described varied types of instrumental uses: they used shared knowledge by replicating, specifying, extending, adding, reducing, and changing it. They either modified or did not use shared knowledge when they thought that there were reality constraints, when they thought the knowledge was not relevant to their contexts and students, when it did not fit their own philosophies and styles, or when it was perceived to be ineffective, or not valid.

Today, many students in higher education are considered digital natives - savvier and more experienced with technology than students in the past. In teacher preparation programs, teacher education students are commonly expected to demonstrate achievement of program goals and objectives and national teaching standards in a "portfolio." Gaining in popularity, the electronic portfolio delivers meaningful rich data in an electronic format. Much of the research on electronic portfolios has centered in higher education and has been primarily focused on the delivery of portfolios from the perspective of faculty and on the role of the portfolio in assessment from an administrative perspective. With limited research on the student voice in the process of the creation and implementation of electronic portfolio, this research studied the perceptions of the electronic portfolio from the end-user, recent graduates in teacher education. Using a qualitative framework, recent graduates from a teacher preparation program were interviewed regarding their electronic portfolio experience. Qualitative data were collected via structured interviews on the process, preparation, and utilization of the electronic portfolio during the teacher education program. Additionally, the electronic portfolios of those interviewed provided document analysis. Several themes emerged that centered on the repetitive narrative of the narrative rationale statements, the utilitarian purposes of the portfolio, the impact of the portfolio assessment on portfolio changes, and the reflective nature of portfolio construction. The implications of this research extend to the use of electronic portfolios in higher education across disciplines and into K-12 education.

Teaching, though viewed as one of the most honorable professions, also has the regrettable reputation of having one of the highest attrition rates of any occupation. The most often quoted statistics claim that 30% of new teachers will leave the profession within the first 3 years and 50% will be gone by the end of their fifth year in the classroom. This mass exodus comes at a great expense to the new teacher in the way of high university fees, lost time in training, and disillusionment. For school districts, the cost of turnover in teachers stretches the capacity of an already inadequate budget and diverts limited financial, personnel, and time resources. Students also lose out on the advantages of being taught by a practiced and experienced teacher. Many studies have been conducted to determine the disconnect between the expectations and the realities of teaching in the classroom. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to add to the body of knowledge that asks, "Why are teachers leaving, and how do we get them to stay?" In this investigation, 20 beginning teachers who attended 1 of 6 local southern California universities were surveyed and interviewed in an attempt to discover how well (according to their own perceptions) their university preparation program actually set them up for success in the classroom. The findings suggest that while the university preparation programs are producing confident teachers in the areas of Curriculum, Communication, and Technology, the beginning teachers report ongoing challenges in the areas of Classroom Management and Discipline, Assessments, and working with Diverse Populations. Three key recommendations for the preparation programs would be to increase the length of the student-teaching assignment to a full year in order to provide maximum real world experience; secondly, develop better articulation between the university preparation programs and the Induction Programs so as to avoid repetition of services; and lastly, promote a philosophy in the local school districts that discourages the placement of beginning teachers in the toughest assignments.

In this sequential mixed methods study, teachers at three middle schools in a large urban school district were surveyed to determine the extent to which they applied learning strategies gathered from their professional reading to their classroom practice. Additionally, teachers were presented with examples of High Quality Professional Development, also known as Job-Embedded Professional Learning, indicating in which of those activities they had participated and in which activities they participated resulted in making changes to their classroom practice. Although teachers reported participating in activities that were descriptive of High Quality Professional Development and implementing changes in their classrooms, teachers were not familiar with the term High Quality Professional Development. Participants in follow up group interviews revealed that the professional development they received did not match the definition of High Quality Professional Development. Group interview responses supported survey findings that teachers were reading professional materials fewer minutes than found in earlier studies, but that more of their reading choices were about research in education. Teachers in this study applied strategies that they had read about to their classroom practice addressing their student' needs but were not aware of High Quality Professional Development as a result of their professional reading. Future studies could explore if teachers' participation in professional development activities changes when they include professional development in their professional reading choices. Research could also determine if those who plan professional development activities at schools are aware of definitions for High Quality Professional Development and how they ensure that teachers participate in professional development that matches its criteria.

My dissertation investigates teachers' thinking within that "oscillating place of difference" that is the classroom. I propose that teachers think and see differently in the classroom because they have practiced, like travelers, the dynamic thinking which makes them open to novelty, attentive to difference, reflective wayfarers on the paths of the world. I offer a threefold articulation of teaching into thinking, traveling and philosophizing. My guiding figure is that of teacher as traveler. / I focus on the teacher's way of seeing the familiar and the unfamiliar in the classroom. Reliance on teaching routines is considered as a sign of the need for the teacher to feel at home in the classroom, and as a response to the inherent uncertainty of the educational experience. Dewey's conception of reflective thinking is put at work to explain teachers thinking in the classroom: reflection is a twofold movement of the mind that at first focuses on the given particular of the experience, and that also expands and opens up the given to new possible interpretations. / The third chapter proposes to historicize the metaphor of teacher as traveler by considering Graeco-Roman thinking about travel and movement in relation to knowledge and wisdom. I consider the thesis that traveling is conducive to learning and wisdom. Herodotus explicitly connects travel to knowledge. The presence of itinerant teachers in Ancient Greece seems to reinforce this connection, as does the mythological representation of the ideal teacher as the centaur Chiron. I then posit an antithetical idea: that traveling be counterproductive because in travel the person is exposed to distraction, loss of focus, fragmentation. This antithesis is endorsed by Seneca's Epistles to Lucilius. / The dissertation moves to a re-examination of the figure of teacher as traveler in relation to the idea of home. The traveler reaches out and explores novelty and alterity in a meaning-making relation to where she is from. Similarly, the teacher thinks in the classroom by being attentive to newness and difference while keeping in mind the home or familiar: her routines, her curriculum, her tradition. / Montaigne's humanistic philosophizing is considered in its constitutive dynamism. The way to the knowledge of home-- and the wisdom deriving from it-- passes through the encounter with the Other, be it the indigenous inhabitant of the new world, or the neighboring country, or a different language. Like a traveler, a teacher retains her freedom to move and to chose the direction to her steps, and carries the necessary provisions and supplies: enough to get around, but not too many to weigh her down. The teacher as traveler can read the world of experience, can read her discipline, and can read her students by paying attention and knowing their pace. / The encounters that are at the heart of the educational experience, between teachers, students, works and things of the world, all concur to exercise the mind of a traveler: a mind that finds itself "at home" in the world.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-03, Section: A, page: 0909. Adviser: Thomas Schwen. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed March 21, 2007)".