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The primary purpose of this study was to examine educators’ perceptions of how students’ social and emotional needs impact the educational environment and to determine if participating educators felt prepared to meet their students’ social and emotional needs. The research was conducted in two Midwestern states using an online survey instrument. The study participants included in-service teachers, former educators, college faculty, and graduate-education students, all of whom were solicited using a convenience sample method. Participants were solicited from graduate-level education classes and from a public school system. The participants varied in numerous ways including age, gender, educational training and teaching experiences. Data gathered in the study was used to examine the relationships between the educators’ initial teacher training and the educators’ perceptions concerning the importance of meeting students' social and emotional needs in the classroom. The majority of educators (93%) ranked meeting students’ social and emotional needs in their classrooms as either important or very important. Many educators reported that they believed meeting students’ social and emotional needs impacted the students’ learning. Most educators (81%) indicated that their initial teacher did not properly prepare them to meet their students’ social and emotional needs. Additionally, 75% of the educators reported that they would be interested in receiving more training in this area. Some of the educators’ responses appeared to be related to their education, experience and training. Special education teachers were most likely to suggest that meeting students’ social and emotional needs would improve their students’ learning. Early childhood educators ranked the importance of meeting students’ social and emotional needs significantly higher than did their colleagues who were working with older students. Educators trained during or after 2002 felt better prepared in areas concerning social and emotional needs than those trained before 2002. The results of this survey indicate that educators perceive social and emotional learning to be an important topic and are interested in receiving more training in this area. More research is needed to solicit opinions from educators across the United States on how to best prepare and support classroom teachers in the area of meeting students’ social and emotional needs. / Department of Elementary Education

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is funding and supporting a longitudinal study of Early Child Care. Beginning in 1991, data was collected from ten sites across the United States and included 1,364 families with a newborn child. This study used the NICHD Early Child Care data set to investigate characteristics of teachers that provide childcare in a daycare-like setting or childcare centers. Specifically, the relationship between early childhood teacher endorsement of developmentally appropriate belief systems and teacher education in early childhood were examined to determine their potential influence on the teachers' developmentally appropriate classroom practices, global rating of classroom quality, and child cognitive abilities. These relationships were examined at two time periods- at child age 36 months and child age 54 months. The results indicated that many of these relationships were significant. Interestingly, many of the significant findings were present only at child age 54 months.

Mainstream teachers who obtained their English as a second language (ESL) certification by exam only are faced with increasing numbers of English language learners (ELLs) in their classrooms. Decreasing standards for teacher ESL certification and increasing accountability for ELLs has made teachers' role in effectively increasing the language and academic skills of ELLs an area of major concern. This study used a survey and focus group interviews to obtain information regarding ESL-certified fourth- and fifth-grade teachers' perceived preparedness, practices and resources needs related to meeting the academic and language needs of ELLs in general education classrooms. The results indicated that teachers reported differences in their perceived preparedness based on years teaching experience, years of ESL certification, professional development hours, and university ESL courses, but not on certification route. The results also showed that teachers reported differences in their sheltered instruction practices based on the percentage of ELLs, but not on grade, instructional design, or preparedness. The correlation analysis revealed there is a positive correlation between preparedness and sheltered practices. The study revealed that while teachers are using strategies that make content lessons accessible and comprehensible to ELLs, they are often not specifically addressing the academic language development of their students. It is recommended that districts provide teachers with professional development opportunities that specifically address second language acquisition and practical ways to develop academic language across the content areas.

The purposes of the present study are to: (a) describe the beliefs and practices of the US and Taiwan (TW) public and private kindergarten teachers regarding developmentally appropriate practice (DAP), (b) examine the group differences between the four groups of teachers, and (c) identify the salient factors related to the variability of developmentally appropriate beliefs and practice in these teachers. Three hundred and fifty-seven kindergarten teachers participated in the study. The group sizes were 123, 123, 57, and 54 for Taiwan private, Taiwan public, US private, and US public kindergarten teachers, respectively. A survey was used to collect data. Findings from this study showed: (a) Both the US and Taiwan kindergarten teachers highly endorsed beliefs about DAP; (b) US and Taiwan kindergarten teachers also held strong beliefs about developmentally inappropriate practices (DIP); (c) DAP activities occurred regularly in the classrooms; (d) developmentally inappropriate practice (DIP) activities also took place a lot although they were lower than the DAP activities; (e) the Taiwan teachers had higher beliefs about DAP and lower beliefs about DIP than the US teachers; (f) the US teachers reported both higher DAP and DIP activities than the Taiwan teachers; (g) there were no differences between public and private kindergarten teachers; (h) hierarchical regression analyses using teacher's personal demographic variables as the first block and numbers of boys and girls as the second block were generally not effective; (i) there were different sets of best predictors from the backward regression for different dimensions of developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices; and (j) beliefs about DAP and DIP were usually more powerful than the demographic and classroom variables in predicting the DAP and DIP activities. Future studies are needed to refine the Teacher Belief Scale and Instructional Activity Scale instruments and include classroom observations to verify and expand the findings. Future teacher training on DAP should promote beliefs about DAP and reduce beliefs about DIP. Enhancing teachers' skills to implement the DAP activities and decrease the DIP activities is suggested.

Though counselor education has always acknowledged the importance of work in the lives of individuals, there is a dearth of information concerning the worklives of counselor education faculty. The purpose of this study was to explore work and life variables that impact the work experiences of faculty members in counselor education. This study examined demographic or life variables including gender, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, relationship status, and parenting status; and work-related variables including rank, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, salary equity, mentoring, teaching activities, service activities, publication for collaboration, and decision-making representation. Three hundred and twenty-eight counselor education faculty members across the United States participated in the study. Participants completed a mailed questionnaire including demographic information, quantitative survey questions, and related qualitative items designed to investigate work and life factors impacting the subjective work experiences of counselor educators. Chi-square analyses and analysis of qualitative responses related to four research hypotheses indicated that experience of the work environment for counselor educators is impacted by gender, tenure rank, age, and relationship status. Post-hoc analysis indicated that work experiences are also impacted by ethnicity, sexual orientation, and parenting status. Results also indicated a need for continuing attention to the effects of rank, salary equity, sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and decision-making representation in counselor education programs. Results of this study suggested implications for future research in counselor education and counseling.

This research study attempts to analyze variables that influence the extent of faculty involvement in learning communities. A theoretical framework identifies three primary variable sets—faculty background, structural, and organizational/environmental.

This study examined differences between Extenders (students who extended their continuous full-time enrollment beyond eight semesters) and Completers (students who completed their degree within eight semesters of continuous full-time enrollment). Student perceptions of the influences of faculty on the enrollment pattern of students were also investigated. Subjects included 81 Extenders and 211 Completers enrolled in a large research university in the southeastern United States. Demographic independent variables included student gender, ethnicity, verbal and math Scholastic Achievement scores, and college affiliation. Measures of student environmental press, characteristics of faculty, student-faculty interaction, and faculty concern for teaching and student development were independent perceptual variables. Other independent variables related to development of a major, average weekly out-of-class faculty contact and career orientation of students. The dependent variable was pattern of enrollment (Extender/Completer). / Ed. D.

This study investigates the incentive categories related to job satisfaction for full time faculty in postsecondary institutions in the United States. The data for the analysis is from the 1988 NSOPF conducted by the U.S. Department of Education. Using secondary analysis of the data a job satisfaction index was derived from the responses to the twenty-nine subquestions in question 19 of the faculty questionnaire. Three incentive categories, financial, job related, and personal, provided the context in which job satisfaction was explored. The research questions focused on job satisfaction in the three incentive categories relating to research and teaching, institutional type, and academic rank. The major conclusions of this study are summarized as follows: full time faculty in postsecondary institutions are: Less than dissatisfied with research opportunities across institutional types and academic ranks; Satisfied with the same amount or less teaching opportunities across institutional types and academic ranks; More job satisfied at two year institutions in all three incentive categories, financial, job related, and personal; Satisfied with the type of institution in which they are presently employed and are less likely to leave for a different type of institution; Satisfied as full professors for all three incentive categories, financial, job related and personal; Least satisfied as associate professors for personal incentive category; Least satisfied as assistant professors for financial and job related incentive categories. / Ed. D.

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