The purpose of this project was to determine if there was a correlation between teachers' scores on fractions items on project assessments and the percentage of participation time in professional development activities.

This study tested the hypothesis that the combination of teachers' sense of efficacy, and teacher motivation predicts student participatory behavior, and that teacher behaviors mediate this relationship. This study consists of two parts: surveying community college instructors and observing instructors' lectures and student participation.

No description available.

The significance of the project was to answer the call of California schools in their plight to stop attrition and retain teachers. This project alone or in conjunction with other programs offered by schools/school districts gives them another tool to reach their goal of 100% teacher retention. It is the belief of this project that the problems with retention could be diminished if not eliminated, by giving beginning teachers a handbook.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka lärares inställning till digitala verktyg i läs- och skrivundervisningen. Syftet är också att undersöka hur lärare anser att digitala verktyg kan påverka elevers läs- och skrivutveckling. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer med lärare som undervisar i svenskämnet i årskurs 4–6 visar undersökningen att lärares inställning till att använda digitala verktyg i läs- och skrivundervisningen är positiv överlag och framför allt gäller det i skrivundervisningen. Enligt informanterna motiveras eleverna till skrivandet och till att bearbeta sina texter när det görs genom digitala verktyg. Samtidigt finns det också enligt informanterna vissa negativa aspekter med användningen av digitala verktyg såsom att handstilen försämras och att digitala verktyg kan leda till onödig distraktion av olika hemsidor. Sammanfattningsvis visar studien att de intervjuade lärarna inte anser att digitala verktyg. / The aim of this study is to examine teachers’ attitudes towards the use of digital tools in the teaching of reading and writing. The aim is also to find out how teachers perceive the impact of digital tools on pupils’ development in reading and writing. Based on semi-structured interviews with teachers teaching Swedish in year 4-6, the study finds that teachers’ attitudes towards digital tools is positive overall, especially in relation to the teaching of writing. According to the informants, digital tools provide motivation for pupils to write and rework their texts. However, the informants also addressed certain negative aspects of the use of digital tools, such as possible deterioration in pupils’ handwriting and unnecessary distraction of different web pages. To sum up, the study shows that the interviewed teachers do not think that digital tools alone, have any great effect on pupils’ development in reading and writing. Rather, the teachers believe that a varied approach to teaching is necessary and that digital tools can be useful in such an approach.

Whether there is a place for L1 use in the EFL classroom or not is a debated topic. Lately, a slight shift from an English-only approach toward a more accepting attitude toward L1 use can be seen. Additionally, teaching should “as far as possible” be conducted in English, according to the National Agency of Education, Skolverket (2011, p. 53). Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate upper secondary students’ and teachers’ attitudes toward L1 use in the EFL classroom in a Swedish context. Moreover, this study will aim to examine any potential connections between attitudes and societal and motivational factors. Via online questionnaires distributed to schools in Gävleborg county, 373 students and 15 teachers participated in the study. The findings in this study confirm the findings from the majority of previous attitudinal studies; there is a general consensus of a positive attitude toward L1 use among the students and teachers, but English should still be the main language used. Instead, a judicious use of L1 as a tool to facilitate comprehension is suggested. Finally, some factors such as motivation and L1 appear to affect the students’ and teachers’ preferences regarding L1 use in the EFL classroom as well.

In 2010, Oregon Department of Education (ODE) developed a set of rubrics designed to score a state required performance assessment targeting Science Inquiry (SI) and Engineering Design (ED) skills. During the development of the rubrics, ODE invited six panels of teachers to provide feedback on an early draft of the rubrics. This case study analyzed the teachers' feedback and the revisions of the rubrics to identify the types of feedback teachers offered and how ODE used that feedback to develop the rubrics. The results showed the teachers' feedback focused on defining the skills students were asked to demonstrate and distinguishing levels of student performance. There was clear evidence that the teachers' feedback had a substantial impact on the development of the rubrics. These results suggest that teachers can add substantial value during the development of a state issued assessment tool.

A large proportion of youth in foster care receive special education services, and poor educational outcomes are one of the most important difficulties facing these youth. One potential risk affecting the low educational achievements of youth in foster care and special education could be teachers' negative and stigmatizing comments toward them. Teachers' negative and stigmatizing comments could have negative effects on youths' behaviors, school attitudes and school performance. Yet, research on the nature and the impact of teachers' negative and stigmatizing comments remains limited. Based on labeling and attribution theories, this study investigated the nature and impact of teachers' negative and stigmatizing comments on the school performance of 123 youth in foster care and special education. Qualitative analysis of the youths' IEP documents was conducted, along with longitudinal quantitative analysis of the associations of negative and stigmatizing IEP comments and the youths' school attitudes, behavior, and performance. Qualitative findings revealed that almost three-fourths of the IEPs included one or more negative comments, and that a substantial proportion of teachers' negative comments specifically included stigmatizing features that could convey negative attitudes or perceptions about the youth to others, including subjective or judgmental comments, biased reports from other teachers, low expectations, and little attention to context or reason. Findings from structural equation modeling showed that teachers' negative comments indirectly predicted youths' school absences through a mediational effect of youths' problem behaviors, and the relationship between current and future youth absences was partially mediated through a complex mechanism incorporating both direct and indirect pathways involving youths' school attitudes and problem behaviors. The findings highlight the important predictive and potentially protective roles of teachers' negative comments and youths' school attitudes and problem behaviors on youths' absenteeism.

This study investigated the effectiveness of three in—service training models in humanizing teachers' attitudes toward children. Each model was analyzed separately and then compared with each of the others. The purposes of this study were to determine whether teachers, after participating in one of three in-service models, would experience positive changes in attitudes toward children and would maintain these changes for at least three months. The findings of this study support the conclusion that none of the three in-service programs, as conducted in this study, were effective in changing teachers' attitudes. Possibly the in-service programs lacked cohesiveness and continuity owing to the time intervals between the four sessions. Another possible explanation for the ineffectiveness of the programs is found in the relatively short duration of the programs.

The purpose of this study was to explore elementary teachers' self-reporting of: a) work with a reading coach and b) attitudes, perceptions, and practices in teaching reading. The five point ratings and open-ended responses on the survey were the sources of data. Surveys were returned by 85% of teachers in five elementary schools in Collier County, Florida. Correlations of survey items were analyzed on the basis of the aggregated data and the following subgroups: certification, years of experience, school demographics, and grade levels. The survey in this study was excerpted and adapted from a survey, which was tested for validity and reliability, used with teachers in a research study, and published by the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) in Evaluating professional development: An approach to verifying program impact on teachers and students (Shaha, Lewis, O'Donnell, & Brown, 2004). Permission to use the survey was granted by Performance Learning Systems, Inc. and the National Staff Development Council (see Acknowledgements). The primary question for this study was: Are teachers' self-reports of their attitudes, perceptions, and instructional practices on the Reading Instruction Survey correlated with the amount of coaching they indicated they had received? Secondary questions pertained to how the results changed for the subgroups. The literature review contained information about resources and research in reading that led to the provision of reading coaches. High-stakes for the improvement of reading instruction from federal, state, and local levels provided a rationale for the study. The results of this study indicated that coaching made a difference for these teachers. The aggregated and disaggregated data revealed small to large, significant correlations to coaching. The items with the greatest number and magnitude of correlations to coaching were isolated skills instruction and intervention plans. The evidence of positive relationships of attitudes, perceptions, and practices to work with a coach is an important finding. The limited correlations of skilled, balanced, and integrated strategies led to questions about the content of the coaching. Further research is needed to determine whether the content of the professional development offered by coaches is comprehensive enough to impact reading proficiency levels of all students.