This dissertation is a performance of, meditation on, and inquiry into the practice of close reading as it relates to the teaching, learning, and interpretation of literature. The objects of close reading include literature, the history of literary pedagogy and its relationship to critical theory, and a narrative that recounts my experience as an instructor of a teacher education course centered on literature and literary pedagogy. The seven chapters form a series of interlocking interpretive essays or “readings” that together raise questions about the relationship between aesthetic experiences with literary texts, the practice of literary interpretation, and pedagogical approaches in the literature classroom. The study is framed by an exploration of John Milton’s Paradise Lost and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, both of which, I argue, dramatize interpretive acts in ways that tacitly cue reading practices that would become familiar in twentieth-century literary and pedagogical theory. These two texts, the latter of which can be viewed as a “reading” of the former, provide a useful framework for conceptualizing literary knowledge as a kind of experiential knowledge, dramatizing Baconian empiricism and Coleridgean imagination in anticipation of twentieth-century theories of participatory aesthetics associated with I.A. Richards, John Dewey, and Louise Rosenblatt. Paradise Lost and Frankenstein also provide a testing ground for my own practice of close reading. At the heart of this study is a re-reading of the work of Rosenblatt and some of the New Critics: I argue that Rosenblatt and the New Critics, particularly Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren, were pioneers of parallel, rather than opposing, pedagogical traditions, informed by the shared influence of Richards and Dewey. I decouple a vision for an authentic practice of close reading—grounded in aesthetic experience and supported by meaningful interpretive discourse—from the narrower version of close reading promoted by the Common Core State Standards in literacy, which have been widely critiqued in ways that invite reductive accounts of literary history. Through a return to Rosenblatt and the New Critics, alongside a discussion of contemporary debates about the place of close reading in the literature classroom, I articulate principles of practice that could unite secondary and college teachers of literature and inform the teaching and learning of close reading in the twenty-first century. I conclude with a narrative in which I attempt to enact some of these principles in a literature course for teachers, offering a close reading of the tensions and discoveries that emerge in my own teaching.

This paper is prepared in two sections. The first section is a summation of the opinion of leading educators, and others, in the area of vocational industrial education, as regards management, labor and the public schools' responsibility for the administration of an efficient program of training apprentices for the skilled trades. The second section--which is an appendix to the paper--is prepared in the form of a handbook. The objective of this handbook is an attempt to follow the thinking of these persons by condensing and coordinating the essential ideas of their writings and experiences and compiling a practical, usable teacher training guide for instructors of apprenticeship classes. The specific objective of the handbook is to improve instruction. It will be used for both pre-service and in-service teacher training. / Typescript. / "August, 1961." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Edward K. Hankin, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 34-36).

"The purpose of this study is to make an analysis of the 1951-52 of class of fifth grade pupils to: 1. Find the cases of retardation. 2. Discover through study and research the underlying causes of the retardation. 3. Develop a keener understanding of retarded children. 4. Determine ways of working with these children more effectively"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1952." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Virgil E. Strickland, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-75).

Why should a teacher who has not worked with senior high girls be concerned about these adolescents and their problems? There are two possible answers to this question. First, the teacher must have an understanding of the behavior patterns and characteristics of this specific age to have a reasonable amount of success for the year. And the second reason is that many adults have an inconsiderate attitude toward adolescents. These adolescents may be having difficulty in making an adjustment from the role of a child to that of the adult. Therefore, it is indeed necessary that the classroom teacher study adolescent psychology so that she will be less inept, less negligent, and inconsiderate in her relationship with the students she encourages or influences whether in the classroom or throughout the day's activities. / Typescript. / "August, 1956." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Sarah Lou Hammond, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 52).

"Out of genuine desire to prepare oneself to handle, in a more effective way, the teaching of eighth grade mathematics, there comes to mind such questions as these: 1. What are the needs or tasks or problems of eighth grade pupils to which arithmetic can make a contribution? 2. What content is available in the state adopted textbooks? 3. How well is this material adapted to school needs of pupils of this age? 4. What reliable tests can be found? 5. What materials and plans of a general nature can be found or developed which, if revised later to fit the specific classroom situation, may prove of help in improving the teaching of mathematics?"--Introduction. / "August, 1952." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: W. Edwards, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 33).

Online teacher professional development (oTPD) has gained momentum globally as a mode of teacher professional development (Dede et al., 2009; Lieberman & Mace, 2010), appealing to teachers who prefer the convenience of online learning and/or the autonomy of self-paced learning. With oTPD gaining traction, especially in this climate of COVID-19 pandemic where many face-to-face interactions have shifted to an online space, there is insufficient research done on teachers’ learning experiences and the type of reflective thinking observed during teachers’ participation in oTPD activities. This is compounded by the ubiquitous but poorly defined use of reflection in literature pertaining to learning and professional development (Finlay, 2008; Roessger, 2014). In Singapore where teachers have access to a range of oTPD opportunities, this problem is similarly observed. Very few studies have been undertaken in Singapore to understand teachers’ learning experiences and how teachers reflect when they engage in TPD or oTPD. In light of the growing popularity of oTPD as a means for Singapore teachers to learn and improve their classroom practice, this exploratory case study sought to contribute to TPD research by studying the oTPD experiences of Singapore teachers. Specifically, this study explored factors that facilitated and/or impeded teacher learning in oTPD and the level of reflective thinking observed in teachers’ oTPD participation. The motivation for this study stems from an appreciation of the complexity of classroom practice and the recognition that what teachers do in their respective classrooms is pivotal to student learning. This study recognizes the crucial need to support teacher learning through oTPD. Findings from this study may inform the design and implementation of oTPD in Singapore and address the paucity of research in this area by providing qualitative case study data on the understudied area of oTPD and teacher learning. Recommendations pertaining to the design and implementation of oTPD may benefit professional development providers and the teachers they serve, as well as teacher leaders hoping to support teacher learning. This study and the recommendations it proposes will also be of interest to researchers in educational research who seek to understand the phenomenon of oTPD.

Statistically skilled workers are highly demanded in today's world, which means we need high-quality statistics education. There has been a continuously increased enrollment of statistics students. At the college level, introductory statistics courses are typically taught by professors who often hold a strong qualification in mathematics but may lack formal training in statistics education and statistical analysis. Existing literature claims that a unique way of thinking--statistical thinking or reasoning--is essential when teaching statistics, especially at the introductory level. To elaborate and expand on the issue of statistical thinking, a qualitative study was conducted on 15 mathematics teachers from a local community college to discuss differences between statistics and mathematics as academic disciplines and exemplify two types of thinking--statistical thinking and mathematical thinking--among mathematics teachers who teach college-level introductory statistics. Additionally, the study also inspected mathematics teachers' pedagogical ideas influenced by each type of thinking, some of which were recognized as "pedagogically powerful ideas" that transcend students' conceptual understanding about statistics. The study consisted of two online questionnaires and one interview. In the two online questionnaires, participants explored and rated five technology options for teaching statistics and self-evaluated their technology, pedagogy, and content knowledge. During the interview, participants solved nine statistical problems designed to elicit statistical thinking and addressed pertinent pedagogical questions related to each problem's statistical concept. A framework that hypothesizes aspects of mathematics teachers' statistical thinking and mathematical thinking in statistics was created, summarizing the prominent differences in problem-solving, variability, context, data production, transnumeration, and probabilistic thinking. Select responses from participating mathematics teachers were provided as examples of each type of thinking. Furthermore, it was revealed that mathematics teachers with a different type of thinking tended to cover different statistical topics, deliver the same statistical concept in different ways, and assess students' knowledge with different emphases and standards. This study's results have implications: if statistics is to be taught by mathematics teachers, statistical thinking is required to implement pedagogically powerful ideas for furthering meaningful statistical learning and to unveil the differences between statistics and mathematics.

As part of their initial teacher education, most aspiring middle and high school science teachers take one or more semesters of coursework in the methods of teaching science. Surprisingly little is known about the curriculum of secondary science methods courses, however. This exploratory study aimed to better understand the goals and content of secondary science methods courses, especially regarding their adoption of two important schools of reform in science education: the vision of instruction conveyed by the Framework for K-12 Science Education, and calls to foreground diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in science instruction. Three forms of data were collected. First, institutions were surveyed regarding which science teacher preparation standards their methods courses addressed (n = 27). Faculty at a subset of these institutions (n = 15) participated in a semi-structured interview about their methods courses, and provided, in most cases, syllabi for the courses in their science methods sequence (n = 35 course syllabi, from 13 institutions). All three pools of data were analyzed individually and then compared. Data suggest that secondary science methods courses may be taking on more goals than they can practically achieve, rendering them unable to engage sufficiently with reforms like the Framework and DEI. More significant engagement with these reforms seems likely to require two things: more coherent teacher education programs that allow methods courses to focus on fewer goals in greater depth, and networks of science teacher educators dedicated to promoting better, more equitable science teaching among candidates.

The dearth of K-12 teachers of color remains a resounding issue of equity and social justice. Given that more potential candidates of color are enrolling in Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to avoid the negative experiences at Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) that discourage them from entering the field, this qualitative study explored teacher preparation at two 4-year public Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs). The goal was to better understand: (a) how HSIs work against the barriers that have historically excluded teachers of color, (b) how teacher educators at HSIs respond to the diversity of college student abilities and prior academic experiences, and (c) how teacher educators at HSIs conceptualized and taught about the increasing racial, ethnic, and ability diversity of today’s K-12 students. Drawing on data at the individual, classroom, institutional, state, and federal levels, this study both centered the voices of teacher educators and college students of color and analyzed their narratives in relation to larger systems of power and privilege. From this analysis, two broader questions emerged. First, what does it mean to serve historically marginalized students who wish to be teachers? The study demonstrated that even institutional contexts that work to be welcoming spaces for college students of color contend with the historical legacies of whiteness and ability as property in teacher education, as the majority of graduated teachers across both racially diverse schools were white. Second, is there something to “get” when it comes to diversity in teacher education, and how do we know that students “get” it? As teacher educators of color complicated essentialist narratives of urban schools, teachers of color, students of color, and students with disabilities, tensions emerged around the impact K-12 teachers and schools have on society, dilemmas when college students’ needs clashed with their future K-12 students’ needs, and pedagogically sound ways to respond to understandings of diversity that work against equity and social justice. The role of care emerged as essential in simultaneously upholding the democratic ideals of schooling and productively responding to pathologizing discourses about people of color, moving beyond critical critique in teacher education, and (re)prioritizing the humanity of both K-12 and college students.

High novice teacher turnover rate and shortage of skilled novice teachers continue to be an unsolved issue in the U.S. educational system. Novice teachers often suffer low teaching efficacy which may reduce their teacher resiliency and lead to teacher turnover. Past studies suggested that novice teachers’ low teaching efficacy results from their scant teaching experience and their inability to assess impacts of their teaching on students. The failure for novice teachers to utilize effective pedagogies and improve student learning often results in elevated professional anxiety, frustration, and motivation to quit teaching. Recent studies pointed out that learning analytics could help novice teachers to teach more effectively by tapping into student data and data analytics. But how to structure a professional development for novice teachers to learn to utilize learning analytics in teaching remains a question. To address these issues, a survey study and a case study are conducted in this research. The survey study analyzed 72 teachers’ perceptions and experience of using learning analytics in teaching. The results indicated common barriers for teachers to use learning analytics such as lack of awareness of learning analytics, insufficient computer skills and math/statistics knowledge. Also, when teachers considered learning analytics useful their usage of learning analytics correlated positively with teaching efficacy and teacher resiliency. Built upon insights from the survey study, the case study recruited five novice teachers and investigated the effects of a learning analytics professional development. The results suggested that after the learning analytics professional development, all participants have generally improved their learning analytics knowledge, teaching efficacy, teacher resiliency, and developed higher confidence and intention to use learning analytics in future teaching. One implication of these results is that using teaching scenario could be an effective format to structure learning analytics professional development to improve novice teachers’ competence in assessing teaching practices and their teaching efficacy. Another implication is that learning analytics professional development could be implemented as intervention in teacher education programs to reduce the likelihood of teacher turnover before novice teachers start teaching formally.