This study is concerned with the problem of determining the competencies which inservice kindergarten teachers and kindergarten-teacher trainers consider most important for teaching kindergarten. There are four purposes of the study: to identify specific competencies needed to teach kindergarten, to determine the teacher competencies considered most important by kindergarten teachers, to determine teacher competencies considered most important by teacher trainers, and to compare the rankings of teacher competencies by kindergarten teachers and kindergarten-teacher trainers.

The study attempted to determine the relationship between student evaluation of instruction and institutional performance ratings with the following predictors: faculty job satisfaction, faculty attitudes toward the evaluation process, faculty attitudes toward factors associated with the evaluation process, and faculty characteristics.

The purposes of this study were to identify the procedures and criteria used for conducting teacher performance evaluation in Texas public schools, to determine the degree to which teacher performance evaluation procedures and instruments reflect the stated evaluation policies of Texas public schools, and to determine the degree to which teacher performance evaluation instruments used in Texas public schools reflect presage criteria (teacher characteristics) as opposed to process criteria (teacher behavior) as opposed to product criteria (student change or gain) as opposed to general job performance requirements (job expectations). The main findings include the following. (1) Teacher performance evaluation is required in all Texas public school districts and is often performed several times a year by more than one observer. The building principal is the key person involved in this process. (2) Although all school districts stated the supervisory function of the improvement of instruction as the major purpose of their teacher performance evaluation policy, a large number of school districts utilize teacher performance evaluation for the administration functions of serving as a basis for retention or dismissal. (3) If in reality teacher performance evaluation were construed as the improvement of instruction or teaching performance, it should be predictable that process criteria (teacher behavior) would account for the majority of items in the evaluation instruments. However, these items accounted for only about one-fourth of the total number. At the same time, items relating to general job requirements accounted for over 50 percent of the items. This exhibits a maintenance rather than teaching thrust. (4) The data gathered on current teacher performance evaluation instruments appear to be highly pertinent to maintaining the school as an organization and appear to be helpful in making personnel decisions. (5) Teacher performance evaluation instruments in Texas public schools are much more heavily weighted toward assessing teachers in their multiple roles rather than the many aspects of teaching.

The problem of this study was the identification of selected characteristics of Minnie Stevens Piper Professors. Purposes of the study were: (a) to determine characteristics of Minnie Stevens Piper Professors, and (b) to determine whether these professors possess characteristics which typify outstanding college teachers as described by the Selection Research, Incorporated College Teacher Perceiver interview. Forty subjects, 20 from community colleges and 20 from senior colleges, were randomly selected from the 1978 through 1988 lists of Piper Professors. Fifteen community college and 11 senior college professors agreed to participate by being interviewed with the College Teacher Perceiver. This interview identified 13 characteristics, or themes, of excellent college teachers.

The purpose of the study is to describe the current status of and the relationships between teacher self-efficacy and in-service teachers’ perceptions and/or attitudes of (a) the quantity and quality of feedback from formative evaluation, (b) toward feedback from formative evaluation, and (c) the impact of feedback from formative evaluation on teacher self-efficacy. In addition to calculating correlation coefficients, 6 teachers were interviewed – 2 each from high, medium, and low efficacy schools. The quantitative data reported low, positive correlations between all of the factors. Statistically significant correlations were found between 8 of the 12 factors including teacher attitudes toward feedback from formative evaluation and: overall Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale (r = .302), student engagement (r = .309), instructional strategies (r = .237) and classroom management (r =.266). Other statistically significant correlations were found between teacher perceptions of the impact of feedback from formative evaluation and its relationship to self-efficacy and: overall Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (r = .295), Student Engagement (r = .300), Instructional Strategies (r = .209), and Classroom Management (r = .282). The face-to-face interviews and online focus group supported the quantitative findings as the participants reported that they value formative evaluation and feedback and deem it a necessary component of professional growth. Participants felt that they would benefit from an increased number of formative evaluations followed by specific, frequent and positive feedback. The participants indicated that their self-efficacy was not negatively impacted by infrequent observations and/or feedback that lacks detail.

Following Barr and Tagg's formalization of the concept of learner-centered educational practice at the postsecondary level as described in their seminal article in Change in 1995, survey instruments have been developed to assess teachers' beliefs about their own learner-centeredness.. The research reported in this dissertation examined the connection between college students' perceptions of teacher effectiveness on each of four dimensions appearing as questions on the IDEA Survey of student reaction to instruction and courses (developed at the IDEA Center, Kansas State University, in the early 1970s) and the Assessment of Learner-Centered Practices (ALCP): Beliefs Portion of the Postsecondary Level Instructor Survey, College Level (developed in early 1999 by B. L. McCombs, University of Denver Research Institute; alpha reliabilities reported). Using scoring rubrics accompanying the ALCP instrument, instructors were identified as learner-centered or non-learner-centered based on their responses. Independent t-tests were performed to determine whether learner-centered instructors were perceived differently by students in terms of teaching effectiveness than non-learner-centered instructors on each of four dimensions: overall excellence of course, overall excellence of instructor, effectiveness of instructor in helping students achieve relevant objectives in the course, and effectiveness of course and instructor in improving students' attitude toward the field of study. Students rated learner-centered instructors higher in all dimensions, but results were not statistically significant. Instructors were also identified as possessing learner- or non-learner-centered beliefs to a greater degree than that necessary for an overall designation. Independent t-tests were performed to determine any differences in student perceptions of effectiveness between these two groups. Again, students rated learner-centered instructors higher in all dimensions, but results were not statistically significant. Recommendations for further research with the ALCP instrument are made, including research to determine whether specific factors and/or questions prove to be statistically significant in predicting student evaluations of effectiveness. Also recommended are replications of the study to investigate moderating variables influencing accurate faculty self-identification of beliefs about teaching and learning.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

This quantitative study examined secondary schools across a south Florida school district to determine the relationship between school characteristics and measures of teacher quality with the aim of ascertaining the equitable distribution of the educational resource, teacher quality. Data regarding student population, staff climate survey responses, school points, and measures of teacher quality were requested from the school district; however, the requested teacher quality data was not available from the district. The researcher accessed publicly available teacher quality data from the Florida Department of Education regarding advanced degree completion, out-of-field teachers, and highly qualified teachers to serve as measures of teacher quality at secondary schools. Data were collected and analyzed using quantitative methods for 119 schools that served as the unit of analysis. Using multiple regressions, the study found a significant negative relationship between the percentage of students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program and the percentage of teachers who possessed an advanced degree. The study also found a significant positive relationship between the percentages of Black students, English language learners, students with disabilities, students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program and the percentage of out-offield teachers. Additionally, the study found a significant positive relationship between the percentages of Hispanic students, students with disabilities, students participating in the free and reduced-price lunch program, and the percentage of not highly qualified teachers at schools. The investigation also discovered predictive relationships between some of these school characteristics and the measures of teacher quality examined in the study. All of the findings provided evidence of structural inequality regarding the distribution of teacher quality and were analyzed by the study’s theoretical framework, which drew on critical race theory, critical multiculturalism, and other critical studies. These works underscore the inequitable distribution of teacher quality. Implications and suggestions for future research are offered for further examination of the equitable distribution of teacher quality and the role of policy to inform the equitable distribution of teacher quality across schools in order to address the most urgent problem facing U.S. education: the unequal distribution of quality teachers. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2014. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Thesis (MBA)--University of Limpopo, 2011 / The Department of Education has invested huge sums of money in trying to improve the quality of education. In order to improve the quality of education, the department realised the need to develop educators. This was done through the introduction of the Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS). The Integrated Quality Manegement System came as results of the combination of the Whole School Evaluation (WSE) and Developmental Appraisal System (DAS). The Department of Education realised the importance of managing the performance of educators. This study was influenced by the need to investigate how the performance of educators is being managed at schools in Bahlaloga Circuit. This study focussed on the following research questions: How is the integrated quality management system being implemented at schools? What have been the major challenges and or successes with regard to the implementation of the integrated quality management system? Is it relevant or appropriate to link the performance of the school with the performance of educators? Is it necessary to link promotion of educators with performance? Is it necessary to link financial reward with the performance of educators? Study managed to find out that the implementation of the Integrated Quality Management System is not taking place as outlined in the policy. The support from the Developmental Support Group is very minimal and in some cases not taking place. Schools have all the necessary documents and stuctures in place to be able to implement the policy but they are unable to do so. At the same time there are number of reasons that were found to be the main reasons why schools are unable to implement the system as prescribed by the policy. Some of the challenges include the following: Shortage of Heads of Departments for some of the subjects who can help during and after the actual evaluation has taken place, movement of both principals and head of department from one school to the other is another challenge that affects the continuous implementation of IQMS; there is no prescribed good teaching practice for all the subjects and therefore what is good teaching practice to one educator may not be the case to the DSG, this situation normally causes confusion among xiv educators.Some educators are being evaluated by Head of Department who does not have the knowledge of the subject and as a results he does not get the necessary support from the DSG, the support from the Department of Education has been lacking, poor working conditions, line of reporting is too complex, that is the Head of Department has his own expectations from educators, principals expect something different, circuit managers have their own plan around the performance of educators while curriculum advisors advises educators to approach the subject differently. All these have an impact on the performance of educators. Lack of team work in schools is one other challenge in the sense that when teachers are not working together as a team, they are less likely to support one another. Some educators are offering more subjects and some of which they are not even qualified to teach. Other Heads of Departments do not have the necessary knowledge of other subjects and therefore they find it difficult to support educators. Some teachers find themselves teaching subject that they are not qualified to teach. The other findings from both the principals and educators are that the promotion and financial rewards must be linked with the performance of the educators. Educators must work for them. On the other hand, the performance of the schools must be linked with the performance of the individual educators. These findings also provide another challenge to the researcher to find out better ways the performance of educators could best be managed taking into account the complexity of the schools’ fuctioning and staffing. / N/A

Middle School represents a period of transition for the students. This transition is present not only in physical change, intellectual change, and emotional change, but also in terms of the type of reading instruction these students receive. One approach to reading instruction moves from a direct approach focusing on specific skills, to a functional approach of how to apply those skills in the content area classroom. The latter approach is process oriented, and focuses on learning the content by reading and participating in relevant learning activities. The focus of this study was to examine the interaction which takes place among textbooks, instructors, and students in the area of Social Studies within selected middle schools. Three phases were involved in this study. Phase one: Grade six Social Studies textbooks were evaluated using the Singer Reading Inventory, which evaluates the areas of organization, explication, conceptual density, metadiscourse, and instructional devices within a given textbook. Phase two: Visitations to five middle school Social Studies classrooms were conducted over an eight week period in an effort to determine the types of instructional strategies employed by teachers. Phase three: Academic achievement was measured by publisher provided examinations, teacher prepared examinations, or an aggregate of daily scores. Hypothesis one: Social Studies textbooks which are more considerate will result in greater student achievement. This hypothesis was rejected. The achievement of students was inversely related to the results of the evaluation of the textbooks as determined by the Singer Reading Inventory. The rejection of this hypothesis must be qualified in terms of the content the subareas of the Singer Reading Inventory measured, and the type of information the student had to acquire in order to perform well academically. Hypothesis two: Teachers who employ more strategies which are of a functional process approach will enhance student achievement in the content areas. This hypothesis was retained. The preceeding findings may be partially explained by considering the possibility that some classroom instructors compensate for the inadequacies of textbooks by providing more effective strategies and activities which enhance the interaction of information exchange within the classroom. / Graduation date: 1990