Thesis advisor: Joseph J. Pedulla / There is no question that teachers play an important role in student learning. In the last decade, researchers have shown evidence pointing to the prominence of teachers compared to other factors that are known to influence student achievement (Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997). They have empirically demonstrated that teacher effects are large and persist for up to four years (Kain, 1998; Mendor, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, and Bembry, 1998; Rivers, 1999). Multiple variables are known to influence teacher quality, including teacher preparation. This dissertation explored the relationship between the teacher education pathway and teaching effectiveness. Although multiple measures of teacher effectiveness exist, this study focused on reformed instructional practices as its measure of teaching effectiveness. In teaching mathematics, in particular, constructivist-based, inquiry-oriented approaches have been shown to be more effective than traditional methods (Abbott and Fouts, 2003; Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, Stecher, Robyn, and Burroughs, 2000). Using two groups of novice teachers (N=22) from two preparation pathways, this observational comparative study also investigated the relationship between school composition and teaching practices. There is a large body of literature showing that urban schools serving high proportions of non-white, poor, and low performing students (Darling-Hammond, 1995; Kain and Singleton, 1996; Presley White, and Gong, 2005) tend to have higher percentages of less qualified teachers compared to their suburban counterparts. In light of this, the current study also explored the relationship between school composition and teachers' use of reformed teaching practices. The findings of this investigation indicate that the instructional practices of teachers working in the urban school district where this study was conducted were generally reformed, and did not vary based on the student demographics of the schools in which they taught. In addition, no statistically significant relationship was found between teaching pathway and teachers' instructional practices. Many similarities were found in the instructional practices of teachers from the two preparation pathways. The similarities in the teachers' instructional practices were attributed to the significant congruence in the teacher preparation programs' curriculum, requirement of clinical experience, selectivity, and the programs' explicit social justice missions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

This study aimed to secure and evaluate the current practices in teaching of geography within the rural school system of Colon County, Texas. The objectives of the study were also to learn from the County rural supervisors of the state the procedures they are using together with their recommendations for the present needs in geography teaching.

Published Article / A significant amount of time and effort has to go into teaching students. It is no art when lecturers simply read from a text book. The objective of this study was to determine the teaching methods that students at the Hotel School, Central University of Technology, Free State, consider as most effective to support learning. All first-year students (N=73) enrolled for the National Diploma: Hospitality Management were targeted to participate in the survey. A mixedmethod study design was followed, and a questionnaire consisting of closedand open-ended questions was developed for data collection. Closed-ended questions were rated on a five-point Likert scale, while answers to open-ended questions were analysed to determine trends. Results showed that lecturers used a variety of teaching methods. The lecture teaching method was rated best by 49% of students followed by the group discussion method which was rated as second best (19%). Case studies and brainstorming were the least-preferred methods (4% and 0% respectively). Lecturers should ensure that maximum information is transferred through the teaching methods that most appeal to students. The focus should be on enabling students to practically apply the lessons taught in everyday life.

This study examined students?? and Supplemental Instruction leaders?? perceptions of teaching, teaching practices, and faculty teaching effectiveness. This study also examined the impact of the SI leader??s role on those perceptions and subsequent behaviors on end-of-course evaluations and sought to determine whether differences existed between the two groups in order to determine whether or not SI leaders?? perceptions should be included in a comprehensive evaluation system. A purposive sample of 17 SI leaders, who had been employed during the spring 2002 semester and returned for the fall 2002 semester, and 17 students, who had attended at least 10 SI sessions during the fall 2002 semester, were selected to participate in this study.Data for the study were collected through individual interviews using a protocol designed to collect their perceptions regarding the following: 1) definitions of teaching and its activities; 2) descriptions of good and bad teaching or good and bad teachers; 3) definitions and descriptions of faculty teaching effectiveness; 4) role of the SI leader; 5) impact of SI leader??s role on perceptions of teaching, its activities, and faculty teaching effectiveness; and 6) impact of SI leader??s role on behaviors on end-of-course evaluations. A major finding of this study is that SI leaders and students define teaching and its activities in a similar fashion. SI leaders, unlike students, however, report that learning is tied to teaching effectiveness, or lack thereof. This study has three major results: 1) SI leaders end up teaching, rather than facilitating; 2) the SI leader??s role impacts views on teaching; and 3) the SI leaders?? role impacts behaviors on end-of-course evaluations. A review of the literature on student ratings of instruction and regular attendance at SI indicate that both correlate, to a small degree, with mean end-of-course grades. Claims of validity with respect to both may be somewhat suspect, in light of SI leader??s claims that they teach, rather than facilitate. Investigation of the impact of regular attendance at SI on end-of-course grades and end-of-course evaluations may result in the need to draw new conclusions with respect to validity of student ratings of instruction and SI.

The study aimed to look into the relation of curriculum leadership of principals, knowledge management of teachers, and teaching effectiveness of teachers in the elementary schools of Kaohsiung City. This research was conducted through questionnaires with 544 effective samples out of 600 teachers. The research tool is ¡§The Questionnaire on the Relationship among Curriculum Leadership of Principals, Knowledge Management of Teachers, and Teaching Effectiveness of Teachers¡¨. The statistical methods include T test, One-Way ANOVA, Pearson variances analysis, Canonical Correlation, and Stepwise regression analysis. The study summaries in the following findings: 1. Teachers on the curriculum leadership of principals have above middle evaluation, high knowledge management and teaching effectiveness. 2. Teachers of small-sized schools are better in aware of better curriculum leadership of principals. 3. Teachers of large-sized schools have better knowledge management, and no significant differences among teachers¡¦ background on the issue of teaching effectiveness. 4. The better curriculum leadership conduction of principals, the better knowledge management and teaching effectiveness of teachers. 5. The better knowledge management of teachers, the better teaching effectiveness of teachers. 6. Curriculum leadership of principals and knowledge management of teachers can accelerate teaching effectiveness. According to the findings and conclusions, the researcher provides the following advices: 1. For educational administrative organizations: ¡]1¡^To respect the influence on curriculum leadership of principal, and strengthen the abilities of curriculum plan, design and evaluation. ¡]2¡^To conduct curriculum leadership of principals for the middle and large-sized schools. ¡]3¡^To enhance the ability of knowledge management of teachers in the middle and small-sized schools, and increase teaching effectiveness. 2. For principals: ¡]1¡^To offer interact with the teachers without administration job in order to enhance curriculum leadership. ¡]2¡^To promote curriculum leadership will enhance knowledge management and teaching effectiveness of teachers. ¡]3¡^To strengthen curriculum leadership to well ground knowledge management of teachers, and promote teaching effectiveness of teachers. 2. For teachers: ¡]1¡^To participate school curriculum developing teams to upgrade professional knowledge. ¡]2¡^To increase knowledge application in class, in order to promote teaching effectiveness. ¡]3¡^To dialogue, inspect, learn and reflect in school, and to strengthen the innovation of teaching. ¡]4¡^To strengthen teaching evaluation, in order to increase learning of students and teaching effectiveness.

This study examined students?? and Supplemental Instruction leaders?? perceptions of teaching, teaching practices, and faculty teaching effectiveness. This study also examined the impact of the SI leader??s role on those perceptions and subsequent behaviors on end-of-course evaluations and sought to determine whether differences existed between the two groups in order to determine whether or not SI leaders?? perceptions should be included in a comprehensive evaluation system. A purposive sample of 17 SI leaders, who had been employed during the spring 2002 semester and returned for the fall 2002 semester, and 17 students, who had attended at least 10 SI sessions during the fall 2002 semester, were selected to participate in this study.Data for the study were collected through individual interviews using a protocol designed to collect their perceptions regarding the following: 1) definitions of teaching and its activities; 2) descriptions of good and bad teaching or good and bad teachers; 3) definitions and descriptions of faculty teaching effectiveness; 4) role of the SI leader; 5) impact of SI leader??s role on perceptions of teaching, its activities, and faculty teaching effectiveness; and 6) impact of SI leader??s role on behaviors on end-of-course evaluations. A major finding of this study is that SI leaders and students define teaching and its activities in a similar fashion. SI leaders, unlike students, however, report that learning is tied to teaching effectiveness, or lack thereof. This study has three major results: 1) SI leaders end up teaching, rather than facilitating; 2) the SI leader??s role impacts views on teaching; and 3) the SI leaders?? role impacts behaviors on end-of-course evaluations. A review of the literature on student ratings of instruction and regular attendance at SI indicate that both correlate, to a small degree, with mean end-of-course grades. Claims of validity with respect to both may be somewhat suspect, in light of SI leader??s claims that they teach, rather than facilitate. Investigation of the impact of regular attendance at SI on end-of-course grades and end-of-course evaluations may result in the need to draw new conclusions with respect to validity of student ratings of instruction and SI.

The major problem to be investigated consists of four phases: 1) the investigation of the relationship of sociempathic ability to self concept, sociometric status, mental ability, student teaching, and teaching effectiveness of elementary and secondary student teachers, and the relationship between sociometric status and self concept; 2) an investigation of the relationship of self concept and sociometric status to the teaching effectiveness of elementary and secondary student teachers; 3) a comparison of elementary and secondary student teachers on the strength of the relationships mentioned above, and on mean scores in self concept, sociempathic ability and mental ability; and 4) an investigation to determine if differences in self concept ratings exist among subject major groups of secondary student teachers, and to determine if there are differences between the sexes with regard to sociempathic ability.

The purpose of this study was to explore the linguistic architecture of instructional language used during first grade read aloud lessons. The participants were from the CTL Year-3 Read Aloud study. The study’s random assignment created 20 teachers in the treatment group and 19 teachers in the control group. My study investigated the variability of their teacher’s use of instructional language during direct instruction read aloud lessons. Specifically, I analyzed the following linguistic attributes: (a) clausal density, (b) number of different words, (c) words per minute, (d) percentage of maze words, and (e) number of abandoned utterances. Exploratory associations for these variables were compared against the Quality Classroom Instruction protocol (QCI), a measure of teaching effectiveness. The results of my study yielded null effects due study limitations. However, the explored area addressed a blind-spot within the literature and provided preliminary data, insight, and recommendations pertaining to the linguistic attributes of instructional language used by first grade teachers during read aloud lessons.

There is an increasingly number of students taking online classes in lieu of or in addition to the traditional face-to-face format. With this trend, there are questions that naturally come to the surface. The biggest question being "is teaching in the online arena just as effective as the face-to-face arena?" This dissertation aims to pursue that line of questioning by analyzing students' perceptions of the teaching effectiveness for instructors who teach the same course in both an online and face-to-face format in the same semester. The data are analyzed through the lens of the social capital theory. Social capital has never been applied to the classroom before as its focus has traditionally been on community development. However, social capital theory addresses interpersonal relationships and their impact on knowledge sharing behavior. This theory identifies three dimensions, which appear to have a parallel track with the student evaluation components; each is analyzed against each other. These dimensions include structured, cognitive and relational and are compared to the components of the student evaluation tool, which includes organization and explanation of materials, learning environment and self-regulated learning.

This study investigated the faculty perception of the use of a student evaluation of faculty instrument. The areas considered were use of the current Student Evaluation of Faculty (SEF) instrument to measure teaching effectiveness; use of the current instrument for annual faculty review; faculty involvement in developing the instrument; utilizing the instrument to improve teaching; and demographics of faculty gender, college/school in which they teach, and the numbers of years of higher education experience. Participants included 734 full-time instructional faculty members at Mississippi State University who taught during the fall 2012 semester and utilized the current SEF instrument. From the 734 faculty invited to participate in the study, 205 responded. The study was conducted in the fall 2013 semester. Over 71% of the participating faculty indicated a negative perception toward the current SEF instrument as an effective tool for their use in evaluating teaching effectiveness. However, 60% of the participants agree the instrument serves as an effective tool for their use to improve teaching. The faculty also indicated they would like to be able to compare their SEF results to others teaching comparable courses. Participants were asked to rate each question taken from the current SEF instrument, indicating its level of usefulness in their ability to utilize the results to improve teaching. Of the 11 questions, only 2 were found to be least useful to the faculty. One of those was related to the tests they give being fair and the other related to the student learned a great deal in the class. Almost 81% of the participants indicated that faculty involvement in the development of the current student evaluation of faculty instrument increased the usefulness in measuring teaching effectiveness. Conclusions based on the findings indicated a need to continue revising the evaluation process and instrument to include a multidimensional process. This multidimensional process should provide separate instruments to be used for annual faculty review and for improving teaching. These revisions should be carried out with faculty involvement to ensure acceptance of the processes and maintain positive perceptions.