The purpose of this research report is to record and analyse the school initiation and implementation of Professional Development for teachers in South African schools. The literature review highlights a number of key terms, namely: professionalism, the status of teachers, teacher appraisal and accountability and instructional improvement. Two significant findings are 1) that teachers find that the new curriculum intensifies their work, leading to some form of de-professionalization, and 2) that teachers prefer professional development related to discipline and classroom management rather than instructional improvement.

Thesis advisor: Henry I. Braun / Data-based instructional programs, including interim assessments, are a common tool for improving teaching and learning. However, few studies have rigorously examined whether they achieve those ends and contributors to their effectiveness. This study conducts a secondary analysis of data from a matched-pair school-randomized evaluation of the Achievement Network (ANet). Year-two teacher surveys (n=616) and interviews from a subset of ANet school leaders and teachers (n=40) are used to examine the impact of ANet on teachers’ data-based instructional practices and the mediating roles of instructional leadership, professional and achievement cultures, and teacher attitudes and confidence. Survey results showed an impact of ANet on the frequency with which teachers’ reviewed and used data, but not their instructional planning or differentiation. Consistent with the program model, ANet had a modest impact on school-mean teacher ratings of their leaders’ instructional leadership abilities and school culture, but no impact on individual teachers’ attitudes toward assessment or confidence with data-based instructional practices. Therefore, it was not surprising that these school and teacher characteristics only partially accounted for ANet’s impact on teachers’ data practices. Interview findings were consistent. Teachers described numerous opportunities to review students’ ANet assessment results and examples of how they used these data (e.g., to pinpoint skills on which their students struggled). However, there were fewer examples of strategies such as differentiated instruction. Interview findings also suggested some ways leadership, culture, and teacher characteristics influenced ANet teachers’ practices. Leaders’ roles seemed as much about holding teachers accountable for implementation as offering instructional support and, while teachers had opportunities to collaborate, a few schools’ implementation efforts were likely hampered by poor collegial trust. Teacher confidence and attitudes varied, but improved over the two years; the latter following from a perceived connection between ANet practices and better student performance. However, some teachers were concerned with the assessments being too difficult for their students or poorly aligned with the curriculum, resulting in data that were not always instructionally useful. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

Thesis (M.A.T.) -- School for International Training, 2007 / Advisor -- Bonnie Mennell Includes bibliographical references (pages 85-86).

Education in rural areas coupled with poverty is shown to be a risk factor for reading failure (Bhattacharya, 2010; Morrison et al., 2005). Students who have severe reading failure are serviced in the realm of special education. To enhance a student's ability to read, special education teachers can use literacy interventions. Targeted reading intervention (TRI) is a literacy intervention that was developed to meet the requirements of rural elementary classroom teachers, who are often unready to provide diagnostic reading instruction for reading difficulty (Vernon-Feagans et al., 2012). Stevenson and Reed (2017) identified eight empirically supported methods for intensifying instruction when students are not responding to core instruction. The study sought to understand how, if at all, rural special educators altered reading instruction practices after receiving literacy intervention professional development. A case study using a qualitative design was used to observe the perceptions of three special education teachers in an impoverished, rural school district. The special education teachers received instruction on the eight components of intensifying instruction and the TRI. These specific literacy interventions were then implemented by the teachers with their students. Before and after interviews were recorded and used for data analysis. Our findings show that prior to the training the participants felt the power to teach reading resided in a formalized, commercial reading program. Following the training and implementation of these specific literacy interventions, the participants were more often able to diagnose reading difficulties and prescribe effective interventions based on the individual needs rather than relying on a scripted program. By increasing instructional match, the teachers were able to intensify instruction and could make changes to the student intervention as needed. Findings from the data analysis in this thesis study indicated that when teachers were provided ongoing professional development, there was evidence of movement towards intensification. School district-level administrators should consider creating ongoing professional development that targets intensifying instruction, particularly for special education faculty.

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This study explored the effects of emotional intelligence (EI) training on emerging staff and student leaders’ EI quotient (EQ) score. The dissertation was designed to provide training incorporating EI concepts for emerging leaders who were considering enhancing their EI skills. Currently, the EI theory is not prevalent in leadership development training curricula in either academia or corporate settings (Freedman, 2010; Gliebe, 2012; Moore, 2012). EI is a form of social intelligence that allows an individual to discern, maintain, and control his or her own and others’ emotional reactions (Mayer & Salovey, 1998). EI is measurable in the form of a quotient number known as an EQ. Previous research (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013; Mittal & Sindhu, 2012; Suciu, Gherhes, & Petcu, 2010) indicated a positive correlation between individuals with high EQ and their success rates as great leaders and motivators. Researchers (Deepa, 2013; Khosrovi, Manafi, Hojabri, Aghapour, & Gheshmi, 2011; Love, 2014) who conducted studies on the topic of EI revealed that, once the learner is exposed to EI training, then his or her EQ increased thus the learner had the ability to develop as an effective manager of his or her and other’s emotions, behavior, and reaction. The researcher developed an EI training based on Bar-On’s (2006) EI theory to help the participants learn more about using EI to influence positively how they managed their emotions, lives, and other’s emotions and how they made decisions. The methods that were incorporated in the training were self-paced video recordings and activities. The study included 30 participants (control group =15 participants and trained group = 15 participants) who first completed Bar-On’s (2005) Emotional Quotient Inventory assessment to measure their EQ scores (pretest) and then a reassessment (posttest). The scores were computer generated by Bar-On’s (2005) Emotional Quotient Inventory, which provided 1 total EQ score, 5 composite scores, and 15 subscale scores for all the participants. All the participants’ scores were calculated by using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test and descriptive statistics tools to test the effects of the EI training. The 15 trained participants completed a computer-generated 4-question feedback survey that was e-mailed to them. The EQ scores were examined and compared to each other: trained versus untrained. The results showed that the trained grouped had an incremental increase in their EQ score. The increase was not statistically significant except in the area of self-awareness. Self- awareness is a subscale that encompasses the importance of the participants’ ability to identify their emotions and feelings, discover their origin, and use it to form positive outcomes (Goleman, Boyatzis, & McKee, 2013).

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