During the 1979-80 school year, two Algebra I classes were involved in a study to test the effects of two methods for reviewing homework problems on students' achievements and attitudes. One review procedure was to solve and explain each problem during the class period that followed the class period in which the homework assignment had been made. The other procedure involved solving and explaining only the problems that students requested to have reviewed. While one procedure was being used with one class, the other procedure was being used with the comparison class. One treatment procedure was used with a class until a unit of work was completed. After a unit was completed a teacher-made, achievement test was administered to the students in both classes. The raw scores were normalized with a mean of fifty and a standard deviation of ten. At the beginning of the next unit the review procedures were alternated between the two classes. The two classes covered fourteen units during the experimental period. At the conclusion of the study, each student had fourteen normalized achievement scores on record. The scores were the basis for testing the following: the effect of the review procedures on achievement within each class and the effect of the review procedures on achievement between classes. A survey to obtain the attitudes of students toward the two procedures was conducted at the conclusion of the experimental period. There was no significant difference in achievement between treatments for either class. There was no significant difference in achievement between classes when using different review procedures. Students preferred to review only homework problems they requested. The following conclusions were based upon the findings of this study. Homework appears necessary for the attainment of desirable proficiency in Algebra I classes. The method of reviewing homework should be a combination of reviewing all of the homework assigned and reviewing only the problems that are requested by students. The difficulty of the topics and the interest of the students should be the bases for the teacher's decision regarding which review method should be used for any specific homework assignment.

Experimental and control groups were randomly selected in Johnny Douglas' sixth grade homeroom class to determine if contacts made to an experimental group of parents produced different perceptions of school as opposed to a control group of parents who received little or no contacts from the school. The experimental group of students' parents received a minimum of seven contacts from the school during the twenty day period of the study, while the control group received a minimum of three contacts in the same period. A questionnaire sent to the parents at the conclusion of the experiment yielded three statements of fact. The control group responded that (1)reports from school on children's progress were inadequate, and (2)more reports were needed, and (3) their children were eager to go to school each day. The two groups were in agreement that they were being kept informed about educational practices, satisfied with their personal involvement in the schools, satisfied that the school was doing a good job of teaching the basic skills, and in strong agreement that their children were receiving the right amount of encouragement by reports from home.

The purposes of this study were to compare the mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class in which the members were allowed to select their own partners with students in a Quantitative Physical Science class in which partners were assigned on the basis of high-low test scores and to compare mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class that used audio-visual material with the mean achievement of students in a Quantitative Physical Science class that used no audio-visual material. The population consisted of sixty-eight ninth grade boys and girls enrolled in Quantitative Physical Science classes in Daviess County High School during the 1975-1976 school year. The participants were the researcher's three Quantitative Physical Science classes. They were intact groups, but the treatments were randomly placed. All three groups were tested to determine intelligence levels, science achievement, and initial level of interest. The control group was assigned partners and used no audio-visual materials. The selected diad group selected partners and used no audio-visual materials. The audiovisual group used audio-visual materials and were assigned partners. The three groups were taught the same material for the same amount of time. The Read General Science Test was administered as the pretest to determine initial level of achievement. The Read General Science Test also served as the posttest. The Kuder-Interest Test was administered to determine interest level. The Otis-Lennon was used to test for intelligence levels. After controlling for the covariates, interest, intelligence, and initial level of achievement, no significant difference between the means on the Read where partners were assigned compared to a class where partners were selected was found. After controlling the covariates, interest, intelligence and initial level of achievement for the audiovisual material group several conflicts arose as suggested by the empirical data. When the audio-visual group's pretest and posttest means were compared, there was no significant difference. When the posttest mean of the audiovisual group was compared to posttest mean of the control it was found that there was a significant difference and that perhaps audio-visual materials had a negative effect. Also, when mean gain of audio-visual group was compared to mean gain of control, it was found that control made the greater gain. In conclusion, the researcher concludes that method of partner selection has no effect upon mean achievement and that the effect of audio-visual material effect upon mean achievement is inconclusive.

The purpose of this study is to locate some of the existing problems of safety in the shop and remedy them by furnishing some means that the teacher may use in presenting a safety program in the school shop. Too many shop teachers have not realized the importance of safety, therefore, they have not organized their program on a safe basis.

Concern for an adequate supply of competent mathematics teachers prompted this research. The study was implemented to identify the factors believed to be of importance in a student's decision concerning whether or not to become a public school teacher. A comparison was made between two groups of mathematics students at Western Kentucky University. Mathematics students were separated according to whether or not they were pursuing teacher certification. A two-part questionnaire was administered. The first part asked students to rate the importance of 10 selected career factors in their career decision. The second part asked students to rate these same 10 factors with regard to the attractiveness of public school teaching. The 10 factors were: (a) salary, (b) fringe benefits, (c) security, (d) job market, (e) working conditions, (f) contribution to society, (g) prestige, (h) advancement opportunities, (i) interesting work, and (j) congenial co-workers. Statistically significant differences were found between the two groups on three of the ten factors of importance and on nine of the ten factors describing their attraction to teaching. Five recommendations were offered for increasing the supply of mathematics teachers.

In order to educate my students in my first year of teaching, I embarked upon a research project that would allow me to get to know their strengths and needs in addition to identifying my own possible biases and pre-conceived educational ideas. My research spreads from my own life to the lives of three focus students from various populations: one English learner, one student who receives special education services, and one student who has had significant life experiences that might contribute to his academic work. I interviewed all three students and their families to develop an action plan to help support their work this year. In an effort to better understand their lives, I also researched the school itself and the surrounding city by interviewing community members and referencing statistics online. Ultimately with all of this information I was able to create an action plan for each student using educational strategies from various sources that supported their academic growth this year.

The ethnographic narrative is a mixture of my journey to education as well as my experience as a first-year teacher. Working in an underserved area in Southern California provided me the opportunity to reach students with similar backgrounds as my own. Being Mexican-American, I pride myself in giving back to my community, and this ethnography provided me that avenue to reach countless students with similar stories to mine. The three focus students you will see were my primary focus; however, data is collected from over 120 7th-grade students-- the majority of which are Latino. All of my classroom assignments and exit tickets are posted on Google Classroom which allows me to collect data on my students progress on a daily basis. For their unit assessments and other major assessments, students use illuminate.com which allows me to track which Common Core State Standards they are mastering and what standards they need more assistance on. The one significant challenge I encountered was the culture and beliefs of the charter school I was at. First, the charter school has adopted a pre-designed curriculum that does not allow for much creativity for the teacher. They have also lowered the standards for traditional grades which will be discussed later in the prompt. The school itself does not encourage teachers to freely teach; instead, it programs teachers to teach their way without accounting for the needs of individual students.

Instructional coaching has been a professional learning opportunity that many school districts have employed to support teacher practice. Pairing instructional coaching with on-going workshops is a relatively new approach to professional development. Participants for this study include fourteen middle school teachers that teach either mathematics or collaborate with special needs students. This study examines the effect that pairing instructional coaching with on-going workshops (with a primary focus on proportional reasoning) has on participants’ content knowledge and their perceptions of coaching. Drawing on Wenger’s community of practice theory and post-modern theory of power, this study employs mixed-methods design. Pre- and post-tests for proportional reasoning were administered to analyze the extent to which content knowledge changed over the course of the study. Pre- and post-interviews were conducted with each participant to determine any misconceptions each had on proportional reasoning and their perceptions of coaching (before and after the study’s instructional coaching). Grounded theory and thematic analysis was employed on the pre-and post-interviews to examine the role that power played in the participants’ perceptions of effective coaching attributes. Results suggest that (a) instructional coaching coupled with on-going professional workshops can change content knowledge in participants; (b) perceptions of coaching can change as the result of experiencing a coaching relationship and (c) power dynamics in the coaching experience determine the extent to which participants see the effectiveness of coaching as a professional development activity.

Questions explored in this study were: (a) Is learner centeredness related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; (b) If so, can learner centeredness explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment; (c) Is the discrepancy between teacher and student perceptions of teacher practices related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; and (d) if so, can this discrepancy explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment? The current need to provide every child with qualified and committed teachers in the face of a growing, national teacher shortage supported the significance of the research. The study was based on open systems theory (Thompson, 1996). An open system consists of inputs, process, and outputs, as well as feedback loops connecting these three components. All systems adjust to changes in their search for equilibrium (Katz & Kahn, 1966; Thompson, 1996). The xiii changes inherent in the shift toward learner centeredness can be expected to disrupt role expectations and lead to role stress for teachers (Connor, 1992; Fullan, 1991). A related construct, career commitment, is critical to sustaining teachers through the stresses of change (Firestone & Pennell, 1993). Middle school teachers (N = 318) in three northeast Florida counties completed four surveys that measured their learner centeredness, role stress, career commitment, and demographic background. In addition, 60% of the sample (N = 192) had one class complete a survey about teacher practices. A total of 4,539 students completed this survey. Findings from Pearson product-moment correlations suggested that teachers who were more learner centered in their beliefs and practices experienced less role stress (role insufficiency, role ambiguity, and role boundary) and higher levels of career commitment (career identity, career resilience, and career planning) than teachers who were less learner centered. With strength~ of relationships ranging from low to moderate, it appears that learner centeredness offers measurable benefits to teachers. In addition, findings from stepwise multiple regression suggested that learner-centeredness was a predictor of role stress and career commitment in teachers. The variance that was explained by learner-centered beliefs and practices ranged from 19% to 25% for role stress (role insufficiency, role ambiguity, and role boundary) and career commitment (career identity, career resilience, and career planning). Thus, teachers may be able to influence some of their own role stress and commitment to the profession through their beliefs and practices. Using Pearson product-moment correlations, a low relationship was found between the discrepancy between teacher and student perceptions of xiv teacher practices and two dimensions of role stress, role ambiguity and role boundary. In addition, discrepancy was related to career commitment: The relationship to career identity was negative but low, while the relationship to career planning was negative but moderate. Finally, results of multiple regression indicated slight predictive value of discrepancy for role stress and career commitment. The variance that was explained by discrepancy ranged from 3% to 11% for role stress (role boundary and role ambiguity) and career commitment (career identity and career planning). An open systems model was developed to show the influence of learner-centered beliefs, practices, and discrepancy on teachers' role stress and career commitment. Tentative suggestions for practice, as well as recommendations for further study, concluded the dissertation. Focus was placed on the need for continued research of the complex issues that impact teachers' resilience.

Teacher migration occurs frequently in public schools across the United States. As teachers transition and move to new schools, this can have implications for student achievement (Adnot, Dee, Katz, & Wyckoff, 2017; Ronfeldt, Loeb, & Wyckoff, 2013), school/family relationships (Simon & Johnson, 2015), and school administrators (Ingersoll, 2003b). The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study is to better understand the experiences that led teachers to voluntarily migrate to different schools within their district. Data for this study was collected through semi-structured interviews and document analysis. Public district documents were evaluated to better understand specific policies and/or restrictions on migrating teachers. All data was compiled and categorized into four major themes: 1) school characteristics, 2) school-based relationships, 3) professional atmosphere, and 4) leader support. While this study shows that there was no essence to the phenomena of teacher migration, it does make light of the fact that extremely negative relationships with either teaching colleagues or the school principal were important considerations in teacher’s voluntary, intra-district migration decision.