A review of the research indicates that identifying self as a teacher can be a life-long, complex personal and social process. This researcher investigated 4 pre-collegiate students' construction of a teaching identity during their participation in an introduction to teaching course conducted in a rural high school located in a southeastern state. Two purposes framed this investigation, 1) to gain an in-depth understanding of the pre-collegiate students' past and present experiences related to teaching and the meanings the students make of these experiences, and 2) to examine these experiences as connected to construction of personal teaching identities. Using a life history methodology, data sources included 3 interviews, drawings of self as a teacher, journal writings, and personal experience writings. The findings are presented in 4 narratives one for each participant. Each narrative, represented by an exemplar quote, (i.e., Being There, Being a Kid, Right Heart, Being A Helper) illuminates the nature of the participants' teaching prototype, which emerged from past and present educational experiences. Results indicate that the participants possessed well-defined beliefs pertaining to caring teachers and to teaching as a profession, in addition, to commonly held cultural teaching beliefs. These beliefs guided their course experiences and self-assessment of a teaching identity. Although the identification to a teaching identity varied among the 4 participants, results indicate that 1 participant was actively constructing a storied teaching identity. A storied teaching identity involved a significant nuclear episode with a teacher that became the bound context for a teaching story. This type of high school level career studies course can assist in strengthening the recruitment pool of teacher education candidates and assist in testing a vocational teaching identity. Implications are offered for future research involving pre-collegiate students enrolled in an introduction to teaching course and investigation of storied teaching identities. / Ph. D.

Increased institutional accountability and fiscal constraints coupled with most community college students being required to take at least one remedial/developmental course indicates a need to find the best way to deliver these classes. Institutions are expanding alternate delivery formats to meet student expectations. Is using technology best for students in remedial/developmental courses? This study investigated effectiveness of technology-assisted instruction for remedial/developmental math in Florida community colleges. Technology has emerged as potentially enhancing student success; however, it is expensive. If research shows that students benefit from technology in remedial/developmental courses, then funds spent to provide instruction through technology are validated. However, if research does not show remedial/developmental courses with a technology component are more effective than courses delivered traditionally, then spending funds for technology in those courses becomes questionable. The research questions for this study asked whether the delivery format of gatekeeper remedial/developmental math courses varied by institutional size. Was there a relationship between student success and technology-assisted delivery of "gatekeeper" remedial/developmental math classes? The study asked if such a relationship existed when controlling for placement test scores. To answer these questions, the research compared student success rates in three delivery formats--traditional, hybrid, and computer-based. Results showed that small institutions favored traditional delivery of remedial/ developmental math. Medium institutions offered traditional and hybrid delivery in similar proportions while larger institutions favored hybrid delivery. Results also showed that students in traditional delivery sections were likely to be just as successful, or slightly more successful, than students in hybrid and computer-based delivery courses, Students with higher placement test scores in remedial/developmental math were clearly more successful in courses delivered via traditional instruction. Implications from this study suggest that the introduction of a technology component to remedial/developmental math courses does not seem to be more effective in helping students successfully pass remedial/developmental math classes. If an institution does not have funds to invest in technology for remedial/developmental math students, which may be especially true for smaller institutions, no harm is done in delivering instruction in remedial/developmental math via traditional methods. Students may actually benefit from the traditional delivery format in remedial/developmental math courses.

abstract: Pre-collegiate clarinet instructors are often challenged to teach students both fundamental skills and repertoire with limited instructional time. Insufficient time may cause fundamental skills to be addressed at the expense of repertoire or repertoire study may limit time spent on fundamental development. This document provides a suggested repertoire list that categorizes pre-collegiate clarinet literature based on the fundamental skill addressed in each included piece. Teachers can select repertoire that allows students to concurrently refine a fundamental skill while preparing a piece for performance. Addressed fundamental topics include embouchure, expanding the range into the clarion and altissimo registers, articulation, breathing, intonation, finger technique, and musicality. Clarinet method books and treatises were studied to determine which fundamental concepts to include and to find established teaching techniques recommended by pedagogues. Pre-collegiate clarinet instructors were surveyed to determine which pieces of clarinet repertoire were frequently studied in their private lesson curriculum and why, and if they used specific pieces in order to isolate a fundamental skill. Literature found in repertoire lists, repertoire books, on-line catalogs, and from the survey results was examined. Repertoire was selected for inclusion if it contained passages that were analogous to the established teaching strategies. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music 2014