Program excellence in Extension is contingent on an Extension educator’s ability to identify issues, prioritize these issues, implement educational programs to address these issues and resulting in measurable outcomes, evaluate these issues and utilize the results of these evaluations to redirect educational programs, and utilize these evaluation results as the foundation for program interpretation. The future success of Extension programs is dependent on the capacity of Extension to retain highly qualified Extension educators and the ability of these Extension educators to implement the process of Extension program development. A comprehensive professional development intervention, entitled the “South Region Excellence in Programming Academy,” was designed and implemented from May 2006 to November 2006 to provide early to mid-career Extension educators with comprehensive instruction related to program planning, program implementation and evaluation and interpretation. A Pre-experimental research, One-Group pre-test-post test, involved the administration of a pre-test (O1) to research subjects followed by the Academy (X) and then followed by a post-test (O2) to determine if Extension educators’ knowledge in program development increased as result of participation in the Academy. Extension educators perceive that their proficiency in the Extension program development process increases as a result of their participation in the Academy. Extension educators incorporate principles covered during the Academy and were satisfied with the Academy in terms of providing skills that will enhance their ability to execute the Texas Cooperative Extension Program Development Model. This study showed that as an Extension educator’s knowledge of the program development process increased, and their perception of the elements of program development increased, Extension educators will incorporate the principles of program development covered during the Academy, and Extension educators were satisfied with the Academy. Recommendations are offered to improve future professional development interventions focusing on program planning, implementation, evaluation, and interpretation. The results of this study will contribute to the body of knowledge that will enhance the ability of personnel to provide quality professional development related to program development.

No description available.

No description available.

Seven Vermont school districts participated in a five year professional development program sponsored jointly by the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Education from 2002-2007. Using a robust mixed methods evaluation, teachers and students demonstrate pronounced organizational and academic growth. Analysis of data from focus groups held with teachers over the course of the period from fall 2004-spring 2006 provides strong supporting evidence for the growth. The purpose of this dissertation is to reanalyze the focus group data to document institutional and longitudinal change at the first person level. With focus groups as the unit of analysis, themes rising from the anonymous participants‟ I statements form the substance for this review. By revisiting an extensive pre-existing data set with a different method of analysis, this work expands on what is known about how teachers process change on the ground level. The findings reveal how complex individual feelings about one‟s experiences serve to describe degrees of institutional as well as personal change. New thematic coding confirms the original findings of the program evaluation. More importantly, the findings provide new details and understandings about organizational change and growth previously unobserved in the aggregate reports. By way of a methodological contribution, the research findings suggest and demonstrate an alternative approach to the analysis of focus group data in the aggregate.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

No description available.

This study investigated the effects of cooperative game play and structured interview on the anxiety levels and attitudes of prospective teachers toward persons with visual impairments. The major strategy for attitude change was based on Deutsch's theory of cooperation in social interaction utilizing the framework of Johnson and Johnson's social judgment process in conjunction with Kurt Lewin's theory of "reduction of restraining forces.".;Forty-five undergraduate education majors were randomly assigned to a control group or two experimental treatment groups for the purpose of modifying their attitudes toward persons with visual impairments.;The experimental conditions involved two groups of 15 prospective teachers each. Each member of group one functioned as a partner of a visually impaired person in playing the electronic game "Simon." They formed a dyad which collaborated to beat "Simon." Members of group two interacted with a visually impaired person during interview sessions which were structured around ten familiar topical areas. The experimental treatment involved 20 minutes of social interaction during four interaction sessions within a period of two weeks. The control group experienced no contact with the visually impaired persons.;Pretest-Posttest data were collected using the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale (ATDP), Forms A and B; the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, (STAI); Forms X-1 and X-2; semantic differential scales; and a 10 point amount of contact scale.;Data analysis of STAI showed the experimental subjects experienced reduction of discomfortable feelings while interacting with the visually impaired. However, there was insignificant difference between the two groups. Analysis of the ATDP showed a positive shift in attitudes toward persons with physical disabilities. Similarly, there was insignificant difference between experimental group changes notwithstanding both groups exceeded the control group on posttest mean scores. The semantic differential scales indicated close agreement between perceptions of contact and attitudes for both the nondisabled and visually impaired persons.;Since the significant effects of cooperative game play and the structured interview as goal interdependent experiences for positive attitudinal shifts were inconclusive on the basis of the study's findings, further investigation is needed.

This research sought to answer the question: Does the relationship between supervisors' feedback styles and supervisees' levels of intrinsic motivation and the subscales of intrinsic motivation, found in other settings, exist in student teaching? The sample consisted of 252 student teachers from Old Dominion University and their cooperating teachers. This group included all of the spring, 1991, semester student teachers who chose to participate (30 chose not to) and represented a wide variety of cultural and economic backgrounds.;A correlational methodology was used, employing Pearson's r values for the relationships between cooperating teachers' feedback styles as measured on the Cooperating Teacher Questionnaire and total intrinsic motivation and each of four subscales (Interest-Enjoyment, Effort-Involvement, Pressure-Tension, and Competence) of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory. Significant changes were recorded in intrinsic motivation and each subscale of the inventory from pretest to posttest in the seven week student teaching placement; however, only Effort-Involvement was found to correlate at a significant level (p {dollar}<{dollar}.05) with feedback style. The study provided data on the entry motivation and changes in the motivation of student teachers, and piloted the Cooperating Teacher Questionnaire for measuring cooperating teachers' feedback styles.

Current traditional reflective practices in teacher preparation may be failing to address the needs of teacher candidates in terms of their identity formation as teachers. This qualitative study, utilizing a participant group of six graduate students in their student teaching internships at a small public liberal arts university, explored whether writing stories could enable student teachers to make better sense of their internship experiences and develop understanding of who they are as teachers. After an initial training session on "story," data were collected at three key points during the student teacher internship. This data consisted of participants' written stories, focus group discussions, and individual exit interviews. The data were then systematically coded using grounded theory methodology. The six themes resulting from this study indicate support for written stories as an alternative or parallel reflective tool to traditional journaling in teacher preparation.

Prevalent literature about school counselors' professional development (PD) needs to prepare diverse learners for college is in short supply. Simultaneously, school counselors oftentimes encounter role confusion due to misperceptions of their job responsibilities by educational leaders. This discrepancy has led to the completion of noncounseling assignments, thus prohibiting counselors in this study from appropriate training and adhering to college readiness mandates for all students. This study explored high school counselors' attitudes about their PD needs to prepare diverse students for college in an urban populated school district located in southern Texas. The conceptual framework that guided this study defines school counselors' motivation to improve college access for diverse students when counselors learn information that is practical to their job activities. A qualitative case study was used to answer the question of how counselors perceive their PD needs to prepare diverse learners for college. Data were collected from 8 high school counselors through semistructured interviews and documents of counselors' PD profiles that were analyzed and coded to develop themes. Results established that participants had not received PD about college readiness, and they had not taken the initiative to advocate this need for themselves. Notably, counselors in the study indicated that developing a professional learning community with local colleges would be an effective approach to their professional growth. Although this study immediately benefits counselors in the participating school district, this study also provides information that may expand college enrollment for diverse students. Findings from this study not only will help close the gap between diverse students and their counterparts, but findings from this study may also help enhance PD for school counselors in surrounding school districts.