This paper takes an autoethnographic approach in exploring the growth of an African American preservice teacher during internship. This research involved daily self-reflections from the preservice teacher and observations by the supervising teachers and university liaison in order to respond to the guiding questions of how the African American preservice teacher will find a need for her presence in the classroom. As a result of the procedure, the preservice teacher was able to make meaningful connections with all students but especially with African American students who benefit from having at least one African American teacher between grades three and five within public elementary schools (Gershenson, Hart, Lindsay, & Papageorge, 2017). Additionally, findings from the reflections hope to inspire more African Americans to consider the teaching profession.

The intent of this thesis is to study the diverse experiences of 13 University of Central Florida students who participated in the Bilingual Study Abroad Teaching Experience in Spain. The group included nine education students and four in other majors. The experiences of study abroad participants can help to better understand what future participants can look to gain from the program, and what the organizers of the program can potentially look to improve. The research involved was a qualitative study which sought to record the experiences of participants, and then interpret those experiences. The participants were asked to determine the benefits of the program across three dimensions: academic, professional, and personal. This was accomplished through Likert scale questions which gauged their opinions, and by reflecting on their experiences in a more open-ended way, writing broadly about the impact of the program. In analyzing the responses, connections were drawn between the quantitative data in the Likert scale questions, and the qualitative data in the open responses. It was found that as a whole, participants considered the study abroad experience to be overwhelmingly positive across all surveyed dimensions. In addition, a number of connections were found that could be drawn between the broad experiences of the participants, and specific benefits which they noted in the survey. A number of unique experiences and circumstances will be considered, both positive and negative. Finally, the conclusions and implications of the study will be discussed. Recommendations are included in regard to future participants can expect to gain, potential areas of improvement in the program, and things which should be included in the orientation for future participants in the bilingual teaching experience.

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The United States continues to face a national shortage of teachers with large numbers of vacancies in districts creating crisis situations for many schools. Novice teachers often quit within five years, with highest attrition in schools serving minority and economically challenged students. Among the reasons teachers cite leaving the profession is lack of preparation. The most impactful teacher preparation experience is field placement with a mentor teacher during supervised student teaching. While research highlights its benefits, little is known about how mentor teachers are matched with pre-service teachers. This study sought to investigate the decision-making process of school leaders in this regard. This qualitative study used semi-structured interviews with 20 PreK-12 public school principals to investigate the following research questions: 1) What criteria do principals use to make decisions involving the matching of mentor and pre-service teachers within PreK-12 schools? 2) What are principals’ perceptions of matching mentor teachers with pre-service teachers? Regarding the first question, findings indicate that principals played a more pivotal role in the matching process than university partners, principals used similar criteria to select mentors as they use when hiring new teachers, and principals had little insight into pre-service teachers' backgrounds, experiences, and goals to inform the matching process. As for the second question, findings indicate that principals often struggle to find mentors, relationships forged between mentor and pre-service teachers were the primary contributor to positive outcomes from the matching process, and pre-service teachers were often blamed for negative outcomes from the matching process. Additionally, principals often regarded the matching process as a potential pipeline for recruiting and hiring prospective teachers and as a vehicle to meet the urgent need for effective teacher preparation, given teacher shortages. Principals noted the need to increase university involvement to improve the matching process. A framework for matching was created using the research in this study to inform future matching decisions. / Educational Leadership

The purpose of this investigation was to examine selected personality factors of student teachers, their cooperating teachers and their college supervisors to determine if these factors could have significant influence on success in student teaching experiences as measured by the Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire and the Hampton Institute Student Teacher Evaluation Form. Accordingly, the aims of this investigation were to investigate personality trait differences between males predicted for success and males predicted not to succeed based upon McClain's grouping; and females predicted for success and females predicted not to succeed based upon McClain's grouping. The theory base for this investigation was drawn from Cattell's Multivariate Factor Analysis Personality Theory (1959) and McClain's (1968) separate equation for male and female teaching success. There were 30 Fall Semester Hampton Institute student teachers, and 30 cooperating teachers, representing 100% of the student teaching population, that completed the questionnaire. Thirty cooperating teachers and 13 college supervisors completed the Hampton Institute Student Teacher Evaluation Form. The subjects were grouped according to McClain's Predicted Teaching Success Specification Equations for Males and Females. The hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between males predicted to succeed in student teaching and males predicted not to succeed in student teaching based upon McClain's grouping was accepted. The hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between the females predicted to succeed in student teaching and females predicted not to succeed in student teaching based upon McClain's grouping was accepted. The hypothesis that there would be no significant difference between the supervisors' (college supervisor) and the cooperating teachers' ratings for those predicted for success and for those predicted not to succeed was not testable. The results suggested that this was an unusually homogeneous group of student teachers and cooperating teachers. Also that the student teachers' prediction scores based upon McClain's grouping and the Hampton Institute Student Teacher Evaluation Form and the college supervisors' ratings produced no significant difference. This tends to imply that other factors or variables present in the student teaching environment influenced success in student teaching. / Ed. D.

林一鋼. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 227-242). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 227-242). / Lin Yigang.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education