The purpose of this study was to determine the factors of agreement or disagreement between a group of public school principals and a group of teacher educators concerning their perceptions of the relative Importance of specific teaching behaviors to the success of the beginning classroom teacher. (Abstract shortened.)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to observe, analyze, and compare teacher verbal and non verbal behaviors as they were exhibited toward students in both traditional class rooms and open-space class rooms. Particular emphasis was placed on determining the degree, if any, to which teachers in open-space class rooms were more indirect and encouraging than direct and restricting in their behaviors than teachers in traditional class rooms. (Abstract shortened.)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a pilot training program on teaching skills and determine if such a program could significantly improve the teaching behavior of resident physicians in the East Tennessee State University College of Medicine. (Abstract shortened.)

No description available.

<p> The quality of teacher education allows first-year teachers to meet mandates at federal and state levels (Darling-Hammond, 2010a). The teaching profession is complex and requires new and innovative quality preparation programs (Wei, Andree, &amp; Darling-Hammond, 2009). This study involved examination of the perceptions of 17 building principals and 16 first-year teachers to determine the effectiveness of teacher preparation. First-year teachers identified essential elements of teacher preparation and weaknesses of programs. The study addressed building principals&rsquo; perceptions of differences, if any, in the effectiveness of first-year teachers graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs and first-year teachers who choose alternative routes to the profession. Perceptions of first-year teachers and building principals were identified in regard to the skills of first-year teachers in the classroom. Building principal perceptions indicated first-year teachers are prepared as effective classroom teachers in the areas of content knowledge, creating positive environments, classroom management, cooperative learning, cooperative partnership, implementing curriculum, use of technology and communication; understanding student learning, growth, and development; and performing roles, responsibilities, and collegial activities. Identified weakness in the effectiveness of first-year teachers were in the areas of instruction and assessment. Building principals indicated first-year teachers from traditional programs were more effective than those who chose alternative programs. First-year teachers indicated essential elements of teacher preparation programs to be organization, classroom structure, positive reinforcement, classroom management, and implementing a variety of instructional strategies. Areas of weakness identified were time-management, parent teacher conference experiences, preparing the classroom environment, and time for realistic opportunities to experience classroom teaching. First-year teachers perceived their preparation to be more positive than building-principal perceptions in the areas of analyzing instructional goals and differentiated instructional strategies, teaching for critical thinking, effects of instruction on individual/class learning, use of student assessment data to analyze and modify instruction, assessment data to improve learning, and self-assessment. </p>

<p> The purpose of this paper is to answer research questions related to this capstone project that evaluates how peer and/or individualized professional development impacts teacher comfort and usage of technology. The analysis, measures and processes utilized to answer these questions are outlined within this paper in order to determine significant factors that affect technology usage within the classroom.</p>

<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to look at how teachers use micro-blogging, in this case Twitter (www.twitter.com), for their own personalized professional learning and how effective Twitter is as a professional development (PD) tool. In order to measure the effectiveness of the tool, the researcher first gleaned nine essential characteristics of effective PD from the literature. This list was validated by experts in the PD community. The significance of this study was to reveal how participants actually used Twitter for PD, what their perspectives on the tool were, and how effective their experiences were with Twitter as a PD tool. Results of this study can be used to improve current practice, and provide a low cost, accessible, and available mechanism to foster an on-going, learner-centered, approach to PD, thus allowing teachers to become more involved in their own professional growth. For the 4 participants in this study, Twitter use for PD and its effectiveness varied greatly. The effectiveness of the tool depended on the participant&rsquo;s fluency with the technology and attitude towards social media. For the most fluent participant, Twitter met most of the requirements for effectiveness; however, Twitter use did not automatically provide a mechanism for reflection or self-assessment; nor did Twitter use provide an evaluation of the experience, both requirements of effective PD. With added evaluation and self-assessment processes, and with a fluent practitioner, Twitter does have the potential to be a very effective PD tool with its low cost, accessibility, and availability.</p>

<p> As education evolves in the 21st century and students learn to develop knowledge from the ground up, educators step into the role of facilitator. Critical to this paradigm shift is a connection with places that develops knowledge from local experiences into broad global understanding. This thesis explores the literature on how people develop a connection with place, the importance of learning about the world through appropriate developmental stages, and the relevance of place-based education as part of learning in the 21st century. Through qualitative research methods&mdash;including surveys, interviews, and focus groups&mdash;this thesis demonstrates the ways in which educators in an elementary school in Albuquerque, New Mexico develop a personal sense of place. It also asks how an educator&rsquo;s understanding of place is integrated into her or his teaching practices and addresses where there is room for place-based education principles in a wide range of classrooms. The findings of this study suggest that through relationships to place and people, young learners can develop a sense of belonging that drives a love of and responsibility for places on both local and global scales.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to research the gap between teachers and leadership. There is a disconnection in addressing characteristics that are represented by the transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire teacher leaders. This study was focused on teachers and the type of leadership they are more inclined to display (transformational, transactional, or laissez-faire) in the classroom. The types of leadership were correlated with certification type, years of experience, and self-efficacy (personal and teaching). The 241 participants in the study were from two academically successful school districts in Texas as determined by the Academic Excellence Indicator System. The findings of the study did not produce statistically significant results between teacher leadership type and certification type nor years of experience. Leadership type and teacher and personal self-efficacy, demonstrated statistical significance. Recommendations for future study are made. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> teachers, leadership, transformational, transactional, laissez-faire, certification type, years of experience, self-efficacy.</p>

<p>This dissertation takes on a key and persistent challenge within teacher education: pre-service teacher learning in field experience. I approach this historical problem through its local manifestations, and this study examines an intervention that brought together three university supervisors and six classroom mentor teachers from one university-school partnership for seven meetings over the six months of student teaching. Framed by Cultural-Historical Activity Theory, the emergent design of the Mentoring Study Group intervention aimed to provoke expansive learning (Engestr&ouml;m, 1987; 2001) to transform how practitioners understand their work and to support them in constructing new tools and concepts for practice for themselves. Qualitative methods were used to examine the key problems of practice participants identified, the new tools and concepts for practice they developed, and to interpret learning in terms of the expansive learning conceptual model to understand how features of the model design enabled the group to broaden their understanding and coordinate their work. Results demonstrate that through participation in the structured collaboration offered by the emergent professional development approach, participants were able to uncover a fundamental contradiction embedded within teacher preparation, between goals of helping pre-service teachers develop ambitious instructional practice and preparing pre-service teachers to lead &ldquo;formula lessons.&rdquo; In attempting to confront and resolve this contradiction, the Mentoring Study Group devised a shared tool to coordinate their work, The Five High-Leverage Math Practices +1 Protocol and field-based pedagogical practices to guide modeling, observations, and feedback on teaching. This model of structured collaboration for teacher education practitioners holds promise for university-school partnership efforts to come together to develop shared approaches to mentoring and a common language of practice for the purpose of preparing beginning teachers for ambitious practice in the field. </p>