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Previous literature has exposed the impact of concerns and beliefs on a teacher's decision to adopt online teaching methods, and in particular for Graphic Communications teachers, the extent to which their concerns and beliefs influence whether or not they decide to teach online. The potential problem that may exist is that of Graphic Communications teachers' concerns and beliefs are playing a role in impeding their transitioning to teaching in the online environment. The purpose of this study was to examine how teacher concerns and beliefs might be affecting a Graphic Communications teacher's adoption of online teaching. Although there are a multitude of factors that may inhibit Graphic Communications teachers from teaching online, this study sought to document the extent to which teacher concerns and beliefs toward online teaching impact their decision to adopt these practices. This study included a purposeful sample of 79 Graphic Communications educators across the United States and Canada. Data collected from the Graphic Communications Teachers Beliefs Towards Teaching Online (GCTBTTO) survey were analyzed using the Stages of Concern scoring device, simple means, and sample correlation coefficients to examine participant concerns and beliefs towards online teaching and the relationship between their concerns and beliefs. A theme analysis of open-ended responses about teaching online provided further assessment of participant beliefs and concerns towards the innovation. Findings from this study revealed Graphic Communications teachers who had taught online had higher levels of external concerns and stronger beliefs towards teaching online. Graphic Communications teachers who had not taught online had higher levels of internal concerns and average beliefs towards teaching online. T-tests revealed the difference in concerns between the sub-groups of teachers was significant across all stages except Management, where online and non-online teachers had similar management concerns about online teaching. For online teachers, task value and cost beliefs were found to have a moderately strong negative correlation to concerns in the Awareness stage, with no significant relationship between expectancy/ability beliefs and any stages of concern. For teachers not teaching online, task value and cost beliefs had a strong positive correlation with their Collaboration concerns, and expectancy/ability beliefs were strongly positively related to their Refocusing concerns. These findings also revealed that most Graphic Communications teachers do not believe hands-on courses which require manipulation of machinery can be taught online, although online teachers are teaching these types of classes with hybrid methods of instruction. The findings from this study provide implications for change facilitators and their consideration of faculty concerns and beliefs. The recommendations for this study suggest ways in which researchers, educators, and change facilitators can address concerns and beliefs in order to develop new innovative teaching methods for hands-on classes. / Ed. D.

The intent of this two-phase, sequential explanatory mixed methods study was to examine the role teachers' beliefs play when making instructional decisions. The population included in-service teachers representing four Career and Technical Education disciplines located within the commonwealth of Virginia. Using a stratified random sample, 622 teachers were selected for the quantitative strand, and employing a system of four contacts, quantitative data were collected from 292 participants. Dweck's Theories of Intelligence scale assessed the nature of in-service teachers' beliefs about intelligence, and the Epistemic Belief Inventory was used to measure their epistemological beliefs. Finally, the participants rated their use of teacher-centered and student-centered teaching methods. In the second phase, qualitative data were collected from nine participants to further understand how in-service teachers' beliefs are related to the teaching practices they use. The quantitative and qualitative data were combined to determine if the descriptions of teaching method used, beliefs about intelligence, and epistemological beliefs aligned with the outcomes of the quantitative questionnaire. Significant correlations existed between the Theories of Intelligence scale and the Epistemic Belief Inventory. A significant positive relationship existed between the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory and the overall teaching practices score, indicating in-service teachers' advanced epistemological beliefs are related to the use of student-centered teaching practices. A regression analysis indicated that teaching discipline, epistemological beliefs, teaching experience, and highest level of education completed predicted the teaching practices in-service teachers' select. The qualitative data supported the claim that beliefs about intelligence and epistemological beliefs influence teaching practices. Six themes emerged from the qualitative data, and the themes were used as a framework for organizing the findings. The researcher acknowledges that teachers possess a variety of beliefs, and those beliefs influence how teachers teach. The researcher recommends that teacher educators attempt to identify the beliefs pre-service teachers hold, and if modifications of beliefs are needed, facilitate interventions to modify those beliefs. While some have labeled the direct relationship between teacher beliefs and teaching practices as "messy", the evidence indicates the two, are in fact, related. / Ph. D.

This study investigated teacher beliefs and organizational climate constructs of collective efficacy, faculty trust, academic emphasis, enabling bureaucracy, and mindfulness as antecedents for implemented professional development. Researchers previously combined collective efficacy, faculty trust, and academic emphasis into academic optimism. Using Conscious Discipline as professional development and book study as delivery, in this mixed methodology study, 489 teachers in 17 suburban elementary schools completed surveys measuring organizational climate constructs, teacher beliefs about classroom management, and self-reported degree of imlementation. Morning greeting and classroom walkthrough observations collected evidence of implementation. Sixteen focus group teachers from four elementary schools explained the degree of implementation. This study found that (a) Teacher and school demographic data correlated with organizational climate constructs; (b) Teacher beliefs and faculty mindfulness explained 65.7% of variance in self-reported degree of implementation; and (c) Socioeconomic status, book club participation, and teacher beliefs explained 77.1% of variance in observation degree of implementation. / Ph. D.

This thesis documents my exploration of professional development of four experienced English language teachers of diverse background taking the MA TESOL programme at the University of Manchester. Having considered professional development to be about change construed broadly to professional identity and teacher beliefs, I explored it through a series of individual in-depth interviews held throughout the programme. The majority of the interviews focused on the teachers' ongoing life and development and allowed the teachers space to make meaning of what they were going through and how they were developing as they engaged in the programme. On the basis of the interviews, stories about the teachers and their year were constructed. Within the stories, I synthesized what I had learned about the teachers' experience and highlighted the changes that I could see had happened to their professional identity and teacher beliefs. The stories provide a vivid example of professional development of experienced English language teachers through a master's degree. They also bring to the fore the significance of future-directed thoughts for how teachers develop professionally, which is rarely acknowledged in the existing literature. I further use the stories as a ground to conceptualize professional development of the four teachers to account for the important role their thoughts about the future played in it. Using the concepts of imagined identity and antenarrative, which I borrow from the literature, I describe it as an iterative pursuit of an ever-evolving imagined identity, or identities, and antenarrative, or antenarratives. Finally, I examine the cases using the conceptualization as a lens and offer some further insights about professional development in TESOL.

Kindergarten students who are identified as at risk in reading often enter school with deficiencies in early reading skills. Little research exists for this vulnerable population on reading instruction in large, urban, school systems. The purpose of this multiple case study, which was guided by Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory of human development, was to describe urban kindergarten teachers' beliefs about the environmental factors that contribute to students' at-risk reading status, instructional practices employed to remediate reading, and teacher reports about systems in place to support student reading development. The multiple case study design included (a) structured interviews, (b) observations of kindergarten instructional practices in reading, and (c) a review of documents relevant to the delivery of instruction and home literacy assignments in 3 schools situated in 3 northeastern districts in the United States of America. The constant comparative method utilized included data coding, category development, and identification of themes. Findings indicated that (a) teachers believe parental involvement would influence the development of kindergartners' early reading skills; (b) teachers used a core and phonics curriculum within a print-rich environment to teach early reading skills, with variation in approaches seen within and across school sites; (c) there is a lack of professional development within the schools to enhance kindergarten reading instruction; and (d) the schools' instructional practices may not be part of a coherent instructional philosophy. This study contributes to positive social change by providing educators with a deeper understanding of how to remediate reading with attention to the environmental factors at-risk readers experience at home and school.