<p> This dissertation examined the emotional and relational aspects of co-design, and how the co-design process for creating caring classrooms supported teacher learning. I drew on key elements of improvement science, as a type of design-based implementation research, to understand teachers as learners and as experts. I elaborated two layers of theory to guide this study. First, I conceptualized caring in the context of intentional relationship building with students, described characteristics of caring classrooms, and identified dilemmas that arise from caring. Then, I explored expansive learning and deliberative agency as concepts for understanding teacher learning. With a small group of teachers, we planned, implemented, studied, and revised the routine designed for improving relationships with students. We created a student survey to learn about students&rsquo; experiences and used data to guide revisions. Through qualitative data collection and analysis, I tested, revised, and refined my high-level conjecture that the co-design process supported teacher learning. The findings suggest teachers had opportunities to demonstrate deliberative agency, learn, and grow professionally. I described the evolution of the design and examined the ways the design team grappled with dilemmas. Teachers engaged in learning as they broke away from old routines to design and implement a new routine in their classrooms. I also examined teachers&rsquo; talk when looking at data and found that in analyzing student data together, talk turned both towards and away from deeper investigations of pedagogical practice and the practical measure. Teachers considered students&rsquo; experiences and feelings within their classrooms, which made the data more salient and contributed to the emotional dimensions of design work. In a case study of one teacher, I found that she grappled with dilemmas connected to the co-design process and caring for students, and she used the design team space to reflect on dilemmas and explore emotions related to the dilemmas. Through this study I show how improving teacher-student relationships requires risk-taking, creating classrooms can be complex, and the design team space can become a site of care.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to determine school personnel&rsquo;s perceptions of safety in their school building as well as determine their confidence in their abilities to respond to an active intruder incident. The participants of this study were school personnel from a suburban, Southwestern Illinois PreK-12 school district. The study captured perceptions of safety and school procedures within the district&rsquo;s nine buildings. The sample of participants were obtained through purposeful and convenience sampling. The participants were then assigned into five categories of participants, purposely identified: Administration, Teachers/Faculty, Support Staff (e.g., paraprofessional, aides, secretaries), Other Staff (e.g., custodians, caf&eacute; workers, bus drivers, monitors), and Substitutes (for all positions). In addition, the school&rsquo;s current documented policy on school safety and active intruder response procedures was reviewed. The qualitative design of this study included interviews and document analysis. The study was a phenomenological study with triangulation that included research questions addressing school personnel perceptions of safety and their preparedness in the event of an active intruder situation, comparing these responses among the identified categories, and identifying the type of active intruder training provided to school personnel. The seven themes that emerged from the interviews were limited safeguards, sense of safety, training, response issues, supplies and equipment, handbook awareness, and improvements. Additional research is needed to determine if other schools in Illinois require improvements in their active intruder response plans, procedures, and provided training.</p><p>

<p> Job-embedded professional development is fairly new to education. Various forms of job-embedded professional development have become popular in the last ten years. One form of job-embedded professional development is instructional coaching. Instructional coaching is rather new to education, but has become a popular form of professional development in school districts. The current study reviewed various forms of job-embedded professional development, defined job-embedded professional development and instructional coaching, and then concentrated on teacher perspectives of instructional coaching as a form of professional development, the impact of instructional coaching on classroom instruction, and the impact of instructional coaching on implementing district initiatives. In this qualitative study, 12 teachers in their first year of teaching, who completed a yearlong partnership with an instructional coach, were interviewed. The data from the interviews was collected and then analyzed to identify themes and patterns using NVivo 11 Pro, a software program for analyzing qualitative data. The researcher analyzed and coded the data as trends and patterns were revealed in the teachers&rsquo; perspectives on instructional coaching as a form of professional development, on the impact of instructional coaching on their instructional practices, and on the impact of instructional coaching on their implementation of district expectations. The data indicated that the participants considered instructional coaching to be personalized professional development that supported the ability to implement instructional practices in the classroom as well as implement district expectations.</p>

<p> The purpose of this research was to investigate whether new teacher and new teacher mentor perceptions of the effectiveness of the Missouri State Beginning Teachers&rsquo; Assistance Program (BTAP) were positive and whether the new teacher perceptions led to the new teacher remaining in the teaching profession at least five years. At the time of this writing, in the state of Missouri, new teachers must work through a six step process to upgrade their initial teacher certification to a continual (99 year) certification (Appendix A). This paper describes research on the second step of Missouri&rsquo;s process, which involved the new teacher working with a mentor for the first two years of their careers, to become accustomed to the expectations of a teaching career. </p><p> The method used in collecting data for this was study was three-fold. First, the education department at a local university conducted a new teacher panel discussion. The researcher attended this discussion and noted the results within this paper. Second, secondary data were collected from a conference presentation discussing the perceptions of new teachers and their administrators. New teachers gave their responses, as to how they thought they were performing in their classrooms and their administrators gave their responses, as to how they thought their new teachers were performing. Thirdly, data was collected online from new teachers and new teacher mentors on their perceptions of the Missouri new teacher mentoring program. </p><p> Results from the data in all three collection methods indicated that, while all surveyed districts were using a mentoring process for new teachers, each district implemented their program with varying degrees of effectiveness. Best practices seemed to indicate that a good new teacher and new teacher mentor personal connection was key to helping new teachers succeed in their new profession. The process for how these pairings were created varied from district to district. </p><p> Because of this research, the researcher recommends that individual districts make every effort to find a &ldquo;good&rdquo; personal fit between their new teachers and their mentors and that finding this ideal fit is bets performed by the administrator who will be supervising the new teacher and the mentor. </p><p>

<p> This mixed methods research investigated the relationship between student and teacher perceptions of five motivational components of instruction&mdash;appeal, challenge, choice, meaningfulness, and academic self-efficacy&mdash;and how teachers&rsquo; knowledge of their students&rsquo; perceptions informed their reflection on the quality of instruction. The <i>Student Perceptions of Classroom Quality</i> (SPOCQ; Gentry &amp; Owen, 2004) and <i> Teacher Perceptions of Classroom Quality</i> (T-POCQ; Seward, 2016) survey results of students with gifts and talents (<i>n</i> = 306 for a total of 518 administrations of the SPOCQ) and teachers (<i>n</i> = 23 for a total of 39 administrations of the T-POCQ) who participated in a summer academic enrichment program were analyzed. Significant negative but weak correlations existed between these two groups in appeal and meaningfulness, and their perceptions did not significantly correlate on challenge, academic self-efficacy, and choice. The strengths of all five correlations are weak. Ten teachers who represented various demographic groups participated in guided reflection interviews during which teacher and student survey results were compared. Teachers who did not hold degrees in education and/or lacked previous teaching experience felt a tension between content and motivation, viewing teaching as delivering content efficiently, not necessarily motivationally. All teachers perceived that they provided choice but were surprised when their students&rsquo; perceptions suggested otherwise, causing them to reevaluate their actual use of choice in instruction. Overall, teachers valued the addition of the student perspective during their reflections, indicating that it shifted their focus away from the content and learning activities toward the social-emotional aspects of learning. In addition, teachers valued guided reflection with a supportive peer as it kept them focused, helped them &ldquo;think through&rdquo; the data, and provided a sounding board for potential instructional improvement. Implications for instructional practices and professional development in other K-12 settings are discussed in the summary.</p><p>

<p> The primary purpose of teacher evaluation is to improve teaching practice, which results in increased student achievement. In practice, however, evaluation systems have been generally used as sorting mechanisms for identifying the lowest performing teachers for selective termination. The school system in this study, like others, aspires to have all of its teachers consistently performing at a highly effective level. The problem of practice faced by the school system is the inability of a large number of teachers rated &ldquo;effective&rdquo; to summarily improve their practice over time and move to the &ldquo;highly effective&rdquo; rating. In essence, how does a teacher evaluation metric maximize the chances that those who remain in the profession become accomplished practitioners? This research triangulates teacher evaluation, self-reflection and their roles in improving teacher quality. The prevailing thought is that teachers who willingly engage in more formalized self-reflection and self-assessment yield higher degrees of teacher effectiveness as measured on a local teacher evaluation. The central focus of this study will investigate tenured teachers&rsquo; perceptions of the effect of their teacher evaluation tool on teacher quality and other factors that contribute to a teacher&rsquo;s improvement of instructional performance over time. The researcher would also like to investigate the extent to which teacher cohorts&mdash;differentiated by demographic data&mdash;engage in formalized practices of self-reflection about their own teaching practice. Lastly, the researcher would like to determine whether or not tenured teachers who are evaluated with the local teacher evaluation tool actually improve their teacher effectiveness over time. </p><p> This study was conducted in a public, K-12 school system with 1420 teachers employed&mdash;39 of which are National Board Certified. This schools system is located in a rural/suburban school system and has utilized its current teacher evaluation system since 2000. </p><p> The findings of this study indicated that the majority of teachers&mdash;disaggregated by demographic teacher cohort&mdash;viewed their local teacher evaluation system somewhere along the continuum of neutral to satisfactory as a tool for building a teacher&rsquo;s effectiveness over time. The overwhelming majority of teachers embraced the post-conference as the most impactful part of the entire evaluation process in building teacher quality; the least impactful was the pre-conference. Additionally, teacher respondents&mdash;agnostic of demographic&mdash;opined that while the local teacher evaluation system was perceived to be a both quality control and a compliance factor for teachers, less than half of all respondents believe that the system, assists teachers <i> formatively</i> as a tool for professional development. Per the respondents, it should be noted that the teacher evaluation system elicited the strongest reactions&mdash;both positive and negative&mdash;in teachers having experienced more than 20 formal observations. The research also conveyed that most teachers reported that there was much more embedded self-reflection in the evaluation system than hypothesized; most prominently, teachers cited that <i>audio-taping, reviewing student performance data, completing a self-reflective checklist, and engaging in unstructured self-reflection</i> were a few of the assorted self-reflective activities were facilitated by the evaluation system. Moreover, the data clearly demonstrated that all teachers engage in high degrees of reflection regardless of demographic cohort and a majority of teachers claim to already know how to &ldquo;self-reflect.&rdquo; In other words, the highest self-reported degree of reflection were those teachers already rated as &ldquo;highly effective&rdquo; in the local evaluation system. A prevalent trend in the data was that degrees of self-reflection matter and build more pronounced levels of teacher effectiveness over time. In essence, the fact that teachers participate in reflection does not seem to impact teacher quality; rather, the degree and amount to which one reflects is actually what matters in building instructional capacity in teachers. Other noticeable trends in the data were as follows: more years of teaching experience was inversely related to the degree to which a teacher self-reflects; over 30% of teachers with more than 20 years of experience reported that they do no self-reflect at all; the non-NBCT teacher cohort out reflects the NBCT cohort; NBCT teachers had the highest average evaluation rating out of every teacher cohort; and, teaching experience seems to mute any lack of reflection in a teacher&rsquo;s evaluation rating; The other noticeable trend was that more formal observations for teachers did not translate into higher evaluation ratings over time. Overall, the two most impactful professional development activities cited by teachers were the following: participation in professional learning communities and peer coaching and mentoring, respectively.</p><p>

<p> As the method, instrument, and reliability of teacher and principal evaluations has come under extreme scrutiny since the Education Reform Act of 2010, school systems across the nation have examined and refined the evaluation process for teachers and principals. Studies have shown the integration of peer evaluation as a model of teacher evaluations can have a positive impact on the teachers and their performance that participate in peer evaluation as well as the potential for an increase in the academic achievement of students. The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers&rsquo; overall perceptions of peer evaluation and of how the use of peer evaluation could improve their teaching practice. The goals of this study were to determine the level of sharing of instructional practices among their peers currently, and whether or not they perceived an increase in the amount of time spent sharing of best practices would occur as a result of incorporating peer evaluation into the current model of a formative evaluation. Further, teachers were asked to identify potential benefits as well as any potential challenges they see as a result of implementing peer evaluations. This study used an online survey to gather data from participants. </p><p> This study was conducted in a suburban school district in Maryland. A total of 34 teachers participated in the survey questionnaire. One elementary, one middle, and one high school were selected to participate in the survey. Data were collected through an online survey conducted in September 2017. </p><p> This study provides some evidence that teachers do welcome the possible integration of peer evaluation and perceive that peer evaluation may result in an increase in the amount of time spent sharing instructional strategies among other teachers. The findings also reported potential benefits such as increased sharing of best practices of instructional strategies, more timely and relevant feedback, and reduced feelings of isolation could potentially occur as a result of incorporating peer evaluation in the current model of formative evaluations. This study further identified potential challenges such as lack of time to complete peer evaluations, personal bias, and a perceived feeling of needing to add yet another task to the busy professional day of a teacher.</p><p>

<p> A shortage of teachers is a serious threat to today&rsquo;s schools as between 30% and 50% of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. A need exists to develop teacher induction programs that begin with learning to teach through situated engagement, rather than mere knowledge acquisition, so that novices stay in the profession. </p><p> Due to the social nature of this study, and the reliance on participants&rsquo; perceptions, social constructionism was selected as the epistemology with situated learning and legitimate peripheral participation as the theoretical perspectives to conduct a multiple descriptive case study methodology that involved document analysis and interview research to explore the efforts of one private, faith-based university in the Eastern United States to prepare high school math and science teachers to fill the current teacher shortage. </p><p> The over-arching finding was the notion that the Fellows learned through every day formal and informal interactions with their Mentor Teachers during their shared practices. Significant learning occurred through increasing social practices, which were part of a community of practice. The situated engagement allowed the Fellows to develop an identity within the community, undergo a process of change, and become a full member by acquiring the language and knowledge of the group. </p><p> Preparation programs that provide strong mentoring and induction may experience lower rates of turnover among graduates. The impact of the intense and lengthy mentoring that candidates receive is highly dependent upon appropriate personality matches between mentors and mentees, the time devoted by all parties involved, and the chance to have an extended experience that allows for a true understanding of what the teaching profession entails. </p><p> Future research should include investigations of other teacher preparation programs, longitudinal studies that follow novice teachers during the induction phase of their career, and studies that look more closely at the effect that these novices have on student learning.</p><p>

<p> Although family engagement has long been associated with positive outcomes, it is not easy to establish, particularly in urban classrooms. Teachers whose ethnic and social-economic statuses differ from that of the typical urban family may be unaware of how to build and sustain those relationships. When teachers do attempt to involve families, it is frequently in a unidirectional approach that often is not effective in urban communities nor meaningful to urban families. Using action research this study addresses the question how does the co-construction of literacy bags during kindergarten (1) facilitate family/school engagement among urban, culturally diverse parents and (2) support their children's emergent literacy? Epstein's theoretical framework of over lapping spheres and methods of family involvement guides our understanding of this phenomenon. This research began by building relationships with seven urban, kindergarten student families through a series of four family/school workshops. Workshops created an environment where families and teachers co-created literacy bags. Literacy bags were the vehicle whereby bidirectional communication supported and strengthened home-school connections. Literacy based activities within individual literacy bags were based on home practices and shared expertise (parent to parent, parent to teacher). Data gathered from workshops and meetings revealed four emerging themes: making it work, distributed expertise, connecting home and school, and more than just literacy. This study provides meaningful information into how families and teachers can work together, in a bidirectional and collaborative approach, to enrich the children's literacy development of urban, low socio-economic status kindergarten students.</p><p>

<p> Recruitment and retention of special education teachers is growing concern nationwide. This problem is especially acute amongst teachers of the deaf/hard of hearing in rural areas. Mentoring of novice teachers may be a solution to this problem; however, little research exists regarding the use of mentorship in deaf education. This qualitative case study explored the nature of the mentor/mentee relationship between novice teachers of the deaf and their mentors in rural areas. Data were collected through in-depth interviews with three dyads of mentors and mentees. An open coding inductive qualitative data analysis revealed five themes characterizing the relationship. Results further indicate that these teachers describe the relationship through descriptors that are unique to either the mentor or the mentee, complimentary to each party, and shared between both parties. Implications of these findings for current practice in the field of deaf education are discussed.</p><p>