Although studies of teacher preparation programs have documented positive changes in mathematical knowledge for teaching with preservice teachers in mathematics content courses, this study focused on the impact of a mathematics methods course and follow-up student teaching assignment. The presumption was that preservice teachers would show growth in their mathematical knowledge during methods since the course was structured around active participation in mathematics, research-based pedagogy, and was concurrent with a two-day-per-week field experience in a local elementary school. Survey instruments utilized the computer adaptive test version of the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) measures from the Learning Mathematics for Teaching Project, and the Attitudes and Beliefs (towards mathematics) survey from the Mathematical Education of Elementary Teachers Project. A piecewise growth model analysis was conducted on data collected from 176 participants at 5 time-points (methods, 3 time-points; student teaching, 2 time-points) over a 9 month period. Although the participants' demographics were typical of U.S. undergraduate preservice teachers, findings suggest that initial low-level of mathematical knowledge, and a deep-rooted belief that there is only one way to solve mathematics problems, limited the impact of the methods and student teaching courses. The results from this study indicate that in (a) number sense, there was no significant change during methods (p = .392), but a significant decrease during student teaching (p < .001), and in (b) algebraic thinking, there was a significant decrease during methods (p < .001), but no significant change during student teaching (p = .653). Recommendations include that the minimum teacher preparation program entry requirements for mathematical knowledge be raised and that new teachers participate in continued professional development emphasizing both mathematical content knowledge and reform-based pedagogy to continue to peel away deep-rooted beliefs towards mathematics.

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This study explored how preservice teachers perceive the influence and value of an embedded, school-based field experience. Information was gathered from preservice teachers using surveys and a focus group interview. The data collected showed that an embedded field experience tied to a language arts methods course was generally a positive influence leading to great self-efficacy. Further, the data compared similarly to research supporting the notion that embedded field experiences generally have the effect of strengthening preservice teachers’ self-efficacy. Looking at Bandura’s work in Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change, it shows that early interactions and successes will boost the self-efficacy of preservice teachers. This study found that successful experiences help preservice teachers value their embedded, school-based field experiences and help view it as something positive. Even if the experience had its difficulties, preservice teachers were able to learn from the situation and if they ever find themselves in a similar circumstance, they will feel more confident about handling things. Therefore, when these preservice teachers become in-service teachers, they will feel more confident about their abilities compared to in-service teachers who did not have similar experiences in their teacher preparation program.

Paraprofessionals have a wide range of responsibilities in the educational system to support students' academic, behavioral, and social needs. The law does not specifically define how paraprofessionals will receive training for these tasks, but many districts require teachers to fill this role. While some educators may receive adequate training, literature shows that the majority of preservice and in-service teachers feel unprepared to train, manage, and supervise paraprofessionals. In this exploratory study, grounded qualitative methods were used to analyze data from course materials and semi-structured interviews regarding faculty perspectives of current practices used in teacher preparation programs. Themes which emerged from the data included: (1) Informal or ad hoc training; (2) Recognition of the need to support conceptual awareness; and (3) Infrastructural issues. Participants in this study used their knowledge, background, and experiences to create meaningful and relevant activities with concepts that preservice teachers need to work with paraprofessionals. However, instruction tended to be informal or ad hoc due to a number of infrastructural issues and constraints surrounding current practices. The findings of the study were congruent with previous literature regarding course materials, activities, and types of training. Additionally, this study revealed some issues at the national, state, and local levels that have influenced the extent of information provided to preservice teachers regarding working with paraprofessionals.

Assessment data continues to show middle and high school students struggling with literacy. As literacy is intricate to every course at the secondary level, students who struggle with reading and writing struggle across the curriculum. While this glaring issue persists, many teachers take few courses to train them to implement the instructional strategies needed to help students overcome deficits and succeed in the disciplinary coursework of secondary school. The goals of the project were to decide which content should be included in a required program of study for secondary education pre-service teachers to increase capacity and improve classroom readiness and identify influencing factors in instructional adjustments and literacy coursework that contribute to secondary preservice /in-service teacher success. Research studies show explicit instruction instruction in vocabulary, comprehension, and writing across the curriculum have a positive effect on student achievement in literacy. Research also showed that pre-service teachers trained in literacy instructional strategies and engaged in quality field experience are more prepared to instruct students successfully. Based on research, an updated secondary education program of study was created to strengthen literacy instructional capacity through targeted coursework and teacher residency. The current degree program was audited to find solutions. Courses strong training pre-service teachers in comprehension, vocabulary, and writing instruction were added to the program of study. The updated coursework was set in a progression to improve alignment of instructional strategies taught within the program. The program’s field experience component was expanded from a semester of required internship to a full academic year of teacher residency through a new teacher residency program. Updated syllabi, programs of study, course progression, and the teacher residency program were converted into the required documentation to request for a new degree program through Mississippi State University.

Using queer and Afrofuturist frameworks, this Black feminist qualitative study explored queer Black pre-and in-service teachers' cultural and intersectional practices as they navigated traditional heteronormative educational spaces. This research study relied on counternarratives and storytelling and drew from Afrofuturism to understand the use of their lived experiences to counter monolithic queer narratives. The queer Black teachers in this study examined and negotiated how their Blackness and queerness showed up in teacher preparation programs (TPP) and K-12 classrooms. Moreover, they eventually refused to hide or censure their authentic selves. An analysis of the narratives and counternarratives showed that queer Black teachers drew from ancestral traditions to create queer Afrofuturist spaces in TPPs and educational places. Furthermore, due to their queer Black intersectional approaches, their classrooms, assignments, curriculum, and pedagogy disrupted normative teaching practices. Implications, recommendations, and future research are discussed.

The goal of this study was to explore technology experiences from a preservice teacher preparation program that requires every preservice teachers and instructors to own a laptop. The participants were a) preservice teachers who were in the program and b) novice teachers who are the program graduates. The setting of this study was a preservice teacher preparation program that involves one-to-one computing throughout in a college of education in a large southwestern university. The research conducted a cross sectional case study. Two preservice teachers across the first, second, and third semesters of the program and two novice teachers in the first year of teaching participated in this research. Various data sources were collected with: a) technological skills and attitude survey, b) related documents such as lesson plans, assignments and school documents, c) observation, and d) interviews. Results of this study showed each participant’s learning environment, technology experiences and technology skills, attitudes and knowledge. All preservice teachers mutually had media cart, instructors’ laptops, students’ laptops, and wireless internet in university classes, and had innovation station, teachers’ computers, printer, telephone, students’ computers, headsets and wireless internet in PK-6 school classes. Throughout the program, university instructors mutually required Email, word processing and electronic submission of assignments to the preservice teachers. The instructors mutually modeled using PowerPoint and Learning Management System (LMS). Preservice teachers in the first semester mutually used video creation, preservice teachers in the second semester used Email and LMS, and preservice teachers in the third semester mutually used search engine, PowerPoint and innovation station. All participants’ technology attitudes were overall positive. Most of the preservice teachers’ technology knowledge was rated accepting level, except Neal, one of the preservice teachers in the third semester, who was rated adapting level. Novice teachers mutually had innovation station, web conferencing devices and students’ laptops in their school. Both of the novice teachers experienced barrier of technology integration due to the necessary devices were already checked out. The novice teachers mutually used innovation station, had overall positive technology attitudes and had technology knowledge at the accepting level. The results led six discussion issues, including a) alignment of technological infrastructure, b) accessibility of technologies, c) limited exposure to technological activities, d) preservice teachers’ technology skills, e) technology experiences from the program and preservice teachers’ technology attitudes, and f) programmatic impact on novice teachers. / text

This study explores the impact of "teacher thinking" exercises in the Composition Practicum as a means of instilling a clearer sense of professional development in graduate instructors. Teacher thinking is a teacher training method that asks the novice instructor to see from the perspective of learners within their writing classrooms. Scholarship on writing teacher preparation programs suggests that English educators regularly employ teacher thinking exercises in the training of secondary school teachers. Teacher thinking has allowed many English education majors to conceptualize and obtain teaching identities by helping them to envision the intricate layers of teaching earlier in their careers. But can teacher thinking exercises have the same effect on graduate instructors in the Composition Practicum? Using the two main writing teacher preparation courses at Brigham Young University (BYU) for graduate instructors and English education majors, English 610 and English 423, I analyze the evidence of teacher thinking in each program and address the possible implications these findings could hold for the Composition Practicum course. Through my comparison of these courses, I determine if conversations between English educators and the Composition Practicum could be beneficial in helping graduate instructors to grow professionally as teachers as they learn to think like teachers in the Composition Practicum. I examine, analyze, and compare syllabi, surveys, and interview response from graduate instructors, English education majors, and the teachers of both courses to identify the types of teaching thinking students are exposed to in each course. Structuring my discussion around the teacher thinking theories of teacher educators, Forrest Parkay and Beverly Stanford, George Hillocks, and Alicia Crowe and Amanda Berry, I identify three types of knowledge that graduate instructors and English education majors gained or lacked in each program. These three types of knowledge are knowledge of self, knowledge of students, and knowledge of educational theory. Through this discussion, I explore what it means to think like a composition teacher and how learning to "teacher think" may help graduate instructors, nationally, to understand what it means to "simply be a composition teacher".