The purpose of this study was to provide a baseline assessment of NROTC instructor corps performance as defined by the NROTC Instructor Competencies. The assessments provided by supervisors, instructor self-reviews and students were examined to determine differences and similarities in group assessment of instructor performance. And, the relationships between instructor performance as defined by the NROTC Instructor Competencies and selected instructor characteristics were reviewed. The research can provide NROTC Program management information for policy development in the areas of instructor selection, training and development. Additionally, the results of the study, the processes used, and the instruments developed and tested, can provide information for the assessment of non-NROTC undergraduate faculty members. / In 1980 the Navy contracted for research to determine the competencies specific to the responsibilities of the NROTC instructor. Prior to this research, there had been no assessment of NROTC instructor corps performance as defined by the research competencies and related behavioral indicators. / The study was supported by the Chief of Naval Education and Training and can provide information for future decisions. Two instruments were developed. These were used to document instructor demographic information and student, supervisor and instructor self-assessments of instructor performance. A pilot study was conducted. The research was completed in the spring of 1990. / Significant differences were found between the assessments of instructor performance. Supervisor and student group assessments had the most significant variances in score. Instructor assessments had less dramatic, but statistically significant variances with the other two research groups. Supervisors routinely gave the highest scores; students rated instructor performance lower than the other groups. No specific demographic variable was identified as being related to high performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-12, Section: A, page: 4093. / Major Professor: William R. Snyder. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

The responses of special education to the death of their students were examined. An ethnographic study was conducted at a center for pre-kindergarten children with handicaps. Staff members were interviewed about their emotional and functional responses to student death. Previous experiences with death and belief systems were also explored. / It was found that staff experience deep feelings of grief and loss at the death of a student. Analysis found that the staff coped with the loss provided that a support system (formal or informal) existed, staff had a good relationship with the parent, and staff had access to death rituals. / The hypothesis was developed that coping with death takes place if there exists a feeling of control. Components of control were described as empowerment, action, effecting change, recognition, and endowing. Expressed needs of staff and this hypothesis were used to generate intervention strategies. Implications for further research were examined and specific suggestions were made for implementation. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3686. / Major Professor: Pearl E. Tait. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a teaching workshop on the teaching performance, teaching effectiveness, and the attitude of new biology graduate student teaching assistants (TAs) toward teaching and their students. / The curriculum of the workshop was derived from theory and research on effective instruction, including: skills of teaching, methods of choice in presentations based on learning styles, time and practice required for preparation, and an emphasis that a positive attitude toward teaching and students are all important to become an effective teacher. / This study was conducted as part of a regularly scheduled course at Florida State University. Of 32 graduate students, 20 participated in the departmental teaching workshop and 12 did not. All 32 taught three classes each of APB 1150L. The data was collected during the fall 1987, spring 1988, summer 1988, and fall 1988 semesters. Thus, the resulting number of undergraduate students who participated was approximately 2650. / The dependent variables, teaching performance, teaching effectiveness, and graduate teaching assistants' attitude toward teaching and their students, were all measured by the Student Instructional Rating Survey (SIRS), the Student Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI), final exam grades, TA interviews, class interviews, and an outside observer. / Analysis of the data collected supports the two hypotheses using the qualitative measures but only partially supports the hypotheses using the quantitative measures. (1A) A teaching workshop used with new graduate TAs does improve the teaching performance of those TAs in freshman nonmajor classes. Their performance is not significantly better than the nonworkshop TAs as measured by the data in this study. (1B) By involving each new biology graduate TA in a teaching workshop, his/her teaching effectiveness does not necessarily increase. The data collected in this study did not show a student achievement increase. (2) As a result of a one-week teaching workshop, the attitude of the new graduate TAs towards the importance of teaching was improved. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-01, Section: A, page: 0141. / Major Professor: Marcy Driscoll. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1989.

Prompted by the growing importance of teams in educational settings and by the need for a theoretical framework for team-related studies, this study proposed dimensions of a team functioning framework, based on descriptive studies, group theory, socio-technical models of organizations, and systems theory. The proposed team functioning framework informed the instrument design and proposed data analysis. Twenty-five nominated high functioning interdisciplinary teams were compared with nineteen nominated typical interdisciplinary teams to assess possible similarities and differences in team functioning between the two groups of middle school teams. Data from survey responses of 169 team teachers and 38 principals to a team functioning questionnaire for team teachers and a team assessment scale for principals were analyzed using descriptive statistics and Pearson Product-Moment Correlations. No differences were found between the two groups which perceived themselves as overall high functioning. Correlations were positive and significant among the dimensions of team functioning. / Findings may reflect the true nature of the sample in that they were indeed high functioning or as functioning at a satisfactory level and that the scores indicated implementation of all behaviors of team functioning, as theorized. Findings may be attributable to a selection process which involved heavily on perceptions of the nominating experts, the judgements of the principals, and the self-reporting nature of the instrument. / Implications point to the need for effective research methodologies related to teams and for the future development of a theoretical base which may build upon the team functioning framework proposed in this study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4239. / Major Professor: Judith Irvin. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Public Law 94-142 requires that vocational educators are to provide input into the placement and programming of students into special programs. The Vocational Education Act of 1984 emphasizes supplemental services for special students within the mainstream rather than separate vocational programs. It is essential that vocational educators understand the process whereby a student can become eligible for special services. This investigation explored the outcomes resulting from involving a group of vocational education teachers in a training session providing information on how to make sound educational decisions for exceptional students in their classes. / Stufflebeam's context, input, process, product (CIPP) model was used in collecting and analyzing data from the vocational teachers in this study. The extent and manner in which vocational teachers refer students for evaluation, as well as participate in program planning, will provide data vocational educators may use in future educational decisions for handicapped students. / Data were collected from vocational instructors during a two-day workshop and during a four week consultation period. The instructors who participated in the study were from selected secondary area vocational education centers in rural Eastern Kentucky. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-08, Section: A, page: 2191. / Major Professor: Robert L. Lathrop. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

This study of prospective science teachers learning of science and science teaching during their university studies set out to investigate what experiences influenced the prospective teachers to understand science and science teaching the way they did, and what experiences promoted or undermined the current goals of science education reform. The research questions focused on the beliefs that prospective science teachers share and the experiences that facilitated those beliefs. / This interpretive study of one group of prospective science teachers during one year of university science education instruction was undertaken to understand the "meaning-perspectives" of the participants as the experiences were related to science teaching and the nature of science. The primary data sources were field notes, formal and informal interviews, informal discussions (recorded as field notes), and data produced by the participants (i.e., journals, class assignments). The study, in large part, involved active participation on my part. I had multiple roles in the study, including researcher, university instructor, high school teacher, university supervisor, doctoral student, and friend. / Beliefs were interpreted using the idea of cultural myths. A myth of objectivism was a primary referent for the prospective teachers' sense making. The prospective teachers believed knowledge existed independently of thinking beings and matched an objective reality. The myth was supported by the university undergraduate science culture and science coursework. Only by reflecting on teaching experiences from a constructivist epistemology were prospective teachers able to value the goals of current science education reform. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: A, page: 3583. / Major Professor: Kenneth Tobin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between the implicit belief system of the physical education pre-service teacher as measured by Weber's (1977) Teacher Competency Questionnaire and selected teacher behaviors as measured by Birdwell's (1980) Academic Learning Time-Physical Education-Teacher Behavior systematic observation instrument. Fourteen junior pre-service physical education teachers served as subjects for the study. Following a thirteen week course in teaching methodology, which included instruction in Mosston's (1981) spectrum of teaching styles, each subject prepared and presented three 5 minute micro-lessons. Each lesson was taught in a different Mosston teaching style, excluding command style. The micro-lessons were video taped and subsequently the teacher behaviors only were coded by two trained observers using Birdwell's Academic Learning Time-Physical Education-Teacher Behavior observation instrument. Each subject also completed an informal survey which asked the subject to list at least ten qualities, based on his/her own perception, of a good teacher. The relationship between intended teaching behaviors and actual behaviors of the subjects in their micro-teaching was examined. Also, the subject responses to clustered items on the Weber TCQ were compared with frequencies of specific teacher behaviors using the Pearson product-moment correlation statistical procedure. / The results of the investigation indicated a wide discrepancy between intended teaching behavior and demonstrated teaching behavior. Intended behaviors, such as monitoring, occurred at lower than anticipated frequencies, while the frequency of actual demonstrated teacher behaviors, such as giving directions and feedback, occurred at much higher than anticipated frequencies. Seven of the eleven correlations examined between the results of the clustered Weber questionnaire items and the frequencies of the corresponding teacher behavior were negative. These relationships suggest that even though the subjects indicated that the specific competencies cited in the Weber questionnaire were "of very great importance", they were either unable or unwilling to demonstrate those competencies in supporting frequencies during their micro-teaching experience. Further, the data suggest that the implicit belief system of the pre-service teacher concerning the teaching of physical education may have a critical impact on actual teaching behaviors. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-07, Section: A, page: 1732. / Major Professor: Beverly J. Yerg. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

International schools, loosely defined as those involving students, teachers, curricula and/or languages not from the host country, form a significant sector of education worldwide, with numbers estimated at more than three thousand and predicted to grow rapidly over the next decade. Of equal significance is their role in developing students who are internationally-minded, often explicitly included in school mission statements, and increasingly accepted as a central educational imperative rather than a desirable but peripheral option. It is generally acknowledged that teacher effectiveness has a profound influence on student learning, and it follows therefore that teachers who model international-mindedness are also an important part of the equation. Yet, as the number of international schools increases, appropriately-prepared teachers are becoming increasingly scarce. This thesis identifies key issues facing international teachers, each well documented in literature and research, and increasingly evident in educational policy and strategy at national and international levels, yet found to be lacking in teacher preparation. It is my contention, therefore, that the substantial and systematic inclusion of these issues in initial teacher education programmes is absolutely essential and I investigate how the theoretical commitments of policy statements can be converted into practical provision of appropriate preparation for international teachers. By considering literature and research, survey data and anecdotal evidence from the international education community, I attempt to describe (though not define) international teachers, the international nature of the education they provide to their students, and the type of preparation they need in order to do so. Based on the key issues identified, I propose seven domains of knowledge and skills deemed essential for teacher preparation, synthesised into a potential model for systematic implementation within individual schools and programmes, or within whole educational systems at state or national level.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 28-09, Section: A, page: 3540. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1967.

The purpose of this study was to describe the physical education student teaching experience as a student progressed through a twelve-week experience. This study was conducted in the naturalistic setting using qualitative methods (Erickson, 1986). The qualitative techniques were: nonparticipant observation, informal interviews, reflective journal entries, formal interviews, and document analysis. / During data analysis, themes and categories were discovered through analytic induction and constant comparison (Goetz & LeCompte, 1984; Patton, 1983). To insure that these themes and categories were derived systematically, a strategy called domain analysis was used (Spradley, 1980). After the specific details of the fieldnotes had been categorized into domains, a theme analysis was carried out to identify "recurrent themes." An in-depth analysis of selected domains was combined with an analysis of "recurrent themes" (Spradley, 1980). / During analysis three major domains emerged that framed the first three research questions: (a) What instructional tasks occurred during the student teaching experience? (b) What management tasks occurred during the student teaching experience? and (c) What routines were used during the student teaching experience by the student teacher? The last two research questions were formulated from two "recurring themes": (a) What were the different expectations that existed in the physical education setting? (b) What issues related to instruction and management presented difficulties for the student teacher during his student teaching experience? These five research questions were used to describe this student teacher's experience. In addition, a description of the student teacher, the setting, and the researcher were included. / The major findings of this study were the two "recurring themes" and their implications for teacher preparation programs. From the findings of this study, recommendations for teacher education programs were made and suggestions for further research in student teaching were offered. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0751. / Major Professor: Charles H. Imwold. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.