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Browsing by Subject "teacher"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Develop, Discuss, and Decide: How New Science Teachers Use Technologies to Advance Their Practice
    (2015-07) Ellis, Joshua
    For decades, there has been a nationwide demand to increase the number of science teachers in K-12 education (National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1983; National Research Council [NRC], 2007). This demand is in large part due to increases in state science graduation requirements. Teacher preparation programs have been preparing new science teachers on pace with the resulting increase in demand (Ingersoll & Merrill, 2010), however, shortages have continued as up to 50% of these new teachers leave the profession within their first five years of teaching (Smith & Ingersoll, 2004), creating a “revolving door” phenomenon as districts scramble to address this early attrition with yet more beginning teachers. We need to address what Ingersoll (2012) describes as the “greening” of the teaching force: the fact that an increasingly large segment of the teaching force is comprised of beginning teachers who are at a high risk of leaving the profession. The three related studies that comprise this dissertation focus on the role of technological interventions for in-service and pre-service science teachers. The context for the first two studies is TIN, an online induction program for beginning secondary science teachers. These two studies consider the impact of technological supports on the reflective practice of participating teachers. The design interventions included VideoANT (an online video annotation tool) and Teachers as Leaders roles (a structured response protocol) for the Venture/Vexation online forum activity. The context for the third study is T3-S, a university licensure course for pre-service science teachers designed to explore technology integration in secondary science classrooms. This study investigated the impact of pre-service teacher participation in the creation of an Adventure Learning (AL) environment (Doering, 2006) on their understanding of technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) and its role in their future science instruction. The supporting interventions took the form of three separate groups of pre-service teachers, each tasked with a specific role in the creation of the AL environment. Findings from the first two studies indicate that specific, explicit supports for teacher discourse in TIN activities is needed in order to foster the reflective practice that course designers and instructor-facilitators desire. The third study reveals that pre-service teacher participation in the creation of an AL environment supported their understanding of the nature of TPACK and allowed them to define their content-based technology pedagogy for future science instruction.
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    The Effectiveness of the ACHIEVER Adult Resilience Curriculum in Promoting Teacher Wellbeing
    (2017-06) Christian, Elizabeth
    Teaching is a multifaceted profession, capturing a range of experiences that are exciting, rewarding, challenging, frustrating, and exhausting. Research has shown that teachers are at high risk of chronic stress and burnout which impacts teacher health, wellbeing, and effectiveness in the classroom. In the present study, the effectiveness of a theoretically based professional development program—the ACHIEVER Resilience Curriculum (ARC)—to increase teacher wellbeing and decrease symptoms of burnout was examined. The ARC training integrates several wellness promotion practices into one comprehensive program. To evaluate the effectiveness of the ARC, a randomized block controlled study with pre-post data collection was performed. The sample included 67 teachers from six schools in one large urban school district. Analyses showed that teachers who received ARC training experienced increased feelings of efficacy, overall subjective wellbeing, and reduced emotional exhaustion compared to an attention control group. In addition, increased feelings of wellbeing and reduced emotional exhaustion were correlated with higher quality teacher-student interactions. Evidence from this study also suggests that demographic variables such as grade level taught or number of years of teaching experience may moderate the effects of the ARC, indicating a need for continued research on the function and effectiveness of this program. Finally, teachers who received the ARC training indicated they found it to be feasible and acceptable for use in schools to promote teachers’ wellbeing. The implications of these findings for teacher training and practice, suggestions for future research, and the limitations of this study are discussed.
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    Exploring Determinants of Early Childhood Special Educators' Practice Selections for Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder
    (2020-07) Hugh, Maria
    Evidence-Based Practices (EBPs) can only improve children's outcomes when implemented. There is much to still learn about Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) teachers' implementation of EBPs when it comes to their selection and use of practices to facilitate social communication development for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Understanding what practices teachers consider for use can inform the development of implementation supports at the initial Exploration and Adoption-Decision stages of implementation. To detect malleable determinants of practice selection, this study addressed these aims: (a) identify ECSE teachers' familiarity and current use of EBPs and unsubstantiated practices, (b) identify their practice selections, and (c) determine whether teachers' beliefs predicted practice selections. A web-based survey gathered responses from 222 ECSE teachers related to these objectives. Overall, teachers' familiarity with and current use of EBPs and unsubstantiated practices varied. Most teachers were highly familiar with and often used certain EBPs (e.g., reinforcement), and fewer teachers used others despite familiarity (e.g., discrete trial teaching). Aligned with the Theory of Planned Behavior, the researcher ascertained teachers' beliefs (self-efficacy, attitude, subjective norms) about EBPs. Teachers' had the most positive overall beliefs for naturalistic intervention and least for discrete trial teaching. The researcher used Discrete Choice Analysis, a method of exploring individuals' choices, to investigate teachers' selection decisions, and to find that beliefs predicted their practice selections. Together, these findings suggest that there are individual determinants of practice selection that can be acted on by tailoring preimplementation supports to improve implementation from the start.
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    How Teacher Self-efficacy and Mindset Influence Student Engagement and Math Performance
    (2020-07) Thayer, Andrew
    Research continues to support the association between school engagement and math achievement, and active engagement in early elementary mathematics education appears to cascade into long-term math achievement. Teacher beliefs about themselves and their students and their behavior has the potential to influence student engagement and achievement. This study investigated how teacher self-efficacy, teacher implicit theories of intelligence, and the effectiveness of their math instruction practices influence multiple domains of student engagement and achievement. Using structural equation models, the relative importance of teacher beliefs and behaviors were explored. Specifically, the hypothesis that a teacher’s instructional behavior mediated the influence of their beliefs on students’ mathematics outcomes was tested. In order to determine how different subgroups of teachers influence student outcomes, mixture modeling was used to classify teachers according to their beliefs and behaviors. Results were unexpected and did not support initial hypotheses. Teachers’ self-efficacy and instructional effectiveness were not related to dimensions of student math engagement and performance. Teachers’ implicit theories about their students’ intelligence evidenced a positive relationship with behavioral engagement. Four teacher subgroups were identified that differed primarily in their implicit theories. There were mostly no differences in student outcomes between teacher subgroups. Implications for research, theory, professional development, and measurement are included.