Teacher alienation and plans to stay

Sandidge, William Vaughan University of Virginia 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

A shortage of special education teachers places students with disabilities in the hands of increasing numbers of unqualified or not fully certified special education teachers. Special educators continue to leave teaching at a disproportionately higher rate as compared to general educators. The purpose of this study was to explore the association between the perceptions of alienation of special education teachers and their plans to continue teaching in the area of special education. Special education teachers from thirty-three elementary and secondary schools who taught in self-contained/resource or collaborative settings were surveyed. A three-part research instrument collected personal information and responses to two surveys: (a) plans of special education teachers to continue in the same or a similar position and (b) their perceptions of alienation. Survey responses generated data that was analyzed using correlational statistics and analysis of variance procedures. It was predicted that special education teachers perceiving higher levels of alienation would be more likely to plan to leave teaching as compared to special educators perceiving lower levels of alienation. A statistically significant negative correlation was found between special education teacher perceptions of alienation and their plans to continue teaching in the area of special education for an additional five years. This indicated that special education teachers registering higher levels of alienation were more likely to plan to leave within five years as compared to special educators who registered lower levels of alienation. Higher levels of alienation were not correlated to special education teacher plans to continue teaching the following year. According to analysis of variance procedures, there were statistically significant differences between teacher groups based on experience and their plans to continue teaching in the area of special education for another five years. Teachers with 3–10 years of teaching experience were less likely to plan to continue teaching in the area of special education for five more years compared to teachers with 11 or more years of teaching experience.

Principal's desirability for professional development in competencies related to leading special education programs

Pontius, Nicholas Frantz University of Virginia 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptions of public school principals within the Commonwealth of Virginia as to their desirability for professional development in leading special education programs within their schools. Given a list of 18 competencies related to leading special education principals rated their desirability for professional development and their perceived importance of each competency. In addition, the study sought to determine the relationship between desirability and the experience level of the principal, school level (elementary, middle, high, and combined), and prior teaching experience in special education. One hundred four principals from elementary, middle, and high schools responded to a survey that sought to determine their level of desirability in participating in professional development which focused on competencies related to leading speciation education. Survey results revealed that principals in Virginia expressed interest in receiving training in competences having to do with understanding effective research based programs for students with special needs, understanding Behavior Modification, Functional Behavioral Assessments and Behavior Intervention Plans and Understanding Due Process. Low interest was expressed for Understanding the Historical Legal Context of Special Education. Principals indicated competencies important for leading special education as Understanding Due Process, Understanding Federal and State Laws, Understanding Participation of Students with Disabilities in State Assessments. Significant differences in the desirability for professional development was found for years of principal experience, school level and prior special education. Recommendations are provided for practitioners seeking to identify professional development for school principals. Suggestions for further research are also stated. For example, school principals should receive training in legal issues surrounding special education such as understanding Due Process. Research is still needed to assess the level of skills principals currently possess in relation to leading special education.

Business faculty knowledge of adult learning styles: Cooperative education vs. non-cooperative education institutions

Rothamer, Frank Russell University of Florida 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

Many higher education institutions are facing difficult financial decisions. Researchers have identified the need for empirical research on cooperative education programs to help justify necessary financial and pedagogical decisions in today's ever-changing higher education environment. The purpose of this study was to determine if differences exist between business faculty in their knowledge of adult learning styles utilizing the seven factors of the Principles of Adult Learning Scale. This study focused on business faculty at four-year higher education institutions that promote cooperative education and business faculty at four-year higher education institutions that do not promote cooperative education. There were 82 business faculty members who participated in this study. An ANOVA was used to determine if there were significant differences in the factor scores of cooperative education business faculty and non-cooperative education business faculty. Significant differences were identified in the factor scores for climate-building, participation in the learning process, relating to experience, and flexibility for personal development. Business faculty in higher education institutions with a rich culture in cooperative education scored higher in each of the above factors than did their business faculty counterparts at higher education institutions with no such cooperative education culture. The results of this study contributes to a greater understanding of cooperative education and adult learning theory. This study, along with other research, begins to bridge the empirical research gap utilizing the linkage of cooperative education and adult learning theory.

Intergenerational education mobility: Measurement, theory and policy evaluation

Socias, Miguel Stanford University 2004 해외박사(DDOD)

This dissertation analyzes how intergenerational relations influence educational attainment, especially in developing countries. The strategy adopted to analyze this question consists of (a) estimating and comparing intergenerational education mobility across countries, (b) creating an economic model to understand how family background influences education decisions in a context of liquidity constraints, and (c) evaluating higher education financing reforms in terms of their implications on intergenerational education mobility. Chapter 1 measures intergenerational education mobility in twenty countries around the world, and is the first cross-country study to use actual educational attainments of two generations of adults. Countries with high income per capita, such as the United States, do not necessarily appear at the top of the international ranking of mobility. Differences in the probability of facing liquidity constraints depending on parental education appears consistently related with intergenerational mobility. This chapter also shows that countries mainly differ in terms of their education mobility for the group of individuals with the lowest levels of parental education. Chapter 2 is more theoretical. It develops a model of human capital investment decisions in a context of liquidity constraints. The main characteristic of this model is that it derives, for the first time to the extent of my knowledge, the optimal human capital investment decision when no borrowing is available. This is especially important for developing countries, where either a very small part of the population has access to the credit market or no credit market exists at all. A direct implication of the model is that the cost of education for a family, in terms of current utility, depends on family income. This result implies that policies that tend to relax the income restriction of poor families do not only make the investment in human capital possible, but make it also an optimal decision. The final chapter extends the model developed in chapter three to a general equilibrium model. The main objective of this chapter is to analyze the implications of different financing schemes of the higher education system on intergenerational education mobility. In addition, this chapter addresses the relationship between economic growth and intergenerational education mobility.

Factors that influence community college faculty participation in distance education

O'Quinn, Lisa Rosanne The George Washington University 2002 해외박사(DDOD)

The purpose of this study is to determine what factors motivate community college faculty to participate in distance education. This study will examine the following factors from the perspective of faculty and division chairs: (1) preference toward synchronous and a-synchronous course delivery; (2) different rewards for distance education faculty; (3) Rewards for faculty who participate in distance education training; (4) Faculty rewards for developing distance education courses; (5) which areas does distance education best compliment, teaching, research or services; (6) which factors motivate faculty to participate in distance education; (7) which factors inhibit faculty from participating in distance education; (8) attitudes toward distance education. Factors which most strongly motivated faculty who are currently teaching only distance courses to teach courses via distance education were: (1) flexible working conditions; (2) intellectual challenge of distance education; (3) ability to reach new audiences who can't attend campus based classes. Faculty who were teaching a combination of distance and classroom courses were most motivated by the following factors: (1) more flexible working conditions; (2) personal motivation to use technology; (3) opportunity to develop new ideas for courses. The factors that more strongly influenced classroom faculty's faculty to consider participation in distance education included: (1) increase in salary; (2) ability to reach new audiences who can't attend campus-based classes; (3) more flexible working conditions. Division chairs were most motivated to teach via distance education by the following factors: (1) receiving a stipend for distance education participation; (2) Increase in salary; (3) personal motivation to use technology. The following factors deterred faculty who are currently teaching only distance courses to teach courses via distance education from participating in distance education: (1) Lack of monetary support (i.e. stipend); (2) concern about faculty workload; (3) lack of salary increase. Faculty who taught a combination of distance and classroom courses were most deterred from participating in distance education by the following factors: (1) concern about faculty workload; (2) lack of release time; (3) lack of salary increase. Classroom faculty responded that the following factors most deterred them from participating in distance education: (1) concern about quality of courses; (2) concern about faculty workload; (3) lack of release time. Division chairs responses mirrored those of distance faculty: (1) concern about faculty workload; (2) lack of release time; (3) lack of monetary support (i.e., stipend). As expected, both groups of distance faculty responded very positively toward distance education, with 86% expressing positive attitudes. Classroom faculty were very divided in their views. (Abstract shortened by UMI.).

Educational reconstruction: African American education in the urban south, 1865--1890

Green, Hilary Nicole The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

The central question that I ask in this dissertation is: how did African Americans and their supporters create, develop, and sustain a system of education during the transition from slavery to freedom in Richmond, Virginia and Mobile, Alabama? For newly freed African Americans, education served as a means for distancing themselves from their slave past, for acquiring full access to the rights of American citizenship, and for economic mobility in the immediate aftermath of the Civil War. Unwilling to accept African Americans' claims of citizenship through education and new postwar realities, many local white elites and restored city governments in the urban South opposed African American education. These socioeconomic conditions forced African Americans to seek strategic alliances with both non-local groups supportive of educational attainment, such as the Freedmen's Bureau, Northern missionaries, as well as a few local, sympathetic whites. African Americans' process of building networks to yield education for the largely under and uneducated masses, I argue, amounted to Educational Reconstruction. These relationships were continually negotiated, accommodated, and resisted by all involved as each had a stake in the success and failure of African American education. As in any relationship, power struggles ensued and internal strife sometimes marred the networks. Even as African Americans witnessed a contested terrain concerning African American education globally, nationally, and locally to limit the growth of black education between 1865 and 1890, African Americans experienced educational triumph through two major developments in African American education---the Freedmen's Schools and state-funded public schools. As partners and circumstances changed, this dissertation argues that urban African Americans never lost sight of these aims in their struggle for educational access and legitimacy for the African American schoolhouse. Through Educational Reconstruction, African Americans successfully moved African American education from being a non-entity to a legitimate institution, established a professional class of African-American public school teachers, and ensured the continuation of this educated middle class for future generations.

Investigation of the theoretical pedagogical knowledge of preservice teachers in a post-bachelor degree teacher education program

Ongel, Sevinc The Ohio State University 2003 해외박사(DDOD)

Current teacher education reform movements in the United States suggest fundamental changes in preservice teacher education. Additional emphasis is placed on the structural changes in teacher education programs. Current trend, moving toward post-bachelor degree programs is recommended to move teaching to a more professional environment. The purpose of this study was to measure the theoretical pedagogical knowledge of preservice teachers in a post bachelor degree program. The knowledge of: (1) entering and graduating students in an integrated teacher education program, (2) mathematics and science preservice teachers (3) male and female teachers, were particularly examined. Theoretical pedagogical knowledge of preservice teachers was examined through the modified version of Praxis II: Principles of Teaching and Learning Test, Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (TLQ). Responses to the questionnaire were analyzed based on the four domains presented in the Praxis II: Principles of Teaching and Learning Test: (1) Students as Learners, (2) Instruction and Assessment, (3) Communication Techniques, and (4) Teacher Professionalism. Additional demographic variables were also analyzed to detect differences and patterns related to gender, major, ethnicity, pedagogical experience, and changes during the teacher education program. An open-ended question, to the TLQ was added to measure students' attitudes toward the TLQ; as a way of increasing the validity of the questionnaire. The results revealed fruitful information regarding both the program students participated in and the test they had taken. Results suggested that post-bachelor degree programs have an impact on students' theoretical pedagogical knowledge, as consistent with the recent research. The preservice teachers did improve in their pedagogical knowledge from pre- to post-program. Science majors were found more successful than math students in some domains. Teachers' prior experiences as well as their familiarity with the original instrument did not impact their scores on the Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (TLQ). The results of this study would be of use to MSAT instructors at the institution where the study is conducted and to other universities as they plan and implement integrated teacher education programs.

Moral education as contextual : a qualitative study in an early childhood classroom

윤은주 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 2002 해외박사

This is a qualitative study on early childhood moral education. The theoretical framework is that moral education can be contextual and implicit, as well as direct or explicit. Moral virtues may be implicitly and functionally acquired, in the context of meaningful cooperative learning as living, such as Project Approach. Twenty-five children of 4 to 6 years old were observed twice a week for one semester, especially when they were engaged in group project work. The teacher and children were also interviewed, formally and informally. Three contexts of children's interactions were discernible in this study: whole class meeting, individual group work, and cooperative group work. Each context was observed to require distinct morality of tangentiality, reciprocity, and coordinateness. But cooperative group work was the most favorable for implicit moral education. On the one hand, the coordinate morality of cooperative group work was inclusive of the reciprocal morality of individual group work and the tangential morality of whole class meeting. On the other, cooperative group work was more inclusive of elements of a moral context―personal interest, active work, and common task achievement―than either individual group work or whole class meeting. Contextual moral education may be foundational, or at least complementary, to currently dominant direct moral education. It will be particularly appropriate to early childhood, being implicit but active. One implication is that meaningful cooperative learning may have to be universalized all over the school life; it may be an ultimate aim of moral education, as well as its means.

How well are secondary social studies teachers prepared to teach global education? Pre-service teacher and faculty's perspectives of the implementation of global education in teacher education programs in Taiwan

Yang, Hsiao-Ching The Ohio State University 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

This mixed method study investigated "How well are secondary social studies teachers prepared to teach global education? Pre-service teacher and faculty's perspectives of the implementation of global education in teacher education programs in Taiwan." Survey questionnaire and document analysis were employed in this study. A total of 275 survey questionnaires were collected from pre-service teacher participants and 11 survey questionnaires were collected from the faculty participants. Survey data were analyzed using SPSS software. Qualitative findings were organized around emerging themes throughout the study. The pre-service teacher participants reported that the effectiveness of teacher education programs in preparing them to teach global education is closer to but less than "Average." The faculty participants reported the effectiveness of the teacher education programs they taught in to be "Average" and better. However, around half of the pre-service teachers had no experience taking courses related to global education such as those that: 1) discuss global issues, conditions, or development, 2) introduce different countries, cultures or people, 3) teach global connections, the impact of globalization on local communities, or the interconnectedness between the local and the globe, and 4) deal with the power conflict or discrimination of different countries, people, and cultures. Pre-service teacher participants identified "Adding related courses" to be the most needed factor in the training of social studies teachers to teach global education in teacher education programs in Taiwan. This result was very similar to the finding reported by the faculty participants. Furthermore, seven themes emerged from the list of 115 factors reported by the pre-service teacher participants regarding the open-ended survey questions that asked them regarding the factors that support the implementation of global education in the existing teacher education programs. These seven categories included: 1) the impact of globalization, 2) curriculum, 3) teachers' expertise and preparation, 4) the improvement of technology, 5) government policies, 6) international/global perspectives, and 7) course contents and teaching materials. From the faculty participant responses regarding the same question, two major themes emerged: MOE policies and curriculum. Around 61% of pre-service teacher participants reported that the overall existing courses offered by teacher education programs constrained the implementation of global education. Also, eight themes emerged from a total of 246 constraining factors from the pre-service teacher participant responses regarding this inquiry, and are listed as follows: 1) curriculum, 2) teachers' expertise and preparation, 3) government policies, 4) time constraints, 5) examination/test system, 6) teaching materials, 7) language training/constraints, and 8) insufficient resources. The results regarding the formal preparation in content areas related to global education in teacher education programs in Taiwan were reported. Furthermore, the differences between the findings of the study and the literature regarding preparing teachers to teach global education were identified. The above findings have several implications for teacher education preparation and research, as well as political/policies implications.

Difficult knowledge and social studies (teacher) education

Garrett, H. James Michigan State University 2010 해외박사(DDOD)

Social studies education is a field in which those involved---teachers and students---encounter what can be called "difficult knowledge". Difficult knowledge is a theoretical construct suggesting that when an individual encounters representations of social and historical trauma in a learning situation there exists a host of emotional and pedagogical complications. This dissertation investigates difficult knowledge, its complications and implications, within the field of social studies teacher education. When learning to teach, the student/teacher is already going through incredibly complex learning environments. But in social studies education, where the curriculum is often marked by studies of war, famine, genocide, slavery and lynching (to name a few), learning to teach becomes complicated by dealing with these traumas. There becomes a layered problem: making sense of the traumatic essence of history and then helping others do the same through curricular and pedagogical practice. As such, this study examines six individuals at various stages in a secondary social studies teacher education program as they encounter difficult knowledge in various settings. The focus of the study is on the processes that the participants use, the language they employ, and the discursive routes forged in their articulations about their experiences teaching and learning about difficult knowledge. Methodologically, this study brings psychoanalytic theory to bear on qualitative education research. The study takes as given the existence of the unconscious and then proceeds to examine the data as being influenced by the vagaries and uncertainties of knowledge, the ways that learning can be traumatic, the manners in which personal histories cloud and color current perceptions, and the protections that we all use against psychic discomfort and pain.