Matching Items (16)
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- All Subjects: Educational leadership
- Genre: Academic theses
- Creators: Rotheram-Fuller, Erin
- Resource Type: Text
Description
The United States is facing an emerging principal shortage. This study examines an intervention to deliver professional development for assistant principals on their way to becoming principals. The intervention intended to boost their sense of efficacy as if they were principals while creating a supportive community of professionals for ongoing professional learning. The community was designed much like a professional learning community (PLC) with the intent of developing into a community of practice (CoP). The participants were all elementary school assistant principals in a Title I district in a large metropolitan area. The researcher interviewed an expert set of school administrators consisting of superintendents and consultants (and others who have knowledge of what a good principal ought to be) about what characteristics and skills were left wanting in principal applicants. The data from these interviews provided the discussion topics for the intervention. The assistant principals met regularly over the course of a semester and discussed the topics provided by the expert set of school administrators. Participant interaction within the sessions followed conversation protocols. The researcher was also a participant in the group and served as the coordinator. Each session was recorded and transcribed. The researcher used a mixed methods approach to analyze the intervention. Participants were surveyed to measure their efficacy before and after the intervention. The session transcripts were analyzed using open and axial coding. Data showed no statistically significant change in the participants' sense of efficacy. Data also showed the participants became a coalescing community of practice.
ContributorsRichman, Bryan (Author) / Puckett, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Jeffery (Committee member) / Foulger, Teresa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Facing a teacher shortage in math, science, and language arts secondary courses, a suburban, unified, K-12 district partnered with a university in the southwest to create a program for alternatively certified teachers. This specialized program permitted candidates to teach with an intern certificate while completing university coursework leading to certification. During this timeframe, the researcher-practitioner of this study created an alternative teacher induction program focused on cycles of action research. The model was created to capitalize on the content knowledge and work experience of alternatively certified teachers in order to inspire innovation by offering a district-based induction centering on cycles of action research. In the teachers' third year, each teacher conducted action research projects within the framework of Leader Scholar Communities which were facilitated by mentor teachers from the district with content expertise. This study examines the effects of such a model on teachers' identities and propensity toward transformative behaviors. A mixed methods approach was used to investigate the research questions and to help the researcher gain a broader perspective on the topic. Data were collected through a teacher efficacy survey, questionnaire, focus groups, semi-structured interviews, observations, and electronic data. The results from the study indicated that the participants in the study exhibited signs of professional teaching identity, especially in the constructs of on-going process, relationship between person and context, and teacher agency. Additionally, the participants referenced numerous perspective transformations as a result of participating in cycles of action research within the framework of a Community of Practice framework. Implications from this study include valuing alternatively certified teachers, creating outcome-based teacher induction programs, and replicating the T3IP model to include professional development opportunities beyond this unique context.
ContributorsTseunis, Paula (Author) / Puckett, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Foulger, Teresa (Committee member) / Harris, Connie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Over 7 million students in the US choosing virtual education as they pursue their degree (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). With almost 10,000 business degrees offered online (GetEducated, 2021) digital classes now have to deliver meaningful learning experiences to prepare leaders for inherently relational challenges. This study examines how well online undergraduate students learned and connected in a 7.5-week leadership development course that used a peer coaching model. In this course design, two peer coaches met each week to process and provide feedback on the coursework. Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) suggests that learning is an individual transformation that occurs as learners move through four dialectically opposed learning modes: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation (Kolb & Kolb, 2017). Learners make meaning of their experience (like conversations or coursework) by thinking about them and developing a mental model that influences their actions which changes the way they view new experiences. In this study, I illustrate how peer coaching supports this transformative process and can help learners expand their thinking not just academically, but personally and professionally too. Moreover, peer coaches emphasize diversity by acknowledging and leveraging markedly different mental models to enhance students’ depth of learning and relating.
I used a convergent mixed-methods design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected in parallel, analyzed separately and then merged. The reason for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data is to develop a better understanding of the effects of learning preference and affect because each type of data will provide different pieces of evidence regarding those effects. The quantitative data was collected using Qualtrics from self-report surveys using primarily Likert scales to measure learning outcomes, learning preferences, and affect as a part of class exercises. The qualitative data was collected from students’ open-ended reflection assignments about the benefits of differences in their peer coaches. The multiple regressions did not show that learning preference contrasts significantly predicted learning outcomes nor relationships. In contrast, positive affect did predict learning outcomes. The thematic analysis offered clues as to how positive affect improves both learning outcomes and the quality of the peer coaching relationship.
ContributorsReed, Rachel M (Author) / Trinh, Mai P (Thesis advisor) / Foulger, Teresa (Committee member) / Scholar, Brent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
The Model Classroom Initiative (MCI) was conceptualized to improve learning and IEP goal attainment while decreasing maladaptive behaviors in specialized instructional program classrooms. The MCI Coaching Model was utilized to assist teachers with the implementation of MCI components in three specialized instructional program classrooms, all of which served students with autism and developmental delays. Data were collected using Innovations Configuration Maps, observations, coaching, surveys, classroom data, and interviews and were analyzed using a mixed methods approach. Results indicate that the MCI coaching sessions increased participant teachers’ feelings of support and being heard and slightly decreased stress, increased the implementation of the chosen components for two of the three teachers, increased the knowledge of and confidence in the MCI components, and increased the teachers’ perception that the coaching helped to increase the students’ academic, behavioral, and Individual Education Plan (IEP) goal progress.
ContributorsBrown, Dorianne (Author) / Puckett, Kathleen (Thesis advisor) / Mathur, Sarup (Committee member) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), schools and families collaborate to determine educational decisions for children with special needs. However, successful collaboration occurs when special education practitioners and families build strong partnerships. This study employed a mixed-methods action research design to examine the effectiveness of professional development training for school-based special education personnel to increase collaboration during special education meetings. The training centered around building participants’ knowledge of special education regulations, policies, and procedures and providing strategies to facilitate a collaborative partnership between families and the school. Participants’ knowledge gained from the training intervention was assessed using a pre-post-intervention survey, followed by semi-structured interviews. Useful aspects of the training intervention included gaining a foundational understanding of legal rights and responsibilities in special education and specific preparation and communication strategies for future family and school collaboration during special education meetings.
ContributorsDaliri, Robyn (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Hlava, Terri (Committee member) / Wendt, Jill (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
More and more, colleges and universities across the United States and throughout the world are relying on adjunct instructors (sometimes called casual academics or part
time instructors) to teach classes in their field of expertise. Often, those classes require a
blending of theory into practical application, such as in business, accounting and other
career focused classes. Previous literature has shown that adjunct instructors often have
little formal preparation for teaching, and even when some preparation is offered, it is
often insufficient to establish confidence, or teaching self-efficacy, in the classroom. This
study examined changes in teaching self-efficacy after adjunct instructors were provided
information (articles) around constructivist teaching strategies within collaborative
Community of Practice (CoP) meetings to discuss those strategies. The study was
conducted at a small private college, which relied heavily on adjunct instructors to
conduct classes. A quantitative pre-post survey, and qualitative comments throughout the
intervention sessions were used to examine changes. Participants reported a significant
increase in teaching self-efficacy, which was especially prominent amongst new
instructors compared to those with more experience. There was also a self-reported
increase in the use of more constructivist strategies within their classes over the course of
the intervention. Finally, participants also rated the components of the intervention
(articles and the CoP meetings) and while they rated them similarly in terms of impact,
the CoP meetings were discussed as critical to both learning and application of strategies
in practice. Future studies should examine how these strategies could be used in wider
groups of instructors and how the effects might be enhanced if a longer program were
used, but it is clear that providing opportunities for adjunct faculty to come together and
discuss new strategies can help improve teaching self-efficacy in higher education.
ContributorsWente, Todd Jason (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Coudret, Dude (Committee member) / Davis, Jaime (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2023
Description
The Internet is poised to open access to higher education for students no matter where they live. However, many students still live in places where barriers keep them from getting and staying connected to online coursework. These barriers include power outages, high internet data costs, and lack of computers or smartphones. BYU-Pathway Worldwide’s PathwayConnect prepares students living around the world to matriculate into online certificate and degree programs. When students drop out PathwayConnect, many cite these technical barriers. However, other PathwayConnect students have employed a series of know-hows, or strategies to stay connected to the online coursework. The aims of this action research dissertation were to discover these specific know-hows, design a way for PathwayConnect students to read and discuss them in the Canvas course shell, and measure the impact of sharing the know-hows. While quantitative data analysis showed no change in student persistence between the treatment and control groups, students in the treatment group reported high engagement with the know-hows. Moreover, qualitative data analysis revealed extensive use and adaptation of the know-hows among the treatment group.
ContributorsFindlay, James (Author) / Foulger, Teresa (Thesis advisor) / Golden, Amy (Committee member) / Henrie, Curtis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2024
Description
Student teachers in their final year of college preparation enter a profession that is facing a severe shortage and an alarming rate of attrition. Novice teachers, those with five or fewer years of experience, are faced with myriad challenges that makes retention a problem for the colleges preparing them, the school districts that hire them, and the students that need them in their classrooms.
This mixed methods action research study investigated an innovation designed to build student teacher self-efficacy. The expectation was it would increase the likelihood that new graduates would stay in the profession. The innovation taught student teachers to conduct action research within communities of practice. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to monitor their progress.
It involved two phases. The first phase measured student teacher self-efficacy prior to and following the innovation, and the second phase measured self-efficacy of former graduates, novice teachers, who had graduated from the preparation same program. Both populations were interviewed to elaborate on the self-efficacy data.
Results suggested that student teachers who conducted action research within communities of practice showed a significant increase in self-efficacy. Specifically, the structure of action research guiding their collaborative efforts at problem-solving played a substantial role in increasing their confidence to face their future classroom challenges. The study also found that novice teachers who had performed the same action research within communities of practice retained a higher level of self-efficacy in their first five years of practice.
This mixed methods action research study investigated an innovation designed to build student teacher self-efficacy. The expectation was it would increase the likelihood that new graduates would stay in the profession. The innovation taught student teachers to conduct action research within communities of practice. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model was used to monitor their progress.
It involved two phases. The first phase measured student teacher self-efficacy prior to and following the innovation, and the second phase measured self-efficacy of former graduates, novice teachers, who had graduated from the preparation same program. Both populations were interviewed to elaborate on the self-efficacy data.
Results suggested that student teachers who conducted action research within communities of practice showed a significant increase in self-efficacy. Specifically, the structure of action research guiding their collaborative efforts at problem-solving played a substantial role in increasing their confidence to face their future classroom challenges. The study also found that novice teachers who had performed the same action research within communities of practice retained a higher level of self-efficacy in their first five years of practice.
ContributorsVann, William Camp (Author) / Marsh, Josephine P (Thesis advisor) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Committee member) / Ashton, Kent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
Description
Information concerning sexual minorities is conspicuously absent from secondary education curriculums. Student attitudes toward sexual diversity are impacted, and those entering higher educational environments are at a disadvantage when faced with diverse university populations. This study attempted to close the information gap among first year college students and to improve attitudes by teaching about sexual minorities, especially gays and lesbians. In addition to their standard coursework, 41 student participants (31 in the intervention group, and 10 in the control group) who were enrolled in required introductory college courses received six short lessons on sexual diversity. Mixed methods data collection and analysis included a pre and post intervention survey, the Riddle Homophobia Scale (1985), and qualitative electronic discussion boards throughout the intervention. Surveys revealed a significant decrease in negative attitudes but no increase in more affirming attitudes. Qualitative data showed somewhat inconsistent results with quantitative surveys, but allowed deeper analysis of the familial, social, religious and societal influences on student attitudes toward lesbian, gay, bisexual and questioning (LGBQ) people. Discussion includes possible explanations for the findings, suggestions for future research, and suggests refinements of the Riddle Homophobia Scale.
ContributorsSpalding, Mark Donald (Author) / Rotheram-Fuller, Erin (Thesis advisor) / Adelman, Madelaine (Committee member) / Artiles, Alfredo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
This mixed methods action research study describes the benefits of a Team Leadership Community of Practice group for six early career special education teachers who supervised paraeducators. Problem-posing conversations with peers were a catalyst for professional learning and leadership transformation. The theoretical framework included Experiential Learning Theory, Transformational Leadership, and Communities of Practice—combined as a tri-theory lens. Data collection instruments included individual interviews, a focus group, content logs from audio recordings, a researcher journal, and two researcher-created instruments—the Intentional Leadership Actions and Paraeducator Outcomes Survey and the Teacher Group Reflection Survey. Findings indicated that team leaders favored collaborative partnerships with paraeducators rather than supervisory roles. Given perceived communication barriers as team leaders, participants spent time preparing for conversations with paraeducators. Together, they co-constructed understandings and stretched one another as a learning Community of Practice (CoP), as defined by Wenger (1998). The CoP was a framework for Experiential Learning when team leaders gathered together to share their concrete leadership experiences, reflect, conceptualize abstract meaning, and discuss possible strategies for future experimentation. Additionally, team leaders experienced individual reflection following CoP gatherings as they considered peer suggestions, fine-tuned ideas, and planned leadership actions. As team leaders implemented new leadership ideas and experienced positive outcomes, they reported increased efficacy and desire for additional leadership opportunities in their classrooms and beyond. A trilogy of poems complements the discussion of findings.
ContributorsLedbetter, Jessanne P (Author) / Bertrand, Melanie (Thesis advisor) / Foulger, Teresa (Committee member) / Hansen, Taryl (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016