Matching Items (401)
ContributorsWard, Geoffrey Harris (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-03-18
Description
The use of educational technologies as a tool to improve academic achievement continues to increase as more technologies becomes available to students. However, teachers are entering the classroom not fully prepared to integrate technology into their daily classroom teaching because they have not been adequately prepared to do so. Teacher preparation programs are falling short in this area because educational technology and the role of technology in the classroom is seen as an extra component to daily teaching rather than a central one. Many teacher preparation programs consist of one stand-alone educational technology course that is expected to prepare teachers to integrate technology in their future classrooms. Throughout the remainder of the program, the teachers are not seeing educational technologies modeled in their other core courses, nor are they getting the hands-on interaction necessary to become more confident in using these technologies with their future students. The purpose of this study was to examine teachers' views of educational technology in the classroom from those enrolled in a graduate program. The study consisted 74 first- and second-year teachers who were enrolled an alternative teacher preparation program. Thirty-four of the teachers received the Integrating Curriculum and Technology (iCAT) intervention and the remaining 40 teachers were part of the control group. Each teacher completed a pre- and post-intervention questionnaire and 23 of the 74 teachers participated in one of three focus group interviews. Additional data from the teachers' course instructors were gathered and analyzed to compliment the focus group and quantitative data. Results showed that iCAT participants' scores for confidence in using technology and efficacy for using educational technology increased at a faster rate than the control group participants' scores. Similarly, confidence in using technology, perceptions about integrating technology in the classroom, and efficacy for using educational technology could be predicted by the amount of hands-on interaction with technology that the teachers received during their graduate course. The discussion focuses on recommendations for infusing technology throughout teacher preparation programs so that teachers have the tools to prepare their students to use a variety of technologies so that their students can be better prepared to complete in today's workforce.
ContributorsKisicki, Todd (Author) / Wetzel, Keith (Thesis advisor) / Bitter, Gary (Thesis advisor) / Buss, Ray (Committee member) / Savenye, Wilhelmina (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Past experiences influence how teachers identify as teachers, writers, and teachers of writing and impacts what they do in their classrooms, including their motivation and effectiveness in teaching writing. When teachers fail to identify as writers, they tend to spend less time teaching writing and may find it difficult to model a genuine passion and love for writing. Because of this, it is important to address the writing identities of preservice teachers before they enter their own classrooms. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate and address preservice teachers' identities as teachers, writers, and teachers of writing using an adaptation of a visual literacy strategy known as full circling. Quantitative data were collected through a pre- and post Teacher/Writer Identity Survey and qualitative data were collected through classroom discourse transcripts, student reflective journals, field notes, and the researcher's reflective journal. Data analysis included a t-test comparison of pre- and post survey results and open and axial coding of qualitative data to establish major themes from emerging codes. The following conclusions were derived from the data: a) past experiences in writing affected the writing identities of the preservice teachers in the study; b) the full circling process provided a means for the preservice teachers to build knowledge on the traits and skills of effective teachers, writers, and teachers of writing; and, c) through full circling the preservice teachers demonstrated shifts in their identities as teachers, writers, and teachers of writing. Findings provided evidence that using a full circling strategy assisted preservice teachers in uncovering their identities as teachers, writers, and teachers of writing.
ContributorsHodgins, Ann (Author) / Zambo, Debby (Thesis advisor) / Hansen, Cory (Committee member) / Galligan, Gayle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
With the unveiling of the National Educational Technology Plan 2010, both preservice and inservice K12 teachers in the United States are expected to create a classroom environment that fosters the creation of digital citizens. However, it is unclear whether or not teacher education programs build this direct instruction, or any other method of introducing students to the National Education Technology Standards (NETS), "a standard of excellence and best practices in learning, teaching and leading with technology in education," into their curriculum (International Society for Technology in Education, 2012). As with most teaching skills, the NETS and standards-based technology integration must be learned through exposure during the teacher preparation curriculum, either through modeling, direct instruction or assignments constructed to encourage standards-based technology integration. This study attempted to determine the extent to which preservice teachers at Arizona State University (ASU) enrolled in the Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College (MLFTC) can recognize the National Education Technology Standards (NETS) published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and to what extent preservice teachers are exposed to technology integration in accordance with the NETS-T standards in their preparation curriculum in order to answer the questions of whether or not teacher education curriculum provides students an opportunity to learn and apply the NETS-T and if preservice teachers in core teacher preparation program courses that include objectives that integrate technology are more likely to be able to identify NETS-T standards than those in courses that do not include these elements In order to answer these questions, a mixed-method design study was utilized to gather data from an electronic survey, one-on-one interviews with students, faculty, and administrators, and document analysis of core course objectives and curriculum goals in the teacher certification program at ASU. The data was analyzed in order to determine the relationship between the preservice teachers, the NETS-T standards, and the role technology plays in the curriculum of the teacher preparation program. Results of the analysis indicate that preservice teachers have a minimum NETS-T awareness at the Literacy level, indicating that they can use technology skills when prompted and explore technology independently.
ContributorsLewis, Carrie L (Author) / Nelson, Brian (Thesis advisor) / Archambault, Leanna (Thesis advisor) / Savenye, Wilhelmenia (Committee member) / Atkinson, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Mentor teachers have a significant impact on pre-service teachers. Unfortunately, mentors are often underprepared for their role, and thus, the potential learning from a student teaching experience is not maximized. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University provides training to mentors who host pre-service teachers during their student teaching experience. Training is delivered in two formats: online prior to the start of the semester and face-to-face each month throughout the semester. This action research study looked at how training contributes to mentor understanding and actions in supporting teacher candidates and how mentor support impacts teacher candidate performance. The study included two mentor/teacher candidate dyads and one university site coordinator. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a variety of sources including observations of mentor trainings, teacher candidate lessons, and coaching conversations. Additional data sources included semi-structured interviews with mentors, teacher candidates, and the site coordinator. Analysis of data found that training may contribute to mentor understanding, but other factors matter too. The data also indicated that current training is insufficient at producing all desired mentor behaviors. With respect to the ways that mentors support teacher candidates, this study found that mentors play a multifaceted role, provide ongoing feedback, and employ various strategies during coaching conversations. This study found mentors help teacher candidates see their performance through the eyes of an experienced educator. Modeling and coaching helped teacher candidates improve. This study also suggests a positive, professional relationship between mentor/mentee and certain teacher candidate characteristics such as openness to feedback facilitate learning from a mentor.
ContributorsBorden, Ryen (Author) / Carlson, David (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Rojas, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This research is a reversal of the traditional concept of the student-teaching research experiment. Instead of studying the clear and stated goal of an apprenticeship, that of a pupil learning from the tutelage of a master, the focus here is on what a mentor-teacher learns from a student-teacher. During the act of teaching a novice, what can a mentor-teacher learn about her own practice, while demonstrating it to a pre-service teacher? Using the conceptual framework of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, and using it within a framework centered around cognitive coaching and reciprocal mentoring, this action research study implemented an intervention that called for series of five cognitive coaching cycles between a mentor- and student-teacher designed to foster dialogue and reflection between them. The ultimate aim of this case study was to help determine what a mentor-teacher learned about her own practice as a result of mentoring a student-teacher. Qualitative data were collected over sixteen weeks in a charter high school. Five findings were identified created after the data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, and four conclusions were drawn about the intervention's role in the mentor-teacher's reciprocal learning.
ContributorsMcCloy, Daniel (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Serafini, Frank (Committee member) / Roen, Duane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this practitioner inquiry was to explore the use of Guided Critical Reflection (GCR) in preparing preservice teachers for English learners (ELs). As a teacher researcher, I documented, analyzed, and discussed the ways in which students in my course used the process of GCR to transform their passively held understandings about ELs. Specifically, the research questions were: 1) What are preservice teachers' common sense about teaching and learning related to ELs? 2) How does GCR transform preservice teachers' common sense about ELs? 3) What is my role as an educator in creating opportunities for GCR? I utilized methods for data collection that fit my teaching practices. Data sources included three types of observations (self-reflective field notes, audio recordings of each class, and notes documented by an outside observer), student-work artifacts, and my audio reflection journal. I analyzed data inductively and deductively using a modified analytic induction approach. Building on previous research concerning the use of reflection in teacher preparation, I define GCR as the process in which I guided preservice teachers to acknowledge and examine their common sense about ELs, reframe what they know in light of course learning, and transform their understandings. Five major findings emerged from this study. First, preservice teachers entered the course with common sense notions about ELs rooted in their educational and life experiences. Students felt comfortable sharing what they knew about ELs, but needed to be scaffolded to examine how their life experiences shaped their common sense. Within the course, preservice teachers framed and reframed their common sense in different ways. Through the process of GCR, students evidenced a renewed sense about ELs. Finally, my role as a teacher involved establishing a comfortable learning environment, valuing my students' common sense as the catalyst for course learning, and guiding students through their reflective work. Ultimately, I was able to create opportunities for GCR because I too was reflecting on my practices, just as I was asking my students to reflect on their common sense about ELs.
ContributorsMarkos, Amy Michele (Author) / Arias, M. Beatriz (Thesis advisor) / Faltis, Christian (Committee member) / Hudelson, Sarah (Committee member) / Wiley, Terrence G. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Drawing on Lave and Wenger (1991) this study explores how preservice elementary teachers develop themselves as teachers of mathematics, in particular, from the time of their teacher education courses to their field experiences. This study also researches the critical experiences that contributed to the construction of their identities and their roles as student teachers in their identity development. The stories of Jackie, Meg, and Kerry show that they brought different incoming identities to the teacher education program based on their K-12 school experiences. The stories provide the evidence that student teachers' prior experience as learners of mathematics influenced their identities as teachers, especially their confidence levels in teaching mathematics. During the mathematics methods class, student teachers were provided a conceptual understanding of math content and new ways to think about math instruction. Based on student teachers' own experiences, they reconstructed their knowledge and beliefs about what it means to teach mathematics and set their goals to become the mathematics teachers they wanted to be. As they moved through the program through their student teaching periods, their identity development varied depending on the community of practice in which they participated. My study reveals that mentor relationships were critical experiences in shaping their identities as mathematics teachers and in building their initial mathematics teaching practices. Findings suggest that successful mentoring is necessary, and this generally requires sharing common goals, receiving feedback, and having opportunities to practice knowledge, skills, and identities on the part of beginning teachers. Findings from this study highlight that identities are not developed by the individual alone but by engagement with a given community of practice. This study adds to the field of teacher education research by focusing on prospective teachers' identity constructions in relation to the communities of practice, and also by emphasizing the role of mentor in preservice teachers' identity development.
ContributorsKang, Hyun Jung (Author) / Middleton, James A. (Thesis advisor) / Battey, Dan (Committee member) / Sloane, Finbarr (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This mixed methods study explores the work of five small writing communities formed within a university-based preservice English language arts writing methods course. Fifteen preservice English language arts teachers took part in the study and participated across five peer writing groups. The study shares the instructional design of the course as well as the writing activities and practices that took place within the groups over the course of one 15-week semester. The study draws on Wenger’s (1998, 2009) theory of communities of practice as well as activity theory (Engeström,1999, 2001; Russell, 1997) to understand the social supports, practices, and learning activities that assisted these preservice teachers as writers and as teachers of writing. The qualitative data included writing surveys, writing samples, and participant interviews as well as pre and post writing self-efficacy surveys as quantitative data. This study documents the affordances and constraints of peer writing groups in methods courses for preservice English language arts teachers and how these groups may influence their identities and practices as writers and as teachers of writing. These findings provide insight into ways we might strengthen the preparation of English language arts preservice teachers as teachers of writing and build communities of practice within preservice training courses and programs.
ContributorsAlford, Katie (Author) / Singer-Early, Jessica (Thesis advisor) / Whitney, Anne (Committee member) / Rose, Shirley (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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