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This qualitative study examined the impact of high school instructional technology on college students' academic strategies. It examined the historical and modern advancements of technology in education, uncovering significant milestones in technology integration within classrooms in the United States. Using a narrative inquiry approach grounded in John Dewey's philosophy of experience, it centered on the narratives of students in their second and third semesters of college. The study highlighted the gap in understanding students’ personal experiences with technology and emphasized the role their narratives play in shaping future technology integration strategies. The methodology involved utilizing digital surveys and online semi-structured interviews with participants from traditional public high schools or charter schools across the United States. Data analysis was facilitated by NVivo 14 and triangulation methods and included reflexive journaling. Findings indicated high school technology experiences greatly influence college resource utilization, with a shift towards more organized, professional learning strategies. Concerns about artificial intelligence and ethical considerations were noted.

This study investigated the impact of implementing the Socratic method in teaching logarithms on the motivation levels of high school Algebra 2 students. Drawing on foundational research by Hirsch and Pfeil (2012), the research involves two classes totaling 28 students, with surveys administered before and after the Socratic lessons to gauge motivation, engagement, and participation levels. The meticulously designed four-day lesson plans employ cooperative dialogue and critical inquiry to foster student understanding of logarithmic concepts. With the teacher serving as a facilitator and students actively participating in the learning process, the study aimed to replicate and build upon previous findings, exploring whether the Socratic approach enhances motivation and intellectual engagement in mathematics education. The findings reveal a significant increase in students' motivation, engagement, and intrinsic motivation after experiencing Socratic pedagogy, providing evidence for the effectiveness of this approach in promoting enhanced learning outcomes in mathematics.

In most teacher preparation programs, a focus on standards and curricula with STEM concepts, specifically engineering, are largely missing from the teacher licensure requirements. There have been few opportunities for teacher educators to teach, learn, and reflect on the nuanced complexities of STEM, specifically engineering concepts and practices in urban elementary schools. This university-school- community partnership, led by Black women, focused on the early exploration of STEM with high-ability/ gifted Black girls, caregivers, and their Black women educators. In this qualitative study, Black women teachers were able to disrupt assumptions and stereotypes of STEM, particularly in engineering, and identify challenges of associating STEM perspectives to their everyday experiences and teaching with elementary school students. This essay explores and problematizes their assumptions, values, and utilization of engineering praxis for Black girls, their teachers, and their communities.

Engineering education programs, especially at the P–12 level, pose inherent legal and ethical responsibilities pertaining to safety that cannot be ignored. Cultivating safer practices and habits during the design and hands-on development of engineering solutions starts well before students enter higher education engineering programs. P–12 engineering education programs play a critical role in enhancing safety awareness, developing safer habits, and improving safety culture, which has an influence on the safety practices that students carry with them into higher education programs and the workplace. This study analyzed the safety factors and accident occurrences reported by 305 P–12 engineering educators from the southern United States (U.S.), specifically focusing on differences in safety between engineering design/pre-engineering (ED/PE) courses and other types of P–12 engineering courses. Analyses found that ED/PE courses had a significantly greater proportion of accident occurrences over a five-year span in comparison to other P–12 engineering courses in the southern U.S. Further analyses identified six risk factors (e.g., course enrollment size) and 11 protective factors (e.g., various forms of safety training) that were significantly associated with accident occurrences in the southern U.S. ED/PE courses. Moreover, it was discovered that hot glue guns were involved in a significantly higher proportion of accidents in ED/PE courses compared to other P–12 engineering courses in the southern U.S.; however, there were no significant differences in the proportion of accidents involving other tools or items. As suggested by accident causation model research, the data from this study can inform proactive safety efforts to address significant safety risk and protective factors in P–12 engineering education courses, which should reduce the severity and occurrence of accidents. Additionally, this study provides implications for fostering collaborative safety efforts amon

Generative AI technology is a new technology that has many potential benefits for people but requires knowledge of how it works and how to use it appropriately in order to best utilize it. This project involved researching and creating an easy-to-use and understand resource guide designed to teach educators the fundamental knowledge needed to understand and use generative AI technology. This guide includes links to videos explaining how the technology works and a glossary of terms specific to the field. The guide then links users to eight potentially useful AI tools and toolboxes that users may find useful and describes what each one does. Next, the guide offers further reading for people who are interested in learning about the technology beyond the basics. This includes recommendations on creating a class policy regarding generative AI, a list of free online courses on generative AI use, and a link to a daily email list that covers new developments in the field each day. Finally, the guide contains a feedback form that will allow the author to obtain feedback on how to improve the resource guide.

This study was conducted as a way to determine the reasons for increasingly high rates of attrition amongst special educators. Teacher turnover in general has seen a significant increase since COVID-19 and in the area of special education, that turnover has been even more significant (Bastian, 2023). An increase in duties as a result of increased caseloads, lack of continued training, and lack of mentorship programs have been factors in these critical rates of attrition (Baker, Revera, & Sasser, 2023). The State of Minnesota is currently experiencing critical numbers in both the supply of licensed special educators and individuals pursuing special education as a profession (PELSB, 2023). This twofold issue shows that this situation is not temporary but likely an indication of an unsustainable educational structure. At this time there are nearly 500 open special education positions in the state of Minnesota as well as over 1,500 licensed special education teachers teaching in areas outside of special education such as math, or social studies (Hawkins, 2023). Other studies have highlighted possible factors affecting attrition, among these: Insufficient financial compensation based on increased duties (IRIS Center, 2024), depersonalization (Madigan, 2021), and the lack of support from administrations (Kelly, 2023). This research was specific to the state of Minnesota and aimed to not only discover the underlying issues surrounding these alarming rates of attrition amongst special educators but to also help cultivate possible solutions by inviting those in the field to provide us with possible solutions from their perspectives. The qualitative study consisted of the creation of an anonymous, online Qualtrics survey consisting of 16 open-ended statements and rating scale of factors that cold influence a teachers decision to stay in the field. After being approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the local university, it was anonymously distributed through local

Facilitating an inclusive pedagogy to close the gap that exists within the teaching of Indigenous Knowledge in Australia is a tall order for many teachers. This paper draws on responses to a national study and explores how music educators include Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music and culture into their practice. An online survey (December 2022-February 2023, N=109) informed the findings. Using thematic analysis, two themes (teaching challenges and opportunities, and bridging the gap) are discussed and key recommendations offered. Findings suggest that walking carefully towards bridging the gap is an opportunity for educational change in contemporary Australian classrooms.

Professional development has long been viewed as crucial to sustained improvement in the quality of primary science education. This paper considers professional development beyond the context of a specific program by examining how the science teaching efficacy beliefs and practices vary between teachers who both have and have not engaged with science professional development. This paper reports on a primarily quantitative study wherein a sample of 206 Australian public primary educators responded to an online survey capturing demographic, science teaching efficacy and science teaching practice data. Quantitative data were analysed via descriptive, ANOVA and Chi Square analyses. The supplementary qualitative data were analysed thematically. More participants reportedly not participating in science professional development (n=128) than those that did (n=78), with teachers based in non-metropolitan and disadvantaged schools being proportionally overrepresented in the “No PD” group. The results showed that teachers who reportedly engaged with science professional development showed significantly higher scores on measures of science teaching efficacy, science teaching approaches and curriculum coverage. Professional development attendees were also more likely to use science teaching approaches aligned with the broader goal of improving students’ scientific literacy. This research has implications for increasing access to science professional development opportunities for primary educators. It also shows that the benefits commonly associated with specific professional development programs cannot be solely attributed to the characteristics of teachers willing to pursue such opportunities because the non-attendees in this study were still engaged and confident enough to participate in this research project.

Student teachers enter teacher education programs with existing values, beliefs, and knowledge about teaching. However, little is known about the significant resources that shape this initial professional identity. Additionally, there is a lack of understanding regarding how first-year student teachers depict their initial professional identity in the context of Indonesia. This case study examines the initial professional identity of 23 first-year Indonesian student teachers in an English as a Foreign Language Teacher Education Program (EFLTEP) in Indonesia. Utilizing Esteban-Guitart's Funds of Identity theory, data were collected through participants' narratives via significant circles, self-portrait drawings and interviews. Data were analysed using content analysis and thematic analysis. The findings reveal two identity-shaping trends (significant others, religion, and positive values; past experiences) and three identity portrayals (motivated-self, role-model teacher, and aspiring teacher). The study offers operational insights for teacher education in Indonesia and methodological considerations for studying professional identity.

The instructional practices of the engineering design process and culturally responsive pedagogy have each garnered national attention and multiple decades of research. Findings from the respective literature bases call for educators and policymakers to integrate these two pedagogical approaches into K-12 classroom instruction. Scholars have argued that this integration would improve student engagement and academic achievement. There is a significant amount of research that supports the positive student outcomes associated with each approach, yet there remains a dearth of literature that addresses the integration of these two practices into the science and mathematics content areas. The movement around educational reform is rooted in teachers serving as learners; however, understanding how teachers learn and respond to reform is largely overlooked. The present research sought to examine the way in which teachers perceive and define integrated pedagogical approaches upon implementation. The authors utilized a comparative case study design to represent experiences of five secondary math and science teachers enrolled in graduate-level coursework and professional development on culturally responsive pedagogy and the engineering design process. Findings suggest that teachers’ self-reported pedagogical beliefs acted synergistically between the two pedagogical approaches. Subsequently, participating teachers expressed a strong preference towards the enactment of an integrated pedagogy of a culturally responsive engineering design process. The present research offers valuable recommendations for teacher educators, professional development providers, policymakers, and researchers who wish to integrate culturally responsive pedagogy and the engineering design process in math or science K-12 classrooms. The significance of this research underscores the importance of empowering teachers with professional development, around implementation of novel pedagogical approaches, to bot

Teaching engineering at the middle and high school levels has been a topic of discussion among scholars regarding the challenges it creates. One of the most critical challenges at the school level is identifying qualified teaching staff to lead engineering courses. The present study explored teachers’ willingness to lead an engineering course and the reasons behind their willingness or unwillingness to do so. The study involved 434 participants, who were enrolled in a STEM professional development program and were diverse regarding their teaching subjects, the grade levels they taught, and the locations of their schools in Turkey. In this mixed-methods study, researchers collected data at the beginning of an online professional development program. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively, while qualitative data were analyzed with a data-driven codebook. Almost two-thirds of the participants were keen to teach an engineering course, yet differences were observed according to the subjects they taught and their professional backgrounds. Most of the mathematics teachers, the group with the highest percentage of willingness, seemed to have a holistic approach towards engineering, with half emphasizing collaboration between teachers and engineers. The study provided further insights into how initial teacher training and continuous professional development programs can be structured based on teacher expectations and needs.

This study aims to look for relationships between the characteristics and experiences of teacher candidates while in the program and their subsequent workforce entry after leaving the program. A hierarchical logistic regression was conducted on five blocks of variables: demographics, entry academic variables, program academic variables, completion variables, and experience variables, with employment in a New Mexico public school as the dependent variable. The rate of completers working in NM public schools was much higher than expected, 73% compared to 55%. Only the block of completion variables was significantly related to entering the workforce. A few individual variables were also significantly related, with New Mexico residents more likely to work in NM public schools, Early Childhood completers less likely to work in NM public schools, and completers who passed all licensure exams on the first attempt less likely to work in NM public schools than those who failed at least one exam.

Teacher educators face many challenges related to workload and government-mandated reforms in Initial Teacher Education programs. Evidence suggests that COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges as universities must become more cost-effective and improve research outcomes and impact, often resulting in heavier workloads. While these challenges may be faced in other disciplines, teacher educator wellbeing, stress and burnout is an under-researched field, and little is known about if and how teacher educators maintain their wellbeing during times of uncertainty. This collaborative autoethnographic study applied an arts-based research method to explore the wellbeing challenges faced by four Australian teacher educators through the lens of the PERMA wellbeing framework. Data was collected through conversations, written reflections and field texts. While tensions often emerged, opportunities for success and positive changes also became known. The importance of agency and self-determination of teacher educator wellbeing became an important foundation for continuation in teacher education.

Since their first day in school, in-service teachers are expected to act professionally, make good judgments, think critically, and problem-solve effectively. The literature suggests that engaging pre-service teachers in research can help them to develop several key skills. In this paper, we present the outcomes from a year and a half long mixed-methods case study that was conducted in two phases (i.e., a pilot and a follow-up study) with two groups of pre-service teachers enrolled in a teacher education programme in a Canadian mid-size university. The purpose of this research was to examine how an in-course research component might have shaped the perceived research capacity of the pre-service teachers and their disposition toward teacher research. The participants reported that the research component had improved their inquiry, reflective, critical thinking, and research-related skills. We conclude by discussing the study outcomes and proposing a set of recommendations for theory and practice.

Numerous scholars have investigated the significant role that representation and mentorship play in the success of Latinas and other women of color during their journey through higher education, from degree completion to faculty hiring and advancement (Vasquez 1982, Zambrana et. al. 1997, Valdez 2001, Cavazos & Cavazos 2010, Shayne 2020, Contreras et. al. 2022). However, little research exists surrounding the lived experiences that have shaped mentorship carried out by university faculty, specifically, mentorship carried out by bilingual Latina faculty in higher education. Through a Latina Feminist Epistemology implementing Oral History Methodologies, this thesis aims to understand the cycle of mentorship via the narratives of bilingual Latina professors at the University of New Mexico. This study documents and examines the lived experiences of bilingual Latina professors as students in higher education—specifically their experiences of mentorship—and the correlation of that experience with their manner of providing mentorship to their own students today. I focus on representational factors of gender, race, and language throughout their narrative, which I argue are essential in building trusting bonds of mentorship—or confianza—with college students who share similar qualities. This thesis seeks to highlight a) intersectionality and the intersectional role of gender, race, and language in the experiences of mentorship received by UNM Latina professors as college students, and b) how their personal experiences of receiving mentorship influence how they now mentor their own students.

The purpose of this exploratory mixed-methods study was to determine how doctoral students in a formal leadership program conceptualize followership. The methods used to conduct this analysis included distributing a Qualtrics (released in August 2022) survey and conducting one-on-one interviews with a sample of degree-seeking doctoral students within a formal leadership program. The researcher collected quantitative and qualitative data addressing students’ followership style, leadership attitudes and beliefs, and perceptions of followership. These data were analyzed concurrently using a triangulation design. A total of 67 students completed the survey, and seven students were interviewed. The findings revealed that the participants employ an exemplary followership style, exercise systemic thinking, and hold a prototypic and antiprototypic view of followers. As followers, the participants described themselves as actively supporting the leader, organization, and team while taking the initiative to go above and beyond in problem-solving and executing their roles. Further, they emphasized the importance of developing rapport with their leader(s) and colleagues because they view leadership as a collective process that is relationship oriented. Moreover, they believe they add value to that process regardless of the role they hold. Although their perceptions of followership encompass a continuum of negative and positive follower attributes, they assume that most followers are proactive and interactive in their work with the leader(s) and members of the organization. Keywords: follower, followership, leadership, higher education, mixed-methods

The purpose of this literature review was to determine the most effective ways to build relationships with parents of English Language Learner (ELL) students and how to overcome the language barrier when creating these relationships. A literature review was done to answer the following research questions: In what ways can English Language teachers build relationships with parents of English Learners? How can the language barrier be overcome between educators and English Language Learner’s families? The results were used to create a presentation to inform other educators what was learned. The presentation provides explanatory information about initiating effective communication using translators and recruiting ELL parents into the school to provide support and ways to support their child in academics.

Special educators are in high demand and greatly needed to meet the growing population of special education in public schools today. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to gain an understanding of how beginning special educators lived experiences and utilized their self-resilience skills which impacted their retention in the field of special education. With an increasing rate of attrition in the field of special education, exploring self-resilience factors that impact the retention of beginning special educators was imperative to understanding how to best support these early career educators. The increasing demands and pressures that beginning special educators are required to navigate need to be examined and addressed to ensure support and guidance are in place within the district and building levels in public schools. In order to understand how the phenomenon was experienced by beginning special educators, the researchers conducted focus groups. Participants in the focus groups reflected on and defined their experiences as beginning special educators. The essence of the impact of self-resilience in the study was found through the beginning special educator’s ability to recognize student needs and their ability to affect change through supported internal and external environments.

Research has indicated that African American female teachers face numerous struggles and barriers in the educational settings in and across the nation. Research has also indicated that these women are a valuable resource in schools, not only for Black students, but for all students. The systemic racism perpetuated by the dominant culture in these settings has an impact on the mental well-being of these educators. Findings from this study revealed experiences and frustrations within a system that promotes, protects, and preserves racism and in some cases sexism, which all participants seemed to have shared. This study also found that the participants' Blackness related to their individuality and sexuality caused them to have experiences which negatively impacted their mental well-being. Based on findings from this study, human resources must be more intentional when placing African American female teachers in educational settings. In order to attain and retain African American female teachers, it is recommended that administration listen to and believe their stories and their experiences. In doing so, my hope is that administrators will be able to better support their needs and begin to remove barriers faced by these teachers.

In Australia, there is currently no official training pathway or qualification required for working in Flexible Learning Programs (FLPs). This causes a problem for both new teachers wishing to work in this area and for employers who have no way of knowing whether a new teacher has the appropriate skills or knowledge to teach in this alternative context. To address this problem, we designed and implemented a program during which Initial Teacher Education (ITE) students were given the opportunity to experience teaching in a FLP. Here we report on the experiences and perceptions of the preparation program from the perspectives of the key stakeholders, including the ITE students, FLP staff, and the young people attending the FLP. All stakeholders perceived the project to be a success in enabling the ITE students to gain valuable theoretical knowledge and practical experience of the FLP context.

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to employ a quantitative research study to measure the degree of impact the COVID-19 pandemic had on students’ academic performance and determine the extent to which the MTSS program served to counter the impact of the pandemic on students’ reading and math performance. This study analyzed pre-existing STAR Reading and STAR Math data collected from 7th-grade students at one Midwest public middle utilizing the September (Fall) and December (Winter) scores. The data sets were compared to determine the students’ reading and math performance trends in the three years preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (Year 1, Year 2, and Year 3) to measure the degree of impact during the year of the pandemic (Year 4) and the year that followed (Year 5). Further, differences between subgroups (i.e., gender, ethnicity, SPED status, EL status, and 504 status) were examined. This study was unique in that the data were broken down into tiers of instruction that coincide with the MTSS framework to measure the growth of students receiving Tier 1, Tier 2, or Tier 3 instruction. This study found that although most students remained above the benchmark, in Year 4 and Year 5, there was an observed downward shift in mean scores. In addition, more students were identified as needing Tier 2 or Tier 3 supports and interventions over the span of the identified years. This research can help fill a void in the existing research by focusing on MTSS at the secondary level and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on academic achievement. This research study can guide future initiatives and inform best practices for MTSS implementation.

There are many studies documenting the negative impacts of trauma in childhood. However, despite schools and teachers being a known protective factor which have the potential to modify the negative impacts of complex trauma, limited research examining the perspectives of primary teachers working with traumatised children and their perceptions of preparedness to teach students living with complex trauma has been conducted. Thus a systematic literature review was conducted to collate and synthesise available empirical research on this topic. The review followed PRISMA guidelines and searches were conducted across academic databases for peer reviewed studies published between 2011 and 2022. Only articles which discussed complex trauma, teachers of primary-aged students, and perceptions of preparedness were included. Four articles were ultimately selected as meeting the criteria for review. The lack of available studies in this area is considered a notable finding in and of itself and highlights a need for further research into teacher experiences and perceptions as well as policies and protocols. The results of this review suggest a need for additional training, clarity regarding role of a teacher, support from colleagues and administration, and organisational self-care for school staff. The lack of trauma-specific training reported by teachers highlighted a need for trauma training for pre-service teachers as well as ongoing training for teachers already in the profession in order to assist traumatised students as well as the teachers who work with them.

Seeing the significance of exploring associate teachers’ views about teaching practicum, this qualitative case study aims to seek answers to the questions of what the self-perceived roles of four Turkish associate teachers in teaching practicum are and what their perceptions concerning the adequacy of the length of teaching practicum in Turkey are. Additionally, the present research targets finding answers to the questions of whether teaching practicum contributed to the professional development of the last trainee teachers the associate teachers have mentored and if mentoring fosters their own professional development. The results indicated they considered offering professional and emotional support to trainee teachers as their pivotal roles in teaching practicum and the length of teaching practicum as insufficient. The findings also demonstrated that the associate teachers believed teaching practicum substantially contributed to the professional development of the last trainee teachers they had mentored and mentoring enhanced their own professional development.

In a direct effort to build a greater understanding of higher education teaching and learning opportunities, this study shares the journey of three university lecturers working to ensure best practice outcomes from criterion-referenced assessment [CRA]. The work was built on a belief that our respective higher education undergraduate students did not fully value the design structure or feedback outcomes inherent in CRA. Using a collaborative autoethnographic lens we pooled experiences, outcomes, challenges, assumptions, and accounts of unconscious biases from across our different tertiary education schools and subjects. Our examination enriched our understanding, our teaching, and our student outcomes. In sharing our journey we offer three unique, yet jointly considered perspectives on using CRA to extend and enhance learning.

Self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that people strive to fulfill three basic needs of competence, autonomy, and relatedness. In teacher education research, fulfilling those needs is connected to positive skill development and increased wellbeing of preservice teachers and their students. Teacher education programs for special education preservice teachers (SEPT) include a professional experience in various school settings with neurodiverse students. This professional experience gives rise to specific needs for these SEPT. In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 SEPT, studying at various stages of two teacher education programs. The findings were analyzed qualitatively. Results revealed developing and changing needs throughout the educational program, reflecting different settings and phases of the professional experience. SDT was found to be useful framework to interpret the findings. Implications for designing teacher education programs are discussed.

The preparation of teachers for rural schools has been a significant focus of research for many decades. In this paper we update previous reports of the extent of Initial Teacher Education courses that prepare teachers for rural schools in Australia. We found that despite significant and continued calls for rural teacher education, there are still very few rural-teaching units offered in teacher education courses, and there are no courses at all that seek this as an explicit outcome. As the Australian Professional Standards for Teaching claim the importance of teachers understanding students and their contexts, we argue that effective teacher education must not only focus on understanding rurality, and developing awareness of the affordances of place, but must also address the pedagogical requirements for present day rural teaching. We argue that the lack of teacher preparation for locational, geographic forms of social difference works to produce and sustain educational disadvantage when these intersect with economic and cultural difference. On this basis we call for government to address this major failing in the provision of education

Academic visitor programs aim to enhance university teachers’ teaching and research capacity and intercultural competence. Its impact, however, has remained under-researched. Using the data collected from two rounds of in-depth interviews with 13 Chinese university English teachers over a year and a half, this study explored their experiences as academic visitors in the UK through the lens of professional identity. Findings revealed that the participants came with various expectations and negotiated and constructed different identities during their academic visits. The participants’ developing identities in turn affected their investment in their professional development in their situated contexts. The study provides important implications for academic visit programs which need to be designed in line with the complex needs and identities of university teachers.

This research addresses how student participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) project-based learning (PBL) education activities encourages underrepresented minority student achievement in STEM career field trajectories. Seven New Mexico high school counselors and 12 STEM organization personnel were interviewed during this study. Their responses represent the nuanced professional voices where New Mexico public education intersects with STEM student interest and cultural influence. For students, STEM PBL can foster deep integration across educational disciplines and enhance STEM career trajectory interest and readiness. STEM education converged with PBL methodologies has the ability to leverage community support while broadening student networks. It provides students with enriched academic support that cultivates their STEM skill set development and enhances their ability to earn income. Best educational practices for students with STEM career trajectory interests highlight developing growth mindsets through mentoring, off campus excursions, and interactive STEM learning experiences.