Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
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Item DIFFERENT PATHWAYS INTO TEACHING IN RURAL PRIMARY AND MIDDLE SCHOOLS: MULTIPLE CASE STUDIES OF FEMALE AND MALE TEACHERS IN MOUNTAIN SOCIETIES OF NORTHERN PAKISTAN.(2020) Shah, Nooruddin Gulbahar; Lin, Jing; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this qualitative, multiple case study is to explore the different pathways into teaching in rural primary and middle schools. As a conceptual framework, the continuum of teacher learning and occupational choice theory were used to study teacher preparation and recruitment. Research participants included twelve teachers (seven male and five female) from four different types of schools. Each participant (teacher) was a case and the schools were mainly work sites where teachers were interviewed. The schools selected for data collection were located in a remote mountain village of Pakistan’s Gilgit-Baltistan province, where 86 percent of the total population live in rural areas. The findings of this study problematize teacher policy and practice. Entry into the teaching profession is generally assumed to be a simplistic process. However, this study yielded new insights and revealed that the real-life experiences of teachers varied and were more complex, with multiple factors influencing teachers’ entry into teaching. Wide disparities were found between and among male and female teachers’ working conditions and pay, and female teachers were particularly disadvantaged. More importantly, the findings in this study provide justification for the government to continue recruiting more female teachers until at least an equal proportion of government permanent jobs are held by women in rural schools of Pakistan. The study confirmed teachers learning to teach in different stages. The assumption of linearity, or that teachers not teaching before preservice, was questionable, as the findings indicated that nearly all the participants acquired at least one preservice teacher education certificate while they were already serving as a teacher. Teachers’ perceptions on impact and influence of preservice and inservice training presented mixed findings. This study expands the scope of existing research on teachers’ pathways into teaching by adding an in-depth examination of rural teachers’ perceptions and experiences. Findings of this study will be useful for government, teacher associations/unions, donors and civil society organizations engaged in teacher policy, preparation and recruitment in Pakistan and in other developing countries. Future research is needed to explore the institutional perspectives on teacher preparation and recruitment. Also, more in-depth research is needed to further unravel barriers for female teachers and explore ways to remove those barriers for recruiting more female teachers in rural government schools.Item The Student Perspective on Maryland's Associate of Arts in Teaching Degree(2019) Weisburger, Anita Hawner; Valli, Linda R; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation study investigated the student perspective on Maryland’s Early Childhood Education/Special Education Associate of Arts in Teaching (AAT) degree: the factors that affected their experience, especially with the transfer process, and whether their experiences differed by institution. Using a conceptual framework of social constructionism, viewpoints were gathered through focus groups and individual interviews of 18 community college students in their final semester before transferring to a Maryland university to complete their BA and teaching certification. In addition to focus groups and student interviews, this investigation included interviews with program coordinators, discussions with state administrators, observations of state meetings, and a review of program and state/local policy documents. This study made contributions around issues of diversity, the Praxis Core Exam, online courses in ECE, and as the first study of the student perspective across multiple two-year institutions. It reports that participants had positive feedback about their teacher education programs but agreed on the need for more practical experience, especially regarding special education content. A clear concern about online coursework in ECE was also expressed. Factors affecting the student experience included misadvising and confusion around transfer that continued after moving to university programs. Administrators and faculty also acknowledged a number of challenges associated with advising, programming and implementation. Students highlighted differences between institutions but noted that most issues could be resolved through better communication, collaboration, and coordination. This analysis of the student perspective provides a clearer picture of the obstacles and advancements experienced by preservice teachers pursuing an AAT in ECE/SpEd. Since student voices were largely absent from the research on the AAT, this study is useful to two-year programs working to improve retention and transfer, as well as universities working to support transfer students. More research is needed on internet-based classes in teacher education as well as proactive advising (a preemptive approach to working with students). Further investigation of individual programs, coordination, mandatory advising, and mentor programs is also warranted. Given the complexity of the transfer process, especially in EC programs, further research is needed beyond Maryland on the student experience and on potential solutions offered here.Item CHALLENGING PRESERVICE TEACHER BELIEFS ABOUT THE PAST: THE INFLUENCE OF A COURSE DESIGNED TO SHIFT WAYS OF KNOWING ABOUT HISTORY TEACHING AND LEARNING(2013) Reddy, Kimberly; VanSledright, Bruce; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)"School history" has long since been characterized by teacher-centered lectures and student passivity, which deviates substantially from the inquiry-based and rigorous methodology historians use to actively reconstruct the past. While recent efforts have been made to move toward a more investigative approach in classrooms, little if any progress has been made beyond the superficial reading of primary source documents. When trying to understand why the disconnect between disciplinary approaches to history and school history continues, researchers have speculated that the knowledge bases, from which prospective teachers develop beliefs about the meaning and processes of history, are foundationally weak. This study examines the influence of a college course designed to specifically address the teacher knowledge problem in history. Participant beliefs were targeted and intentionally challenged to elicit shifts toward more criterialist ways of knowing. It contributes to the literature on the teaching and learning of historical thinking as well as epistemic beliefs in history. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from participants over the course of one college semester through questionnaires, interviews, and coursework artifacts. Analysis was completed on two subscales: beliefs about history and beliefs about history teaching and learning. Consistent with some previous studies, this research found that once surfaced, participant beliefs did begin to shift toward a more expert way of knowing following explicit instruction and practice with authentic disciplinary tasks. While beliefs about the knower, what can be known, and the procedural strategies necessary to create knowledge shifted at varying levels of consistency and stability, the shifts appeared to have an associative relationship often moving in concert rather than independently. Additionally, results indicate that participants whose initial beliefs were more stable made greater shifts toward criterialism suggesting that those who were able to spend less time understanding new ideas were able to spend more time thinking about how to take those ideas and put them into practice. Implications of this research raise questions about what teacher educators need to know in order to expertly prepare preservice history educators along with considerations for the content and instruction of teacher education programs.Item ASSESSING PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' KNOWLEDGE OF AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS INCORPORATING SOCIAL JUSTICE EDUCATION IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MATHEMATICS CLASSES(2012) McCoy, Wanda Linnette; Clark, Lawrence M; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Over the past three decades, there has been growing interest in teaching mathematics in ways that encourage action for social justice. Social Justice Education (SJE) seeks to enable students to study existing forms of social injustices in their lives and to create a sense of social agency in the students. This study sought to understand the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers about principles and examples of mathematics teaching from a social justice perspective. Participants consisted of 148 students at four universities. Participants completed a 49-item Likert-type survey to ascertain attitudes of pre-service teachers toward five descriptions of mathematics lessons that employed a social justice perspective. Statistical analyses compared the responses of the participants grouped by demographic variables of race, age, socio-economic status, and teacher preparation experiences. Findings indicate that significant differences on survey outcomes between participants were associated with key preparation experiences, such as whether or not participants had taken mathematics methods courses and diversity courses, as well as the type of university attended. Ten participants subsequently took part in one-on-one audio-taped, semi-structured interviews designed to ascertain the type of circumstances and lived experiences that shaped their attitudes toward teaching mathematics with a social justice perspective. The interviews provided some explanations as to why particular attitudes and beliefs were expressed.Item Examining Teacher Beliefs about Diverse Students Through Transformative Learning: The Common Beliefs Survey and the Disorienting Dilemma(2011) Duncan Grand, DeAnna; O'Flahavan, John; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)As the diversity of America's public school students grows, current and future teachers must be prepared to meet the needs of students who are increasingly different from them ethnically, racially and socio-economically. Research indicates that one of the ways to impact teachers' instructional practices with these and other students is to address problematic teacher beliefs and assumptions around these dimensions. Using the Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Diverse Students Initiative's Common Beliefs Survey, this research study explores Mezirow's Transformation Theory as a possibility for addressing these often problematic teacher beliefs. Specifically, the study looks at the research question: What was the nature of Common Beliefs Survey users' disorienting dilemmas (CBS)? The disorienting dilemma is the first step in perspective transformation as outlined in Mezirow's Transformation Theory. The study's participants included teacher educators and graduate and undergraduate education students. Overall, the study affirmed that disorienting dilemmas varied among individuals in terms of intensity; are often emotional in nature; and users' attributes were main contributors to experiencing disorienting dilemmas. The study also indicated that the CBS content helped trigger disorienting dilemmas among most of the study's participants by providing opportunities to reflect on their beliefs and assumptions and by providing information that challenged existing information or knowledge they had.Item A Cartographical Exploration of Collaborative Inquiry as a Professional Development Model for Art Educators(2011) Gates, Leslie; Valli, Linda R; North, Connie; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation draws on a number of cartographical processes to explore the particularities and circumstances of eight visual art teachers engaged in a yearlong collaborative inquiry within a formal, federally funded professional development program for arts educators. Art educators, many of whom lack content area colleagues within their schools, often work separated by geographical distance and may not have opportunities to regularly engage in professional development opportunities that are simultaneously content-specific, collaborative, and related to their working contexts. By examining the ways in which collaborative inquiry might provide such an opportunity, this study presents a number of challenges that emerged for the participants in this study, including: 1) Participants' socio-cultural norms and a desire to belong to a group that could offer the collegial support absent in many of their schools led participants to downplay their differences and suppress conflict for the sake of inclusion in the group; 2) Teachers' participation in a collaborative inquiry group operating within a funded professional development program provided them with professional opportunities and technological equipment, yet offered little support as they attempted to integrate the technology into their classrooms and to negotiate their sudden visibility within their teaching contexts; and 3) The researcher, acting as a participant facilitator within the group, unintentionally assumed a neutral stance in an effort to negotiate her competing desire for a close relationship with participants with her desire to disrupt assumptions and trouble practices for the sake of professional learning and growth. A number of "openings" may allow art educators to continue to engage in, create, and advocate for arts-based collaborative inquiry opportunities in a current socio-political climate that threatens such opportunities. For instance, art educators' need for collegial support and the existence of online networks and free internet-based software provides both a motive and means for geographically separated art educators to connect. Future research that more specifically addresses the challenges of providing art educators with collaborative professional development opportunities can build on the particular description and identification of challenges this study offers.Item Newly Qualified Teachers' Visions of Science Learning and Teaching(2011) Roberts, Deborah L.; van Zee, Emily H; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated newly qualified teachers' visions of science learning and teaching. The study also documented their preparation in an elementary science methods course. The research questions were: What educational and professional experiences influenced the instructor's visions of science learning and teaching? What visions of science learning and teaching were promoted in the participants' science methods course? What visions of science learning and teaching did these newly qualified teachers bring with them as they graduated from their teacher preparation program? How did these visions compare with those advocated by reform documents? Data sources included participants' assignments, weekly reflections, and multi-media portfolio finals. Semi-structured interviews provided the emic voice of participants, after graduation but before they had begun to teach. These data were interpreted via a combination of qualitative methodologies. Vignettes described class activities. Assertions supported by excerpts from participants' writings emerged from repeated review of their assignments. A case study of a typical participant characterized weekly reflections and final multi-media portfolio. Four strands of science proficiency articulated in a national reform document provided a framework for interpreting activities, assignments, and interview responses. Prior experiences that influenced design of the methods course included an inquiry-based undergraduate physics course, participation in a reform-based teacher preparation program, undergraduate and graduate inquiry-based science teaching methods courses, participation in a teacher research group, continued connection to the university as a beginning teacher, teaching in diverse Title 1 schools, service as the county and state elementary science specialist, participation in the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, service on a National Research Council committee, and experience teaching a science methods course. The methods course studied here emphasized reform-based practices, science as inquiry, culturally responsive teaching, scientific discourse, and integration of science with technology and other disciplines. Participants' writings and interview responses articulated visions of science learning and teaching that included aspects of reform-based practices. Some participants intentionally incorporated and implemented reform-based strategies in field placements during the methods course and student teaching. The strands of scientific proficiency were evident in activities, assignments and participants' interviews in varying degrees.Item Role of Caring in Three Physical Education Teachers' Classroom Environments(2011) Bae, Mihae; Ennis, Catherine D; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Even the most caring teachers need to feel appreciated by their students. Noddings proposed a circle of care in which teachers develop a caring classroom environment and initiate care for students. A positive response from the student is required in order to close the circle of care. Although researchers have described the characteristics of caring teachers, there is little research to examine the diverse ways that students reciprocate. The purpose of the current ethnographic research was to examine the class environments that physical education teachers created for their students. The research question that guided this study was: "What was the place of caring in three physical teachers' class environments." To address the question, I conducted an ethnographic, multi-site, case study involving sixth-grade classes from three different middle schools in a suburban school district. In each school I observed one teacher teach two classes. I used qualitative research to collect class observations and teacher and student interview data, focusing on the identification of interpersonal interactions between teachers and students. At the conclusion of the observation period, the three physical education teachers administered a 15 min. written questionnaire to all the students in their two classes. I also conducted one-on-one interviews with 28 students. After the student interviews, I conducted semi-structured interviews with each teacher. I analyzed data inductively and deductively using open, axial, and selective coding and adopted specific strategies to enhance the trustworthiness and transferability of these findings. Results suggested that the three physical education teachers created and maintained effective classroom environments and held expectations for students associated with learning. However, each teacher's approach to teaching was unique and produced characteristic influences on student learning. The class environments maintained by the teachers led to a wide range of student responses. The students' satisfaction with the classroom environments seemed to be influenced by their interpretation of relationships with their teachers. One physical education teacher in this study facilitated a variety of interpersonal interactions with students assisting each other in building skills and performing. This environment provided for interpersonal exchanges and relationships, closing the circle of care.Item A Case Study of Online Peer Coaching of Consultant Communication Skill Development(2010) Wizda, Lorraine; Rosenfield, Sylvia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: A CASE STUDY OF ONLINE PEER COACHING OF CONSULTANT COMMUNICATION SKILL DEVELOPMENT Lorraine L. Wizda, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation directed by: Professor Sylvia Rosenfield School Psychology Program The purpose of the this study was to explore how peer coaches support the development of collaborative communication skills in an online format for consultants in training (CITs). The program examined was Instructional Consultation which pairs a consultant with a teacher to work collaboratively to resolve the teacher's concern regarding a student. The focus is on improving instruction and modifying environmental variables. The study was approached using case study methodology. Research questions were: (a) how do online peer coaches support the development of collaborative communication skills in CITs and (b) what skills were selected most frequently by the CITs as focus skills? Transcripts of the email exchanges between the coaches and CITs which include self-reflection by the CIT and structured feedback from the coach are the data used. results show that the coaches use targeted feedback, examples, practical suggestions, and modeling collaborative language to support the development of CIT skills. Not all of the CITs consistently identified a focus skill (a skill they request specific feedback on from the coach). Collaborative communication skills were selected more frequently in the early stages of the process while more content related concerns were selected toward the end of the process. The findings provide a better understanding of how collaborative communication skills are supported in an online format and provide direction for future research.Item Constructing a Model of ESOL Content-Based Instruction with Native Language Support: Self-Reflective Action Research Grounded in Cultural-Historical Activity Theory(2010) Walstein, Irina M.; Oxford, Rebecca; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)no