Theses and Dissertations from UMD

Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2

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

More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.

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2012 - 20142

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    The Relationship Between Teachers' Mathematical Knowledge and The Mathematics Achievement of Students in Grades Four and Five
    (2014) Palmer, Jana Eileen; Koziol, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between teacher mathematical knowledge (content and pedagogy) and the mathematics achievement of students in grades four and five. This study used a quantitative approach using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM). Through a quantitative study based upon a teacher assessment of mathematics content and pedagogy and a student assessment entitled the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), the researcher measured the teachers' mathematical content knowledge, mathematical pedagogy knowledge, and analyzed the data to determine if there was a relationship between teacher knowledge and student achievement. The assessments were based on the Maryland state curricular standards. All teachers involved in the study were considered generalists at the elementary level. Student achievement was measured through MAP. Through the use of the teacher knowledge assessment, the study provided valuable data that could be used to inform colleges providing training to pre-service teachers, principals, supervisors, and those providing professional development to elementary teachers. Additionally, the study could be used to inform teacher education and education policy efforts intended to strengthen and support teacher quality while improving the achievement of students in mathematics.
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    PROSPECTIVE ELEMENTARY TEACHERS' LEARNING TO EDUCATE ENGLISH LEARNERS IN A TEACHER EDUCATION PROGRAM: A CASE STUDY
    (2012) Daniel, Shannon Mary; Peercy, Megan M; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    In this study, I examined the opportunities prospective elementary teachers had to learn about educating students learning English as an additional language during their thirteen-month Master's with Certification in Elementary Education (MCEE) program. Data collection efforts centered around repeated teaching observations and interviews with four focal participants who were members of the 2010-2011 MCEE cohort during eight months of their program. Additional data collection on candidates' learning experiences in the program included surveys administered with the entire cohort, a focus group interview with the four focal candidates, and a focus group with four other members of the cohort. To investigate efforts teacher educators made to help candidates learn about educating English language learners (ELLs), I interviewed eight teacher educators in roles ranging from mentor teacher to program director. These interviews, along with observations of over one hundred hours of course meetings and a review of program documents, enabled me to identify challenges and opportunities teacher educators encountered when attempting to guide candidates in learning about educating ELLs. When teaching ELLs in their internships, candidates learned valuable skills to educate ELLs, but they also attended to the implicit message that marginalizing ELLs in elementary schools and classrooms is acceptable. In regards to their coursework, candidates identified instances in which they learned about educating linguistically diverse students, but also reported that they remembered little overall because the education of ELLs was addressed infrequently. While teacher educators actively strove toward guiding candidates to learn knowledge, skills, and dispositions of educating linguistically diverse students, they faced challenges such as those related to communication and coherence among teacher educators at the university and school sites. Implications for practice and research include implementing more innovative forms of collaboration among both teacher candidates and teacher educators in elementary education and second language education.