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
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item MIDDLE GRADES PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS’ TASK SELECTION IN A MEDIATED FIELD EXPERIENCE METHODS COURSE(2021) Anthony, Monica; Walkoe, Janet; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Task selection is a critical element of mathematics teaching because mathematical tasks differ in the mathematical opportunities made available to students. Thus, it is important to examine both the tasks that PSTs chose and why they were chosen. This study examines the task selection of 10 pre-service teachers (PSTs) in a middle grades mathematics methods course. Each week, PSTs prepared and delivered 90-minute lessons for their assigned small group of middle grades students in an after-school enrichment program a local middle school. PSTs were free to choose the content of their lesson plans. I use Remillard’s (2005) framework of the teacher-curriculum relationship paired with a documental approach to didactics to infer PSTs’ instructional aims and their personal and pedagogical resources leveraged during task selection and lesson planning. PSTs’ lesson plans, lesson reflections, and semi-structured interviews were analyzed to identify the intellectual resources, perspectives, and epistemologies employed by PSTs when preparing their lessons. Three broad instructional aims shared by PSTs are identified. For each of the three themes, I describe the shared aim and demonstrate how it combines with other personal resources to form a scheme of utilization which informs PSTs’ participation with instructional resources. First, the enrichment sessions should be fun. PSTs differed in how they conceptualized fun, attending to either the structure or the mathematics of the tasks. Second, PSTs aimed to avoid surprises during their lessons by anticipating student responses. Finally, PSTs aimed to select or create tasks that “fit” their students. PSTs assessed task fit by the absence of unproductive struggle and whether students completed the task. This study identifies several productive beliefs and dispositions held by PSTs when selecting tasks in an early field experience. These beliefs and dispositions can be leveraged by teacher educators to support the development of ambitious teaching practices. Furthermore, this study demonstrates the importance of modeling high cognitive demand tasks in both mathematics methods and content courses.Item Planning During the Internship: A Study of the Planning Practices of Preservice English Teachers(2014) Hessong Grove, Rebecca M.; Koziol, Stephen; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This collective case study investigated the planning practices of six English education interns during the full time internship, including planning for edTPA. Research and professional standards emphasize the importance of planning, as it undergirds every aspect of what happens in a classroom. By understanding how interns learn to plan, teacher educators can better facilitate interns' development of planning skills. Using activity theory as a theoretical framework, this study describes how interns' planning practices changed over the course of the internship and identifies factors that influenced changes. Data sources included lesson plans, interviews with interns and mentors, and edTPA lesson plans. Findings showed most interns did not write detailed daily plans, but those who did experienced fewer planning and teaching struggles. Communication and feedback from the mentor were major factors in creating successful plans and planning routines. Three of the interns began writing more detailed plans to improve their teaching, motivated by a desire to be more organized and effective. All interns wrote detailed, formal plans for edTPA, and these plans included elements that were not part of typical written plans, such as differentiation and formative assessment. Other areas of change included increased planning for scaffolding and addressing students' confusion. Graduate interns expressed increased confidence in planning student-centered lessons. Factors that influenced such changes included experience, mentor guidance, and support from a methods course. Interns also drew on their increasing knowledge of students and district curriculum to plan relevant lessons. Interns consistently planned at the whole-class level, with little evidence of planning for individual learning. This study has implications for teacher educators aiming to strengthen candidates' planning practices. Programs must facilitate proactive mentoring and structured co-planning. Pre-service coursework should help candidates integrate student-centered pedagogy, formative assessment, and differentiation into lesson plans. The impact of internship length and undergraduate vs. graduate program structures must be investigated further. Finally, this study indicates that planning for edTPA was educative for interns. This, along with other findings, suggests that more formal planning can improve intern learning and program coherence.