In today's context of schooling, most teaching is aimed at output, coverage, and high scores which is in direct contrast to what pre-service teachers are taught to cherish -- differentiation, academic choice, and student autonomy. However, there is an approach that shows promise in counteracting the tendency to over stress scores and undermine a…

This qualitative research examines the construction and negotiation of Japanese language teacher identities (LTIs) both inside and outside classrooms at public universities in the United States. In the past fifteen years, Japanese has become one of the most studied foreign languages at college level (Furman et al., 2010; Goldberg et al., 2015;…

Technology is utilized in everyday life. As such, teachers can employ educational robots and technology to assist in growing skills in collaboration, communication, computational thinking, and problem-solving. Educational robots also appear to increase engagement and motivation in students to participate in lessons. This study employed…

An opportunity gap exists in the United States school system where students of color score lower on standardized tests and have fewer opportunities than their white counterparts. Culturally Relevant Education (CRE) theory attempts to close this gap, and is defined by Gloria Ladson-Billings (1995) as Pedagogy that rests on three criteria or…

Teacher agency has been a burgeoning topic of research in education and music education. In education research, professional agency has been associated with the influence of policy, teacher demographics, teacher beliefs, professional developments, and teaching environments. In music education, music teacher professional agency is a music teacher's…

This study investigates the effect of introducing an environmental education (EE) in three classrooms (C1, C2, C3) using three different pedagogy methods and if student's personalities determine how the information is perceived. A teacher-focused classroom (C1), a student-focused classroom (C2), and a third classroom used labs and hands-on…

Public school educators have many professional duties that they are required to fulfill to fidelity. Expectations include but are not limited to; curriculum and instructional planning and application of practices; implementing classroom management and behavioral intervention strategies for individual students and whole groups; attending required…

For my dissertation requirement, I conducted two research projects, collaborating with my dissertation advisor on both projects. In my first project, I employed a phenomenology methodology to investigate how teachers' professional needs, practices, and motivations align with the goals of the professional learning community to enhance teacher…

The purpose of this phenomenological study is to investigate the experiences of a group of high school administrators in assessing teacher dispositions that are reflected in post observation conferences. It is argued that through a better understanding of the techniques used by these administrators and the way the Danielson Framework for Teaching…

Online course enrollments continue to increase, and even more online courses are now offered as a result of the pandemic (O'Keefe et al., 2020). Although some students succeed in online courses (Battalio, 2009; Murray et al., 2012), most either earn low grades or do not complete the courses (Angelino et al., 2007; Wilson & Allen, 2011). Some…

The 20th century brought about the development of an increased climate of capitalist influence on every aspect of American life, including and especially on higher education. Simultaneously, as more and more purposes of higher education have come to reflect values of capitalist culture, a movement towards new ways of teaching and learning has…

Over the past few decades there has been increased attention on instructional practices that incorporate and build on student thinking. To effectively implement these practices, it is essential for an instructor to demonstrate responsiveness to student thinking. Although important, responsiveness is not well-understood at the post-secondary level.…

Adaptive learning systems aim to emulate how skilled educators provide every student with the best possible learning experience. We investigate how these systems might be enriched by incorporating activities and indicators of social learning, which focus on the influences of learners' social context and interactions. This doctoral research aims to…

Researchers have demonstrated the need for teachers to have the training and preparation to meet the needs of a growing diverse student population that can include students who may present with a variety of needs. This research will explore the experience of educators teaching students who are learning English as a second language and present with…

Teacher feedback has a strong correlation to math achievement. However, teachers need to be conscious of the type of feedback given to students during math instruction. Scholars suggest studying teachers knowledgeable of cultural relevant pedagogy (CRP) could supply models for teaching and learning especially for historically marginalized groups…