Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of at‐risk students in a rural district in Midwestern USA.

This field‐based research study used a qualitative embedded case study of a middle and high school informed by an appreciative inquiry theoretical research perspective to identify a positive core of teacher and administrator experiences related to at‐risk students. At‐risk students are those who under‐perform in mandated academic assessments as well as school‐related academic achievement. Social capital and appreciative inquiry served as theoretical perspectives. Focus groups, semi‐structured interviews, and an online survey were the primary data‐gathering methods.

Three findings illustrated the gap between present practice and the ideal state. The research team concluded that there was a foundation of positive core experiences from which to build on the espoused theory of caring professed by teachers and administrators.

The study's results can further teachers' and administrators' understanding of their problem‐based language that emphasizes the deficits of at‐risk students and their parents.

Although mentoring is increasingly hailed as one of the most critical components of US teacher induction programs, the corresponding research base has failed to provide conclusive support for the effectiveness of teacher mentoring.

Cross-sectional data from the 2015 to 2016 National Teacher and Principal Survey (NTPS) was used to empirically evaluate the relationship between school-based mentoring programs and US first-year teachers' occupational stress risk. NTPS items assessing teachers' workplace demands, resources and mentoring experiences were used to examine associations between stress risk and mentoring supports received. Multiple regression analysis and chi-square tests of independence were conducted to answer the study's three research questions.

Mentor status and study covariates statistically significantly predicted teacher stress risk, with mentor assignment being associated with decreased stress risk. Findings also revealed teachers who were not assigned a mentor were significantly more likely to experience greater stress risk and when assigned mentors, teachers with greater stress risk reported significantly different mentoring experiences than did teachers with less stress risk.

The current study addresses common limitations found in research on teacher mentoring and occupational stress, including the use of local, small samples and the absence of a comparison group and control variables. The associations between first-year teacher mentoring experiences and stress risk have not been firmly established and the current study provides needed evidence to support that mentored first-year teachers are more likely to report lower stress risk than their unmentored colleagues.

To identify the attitudes and traits of teachers with an at‐risk student population in a multi‐cultural urban high school.

A research team consisting of doctoral students and their faculty advisor used an appreciative inquiry model to identify attitudes and traits of teachers who supported effective teaching in an urban high school with a high at‐risk student population.

The research team's findings indicate that those perceived as effective teachers were culturally responsive, sought small successes, encouraged students, flexible, and caring. They also formed meaningful relationships with students, had caring attitudes, and viewed themselves as difference‐makers. The research team also found a number of non‐supportive teacher attitudes and traits: blaming, racial attitudes, frustration leading to inflexibility, co‐dependency leading to encouraging the neediness of students, and lack of respect for the contributions made by the surrounding community and parents.

Teachers, administrators, and counselors agreed that forming relationships and caring for students were at the core of the attitudes and traits of effective teaching. Moreover, teachers with effective attitudes and traits were seen as having the ability to integrate into the school and surrounding community's culture to encourage students to succeed in school.

More than five years have passed since A Nation at Risk was published in 1983 by then‐Secretary of Education Terrance Bell's National Commission on Excellence in Education. Those years have seen the publication of an enormous body of both primary material, composed of research reports, essays, and federal and state reform proposals and reports; and secondary material, composed of summaries and reviews of the original reform reports and reports about effective programs that are based on reform recommendations. This annotated bibliography seeks to identify, briefly describe, and organize in a useful manner those publications dealing with K‐12 education reform and improvement. The overall purposes of this article are to bring organization to that list, and also to trace relationships and influences from the federal initiatives to the states and professional associations, and from there to the school districts and individual schools.

Research funded by the Albert Shanker Institute found African-American teachers leaving teaching at higher rates than White counterparts even though the former are recruited in proportionally higher numbers. Thus, while recruitment efforts appear somewhat successful, schools and school systems fail to retain teachers of color. This “revolving door” of African-American teachers portends dire consequences for school communities, creating instability of staffing that potentially upend students’ opportunities for academic success. African-American female (AAF) teachers, considered a backbone of non-White communities, are particularly sensitive to teacher mobility and turnover. Studies, however, indicate that AAF teachers are more satisfied working in urban school contexts than other teachers, suggesting that they prefer racially congruent schools which share sociocultural attributes similar to their own, and view working conditions more favorably in such environments.

Teachers’ perceptions of the workplace can be used to gauge risk for occupational stress. Commonly referred to as the transactional model, teachers’ risk for stress can be assessed by the appraising workplace resources vis-à-vis workplace demands. Stress-vulnerable teachers are associated with lower professional commitment and increased occupational burnout. Using data from the National Center for Education Statistics 2007–2008 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS), this chapter explored the intersections of risk for occupational stress, racial congruence, and professional commitment among AAF teachers. Findings from this chapter suggest interactions between racial congruence and AAF teachers’ perceptions of occupational stress and commitment to teaching. Implications for how these results might inform policy are discussed.

In this chapter, we begin by exploring the lessons learned from studies of teachers’ expectations for student behavior, being with early inquiry conducted following the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) of 1975. Next, we explore the expanding knowledge base following reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 1997), the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA, 2004), and No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2001) as the field increasingly emphasized inclusive programming and supporting access to the general education curriculum, called for academic excellence for all students, and focused on systems-level perspectives for teaching behavioral expectations. We summarize lessons learned from these bodies of knowledge, focusing attention on key findings and existing limitations of the studies conducted to date. We conclude with implications for educational research and practice, with attention to how lessons learned regarding teacher expectations for student performance can (a) facilitate inclusive programming for students with disabilities, (b) support school transitions, (c) inform primary prevention efforts and targeted supports, and (d) inform teacher preparation programs.

Over nearly two decades the Supporting Effective Teaching project examined the characteristics of teachers that result in successful inclusion of students with disabilities in Canadian regular education classrooms. These studies revealed that teachers who rate high in adapting and calibrating instruction for students who have special needs are the most successful overall with all their students. In this chapter, we present an adaptation of the observation scale that we used to rate effective inclusive instructional practices. The adapted scale can be used both as a self-rating and as a third-party measurement scale of effective teaching practices. We link each element of the scale to the Universal Design for Learning framework. We discuss how challenges to effective practices are affected by teacher beliefs about ability and disability, collegial differences in beliefs and practices, and the focus set by the leadership in the school.

Teaching is increasingly recognised as a complex, demanding career. Teachers experience higher levels of stress and burnout than other professionals. The career is subject to heightened levels of public scrutiny and yet offers only modest rewards in the form of social status and income. Drawing on a typological model of coping styles among a diverse sample of German health professionals, we identified six types of emotional coping (Good health, Sparing, (healthy) Ambitious, (path to) Burnout, Diligent, and Wornout) among a longitudinal sample of 612 Australian primary and secondary teachers. A significant outcome of our study was the empirical differentiation between burned out and wornout teachers. This extends the literature on teacher burnout and offers new directions to the study of ‘at risk’ beginning teachers.

The purpose of this study is to identify how at‐risk high school students in an alternative school describe how they best learn and to extrapolate their preferred learning practices to improve teacher pedagogical practices.

The authors used a qualitative case study design to facilitate the first two stages of an appreciative inquiry (AI) 4‐D cycle – discovery and dream. Eight alternative high school students, four males and four females, were purposively selected as participants. Data collection methods included: group discussions, semi‐structured paired interviews, and participant generated documents and visual presentation for district administrators and teachers. Data were analyzed using content analysis, open coding, axial coding, text analysis software, and pattern matching.

The study produced four salient findings: relevant experiences were important for learning; a cooperative and respectful learning environment is a core value; learning should be enjoyable; and, the concept of family became an important metaphor for the learning environment.

The findings from this study suggest that further research with AI in educational settings may have important implications to inspire educators to think in new ways about learning.

High quality professional development and preservice teacher training should incorporate elements to help practitioners to integrate theory, research, and practice. Ideally, lessons and activities in early childhood classrooms would look like a kaleidoscope of dynamic approaches, infusing what is known about teaching into the context of that particular classroom with a diverse group of learners at that moment in time. It cannot be a “one size fits all” package. In the present chapter, vignettes from two schools in different parts of the world (South Africa and the United States) illustrate how digital media (photographs and video) provide powerful tools for bridging principles learned in professional development with ongoing classroom practice. The authors show how the use of digital tools helped teachers to: (1) see the consequences of their teaching decisions; (2) understand and value children's cultures; (3) meet the needs of all students (special needs or gifted) in their classroom; (4) increase family involvement; and (5) demonstrate their accountability. Using video and photographs provides a lens for ongoing reflection and observation of children in action. Digital tools allow teachers to discover their classroom from a different angle, see what children learned, or experience something the teacher missed while engaged in action. Digital tools create dialogue among teachers from diverse settings and provide new ways for everyone to view classroom experiences. They offer opportunities for brainstorming and for gaining different perspectives. Thus, digital tools enhance reflective practice. The authors realized everyone could be changed from the experience, including those who provided the professional development.