Race to the Top mandates, much like other comprehensive reforms before, focuses on teacher quality and student outcomes. Measuring teacher quality, under Race to the Top reforms, remains a subject of uncertainty, particularly measuring for improvement. This article argues that a central purpose of classroom evaluation is to provide supportive,…

The key to improving education is the classroom teacher. Students must have skillful, highly effective teachers who have consistent access to on going professional development. NCLB offers guidelines for effective professional development. States interpret these guidelines and add their own varied legislative requirements. The current result is an…

In this paper, I explore the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through the lens of transformative learning theory and critical theory. In doing so, I expand the notion of a Scholarship of Teaching so as to go beyond the solving of practical problems in teaching and the improvement of teaching effectiveness. I focus on an emancipatory…

This dissertation was an in-depth investigation of successful online teaching in the context of higher education. It is presented in nontraditional dissertation format as approved by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Iowa State University. This dissertation includes three publishable journal articles that would represent Chapter 2, 3…

Research indicates that it is common for elementary teachers to possess limited mathematics content knowledge, high levels of math anxiety, and low levels of mathematics teacher efficacy. Assuming action research as the chosen methodology, this research study was developed with the ultimate goal of improving how elementary teachers in my district…

Educational research is distinctive inasmuch as it shares the moral objective of education, which is to help people make the best of themselves through processes of learning. Educational research is a service industry for education. As such, its contribution to the efficiency and effectiveness of educational processes can be increased by focusing…