It is important that school employees understand the meaning of Harassment, Intimidation, and Bullying [HIB] as defined by NJ's HIB legislation as a result of the professional development [PD] opportunities provided by their school district. Adequate training on HIB, HIB legislation, and intervention/prevention strategies is paramount in reducing…

This dissertation examines the effectiveness of a professional development program designed specifically to provide foundational knowledge and skills to Technology Teachers in preparation for a transition to a Technology Integration Specialist position. Specifically, it evaluates the Technology Teachers' changes in knowledge and beliefs as a…

This mixed methods study explored how elementary school teachers who use Twitter extensively use it to support their professional learning and development. Four research questions guided this study: 1. How are teachers using Twitter for their professional learning and development? 2. What do teachers report learning from their use of Twitter? 3.…

At-risk students are engaged in dangerous behaviors that lead them to become involved in the juvenile justice system and cause the feeling of low self-worth. This eventually causes at-risk youths to drop out of school and engage in detrimental behaviors that meddle in their academic success. The alternative education program provides these at-risk…

American Indian/Alaska Native students are at the bottom of educational achievement, particularly in science where few American Indians enter into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. To meet the needs of American Indian students, teachers must understand the sociocultural nature of learning as it relates to students'…

An evaluation of the effectiveness of a large-scale professional development (PD) programme delivered to 258 schools in Queensland, Australia is presented. Formal evaluations were conducted at two stages during the programme using a tool developed from Desimone's five core features of effective PD. Descriptive statistics of 38 questions and…

This study examines the impact of implementing the professional development program, Keeping Learning on Track (KLT), on teaching and learning in a rural school in a Midwestern state. KLT was a program developed by Dylan William and his colleagues at the Educational Training Service and published by the Northwest Evaluation Association (NWEA).…

This paper presents the case of how a department of applied science went about implementing a tablet initiative in a two-year diploma program. Tablets were a required tool for entry into the program with a goal of reducing textbook purchase costs for students, mirroring industry standard practices in mobile device usage, and enabling collaborative…

A growing body of research examines the impact of recent teacher evaluation systems; however, we have limited knowledge on how these systems influence teacher retention. This study uses a mixed-methods design to examine teacher retention patterns during the pilot year of an evaluation system in an urban school district in Texas. We used…

From an improvement research perspective, this study explores strategies used to implement a school-wide vocabulary intervention into language arts instruction at an urban elementary school. Academic language time, an innovative change in the instructional delivery system, allots time and structure for deliberate teaching of cross-disciplinary…

STEM, the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is increasingly being promoted in elementary education. However, elementary educators are largely untrained in the 21st century skills of computing (a subset of technology) and engineering. The purpose of this study was to better understand elementary teachers'…

STEM, the integration of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics is increasingly being promoted in elementary education. However, elementary educators are largely untrained in the 21st century skills of computing (a subset of technology) and engineering. The purpose of this study was to better understand elementary teachers'…

Background: STEM educational reform encourages a transition from instructor-centered passive learning environments to student-centered, active learning environments. Instructors adopting these changes incorporate research-validated teaching practices that improve student learning. Professional development that trains faculty to implement…

The purpose of this paper is to identify faculty perspectives on the integration of work-related issues in engineering education. A mixed methods approach was used to explore faculty attitudes towards work-related learning, to describe activities related to working life that have been introduced into the curriculum and to identify factors that…

This project was conducted as part of the requirement for a practitioner-oriented research course within the author's teacher education degree program at a private nondenominational Midwestern university. The purpose of the project was twofold: (1) to investigate ways in which music can be integrated into the elementary school curriculum; and (2)…