The diversity of the educational system of the United States that engenders a wealth of innovative ideas and varied practices also makes it an extremely complex system to confront and understand as a whole. This survey was undertaken to develop current baseline data on all secondary school teachers of physics in the United States, including those…

Over the past decade there has been a substantive change in the role of practitioners in educational research. Grassroots efforts in action research highlight the importance of educators' own understanding of their practice. This book, which stems from a school-university collaboration, describes the theory and methods for conducting…

This study investigated relationships between willingness to teach and selected variables including personal, familial, school, and social factors among teachers of the mentally retarded in Taiwan. Participants included 527 elementary and junior high school teachers of the mentally retarded. Personal factors statistically correlated with teaching…

This study explores issues of importance to gay and lesbian teachers. It seeks to answer questions and to dramatize the damaging effects of homophobia on the lives of gay teachers, as well as all teachers and students. The project was narrative and qualitative, consisting of informal and open ended interviews of 10 self-identifies gay or lesbian…

An increasing number of states are requiring educators to take certification tests in order to obtain a license to teach. While this trend shows little sign of waning, there is little to guide the developer of teacher licensing tests in defining test specifications in a legally and technically sound manner. This paper discusses the legal and…

This study examined student growth in mathematical problem solving and relationships between teachers and changes in class problem-solving performance over a school year. The sample for the study involved 24 junior high school mathematics teachers, 119 mathematics classes, and more than 2,500 students. Classes were tested using a 10 item…

This user's manual has been produced to familiarize data users with the procedures followed for data collection and processing of the first follow-up teacher component of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88). The teacher component provides teacher information that can be used to analyze the behaviors and outcomes of the…

This book examines educators' norms, beliefs, and values in case studies of three "improving" high schools. The distinction between "sacred" and "profane" norms in the teaching profession is applied to the relationships among school culture, improvement efforts, and the effectiveness of change strategies. Schools'…

Examined elementary and secondary education students' attitudes and understanding of science processes prior to taking methods courses, immediately after completing the courses, and upon completing their practice teaching experiences. Implications based on differences in attitudes between the two levels (including negative attitudes for secondary…

This report on regular and special education teachers in public schools presents data on personal characteristics (gender, age, race/ethnicity, and marital status); professional characteristics (educational background, years of experience, certification); geographic region; income (salary and incentives, nonschool employment); and opinions about…

An investigation was made to determine whether teacher expectations influence the way teachers interact with students and, if they do, to assess what effects teacher behavior might have. Also addressed was the question of whether teachers treat males and females differently in ways that may discourage females in math. All teacher/student…

This study was designed to obtain descriptive data on the classroom evaluation practices of secondary teachers in two different public school systems. A self-report survey instrument was employed to collect data from 217 teachers in York, England, and 217 teachers in Minnesota. Respondents were asked to indicate which specific techniques they…

Four papers are included in this document that examines roles of participants in high school change. Each paper draws on data gathered from three years of a three-phase study of change processes in 30 high schools in Texas, Oregon, Maryland, Indiana, New York, and Florida. Four major questions provide research focus: the types, sources, and…

The Teacher Assessment and Development System (TADS) - Meritorious Teacher Program (MTP) FORM instrument is used in the Dade County Public Schools, Miami, Florida, to evaluate teachers. Its validity for decisions concerning merit pay for master teachers was examined in this study. Specifically, its ability to discriminate between high performing…

Teacher preparation curriculum at Technion--Israel Institute of Technology (Israel) includes courses intended to bridge the gap between the pure mathematics courses and those in psychology. The focus of this paper is an experimental program for one of these courses and data collected while implementing it. This is a second report on a naturalistic…