Partnership for 21st Century Skills has continuously identified critical and metacognitive thinking skills to be essential for life and career in post-secondary education and workforce settings. As a response to the Race to the Top (2010) initiative and Common Core State Standards (2009), New York State Board of Regents began an overhaul for all…

In recent years, the number of Mexican youth moving (back) to Mexico from the US has been steadily growing (Sanchez Garcia & Hamann, 2016; Jensen & Jacobo-Suarez, 2019). The Pew Research Center for Hispanic Studies estimates that between 2009 and 2014, roughly 1 million Mexicans and their families moved from the US to Mexico…

Teaching and learning online was extensively adopted in English as a foreign language (EFL) teacher education program, as well in education of all levels in China with the advancement of the internet, multimedia information processing, cloud computing, and other information technologies since 1994. However, online education has remained more of a…

Instructional technology in courses of K-12 level for English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners demonstrates numerous benefits for their learning, including increased engagement and improved academic outcomes. However, integrating technology into teaching practices heavily relies on teachers' competence in technology. Even though teacher…

Teachers are certified either by a traditional university-based program or an alternative route to certification program. Graduates transition into teaching from diverse backgrounds and bring with them various experiences and predetermined expectations and visions of the profession. Teacher education preparation curriculum traditionally has…

This study describes the way 14 pre-service teachers engaged in discourse about integers. The discourse being examined is framed by Sfard's view of a discourse as being composed of the four elements word use, visual mediators, routines, and narratives (Sfard, 2008). These elements combine to form a means for people to exchange and preserve ideas…

There has been a marked decline in the number of graduates from the secondary education science and math program at a regional public university in a Midwestern state over the last ten years. Using qualitative and quantitative data gathered from interviews and surveys, this study revealed that this trend damages the ability of rural schools in the…

This dissertation's purpose was for examining the preparation of pre-service school-based agricultural education (SBAE) teachers in laboratory-based courses and discovering how experienced SBAE teachers describe the experiences which prepared them to be effective facilitators of laboratory instruction. Furthermore, we discovered SBAE teachers'…

In response to increasing demand for the need for highly effective teachers, numerous pathways to teacher certification have emerged. Consequently, teacher residencies as an alternative route to certification have grown in number and scale across the country. Due to the recent growth and expansion of teacher residencies, there is limited research…

Although teachers' use of quality teacher-student interactions is important for the academic and social development of their students, these types of interactions are not used consistently by teachers in early childhood classrooms. This study was used to explore the education of the classroom teacher as a potential reason for this inconsistency.…

The field of education has long identified a need for culturally responsive educators due to significant racial and cultural mismatch between K-12 students and their teachers; the fact that racially and culturally marginalized students have negative social and academic outcomes when their teachers are not culturally responsive; and that most…

The highly diverse character of US universities provides an opportunity for writing programs to (re)examine the extent to which their current administrative, curricular, and pedagogical practices support a growing student population with unique linguistic, cultural, and educational backgrounds, resources, and needs. This dissertation research…

Widespread skepticism exists about preparation programs' impact on novice teachers' learning to teach. This is not new. Researchers, practitioners, and policymakers question whether preparation matters. Despite these questions and a growing consensus about the importance of teachers, we have a limited understanding of when, why, and how teacher…

This study explores the effectiveness of current teacher preparation program that prepare dual language immersion teachers and identifies effective professional development training approach for teachers under the layer of culturally and linguistically responsive pedagogical practices. Through a qualitative phenomenology approach that includes…

Researchers have reported that preservice teachers are unprepared for teaching in inclusive classrooms (Gilmour & Wehby, 2020; Swindlehurst et al., 2019; Texas Education Agency, 2019). The purpose of this qualitative study was to analyze novice elementary educators' perceptions on their preparedness to teach inclusive classrooms. For this…