As K-12 computer science education mandates rapidly evolve across America, government officials, technology industry executives, and school leaders recognize such efforts' intellectual and economic importance. Specifically in Tennessee, a unanimous vote from the Tennessee General Assembly resulted in the passage of Chapter 979 of the Public Acts…

This study sought to explore the teachers' self-efficacy on STEM integration and 21st century skills within STEM-designated schools in Tennessee by (a) evaluating teachers' self-efficacy, (b) teachers' perception of students' use of 21st century skills, (c) the association of teachers' self-efficacy and teachers' perception of students' use of…

Building from previous research on self-efficacy, sustained professional development, instructional leadership, and the science of reading, this quantitative correlational study explored the interrelationship among 51 purposively sampled Tennessee's elementary turnaround leaders' participation in sustained, systematic early literacy professional…

For this study, I used a quantitative design to examine Career and Technical Education (CTE) teachers' perceptions of coaching within the State of Tennessee during the 2016-2017 and 2017-2018 school years. The purpose of the study was to describe whether coaching sessions in the state of Tennessee altered CTE teachers' instructional practices, CTE…

This three-article dissertation examined the perceptions of school-based agricultural education teachers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama on self-efficacy and professional development activities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article was an examination of teacher self-efficacy in delivering instruction in three classroom…

This mixed-methods study of visual art educators teaching in urban public school systems in Tennessee was designed to explore common conditions, experiences, and attitudes related to art teacher efficacy. The study examined relationships between aspects of teacher efficacy and voluntary participation in professional development. Common conditions…

School-based agricultural education programs are recognized as contributors to teaching contextualized mathematics and supporting STEM education. This study examined the mathematics teaching efficacy and professional development needs of Tennessee school-based agricultural education teachers related to teaching contextualized mathematics.…

Studies have shown school districts across the United States strive to meet the needs of first-year teachers by adding various components within a beginning teacher induction program. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between beginning teacher induction programming and the overall TEAM observation scores of…

This study was designed for the purpose of quantitatively examining the significant elements of reform-based professional development and their relationship to teachers' self-efficacies for inclusion. The theoretical frameworks for this study were drawn from Bandura's (1997) self-efficacy and social cognitive theory in addition to pre-existing…

MyTeachingPartner (MTP) is an interactive, web-based professional development format created at the Center for Advanced Studies in Teaching and Learning (CASTL) at the University of Virginia (Hadden & Pianta, 2006). The MTP model is based on the understanding that effective teacher professional development requires opportunities for teachers…