Teacher Licensure Program Research Articles

Course Development to Address Gaps in Horticulture Content Standards for Students in an Agricultural Education Undergraduate Degree Program

Agricultural Education teacher licensure programs face a growing list of coursework needed to meet requirements with a shrinking number of credit hours available. A new course – ‘Greenhouse and Landscape Fundamentals for Educators’ was developed at Purdue University with an Agricultural Education Teacher Licensure B.S. degree program. Data utilized in creating the course included: 1) an evaluation of current Agricultural Education coursework; 2) a review of state and national Agricultural Education content and academic standards; and 3) a survey of current Indiana Agriculture teachers. Responses from the survey (n=72) of high school teachers of horticulture and/or landscape management show 61% of respondents had teaching greenhouses at their schools, and 62% reporting they were not confident with operating and maintaining a greenhouse based on bachelor level coursework they took. Respondents indicate needing more coursework in several topics: greenhouse management landscape design, landscape installation and maintenance, and plant identification. Results pointed to gaps in existing required coursework. The new course was specifically tailored to meet the needs of the Agricultural Education undergraduate students, and equip them with information and resources to call upon when they begin their teaching careers.

Special Education Student Teachers’ Reflections on Skills and Observed Practices

Over the course of five consecutive fall and spring semesters, 119 undergraduate and graduate candidates in a special education initial teacher licensure program from a large Midwestern, public university participated in a study to examine their reflections of their student teaching experiences. Specifically, candidates reported their a) knowledge of and b) ability to effectively implement skills associated with their teacher education program and Council for Exceptional Children standards and c) the extent to which they observed the effective implementation of these skills during student teaching. Candidates reported highest scores in areas related to professionalism and collaboration and lower scores in designing functional behavioral assessments and interventions for students with low incidence disabilities. Conclusions for educators are included.

The Perceptions and Experiences of Nontraditional Students in Teacher Licensure Programs

Nontraditional students seeking a teaching license are tasked with managing coursework and other responsibilities associated with teacher preparation programs; however, they are also likely navigating family dynamics, financial struggles, and other obligations that traditional undergraduate students do not face. We interviewed 19 preservice teacher candidates and report on their experiences when selecting their university of choice, the barriers they faced, and the supports they received. Participants reported coming to their university because of cost, location, and reputation. They reported common barriers such as inability to work, caring for children, and lack of support or access to other resources. However, participants reported professors and external funding as the major factors that had helped them succeed. Implications about this diverse group of students are discussed.

Course Development to Address Horticulture Gaps in an Agricultural Education Undergraduate Program

Education teacher licensure programs face a growing list of coursework needed to meet requirements with a shrinking number of credit hours available. A new course – ‘Greenhouse and Landscape Fundamentals for Educators’ was developed at Purdue University with an Agricultural Education Teacher Licensure B.S. degree program. Data utilized in creating the course included: 1) an evaluation of current Agricultural Education coursework; 2) a review of state and national Agricultural Education content and academic standards; and 3) a survey of current Indiana Agriculture teachers. Responses from the survey (n=72) of high school teachers of horticulture and/or landscape management show 61% of respondents had teaching greenhouses at their schools, and 62% reporting they were not confident with operating and maintaining a greenhouse based on bachelor level coursework they took. Respondents indicate needing more coursework in several topics: greenhouse management, landscape design, landscape installation and maintenance, and plant identification. Results pointed to gaps in existing required coursework. The new course was specifically tailored to meet the needs of the Agricultural Education undergraduate students, and equip them with information and resources to call upon when they begin their teaching careers.

HyFlex Course Delivery: Addressing the Change in Course Modality Brought on by the Pandemic

Teacher preparation programs need quality training courses that offer flexible, interactive alternatives to isolating online courses and classroom-based programs that limit students to a specific place and time. The HyFlex course design provides a solution by combining internet video instruction (such as Zoom), regular online learning, and face-to-face classroom experiences into one course where students can choose the method that best meets their individual learning needs and even alternate between methods throughout the course session. HyFlex aligns with learner centered instruction and offers a unique opportunity for educators to receive quality licensure courses. This article explores existing literature on the HyFlex course delivery method and discusses a case study done to examine student outcomes resulting from its use in a post-baccalaureate special education teacher licensure program.

Using a Culturally Responsive Lens in the Revision of a Core Preparation Course

With increasing cultural diversity in schools and in special education, teachers must be prepared to meet the needs of students from diverse backgrounds. In addition to evidence-based practices, culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) is critical to helping students make meaning of their learning. Therefore, teacher preparation programs must be intentional and explicit in their instruction related to CSP for teacher candidates. We describe a replicable process of course review and revision for the inclusion of CSP with an example from a core course in a special education preservice teacher licensure program. The course, Intersectionality and Disability, is a course in a newly-implemented undergraduate licensure program.

Análise da participação discente na avaliação docente no ensino superior

O objetivo do artigo é compreender quais fatores influenciam a participação dos alunos em um processo de avaliação docente, identificando os perfis mais e menos propensos a participar, incluindo características individuais e dos cursos aos quais estão vinculados. Os dados analisados são da avaliação docente semestral de uma IES privada entre 2016 e 2018. O modelo de análise é a regressão logística multinível. Os resultados apontam que características individuais e também dos cursos, afetam a probabilidade de participação discente na avaliação dos professores: ser mulher, acima de 41 anos de idade, beneficiário de programas de financiamento ou bolsa de estudos, em um curso de licenciatura ou em um curso integral tendem a aumentar a probabilidade de participação na avaliação docente.

Chapter 4: Physical Education Teacher Education Initial Certification: Meeting the Challenges

The physical education teacher education (PETE) faculty charged with oversight and delivery of initial teacher licensure programs confront several challenges. Some necessitate responses to revised and new standards, while others can be reframed as timely opportunities for improvement and innovation, whether in response to or in anticipation of rapid, dramatic societal change. Six examples of challenges as opportunities are discussed in this chapter: (a) the need to determine the skills, essential knowledge, values, and sensitivities for work practices in the schools of the future; (b) the dual priority for evidence-based practices in PETE and in school programs; (c) PETE faculty members’ obligations to adapt their pedagogical practices and revise preservice programs in concert with expert, veteran teachers from schools with exemplary programs; (d) manifest needs to make choices among competing, evidence-supported physical education program models; (e) needs and opportunities to redesign PETE programs, especially those located in kinesiology departments; and (f) emergent policy imperatives to demonstrate the value-added effects, both short- and long-term, on tomorrow’s teachers.

Choosing a Life of Impact: A Grounded Theory Approach to Describe the Career Choice of Becoming a High School Agriculture Teacher

The purpose of this grounded theory qualitative research was to identify the influences on students’ decisions to pursue a career as a high school agriculture teacher and develop a proposed theoretical model to conceptualize this career decision. Two samples of students – one sample of high school students and one sample of college students – were the participants in this study. Each participant included in the two samples was either considering teaching as a career or was currently enrolled in a university teacher licensure program. Data were collected from individual interviews, focus groups, and writing samples. The findings from this study suggested that when participants were motivated by role models with whom they could socially identify, became familiar with the profession through relevant experiences, and were affirmed of their career capabilities through people in their social environment to whom they were emotionally connected, they pursued a career path to become a high school agriculture teacher.

Motherhood’s complicated roles in a graduate teacher licensure program

ABSTRACT While women enter and complete graduate programs at lower rates than men, there is limited research on how the experience of motherhood plays a role in graduate program success. Graduate students who are also mothers cannot discontinue their parenting responsibilities while they complete their degrees, making graduate school additionally challenging. This qualitative study used structured interview protocols, image elicitation, and trajectory drawings to consider the relationship that motherhood had on the experience of 10 full-time graduate students. Discussion includes suggestions to support nontraditional student success in intensive graduate-level teacher education programs.

How teachers deliberate policy: Taking a stance on third grade reading legislation in online language teacher education

In education, decision making frequently involves ethically-imbued choices between two or more solutions to an educational ‘problem.’ Teacher education may utilize asynchronous discussions to prepare teachers to critically navigate this landscape. To understand how participants in an online English language (EL) teacher licensure program manage disagreements as they accomplish taking a stance over critical issues, this study uses a discourse analytic perspective influenced by conversation analysis to examine asynchronous discussions. Analysis illustrates how participants managed their epistemic stance while disagreeing by (1) taking stances that were often softened or hedged; (2) grounding their disagreements through particular discursive strategies including sharing personal experiences or posing rhetorical questions; and (3) making morally-imbued claims that were difficult to disagree with. Findings suggest that although topics may encourage participants to take sides on critical issues, personal stake in the moral matters raised may make it difficult for participants to shift their initial stance.

Impact of content‐specific seminars on candidate edTPA preparation and performance

edTPA is a performance‐based assessment used in teacher licensure programs across the country as evidence of a candidate's readiness to teach. Although multiple studies have indicated it to be a challenging assessment and have offered multiple recommendations for candidate support, few have examined the impact of specific means of support. In this mixed‐method study, the authors used surveys, interviews, classroom observations, and edTPA performance data to investigate the impact of content‐specific edTPA support seminars on the preparation and performance of world language and English as a second language teacher candidates. The study provided evidence that content‐specific support seminars can provide opportunities for more tailored support, instructors who are more familiar with content standards and resources, and more consistent messaging than non–content‐specific seminars. Results also indicated that clustering candidates in content‐specific seminars can lead to stronger performance outcomes than seminars involving teacher candidates from a variety of different content areas. Implications for teacher preparation programs are discussed.

A Profile of High-Stakes Assessment Practices in Music Teacher Education

The purpose of this study was to identify and describe high-stakes assessment practices in the field of music teacher education. Furthermore, I sought to compare institutional capstone assessment practices with state licensure requirements. Research questions involved the status of high-stakes assessments of general, content, and pedagogical knowledge, as well as high-stakes teacher performance assessments (e.g., edTPA). Participants in this study included faculty representatives ( N = 274) from National Association of Schools of Music–accredited music teacher education programs across all 50 states. The majority of participants indicated that preservice candidates were required to pass a test of general knowledge as a gatekeeper to acceptance into the music teacher licensure program, as well as a variety of other examinations prior to graduation. More than one half of participants reported that their institution required music teacher candidates to complete a teacher performance assessment (e.g., edTPA). Alignment between state and institution requirements was varied.

Minding the Gap: Mentor and Pre-service Teachers’ Ability Perceptions of Content Area Literacy Instruction

This mixed method study compared how student teachers rated their ability in implementing components of content area literacy compared to their clinical educators’ perceptions of the student teachers’ actual performance. The researchers collaborated with K-12 clinical educators to develop a scaled survey to rate level of skill in four components of content literacy instruction. 112 clinical educators (CEs) and 183 student teachers (STs) representing five teacher licensure programs completed the survey. A two-way multivariate analysis of variance measured the effect of Role (CE and ST) and Teacher Licensure Program on ability perception. Results indicated that Role and Program each significantly affected ratings of the four content literacy component skills measured, but the effect of Role did not significantly differ based on Program. Participants’ written explanations of their ability ratings revealed how their mental models of content literacy accounted for differences in ability perception by Role. Implications are provided for enhancing pre-service teachers’ perceptual and qualitative awareness of the practices that underlie highly effective content-area literacy instruction.

Exploring the relationship between early childhood and elementary grade-level overlap and early childhood teacher output

ABSTRACTThis study explores the relationship between grade-level overlap between elementary education (ELED) and early childhood education (ECED) licenses and ECED teacher output. Analysis of Title 2 data indicates that ECED/ELED overlap is extensive, as evidenced by the number of states with grade-level overlaps of 5 (n = 2), 4 (n = 24), 3 (n = 10), and 2 years (n = 7). In the 47 states with both types of credentials, ELED licensees may teach preschool in two states, kindergarten in 30, first grade in 41, second grade in 42, and third grade in 43. The percentage of ECED (relative to ELED) teacher licensure program completers is low in states where elementary licenses begin in preschool (5%), kindergarten (14%), and Grade 1 (23%), but higher in states where elementary licenses begin in Grades 2 (45%), 3 (44%), and 4 (70%).

Building a Teaching Community through Peer Mentoring

This article shares the benefits and challenges of implementing a Peer Mentor Program in a university art and teacher licensure program. It is undeniable that many art teachers in the United States are the only visual arts instructor in their school building. Or, in my case, when I got my first teaching job in a rural Midwestern community, I was the only art teacher in the entire school district. The closest art teacher to me was 13 miles away. For 3 years, I taught in the rural community where my only opportunity to connect with other art teachers within a 50-mile radius were 3 professional development days in March.

PETE Doctoral Institutions: Programs, Faculty, and Doctoral Students

Purpose: The present study of doctoral physical education teacher education (D-PETE) programs was part of a longitudinal study that provided an extensive description of demographics including: (a) doctoral program characteristics, (b) faculty, and (c) doctoral students/graduates. Method: This trend study incorporated 3 data sets (2005–2006, 2008–2009, and 2011–2012) that described the characteristics of D-PETE programs. Academic heads of D-PETE programs provided demographic information on their doctoral students, faculty, and institutional characteristics for the 2005–2006, 2008–2009, and 2011–2012 academic years and selected summary data from 1996–1997 through 2011–2012. Results/Conclusion: As a result of this longitudinal data collection, the following trends were revealed. First, there was a decrease in the number of D-PETE programs and an increase of nontenured and part-time pedagogy faculty. Second, initial teacher licensure programs remained in existence at the vast majority of D-PETE programs. Third, funding for doctoral students at D-PETE programs was decreasing. Fourth, racial composition of doctoral graduates and current doctoral students remained largely skewed toward Caucasians. Fifth, there was a slight decline in the percentage of doctoral graduates entering higher education, but employment rates were exceptionally high. Sixth, non-U.S. doctoral students and ABDs were marketable in the United States.

Analyzing Preservice Teachers' Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge Development in the Context of a Multidimensional Teacher Preparation Program

In this quantitative study, correlational and multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) development of 299 preservice teachers in response to the technology preparation they received during their initial teacher licensure program. Survey data were analyzed to determine the extents to which preservice teachers' knowledge increased in response to technology preparation and to determine the contribution of individual knowledge components, including technological knowledge, pedagogical knowledge, and technological pedagogical knowledge, to the development of TPACK. Findings revealed that individual knowledge components made statistically significant and unique contributions to preservice teachers' TPACK. Findings from this work help explicate the significant contributions of individual knowledge components to TPACK development and have implications for teacher preparation programs on the use of technology.

Building Special Education Teacher Capacity in Rural Schools: Impact of a Grow Your Own Program

Rural education has a legacy of unique challenges, with highest priority needs in the South. Chief among these challenges are the conditions of poverty associated with many rural districts and the education of students with disabilities. Compared with their urban and suburban counterparts, rural teachers experience higher rates of turnover, and rural schools find it more difficult to recruit teachers from the start. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which a grow your own (GYO) program equitably increased special education teacher capacity in one Southern state's rural and non-rural school districts. The sample included 638 participants who completed special education teacher licensure programs over the 8-year period, 2003-2011. Statistical analysis revealed a significant difference in one demographic variable, licensure area. The rural group had disproportionately fewer program completers in emotional disabilities and more in multi-categorical. Additional analysis showed a significantly higher percentage of program completers in the rural group. Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

A Call to Action: What Student Teachers Can Teach Us

This qualitative study uses six years of survey data, collected from student teachers in a graduate level university initial teacher licensure program, to illuminate student teachers’ experiences with their cooperating teachers during their student teaching internship. The data, comments made by student teachers about their experiences with their cooperating teachers, were used to answer this research question: What are student teachers telling us about their experiences with their cooperating teachers? Using the constant comparative method of qualitative analysis (Glaser & Strauss, 1967) the survey data consisting of answers to the open form question “My cooperating teacher could have been more helpful to me by . . .” was analyzed and coded revealing six themes. Examples of student teacher comments are included. The paper concludes with recommendations for using the comments and resulting themes for a cooperating teacher education and development program.