Addressing Teacher Shortages in Rural America: What Factors Help New Teachers Apply to Teach in Rural Settings?

Teacher shortages in rural areas has become a public crisis. This shortage of key personnel requires stakeholders (higher education, state departments, local school districts) to examine factors that help teacher education students choose to apply to rural settings. The current study examines new teacher candidates’ background, preparation for teaching, and perceptions of protective factors on their decisions to work in rural areas. Data from teacher education students in their residencies from 14 institutions were analyzed. Results suggest that student background, including race, level of education, parent education, and high school location are important. White students, those pursuing undergraduate degrees, those from rural high schools, and students who feel more confident in teaching 21st-century critical thinking skills (e.g., using a variety of perspectives, engaging in self-assessment, teaching critical thinking) are also more likely to consider teaching in rural areas. Results are discussed as they relate to recruitment in rural areas

Elements of Engagement for Successful Learning

In this research we sought to understand student practices, beliefs, and behaviors that led to positive engagement on campus. More specifically, we studied student engagement as a function of the individual within the contexts of classroom and university environment using a basic interpretive approach. First year students from a medium-sized, public, Midwestern university participated in interviews on engagement, the classroom, university, and community contexts. Results suggest that both personality and a sense of self influence students\u27 levels of engagement. Students who had identified life goals and who sought related activities and relationships made greater use of university resources and felt more engaged. We propose ways in which instructors and universities can make simple changes that may help enhance the experience of all students

USD Teacher Residency Program Impact: Culturally Responsive Pedagogy

USD’s yearlong Teacher Residency Program involves teacher candidates in a full year of teaching experience incorporated into their four-year program. This report examines the effect of two semesters of student teaching over a traditional one-semester model on teacher candidates’ confidence in culturally responsive pedagogy. Students reported much greater preparedness both to design and to implement instruction that incorporates students’ readiness, background, and culture, among other factors.https://red.library.usd.edu/serc/1001/thumbnail.jp

USD Teacher Residency Program Impact: Instructional Technology

USD’s yearlong Teacher Residency Program involves teacher candidates in a full year of teaching experience incorporated into their four-year program. This report examines the impact of the added semester of teaching experience on teacher candidates’ confidence to intentionally integrate technology with content and pedagogy. USD’s teach candidates indicated much greater confidence after a year-long residency than after a traditional single-semester student teaching experience.https://red.library.usd.edu/serc/1003/thumbnail.jp

Supportive Residency Instructors: University of South Dakota’s Teacher Residency Program

USD’s yearlong Teacher Residency Program involves teacher candidates in a full year of teaching experience incorporated into their four-year program. Residency instructors serve as coaches and mediators when issues arise, but they also provide timely instruction on such topics as classroom management, educational assessment, and others. Students in the residency program strongly agree that USD’s residency instructors support their instructional growth, assist them in overcoming challenging situations, and provide support and feedback to succeed.https://red.library.usd.edu/serc/1002/thumbnail.jp

USD Teacher Residency Program Impact: Classroom Management

USD’s yearlong Teacher Residency Program involves teacher candidates in a full year of teaching experience incorporated into their four-year program. This report examines the effect of two semesters of student teaching over a traditional one-semester model. Students’ confidence in classroom management greatly increased with the added semester.https://red.library.usd.edu/serc/1000/thumbnail.jp

Human Relations: Assessing the Affect of Cultural Awareness Curriculum on Preservice Teachers

Human relations training is intended to prepare teachers to be more culturally sensitive to an increasingly diverse population. There is a growing trend in teacher education to train preservice teachers more effectively to meet the demands of multicultural society. However, limited research is available to guide the future design of human relations training courses. This research was conducted to address the gap in the literature, by investigating the effectiveness of human relations training course on preservice teachers. Results indicated that the course made a significant difference on improving knowledge and skills categories for participants, but there was no significant improvement regarding a cultural awareness category of the participants in the training. Results also indicated that specific multicultural concepts, such as White privilege and White Racial Identity, are unfamiliar concepts to participants in this course as evidenced by low pretest scoring. This article will address suggestions for future human relations courses

Does the presence of chondral lesions negatively affect patient-determined outcomes after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair?

Background: There are limited data available to guide patients to their prognosis when glenohumeral chondral lesions are found during arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. Hypothesis: The primary hypothesis was that patients with glenohumeral chondral lesions will have inferior outcomes after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair compared with patients without chondral lesions. The secondary hypothesis was that patients with concomitant chondral lesions will have more severe preoperative symptoms compared with those without chondral lesions. Study Design: Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed of patients who underwent arthroscopic rotator cuff repair between 2008 and 2012. We examined the effects of chondral lesions on patient-determined outcomes, which included the Western Ontario Rotator Cuff Index (WORC), American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons (ASES) score, Simple Shoulder Test (SST), Single Assessment Numeric Evaluation (SANE), and the Shoulder Activity Level (SAL). Shoulders without chondral lesions were compared with shoulders with chondral lesions to determine whether differences in severity of preoperative symptoms as well as postoperative improvements were statistically significant. Results: A total of 281 shoulders were included from 273 patients, with a mean follow-up of 3.7 years. In total, 90 shoulders (32%) had concomitant chondral lesions in the glenohumeral joint. The presence and degree of chondral damage were not associated with the severity of preoperative symptoms or the amount of improvement after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair, as determined by patient outcome scores. Shoulders with bipolar chondral lesions had less postoperative improvement in their outcome scores compared with shoulders with unipolar lesions, with significant differences found in the SST ( Conclusion: At a mean 3.7-year follow-up, the presence of chondral damage did not appear to negatively affect the improvement in patient-determined outcomes after arthroscopic rotator cuff repair. However, improvement in outcomes was negatively affected by the presence of bipolar chondral lesions