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

Ability-Grouped College Math Students and Their Motivation to Succeed

The authors studied how math anxiety, motivation, and ability group interact to affect performance in college math courses. They introduced the study of college students as ability grouped students. College students in the highest ability group were most likely to receive a satisfactory grade (70% and above) regardless of their level of motivation. For students in the average and low groups, the likelihood of receiving a satisfactory grade was a function of their motivation. As expected, students in the higher groups had more positive motivational patterns from the perspectives of expectancy-value theory and goal theory. Thus, college students experience ability grouping in a manner similar to secondary students. Motivation is an important factor in predicting performance, especially for students in the average and low groups.https://red.library.usd.edu/serc/1004/thumbnail.jp

Transitioning to Math Emporium, the Impact on Student Motivation and Performance

A number of universities have transitioned their required or developmental math courses to a math emporium format in an effort to combat high failure rates in these courses (Twigg, 2011). The emporium format allows students to focus on practice problems, rather than lecture, to work in areas they are struggling, and to seek immediate assistance when needed. As universities make this transition they have tracked results on final exams, final grades, and assignments. This research expands that by tracking motivation and math anxiety as well as grade in three courses. Motivation allows us to see not only how students are performing, but how they feel about math. An emporium format should increase their self-efficacy, their beliefs about their ability to do the work, by providing many opportunities for success and guidance on how to fix mistakes. For both of the developmental math courses self-efficacy increased from the last semester in traditional format to the second semester in the emporium format. We will discuss these results and how they expand our understanding of the implications of the transition to math emporium. This presentation will provide ample opportunity for interaction. There will be opportunities to interact with presenters about the math emporium, the research design, and results