Implementation of Personalized Learning in a New Charter School

Personalized Learning (PL) is an educational approach that tailors instruction to the academic needs of each student. Most research on PL focuses on student achievement, technology, and implementation challenges. Little research has been conducted on the actual practices that teachers use to personalize instruction and on students’ and teachers’ feelings about being in a school that implements PL. I conducted a case study at a recently opened rural elementary charter school in the southern United States, which was implementing PL schoolwide. After attending a professional development workshop on PL hosted by the State Department of Education, I conducted classroom observations in a first-grade and a fifth/sixth-grade classroom. I interviewed the teachers of these classes, the school principal, and three students. Three themes emerged from my analysis of this material, relating to student engagement, teacher behaviors and dispositions, and student outcomes. Overall, I concluded that PL is not a quick or easy transition for a school to make, nor does it involve just changing the curriculum to individualize instruction for students. Personalized Learning requires an adaption of teacher and student mindsets and the development of a school culture that fosters both academic and social-emotional growth among the students.

Designing the Montessori Coaching Tool Elementary Rubric for Early-Career Professional Development

Becoming a competent Montessori Elementary guide is a complex process, so we are developing the Montessori Coaching Tool Elementary (MCT-EL) rubric to describe teaching-practice expectations for self-reflection and formative feedback during the critical early period in a teacher’s development. The purpose of this article is to share results from a small-scale, online survey collecting both qualitative and quantitative feedback on the rubric from experienced Montessori Elementary teacher educators. The rubric’s content was based on Maria Montessori’s writings and welldocumented Montessori practices, which we translated to specific teacher behaviors and developmental progressions. We wanted to gauge the MCT-EL rubric’s usefulness and appropriateness from the perspective of experts who have significant depth of experience mentoring new teachers. The rubric was not developed to be used for performance evaluation, promotion, or retention but rather for early-career Montessori teachers’ self-reflection. It provides a framework for coaching conversations between the early-career Montessori teacher and a Montessori mentor. Results from the study identified overall support for use of the MCT-EL rubric with developing teachers, along with specific recommendations for revisions, additions, and deletions. Using a thorough review of the data, we developed a refined MCT-EL rubric, which is provided in Appendix B and is available for use by interested practitioners in the field.

Professional identity and career aspirations as mediators between principals’ authentic leadership and teachers’ intentions and behaviors

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to explore the mediating role of workplace attitudes: professional identity and career aspirations between perceptions of principals’ authentic leadership and teacher behaviors: intent to leave, organizational citizenship behavior, counterproductive work behavior, lateness and intention to leave among teachers.Design/methodology/approachThe sample was composed of 605 teachers, randomly selected, nested in 41 Israeli elementary, junior high and high schools. Data analysis was based on multi-level structural equations.FindingsThe findings indicated that the more the school was perceived by the teachers as having an authentic leader, the professional identity of the teachers was higher and was negatively associated with counterproductive work behavior toward colleagues in the school, while the teachers’ career aspirations were higher and negatively associated with counterproductive work behavior toward the organization.Originality/valueThis study shows the importance of teachers’ individual and collective perceptions and their impacts on teacher behaviors. The practical contribution may include encouraging principals to promote high standards of authentic leadership, to raise teachers’ professional identity and their career aspirations and reduce teachers’ counterproductive work behavior and intention to leave.

Promoting Social Acceptance and Inclusion in Physical Education

In addition to psychomotor and cognitive learning, social development is one of the three pillars of the national standards for physical education instruction. Though a plethora of research has exhibited the benefits social inclusion can have for students with and without disabilities, inclusion cannot be successful unless physical educators are deliberate, persistent, and continually reflective on the needs of students. The purpose of this paper is to outline the state of inclusion of students with disabilities in a general physical education classes and to highlight teacher behaviors and instructional techniques that promote social acceptance and inclusion for all students in physical education.

Exploring the Teacher Behaviors that Influence High School Student’s Class Participation in the UAE

Teachers are entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring teaching and learning takes place in the classroom; several challenges exist, however, that influence the degree to which teachers may find success in teaching and learning. This phenomenological case-study explored the perceptions of six high school science teachers concerning the teacher behaviors that influence high school student’s classroom participation within the Emirati private educational system. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with purposefully sampled participants; data was analyzed via content analysis, which employed utilized multiple stages of coding: open, axial, and thematic. The findings of this research resulted in three main themes: (1) Teachers who model positive behaviors increase student’s classroom participation; (2) An empathetic understanding of teachers-needs would lead to more effective teacher support; and (3) Field experience coupled with effective support facilitates positive perceptions of student-teacher relationship. The findings of this research indicate a strong need for active teacher-coaching and teacher-mentoring, rather than passive, primarily rote, teacher training programs that are common in schools as the primary form of professional development. It also demonstrates the need for school leaders and teachers to foster meaningful, positive relationships with students so as to improve performance. This research paper further contributes to closing the literature gap on Student-Teacher (S-T) relationships by providing new knowledge concerning the lived-experiences of high school science teachers in fostering meaningful S-T relationships.

Stricter Teacher, More Motivated Students? Comparing the Associations Between Teacher Behaviors and Motivational Beliefs of Western and East Asian Learners

Teacher behaviors are one of the most significant factors influencing student learning. Students from different cultures may have different interpretations of their teachers’ behaviors. This study compared the associations between teacher strictness, teacher feedback, and students’ motivational beliefs using data from six Western countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Finland, Norway, Australia, and New Zealand) and six East Asian regions (Japan, Korea, mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan) in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2015. A total of 89,869 15-year-old students were included in data analysis. The findings indicate that (i) teacher strictness was negatively associated with Western students’ motivation, but positively related to that of East Asian students; (ii) teacher feedback had significant positive associations with the motivational beliefs of both Western and East Asian students; and (iii) there was a positive relationship between teacher strictness and teacher feedback in East Asian context. These results highlight the need to consider cultural factors when interpreting students’ reactions to teacher behaviors.

Of Grit and Grace: Negotiating Puberty, Surviving, and Succeeding in Professional Ballet

Experiences of puberty and how individuals adapt to puberty may be integral to success in ballet; however, there is a paucity of current research in this area. This study explores the lived experiences of nine professional ballet dancers to capture the journey of negotiating puberty in a ballet context. An interpretative phenomenological analysis approach was employed with semistructured interviews utilized to gather rich, descriptive accounts from nine professional ballet dancers from the United Kingdom and United States. Lived experiences were characterized by conflict and struggle, coming to terms with physical changes and possessing grit and grace in order to successfully negotiate puberty, and to succeed and survive in professional ballet. Accepting physical and esthetic strengths and weaknesses and learning how to adapt or how to compensate for weaknesses was described as pivotal. Factors such as social support, the timing and extent of pubertal changes, dance teacher behaviors, and the ballet training context influenced the extent to which dancers experienced conflict and struggle and how easily they were able to come to terms with their adult physique. Further research is needed to explore the implications of maturing and developing within the context of ballet training and to develop strategies to better facilitate healthy development in ballet.

The Teacher Behavior Checklist: The Mediation Role of Teacher Behaviors in the Relationship Between the Students’ Importance of Teacher Behaviors and Students’ Effort

Background: Previous research suggests a relationship between teacher behaviors and students’ effort. However, it is not clear what role the students’ expectations (i.e., importance of teacher behaviors) play in this relationship. Objective: Utilizing the teacher behavior checklist, this study sought to investigate whether teacher behaviors mediate the relationship between the importance students set on teacher behaviors and students’ effort. Further, the study explored which specific behaviors influence students’ effort. Method: Cross-sectional survey data were analyzed ( N = 159) using mediation analysis and stepwise multiple linear regression. Results: There was evidence that teacher behaviors mediate the relationship between the importance students set on teacher behaviors and students’ effort. Four of the 28 teacher behaviors had a significant relationship to students’ effort: creative and interesting, enthusiastic about teaching, happy/positive/humorous, and promotes critical thinking. Conclusion: Knowing students’ expectations (i.e., the importance of teacher behaviors) is essential to increasing students’ effort. Teaching Implications: Happy/positive/humorous had a negative relationship with students’ effort, while creative and interesting, enthusiastic about teaching, and promotes critical thinking showed a positive relationship with students’ effort.