This longitudinal study examines elementary teachers' self-efficacy for science teaching in the years after professional development (PD) ended and during a subsequent 3-year period of follow-up support. Self-efficacy is important because teachers make decisions about classroom activities based, in part, on how confident they are in their…

Teacher self-efficacy is a construct that exerts a powerful influence on the behaviors of teachers. Yet, few studies have been conducted examining the impact of contextual structures within educator preparation programs on the development of general and domain-specific teaching efficacy. This study investigated the impact of a yearlong internship…

To address the challenge of ensuring the quality of preparation of secondary mathematics and science teachers, this article describes the efforts of the "Academy for Teacher Excellence" (ATE; Flores et al., 2007), which received Transition to Teaching grants to establish the Accelerated Teacher Education Program (ATEP). ATEP's purpose…

Our education system promotes moving from theory to practice; however, this often ends up being performative and thus perpetuates the disenfranchisement of historically marginalized communities. Preservice and in-service teachers share dissatisfaction with the amount of time, training, resources, and support they are given. This response…

With teacher turnover costing the U.S. as much as $7 billion per year (National Commission on Teaching and America's Future, 2007), and the continuing demand for qualified teachers, it is imperative for schools to increase retention rates among their faculty (Ingersoll & Smith, 2003). Retention efforts are especially important among novice…

Preservice field placements and student teaching experiences have been identified as influential factors in elementary teaching candidates' (ETCs) development as teachers. This study examined several factors during the student teaching experience, including the English language arts (ELA) teaching self-efficacy of cooperating teachers (CTs) and…

This quantitative (quasi-experimental design) study examined the effect of case-based learning (CBL) in an online environment on preservice teachers' culturally responsive classroom management self-efficacy (CRCMSE). The Culturally Responsive Classroom Management Self-Efficacy Scale was administered as a pre- and posttest to 42 undergraduate…

A teacher's sense of self-efficacy has been consistently recognized as an important attribute of effective teaching and has been positively correlated to teacher and student outcomes. A number of studies show the impact of teachers with high levels of efficacy. Students of these teachers have outperformed students who had teachers with lower…

Research in teaching has generally supported the relationship between teachers' beliefs and attitudes to their instructional decision-making. This understanding calls for the field of teacher education to expand its research into the relationships between preservice teachers' beliefs and instructional practices. In this article, we examine…

To reduce teacher shortages, an intern credential has been introduced as a means of alternate certification in California. Individuals who meet the requirement of subject matter competency are eligible for an intern credential, allowing them to teach students in special education programs for two years while completing their coursework…

In this study, the researchers examined self-ratings from special and general education teacher candidates engaged in their culminating instructional activity prior to graduation: student teaching. Acquiring data at the end of the student teaching experience was targeted because student teaching is when teacher candidates apply the knowledge and…

Examined the relationship between preservice teacher efficacy and degree of instructional variation, noting factors influencing their attitudes toward instructional variation. Data from interviews, observations, and written documents found no significant relationship between preservice teachers' efficacy and degree of variation. Degree of…

The "No Child Left Behind" legislation requires states to classify schools based on students meeting the state's academic standards. A combination of factors, including scores on state specific tests and nationally normed tests, can result in a school being awarded a low classification or a high classification. In the authors' state,…

As the face of education in Philadelphia's public schools changes in response to budget constraints and politics, current "Teach For America" (TFA) corps members' roles have also changed. These changes have resulted in the majority of second-year TFA corps members being relocated from school district to charter-managed schools, many of…

This article reports the results of a case study about elementary school teachers' induction experiences. Four teachers began the three-year study, but only two remained in the profession after their second year. This development was consistent with estimates that 40-50% of novices leave the profession within five years. Bandura's (1977) construct…