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Internationally and in the United States, teachers are leaving the profession in an expedited rate resulting in a teacher shortage. This systematic literature review synthesizes empirical literature to identify current characteristics or factors related to stress, job satisfaction and burnout for secondary general education teachers. Four themes are developed from examination: stress factors, job satisfaction, teacher burnout, and teachers’ intent to remain in the profession. Within the identified themes, four subthemes are also developed: administration effect or relationship on teacher burnout, policy on teachers, new teachers vs, veteran teachers, and leavers and stayers. The factors presented from this review could support future research in developing new approaches to prevent teacher turnover and promote instead teacher retention in schools. 

Accountability measures have quickly entered into formal teacher-preparation programs. As a response, we introduce the use of structural equation modeling vis-à-vis path analysis in secondary-grade mathematics teacher preparation as a methodology to test models to understand the strength of relationships to recommendations of prominent professional organizations and standards for entering the teaching profession. This longitudinal, 6-year, five-cohort study examines the relationship of program design sequencing and core components (internal measures) to an externally scored high-stakes teacher licensing examination portfolio intended to measure pedagogical content knowledge and first-year teacher readiness. The internal measures and program sequencing model explains 49.2% of the variance in relation to the standardized outcome teaching portfolio examination with high-power and medium- to large-effect statistics. We provide implications for teacher preparation with respect to recommendations of professional organizations, governments, and accreditation standards. Results should stimulate discussions and fuel future research efforts.

 

This study fills a gap with TPACK instrumentation by validating a survey instrument for use specifically with secondary mathematics in-service teachers in the United States using an instrument originally developed in Australia (Handal et al., 2012). A comparable national sample was surveyed in the U.S. to the original Australian instrumentation study. Findings revealed the factor structure of the Australian TPACK instrument differed when used in the U.S. and presents a new validated instrument (TPACK-M-US) for use with secondary mathematics in-service teachers in the U.S. We provide three sources of validity evidence (e.g. Instrument or Test Content, Internal Structure, Response Processes). Appropriate uses and interpretations are discussed in addition to the importance of validation research for educational settings. 

The expansion of K-12 computer science (CS) has driven a dramatic need for educators who are trained in CS content and pedagogy [1]. This poster describes our effort to train teacher candidates (i.e., pre-service teachers who are students seeking degrees within a College of Education), who are specializing in secondary mathematics education, to be future CS educators. We specifically describe our collaboration to provide a blended preparatory six-week training for the ETS CS Praxis exam (5652), assisting our pre-service students in satisfying the CS certification requirements in our state before they graduate and begin their professional teaching career. Given the unique challenges of pre-service CS teacher preparation [2], blended models, which combine both in-person and online instruction, are an effective approach to building a pre-service program. Within our pre-service CS program, students first complete a two-course pathway that prepares them in AP CSP content and pedagogy experiences, including observations in local AP CSP classrooms [3]. After completing the two courses, our students participate in the blended version of the WeTeach_CS Praxis preparation course to achieve certification. The in-person support provided by the blended model contributed significantly to certification success in this project. With a cut-score of 149 for the Praxis exam, all 11 of our pre-service students who completed the course received a passing score (including one student with a perfect score of 200, and another student with a 195); the average score for our pre-service students was 175. An additional 11 in-service teachers, with diverse backgrounds in CS content knowledge, also participated in the blended Praxis preparation course, with an average score of 166. Given the unique challenges of pre-service CS teacher preparation, university pre-service CS teacher programs should look to innovative models of teacher support developed by in-service programs to make substantial gains in CS teacher certification. Incorporating an asynchronous online course that allows teachers with a wide range of prior experience in CS to learn at their own pace with in-person coursework and support appears to be a viable model for assisting non-CS major teacher candidates in achieving a CS certification. With the blended model, even teachers with no background knowledge in CS were successful. Within our pre-service CS program, students first complete a two-course pathway that prepares them in AP CSP content and pedagogy experiences, including observations in local AP CSP classrooms [3]. After completing the two courses, our students participate in the blended version of the WeTeach_CS Praxis preparation course to achieve certification. The in-person support provided by the blended model contributed significantly to certification success in this project. With a cut-score of 149 for the Praxis exam, all 11 of our pre-service students who completed the course received a passing score (including one student with a perfect score of 200, and another student with a 195); the average score for our pre-service students was 175. An additional 11 in-service teachers, with diverse backgrounds in CS content knowledge, also participated in the blended Praxis preparation course, with an average score of 166. Incorporating an asynchronous online course that allows teachers with a wide range of prior experience in CS to learn at their own pace with in-person coursework and support appears to be a viable model for assisting non-CS major teacher candidates in achieving a CS certification. With the blended model, even teachers with no background knowledge in CS were successful. 

The surge of interest in K-12 computer science (CS) over the past decade has led to a deep need for a corresponding expansion of trained teachers. The primary focus of most K-12 CS teacher professional development has been for current in-service teachers who have little background in CS. To raise the importance of CS within Colleges of Education, we believe that new pathways and experiences are needed for pre-service Education majors to learn more about authentic CS topics and pedagogy. This experience report summarizes our efforts over the past two years to prepare Secondary Math Education (SEMA) majors to teach AP CS Principles (AP CSP). Our approach consists of the following curricular activities: 1) a two-course sequence, with the first course mapping to the content topics of the AP CSP Curriculum Framework, and the second course consisting of a reflection of CS methods and pedagogy, including opportunities for SEMA students to develop and present their own AP CSP lesson plans; 2) opportunities for SEMA students to observe AP CSP classrooms in local high schools through our partnership with experienced AP CSP teachers; 3) summer participation in a College Board AP Summer Institute for AP CSP, and 4) a six-week ETS Praxis CS preparation modules-based course, offered to both pre-service SEMA students and in-service teachers. We summarize our lessons learned and present results that suggest our approach is preparing pre-service students with pedagogical and content knowledge that meets or exceeds current in-service training models (including an analysis of recent Praxis results for CS certification in our state).