Date of Award

2006

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

College

College of Education

Type of Degree

Ed.D.

Document Type

Dissertation

First Advisor

Calvin F. Meyer

Second Advisor

Teresa R. Eagle

Third Advisor

Lisa A. Heaton

Abstract

The education of children in America has been the cause of much debate and conflict. At the center of this debate is the need for quality teachers. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was formed to advance the quality of teaching and learning by recognizing accomplished teaching. Teachers with this certification fit West Virginia’s definition of a highly qualified teacher under No Child Left Behind. If the National Board Certification (NBC) itself is reason for the highly qualified designation then the classroom practices of those teachers should differ from those who have not gone through the certification process. This study examined the classroom practices of 10 teachers in grades one and two to determine whether their classroom practices differed in relation to their National Board Certification status. This study used a multi-site, qualitative, descriptive, and evaluative case study model to establish whether the 13 practices determined by research of Zemelman, Daniels, and Hyde (1998) were present in these 10 classrooms. This study found that teachers with National Board Certification more consistently demonstrated the use of 11 of the 13 practices. The NBC teachers put theory into practice in their classrooms. Further, this study demonstrated that beliefs expressed by the teachers were not always put into practice in their classrooms. The findings from this study imply that West Virginia’s definition of highly qualified may need to be revisited since National Board Certification and satisfactory evaluations are not equivalent in terms of classroom practices.

Subject

Teachers - Certification

Subject

Effective teaching

Download

Share

COinS