Date of Award

Summer 8-2008

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership and Research

Committee Chair

David E. Lee

Committee Member 2

Gary Peters

Committee Member 3

James T. Johnson

Committee Member 4

Wanda Maulding

Abstract

While almost half of new teachers engage in some type of induction program, many programs only offer superficial types of assistance including district-wide orientations, periodic workshops, or instruction in classroom management (Gold, 1996). Some induction programs sponsored by the state institute an evaluation process that applies formulaic criteria for defining teaching behaviors to assess new teacher performances (Darling-Hammond et al., 1999). In the continued search for school improvement, there was a need to propose another option in staff development, e.g., peer coaching.

Peer coaching was examined because induction programs did not attend to the individual needs of alternatively certified teachers. The concerns of the two teacher groups (those alternatively and traditionally certified) were taken into consideration throughout the study.

The first purpose of this study was to examine whether the two teacher groups differed in their perceptions of induction and peer coaching programs. The second purpose was to determine whether the two teacher groups preferred peer coaching as their on-the-job training rather than an induction program. The third purpose was to determine whether the two teacher groups perceived peer coaching as a positive experience. An underlying purpose was to determine if there was a correlation between the two teacher groups and the independent variables.

The first research question asked whether the two teacher groups preferred peer coaching as their preferred on-the-job training rather than an induction program. It was determined there was no statistically significant difference between the perceptions of the two teacher groups on the criterion variables of peer coaching or socio-cultural expectations. However, there was a statistically significant difference between the perceptions of the two teacher groups on the criterion variable of teacher induction.

The second research question asked whether the two teacher groups perceived peer coaching as a positive experience. The study found no predictive relationship between the independent variables and peer coaching. While there were no predictive relationships between the independent variables, there were exceptions to the finding. Also, while there were no predictive relationships between the independent variables and teacher induction, there was one exception to the finding.

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