Advisor

Athanasiou, Michelle C.

Committee Member

Urbach, Jennifer

Committee Member

Froiland, John Mark

Department

School Psychology

Institution

University of Northern Colorado

Type of Resources

Text

Place of Publication

Greeley (Colo.)

Publisher

University of Northern Colorado

Date Created

5-1-2015

Genre

Thesis

Extent

205 pages

Digital Origin

Born digital

Description

This dissertation focuses on the experience of teaching from the perspective of seven early elementary school teachers instructing written expression. These experiences are examined through a phenomenological approach with a constructivist framework. Each participant completed two audio recorded semi-structured interviews and one classroom observation. Four major themes emerged from the transcripts, observations and artifacts gathered. The teachers reported primarily learning to instruct written expression through personal experience and the experience of colleagues, rather than from teacher training programs. Through this research, teachers described reliance on training while already working as elementary school educators and reliance on same grade-level colleagues to improve their own skills in instructing written expression. Additionally, some participants reported not realizing the limited knowledge that they had regarding written expression until they were already teachers. Furthermore, the participants indicated reliance on cues from their own students to determine the knowledge students have instead of using objective, research based tools. A common thread among teachers was a lack of confidence in teaching writing, which was related to many of the themes developed through the data. Written expression skills are important for early elementary school students in order for them to be able to express themselves, communicate with others, and demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of academic subjects.

Degree type

PhD

Degree Name

Doctoral

Language

English

Local Identifiers

Little_unco_0161D_10400

Rights Statement

Copyright is held by author.

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