Teachers for a New Era (TNE) Project
Entry Survey
Fall 2005
The goal of the Teachers for a New Era Project is to prepare excellent teachers who are committed to enhancing the learning and opportunities of their pupils.
The purpose of this survey is to obtain your views regarding a variety of aspects of your expectations, goals, and perceptions of your teacher preparation program. We are also interested in your attitudes and opinions on a number of related topics. We plan to use your input to improve our teacher education programs at TNE schools. Thus, your responses are particularly important to us and to the larger education community. This survey was developed as a collaborative effort across many of the TNE schools in the consortium.
We are asking for your name and Peoplesoft ID because we plan to administer this instrument again as you are about to graduate and as you complete your first year as a teacher, after graduation. We want to see changes in groups of responses over time, based on experiences and your development as a teacher. Please answer these questions as honestly as possible because your honest answers are important to the success of this project. We need your responses to help us build the best teacher education program and associated experiences possible. Your responses will not impact your grades and will not be shared with your advisor or teachers. Only group data will be reported in the form of what juniors are indicating, or elementary education majors, etc., not any individuals and no groups small enough to identify you as a specific person. The survey should take approximately 20 minutes.
Thank you in advance for your time.
Dr. Scott W. Brown, Director TNE @ UConn scott.brown@uconn.edu
SECTION I. BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Q. Name
Name:
_______________________________________________________
Q. PeoplesoftID
Peoplesoft ID: ________________________________

1. What year are you in your college/university preparation?

1st year (Freshman)
 2nd year (Sophomore)
 3rd year (Junior)

4th year (Senior)
 5th year
 Graduate student
 Practicing teacher
 other
2. Your Gender

Female
 Male
3. Your Race/ethnicity

Black or African American
 American Indian or Alaskan native
 Asian / Pacific Islander
 Hispanic American

White/Caucasian
 Multiple ethnicity / Other, please specify
___________________________________
4. Age in years
__________ years
5. What was the primary language spoken in your childhood home?
 English
 Language other than English. (please specify)
___________________________________
Language Experience
6. Please indicate language experience (other than English) you have and the level of proficiency.
Use the following rating scale of proficiency: Fair; Good; Excellent.
Only mark those that you have some experience with, leave all others blank.
1
2
3
Language below)
(specify
__________________
_________________
Oral
 Fair

Good
 Excellent
Written
 Fair

Good
 Excellent

SECTION II: EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND
Please describe the elementary, middle/junior high and high schools you graduated from. Your answers to these questions will help us learn about the school experiences of students in our education programs.
Elementary School Experiences
7a. Which of these best describes your elementary school?

Public school
 Private Religious or Parochial school
 Home school

Private school (non-religious)
 Charter/magnet school
7b. How would you describe the school’s location?
 Rural
 Suburban
 Urban
Middle School / Junior High Experiences
8a. Which of these best describes your Middle/ Junior High school?
 Public school
 Private Religious or Parochial school

Home school
 Private school (non-religious)
 Charter/magnet school
8b. How would you describe the school’s location?
 Rural
 Suburban

Urban
High School Experiences
9. Which of these best describes your high school?
 Public school

Private Religious or Parochial school
 Home school


Private school (non-religious)
 Charter/magnet school
10. How would you des cribe the school’s location?
 Rural
 Suburban
 Urban
SECTION III: ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATION
11. How would you rate the current state of education in the U.S.?
 Very Poor
 Poor

Fair
 Good
 Excellent
SECTION IV: PRESERVICE EDUCATION
12. What is your intended focus in the Teacher Education Program?
 Early Childhood
 Elementary

Middle/Junior High (specify subject)
___________________________________
 Secondary (specify subject)
___________________________________
 Music Education
 Special Education

Vocational/Agricultural Education
 Other (specify) ___________________________________
For the purposes of this survey, when referring to a major it is a formal academic program to which you have applied, been accepted and either are completing or have completed the academic requirements of that department/plan. The major would appear on your transcripts as an official major.
13. Do you plan to obtain a second major, other than teacher education?
 Yes
 No
 Not Applicable
13a. If YES, please specify the major

___________________________________
13b. If YES, why?
 Required at my institution
 Increased job opportunities
 Interest in topic
 Other
A minor is a formal academic program to which you have applied and been accepted. A minor has requirements and will show as an official minor on your transcripts.
14. Do you plan to obtain a minor, other than teacher education?

Yes
 No
 Not Applicable
14a. If YES, please specify the minor
___________________________________
14b. If YES, why?
 Required at my institution
 Increased job opportunities

Interest in topic
 Other
15. What was your undergraduate degree?
 Bachelor of Arts (BA or AB)

Bachelor of Science (BS)
 Bachelor of Education (BEd)
 Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science (BA and BS)
 Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN)

Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA)
 Other (specify) ___________________________________
16. What was your major? (Specify)
___________________________________
17. What year did you receive your bachelor’s degree? year: ________________
18. Institution where you received your undergraduate degree:
___________________________________

SECTION V : CURRENT PROGRAM
19. Using the following scale, Essential, Very Important, Not Very
Important, Not important at all, rate each of the following regarding your goals for your teacher education program.
My goal is to… learn to help others who are having difficulty learning. develop a personal philosophy of education. participate in a community service programs. learn how to promote understanding across diverse groups. become knowledgeable about social issues that affect education. learn to prepare students to live in a democracy. become knowledgeable about the political issues that affect teaching and schooling. improve my understanding of other countries and cultures. become a school leader. help children reach their highest potential. learn how to improve student achievement.
 Essential
 Very Important

Not Very Important
 Not important at all
EXPECTATIONS FOR PRACTICE TEACHING
Practice teaching or student teaching is defined as an extended period of time where you were a student practicing your teaching skills for at least 8 weeks or as a student teacher where you were responsible for one or more classes for at least 8 weeks.
20. How confident are you that you could /can perform the following tasks?
Rate the following using the scale:
Not at all confident, Slightly confident, Moderately confident, Quite confident, Very confident
As a teacher, I am able to… handle uncertainty by posing questions and seeking the best solution to problems based on evidence. design and execute classroom research. know ways to diversify lessons to meet the needs of individual students who have special education





Not at all confident
Slightly confident
Moderately confident
Quite confident
Very confident

needs. use feedback to improve instruction. apply recent research in education. make decisions about teaching based on classroom evidence. accommodate individual differences by adapting curriculum and instruction. plan stimulating lessons for students. motivate students to participate in academic tasks. teach problem solving, conceptual understanding, and other aspects of higher-order thinking. use educational technology as a learning tool. know what process to follow if I believe a student in my class has a disability. create learning experiences that are meaningful for students. make teaching decisions based on the results of pupil assessments. teach in a high-stakes testing environment. interpret and use standardized test results. meet with parents or guardians to discuss a student’s progress.
21. Using the following scale, Essential, Important, Not Very Important, Not important at all, how important is it for you to learn the following in your teacher preparation program.
It is important for me to learn about… maintaining school safety. encouraging parental involvement in schools. managing the classroom. integrating technology in the classroom. mastering grade level/subject matter areas. addressing diversity in the classroom. developing curriculum. assessing and monitoring students’ work. using data to support decisions about school improvement. creating standards-based instruction. conducting action research in my classroom. staying current in the field of education.
No Child Left Behind regulations
22a. If you already have classroom teaching experience, it was
_____________ (check all that apply)
 Essential
 Important

Not Very Important
 Not important at all
 Unknown


paid
 as a paraprofessional
 as a student teacher
 as a substitute teacher
 other (please specify) ___________________________________
22b. If you already have classroom teaching experience, please specify:
(check all that apply)
 Early Childhood Education (Pre-Kindergarten- Kindergarten)
 Elementary Education (Grade 1-6)

Middle School Education (Grade 6-8), please specify subject area
 Secondary (Grade 9-12), please specify subject area
 Other (specify) ___________________________________
SECTION VI: Student Teaching
In what setting would you like to do your student teaching? (Select one response for each row bellow)
23a.  Public
 Private (independent)
 Private (Religious)

Charter/Magnet
 Other ___________________________________
23b.
 Suburban
 Urban

Other
Teaching Plans
24a. How many years do you think you will teach during your career?
__________ years
24b. What is your rationale for your previous answer? Why did you select the number of years that you did? Please answer even if you chose 0 years.
________________________________________________________
______
________________________________________________________
______

________________________________________________________
______
SECTION VII: Feedback for us
We know we ask for your opinions on surveys frequently. Because your opinions are extremely important to us, we want to get better and more efficient at soliciting your opinions. Please respond thoughtfully and honestly to the following questions to help us improve this survey process.
25. How much did you like or dislike filling out this survey?

Strongly disliked
 Somewhat disliked
 Slightly disliked

Neither liked nor disliked
 Slightly liked
 Somewhat liked

Strongly liked
26. How much effort did you put forth to give the most accurate answers possible?

Almost no effort
 A little bit of effort
 A moderate amount of effort

A lot of effort
 Extremely high amount of effort
27. How interesting did you find this survey?
 Not at all interesting
 Slightly interesting
 Somewhat interesting

Quite interesting
 Very interesting
28. About how often do you think you gave a completely accurate response to the questions in this survey?
 Almost never
 Once in a while
 About half the time
 Most of the time
 All of the time

29. How agreeable would you be to take another survey like this in the future?
 Not at all agreeable
 Slightly agreeable
 Somewhat agreeable
 Quite agreeable
 Very agreeable
30. How motivated were you to complete the survey as quickly as possible?

Not at all motivated
 Slightly motivated
 Moderately motivated
 Quite motivated

Extremely motivated
31. If you have any comments or thoughts for us to improve upon these surveys, feel free to write in the space below:
________________________________________________________
______
________________________________________________________
______
________________________________________________________
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