Candidates are proficient in the knowledge, dispositions, and skills needed for effective teaching; effective teaching results in successful student learning.

The candidate promotes self-directed decision-making and problem-solving processes as being critical life skills in the workplace, the home, and the community.

I demonstrate proficiency in the knowledge, dispositions, and skills needed for effective teaching by promoting student self-direction via a learning contract for the 9^th Grade Research Project, and having students track the results of their efforts. Driskill and Polansky (1994) found through research that students given wider latitude in decision-making generally exhibited greater mutual dependency, metacommunication, greater retention, and a willingness to go beyond what the instructor would normally require.

The lesson used for this exhibit required students to first perform a search on their chosen topic with no help from the instructor. They then provided examples of their results, and reflected on the effectiveness of their search. The students then received a lesson in search techniques, and were required to perform the search again and compare the results. Though this lesson needs refinement, students generally exhibited a deeper understanding of research techniques and sources, and seemed very motivated to do the work asked of them. I discovered after this project that the databases we subscribe to through Ebsco are not the best for our purposes, so after consultation with our librarian, we are now using a few new databases on a trial basis. The contract helped further in student reflection by allowing them to review their completion of the required segments of the lessons.

This exhibit was observed and verified by Cris Laytham, school librarian.

My analysis of the pretest and post-test results for the search results of the research contract showed a general trend toward greater effectiveness in search results.Six of seventeen students found the second search less effective, but the remainder found it more effective. Of the six that found the second search less effective, two thought they would benefit from further searching. Overall, students showed a generally deeper awareness of research issues.