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ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It is rare-if not impossible-that we find ourselves at the end of our formal education without a sizable list of individuals without whom such a moment would certainly have been impossible. My acknowledgments are no different and begin, undoubtedly, with my parents. To my mother: thank you, thank you, thank you for never allowing me to give up when it felt like the easiest option. Throughout my confusions and doubts, you knew that I could make it, even when-especially when-I was quite certain I couldn't. Thank you for being my role model of what a good educator should be and for reminding me that nothing good comes without a good amount of hard work. To my father, thank you for teaching me the value of curiosity. Your seemingly endless questioning of the world around you has inspired me to always seek more knowledge, and thank you for always supporting the decisions I have made, as blind and wandering as they must have often seemed. To my brothers: thank you for being the constant source of laughter in my life. Thank you, Yasser, for being the image of high achievement that has constantly motivated me (probably since birth, and I still haven't caught up) and thank you, Samer, for being my reason for wanting to always push myself further so I can hopefully set some form of a decent example (which, as it turns out, you have already far exceeded).To Caroyln, I could not possibly have had a better mentor. You have-in perfect measure-challenged me in the constant pursuit of becoming a better scholar and identifying what it is, precisely, that I wish to do with my life, and I am grateful for every opportunity you have given me in this endeavor. I can't remember the last time I was so thoroughly challenged, which is, perhaps, why I have grown as much as I have over the course of the past four years.Thank you for providing the perfect place in which this could happen and for guiding me, along the way, to finally seeing myself as a researcher.iii To Carol, thank you for constantly bringing to life the joy of teaching. It might not always be an easy profession, but it is an immensely enjoyable one, so thank you for reminding me of that every time I was in your class. To Peter, thank you for telling me, in my very first year at UVA, that I had what it took to earn a Ph.D. You may not have known it at the time, but that message came at a point when I had the greatest doubts, so thank you for motivating me. And to Vivian, thank you for your patience in constantly responding to my endless stream of statistics questions; I could not have completed this project without your feedback and guidance. To Annalissa and the members of Project PLACE: no amount of thanks would suffice for all of the work you put into collecting and organizing the data, as well as answering my frequent-and frantic-e-mails, but thank you nonetheless.As an educator, I could not possibly write my acknowledgements without thanking every single teacher or administrator that has taught or guided me, in one discipline or another, since I fir...

The present quantitative study explored pre-service teachers' perspectives regarding the quality of their Teacher Education Program (TEP) in Lebanon, Qatar, and China. The sample consisted of 326 pre-service school teachers who completed a survey designed to examine their perception of the following indicators of TEP quality: (1) a shared vision of good teaching, (2) coherence, or alignment among TEP courses, and (3) opportunities for pre-service teachers to enact their own teaching practice. An exploratory factor analysis indicated the underlying factors were instead theory and vicarious experiences, reflections on authentic experiences, and program coherence. Overall, pre-service teachers in all countries rated their TEP highest on program coherence, while reflections on authentic experiences received the lowest ratings. Pre-service teachers in Lebanon and Qatar rated their TEPs significantly higher than did participants in China (p < .01), which could be attributed to differences in TEP structure. Practical implications and recommendations were discussed.

The present study investigated predictive factors of literacy achievement in third-grade students identified as gifted in rural schools. The sample consisted of 180 identified students in a total of eight districts, three of which were randomly assigned to the treatment condition and five of which were randomly assigned to the control condition. Students in the treatment condition received instruction with a place-based folklore unit of the Challenge Leading to Engagement, Achievement, and Results (CLEAR) curriculum, a language arts based curriculum designed to challenge gifted learners, in addition to an intervention promoting an incremental mind-set. Results of the present study indicated that prior achievement, mind-set, and gender were all statistically and practically significant predictors of literacy achievement for students identified as gifted in rural areas. A stronger incremental mind-set was associated with lower literacy achievement scores. Practical implications and recommendations, as well as limitations and directions for further research, were discussed.

How can teachers adapt the curriculum to help advanced learners attain expertise? An abundance of research exists on the topic of expertise, exploring the traits students exhibit as they progress from the initial stages of novice-like uncertainty to the more confident stages of expertise. However, fewer researchers have demonstrated how teachers can use the curriculum to propel students along this continuum toward expertise. The purpose of the present article is to integrate conclusions of prior publications with an existing and effective model of curriculum, the Parallel Curriculum Model. The resulting guide is intended to accompany the ascending intellectual demand (AID) component of PCM and provide a proposal for a systematic way to consider and assess expertise, as well as guidance for using curriculum to help challenge advanced learners to perform at expert levels.