Education Commons^™

Influential Experiences: Practices Of Teaching And Learning Successes To Increase Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy, Amanda L. Steiner, Jennifer Lemke

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Teaching is a complex yet rewarding career; still, 40% - 50% of teachers leave the field within the first five years of their career (Ingersoll & Strong, 2011). Teacher preparation programs are often criticized for the lack of connection between theory and practice. Pre-service teachers who have more pedagogical courses and field experiences built into their coursework display higher levels of self-efficacy in their first year of teaching (Boyd et al., 2009; Clark, 2016). Through the lens of Bandura’s four sources of self-efficacy, this case study examines what experiences are most influential in developing pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy.

Teaching Phonics Mastery Through The Use Of Differentiated And Instructional Strategies, Ashley Honeyman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone reports the effectiveness of using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies to improve student understanding in phonics mastery. Based on pretest data that analyzed understanding of short u consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words, phonics instruction was implemented to meet the needs of students in whole-group and small-group settings. This unit consisted of five whole-group lessons over short u blending and segmentation. In addition to the whole group learning, specific students were pulled for small-group intervention. The unit concluded with a post-assessment that tested student understanding on real and nonsense CVC words; these assessments were implemented to assess if the integration of …

Increasing Student Engagement And Learning Of The Age Of Exploration Through Differentiated Instruction And Assessment, Hannah M. Smith

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project examines the impact of incorporating two instructional and two assessment strategies within a tenth-grade World Civilization unit centered on enhancing students' comprehension of the Age of Exploration. The Age of Exploration unit had 16 instructional days between the pre- and post-assessment. Drawing insights from student data, it was that learners demonstrated enhanced and increased comprehension and improved performance throughout this unit, attributable to various differentiated instructional strategies and assessment methods. This paper will report what the instructional strategies and assessment methods consisted of and the effect they had on student learning. I collected and analyzed the pre- …

Teaching Time And Graphs With Differentiated Instruction And Assessment Strategies, Catie Tangeman

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone reports the effectiveness of using differentiated instructional and assessment strategies to improve student performance in math. Based on pretest data, instruction was planned and implemented to best meet the needs of each student to help them succeed. This unit started with a pretest, had ten days of lessons and instruction, and then concluded with a post-test. Based on student data, student performance and learning increased by using differentiated instruction and instructional strategies that were adapted to help each student. Using feedback, nonlinguistic representations (a big piece of assessment), think-pair-shares, and physical models/manipulatives, students successfully showed the increase in …

Implementing Nonlinguistic Representations In Language Arts, Joy Ondrak

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project analyzes the use of nonlinguistic representation as both instructional and assessment strategies in a Language Arts unit. The project reports the effectiveness of nonlinguistic forms of representation that were integrated into a persuasive unit that focused on students’ comprehension of the modes of appeal, specifically in advertising. The persuasive unit included 12 lessons that were taught over a four-week period. This project analyzed the effectiveness of the implemented instructional and assessment strategies on student’s learning based on pre- and post- assessment scores. Following analysis of the pre- and post- assessment data, I discovered that nonlinguistic forms of …

Analyzing The Effectiveness Of Graphic Organizers In An English Classroom, Alexandra Espinoza

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The use of graphic organizers has risen in classrooms over the past few decades. However, it is essential to assess whether they lead to improved student learning, as some trending instructional strategies are not well-backed by quality research. The purpose of this study was to analyze if graphic organizers are indeed effective to use in a high school English class. This study took place in a secondary school setting for a weeklong unit. For this project, students completed three graphic organizers throughout the unit in order to better understand selected topics relating to the unit’s nonfiction text including inferences, characterization, …

Teaching The Relationship Between Multiplication And Division Through Differentiated Instructional Strategies, Teagan Vaughan

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project reports the differentiated instructional strategies that were integrated throughout a math unit. The capstone will report the effectiveness of two instructional strategies that were integrated into a math unit that focused on students’ understanding of the relationship between multiplication and division. The math unit had 12 lessons taught over three weeks between the pre-and post-assessment. I will report how the strategies worked and the effect the strategies had on students learning. I collected and analyzed the pre/post-test data and found that nonlinguistic representations and multi-level questioning are effective instructional strategies for increasing student learning.

Keywords: instructional …

Song Tutorial: Deep River, H.T. Burleigh, Shelby Vannordstrand

Curriculum

Instructions and an example of an assignment for Voice Pedagogy (MUS 4610 and MUS 8616).

Cariño Pedagogy: A Framework Of Corazón, Ferial Pearson, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Gabriel Gutiérrez

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Change in the world of education has never been new or unexpected. However, the pandemic that swept the world at the beginning of 2020 caused our world to spin off its axis and force its practitioners into quickly re-evaluating their praxis, their priorities, and their professional responsibilities. Through this reflection, three BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) colleagues in the Teacher Education Department at a midwestern state university examine twelve months of teaching during the pandemic and the strategies they turned to, to stay true to their pedagogical values to ensure their students were taken care of personally and …

The Covid-19 Impact On Induction Support, Christina L. Wilcoxen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

For beginning teachers, Fall 2020 provided an unforgettable first year. The previous spring had brought abrupt and unexpected changes to teaching. Schools closed without notice, student teaching experiences stopped midway through, and teachers were thrown into situations they had never been trained to address. This led to difficult decisions and new obstacles as the world fought to manage COVID-19 and the associated fallout. Teacher candidates graduated with incomplete student teaching experiences and gaps in understanding. Induction programs support beginning teachers as they transition into their own classroom and provide guidance in meeting performance standards. As a result, seven local school …

A Whole New World: Prek-12 Teachers' Perceptions Of Instruction During A Pandemic, Frances A. Hamilton, Dana L. Skelley, Kimberly A. Hile

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This manuscript explores educators’ perceptions about professional and personal challenges and successes with virtual instruction, along with their concerns about the impact on students and student learning in a virtual environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers from seventeen school systems in Tennessee and Alabama were invited to participate in the study with sixty-seven participants completing surveys. A phenomenology design model was used, and In Vivo Coding was conducted to analyze the data. Results revealed four main themes related to teachers’ experiences with virtual learning: personal perceptions, instruction, impact on students, and communication. Discussion of the results and their implications are …

Pedagogy Or Andragogy?: Which Teaching Method Produces Successful Esl Tutoring That Involves Musical Activities?, Julia Cormack

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Considering the connections between music and language, as well as Chi et al.’s (2001) theory, this thesis introduces an original case study investigation: which teaching method, pedagogy or andragogy, will be most effective in one-on-one ESL tutoring sessions that use music as source material? The term pedagogy often describes the art and science of teaching. However, its Greek roots refer to the method of the teacher leading the classroom. Meanwhile, andragogy describes a teaching method where the teacher engages with the students in the learning and leading; Greek for “leader of man,” andragogy most often refers to teaching adults. To …

Learning From The History Of Language Oppression: Educators As Agents Of Language Justice, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Ferial Pearson

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

There is a long history in this country of language oppression that has led to policies currently in place that affect the way educators are asked to teach. Therefore, educators must understand national and local language policy to know how it affects their students and how they can perform their duties as educators. Even though the U.S. does not have an official language, states have enacted language policies through court decisions and legislation. These policies have led to students being denied access to English as a Second Language (ESL) and bilingual education programs, resources, and accommodations, all of which lead …

How Teachers Understand The Curriculum And Frameworks They Use, Kristin Vanwyngaarden, Michelle Friend

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This qualitative study investigates and compares teachers’ understanding of two curricular frameworks: Next Generation Science Storylines and the 5E Model. Teachers (grades K-6) participated in a three-week summer workshop designed to introduce elementary teachers to biomechanics, the study of the body in motion and help them develop inquiry-based biomechanics lessons using the NGSS Storyline framework in order to enhance their implementation of interdisciplinary, culturally responsive, and technology-enhanced STEM education. During a follow-up session to the workshop, eleven teachers read an article about implementing biomechanics into school science (Trauth-Nare, Pavilonis, Paganucci, Ciabattoni, & Buckley, 2016); this article used the 5E framework, …

Stem On A Budget 2.0: A Basic Guide For Teaching Stem In Ops Afterschool Programs, Tyrome Williams

Criss Library Faculty Publications

This guide was written with the goal of providing a rough lesson plan, which could act as a supplemental guide for sustainable activities in order to better serve their students and children in the Omaha area. The STEM lessons I chose in this guide are engaging, hold educational value, and are cost effective if used properly. This book contains valuable information to supplement STEM learning. Whether you’re a teacher, instructor, supervisor for children, or a substitute; you will always be the most valuable asset in your classroom. This is a free use document and should not be sold for any …

Supporting Conversations About Race And Racism With Young Children While Watching For Manifestations Of Whiteness, Shubhi Sachdeva, Jennifer Adair

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This article examines two first grade classrooms in Central Texas that routinely have conversations about racial justice. In both classrooms we studied, children participated in racial conversations in large group structured discussions with the teacher and in less formal peer conversations away from the teachers. We follow both classrooms and detail the ways in which the teachers supported conversations about race, racism and racial violence with and among the young children in their classes. We highlight specific strategies and mechanisms that both teachers used to open up their classrooms for social and racial justice conversations. Then, we show how even …

Acadecomic: How Visual Rhetoric And Effective Teaching Combine To Create Multiple Literacies, Michaela Vanoeveren

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This article, intended for educators, encourages the use of comics in the classroom alongside traditional alphabetical texts. It uses modern comic theory, as well as various works on visual rhetoric, to prove the benefits of comics, as well as how they can be implemented. Teachers can use this as a guide for their own classrooms to inspire classroom libraries, curricular choices, and student recommendations.

La Universidad Unit In A Comprehensible Input Classroom, Bailey Morley

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

This capstone project looks at a specific unit taught in a Spanish classroom through the use of comprehensible input and the types of activities that were used in order to support comprehensible input in the classroom. It provides a collection of comprehensible input activities that may be used in the foreign language classroom along with providing rationale for the activities, research-supported assessment and instructional strategies, and examples of differentiation and assessment for the unit. A variety of activities were used including class story creation, running dictation, and nonverbal representation. Ways of assessment also varied throughout the unit, incorporating both formative …

The Writing Process Revisted, Amanda Shurtliff

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

The writing process is an instructional method that teachers have been using for decades, and it has proven to be successful in many classrooms. When teaching in a secondary classroom, I noticed my students were not mindfully going through each step of the process. Their writing was lacking clear ideas and skilled synthesis of their research. Additionally, the students often skipped revision altogether. In order to re-teach the writing process, I designed specific activities that engaged students with the various steps of the writing process. After the sequence of lessons, the students scores improved in all sections of the rubric, …

Experience Of A Noyce-Student Learning Assistant In An Inquiry-Based Learning Class, Melissa Riley

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

This presentation refers to an undergraduate course called introduction to abstract mathematics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. During the academic year 2017-2018, undergraduate, mathematics student Melissa Riley was a Noyce-student learning assistant for the Inquiry Based Learning (IBL) section of the course. She assisted the faculty-in-charge with all aspects of the course. These included: materials preparation, class organization, teamwork, class leading, presentations, and tutoring. This presentation shall address some examples of how the IBL approach can be used in this type of class including: the structure of the course, the activities and tasks performed by the students, learning …

Stem On A Budget: A Basic Guide For Teaching Stem In Ops Afterschool Programs, Tyrome Williams

Criss Library Faculty Publications

This guide was written with the goal of providing a rough lesson plan, which could act as a supplemental guide for sustainable activities at sites in the Omaha area to better serve their students and children. The STEM lessons I chose in this book are engaging, hold education value, and are cost effective if used properly. This book contains valuable information to supplement STEM learning. Whether you’re a teacher, instructor, supervisor for children, or a substitute; you will always be the most valuable asset in your classroom. This is a free use document and should not be sold for any …

Toward Diversity In Texts: Using Global Literature To Cultivate Critical Perspectives, Rick Marlatt

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Abstract Literature study in the 21st Century should be characterized by the inclusion of global texts that afford diverse students the opportunity to engage in their literacy development through and alongside authors, characters, and storylines that represent their own linguistic and cultural traditions. In this narrative analysis, I reflect on the importance of equity-driven literature study from my perspective as a teacher educator at a Hispanic-Serving Institution in the Southwestern United States. Following an introduction to the political and institutional contexts surrounding text selection in schools and a brief review of the literature, I situate myself and my students as …

Examining Culturally Responsive Understandings Within An Undergraduate Teacher Education Program, Kelly M. Gomez Johnson, Anne E. Karabon, Derrick A. Nero

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This article examines how a group of elementary and secondary preservice teachers engaged in understanding “culture” and culturally responsive teaching while enrolled in an early program course. We analyze how culturally-related experiences, emotions, and perspectives contribute to the overall understanding of cultural competency training in teacher education. Preservice teachers varied in their use of individual- and structural-orientations, in isolation and in combination, as they developed and progressed as socially just teachers. These findings reveal that despite attempts to develop and shift toward asset-based perspectives, far more culturally embedded coursework and practicum experiences are necessary. This paper includes a reflection on …

The Missing Links: Enhancing Anti-Bias Education With Anti-Racist Education, Kerry-Ann Escayg

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Social justice in early childhood has generally been conceptualized to include the anti-bias curriculum, and to a lesser extent, anti-racist education. Over the years, however, scholars have highlighted the many areas in which anti-bias education falls short both pedagogically and conceptually. In keeping with such discussion, this paper highlights significant gaps of anti-bias education by engaging central premises of anti-racist education. By centering a critical race and anti-racist perspective, the paper further provides practical suggestions on how to align early childhood classroom practices with anti-racist principles.

Theorizing Social Justice: Funds Of Knowledge As Praxis, Heidi R. Bacon, Lavern Byfield

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

The current socio-political landscape and proliferation of hate speak is fueling a growing sense of urgency to redress educational inequities and reclaim education. In this reflective article, we discuss our experiences as teacher educators in the rural Midwest who incorporate critical approaches to language and literacy into our repertories of practice. We aim to advance the conversation beyond the notion of social justice in theory to what social justice can look like in praxis. We argue for social justice education grounded in a funds of knowledge approach to untether social justice from overly broad or narrow representations and to locate …

Teaching Data Literacy For Civic Engagement: Resources For Data Capture And Organization, Brandon T. Locke, Jason A. Heppler

Criss Library Faculty Publications

Endangered Data Week emerged in the early months of 2017 as an effort to encourage conversations about government-produced, open data and the many factors that can limit its access. The event offers an internationally-coordinated series of events that includes publicizing the availability of datasets, increasing critical engagement with them, encouraging open data policies at all levels of government, and the fostering of data skills through workshops on curation, documentation and discovery, improved access, and preservation. The reflection provides an outline of the curriculum development happening through Endangered Data Week and encourages others to contribute.

Assessing Concerns And Leading Pedagogical Innovation In Higher Education: A Case Study Of The Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School Of Business, Kamla Mungal, Gour C. Saha

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Studies of pedagogical innovation indicate that the implementation process is enhanced by addressing teachers’ concerns. Institutions address teacher preparedness mainly from the perspectives of their preparation and institutional support, without recognising teachers’ mental state and particular implementation concerns. This paper adopts the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to examine the Stages of Concern (SoC) of faculty involved in the implementation of pedagogical reform. The standardized 35-item SoC questionnaire was sent online to 152 faculty members and 31 responses were obtained. The study found the faculty body had high levels of self-concerns, low levels of impact concerns and a willingness to …

The Impact Of Increased Hours And Supervision In Field Experience Practicums, Saundra Shillingstad, Sheryl Mcglamery

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

In recent years much has been written regarding the preparation and effects of the field experience involvement for pre-service teachers. In 2013 the Teacher Education Department (TED) faculty and Office of Field Placements at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) began an in depth review and examination of our pre-service teachers’ engagement during their field practicums in urban and suburban schools throughout the Omaha Metro area. The roundtable presentation will discuss the revisions that the TED has undergone in the last three years to improve courses that have a field practicum component, as well as the benefits and challenges …

Flipped Classroom: Overcoming Fear Of The Flip, Saundra Shillingstad

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

When asked to teach an undergraduate Human Growth and Learning (HGL) course with a practicum experience in a four- week summer session I had one question: How could the instructor cover a semester’s worth of content and engage the students in a field practicum experience in four weeks? I asked our College of Education Innovation, Design, Experience, Activities & Synergy (IDEAS) director Wendy the above question. Her immediate response was: “flip your classroom”. This paper will discuss the professor’s experience and satisfaction with the flipped classroom design and the results of students’ evaluation of the HGL flipped course.

Coaching Teacher Candidates: What Does It Look Like? What Does It Sound Like?, Abigail J. Burke

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Instructional coaching for reflection has traditionally not been part of teacher preparation. In addition, there is limited understanding of developmental coaching relationships within the context of field experience in teacher preparation programs. Reflection has increasingly been recognized as a central element of professional growth during teacher preparation. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the essence of instructional coaching between teacher candidates and an instructional coach as it relates to reflection of practice. Teacher educators would benefit by knowing more about the learning that occurs within the directed conversations between the instructional coach and teacher candidate. This study …