Spring 2023 Showcase Program, Jamey Burns

Project InTERSECT Materials

The Inquiry Showcase Programs illustrate the areas of inquiry that teachers selected and what the teachers learned about STEM instruction as they studied their STEM practice within their own classrooms.

Unf Stars 2023 Poster Presentation: “Fostering Student Motivation In Urban Title I Elementary Schools: Integrated Stem For Equitable Learning Experiences”, Raven Robinson-Wilson, Meghan Parkinson, Rui Wang

STEM Research

This poster was presented at UNF STARS 2023 to share our research based on data from Project InTERSECT teachers’ classroom videos (and teacher reflections), focusing on showcasing equitable integrated STEM instructional practices. As the instructional process is undergirded by a myriad of psychological processes, a focus on integrated STEM instructional practices can provide better understanding about the facilitation of students’ learning experiences. Our research examines teachers’ integrated STEM instructional practices for fostering student motivation for learning in urban, Title I elementary schools through need supportive teaching and culturally responsive pedagogy frameworks. The observations of teachers’ integrated STEM classroom instruction yielded …

Project Intersect Ct Badge Facilitator’S Guide, Terrie M. Galanti

Computational Thinking

This guide supports STEM teacher educators who would like to offer the 8-week Project InTERSECT CT badge course (15 hours) to a small group of elementary pre-service or practicing teachers.

The facilitator’s guide describes the structure of the Canvas course, editable text for weekly announcements, and suggested feedback statements to support weekly activity completion and reflection.

Summary Of Effects: Impact Of Intersect On Student Math Achievement And Teacher Perceptions, Natalie Wright

STEM Research

This summary of project evaluation findings was presented to the InTERSECT team and DCPS leaders in February 2023 as a supplement to the Year 2 Summative Evaluation Report. The evaluation examined effects of Project InTERSECT on Cohorts 1 and 2, including student mathematics achievement and teacher perceptions. The project has had significant impacts on students’ mathematics achievement. Compared to a business-as-usual group (which was matched to the treatment group based on pretest scores, demographics, and grade level), students in Project InTERSECT classrooms performed significantly higher on iReady Math assessments. Treatment effects were particularly large for kindergarten (Hedges’ g = .34) …

Teaching Black Elementary Students: The Influence Of Experiences And Teacher Preparation For Pwi And Hbcu Interns On Their Understanding Of And Self-Efficacy For Culturally Responsive Teaching, Jeania N. Jones

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher preparation program agendas include culturally responsive teaching (CRT) due to the student diversity in modern elementary classrooms. Overwhelmingly, White, middle-class English-speaking women who may not completely understand their students' cultural backgrounds are teachers in those culturally diverse classrooms. In schools where Eurocentric values, assumptions, beliefs, and methodologies are being taught, many students of color are not performing well academically. Black teachers and teachers with a good understanding of students' cultural experiences and backgrounds have higher expectations and counter the racial stereotypes about Black students. This multiple case study examined how two teacher interns understand Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and …

The Perceptions Of Principal Preparation Programs From The Perspectives Of Non-Reappointed Principals, Tiffany L. Green

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Principal Preparation Programs are a one-year intensive program to develop aspiring school Principals with at least three years of Assistant Principal experience (Solodev,2022). The purpose of these programs is to prepare aspiring leaders for the role of school Principal adequately. This qualitative phenomenological study aimed to explore the perceptions of principal preparation programs from the perspectives of non-reappointed principals. Four non-reappointed principals participated in the study. Three themes emerged from the data analysis of this study. Non-reappointed principals perceived that the training lacked the hands-on experience they needed, the level of support they received needed to be improved, and that …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Inclusive Classrooms, Tamara Ann Lipson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined teachers’ perceptions of inclusive classrooms. The specific areas of focus were analyzed by comparing demographic characteristics of the responding teachers to survey questions from the adapted Teachers Attitude towards Inclusive Education (TAIS) in order to determine how teachers perceive inclusive classrooms, how prepared they feel to teach in inclusive classrooms, and if there is any correlation between the workload of the teachers and their perception of inclusive classrooms. Data was collected through a survey completed by 480 teachers from a large, diverse, public school district in Northeast Florida. The findings of this study indicate that these teachers …

Virtual And Viral: Shifts In Signed Language Interpreter Education During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Mark A. Halley, Dawn M. Wessling, Stephanie N. Sargent

Journal of Interpretation

While online education has become more prevalent throughout the years, nothing prepared signed language interpreter educators for the likes of the COVID-19 pandemic. We surveyed educators in the United States and internationally to not only determine if practices had changed to keep up with the demands of the pandemic, but to learn how these practices were implemented. This study delves into the question of how interpreter educators adjusted their pedagogical approaches during the global pandemic. Responses showed a variety of adaptations to meet the needs of students, and a primary theme was the adeptness of educators in overcoming technology frustrations, …

Marshmallow Catapults, Crystal Confer

STEM Teacher Leaders in Action

Students are working to create catapults out of popsicle sticks, rubber bands, and spoons to launch mini marshmallows. They are changing variables to see if distance outcomes change.

In this lesson students will create a catapult to launch marshmallows. Variables will be changed to determine if outcome is changed.

Gendered Translations: Working From Asl Into English, Campbell Mcdermid, Brianna Bricker, Andrea Shealy, Abigail Copen

Journal of Interpretation

American Sign Language (ASL) is a visual-spatial language that differs from spoken language, such as English. One way is in the use and characteristics of pronouns (Meier, 1990). Pronouns in ASL, for example, are created by pointing to objects or locations in space (written in English here as POINT), and do not have a gender assigned to them as they do in English (he, she, him, her). So, where it is not specified in ASL, interpreters must decide how to interpret pronouns into English. Limited research has been done on this topic (Quinto-Pozos et al., 2015), and so a study …

Culturally Responsive Teaching: Teacher Candidates Identify What’S Important, Jeania Jones, Lindsay Gallon, Kim Cheek

Showcase of Osprey Advancements in Research and Scholarship (SOARS)

Honorable Mention Winner

Teacher preparation programs prepare teacher candidates (TC) with clinically rich field experiences. These programs prepare teachers to teach groups of students that are culturally, racially, and linguistically diverse. The TCs that participated in this study were in the first semester of the elementary program and were concerned with an experience that would be remote. COVID-19 impacted the experiences of the TCs by removing the field component during the Fall 2020 semester. The candidates were not provided access in the elementary schools to complete the practical experiences due to the districts’ pandemic guidelines. Due to the lack of …

How Does Student Self-Efficacy Affect Achievement?, Meghan E. Taylor

PANDION: The Osprey Journal of Research and Ideas

How does student self-efficacy affect achievement?

Special Education Inquiry Research

This presentation highlights the systematic integration of teacher inquiry within the undergraduate special education program at the University of North Florida. Inquiry is embedded across courses each semester and put into practice in a variety of ways in our PDS network. In all, inquiry serves as a tool for capturing student learning as candidates collaborate with mentor teachers to intervene and meet the needs of diverse learners. During the Fall 2019 semester, I implemented high leverage practices, collected and analyzed data of my students’ learning, and presented outcomes to my …

University American Sign Language (Asl) Second Language Learners: Receptive And Expressive Asl Performance, Jennifer Beal Dr.

Journal of Interpretation

American Sign Language (ASL) is used by estimates of up to 500,000 people (deaf and hearing) in the United States (Mitchell et al., 2006); however, the majority of users are typically hearing university students, frequently within university interpreting or deaf education preparation programs, who learn ASL as a second language (L2). It is unclear how these learners develop their skills as they progress through university training programs. The present study documents university learners’ receptive and expressive ASL skills, factors related to performance, and self-evaluation and strategy use at the end of their ASL IV course. Both assessments are readily available, …

Q Methodology As A Formative Tool For Facilitating Professional Development School Partnership Development, Catherine E. Wade

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

In the mid-1980s, through the work of the Holmes Group (now the Holmes Partnership) and the National Network for Educational Renewal (NNER), the term “Professional Development School” emerged as a part of the nation’s educational discourse (Brindley, Field & Lessen, 2008). The success of these PDS have been widely reported within the literature presented. However, missing from our PDS literature are studies which focus on the formative implementation and progression of the partnerships as seen through the collective perspectives of PDS stakeholders. The purpose of this study was to develop and explore a participatory process for collecting, organizing and …

The Relation Between Demographics And Art Discipline As They Pertain To Success On Advanced Placement Exams, Terrance Michael Souder

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the relation between the demographics of student and the artistic discipline of which they study at a dedicated magnet school located in the Southeastern United States as it pertains to their success on Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The literature has continually focused on several demographic indicators such as, race, gender, and socioeconomic status to examine the success on AP exams. However, there is very little research on the role that an artistic education plays as in the successful completion of an AP exam. This study examines whether there is an increase in …

Factors Predictive Of Self-Efficacy In First Year Teachers, Jessica Leigh Hamelin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research demonstrates that there are increased teacher burnout rates within the first 5 years of entering the field (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2010; Yost, 2006). Consistent with those findings is that teacher preparation matters when conversing about recruitment and retention (Brown, Lee, & Collins, 2014). As more research is conducted in the area of teacher preparation it has become clear that teacher effectiveness is directly related to preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2010). As teachers enter their first-year teaching, philosophical stances can change, inflated beliefs about the teaching profession can be altered, and self-efficacy is influenced. Drawing from Hoy and Spero’s (2005) …

The Incompleteness Of Standards And The Potential Of/For Deliberative Discourse, Paul T. Parkison

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

Approaching academic standards from a dialogical orientation has significant implications for the normative outcomes of curriculum. Mikhail Bakhtin recognized dialogue as composed of emotional-volitional, axiological perspectives that seek responses from other positions that can embody a space of shared exchange. Entering a discussion, conversation, or testimony with the development of relationships with academic standards as a priority changes the encounter. Our condition as human presents us each with a choice at every moment and in every place to be present. We can occupy that space in a manner that is generative of potentiality and opportunity for ourselves and others or …

Writing And Engagement In A Title 1 Middle School In Northeast Florida, Angela D'Alessandro Reed

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Writing is an integral part of achievement in the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and the Florida Standards Assessment (FSA). Across content areas, literacy standards for writing stipulate, “students should demonstrate increasing sophistication in all levels of language use” (www.corestandards.org, 2019). Many teachers are reluctant to incorporate writing in courses since assigning writing activities, reading, and grading of student writing and can be seen as a laborious task (Peha, 2003). This research, conducted in a Title 1 middle school in northeast Florida, is a bounded case study on the effects of writing on the physical occurrences of students’ level …

Examining The Effects Of Co-Teaching In Doubled-Sized Third Grade Classrooms In Select Northeast Florida Public Schools., Yvonne Mary Spinner

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly research on combined classes with co-teachers is sparse. The purpose of this research is to investigate and analyze the academic effects of co-teaching in double-sized third grade classrooms in urban and suburban settings. This research will explore the prevalence of this practice in select Northeast Florida public school third grade classes, the distribution between schools, and whether there is a significant difference between the academic achievement of these students and those in a traditional classroom setting, and whether there is a difference in performance between suburban and urban school co-teach classrooms. This study will examine the potential implications of …

Conscious Conclusions: The Effect Of Positive-Attitude Cues On Teacher Candidate Dispositions About Mathematics, Shelletta Baker

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to use elements for developing teacher identity, personal philosophy, beliefs about teaching and learning, and reflection to frame an examination of the effect of Positive-Attitude Cues (PACs) on teacher candidates’(n = 135) mathematics anxiety and expressive writing. Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment (PACs) or control group (No-PAC) and their dispositions about mathematics were examined using the Revised Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS-R); which had a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.96 and an expressive writing task before and after the intervention. A significant main effect of test time showed that participants …

Contextualized Recognition Of Fingerspelled Words, Campbell Mcdermid, Lynn Finton, Alexis Chasney

Journal of Interpretation

Fingerspelling, an aspect of American Sign Language, is difficult for second language English-speaking adults to learn (Bahleda, 1998), yet mastery is required by professional ASL-English interpreters. This study compared novice and expert interpreters’ interpretation of fingerspelled words under the assumption that exposure to priming material in their L1, English, would enable the interpreters to recognize those terms when fingerspelled in their L2, ASL. In this study, participants (15 novices, 15 experts) were asked to interpret an ASL text with 25 “carefully” fingerspelled words embedded. Ten subjects were not given priming materials, ten a list of words in printed English that …

Secondary-School Department Chairpersons’ Perceptions Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Jonathan K. Greene

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) provides a framework for understanding the professional demands of secondary-school teachers in facilitating student learning. Teachers develop their PCK both formally in preservice and inservice education and informally with their colleagues. Teacher leaders, such as the secondary-school department chairs, can work with colleagues to promote professional growth. The purpose of this study was to understand how secondary-school department chairs understood PCK and perceived their role in promoting the PCK growth of their department colleagues. A qualitative research design using in-depth, semi-structured interviews involved 15 participants from one school district in the southeast of …

Unearthing The Seeds Of Oppression And Injustice Within Education: Using Intuition, Care, And Virtue To Guide The Educative Process And Cultivate Morality., Lucas Worsham

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The emphasis of the inquiry is on the domain of education and the relationship present between the teacher and student more specifically. Essentially, the first part of the thesis outlines how the larger social-political system impacts the domain of public education, with the predominant issues of adversity becoming manifest at the level of the relationship that exists between teacher and student. The second part of the work utilizes the problems discovered and their impact on human experience to propose a virtue/care based method for approaching the relationship with the student in a way that both aligns more closely with the …

Where Is Citizenship Education In The Age Of Common Core State Standards?, Paul T. Parkinson, Matthew Knoester

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

There was a time in United States history when the central argument for investing in public education was to ensure that voters were sufficiently informed about the issues of the day to make wise decisions: education for self-governance. According to multiple sources, voter ignorance remains a serious concern and this may be a factor in why the political system in the United States is not more responsive to the needs and preferences of the electorate. Based on an analysis of political discourse and educational policy initiatives, this essay argues that democratic citizenship education has been sidelined by the focus on …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Cultural Change In A Challenged High School During The Implementation Of The International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme, Victoria Crowell

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Academically failing schools are under scrutiny from government education administrators, policymakers, and the general public, due to chronic inabilities to lower dropout rates and to educate students who can pass high-stakes graduation assessments. States’ efforts to adhere to the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act have led to the development of accountability systems to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) and to assign schools grades, as well as wholesale reassessment of current educational programs, which are often replaced with more rigorous curricula.

Among curricular programs that have been sought as reform measures for academically failing schools is the International Baccalaureate Program …

Perceptions Of Secondary Intensive Reading Teachers Regardingthe Implementation Of Florida's Reading Policy, Rebekah R. Shively

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to explore the perceptions of secondary reading teachers regarding their experiences while they implemented Florida’s secondary intensive reading policy. The purpose of this research was to obtain feedback on the policy implementation process for continuous improvement in future policy implementation. This research was qualitatively designed and conducted with three focus groups consisting of secondary intensive reading teachers from three Florida counties respectively, Duval, Nassau, and St. Johns.

The bounding theoretical and conceptual frames of this study were founded in political systems theory and shared leadership. The data from this study were compiled from three focus groups …

Impact Of Teacher Demographic, Knowledge, And Instructional Variables On Children's Language Development, Donna Ellis

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether a set of teacher demographic, knowledge, and instructional variables is related to preschool children’s literacy development. Specifically, the study investigated how these teacher variables impact children’s language development scores on the four subscales of the Preschool Language Assessment Instrument, Second Edition (PLAI2) and the four subscales of the Test of Language Development – Primary, Fourth Edition (TOLD-P:4). There were two major research questions in the study: (a) Will the predictor set of CLASS emotional support, CLASS classroom organization, CLASS instructional support, level of education, years teaching pre-kindergarten, and answers on …

Attitudes Of K-12 School Administrators Toward Speech-Language Programs In Public Schools, Carmen L. Jones

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined K-12 school administrators' attitudes toward speech language pathology services in public schools. Elementary, middle, and secondary school based administrators, employed in 63 school districts throughout Florida, were solicited to participate in the study in a letter of invitation generated by a web-based design program, Enterprise Feedback Management (EFM) Community. Administrators volunteering in the study were given an assurance of confidentiality and fair treatment concerning their participation. A survey instrument, the Scale of Educators 'Attitudes toward Speech Pathology (SEASP) consisting of 10 demographic items and 34 positive and negative statements about speech and language programs in schools was …

Letter, Chair Of Continuing Contract Committee From Dr. Edna Saffy, August 20, 2007, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Professional letter of recommendation. Printed on Florida Community College at Jacksonville letterhead.

Effects Of A Professional Development Initiative On Technology Innovation In The Elementary School, Delia Raymos Pass

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This non-equivalent group study explored the impact of teacher participation in the development and use of a web-based instructional resource on computer utilization by students. The effects of participation in the technology initiative on teacher attitudes toward computers, technology proficiency, and stages of adoption of technology were also investigated. Teacher volunteers participated in a treatment group that received a professional development intervention and a comparison or web access group (WAG) that received no professional development. The treatment, or Professional Development Group (PDG), received instruction that modeled a constructivist hands-on approach to creating technology-rich lessons based on classroom curricula and Internet …