Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Teacher Perception Of Professional Learning Communities On Student Algebraic Achievement, Tyrone John

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this study, I investigate the impact of teachers’ perceptions of professional learning communities on student algebraic achievement. Furthermore, I also investigate whether these relationships manifest differently for males compared to females. Research indicates that teacher quality and professionalism are considered the most critical factors affecting academic achievement. In this dissertation, I interrogate this issue by employing multivariate analyses using data retrieved from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) and 2012 follow-up. HSLS:09 used a nationally representative sample of over 21,000 ninth-grade students, which incorporated teacher, parent, school administrator, and school counselor input to create a context for …

Unemployment, Does It Really Hurt?, Claudia Vargas

Theses and Dissertations

This paper analyzes the consequences of changes in the unemployment rate in Colombia on the level of education attained for adolescents. Increases in the unemployment rate are associated with an increase in the average number of years of education. No significant effect was found for men of the same age.

What’S Brewing? A Statistics Education Discovery Project, Marla A. Sole, Sharon L. Weinberg

Publications and Research

We believe that students learn best, are actively engaged, and are genuinely interested when working on real-world problems. This can be done by giving students the opportunity to work collaboratively on projects that investigate authentic, familiar problems. This article shares one such project that was used in an introductory statistics course. We describe the steps taken to investigate why customers are charged more for iced coffee than hot coffee, which included collecting data and using descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Interspersed throughout the article, we describe strategies that can help teachers implement the project and scaffold material to assist students …

Multiple Problem-Solving Strategies Provide Insight Into Students’ Understanding Of Open-Ended Linear Programming Problems, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

Open-ended questions that can be solved using different strategies help students learn and integrate content, and provide teachers with greater insights into students’ unique capabilities and levels of understanding. This article provides a problem that was modified to allow for multiple approaches. Students tended to employ high-powered, complex, familiar solution strategies rather than simpler, more intuitive strategies, which suggests that students might need more experience working with informal solution methods. During the semester, by incorporating open-ended questions, I gained valuable feedback, was able to better model real-world problems, challenge students with different abilities, and strengthen students’ problem solving skills.

In Search Of A Grand Narrative: The Turbulent History Of Teaching, Judith R. Kafka

Publications and Research

For this review of research on the history of teaching, I use the instructional triangle as an organizing tool and frame of analysis to explore what we know about who taught, who was taught, and what was taught across space and time.

In the first section of this chapter I review historical research on who taught in American classrooms. One overwhelming theme throughout this literature is that policy makers, school leaders, and the general public have historically cared a great deal about who a teacher was, often basing their preferences on the belief that a teacher’s social characteristics would shape …

Opening Up The Dialogue Across Disciplines: Making Room For Inquiry And Creativity From Pre-Kindergarten Through University, Amanda Nicole Gulla, Limor Pinhasi-Vittorio, Alison Lehner-Quam

Publications and Research

Professional development with teachers, whether they are in pre-K-12 schools or in higher education, creates opportunities for discussions among teachers and teacher educators about how to find spaces for creativity and the imagination within the struc- ture of the Common Core State Standards, a set of national standards adopted on a state- by-state basis in the U.S. Two education faculty members and an education librarian from a large city university held workshops, bringing together university faculty in arts and humanities, science, mathematics and education, and pre-K-12 teachers to explore the potential for inquiry and creativity in the Common Core State …

K-12 Moocs Must Address Equity, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, the new wave of distance education offered by elite institutions like Harvard and MIT, are moving into high schools, and—contrary to what many think—that could be a problem.

A Primer For Mathematical Modeling, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

With the implementation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics recommendations and the adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics, modeling has moved to the forefront of K-12 education. Modeling activities not only reinforce purposeful problem-solving skills, they also connect the mathematics students learn in school with the mathematics they will use outside of school. Instructors have found mathematical modeling difficult to teach. To successfully incorporate modeling activities I believe that curricular changes should be accompanied by professional development for curriculum developers, classroom teachers, and higher education professionals. This article serves as an introduction to modeling by …

The Mathematics Portfolio: An Alternative Tool To Evaluate Students’ Progress, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

This article describes the need for more thorough and varied forms of assessment to evaluate students’ level of understanding in mathematics. Portfolios are one type of assessment tool that, when added to a teacher’s repertoire can improve students’ comprehension and retention and enable students to monitor their own progress and to take more responsibility for their own learning. Portfolio assignments can also help students and teachers to detect and remedy weaknesses and misunderstandings and can increase students’ self-confidence in mathematics. This article discusses what a portfolio is, gives an example of a unit portfolio used in an undergraduate Finite Mathematics …

Critical Bifocality And Circuits Of Privilege: Expanding Critical Ethnographic Theory And Design, Lois Weis, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Almost 10 years ago, in Working Method (2004), we argued for a critical theory of method for educational studies, which would analyze lives in the context of history, structure, and institutions, across the power lines of privilege and marginalization.

Teacher Collaboration: Implications For New Mathematics Teachers, Laura M. Gellert, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

One increasingly popular way of supporting new teachers is through the use of mentoring. New teachers are often paired with mentors as one of a number of supports meant to aid new teachers as they begin their career. The various types of mentoring range from school based mentors assigned by the school to specialty mentors, such as math coaches. Examples of other types of supports that are thought of as separate from formal mentoring are lesson studies, professional development schools, professional development workshops supported by local universities, teacher networks and sponsored professional development. Given the popularity of policies promoting support …

Teaching Mathematics For Social Justice: Reflections On A Community Of Practice For Urban High School Mathematics Teacher, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

In this article, the author reports on a study that explored, in part, the developing identities of seven New York City public high school mathematics teachers as teachers of mathematics and agents of change. Meeting regularly as a community of practice, the teachers and author/researcher discussed issues of teaching mathematics for social justice; explored activities and lessons around social justice; and created a unit of study that attempted to meet high school level mathematics standards, while addressing a social justice issue affecting the lives of urban students. The author reports on the mathematics teachers, growing awareness of and concerns about …

¡Oye!: Língua E Negócio Entre O Brasil E A Espanha, Laura Villa, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

Neste estudo sobre a promoção internacional do espanhol, centramos a análise no acordo ¡Oye! Espanhol para professores, assinado em setembro de 2006 entre o Banco Santander espanhol e a Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo, cuja finalidade era a formação de 45.000 professores de espanhol para atuarem no ensino médio brasileiro. O acordo, que envolveu também o Instituto Cervantes espanhol, recebeu uma forte oposição por parte da comunidade educacional, que se mobilizou para sustar sua implementação. Neste trabalho, apresentamos e analisamos diferentes ações e discursos face ao acordo por parte dos agentes envolvidos no debate, ao mesmo …

Not In Our Name: Reclaiming The Democratic Vision Of Small School Reform, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Maybe we weren’t clear. The small schools movement was never simply about size. When committed educators and community activists in New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Oakland, Boston, and Cincinnati launched the movement, they were desperately seeking alternatives to the failures of big city high schools. They fashioned a vibrant, gutsy social movement for creating democratic, warm, and intellectually provocative schools, particularly for poor and working-class youth of color.

Lgbtq Youth Initiative, Manolo Estavillo

Center for LGBTQ Studies (CLAGS)

At CLAGS we have decided to address the growing importance of secondary educational systems as a site for the struggle for Igbtq rights.

Silencing In Public Schools, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

Demands for silencing signify a terror of words, a fear of talk. This essay examines these demands as they echoed through a comprehensive public high school in New York City. The silencing resounded in words and in their absence; the demands emanated from the New York City Board of Education, book publishers, corporate sponsors, religious institutions, administrators, teachers, parents, and students. In the odd study of what's not said in public schools, one must be curious about whom silencing protects, but vigilant about how silencing students and their communities undermines fundamentally the vision of education as empowerment (Freire 1985; Shor …

Dropping Out Of High School: An Inside Look, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

In September, 1984, I began an ethnography of student life in and out of a New York City public high school to figure out why urban students drop out of high school at such extraordinary rates. By December, why urban students stay in high school through graduation struck me as an equally compelling question.