Education Commons^™

The Effects Of Joint Training On Career And Technical Education And Special Education Professionals, Crystal K. Emery, Robert L. Morgan

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Abstract

Young adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities who leave high school have limited options in adulthood. Their rates of competitive employment in inclusive community settings is very low compared to their counterparts without disabilities. Involvement in postsecondary education and independent, community living is likewise limited. They need teams of trained professionals representing relevant disciplines who work together to support the student along college, career, and community pathways. Not only should special educators (SPED) be trained, but career technical education (CTE) professionals should be jointly trained in how to collaborate effectively and provide well-coordinated services. The purpose of this research …

Collaboration In Mathematics Teacher Education: The What, How, And Why Of Mathematical Modeling, Aubrey Neihaus, Amy Bennett

The Advocate

In this paper, we share our collaboration across the disciplines of mathematics and mathematics education to develop and implement a mathematical modeling task for prospective secondary mathematics teachers. Through this collaboration, we identified three key components of mathematical modeling: the what, how, and why. In this paper, we outline these components from the literature and how each framed our development and implementation of the Sprinkler Task in our mathematics content and mathematics methods courses for secondary teachers. These three components show that mathematical modeling is a particularly fruitful space for collaboration between the disciplines of mathematics and …

De Bono's Six Hats Thinking Strategy For All Content Areas, Jamie Mahoney, Lynn Patterson, Carol Hall

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Problem-solving and collaboration require people to compromise, negotiate, and brainstorm to understand, create, manage, judge, and be intuitive and remain positive and calm while working as a team to address problems. Teachers can teach students to collaborate and problem-solve in any content area using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats Strategy. Using de Bono's strategy, university students in this study explored learning hats and ways to apply learning hat properties to collaborate and problem solve in group activities. Researchers employed a mixed-method study enlisting both general education and special education pre-service undergraduate and in-service graduate teachers to discover personal thinking hat …

A Local Historic Village Goes Online: Transforming English And Social Studies Methods Courses For A Virtual Setting, Helen Michelle Kreamer, Toby Daspit

New Jersey English Journal

In this article, two teacher-educators share their experience of navigating the shift of a service learning project from being an in-person project to an entirely remote learning experience caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. We discuss instructional adjustments, provide student samples, and consider lessons learned.

Queering Feminist Facilitation : A Culture Circle Discusses Gender & Sexuality, Kelly E. Lormand

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This study examines the collaboration of fifteen high school educators who came together to dialogue addressing patriarchy, sexism, homophobia, and heteronormativity in our practices, curriculum, classrooms, and school. Additionally, this practitioner action research study examines my attempt to queer and disrupt feminist facilitation. The study was situated in a competitive and economically privileged school district in the Northeast with district-wide goal dedicated to cultural diversity and anti-biased language. Using Paulo Freire’s (1970/2004) model of culture circles and Souto-Manning’s (2010) critical cycle, the group transformed a traditional professional learning community (PLC) into a feminist, queer, and activist community. The group engaged …

Coequal Responsibility For Feedback And Trust In Teacher Professional Development, Stefanie Whitney

Doctorate in Education

Instructional feedback offers a critical contribution to teacher professional development aimed at improving student learning outcomes. The most influential feedback comes from principals who have developed strong collegial relationships with teachers through observation-based understanding of their instructional practices, intentional interpersonal connection, and collaboration on shared goals. In essence, collegial relationships between principals and teachers nurture the development of trust, an essential element in the process of giving and receiving feedback. Unfortunately, instructional feedback has historically been delivered through teacher evaluations, which attempt to serve two contradictory purposes: To evaluate for retention and to nurture professional development. These dual purposes have …

Collaborative Autonomy: Exploring The Professional Freedom Of Three Science Teachers, Michael Ralph, Darian Robbins, Stephen Young, Laurence Woodruff

Educational Considerations

Education reform efforts must support and protect professional autonomy for classroom teachers. When policymakers attempt to make systemic change in ways that reduce the professional autonomy of educators, student learning suffers. Teachers need the freedom to identify their professional goals, seek resources and collaboration opportunities in pursuit of those goals, and act on feedback regarding their progress in meeting those goals. We present three stories from teachers who share a department engaged in collaborative autonomy. These accounts provide guidance for how professional autonomy can be defended by those pursuing systemic change.

Using Coaching Strategies To Support Parents When Promoting Social Communication In Individuals With Disabilities, Molly Baldridge

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

The purpose of this practitioner’s piece was to provide educators with a research-based coaching model that will increase opportunities for meaningful collaboration with parents or guardians in order to promote family-centered and socially meaningful child outcomes for their children with autism or other intellectual disabilities. The training model was based on Lane et. al.’s (2016) brief coaching method approach. Other suggested components to parent training included cultural competency, goal setting, planning for generalization, following up and asking for feedback, and troubleshooting any problem behaviors.

Effects Of Professional Learning Communities On Instructional Revisions In Secondary Mathematics Classrooms, John Kenneth Bond

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This non-experimental, descriptive study examined the effect(s), if any, that professional learning communities have had on the professional practices of secondary (grades 9-12) mathematics teachers in Boone, Clay, Putnam, and Kanawha counties in West Virginia. Also investigated were the potential differences in instructional-practice change(s) based on selected demographic variables: sex, degree level, the grade level taught, the total years of teaching experience, the total number of years in their current position, the specific math subject taught, the total number of years of PLC participation, and the composition (e.g., departmental, cross-curricular, or both) of participants’ PLC. Data were collected from a …

The Effects Of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning On Sense Of Connectedness, Sense Of Learning, And Overall Sense Of Community Among High School Students Enrolled In A Marketing Course, Rebecca R. Streetman

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative static group study was to determine the effects of computer-supported collaborative learning on sense of community, sense of connectedness, and sense of learning for students in a high school Marketing Principles course. Sense of community pertains to feelings of belonging and is important to the learning process because it can foster shared positive experiences in the classroom setting. Both collaborative learning and computer-based instruction have been researched extensively and their benefits noted; however, this study is important because it focuses on combining the two into what is known as computer-supported collaborative learning. The independent variable …

Finding Lost & Found: Designer’S Notes From The Process Of Creating A Jewish Game For Learning, Owen Gottlieb

Articles

This article provides context for and examines aspects of the design process of a game for learning. Lost & Found (2017a, 2017b) is a tabletop-to-mobile game series designed to teach medieval religious legal systems, beginning with Moses Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah (1180), a cornerstone work of Jewish legal rabbinic literature. Through design narratives, the article demonstrates the complex design decisions faced by the team as they balance the needs of player engagement with learning goals. In the process the designers confront challenges in developing winstates and in working with complex resource management. The article provides insight into the pathways the team …

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.

Shared Focus/Collective Responsibility: The Lived Experience Of Educators As Members Of A Data Team In A Connecticut Public High School, Abbie-Jean M. Lareau

Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT SHARED FOCUS/COLLECTIVE RESPONSIBILITY: THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF EDUCATORS AS MEMBERS OF A DATA TEAM IN A CONNECTICUT PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL This study explores the experiences of five high school English Teachers in a Connecticut public school acting as an Instructional Data Team as prescribed by the Connecticut Accountability for Learning (CALI) model. Data Teams are teams of educators that participate in collaborative, structured, scheduled meetings, which focus on the effectiveness of teaching as determined by student achievement. Data Teams adhere to continuous improvement cycles, analyze trends, and determine strategies to facilitate analysis that results in action. Data Teams can …

Examining Expectations: Inspecting The Experiences Of Student Teaching Interns In A Yearlong Paired-Placement At An Urban School, Evan J. Lambrecht

Honors College Theses

This paper examines the experiences of student teaching interns in paired-placements in an urban school setting, specifically how the pairs experience collaboration between themselves, mentor teachers, and university field instructors. In addition, the paper will examine how the paired teaching interns are able to perceive instruction that the students received. Using data from two participant surveys collected from student-teaching interns in paired-placements, results were compared with studies from academic literature and my own experience as a paired teaching intern. A thematic analysis was carried out with the data, in which was found evidence that the teaching interns enjoyed the extra …

Engaging Many Minds: Nurturing Collaboration In A Steam Context, Mark Dzula

The STEAM Journal

This field note describes a recent interdisciplinary project facilitated by Jeremy Gercke, an art teacher at the Bishop's School in La Jolla, California. The project creates ceramic tile markers for flora around the Bishop's School campus. The markers feature QR codes linking to websites populated with student content, including: drawings, information, and oral histories. In this project, Mr. Gercke synthesizes his interests as an artist; maximizes his social connections to mentors, peers and students; and bridges disciplines to create opportunities for interdisciplinary (STEAM) inquiry.

Adolescents' Characterization Of Their Neighborhood Through An Art-Based Community Project, Eileen Finnegan

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to study adolescent participation in the development of a neighborhood mural as an art-based community project. I examined perceptions of the adolescents regarding the awareness of their community and neighborhoods. Additionally, I explored adolescents' perceptions of their own development in terms of building their self-confidence. To accomplish this, I facilitated the creation and design of a mural that depicts their perceptions of their neighborhoods, using art as a modality for expression. Fourteen seventh grade students attending a parochial school in a low socioeconomic area of a large metropolitan city participated in the study. They …

Communication: The Key To Collaboration Between Special And General Education Teachers, Alexandra Slatoff

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Teachers often do not communicate with one another when working to meet the needs of their students. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the need, nature and manner by which general and special education teachers communicate and collaborate to address the educational needs of their students.

A review of the educational literature reveals that a burden is placed on the educational community given the often conflicting statutory obligations to: fully include special needs students in the general classroom, comply with State mandated general education curriculum requirements and implement instructional guidelines required by Individual Educational Plans (IEP) …

Co-Planning And Co-Teaching In A Summer Writing Institute: A Formative Experiment, Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Janine Nieroda, Bryan Ripley Crandall

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper reports findings from a two-year formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) investigating a summer writing institute for students entering ninth grade at an urban high school. The three-week program was staffed by both university researchers and teachers. In contrast to traditional summer school, it was intended as enrichment, not remediation, for a heterogeneous group of students, and a learning experience, not just a teaching opportunity, for practitioners. The pedagogical goals of the intervention were two-fold: 1) increase students’ writing engagement and skill, and 2) improve teachers’ capacity to teach writing to diverse student populations. Findings focused on co-teaching …

Teacher Perspectives Of Professional Learning Community Teams With Respect To Their Collective Inquiries: A Case Study, Allen Pratt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the perspectives of secondary level teachers in East Tennessee who are involved in Professional Learning Community (PLC) teams regarding both the environment and sharing of best teaching practices. The study examined PLC teams to better understand how the team design, interaction, and the process of collaboration enabled teachers to coexist as adult learners. The basic research question lies in what are teacher perspectives of PLCs relating to the environment of the collective inquiry and the transfer of knowledge at the secondary school level. The study examined PLC teams to better …

Teaching To The Technological Demands Of The 21st-Century Classroom, Michelle Trainor

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Learners of the 21st century are met with the need to collaborate, problem solve, critically think, and synthesize various sources of information. Simultaneously, teachers and learners are expected to utilize rapidly evolving digital technologies as tools to make teaching and learning more effective. As digital technologies become increasingly prominent in K-12 classrooms, the question becomes: in what ways are preservice teachers learning to teach to the technological demands of the 21^st-century classroom? Dr. Punya Mishra and Dr. Matthew J Koehler of Michigan State University propose the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework as a means for effective technology …

Collaboration: Advocacy For School Change, Cynthia Strong

Cynthia Strong

Adolescent literacy is a looming issue in secondary schools. Being able to read, comprehend, and write is imperative for students to understand the content of their classes and textbooks. According to Michael Kamil, professor of psychological studies in education and learning at Stanford University, "we almost need a trauma center to take care of this problem, it's that serious for kids that can't read...It's the number-one factor standing in the way of their graduating" (Manzo-Kennedy). Given the importance of literacy, this article provides a story of how a high school media specialist on the east coast sought to collaborate with …

The Impact Of Instructional Rounds Professional Development On Teacher Self-Efficacy, Melessa B. Widener

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of instructional rounds professional development on teacher self-efficacy. The scope of this study was a qualitative case study including interviews with teachers who had participated in instructional rounds professional development in a rural district in the foothills of North Carolina. The methodology included interviews with two teacher leaders from all elementary schools implementing Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) and teachers at the Early College who participated in instructional rounds professional learning through the New Schools Project. The findings include teachers' quotes from the transcriptions of the interviews as supporting the research …

Principal And Teacher Beliefs About Leadership Implications For Student Performance, Jerri Cherita Jackson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study was to examine whether the leadership style of principals affects teacher and student performance. The study includes an elementary, middle, and high school principal along with two teachers from each school who worked at schools that were in good standing from 2007-2011. Each school made adequate yearly progress (AYP) each year according to the No Child Left Behind Status History Report. This study examined one over arching research question: What do principals and teachers say about school and schooling? Data for this study was gathered through principal interviews, teacher interviews, and the results of an …

Excellent Adventures In Global Collaboration, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee, Aracelys Rios

Glenn W. "Max" McGee

No abstract provided.

Excellent Adventures In Global Collaboration, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee, Aracelys Rios

Publications & Research

No abstract provided.

Teacher Collaboration As Professional Development In A Large, Suburban High School, Marlie L. Williams

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This qualitative study explored the impact of teacher collaboration in a professional learning communities (PLC) school on teacher self-efficacy. Through the collection and analysis of personal interview data from 20 teachers in a large, suburban Midwestern high school, the impact of structured teacher collaboration was evaluated for its impact on changes in teachers’ instructional practices, their feelings of responsibility for student learning, positive adult interdependence, and changes in teacher self-efficacy. Experts in educational professional development identify the importance of sustained, collegial learning. This study explored the structure of one high school’s professional collaboration model, the measures in place for goal-setting, …

Building Leadership: The Knowledge Of Principals In Creating Collaborative Communities Of Professional Learning, Chad M. Dumas

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Research literature is replete with the importance of collaboration in schools, the lack of its implementation, the centrality of the role of the principal, and the existence of a gap between knowledge and practice--or a "Knowing-Doing Gap." In other words, there is a set of knowledge that principals must know in order to create a collaborative workplace environment for teachers. This study sought to describe what high school principals know about creating such a culture of collaboration.

The researcher combed journal articles, studies and professional literature in order to identify what principals must know in order to create a culture …

Personal And Group Identity [9th Grade], Alice Rasmussen

Understanding by Design: Complete Collection

This unit is designed to purposefully set the tone of the classroom at the beginning of the year. As the year begins, I often get sidetracked with the business of starting a school year and the important process of orienting with the classroom, the teacher, and each other gets pushed aside. This unit is designed with the flexibility needed to allow for the business and logistics of the beginning of the year. It is also designed to allow for schedule changes. A student who enters the classroom after the first day will not be lost or behind. The unit is …

Collaboration: Advocacy For School Change, Cynthia Strong

SPU Works

Adolescent literacy is a looming issue in secondary schools. Being able to read, comprehend, and write is imperative for students to understand the content of their classes and textbooks. According to Michael Kamil, professor of psychological studies in education and learning at Stanford University, "we almost need a trauma center to take care of this problem, it's that serious for kids that can't read...It's the number-one factor standing in the way of their graduating" (Manzo-Kennedy). Given the importance of literacy, this article provides a story of how a high school media specialist on the east coast sought to collaborate with …

Collaboration: Advocacy For School Change, Cynthia Strong

Cynthia Strong

Adolescent literacy is a looming issue in secondary schools. Being able to read, comprehend, and write is imperative for students to understand the content of their classes and textbooks. According to Michael Kamil, professor of psychological studies in education and learning at Stanford University, "we almost need a trauma center to take care of this problem, it's that serious for kids that can't read...It's the number-one factor standing in the way of their graduating" (Manzo-Kennedy). Given the importance of literacy, this article provides a story of how a high school media specialist on the east coast sought to collaborate with …