Education Commons^™

Developing Digital Literacy Through Community Engagement, Elizabeth Truesdell, Rebecca Birch

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

This case study describes how one department of education sought to increase knowledge of digital literacy amongst preservice teachers. Framed by the researchers’ Three-Tiered Model of instructional technology use, this project leveraged a community partnership and the implementation of “instructional rounds” to educate students in digital technologies. The mixed-methods study includes pre- and post-surveys results, structured observations, and student reflections. Initial findings indicate students’ enhanced digital literacy skills and a reciprocally beneficial partnership with teachers and administrators at a local high school. Ultimately, students who participated in this project led a community-wide professional development workshop.

Service-Learning Faculty Handbook [Version 3], Julia Van Der Ryn, Emily Wu

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Dominican University’s mission provides a strong foundation for service-learning, a pedagogy that creates intentional links between academic education and community experience where each strengthens the other. Service-learning engages students, faculty, staff, and community partners in collaborative and responsive action, dialogue, and reflection to address community-identified needs, meet learning goals, expand our perspectives, and increase civic participation. In this way service-learning creates reciprocal benefits for all involved:

1. The University is able to live out its mission and enhance its role as a vital and active partner in the community;

2. Faculty are supported in connecting innovative teaching, research/scholarship, and community …

Mobile Learning: Implementing A 1 To 1 Ipad Project In A Teacher Preparation Program, Elizabeth Truesdell, Rebecca Birch

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

This brief paper examines how a teacher preparation program implemented a 1-1 mobile learning initiative with faculty, teacher candidates and their fieldwork supervisors. The initiative proceeded through a three-tiered approach to effectively integrating instructional technology in and outside of the classroom. Researchers employed a mixed method approach to data collection and analysis, which indicated an increased rate of faculty, student teacher and supervisor competency levels in the use of instructional technology. This study fills a gap in research regarding 1-1 iPad initiatives in teacher preparation programs.

Developing And Modeling 21st-Century Skills With Preservice Teachers, Jacquelyn Urbani, Shadi Roshandel, Rosemarie Michaels, Elizabeth Truesdell

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Today’s youth face a rapidly changing world, requiring them to move beyond basic formulaic knowledge and skills. Current educational policy, such as the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), represents a shift away from rote learning and memorization of facts to the development of the 21st-century skills of creativity: critical thinking; communication; collaboration; and information, media, and technology skills (IMTS). Business and political leaders also recognize the necessity in addressing these core competencies for the 21st-century landscape (Ravitch, 2010). For students to be competent in a global society, K–12 teachers need to develop, model, and assess the 21st-century skills in their …

Increasing Effective Service And Support For Students On The Autism Spectrum, Jacquelyn Urbani, Billye Brown, Colleen Arnold

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

From a campus workshop focusing on how faculty can more effectively work with students with autism.

Using Literature For Project Based Learning, Jacquelyn Urbani

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Challenges Of Implementing Best Practices: Implications For Teachers And Teacher Education, Jacquelyn Urbani

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

One of the most challenging aspects of teacher education is translating theory and research into practice for emerging teachers. As teacher educators, we are responsible to stay abreast of research and articulate how to implement interventions and strategies within the classroom. This session will review how research intended to bring best practices to special education classrooms revealed significant gaps in both knowledge and practical experience in teacher education programs.

The study was undertaken to investigate a specific shared reading intervention, dialogic reading, for the purposes of addressing the unique needs of Deaf and Hard of Hearing students (hereafter DHH) in …

Integrating Instructional Technology Into A Teacher Education Program: A Three-Tiered Approach, Elizabeth Truesdell, Rebecca Birch

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

This project description examines how a teacher education program integrated new instructional technology through the creation of a Technology Facilitator position in the department. The project proceeded through a three-tiered system of learning literacy to establish a knowledge base amongst faculty members, augmenting required courses to model the use of instructional technology, and finally the transformation of the credential program where the activity of learning can only be accomplished through leveraging technology. As a professional program housed in a liberal arts institution, this project combines aspects of the essential learning outcomes of the 21st century with the professional skills required …

The Challenges Of Implementing Best Practices: Experiences Of Dialogic Reading By Teachers Of Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students, Jacquelyn Urbani

Education | Faculty Conference Presentations

Deaf and hard of hearing children frequently have delayed language and little experience with books because they do not share a common language with their hearing parents. However, there is little research concerning their language and literacy development in the classroom and equally little discussion of teacher responsibilities to address these issues.

This study investigated the implementation of dialogic reading, which aims to engage students in active discussion and retellings of stories, using American Sign Language. Because dialogic reading research with language delayed, hearing preschool students resulted in significant improvement of language skill (Whitehurst, Arnold, et al., 1994; Whitehurst, et …

An English Major’S Revelation: Dominican’S Big History Summer Institute, Jaime Castner

Office of Academic Affairs

Perhaps English majors are predisposed to appreciate Big History. After all, the epic of our universe is just that: an epic. The longest story ever told. My introduction to Big History came in my last year as an undergraduate at Dominican University of California, when I was given the unique opportunity to provide staff support for the world’s first general education program with Big History as its content.

Integration Of Interactive Instructional Technology In The Teaching Credential Program: A Case Study, Elizabeth Truesdell, Rebecca Birch

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Teacher Education faculty present initial findings of a case study implementing interactive instructional technology in credential candidates’ course and fieldwork.

The Dominican Big History Summer Institute: A Story Of Collective Learning, Mojgan Behmand

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Putting John On Trial: Teaching Christology By Using The Classroom As A Courtroom, George Faithful

Collected Faculty and Staff Scholarship

My purpose today is to share the results of an experiment I conducted and to suggest ways it could be improved and reproduced. In a 200-level course called “Christian Beliefs” at a Saint Louis University, a Catholic institution, I staged a mock trial. All students in the class were assigned to read the Gospel of John with an eye for how its author portrayed Christ’s nature. From among the thirty students, I asked for four volunteers, two each for two competing teams, the defense and prosecution. The defense was charged with summarizing John’s Christology and with making the case that …