Education Commons^™

Faculty Peer Coaching: Collaborative Partnerships For Instructional Development, Kristin N. Rainville, David G. Title

Education Faculty Publications

Teaching in higher education can be a lonely endeavor. Oftentimes, professors find themselves alone trying to work out solutions to emerging issues of student engagement or academic struggles. As colleagues, Kristin and David came together to talk about the ways in which our experiences in leadership, coaching, and instructional design and effective teaching could support our colleagues in their development as instructors. What if we designed an opportunity and invited faculty to participate in a peer coaching community? We could provide the group with professional development about teaching and coaching, as well as space, partners and a learning community for …

Creating A Context For Graduate Student Learning Through Constructivist Inquiry: Introduction To Academia As Learning Through Play, Lindsay M. Keazer

Education Faculty Publications

In this article, I explore the impact of receiving mentorship into research and theory of the field that was guided by a social constructivist learning lens. I reflect on the ways that my conception of research and research agenda were framed subconsciously by early experiences investigating my secondary mathematics teaching practice under the mentorship of Dr. Terry Wood. Terry mentored through listening, posing questions, creating cognitive conflict, and encouraging my autonomous exploration. What stood out from this process are the parallels between her words about constructivism, applied to the elementary mathematics classroom, and her ways of mentoring me into the …

Advancing A Theory Of Change In A Collaborative Teacher Education Program Innovation Through Universal Design For Learning, M. Mackey, Sally V. Drew, J. Nicoll-Senft, L. Jacobson

Education Faculty Publications

This design-based research (DBR) investigates the redesign of a 13-month interdisciplinary teacher preparation program to co-prepare secondary and special education teacher candidates to plan and implement evidence-based practices to meet content and literacy needs of all learners within secondary classrooms. The Theory of Change explores mechanisms for change under the umbrella of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The UDL framework can support teacher candidates in meeting the needs of students with exceptionalities in the general education classroom, yet few studies have explored the in-depth application of UDL in authentic settings across preparation program duration. DBR methods organize study design, iterative …

Nurturing Joy And Belonging: Practices For Rehumanizing Professional Learning, Katherine Egan Cunningham, Kristin N. Rainville

Education Faculty Publications

In this article the authors describe a professional learning initiative focused on joyful teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the techniques that were used to foster a culture of belonging. The authors utilize an integrative framework for understanding, cultivating, and assessing belongingness to suggest implications for school-university partnerships. Finally, the authors pose questions for school-university partnerships to reflect upon to build an intersectional approach to professional learning in a post-pandemic educational landscape.

“I Kind Of Pushed Back”: Efficiency And Urgency In A No-Excuses Writing Curriculum, Katie Nagrotsky

Education Faculty Publications

Drawing on the concept of structuring contexts (Berchini, 2016) this article explores a white teacher’s understanding of teaching writing in a no-excuses charter management organization network. Through a deductive analysis, the author traces how the teacher’s beliefs about language were shaped by the CMO’s emphasis on efficiency, influencing how he acted on and adapted centralized curriculum and assessment practices. Documenting the ways that whiteness works within the writing curriculum and assessment practices despite stated broader organizational commitments to culturally relevant teaching, the author shows how the curriculum appropriated texts written by People of Color while the assessment practices prioritized correctness …

Teacher Candidates’ Pivot To Virtual Literacy Field Experiences: The Interplay Of Culturally Responsive Sustaining Pedagogies And Improvisation, Mary Coakley-Fields, Courtney Kelly, Katherine Egan Cunningham, Kori Krafick

Education Faculty Publications

This qualitative investigation examines how teacher candidates enrolled in literacy courses navigated virtual field work experiences during summer and fall 2020. The study is grounded in theories of improvisation as a pedagogical practice and culturally responsive and sustaining approaches to teaching. Data show that teacher candidates took advantage of the affordances of the environment and adapted their practice to suit the new situation by improvising and growing their virtual teaching skillset for culturally responsive literacy instruction. Findings reveal the importance of teacher candidates developing improvisational culturally responsive and sustaining practices, including learning about students’ interests, cultures, and experiences and applying …

Professional Development Schools And Future Teachers Of America Clubs: A Promising Pipeline, Maureen F. Ruby, Ernesto Davilla

Education Faculty Publications

This paper discusses the opportunity for universities and Professional Development Schools (PDSs) to engage with Future Teachers of America (FTA) clubs and similar groups in secondary schools to ensure the future of the profession. Student leaders and their mentor from an active high school FTA club share their perspectives on the benefits of membership in an active FTA. They aspire to engage in authentic educational experiences through relationships with teacher preparation programs and diverse classroom opportunities. In alignment with the National Association for Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) Nine Essentials, collaboration with FTA clubs is a boundary-spanning opportunity for faculty that …

Developing As Culturally Responsive Mathematics Teacher Educators: Reviewing And Framing Perspectives In The Research, Kathleen Nolan, Lindsay M. Keazer

Education Faculty Publications

It is essential for teacher educators to develop and model their culturally responsive pedagogies (CRP),for furthering the development of culturally responsive prospective and practicing teachers. To date, no tool has been developed for supporting the self-study and growth of mathematics teacher educators’ CRP. Thus, this article shares the process of identifying, synthesizing, and analyzing key scholarly texts in the field of teacher educator CRP, to extract from the research: a) how the scholars define CRP in the context of their studies (that is, what does CRP mean?) and b) how the scholars elaborate on this definition of CRP through the …

Teacher Educators Learning With Prospective Teachers: Finding Relevant Mathematics In Our (Their) Lives, Lindsay M. Keazer, Eryn M. Mather

Education Faculty Publications

Two mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) discuss the mathematical contexts generated by prospective teachers (PTs) when pushed to look for relevant mathematics in their lives and communities. Through collaborative teacher action research focused on iterations of collecting, categorizing, and discussing PTs’ mathematical contexts, and posing selected examples for PTs’ own examination, layers of learning occurred for both PTs and MTEs. PTs began to craft more personalized, story-like contexts, seemingly noticing more mathematics in their lives. MTEs were unexpectedly pushed to clarify their thinking about what it means to develop contexts that are authentic and relevant, and to contemplate how their actions …

Teaching Teachers How To Teach Hope, René Roselle

Education Faculty Publications

Can teachers teach hope? This article considers Synder’s hope theory as a rationale for the importance of teaching hope to students and teachers. Through a low and high hope example, the idea of agency and pathway thinking are explored. Resources and ideas are shared on how teacher preparation programs might take up teaching hope.

Teaching Responsively During Covid-19: Learning How To Model, Modeling How To Learn, Lindsay M. Keazer

Education Faculty Publications

A teacher educator describes learning to teach responsively through the Covid-19 pandemic; shifting focus from secretly struggling to manage the upset of work/life balance, to living out the challenges in community with her students. By sharing struggles transparently rather than concealing, she found opportunities to connect with students about the complex challenges they were facing. This process was one of learning how to model empathetic education, and simultaneously modeling to future teachers how to learn to enact responsive pedagogies through unexpected challenges in teaching.

Contemplation For Educators: Theoretical, Ethical, And Practical Dimensions Drawn From The Catholic Intellectual Tradition, Joseph Polizzi, Darcy Ronan

Education Faculty Publications

Catholic colleges and universities educate thousands of teachers and school administrators every year to be at the forefront of teaching and leading. The mission and vision of Catholic colleges and universities is unique in higher education while sending their graduates forth into every sector of the wider world. We explore the contribution of the Catholic intellectual tradition (CIT) for colleges of education at Catholic colleges and universities. In this particular piece, we mine the tradition's emphasis on contemplation to cultivate and inform a practice of reflection for aspiring educators.

Daring Greatly: School-University Partnerships And The Development Of Teacher Leadership, René Roselle, Robin E. Hands, June Cahill

Education Faculty Publications

This survey-based self-study explored how teachers’ commitments to a formalized lead teacher role in relationship with a university partnership impacted their perceptions of themselves as educational leaders and as agents of change; and how these perceptions impacted P-12 student learning. The study showcases the importance of creating an infrastructure that includes a lead teacher component when establishing professional development school (PDS)-university partnerships and demonstrates the value and impact that teacher leaders bring to partnership work. Through this study, the authors hope to further professionalize and exonerate the role of lead teacher in order to encourage others to “dare greatly” by …

Supporting Prospective Teachers’ Development Of Relevant And Authentic Mathematics Stories, Eryn M. Stehr, Lindsay M. Keazer

Education Faculty Publications

Supporting prospective elementary teachers (PTs) to develop mathematics problems with contexts that reflect their students’ lives is a challenge that remains to be explored. We began this work by conducting collaborative action research to explore PTs’ development of mathematics problems that were relevant and authentic to PTs’ own lives. We engaged in iterative cycles of action research by asking PTs to write mathematics stories, followed by our review and discussion of the themes we saw and sharing selected examples with PTs during class discussions. Findings after three cycles of data collection suggest that PTs’ mathematics contexts became more story-like and …

La Historia De La Educación Y La Enseñanza Postsecundaria En Los Estados Unidos, 1840-1910, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

La historia de la educación fué uno de los temas mas populares en los Estados Unidos en los siglos XIX y XX. Este documento examina el contenido y contexto de esta materia en los cursos de formación de docentes en las escuelas normales y las instituciones superiores y analiza su transformación a través dele tiempo. Informa sobre el desarrollo de esta materia en los Estados Unidos desde 1840, el año que marca su surgimiento como disciplina docente profesional, hasta 1910, el año en que sus contenidos tenían una orientación mas objetiva. Las fechas delimitan un período en que la Historia …

Creating A Positive Atmosphere In Online Courses: Student Ratings Of Affective Variables In Teacher Education Courses, Sarah Hamsher, Cynthia A. Dieterich

Education Faculty Publications

Instructors in higher education have to work to create a positive atmosphere. Yet, the behaviors instructors must exhibit to create such an atmosphere are different for online courses than face-toface (F2F) courses. The current study surveyed graduate and undergraduate students in a teacher education program to identify which affective variables identified in academic literature for creating a positive online atmosphere are most and least important. The results of this study suggest undergraduate and graduate students rank logistical behaviors (e.g., clearly described directions and expectations, constructive feedback) as most important and emotional-relational behaviors (e.g., interpersonal relationships, humor related to content) as …

Student Teachers, Interns Are Vital For Teacher Recruitment, Student Achievement, David G. Title

Education Faculty Publications

As a former superintendent of schools for Fairfield, Conn., I have personal insight into how valuable it is to have nationally renowned universities as part of our community. Through this proximity, and based on long-established relationships, I saw students from area colleges teaching and interning in our public schools, and even had the opportunity to hire some of them into full-time assignments. The strategic and creative support they provided for the children and teachers in our classrooms and their contributions to the district was invaluable then, and remains so today.

Informal Technology Coaching: Using Pre-Service Teacher Field Experiences To Support K-12 Flipped Classroom Instruction, Antoinette P. Bruciati, Maria Lizano-Dimare

Education Faculty Publications

This paper describes a pilot field experience component that is part of an online graduate level course in educational technology for pre-service teacher candidates. As part of the field experience, teacher candidates develop a model lecture video and learning activity screencast that are used to coach certified teachers in the methods for “flipping” their classrooms. The field experience is used by course instructors to determine the ability of their teacher candidates to plan technology-enhanced learning experiences, deepen their content knowledge, and improve their abilities to select and use developmentally appropriate technologies. Certified teachers benefit through informal coaching by pre-service teacher …

Faculty Development Initiative For Converting F2f Courses Into Online Courses, Maria Lizano-Dimare, Antoinette P. Bruciati

Education Faculty Publications

With faculty development changes in practice from traditional face-to-face to online delivery modalities, this paper describes an initiative for faculty at a College of Education whereby pre-existing courses are converted for online delivery. Opportunities and challenges are examined and used in the development of best practices for faculty development that embrace the use of online modalities. What strategies can Online Learning Mentors use to achieve the expected outcomes when mentees differ in technology competencies, pedagogical skills and have minimal online experience? Implications for faculty preparation, professional growth, and considerations for online conversion are discussed.

Teachers' Perceptions Of K-12 Online: Impacting The Design Of A Graduate Course Curriculum, Michael K. Barbour, Kelly L. Unger

Education Faculty Publications

While K-12 online learning in the United States has increased exponentially, the ability of teacher education programs to adequately prepare teachers to design, deliver, and support has been deficient. A small number of universities have begun to address this deficit through the introduction of graduate certificates in online teaching. This article examines curricular changes focused on introducing in-service teachers to K-12 online learning. This design-based research study examined changes in teacher perceptions after having completed a systematic curriculum focused on K-12 online learning, as well as track revisions to that curriculum based on the data collected. The results indicate that …

Researching And Reshaping Literacy Learning: Three Urban K-6 Teachers’ Ongoing Transformations Through Everyday Action Research, Kristin N. Rainville, Grace Enriquez

Education Faculty Publications

Given the vast range of diversity among children’s backgrounds and needs, literacy educators must consider multiple ways in which children learn and interact with texts. Moreover, policies that increasingly require frequent assessments of children’s literacy achievement place pressure on educators to find immediate ways to impact children’s learning. This qualitative inquiry explores three graduate students’ yearlong engagement in literacy-related action research within ethnically and socioeconomically diverse, urban K-6 classrooms. Grounded in a social practice perspective on literacy and a sociocultural perspective on literacy learning, we examined participants’ constructions of action research as they developed research questions, entered various research sites, …

Historical Trends And Emerging Issues In Teacher Education Programs In The United States, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

US national and state educational polices are advocating for more teacher accountability with respect to student performance, and accrediting agencies are requiring more evidence of teachers’ mastery of subject area knowledge and professional skills. This paper examines some of the significant educational and social issues currently facing basic education and teacher preparation programs in the United States. It addresses numerous topics and focuses on five general issues that confront K-12 education and either directly or indirectly Teacher Preparation Programs.

Las políticas educativas nacionales y estatales de Estados Unidos están abogando por una mayor responsabilidad de los maestros con respecto al …

Scholars Of Distinction And The Development Of Educational History In The United States, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

The paper describes the accomplishments of a select number of distinguished scholars who advanced the cause of the history of education. The evolution of this field of study and inquiry followed its own unique path in the United States, and that at certain moments its trajectory was influenced by the thoughts and actions of celebrated professionals. Each individual contributed in a distinctive way, by either deepening or broadening the study of educational history in educator preparation programs, or by encouraging disciplined research and research-related activities in the area. In this latter endeavor, scholarship was often enhanced by making resources available …

Online Professional Development: Criteria For Selection By Teachers And Evaluation By Administrators, Joshua C. Elliott

Education Faculty Publications

The purpose of the current qualitative case study was to explore which criteria administrators in a mid-sized public school district in Connecticut use when evaluating whether an online professional development program meets the needs of both the district and the teachers. The study also explored which criteria teachers use when they are selecting an online professional development program. The first research question was, what criteria do school administrators use in evaluating online professional development programs as effective professional development for teachers? The second research question was, what criteria do teachers use in selecting online professional development programs? Data were collected …

Using Shared Reading And Close Reading To Bridge Intervention And The Common Core, Karen C. Waters

Education Faculty Publications

While classroom teachers are grappling with the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and its implications for instruction in the core curriculum, designing effective intervention to meet the needs of diverse struggling readers poses another challenge, especially because Response to Intervention (RTI) as an instructional framework frequently emphasizes the teaching of discrete skills. Experts have concluded that intervention focusing primarily on foundational skills without instruction in comprehension is not only contrary to literacy research, but also antithetical to the shift to contextualized literacy instruction, resulting in fragmented instruction for those most in need. At the same time, inherent within both CCSS …

Preparing For And Thriving In K-12 Online/Blended Teaching Contexts, Leanna Archambault, Keryn Pratt, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

This panel will bring together leading experts to explore the research related to teaching roles in K-12 online and blended learning and the policies influencing teacher preparation for online environments. Currently, there is a dire need for teacher education programs to provide training in online pedagogy and instructional design so all teachers are prepared to teach in breakthrough learning environments. Keryn Pratt will present her work on OtagoNet: One region’s model for virtual schooling in New Zealand and the knowledge and skills teachers need to be successful in this environment. Michael Barbour will focus on roles of online and blended …

Strategies For Overcoming Common Obstacles In The Online Environment: Issues In Virtual School Teaching, Michael K. Barbour, Kelly L. Unger

Education Faculty Publications

K-12 online learning or virtual schooling has seen substantial growth in the United States over the past two decades. While the practice of virtual schooling has exploded, the availability of research-based best practices to guide teachers working in these environments is lacking. This chapter presents four cases from Michigan Virtual School (MVS) teachers that examine a variety of issues that virtual school teachers face when facilitating K-12 student learning in the online environment, including strategies to provide substantive feedback in English Language Arts, methods for addressing the demonstration of mathematical computations, using Web 2.0 tools to increase interaction in an …

The Professor’S Facebook: Social Networking And Web 2.0 For Academics, Michael K. Barbour

Education Faculty Publications

Presentation for the Fall Faculty Institute October 15, 2013, Sacred Heart University. Using sites such as LinkedIn, GoogleScholar, SlideShare, and Academia.edu to promote and access the professor's scholarly work.

The Farnet Journey: Effective Teaching Strategies For Engaging Māori Students On The Virtual Learning Network, Michael K. Barbour, Carolyn Bennett

Education Faculty Publications

The Virtual Learning Network (VLN) provides schools, particularly those in rural and remote areas, with the opportunity to cooperate to expand curricular offerings for their students. Each school that participates in a VLN cluster contributes at least one course delivered by an e-teacher, allowing member schools access to any course offered through the VLN that they cannot offer locally. At present, there is no formal national training for the e-teachers, although individual clusters offer a range of training opportunities. This case study focused on the e-teachers’ perceptions of the learning curve required for them to be adequately and effectively prepared …

Pictures From An Exhibition… Of Online Learning: A Creative Representation Of Qualitative Data, Michael K. Barbour, Jason Paul Siko, Kaye Simuel-Everage

Education Faculty Publications

K-12 online learning at the K-12 level has been around for approximately two decades and is continuing to grow. While researchers have researched a variety of issues related to K-12 online learning, there has been little published on the student experience in web-based learning environments. In this article, two doctoral students were tasked with analyzing existing data, then representing and situating their findings in a format other than the traditional "results" and "discussion" sections found in a typical six-section journal manuscript. One student created an image that focused upon the tools used by the K-12 student in her online learning. …