Education Commons^™

Book Review: Children Of Immigration, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Children of Immigration is a highly readable and welcome addition to the study of contemporary immigration, particularly the experience of immigrant children in the United States. It thoroughly covers a range of immigrant-related issues from the salience of legal status, to the way immigration changes gender roles and parent/child relationships, to the bevy of psychological adjustments required by transnational relocation. The ongoing research of the Harvard Longitudinal Immigrant Student Adaptation Project, which the wife/husband co-authors codirect, provides one foundation for the book’s content, but a multidisciplinary and extensive list of research, plus popular media and more literary sources (such as …

What Constitutes Becoming Experienced In Teaching And Learning?, James C. Field, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we attempt to address one of the central questions for teachers and teaching: how is it that teachers are able to see and act appropriately in concrete circumstances? To do so, we examine the ontological meaning of experience in teacher education. The discussion is anchored in the concrete particulars of a grade 5 art lesson. Our intent is to show the dynamic processes involved in becoming experienced as a teacher and to draw connections between experience and practical wisdom (phronesis). Thus, we argue that phronesis is not so much a form of knowledge as it is dynamic …

Beliefs Of Science Teachers Toward The Teaching Of Science/Technological/Social Issues: Are We Addressing National Standards?, Jon E. Pedersen, Samuel Totten

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

As science educators, we must view the changing nature of society brought on by technology and the global nature of society as an impetus to reexamine the nature of science instruction. We have been bestowed with the responsibility to educate students on a variety of topics that less than two decades ago did not exist. Many of these social issues are controversial in nature and are directly linked to the local, regional, national, and global communities in which we exist. However, including these social issues in the extant curriculum of science has, at best, been limited. This is true even …

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 12, Number 2, Fall 2001, New England Faculty Development Consortium

NEFDC Exchange

Contents

Message from the President - Jeff Halprin, Nichols College

Teaching Through Disaster - Matt Ouellett, University of Massachusetts-Amherst

From the Editor - Sue Barrett, Boston College

Connecticut College Responds to September 11 - Michael Reder, Connecticut College

Annual NEFDC Fall 2001 Conference; theme: Higher Education After Technology: Faculty Work In a Wired World; keynote speaker: Randy Bass, Georgetown University; Friday, November 16th, 2001, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts

Spirit of Teaching - Bill Searle, Asnuntuck Community College

The Hope Photographs -Sue Barrett, Boston College

Board of Directors

Exploring Alternative Conceptions In Our Environmental Education Classroom, Gayle A. Buck, Patricia Meduna

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Teaching is an inexact science. Even experienced teachers have difficulty assessing the effectiveness of their lessons and students mastery of concept. Teachers must be particularly careful to avoid introducing or reinforcing student misconceptions. The following describes how we scrutinized and modified our own environmental education teaching practices to ensure that our students were learning what we were teaching. Our inquiry into students’ alternative conceptions about the environment was a very enlightening experience for both of us. Th e process revealed some beliefs that surprised us. However, the real surprise came when we realized that our own lessons reinforced (and sometimes …

Families And Schools In Partnership: Linking Theory, Science And Practice To Promote Children’S Development, Susan M. Sheridan

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families and Schools: Posters, Addresses, and Presentations

Why Families & Schools in Partnership?
Theory: Ecological Perspectives
Defining Characteristics of Family-School Partnerships
Conjoint Behavioral Consultation
Outcome Research in CBC
Child Participants
Research to Practice: Problem Solving Goals of CBC
Process Research in CBC
Research to Practice: Process Goals & Strategies in CBC
Research Conclusions: Process Variables in CBC

Letting Aesthetic Experience Tell Its Own Tale: A Reminder, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In my desire to trace further the meanings and traditions sedimented in the term aesthetic, inherited and being reconstructed, I am drawn to my knowings of the beach as a place to begin. I know aesthetic experience to be a disclosive dynamic revealing the fore-understandings that have shaped my way of seeing and being. I am a living embodiment of these structures. I know aesthetic experience to depend on this sense of placedness. It is an ongoing search for attunement that assumes and acknowledges the pres¬ence of cognitive, affective, and somatic dimensions. I turn to my own know¬ing of aesthetic …

School Portfolios, Critical Collegiality, And Comprehensive School Reform, Edmund T. Hamann, Brett Lane, Susan Hackett Johnson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Maine’s deployment of the Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program has been substantially different from that of other states. It has included the addition of several parameters and operating requirements that have made the school change process that was prompted by CSRD in that state particularly promising and worthy of study (Hamann et al., 2001). Maine’s adaptation of the CSRD framework has led to the adoption of school portfolios at 11 high schools. The state urged schools to adopt this measure in addition to focusing all of its comparatively modest CSRD allocation at the high school level and assuring further …

English Language Learners, The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration Project, And The Role Of State Departments Of Education, Edmund T. Hamann, Ivana Zuliani, Matthew Hudak

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
MAKING THE CASE THAT CSRD OVERLOOKS ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
Methodology
Reviewing the data
What could be
ENDNOTES
REFERENCES
APPENDIX A: References to ELLs and/or to programs that serve ELLs in various states’ CSRD applications to the U.S. Department of Education (Connecticut , Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont )
APPENDIX B: References to ELLs and/or to programs that serve ELLs in federal CSRD guidelines to states
Federal Guidelines to States

Theorizing The Sojourner Student (With A Sketch Of Appropriate School Responsiveness), Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In response to inadequate local resources (as subjectively defined) in both sending and receiving communities and in response to related local racial/ethnic discriminations, transnational families engage in transnational economic, cultural, and psychological risk-minimization strategies— the substance of a “transnationalism from below” (Smith and Guarnizo 1998)—that are discordant with the enculturative presumptions of schooling. A special type of transnational migrant described here—the sojourner student—is thus vulnerable not only to (a) the original migration-inducing conditions and (b) the limitations of opportunity in the receiving community, but also (c) to the contradictions between their response strategy and the standard suppositions of schooling. This …

The National Honors Report Vol. Xxii, No. 3, Fall 2001

The National Honors Report

Cover Story

"Highlights" by Rosalie Otero ... 1 From Conference Planner, Rosalie Otero, about the upcoming conference, "Fields of Discovery." Otero says, "[o]ur conference offers fields of discovery to participants in the conference. Honors Programs are sites where we discover new academic fields, explore links between them, and stimulate field-based leaming .... Chicago's diverse ethnic neighborhoods, museums, public art, education and research facilities, and business enterprises invite many fields of exploration that have bearing on honors education." Conference at a Glance by Rosalie Otero … 2

A Special Invitation

1. "2001 NCHC Conference Session on Honors Advising" by Bob Spurrier …

The National Honors Report Vol. Xxii, No. 2, Summer 2001

The National Honors Report

COVER STORY

"Growing More Than Corn" by Daniel Abben, Lynn Cunningham, Shauna Duffy, Julie Kretzmer, Jason McLaughlin, Mary Beth Pistulka, Katy Rose Resnick, Alexa Spencer & Emily Wolf ... 1 Nine honors students from Clarke College, Dubuque, Iowa in required two-semester honors colloquium create their own website about multiculturalism and diversity in Iowa. With Katherine "Katie" Fischer, instructor. The philosophy and process (and its many zigs and zags) behind it. Website based on students' individual research topics, which include Orthodox Hasidic Jews in Postville, IA; women's role in Catholic church; militia groups; and minorities in honors programs. Presented at the …

The National Honors Report Vol. Xxii, No. 1, Spring 2001

The National Honors Report

Cover Story

"NCHC Stepping Stones: Imagination, Ideas, Discovery" by Joan Digby …1 In her presidential address, Joan Digby, whose conference was titled "The World of Imagination," has always been interested in the creative process. For Digby, honors education is life-long learning, a honing of skills made possible by honors that allow us to march through those open fields of discovery.

Teaching

1. "Design Your Own Space Mission" by Carol Browning …4 Browning, Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, describes an honors section of a science research for non-majors. A good example of using faculty resources to share …

The National Collegiate Honors Council Vol. Xxi, No. 4, Winter 2001 Classics, Ii

The National Honors Report

1. "Issues in Honors” by Robert C. Angel… 1 Reprinted from The Superior Student Vol. 3, No.4 (May/June 1960): 18-24. A 1960's presentation which raises concerns faced now, forty years later: admission, enrichment or acceleration, for example. Angell poses questions, makes suggestions based on his experience but always puts forth an alternative point of view for consideration. A thoughtful presentation. For newcomers to honors as well as faculty and directors in established programs.

2. "[T]he ICSS 1959” by Joseph W. Cohen… 6 Reprinted from The Superior Student Vol. 2, No.6 (October 1959): 3-5. From an opening address by one ofthe …

Validating The Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (Dastt-C): Exploring Mental Models And Teacher Beliefs, Julie A. Thomas, Jon E. Pedersen, Kevin Finson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The National Science Education Standards [National Research Council (NRC), 1996] encourage science learning as an active, inquiry-based activity that children do rather than something that is done to them. Following the explicit goal of the standards to establish scientific literacy for all, students are expected to participate in hands-on and minds-on learning experiences that reflect the intellectual traditions of contemporary science. Standards-based lessons involve children in inquiry-oriented investigations, help them to establish connections, encourage questions, promote problem solving, and support group discussions. In the words of the standards, "Emphasizing active science learning means shifting away from teachers presenting information and …

High School Students' Perceptions Of Evolutionary Theory, C. Sheldon Woods, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

If we are to be successful in teaching evolution, we must take into account our students' worldviews as well as their individual understandings and misconceptions. It is im-portant to know our students their cultures, personal his-tories, cognitive abilities, religious beliefs, [and] scientific misconceptions. [It is also important] to address directly the likely cultural/religious concerns with evolution and to do so early on so as to break down the barriers that keep many students from hearing what you say. (Smith, 1994, p. 591)

Smith penned these words for a special issue of the Journal of Research in Science Teaching which focused …

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ethical guidelinesfor educational developers prepared by Mintz, Smith, and Warren, January 1999, revised March 1999, September 1999, and March 2000.

Publish, Don't Perish: A Program To Help Scholars Flourish, Tara Gray, Jane Birch

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty often believe that if they do not publish, they will perish. Faculty developers can respond to this need by helping faculty increase their scholarly productivity. Research shows that faculty are more productive if they write for 15-30 minutes daily, organize their writing around key sentences, and get extensive feedback on drafts. This article evaluates a program hosted on two campuses that aimed at supporting 115 faculty achieve these goals. Throughout the program, participants kept records of time they spent writing and the number of pages they wrote and at the end of the program, they were surveyed. These data …

Strengthening Collegiality To Enhance Teaching, Research, And Scholarly Practice: An Untapped Resource For Faculty Development, Gerlese S. Åkerlind, Kathleen M. Quinlan

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Collegiality lies at the intersection of various aspects of academic practice, including teaching as well as research. As such, assisting junior faculty in learning to build their collegial networks becomes a powerful point of intervention for faculty developers, even for those who focus on teaching development. Data from interviews with faculty engaged in both teaching and research, plus our experiences in conducting a series of career building initiatives are analyzed to identify junior faculty perceptions of the role of collegiality and barriers to establishing collegial ties. Two main barriers are identified: 1) knowing that collegiality and networking is important, and …

A Prophet In Your Own Land? Using Faculty And Student Focus Groups To Address Issues Of Race, Ethnicity, And Gender In The Classroom, James Francisco Bonnilla, Patricia R. Palmerton

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this study, six focus groups of faculty and students addressed issues of how race, ethnicity, and gender affected their classroom experiences. Consistent themes emerged across all groups, including feeling unsafe and vulnerable, concerns about equity, power, and role modeling. As importantly, the research process itself became a vehicle for growth and change in the community at large, both inside and outside the classroom. Six recommendations are offered for those who seek innovative approaches to addressing race and gender in the classroom.

Clarity In Teaching In Higher Education: Dimensions And Classroom Strategies, Nira Hativa

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay presents research knowledge regarding the main dimensions of effective teaching in higher education, concentrating on clarity in teaching and its components—classroom behaviors and strategies that promote clear teaching. On this basis, I suggest arranging all dimensions and classroom strategies of effective teaching within a logical structure of interconnected teaching behaviors whose contribution to student learning is based on theory and research. The model organizes all dimensions and strategies of effective teaching in three hierarchical levels and is illustrated by successively breaking down clarity in teaching into intermediate dimensions and classroom behaviors and strategies. The model may help faculty …

Technology And The Culture Of Teaching And Learning, Sean Courtney

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty development professionals in postsecondary institutions face many challenges helping faculty adapt to the new forms of information technology. Chief among them is understanding how technology is forcing us to rethink current classroom practices. To aid this effort, this essay identifies and analyzes six key dimensions of traditional cultures of teaching and learning and attempts to show how technology, particularly computer-mediated forms, is transforming their meaning and potential impact.

Higher–Level Learning: The First Step Toward More Significant Learning, L. Dee Fink

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In order to design significant learning experiences far students, teachers first need to be able to formulate powerful and challenging goals for their courses. This essay describes a taxonomy of higher-level learning that consists of six kinds of learning: foundational knowledge, application, integration, the human dimension, motivation, and learning how to learn. The argument is made that this taxonomy goes beyond the familiar taxonomy of Benjamin Bloom and encompasses a wide range of goals that are currently advocated by many national organizations and scholars in higher education. The taxonomy can be used to design better courses, choose among alternative teaching …

Introduction, Volume 19 (2001), Devorah Lieberman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 19 (2001) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, written by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

Education For Responsible Citizenship: A Challenge For Faculty Developers, Thomas Ehrlich

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Higher education professionals need clearer, stronger frameworks for the integration of both civic and moral learning and the more common cognitive learning that occurs in traditional classrooms. This article addresses when and why this author chose to focus on community service-learning as a way to reengage in direct work with students and other civic responsibilities. His discussion focuses on student acquisition of academic knowledge and skills through service-learning and the study of ethical dilemmas facing professionals in different fields. He proffers in-depth discussion on service-learning programs championed by the Carnegie Foundation and addresses how these programs working with faculty across …

Preface, Volume 19 (2001), Devorah Lieberman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Preface to volume 19 (2001) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, written by Devorah Lieberman of Portland State University.

Fostering The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: Communities Of Practice, Barbara L. Cambridge

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

September 1999, and March 2000.

The Case For Sophisticated Course Syllabi, Michael J. Strada

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Just as the last thing a fish would notice is water, academics tend to overlook the value of a comprehensive course syllabus. It seems too prosaic for some instructors to take seriously. Despite operating largely in obscurity, a nascent body of literature appreciative of the syllabus’ latent potential is emerging. The distinguishing features of model syllabi are traced here, and their respective benefits analyzed. First and foremost, good syllabi enhance student learning by improving the way courses are taught. But the potential of syllabi can also be tapped by using them more prominently in the faculty evaluation process. Much slower …

Designing Teaching Portfolios Based On A Formal Model Of The Scholarship Of Teaching, Carolin Kreber

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many universities now encourage, and some even require, faculty to submit a teaching portfolio as part of their tenure application package. How to evaluate these portfolios, however, remains an unresolved issue, particularly if the task is to make a judgment about whether what is demonstrated in the portfolio reflects engagement in the scholarship of teaching. The thesis of this chapter is that judgments regarding the validity and truthfulness of a teaching portfolio can be made by assessing the extent to which the author has attended to an agreed-upon process of knowledge construction and validation in teaching. A model of the …

Faculty Quality Of Life, Sally S. Atkins, Kathleen T. Brinko, Jeffrey A. Butts, Charles S. Claxton, Glenda T. Hubbard

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

An interdisciplinary research team conducted a formal assessment of campus culture and faculty quality of life at Appalachian State University. Interviews with a stratified random sample of full-time, tenure-track faculty revealed five themes: 1) the importance of human relationships, 2) the deep commitment of faculty to student learning, 3)general satisfaction with academic life, 4) the personal sacrifice of faculty members for their work, and 5) perceptions of incongruence between institutional rhetoric and action. Recommendations are offered for readers to apply to their own universities to help faculty, staff, students, and administrators work together toward becoming an institution that is a …