Education Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study Of Professional And Practical Changes Experienced By Teachers Involved With Action Research In A Learning Community Master’S Program, Jay Dean Meiners

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the United States, the majority of teachers have a master’s degree or higher. However, there exist concerns in the literature that having an advanced degree does not make teachers better. There thus needs to be a way to improve the outcome of a master’s degree in education so that teachers do advance their practice and bring change to their classrooms as a direct result of their experience in a master’s degree program. By focusing on the use of action research in a learning community, the intent of the present phenomenological study was to discover changes that occurred in teachers …

Examining Early Childhood Gender Socialization Through Children’S Picture Books, Kendra Leigh Pospisil

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This analysis examines gender representations found in children’s picture books through a symbolic interactionist perspective, employing conceptual ideas produced by West and Zimmerman (1987) and West and Fenstermaker 1995). Through a qualitative content analysis of 20 picture books from the past 15 years, I examine how gender is portrayed through both human and animal characters. I find that children’s picture books reflect our patriarchal society as they are male-centered, male-dominated, and male-identified (Johnson 2014). Children’s picture books depict patriarchal gender portrayals and provide children with examples of gender performances that satisfy patriarchal gender norms. This research has implications beyond books; …

Impression Management Strategies Of College Professors With Disabilities, Chelsie Gaspar

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This qualitative study examined how college instructors with disabilities utilize impression management strategies in order to enhance their ability to teach more effectively in the classroom. Eight instructors from mid-size universities and community colleges across the United States were interviewed. A thematic analysis approach was used to identify emergent themes pertaining to the ways in which college instructors with disabilities use impression management in the classroom. Results showed that instructors in this study use a wide variety of impression management strategies in order to influence how they are perceived in the classroom and to improve their teaching effectiveness. These strategies …

Institutionalizing Faculty Mentoring Within A Community Of Practice Model, Emily R. Smith, Patricia E. Calderwood, Stephanie Burrell Storms, Paula Gill Lopez, Ryan P. Colwell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In higher education, faculty work is typically enacted—and rewarded—on an individual basis. Efforts to promote collaboration run counter to the individual and competitive reward systems that characterize higher education. Mentoring initiatives that promote faculty collaboration and support also defy the structural and cultural norms of higher education. Collaborative mentoring initiatives, however, support all faculty to be lifelong learners. We analyze a reciprocal model of mentoring—a community of practice for mentoring—that integrates collaborative mentoring into faculty’s daily work. Additionally, we examine the dilemmas, benefits, and costs of institutionalizing a community of practice model for mentoring in higher education. Our analyses indicate …

The Scholarship Of Educational Development: A Taxonomy, Laura Cruz

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This is a visual representation and commentary on a taxonomy for the emerging scholarship ofeducational development.

Good, Fast, Cheap: How Centers Of Teaching And Learning Can Capitalize In Today’S Resource Constrained Context, Michael H. Truong, Stephanie Juillerat, Deborah H. C. Gin

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article provides leaders and educational developers of Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL) with innovative and practical strategies on how to increase their centers’ capacity and impact by focusing on quality, efficiency, and cost. This “good, fast, cheap” model represents a promising way that CTL can continue to grow, scale, and innovate in the midst of limited resources. By leveraging existing campus resources, external vendor products, and low cost technologies, CTL are able to remain effective and impactful, without compromising quality or requiring abundant resources. This article will include real use case examples from a CTL at a mid …

Don’T Box Me In: Rubrics For Ártists And Designers, Natasha Haugnes, Jennifer L. Russell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Two faculty developers at a professional art and design university were met with uneasy faculty attitudes toward grading when they opened their CTL 13 years ago. Conversations revealed that the faculty artists and designers suspected that grading would somehow shatter the fragile muse of creativity, which is so central to the processes of producing art and design. The developers’ quest for transparent, consistent grading, and assessment practices resulted in an approach to rubric creation that taps into artists’ reverence for the critique. This narrative account reveals how the approach allowed an interactive introduction of rubrics as teaching tools, ensured their …

The Use Of Song To Open An Educational Development Workshop: Exploratory Analysis And Reflections, Lawrence Lesser, Song An, Daniel Tillman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Song has been used by faculty of many disciplines in their classrooms and, to a lesser extent, by educational developers in workshops. This paper shares and discusses a new song (about an instructor’s evolving openness to alternatives to lecture only teaching) and its novel use to open an educational development workshop. Self reported participant data from an exploratory survey suggest that the song was most effective in reducing stress as well as in increasing motivation, morale, engagement, and connection. Practical implications and implementation considerations are discussed regarding the song as well as related creative work.

Subjectivities In The Sandbox: Discovering Biases Through Visual Memo Writing, Bethany Lisi

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Having insider status at an organization under study can present a researcher with benefits and challenges. Insider researchers may have access to honest dialogue with study participants but may also be vulnerable to uncomfortable conversations and organizational conflicts. Insider researchers also have to contend with their own biases they bring to a study. By using the reflexive practice of memo writing, insider researchers can be mindful of their own subjectivities during data collection and analysis. The purpose of this article is to share one approach to memo writing that incorporates visuals into the analysis and reflection. Through my use of …

Systematic Assessment Of A High Impact Course Design Institute, Michael S. Palmer, Adriana C. Streifer, Stacy Williams Duncan

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Herein, we describe an intensive, week long course design institute (CDI) designed to introduce participants to the scholarly and evidence driven process of learning focused course design. Impact of this intervention is demonstrated using a multifaceted approach: (a) post CDI satisfaction and perception surveys, (b) pre /post CDI surveys probing pedagogical confidence and perceptions regarding importance of syllabi components, and (c) pre /post CDI syllabi analysis using a reliable syllabus rubric validated for higher education courses. The combined results of these qualitative and quantitative studies indicate that participants value the CDI experience, believe they learn basic principles of learning focused …

A Faculty Wellness Workshop Series: Leveraging On Campus Expertise, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Arielle Neal, Sheila Otto

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTL) that suffer from funding and staffing issues must rely on outside resources to enhance their effectiveness. Even if funds and staff are adequate, most CTL can improve their reach and effectiveness by the partnerships they establish across their campuses. In this article, we describe a faculty wellness workshop series that illustrates the strategic leveraging we have been able to accomplish on our campus. The series included free standing faculty workshops devoted to stress management (partnering with Counseling Services), work life balance and workplace civility (with members of our faculty learning communities), voice coaching (with …

Improv(Ing) The Academy: Applied Improvisation As A Strategy For Educational Development, Jonathan P. Rossing, Krista Hoffmann Longtin

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Improvisational theater training (or “improv”) is a strategy employed by many business leaders and educators to cultivate creativity and collaboration amid change. Drawing on improv principles such as “Yes, And…” and “Make your scene partners look good,” we explore the ways in which educational developers might apply principles of improv in 3 contexts: teaching and building classroom community, organizational development, and research collaboration. Faculty developers who successfully engage the principles of improv have the potential to help colleges and universities respond more effectively to complex problems and to manage the uncertainty of the future. By highlighting successful applications of improvisation …

Beyond Survival: Educational Development And The Maturing Of The Pod Network, Leslie Ortquist Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Scholarship about the growth of educational development has charted major shifts in developers’ focuses and roles through time and, especially in recent years, has explored the professionalization of the field around the globe. This essay uses a lifecycle analogy to consider the development of one organization, the POD Network (The Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education). After a brief and heady “start up phase,” and a long organizational “adolescence,” characterized by growth and by increasing formalization of processes, governance, and strategy, the POD Network is on the brink of entering a phase of greater maturity.

High Retention Of Minority And International Faculty Through A Formal Mentoring Program, Susan L. Phillips, Susan T. Dennison, Mark A. Davenport

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In these economic times, retention of new faculty, particularly minority and international faculty, is a high priority. In this study, retention of new faculty from 2006 to 2013 was compared for participants and nonparticipants in a formal mentoring program. Retention was 92% for participating faculty and 58% for nonparticipating new faculty. For African American faculty, retention was 86% for participating and 56% for nonparticipating. Participating international faculty were retained at 100% and nonparticipating at 61%. The results indicate that mentoring programs including both individual and group mentoring provide a supportive community and self validation to new faculty, leading to high …

Toward A New Creative Scholarship Of Educational Development: The Teaching And Learning Project And An Opening To Discourse, Martin Springborg, Cassandra V. Horii

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This invited essay of To Improve the Academy’s special feature on Creative Scholarship presents one example of creative scholarship in educational development as a forward to other forms and approaches in the special feature. This example, the Teaching and Learning Project, merges documentary and art photography traditions with faculty consultation. Following a review of the literatures of visual interpretation and instructional consultation, along with their intersection, the essay presents the Teaching and Learning Project in three ways: (a) as images, analyzed using the disciplinary grounding of the visual arts; (b) as a consultation methodology and an educational development practice; and …

Table Of Contents

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

No abstract provided.

Community College And University Interprofessional Collaboration: Student Centered Partnership Between Nutrition And Dental Hygiene Faculty, Cynthia Cadieux Phd, Rdn, Fand, Christine Medlin Phd, Rdn, Fand, Gayle Mccombs Rdh, Ms

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Interprofessional education (IPE) is critical in today’s educational and healthcare arenas. This article describes the initial design, implementation, and evaluation of a Community College/ University IPE collaboration that enabled dental hygiene graduate students to satisfy course requirements and service learning competencies, promoted faculty development, and also served the community. Under the direction of a community college dietetics professor, students and faculty from both academic institutions had opportunities to participate in community outreach events. Experiences included teacher recertification training for community college credits in the local school system, paraprofessional workshops, community-based health fairs, career counseling, guest lectures, expanded internship sites, and …

Front Cover

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Cover art by Amanda Layton, a Photography student at John Tyler Community College.

Back Cover

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Cover Art by Amanda Layton. Amanda Layton attends John Tyler Community College in Midlothian, Virginia, and is currently majoring in photography. After first struggling to find her career direction, Amanda realized that her passion for the arts and especially for photography were the interests that she should develop and explore further. Her family has been very supportive of her choices, and their gift of her first camera a few years ago has led her along interesting paths as she develops her skills in artistic photography and captures the world around her.

Comparison Between Primary Teacher Educators’ And Primary School Teachers’ Beliefs Of Primary Geography Education Quality, Gert Jan Bent, Anouke Bakx, Perry Den Brok

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this study teacher educators’ beliefs concerning primary geography education have been investigated and compared with primary school teachers’ beliefs. In this study 45 teacher educators and 489 primary school teachers completed a questionnaire, and nine teacher educators have been interviewed as well. It has been found that teacher educators are more critical about the quality of primary education than the primary school teachers themselves who are generally positive about the quality of primary geography. Teacher educators think that most primary school teachers are sufficiently competent to organise the more basic and simple geography lessons, but somehow lack the ability …

The Design Of A Cognitive Apprenticeship To Facilitate Storytime Programming For Librarians, Jennifer A. Scott Brown, Jill E. Stefaniak

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The majority of research that has been conducted on structuring mentorship programs has been on career support in terms of transferring tacit and explicit knowledge from the supervisor to the protégé. While the instructional design literature touts that cognitive apprenticeships provide a great framework for constructivist and situated learning environments, little research has been done examining how much time should be allocated to the various phases of the apprenticeship framework. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the use of a cognitive apprenticeship framework could be used to mentor new librarians. Data was collected and analyzed in three …

The Use Of The Internet For English Language Teachers’ Professional Development In Arab Countries, Mohammad Madallh Alhabahba, Omer Hassan Ali Mahfoodh

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated the relationship between English language teachers’ motives to use online teaching resources and three types of Internet practices: teachers’ practices in using the Internet to collaborate with others, teachers’ practices for classroom teaching, and the Internet’s contribution to the overall professional development of teachers. Gender was also used to assess differences in the proposed model. In this study, one hundred and seventy-four English language teachers completed an online survey. SmartPLS was used to assess the measurement and the structural models. The results indicated that participation was a significant determinant of both English language teachers’ Internet-related practices at …

Pols: 450: Research In Biology, Psychology, And Politics—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Ingrid J. Haas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark course portfolio provides an overview of student learning in Research in Biology, Psychology, and Politics (Political Science 450). This is an upper-level undergraduate course focused on training students to conduct research in the interdisciplinary area of political psychology. Enrollment in the course is primarily advanced political science majors, or students from related majors (i.e., psychology) with an interest in politics. This course focuses on developing understanding of research methods and application of appropriate methods to small group research projects. In addition, the course helps to improve student confidence in ability to engage in the research process and understand …

Psyc 287: Psychology Of Personality—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Maital Neta

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this portfolio, I am assessing student learning in a mid-level Psychology course, Psyc 287: Psychology of Personality. The course introduces students to the major theories of personality, and covers a wide array of topics intended to provide a broad overview of issues in the field. The course attracts a somewhat representative sample of UNL students, including non-majors, and therefore most are from Nebraska. The course is not a prerequisite to any other courses, but it could be a useful foundation course for students pursuing a career in psychology research, and it could also help people to consider issues related …

The Social And Emotional Learning And Character Education Of K-12 Online Students : Teacher Perspectives, Anna Warwick Nolan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

Teacher Educators' Use Of Research-Based Literature In Their Pedagogical Practice, Leigh Yannuzzi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Teacher education programs are situated at a critical point of intersection between the worlds of P-12 education, higher education, and educational policy. However, description and analysis of teacher educator programs, and specifically teacher educator practice, has yet to consider the role research literature plays in faculty work with pre-service teachers. This study provides an exploratory examination of knowledge dissemination in teacher education and analyzes mechanisms for, challenges to, and influences on the use of research literature with pre-service teachers. It contributes to scholarship by providing new knowledge about how teacher education faculty use the dissemination mechanism of course syllabi to …

Transforming Teacher-Family Relationships: Shifting Roles And Perceptions Of Home Visits Through The Funds Of Knowledge Approach, Kristin Whyte, Anne E. Karabon

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Education has embraced the idea of an ‘asset approach’ to working with families and children, creating a focus on developing collaborative relationships with families by building on what they bring to the table. In this paper we explore what happened when early childhood teachers entered homes to learn from families and identify their Funds of Knowledge. The findings show how issues of power and perception surfaced when teachers attempted to shift their role from that of teacher to learner. In analyzing teachers’ experience before, during, and after ethnographic home visits we saw their general desire to adopt an asset-based mentality. …

Classroom Management With Voice-Movement-Task, Victoria Lentfer

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Sometimes it's the simple things that are the solution to classroom management problems.

Consider the simple task of giving directions. As basic as they may be, directions are the infrastructure of a well-managed classroom. Clear directions give students a better understanding of behavior and academic expectations.

Instructional Coaching Implementation: Considerations For K-12 Administrators, Kelly Gomez Johnson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

As school leaders, 21st century school administrators are in the spotlight for their role in promoting an environment of academic achievement. Along with organizing and planning for the fundamental workings of their staff, students, activities, and building, administrators are expected to encompass numerous roles. In fact, two primary, yet conflicting activities expected from school administrators are leading and managing (Hall & Simeral, 2008). At the intersection of these primary activities is the evaluation and development of teachers as a means to improve student learning. While the management of formal teacher evaluations and observations is important for ensuring teacher accountability and …

An Exploration Of Teacher Candidate Perceptions Concerning Their Political Role In Social Studies Education, Brian Zagrocki

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This study argued that the purpose of social studies education is intimately connected with civic engagement. The function of civic engagement shifts in accordance with the political roles a teacher plays in the classroom (Westhaimer & Kahne, 2004). The literature review defined the possible parameters of these political roles. The research then explored how secondary social science and elementary teacher candidates, if at all, planned to address the political issue of civic engagement in education and their self-awareness as political actors. This research study aimed to expand the available body of research on this topic by exploring the perceptions of …