Education Commons^™

Teacher Candidates Collaborate To Create Place-Based Integrated Curriculum, Amanda Wall, Taylor Norman

Middle Grades Review

A small group of middle level teacher candidates collaborated to create place-based integrated curriculum. These candidates and the authors, two teacher educators, selected two local sites, visited them together, and debriefed these visits. State and national standards as well as guidelines for integrated curriculum (e.g., Beane, 1997; Nesin & Lounsbury, 1999) informed the process. Through interpretive phenomenology analysis (Smith et al., 2009), we analyzed place-based learning as a catalyst for collaboration. Teacher candidates recognized possibilities with place-based learning to draw on local cultural, historical, and natural resources in ways that are relevant to students and their communities. We offer implications …

Guided Online Coaching For Teachers Of Emergent Bilinguals In A Tesol Practicum Course During Covid-19, Dawn Thieman

Dissertations

Guided online coaching for teachers of emergent bilinguals (EBLs) is a job-embedded professional development model established from the educational policies and practices described in the No Child Left Behind Act and Every Student Succeeds Act. Having effective teachers who ensure an equitable, creative, and linguistically and culturally relevant education for all EBLs is of paramount importance in the ever-changing demography of schools in the United States. The guided online coaching for teachers of EBLs offers a collaborative, facilitative, dialogic, and reflective coaching process for positively influencing teacher transformation, thus providing a creative language teaching pedagogy for EBLs. The purpose of …

Three Learning Contexts As Paths To Preservice Instrumental Music Teachers' Score Analysis, Rehearsal Planning, And Instructional Readiness: An Exploratory Study In Professional Development, Jennifer Lee Pulling

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Despite an abundance of evidence-based research pointing to the effectiveness of long-term teacher professional development (PD) (Darling-Hammond, Hyler & Gardner, 2017; Desimone, 2009), instrumental music teachers who seek to improve their teaching practices are limited to and often prefer short-term PD opportunities (Bauer, 2007; West, 2020). In recent years, a growing knowledge base focused on music teacher PD has given attention to long-term, content-based and collaborative music PD (Conway, 2015; Kastner, 2014; Stanley, Snell & Edgar, 2014) while a dearth of evidence-based research exists on short-term music PD (Bauer, 2007; West, 2020). The purpose of this collective case study was …

Vocational Education: Cna Students’ Perspectives Of Soft Skills In Training And The Workplace, Kimberly S. Mcclendon-Payton

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify CNAs’ perceptions about the most important soft skills used by CNAs in training and the workplace.

Methodology: This quantitative research study identified CNAs’ perceptions of the most important soft skills they used based on the composite model for soft skills. CNAs were selected based on purposeful sampling. Likert scores were collected from the survey responses.

Findings: Examination of the quantitative data from the 35 CNAs revealed that brainstorming is the most important collaboration soft skill in CNA training and the workplace.

Conclusions: Results based on the findings of this study …

Collaborative Inquiry To Support Critically Reading Children’S Literature, Laurie Rabinowitz, Amy Tondreau

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

This article provides an overview of a qualitative study investigating how K-5 classroom teachers describe their beliefs, concerns, and planning process for enacting read alouds featuring characters with disabilities. The study explored educators' close reading of picture books to elicit the unpacking of beliefs about individuals with disabilities conveyed by children’s literature. Through dialogue about social issues in picture books with colleagues, teachers sharpened their own critical literacy skills to bring into the classroom. Based on our findings, we offer a collaborative inquiry cycle that teacher groups can replicate to critically read children’s literature for different social justice issues.

Creating Conditions For Collaboration: A Case Study On Design-Based Professional Learning, Leslie A. Lehner

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

Design thinking is a process for solving complex problems through creative actions. There are three primary ways design thinking is being used in education today: (a) as a teaching tool, (b) as a strategy for teachers to redesign their students’ learning experiences, and (c) as a tool for school leaders to design school change (Gallagher & Thordarson, 2018). Design thinking includes a strong emphasis on team-based learning regarding the problem and possible solutions (Lindberg et al., 2010). This case study describes one school’s approach to navigating complex challenges, inspiring school change, and developing conditions for meaningful collaboration using a design …

Chapter 15- "Things Are Different Now" A Student, Staff, And Faculty Course Design Institute Collaboration, Maggie Debelius, Susannah Mcgowan, Aiyanna Maciel, Clare Reid, Alexa Eason

Resilient Pedagogy

Like other institutions across the world, Georgetown University in Washington, DC switched to remote learning in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States. Our Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS), which serves as both a center for teaching and learning as well as a center for technology innovation, responded quickly with a series of offerings to prepare and support faculty to teach remotely. Options included a virtual conference on digital pedagogy, a series of cohort-based Course Design Institutes (CDI) throughout the summer where faculty engaged with intertwined principles and best practices from inclusive pedagogy …

How Padlet Encouraged Student Collaboration And Engagement In My Virtual Classroom, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

With the growth of virtual classes, it is crucial for teachers to integrate strategies and resources that foster student engagement and build a sense of community in an online environment. One way to augment synchronous and asynchronous communication is to implement an online discussion board, which can provide rich opportunities for students to share insights, ask clarifying questions, collaborate, create multimodal projects, and have their voices heard. By incorporating an interactive discussion board, such as Padlet, as part of class resources, teachers can facilitate discourse among students that transcends the physical boundaries of the classroom, create a motivational environment, improve …

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.

Uncommon And Non-Traditional Urban Relationship Strategies: From Relationship Loss To Relationship Recovery, Lasonya L. Moore

Journal of English Learner Education

With increasing student diversity across our nation, there is a growing need to scale up educational innovations related to building holistic relationships. Many students in K-12 public schools enter educational settings with uncommon and nontraditional ways of building and developing longitudinal relationships that allow students to thrive and not just survive. Specifically, teachers/educators feel ill-equipped and ill-trained to adequately support the increasing number of English learners(ELs) and Exceptional education students (specifically Students of Color (SOC) with emotional and behavioral disorders) identified in inclusive classrooms. Thus, there remains an urgent need to share uncommon and non-traditional strategies to develop and build …

Technology As A Tool For Support: Classroom Teachers And Resource Specialists In Collaboration And Communication Practices, Mackenzie Jones

Education | Master's Theses

Classroom teachers and resource specialists face hectic schedules that include supporting students and meeting the core curriculum standards. In order to support students with disabilities in the classroom, collaboration between classroom teachers and resource specialists is essential. With busy schedules and increasing demands that teachers face, there is an urgent need to support teachers with effective systems of collaboration. This research focuses on the problem of unorganized and ineffective systems of support, which teachers face when trying to collaborate and communicate with their colleagues. While many prior studies address the significance of providing time for educators to collaborate in the …

“Math Talks Are Like An Alarm Clock Waking You Up”: Language’S Crucial Role In Mathematics, Ella Wasser

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were …

Integrating Interprofessional Education Into Teacher Preparation Curriculum: Reimagining Partnerships From The Inside Out, Jennifer Lauren Rogers Edd

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This mixed-methods program evaluation sought to identify elements of collaboration within interprofessional education experiences and provide suggestions regarding the future implementation of interprofessional education experiences into the identified teacher preparation program. Program suggestions were informed by the perspectives of current teacher preparation faculty, recent teacher preparation graduates, and other professional stakeholders. Other professional stakeholders are those who have a vested interest in a program. Quantitative data, in the form of descriptive statistics, was collected through a needs assessment tool completed by teacher preparation faculty participants and the Texas Education Agency Principal Survey completed by administrators overseeing first-year teachers who were …

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 …

Holding Tight To Our Convictions And Lightly To Our Ways: Inviting Shared Expertise As A Strategy For Expanding Inclusion, Reach, And Impact, Kylie Korsnack, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

When the global pandemic forced campuses across the United States to send students home in March 2020, instructors were thrown into triage mode, forced to rapidly transition their on-the-ground classroom curriculum to a format that could be completed remotely by students spread out across the country. At the same time, centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) also entered triage mode, puzzling over how to quickly but effectively provide appropriate training and meaningful support to prepare faculty for this rapid transition (Aebersold et al., 2020). The situation’s urgency, coupled with the significant constraints many CTL directors already experienced, necessitated creative, flexible, …

Examining Natural Resource Conservation: In The Classroom, Through Collaborative Conservation, And Across Public Communication Platforms, Shauni Seccombe

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Simulating Collaboration In A Blended Course For Preservice Middle Grades Teachers: Attending To Team, Task, And Time, David C. Virtue

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

Collaboration and teamwork are essential aspects of the work of a professional middle level teacher and an integral part of AMLE Standard 5. Preservice teachers typically experience collaborative practices firsthand during field experiences, but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many schools to shift instruction online thereby limiting the opportunities for teacher candidates to experience daily life in schools. Teacher educators can provide simulated opportunities for candidates to collaborate and engage in teamwork in virtual classroom settings. The author describes ways to simulate teacher collaboration in virtual settings by providing an example of engagements with teacher educators in a middle grades …

A Relationship Built To Impact Instruction: Developing And Sustaining Productive Partnerships Between Mathematics Specialists And Principals, Nathan D. Potter, Hannah Adera Rooney, Melody Locher, Debra Kinsey

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

How does the mathematics specialist provide a profound and lasting impact on instruction? We believe that a productive partnership between the principal and specialist, which we will call the principal-specialist relationship, is at the crux of the matter. When the principal-specialist relationship is built upon a foundation of a shared vision, clear roles, communication, and trust, both the teachers and students in the school benefit. We will explore the impact of the principal-specialist relationship on teacher success during the era of distance learning as necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. In order to explore how these ideas come alive in the …

Trauma Informed Leadership: Leading Through The Chaos, Christina Ruegamer, Joan T. Dorsey, Laine Smith, Megan G. Robertson

Instructional Modules for Professional learning Responding to Opportunities and Valuing Educators (IMPROVE)

The purpose of this professional learning module is to create and promote trauma-informed leadership. Throughout the module, leaders will also learn about the six trauma-informed principles on establishing a trauma-informed site. The design of this professional learning module is to prepare leaders in addressing situations involving trauma at their site. This module can be used individually for leadership training and/or professional development. It should take one to two hours to complete. Once the training is completed, an assessment will be given. Upon successful completion of the assessment with a score of 80% or higher, a certificate will be provided via …

Professional Learning Community: Perspectives Of Rural School Teachers And Leaders, Brenda Olivia Martinez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study addressed rural school administrators’ and teachers’ perceptions about the implementation and participation in professional learning communities (PLC) to impact teacher growth, increase student achievement, and improve instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the perceptions of rural administrators and teachers about PLCs within a rural West Texas school district. Research protocols were polished through a pilot study group that provided input to refine the survey and interview questions. The researcher administered a survey for all participants, conducted a one-on-one interview with administrators, and interviewed teachers in focus groups. Findings indicated that collaboration, implementation factors, and …

Collaboratively Designing A National, Mandated Teaching Performance Assessment In A Multi-University Consortium: Leadership, Dispositions And Tensions, Amanda Mcgraw, Ron “Kim” Keamy, Jeana A. Kriewaldt, Robyn Brandenburg, Rebecca Walker, Nadine Crane

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It is a requirement for pre-service students in Initial Teacher Education programs in Australia to successfully complete a teaching performance assessment (TPA) before they graduate. This follows similar requirements in other international contexts, particularly the United States, where standard-based assessment is also a focus. As members of the design team of a TPA, which was affirmed by a nationally appointed Expert Advisory Group in Australia, we examine the social processes contributing to the development of a high-stakes assessment task. Significant challenges emerged through the nature of the task and the responsibility developers had for ensuring validity and fairness, but also …