Education Commons^™

District-University Collaborations To Support Reform-Based Mathematics Curriculum Implementation, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Amy L. Nebesniak, Theodore J. Rupnow

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Curriculum change is inevitable in schooling. For content areas such as mathematics that are already under the national spotlight, transitioning to new curriculum materials while concurrently enacting instructional reform creates both a challenge and an opportunity. This paper discusses how partnerships between two state universities and respective neighboring school districts resulted in the creation and implementation of graduate courses for teachers targeted at curricular and instructional reform specific to each district. Common course components between both university-district partnerships were identified in the areas of mathematics research, practice, and leadership advocacy and found to be instrumental in supporting instructional reform and …

A Tale Of Three Cities: Defining Urban Schools Within The Context Of Varied Geographic Areas, Connie Schaffer, Meg White, Corine M. Brown

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

What constitutes an urban school? This question has confounded social researchers and educators who often limit definitions to population data. H. Richard Milner suggested a framework for defining urban schools that includes population data as well as the racial and social context of schools. This article applied Milner’s model to school districts in New York, Nebraska, and New Mexico which exemplified Milner’s categories of urban schools: urban intensive, urban emergent, and urban characteristic. Application of the framework to the districts presents a model for teacher educators to deliver two important components of preservice preparation. First, the model can assist preservice …

Early-Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Service Learning With Family Book Celebrations, M. Susan Mcwilliams

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

An associate professor and a public school district administrator formed a family-school-community partnership to introduce family book celebrations to an early-learning center located in a high-poverty area in a midwestern city with more than 80% of children (n=75) who attended the center qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Primary goals for the celebrations were (a) to offer a venue for book-related experiences with families of children attending the early-learning center; (b) to engage early-childhood teacher candidates in service with families in an authentic and meaningful way; and (c) to analyze efficacy of the service-learning experience on teacher candidates. Overall, teacher …

Grounded Technology Integration In Mathematics, Neal Grandgenett, Judi Harris, Mark Hofer

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Teachers today can choose from a variety of technologies for teaching mathematics. Drill-and-practice software, virtual manipulatives, real-life data sets, interactive geometry programs, graphing calculators, robots, and computer-based laboratories are just a few of the options available. But it can be difficult for mathematics teachers to know just which technologies to choose to support student learning in particular lessons.

One way to help teachers integrate technologies effectively is to match technology integration strategies to how teachers plan, rather than asking teachers to plan instruction that exploits the opportunities offered by particular educational technologies. For more information, see our previous article ( …

The Connections Project: Year 2 Annual Report, Neal Topp, Neal Grandgenett, Elliott Ostler, Bob Pawloski, Lawrence S. Bundy, Seward School District

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This annual report for budget year October 1, 1997-September 30, 1998 describes year 2 of the Connections Project within the Seward, Nebraska public schools. This project (a technology challenge grant) provided four major activities to help Nebraska middle and high school teachers, mentors, and community members enhance student learning through integrated curricula supported by technology. The activities included professional development for teachers to support their use of integrated curriculum and technology, curriculum development activities, community connections programs, and statewide and national dissemination of 400 project curriculum models and resources through a website and CD-ROM. The project was intended to increase …

Correlates Among Teachers’ Anxieties, Demographics, And Telecomputing Activity, Judith B. Harris, Neal Grandgenett

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Are educators' anxiety levels or demographics related to their voluntary use of networked resources? In this study, one year of logins and online time for 189 randomly selected educators with accounts on Tenet (Texas Education Network) were correlated with six interval-level subject attribute variables: (a) writing apprehension, (b) oral communication apprehension, (c) computer anxiety, (d) age, (e) teaching experience, and (f) telecomputing experience. The usage data were also correlated with three nominal-level subject attribute variables: (a) gender, (b) professional specialty, and (c) teaching level. Results indicated that writing apprehension was significantly and negatively correlated with network use, and that telecomputing …