Education Commons^™

Professional Learning In Trauma Informed Positive Education: Moving School Communities From Trauma Affected To Trauma Aware, Helen Stokes, Tom Brunzell

School Leadership Review

In order to assess and then to identify promising approaches for school leadership within rural communities, it can be helpful to reframe struggling schools as trauma-affected schools. Acknowledging the impacts of childhood trauma on students and their learning allows school leaders to undertake professional learning both with and for their schools to become trauma-aware. Embedded within a rural community located in a region contending with intergenerational disadvantage, the findings reported in this study suggest that when school leaders deliberately implemented trauma-aware practice as a whole-school approach for all staff members, there was growth in student academic outcomes. In addition to …

Emerging Teacher-Leaders For English Learners: A Professional Development Model In Rural Florida, Raisa Ankeny, Nidza Marichal, Maria Coady

School Leadership Review

This paper describes an ongoing Professional Development (PD) program that aimed to prepare teacher-leaders for rural English learner (EL) students. We delineate the theoretical underpinnings of the PD design and describe the two-year graduate coursework program with onsite coaching in rural schools in detail. We define rurality and the context of ELs in the rural partner school district and describe the PD coursework, which was adapted to meet the local rural educational needs of the participants. At its outset, participants reflected on the overall PD through online discussions, surveys, and focus group interviews. Data revealed that the participants found the …

Understanding Practice: A Pilot To Compare Mathematics Educators’ And Special Educators’ Use Of Purposeful Questions, Mary E. Sheppard, Robert Wieman

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Despite calls for alignment, descriptions of best practices from special education and math education researchers continues to diverge. However, there has been little discussion of how special education teacher educators and mathematics teacher educators compare in practice. This paper describes a study in which a range of teacher educators (N=51) were asked to evaluate a series of questions asked in response to a struggling student with a learning disability. The results indicate that teachers from both groups ranked initial assessment questions highly, and questions that lowered the cognitive demand of the task much lower. Differences between math education and …

Exploring The Experiences Of Male Early Childhood Aspiring Teachers, Tingting Xu

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This exploratory study investigated the reasons why males chose early childhood

education and their lived experiences in a teacher education program. Qualitative data

were collected through interviews with twelve male early childhood pre-service

teachers. Results demonstrated that: Participates were passionate about teaching

young children. They were mostly supported by their relatives and friends in their

decision to become an early childhood teacher. They were positive about future career

opportunities but still had an underlying fear of losing job or being seen as sexual

predators. Meanwhile, participates indicated some conflicts might exist between the

field experience and program learning experience. They …

Exposing Preservice Teachers To Emergent Bilinguals, Deborah J. Williams Ed.D., Jim Ewing

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This study followed a case study design and employed qualitative methods to explore monolingual preservice teachers’ (PSTs) attitudes toward learning to teach emergent bilinguals (EBs) in a dual language school. We sought to support and observe PSTs as they applied strategies learned in methodology courses to students in the field. Three overarching themes emerged from PSTs’ videotaped focus group interviews, weekly reflections, and field notes. Responses that supported Theme 1 suggested PSTs desired to teach EBs for a variety of reasons and Theme 2 supporting responses showed that PSTs confidence levels increased as they interacted with EBs. Responses that supported …

Understanding Equitable Assessment: How Preservice Teachers Make Meaning Of Disability, Melissa K. Driver

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Disproportionality of historically marginalized populations in special education continues to be a critical concern. The identification of students with disabilities is reliant on valid and reliable assessment that is free of bias. The extent to which this is possible given measurement constraints and an increasingly diverse student population is unclear. How teachers are trained to design, select, administer, score, and interpret assessment data related to the identification of students with disabilities is vastly under-researched considering the significant implications of assessment practices. In this study, six special education preservice teachers engaged in an assessment methods course during their second semester of …

White Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions And Their Development Of Culturally Relevant Literacy Practices, Lakia M. Scott, Elena Venegas

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Existent literature purports that providing White teacher candidates with increased exposure to urban schools in order to create culturally competent educators has failed. These findings reflect the notion that teacher ideologies and overall perspectives about working with diverse student groups must be harnessed in a genuine ethic of care and intentionality for students of color. However, few studies have taken the approach of examining the development of culturally relevant pedagogy through context-specific field experiences using content-specific courses. This study examines the perspectives of twenty-five White pre-service teachers from a predominately White, private university regarding their initial perceptions and gained conceptual …

Effects Of Movement, Growth Mindset And Math Talks On Math Anxiety, Christina J. Peterman, Jim Ewing

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Mathematical anxiety is prevalent in our schools. This research provides insight into how mathematical anxiety develops and how it affects students throughout their lives. This study focuses on the mathematical anxiety and mathematical self-concept of five second grade classes at an economically disadvantaged school in rural North Texas. The study looked to see if adding the interventions of movement, mathematical growth mindset and math talks to a classroom would improve the mathematical self-concept of the children in the classrooms which participated. The study contained three classrooms of students who participated in the interventions and two classrooms which were used as …

The Perceptions Of Teacher Evaluation By Teachers And Campus Administrators In A Suburban Texas District, George P. Willey

School Leadership Review

The purpose of this research is to examine the perceptions of campus administrators and teachers of the new Texas Teacher Evaluation and Support System (T-TESS) in a suburban Texas school district. Historically, teacher evaluation systems have failed to reach the intended outcome of serving as a tool to improve teaching practices. When campus administrators and teachers perceive teacher evaluation as primarily a tool to document poor performers, the growth aspect of the evaluation process is not maximized. This research seeks to identify the perceptions of both campus administrators and teachers on the evaluation system. District leaders will be able to …

See-I Critical Thinking Framework: Expository Writing In Middle Schools, Bernice Sanchez, Hayley Kazen, Lilia P. Cantu

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

A variety of teaching strategies and process approach methods have been implemented as a means of improving student writing across the country. Despite efforts to improve student writing, specifically in secondary education, it has been reported that 70% of students in grades (4-12) are weak writers and additional studies indicate that one third of high school graduates are not prepared for college-level writing courses (Graham & Perin, 2007; Persky et. al. 2003). SEE-I framework facilitates the premise for problem solving and critical thinking strategies situated in the writing process. Flower and Hayes (1977) stress the importance of treating writing as …