Education Commons^™

Pre-Service Teachers Evaluate Mentors And Teaching Practice Schools Using Metaphors, Suzan Canli, Hasan Demirtas

Journal of Global Education and Research

The present study aimed to analyze the views of pre-service teachers, expressed through metaphors, about the adequacy of mentors and teaching practice schools and their recommendations for effective mentoring. A phenomenological design was adopted, and participants included 105 mentees. The current mentors and teaching practice schools had attributes that were not adequate for active mentoring. The mentor should be selected based on criteria such as professional competence, ability to perform mentoring roles, and positive interpersonal relationships. The teaching practice schools should be selected based on human relations, educational activities, the quality of education and instruction, and the physical conditions of …

Building A Beloved Community Of Literacy In Professional Spaces, Elizabeth Petroelje Stolle, Jennifer L. Vanderground

Michigan Reading Journal

This article shares the experiences of two literacy teacher educators who sought to create a beloved community for both themselves and the teachers with whom they work within their professional spaces. The authors emphasize the importance of fostering safe, collaborative environments that promote personal and professional growth. Drawing from the principles of the Beloved Community, popularized by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the authors discuss the value of embracing a growth mindset when building such communities. Specifically, the article delves into two different professional development models as effective frameworks for cultivating beloved communities: Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) and Learning Labs …

The Impact Of Teacher Preparedness And Professional Development On Fourth-Grade Students' Science Achievement, Craig L. Mayo, Faye Bradley

Journal of Research Initiatives

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and essential information for students' success. A correlational quantitative study was conducted to assess the relationship between teacher preparedness and professional development on fourth-grade students’ science achievement. The TIMSS 2019 data were secured from the Boston College, TIMSS, and PIRLS International websites. The data was evaluated using the SPSS 27 Hierarchical Linear Regression. …

Facilitating Effective Mathematical Teaching Practices In Preschool, Funda Gonulates, Jasook Gilbert

Journal of Global Education and Research

Initial seeds for mathematics literacy are planted during early childhood. Children benefit when they are exposed to and provided with opportunities for math experiences that emphasize their holistic development and not just mathematics proficiency in isolation. This way of viewing and presenting mathematics to young children requires teachers who are equipped with strong mathematics teaching skills. This study examined a 21-hour professional development series for public school preschool teachers on early numeracy, geometry, mathematical reasoning, and teaching pedagogies. This professional development series aimed to help preschool teachers incorporate effective mathematical practices and increase their comfort level in teaching mathematics. Participants …

Art Nights: Reimagining Professional Development As A Ritual, Libba Willcox

International Journal of Lifelong Learning in Art Education

Art teachers’ need for connection, passion for artmaking, desire for mentoring, and quest for renewal led me to ask, what happens if we reimagine professional development as ritualized artistic practice? What would occur if our ritual was collaborative and intergenerational? How might ritualized professional development aid the quest for renewal? Pulling imagery and quotes from a larger qualitative and arts-based research study (Willcox, 2017), this visual essay shares what happened when an intergenerational group of art teachers met and engaged in artistic inquiry about their teaching practice. Specifically, it weaves together imagery and quotes to illustrate how our ritual, art …

A Framework For Teaching Computational Thinking In Primary Schools: A Namibian Case Study, Maria M. Ausiku, Machdel C. Matthee

The African Journal of Information Systems

Several professional development programs have been designed to train in-service teachers on a computational thinking (CT) curriculum, but few researchers have examined how these affect primary school teachers' self-efficacy and knowledge of CT in emerging economies. This study's objective was to create a framework for the professional development of primary school in-service teachers for the teaching of CT (referred to as professional development for primary computational thinking - PD4PCT) to be integrated into teachers' professional development programs. An initial framework was refined after implementing it at a Namibian school with a group of 14 teachers from five different disciplines (social …

Practitioner Inquiry For Turbulent Times: Learning To Take An Inquiry Stance Toward Teaching Difficult Topics Through A Teacher Inquiry Community, Logan Rutten, Danielle Butville, Wendy Lane Smith, Boaz Dvir

Journal of Practitioner Research

Amid turbulent times and politically polarized communities, many teachers require support if they are to teach or engage with difficult topics in their curricula or professional practices, yet few teachers actually receive any formalized support for addressing such topics. This article responds by describing the work of an inquiry community of inservice educators that was designed to assist teachers in learning to address difficult topics by integrating practitioner inquiry and student inquiry with asset-based and trauma-informed lenses. The article outlines the community’s conceptual foundations then describes how a team of university-based teacher educators facilitated the community’s work. A participating teacher’s …

Navigating The Chasms Between Real And Ideal Literacy Professional Development, Poonam Arya, Kathryn L. Roberts

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

In this study, we examine the supportive and hindering factors that influenced 26 teachers’ implementation of pedagogy learned through a research-based, resource-intensive literacy PD initiative (100+ hours). Through post-intervention interviews, we explore the space between learning and enactment of new practices for literacy teaching and learning. Specifically, we ask, What are teachers’ perceptions of the contextual factors that support and hinder their moving from learning to implementation of literacy PD? Results indicate four primary supportive factors (PD facilitators, communities of practice, schools/administrators, and student affective responses) and three primary hindering factors (circumstantial factors, lack of resources, and mismatches between school …

Teaching In An Unfamiliar Place: A Mixed Methods-Grounded Theory Study On The Experiences Of New Correctional Educators, Nicole Patrie

Journal of Prison Education and Reentry (2014-2023)

New correctional educators must learn to teach in an unfamiliar correctional environment. In this convergent mixed-methods study, experienced correctional educators in Alberta, Canada reflected on their first 6 months teaching in adult correctional institutions. Teachers initially struggled to do something familiar (teach) in an unfamiliar place, perceiv- ing prisons as non-conducive to education. Seeing the absence of a purpose-built community, they built one or attached to existing non-educational communities. New educators invoked strategies such as engaging in mutual support, connecting with non-education professionals, asking others to demystify institutional culture, and practicing reflexivity. When reflecting on useful training and orientation activities, …

A Professional Development Program For Science Adjunct Faculty: The Mentoring-Learning Community (Mlc), Linda B. Purvis, Jason D. Lang, Julie A. Luft

Georgia Journal of Science

Institutions of higher education have become increasingly dependent on adjunct faculty. These faculty members are often unfamiliar with current teaching strategies emphasizing an active learning approach. To support science adjunct faculty in learning about active learning, a professional development program was designed and implemented by the authors of this study, the Mentoring-Learning Community. The Mentoring-Learning Community program design was informed by literature regarding the use of professional development programs that focused on adjunct faculty. To determine the impact of this program, participants in the Mentoring-Learning Community were observed and interviewed over one semester. Mentoring-Learning Community participants transformed through all three …

The Developmental Experiences Of Exemplary Statistics Teachers, Douglas Whitaker

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

There has been a trend of increased statistical expectations for students and calls for increased statistical preparation for their teachers in recent years, but preparation has not yet reached recommended levels. A similar preparation gap existed at the inception of the Advanced Placement Statistics program, and this study examines a group of statistics teachers identified as exemplary by experts in the field to determine what challenges they faced and how they overcame them. Semi-structured interviews using a Communities of Practice framework (Wenger, 1998) were conducted. The challenges and responses to those challenges are identified, and these have implications for supporting …

Why Teachers Feel Unprepared To Address The Social And Emotional Needs Of Students With Dyslexia, Darlene Breaux

Tapestry: Journal of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging in Education

Students with dyslexia simultaneously struggle with both literacy acquisition and poor self-esteem and undergo social-emotional learning difficulties. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore elementary general education teachers’ perceptions regarding the dyslexia training they received for addressing the social and emotional learning (SEL) needs of children with dyslexia. The conceptual framework guiding this study was the five core competencies for SEL developed by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning. The researcher used a qualitative description research design involving semi structured interviews. The population included 10 elementary general education teachers who taught in first through fourth-grade …

Changing Teacher Perceptions And Actions Through Trauma-Responsive Professional Development, Jason A. Smith, Marilynn Quick

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Most teachers are not trained on how to support students who struggle with trauma. Childhood trauma not only impacts a teacher’s ability to teach, but also threatens their students’ futures. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions and actions when they participated in trauma professional development. Interviews were conducted with 5 teachers and 10 students in a Midwestern urban intermediate/middle school. By the end of the study, teachers stated that they had begun responding to disruptions in more child-centered approaches, and students noticed that their teachers began treating all students more equitably in trauma-informed manners. The …

K-12 Writing Teachers’ Careerspan Development: Participatory Pedagogical Content Knowledge Of Writing, Sarah J. Donovan, Jenn Sanders, Danielle L. Defauw, Joy Myers

Literacy Practice and Research

This narrative grounded theory study examines 19 US K–12 teachers’ development of pedagogical content knowledge of writing (PCKW) across their careers. Building on writing pedagogies and career cycle theories, we invited writing teachers to tell stories of critical experiences that contributed to their development. Findings indicate that teachers’ understanding of writing, being writers, and teaching writers were propelled by various critical experiences--both personal and professional. Our model shows that these experiences prompted teachers to engage in participatory PCKW to cultivate development. Implications are that writing teachers need communities of practice, mentors, and ongoing participatory engagements to sustain process pedagogies.

Expressed Willingness Of Stem Teachers To Teach Engineering, Zerrin Doganca Kucuk, Selvet Ece Genek, Hayriye Sinem Bozoglu, M. Sencer Corlu

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Teaching engineering at the middle and high school levels has been a topic of discussion among scholars regarding the challenges it creates. One of the most critical challenges at the school level is identifying qualified teaching staff to lead engineering courses. The present study explored teachers’ willingness to lead an engineering course and the reasons behind their willingness or unwillingness to do so. The study involved 434 participants, who were enrolled in a STEM professional development program and were diverse regarding their teaching subjects, the grade levels they taught, and the locations of their schools in Turkey. In this mixed-methods …

Understanding The Impact Of Professional Development For A Cohort Of Teachers With Varying Prior Engineering Teaching Experience, Jennifer Kouo, Medha Dalal, Eunsil Lee, Bruk Berhane, Olushola Emiola-Owolabi, Jumoke Ladeji-Osias, Cheryl Beauchamp, Ken Reid, Stacy Klein-Gardner, Adam Carberry

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Engineering for US All (e4usa) is a National Science Foundation-funded first-of-its-kind initiative aimed at making engineering more inclusive and accessible to underrepresented populations. The ‘‘for us all’’ mission of e4usa encompasses both students and teachers. Paramount to the success of e4usa was the construction of professional development (PD) experiences to prepare and support teachers with different levels of engineering teaching experience as they implemented the e4usa yearlong course. The perspectives of nine teachers with varying degrees of engineering teaching experience were examined during two PD opportunities to compare experiences and dynamics between the teachers. Data sources consisting of focus groups …

A Creative Approach To Promoting And Discussing Social Emotional Learning, Lori B. Doyle, Jill L. Swisher

Journal of Organizational & Educational Leadership

Social emotional learning (SEL) is an important topic in education and a desired area of professional development for teachers. This conceptual essay offers a creative approach in promoting and discussing SEL through the use of haiku poetry. The tenets from the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) framework were synthesized into key concepts and presented as haiku poems as a pedagogical exercise to increase awareness on SEL.

Teacher Inquiry: A Catalyst For Professional Development, Divonna Stebick, Jonathan Hart, Lauren Glick, Jaime Kindervatter, Jenna Nagel, Cathy Patrick

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Teachers seek and require meaningful professional development opportunities to truly grow in the profession. Teacher inquiry, or teacher research, is one way to accomplish professional development goals. Teacher inquiry is thought of as individualized, personalized, and meaningful professional development (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). In this paper we articulate the learning of a cohort of certificated professionals engaged in a year-long project that included asking research questions, designing data collection tools, and developing an independent study to examine their questions. Nine certificated professionals participated in the year-long project representing various grade levels and experiences. Data was collected through teacher reflections and …

Explicit Instruction: Evaluating The Fidelity Of A Teacher's Practice Supported By Professional Development And Directive Coaching - A Case Study, Christophe Baco, Marie Bocquillon, Laëtitia Delbart, Antoine Derobertmasure

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Training teachers in evidence-based practice is a societal challenge. We conducted practical action research to investigate the impact of a professional development programme (the aim of which is to train teachers in explicit instruction) established according to the principles of effective professional development on one teacher's practices. A holistic case study was conducted with one teacher randomly selected among a group of volunteers. An original methodology was developed to measure the fidelity of the teacher’s practices to the different teaching practices and stages of explicit instruction. The teacher's practices were filmed on four occasions and analysed using an observation grid …

Emergency Remote Teaching Versus Planned Remote Teaching: Narrowing The Gap With Targeted Professional Development, Bonnie J. Covelli, Sudipta Roy

Higher Learning Research Communications

Objectives: This study reviews faculty members’ comfort level with remote teaching in the Fall 2020 semester to evaluate the effectiveness of the professional development workshops.

Method: Using survey research, we examined professional development activities and subsequent comfort level and ease of adjustment with remote teaching in Fall 2020.

Results: Following the training, faculty reported high planned usage of various online teaching tools and great comfort with using them. The data reveals some differences between part-time and full-time faculty members.

Conclusions: The experience gained in the emergency semester, combined with the targeted professional development workshops offered eased the stress of planned …

Learning To Lead: Lessons Taken From The Wisest People We Know, Christine Kenney, Aviva Dorfman, Sapna V. Thwaite

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

How we engage and interact with young children and what we know about supporting them as they grow into the best versions of themselves is a window into what we also know about adults as they grow into the best leaders they can be. How we support and teach children has informative parallels for what leaders in education might learn and draw upon in their interactions and engagements with the people with whom they work. The goal of this paper is to introduce four principles of early childhood education (emotions and feelings are important, relationships are vital, process orientation is …

Literacy Coaching For Instructional Change In Guided Reading: Navigating Form And Function, Denise N. Morgan, Celeste C. Bates, Robin Griffith

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this research was to examine how one teacher’s guided reading instruction evolved while engaged in a job-embedded professional development experience across the school year. The teacher taught and debriefed multiple guided reading lessons per visit with a literacy coach. The authors employed qualitative methods to analyze the transcripts from interviews and pre- and postconferences, written reflections, and field notes from the lessons. Findings demonstrate that the teacher shifted from being hyper-focused on the form of guided reading to the actual function of guided reading. Initially, she concentrated on text level, time and planning, and management, which the …

Operationalizing Centerness And Measuring It In Professional Development Teams, George M. Nickles, Bruce Herbert

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Centerness is defined as a quality of multi-agent systems (groups) where agents share a common set of system goals and interact so the system will achieve those goals. A pair of measures is identified to capture the two dimensions of centerness: distance-weighted fragmentation and average goal centerness. As a case study, the measures of centerness are applied to six teacher professional development groups within the Information Technology in Science Center for Teaching and Learning. The calculated measures of centerness of these groups generally conform to the expectations. Insights on using this measure of centerness to evaluate centerness in other professional …

Nurse Educator Certification: Overview And Evaluation Of The Canadian Association Of Schools Of Nursing Program, Karin Page-Cutrara, Patricia Bradley, Cynthia Baker

Quality Advancement in Nursing Education - Avancées en formation infirmière

The Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN) has spearheaded an education institute and fostered the growth of an accessible cadre of innovative educational programming that were built on identified national nursing educator competencies. The purpose of this article is to outline the development and structure of the CASN Canadian Nurse Educator Certification Program, share an analysis of one aspect of program evaluation data and summarize the program’s current value to nurse educators. The program offers flexible professional development for Canadian nurse educators through three online modules that prepare participants to sit the national certification exam and attain the designation …

Evaluating A Suite Of Strategies For Reading Graphic Novels: A Confirmatory Case Study, Maribeth Nottingham, Barbara J. Mcclanahan, Howard Atkinson

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This article describes a qualitative study conducted by two researchers who are teacher educators and a literacy coach in a private school. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of a set of strategies for reading and teaching about graphic novels by examining the responses of three elementary-grade teachers in a reading workshop environment to a semester-long professional development. Challenges both expected and unexpected were encountered but results overall were positive for teachers. In addition, they provided guidance to researchers for using the strategies introduced in the professional development in further studies.

Fresh Beginnings: Promoting A Culture Of Teacher Inquiry Through Passion In The Profession, Jonathan Hart, Divonna Stebick

Journal of Practitioner Research

Teachers are required to participate in professional development and seek meaningful opportunities to truly grow in the profession. Teacher inquiry, or teacher research, is one way to accomplish professional development goals. Teacher inquiry is thought of as individualized, personalized, and meaningful professional development (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1999). Teacher inquiry must go beyond a teacher wondering (Dana & Yendol-Hoppey, 2020) where teachers develop a project from their own practice, collect data, and draw conclusions to continue their professional development. In this study a cohort of certificated professionals engaged in a year-long project that included asking research questions and developing an independent …

Disciplinary Literacy In Practice: Examining How English Teachers Read Literary Texts, Matt Cantrell

Literacy Practice and Research

This study investigates the viability of disciplinary literacy by (1) examining whether English teachers can use disciplinary methods to read a disciplinary text and (2) identifying possible relationships between teacher training and the use of disciplinary approaches. In total, 21 English instructors thought-aloud as they read an unfamiliar poem, and two independent raters evaluated each transcribed response as either “Disciplinary” or “General” depending on the types of reading strategies demonstrated using a rubric generated from previous expert-novice studies in literary reading. This study found that ten (10) of the 21 participants used at least one disciplinary method to make sense …

Professional Development Rewired: A Case Study Of Tims Approach, Tian Luo, Jilian Reynolds, Pauline Muljana

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This paper presents a case study of a technology-enhanced professional development strategy and demonstrates how an extended workshop approach, based on tutorials, instructional modeling, and support (TIMS), was used for professional learning at a school site. Data collection procedures included a pre-survey, an audiotaped focus group, interviews, a post-survey, and previous district historical survey collection and analysis regarding professional development sessions. Overall, the results indicate that the TIMS approach is an effective form of professional development delivery, which focuses on providing live modeling, attending to lesson relevancy and student needs, as well as being content-specific. Implications regarding implementing technology-focused professional …

Systemic Approaches For Professional Development On Diverse Learners In Rural Communities, Elizabeth Thorne Wallington, Adrienne Johnson

Educational Considerations

While rural communities are not monolithic, many have seen recent shifts in demographics from historically homogenous populations to more racially, culturally, and linguistically diverse residents (e.g. Sharp & Lee, 2017; Brenner, 2016). Without clear systems for addressing such changes, reactionary policies to address the accompanying conflict can establish marginalized communities, deficit-based perspectives, and structural inequities (Lee & Sharp, 2017). As an alternative approach, this paper outlines promising practices for systemic approaches to addressing the ongoing professional development needs for teachers in rural communities who are supporting students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. These practices provide the support and professional development that …

“We Can Position Ourselves As Experts”: Teachers Learning To Write And Publish On National Blogs, Henry "Cody" Miller, Gage Jeter

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This article focuses on a collective case study of two teachers attending a professional development workshop focused on writing for publication via educational blogs. Through a qualitative study, we sought to understand how attending the workshop and publishing on a national organization's blog shaped the two teachers' own identities as teachers and shifted their thinking about blogs as a genre. We argue the two teachers had a shift in conceptualizing what counted as scholarship as well as problematizing who counted as a scholar. In an era of increased attacks on teachers' intellectualism and autonomy, we believe publishing on national blogs …