Education Commons^™

Readiness For Reform In Middle Schools Adopting Powerteaching For Mathematics Instruction, Elizabeth Hoag Carhart, John Nunnery, Linda Bol, Pamela Arnold, Shanan Chappell,, The Center For Education Partners, Melva R. Grant, Gary R. Morrison

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Federal policy makers and school leaders increasingly recognize middle school math as a turning point in students’ academic success, especially in predicting high school graduation rates. New i3 scale-up grants allow large-scale implementation of proven reforms that increase student achievement. PowerTeaching (PT) is one such reform that centers on cooperative learning. A five year technologically-facilitated scale-up of PowerTeaching will bring the reform to 185 high-needs middle schools nationwide. In this pilot phase of the project, we will examine eight schools’ readiness for reform. Teacher questionnaires, interviews with school leaders, PT coaches and teachers, coaching feedback, and walk-through observation data will …

Teacher Leadership: Emergent Leadership In A Complex System Functioning As A Professional Learning Community, Andrea Lorene Voshell

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The extent to which organizational, social, cultural, and leadership contexts within schools support or impede the complexity of emergent leadership as it relates to professional learning communities was investigated in this study. Through in-depth interviews exploring ways in which teacher leadership manifests itself, the ability of teachers to understand their own leadership capacity, and how their emergent leadership influences others, data from this study reshape the notion that schools do not need to reform, but need to transform from traditional schools of teaching into contemporary schools of learning, providing the type of professional knowledge needed to foster 21st century skills …

Impact Of An Activity Mini-Schedule On The Inattention Of Preschoolers With Cochlear Implants During A Group Activity, Sharon A. Raver, Peggy Hester, Anne M.P. Michalek, Dana Cho, Nicole Anthony

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

This pilot study evaluated the effectiveness of using an activity mini-schedule which divided a circle time activity into four sub-activities with four preschoolers who were deaf and had received cochlear implants. Often preschoolers with cochlear implants display difficulty directing attention to appropriate stimuli during large group activities (Chute & Nevins, 2003). It was hypothesized that the use of an activity mini-schedule would decrease inattention. Using a multiple baseline design across participants, an activity mini-schedule was introduced to each participant sequentially by a paraeducator who sat behind the children during circle time. Participants' behaviors were videotaped and coded. The introduction of …

Preferred Instructional Design Strategies For Preparation Of Pre-Service Teachers Of Integrated Stem Education, Amanda Shackleford Roberts

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the preferred instructional design strategies for the preparation of pre-service teachers who will deliver integrated STEM lessons. The research objectives were threefold and included identifying a preferred definition of integrated STEM education, developing its purpose statement, and creating a list of instructional design strategies that could be used for designing, planning, delivering, and assessing integrated STEM instruction.

The Delphi method was selected as the optimum approach for data collection, since STEM education is still a growing phenomenon lacking consensus in its interpretations of meaning and practice. Gaining group consensus from expert teacher …

Strategy Use Of Russian Pre-Service Tefl University Students: Using A Strategy Inventory For Program Effectiveness Evaluation, Alla Zareva, Anna Fomina

English Faculty Publications

The focus of the present study is on identifying categories of learning strategies that are mostly used by Russian university students in an English Linguistics Program with a TEFL concentration. The more specific goal of the study is to offer a model of evaluation of the effectiveness of TEFL-oriented programs in terms of the language learning strategies their students use and recognize as pedagogically applicable to their EFL environment. To this end, two groups of students were compared on their self-reported frequency of strategy use -- 1st year students (n = 23), who had just entered the program, and 4th …

Obstacles To Developing Digital Literacy On The Internet In Middle School Science Instruction, Jamie Colwell, Sarah Hunt-Barron, David Reinking

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Obstacles, and instructional responses to them, that emerged in two middle school science classes during a formative experiment investigating Internet Reciprocal Teaching (IRT), an instructional intervention aimed at increasing digital literacy on the Internet, are reported in this manuscript. Analysis of qualitative data revealed that IRT enabled students to explain and demonstrate appropriate strategies for locating and evaluating information on the Internet when they were asked to do so. However, students did not use these strategies or they quickly abandoned them when working independently or in small groups during inquiry projects. Data revealed three obstacles that inhibited efforts to promote …