Education Commons^™

Being Black In U.S. Urban Schools: No Assumptions, Lavada Taylor Brandon, Mary J. Didelot

Essays in Education

To be an African-American student attending a school dominated by working class, urban, minority learners means failure. Working class African-American students are not experiencing education, they are colliding with education. These collisions will continue as long as they are facilitated by the assumptive dominant theories regarding African- American students’ educational experiences. One strategy to constructively disrupt these assumptive theoretical notions buried within current theory is to look to a working class, urban African-American student’s qualitative longitudinal formation of identity as she progresses from student to teacher within the learning process as categorized by Bateson (1972). The understanding gleaned from this …

Teachers Integrating Technology: Case Studies, Dawn Basinger

Essays in Education

To understand better the process by which P-12 teachers come to integrate technology into their instructional practices, the researcher undertook a yearlong investigation into technology use at two different school sites in northern Louisiana. Teachers’ stages of concern about technology, levels of technology use, perceptions about coursework impact on technology use and integration, and practices and perceptions about teaching and learning with technology were analyzed. Although all teachers perceived the coursework to be effective in facilitating their utilization and integration of technology, they perceived no single best way to integrate technology. Each teacher identified, designed and developed, and implemented his …

The Mechanics Of Microeconomic Choice: A School Option Perspective, Ikwukananne I. Udechukwu

Essays in Education

The development of this paper describes uniquely the mechanics of choice in the delivery of education services relative to the public school system and school options. Three components, which magnify choice, are consumer (parents), market (pupils), and producer (government). Macbeth (1989) notes that there are four groups of people who benefit from the education system, namely: (1) the pupil (children) (2) the parent (3) the owners of a school (government) and (4) society at large. The first three beneficiaries of the education system are appropriately linked to the three components of choice as illustrated in the model and discussed in …

The Adoption Of A Voucher System In Government-Funded Universities: Perspectives Of Higher Education Students And Workers Of Hong Kong, Bryan Cheung

Essays in Education

Instead of a direct transfer of public funds from government to higher education institutes, a student-centred funding method termed education voucher system is used. The core idea of a voucher system is that the public funding for tuition is being driven by student choice. This change of path of funding has two significant effects, students now have choices and institutes now have to compete for students.

The survey results show that both supply- and demand-side agree that: a voucher system would give students more choice; achieve equal right of choice in education; unpopular programmes and unpopular institutes might be axed; …

The Textbook Controversies In Japan: What History Is Taught?, Aaron Cooley

Essays in Education

The controversies surrounding the content and perspective of several Japanese textbooks are examined and the impact on geo-political relations analyzed. The ways in which these battles affect perceptions of history are discussed in a regional and global context. Extrapolating from this example, a position of inclusiveness is advanced for the content of textbooks that address controversial historical issues in Japan and elsewhere.

Social Competence, Transition Plans And Children With Learning Disabilities, Erica Ruegg

Essays in Education

Social competence is the ability to use the appropriate social skills in every aspect of life. For children with learning disabilities, it is a difficult skill to master. These children have trouble with communicating, following directions, listening and completing a task, which can cause problems in the classroom and in adulthood. Yet, these skills are rarely addressed on the individual education and transition plans for these students. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of children who have learning disabilities and social competence deficits. The difficulties of social competence are examined through the definition of this skill, …

Maximizing The Student Teaching Experience: Cooperating Teachers Share Strategies For Success, Donna R. Sanderson

Essays in Education

This article critically examines the results of a survey completed by fifty-seven cooperating teachers from nine different school districts in the greater Philadelphia area. All of the cooperating teachers had welcomed elementary education student teachers into their classrooms. Strategies used to help alleviate student teachers’ fears and concerns related to their student teaching experience are shared and explored. Findings suggest that teachers use a multitude of strategies to calm their student teachers and set them up for a successful student teaching semester. Cooperating teachers detailed the tasks needed to be accomplished BEFORE the beginning of the student teaching semester to …

The Charter School As A Factory: This Is Reform?, Michael W. Simpson

Essays in Education

Charter schools have been pushed as a way to reform education. This article is my experience in one charter school. The structural freedom provided charter schools do not necessarily mean an improvement in education practices. Convention, tradition, and banking education may persist. Authoritarian administrative practices may continue and impede true reform which occurs at the classroom level by empowered, professional educators. Computers can assist in the persistence of convention, tradition, and banking education.

Because Writing Matters: Improving Student Writing In Our Schools, Timothy Lintner

Essays in Education

Because Writing Matters is a publication of the National Writing Project whose goal, for over 25 years, is to seek and promote ways in which schools can improve the art of writing. With over 175 affiliates in all 50 states, the NWP promotes the facilitation of proven methodologies in which student achievement, teacher innovation, and administrative support focus on the common objective of increasing student proficiency and confidence in writing.

Exploring Teacher Perceptions Of The Leadership Practices Of Middle And High School Principals, Donald W. Leech, Robert Smith, Ronnie Green, C. Ray Fulton

Essays in Education

As educators continue to restructure schools to better meet the needs of our everchanging society, the principal’s effective leadership practices become paramount as we enter the next generation of research into school effectiveness. This study of principals in a large urban school district endeavors to examine the differences in middle and high school teachers’ perceptions of the leadership practices of educational leaders. The sample consisted of 242 participants from 12 middle schools and 404 participants from 14 high schools. Each of the participants were administered Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory which identified the teachers perceptions of their principal’s leadership …

That ‘Teaching’ Is A Prodigious Illusion: In The Words And Form Of Søren Kierkegaard, Russell Butson

Essays in Education

Everyone with some capacity for observation, who seriously considers what is called education, or has thought about the conditions in a so-called learning institution, must surely be assailed by profound misgivings. What does it mean that all these thousands call themselves teachers as a matter of course? People who perhaps never really think about learning, who never talk with or about their students! People upon whom it has never dawned that they might have any obligation to their students, people who do not regard it as a maxim to be thoughtful toward their students, or do not count even this …

Grounds And Perspectives Of Critical Reflection - An Educational And Philosophical Inquiry, Israel Idalovichi

Essays in Education

important tasks of modern education. Thinking reflectively about our own thoughts and practices, about education of children and adults and their personal development, has led us to believe in the value of guided reflective inquiry as an educational method. Current definitions of reflection in education assume that the concept itself has a solid base and its dynamic efficiency is self-evident.

By disclosing major definitions of reflection in different philosophical systems, i.e., J. Locke, I. Kant, J.G. Fichte, G.F. Hegel, E. Husserl, E. Cassirer, it is apparent that reflection reveals the boundaries of knowledge, anything beyond the limits of the subject …

A Journey Into Cooperative Learning With Teacher Education Students, Mary Ransdell, Deborah A. Moberly

Essays in Education

The focus of this article is the journey two professors took during their implementation of cooperative learning with their teacher education students. It is the opinion of the authors that cooperative learning is a viable, yet underused, teaching and learning tool. Prospective teachers best internalize this methodology when they themselves are active participants in the techniques. The authors offer personal experience to assist in the readers’ understanding.

Preservice Professional Employment Portfolios For Middle Schools, Roberta Devlin-Scherer

Essays in Education

The thoughtful thematic presentation of artifacts or exhibits can visually represent preservice teacher candidates’ experiences as they grow into the teaching role. The literature on professional portfolios in teacher education has refined its expectations and the advent of electronic possibilities offer teacher education students varied ways to present their accomplishments. This article considers ways to incorporate the trends in middle level education to a professional portfolio and suggests guidelines and sources.

Faculty Pressures And Professional Self-Esteem: Life In Texas Teacher Education, Ron Tinsley, James C. Hardy

Essays in Education

Studies of the beliefs of teacher educators record high levels of professional self-esteem, but also document the perceived lack of professional regard from colleagues in other areas, informing and redirecting our professional needs assessment. The literature documents that a general disregard for teacher educators as professionals has become a part of the academic culture at many institutions of higher learning in the US. With all of the external pressures on teacher educators, from governmental and accrediting agencies, the public, and professional organizations, perhaps we should address the attitudes of our academic colleagues as one area in which faculty pressures might …

Making It Real: Alana Teacher Education Preparation, Communication And Diversity Suppositions, Keith Orlando Hilton, Harriett Arnold

Essays in Education

This article clarifies brisk salient education and communication perspectives on the need for and role of ALANA (African, Latino, Asian and Native American) teachers and teacher education students in the nation. From the co-authors’ perspectives as African American professors of prospective ALANA K-12 teachers, the notion of “Making it Real: ALANA Teacher Education Preparation, Communication and Diversity Suppositions” is an aerial design that continues to be drafted. This design must be multicultural, multiethnic, multimedia and multi-disciplined in order to be fecund. The creation of a video by ALANA university teacher education students also demonstrated that diversity is invaluable and central …

Teacher Shortage: Are Teachers Their Own Worst Enemy?, Sarah Worsham, Michael Arnold, Kevin Schriver, Eric Moore

Essays in Education

This article reviews some of the past research that has explored the teacher shortage, and describes a study conducted to identify reasons current educators entered the field of education and reasons why they would encourage their own children to enter that field. Additionally, this article looks at the reasons current educators would not encourage their own children to enter the field of education. By looking at the data, it is the position of the authors that a factor in the teacher shortage may be directly traced to teachers not encouraging their own children to enter the field of education.

Talking About Listening: Urban Teacher Responses To Empathetic Listening Training, Jennifer Borek

Essays in Education

Teachers in urban school districts need to learn better listening skills. The high-stakes world of parental involvement, especially with parents who have not had good school experiences themselves, necessitates that faculty and administration be able to listen with clarity and calm. Emergency-licensed teacher education students at a major urban institution of higher education were trained in empathetic listening, practiced these skills, and then were asked to use these skills in the field. While most believed they did not need the skill when they first heard of it, all discovered its complexity and utility during the course of the semester.

Teaching Vs. Research: Toward The Reconciliation Of An Academic Dilemma, Mario Norbis, Angela M. Arrey-Wastavino, F. Abel Ponce De Leon

Essays in Education

A line of thought that compares two major changes in Higher Education and the societal environments surrounding them is presented. A model, currently taking place, associated with the perceived controversy between teaching and research is introduced and discussed. The need to foster appropriate procedures where university constituencies are brought together to participate in the process of reshaping the university model guaranteeing its survivability is recognized. Finally, options for teaching comparable with the scale established for research are proposed as a reconciliatory model to solve this academic dilemma.

Higher Education Financing Policy: Mechanisms And Effects, Bryan Cheung

Essays in Education

Over the past decades, there has seen a significant and consistent worldwide reform agenda for higher education financing policy. This paper is to analyze factors that keep driving these reform; to identify the reasons why governments and higher education keep searching for funding alternatives; to show the relationship among funding sources and paths; to discuss funding mechanisms and models adopted by some Asian and Western countries; and to discuss the effects of funding policy on student access, institute autonomy, competition, stability of institutes, quality and performance of education, responsiveness to market demands and fiscal burden.

Including Students With Disabilities And Achieving Accountability: Educators’ Emerging Challenge, Martin J. Ward, Nicole Montague, Thomas H. Linton

Essays in Education

The nation-wide movement toward increased accountability in our schools has been implemented in large part through state-mandated standardized testing of students. The state assessments in Texas, as in many states, have a powerful influence on educators’ decisions and practices. Whether or not students with special learning needs are provided with an educational experience in the least restrictive environment is dependent upon the decisions and actions of educators. The high-stakes testing agenda in Texas influences decisions related to the inclusion of students with special learning needs. In this article, we examine the issue of how the inclusion of students with disabilities …

Tenure And Promotion Considerations: An Analysis Of Cultural Issues, June Ovington, Thomas Diamantes, Douglas Roby, Charles Ryan

Essays in Education

A purposive review of selected literature related to promotion and tenure in the university was conducted during the last year. From this literature review a constant comparative method of document data analysis was conducted. This method involves reviewing all documents, i.e. articles, handbooks, cases, field notes and interview data. The findings of our study suggest that the tenure and promotion process is impacted by differing values and literal interpretations after review of the candidates’ tenure file. We recommend that sustained review include senior colleagues and use of a productivity schematic to document professional activity over the tenure time frame.

Veteran Teachers’ Perspectives On Student Mobility, Donna R. Sanderson

Essays in Education

The purpose of this article is to share the results of a study that explored the perspective of teachers who teach in high transient elementary schools. Interviews were conducted with eleven veteran teachers who each had a minimum of 19 years teaching experience. All the teachers were teaching in the Rock Hill School District, which borders the western edge of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The interviews explored issues relating to mobility of the student body, the relationship between mobility and classroom environment, mobility and instructional adaptations, and parental support. The data reveals that three major themes emerged as significant throughout the veteran …

Militarism Goes To School, Laura L. Finley

Essays in Education

While there are many influences that shape how schools are structured one that has been largely ignored is the influence of militarism. Militarism refers to a set of values or ideologies that include hierarchical relationships and domination. This piece discusses the ways that schools are militaristic, including their authority, physical, academic, and athletic structures, the processes used by administrators and in classrooms, and the curriculums taught.

Socioeconomic Status, Race, Gender, & Retention: Impact On Student Achievement, June Thomas, Cathy Stockton

Essays in Education

The purpose of this article is to discuss the impact of socioeconomic status, race, gender, and retention on student achievement. Increasing attention has been paid to the quality of education in the United States as international reports compare the academic achievement of students in this country with others in the world. Many states are basing promotion of students on state assessments. High stakes testing has lead to higher retention rates in several states. It is everyone’s responsibility to ensure that students who are retained do not drop out of school and therefore get left behind.