Education Commons^™

Improving Urban Teachers’ Assessment Literacy Through Synergistic Individualized Tutoring And Self-Reflection, Dennis Murphy Odo

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

In this reflective piece, I provide an account of one method I am developing for fostering the assessment literacy of pre-service teachers’ in an Master of Arts in Teaching program through individualized tutoring of K-6 learners that also incorporated collaborative reflection. This method was developed for a pre-service teacher education course on individualized literacy assessment and instruction. I incorporated the individualized tutoring sessions and candidate reflection activities to develop candidates’ assessment literacy in response to several observations I made as I taught the class. The teacher research I consulted to address this challenge echoed my experience of the general superficiality …

Empowerment For Whom? Empowerment For What? Lessons From A Participatory Action Research Project, Meagan Call-Cummings, Christine James

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This article sets forth the process through which I, an educator of over 20 years, my research mentor, and my 52 Latino/a students answered questions that were important to us through participatory action research. I start the process by asking if and how I am empowering my students, and they start their own parallel process by asking about their relationships with their White teachers. By engaging in various data collection approaches, including Boal’s (1985) Theatre of the Oppressed and Photovoice, we are all able to answer these questions. I learn that as a teacher I do not empower students; they …

Multimedia Teacher Research, Heather Leaman, Connie Dilucchio

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

In this qualitative study, two teacher educators and course instructors in a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) program explored beginning teacher researchers’ use of multimedia to support action research. Fifty-eight teachers (36 in spring 2010 and 22 in spring 2011) completed teacher research as the capstone in their M.Ed. program. Teachers utilized the MERLOT website (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) to develop and submit their research as an alternative to traditional paper submission. As teachers conducted their research, course instructors investigated how the teachers’ use of multimedia strengthened or limited their teacher research work. Data from teacher researchers …

A Book Review – Digging Deeper Into Action Research: A Teacher Inquirer’S Field Guide, Jim R. Carlson

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Digging Deeper into Action Research proves itself a handy companion for practitioners embarking on the journey of action research. The chapters are organized in logical order, beginning with a brief historical overview of teacher research and its critical contribution to the national dialogue on education. Dana frames educational research as highly contextualized, reminding readers that “outside experts,” those removed from the day-to-day operations of school, have historically set the terms for what counts as research in education (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993).

Teacher Candidates’ Learning Gains: The Tale Of Two Co-Teachers, Hillary Merk, Melanie Betz, Colleen O' Mara

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Co-teaching during the student teaching experience has been given increased attention among researchers and teacher educators. Co-teaching facilitates an apprenticeship arrangement that encourages modeling of classroom practice for the candidate and provides a chance to implement directly what is being learned. This qualitative study explored teacher candidates’ learning gains using the co-teaching model for student teaching. Teacher candidates were able to see more clearly the dynamics of how a classroom works and the process by which teachers plan lessons, implement curriculum, and manage the many duties of a classroom teacher.

Editorial Introduction, Suzanne Porath

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Too often teacher research is conducted in isolation, but deeper reflection and action can occur when teacher research is conducted and/or shared with others. In Volume 17, Number 2 of Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research educators/researchers illustrate how collaboration with others enhanced their understanding of their own practice. This issue provides a broad range of perspectives in using teacher research including teacher candidates, classroom teachers, and graduate students.

Table Of Contents And Introductory Materials For Vol. 23, No. 1, 2015-2016, Bruce Quantic

The Advocate

This content includes the table of contents and editorial information for vol. 23, issue 1 (Fall - Winter 2015 - 2016).

Assessment Accommodations For English Language Learners Using The Student Language Assessment Plan, Sherri G. Brantley

The Advocate

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the assessment accommodation process for English Language Learners (ELLs) on high-stakes testing (HST). It is understood the accommodation process is a challenge for school staff members that administer assessments to ELLs. This study addressed the problem of accountability and identification systems for ELLs by: (a) investigating the assessment accommodation process used by the study school; (b) understanding the perceptions of educators regarding the assessment accommodation process, and; (c) exploring the assessment accommodation tool used by educators to document appropriate accommodations for ELLs.

Pre-Service Teacher & Mentor Clinical Experiences, Kevin L. Splichal

The Advocate

Effective clinical experiences that pre-service teachers and pre-service teacher educators participate in are crucial for instruction to be highly effective and successful. However, the dynamics of different participating schools, mentors, instructors, and pre-service teachers add hundreds of variables to the quality of those experiences. How pre­service teachers and mentors perceive those clinical experiences can help unravel those variables and provide ways to increase quality. Based on the research, one key question is foremost as a priority, namely, what are the characteristics of pre-service teacher and the mentor relationships? Further, do those relationships equate to effective clinical experiences for pre­service teachers?

Read4respect Service-­Learning Project: Motivating And Engaging Students In Reading, Valerie Zelenka, Eric Deneault, Keith Dreiling, Beth Walizer

The Advocate

This paper discusses an after­school service­learning project implemented over the course of the school year in a low SES elementary school. This project offered a sustained, coordinated effort to motivate and engage 57 struggling readers in a skills­based literacy tutoring program. A paired two-sample t­test was conducted to determine if there was a significant increase in scores from the reading attitude pre-survey to the post­survey for the fall 2014 and spring 2015 semesters. Increases in attitude scores were found for 13 of the 20 survey questions with three of the increases found to be significant.

Keeping Community Stakeholders Informed About The Rationale For Program Changes (Editorial), John Morton

The Advocate

An editorial comment: Communication is the key element in much of education. Gathering input and utilizing the information to help educators understand community perceptions is a vehicle that has long been underutilized in schools.

The Impact Of The Common Core State Standards:The Top Five Shifts In Literacy Instruction, Carolyn Carlson

The Advocate

The Common Core State Standards Initiative adopted a goal of having every student in the United States college and career ready by the end of high school. As a result, the CCSS English/Language Arts have influenced the way teachers approach literacy instruction. Since the implementation of the CCSS (or standards similar to the actual CCSS but that vary slightly), there have been five main shifts in literacy instruction. Regardless of grade level, content area, or student characteristics (struggling, gifted, etc.), all instruction is impacted by these five shifts.

The Feasibility Of Virtual Service-­Learning, Lorie Cook-Benjamin, Chapman Rackaway Ft. Hays State University

The Advocate

This study assessed attitudes regarding the effectiveness of discipline­based service-learning within the virtual environment. The study, conducted at a comprehensive Midwestern state university, collected data using a Likert-scale survey and reflections. Research on virtual service-learning is sparse making it a field ripe with research opportunities. The quantitative results suggest virtual learners are not provided opportunities for service-learning commensurate with their in-person cohort. For one discipline, the qualitative data suggests there is a need for multiple and synchronous communication, and reflection at multiple points throughout the semester. The study validated literature on the need to use active learning pedagogies across disciplines.

Secular Spirituality And The Foundations Of Education Classroom, Don Hufford

The Advocate

Every institution of higher education serves in some measure as a community of imagination in which every professor is potentially a spiritual guide and every syllabus a confession of faith (Parks, p. 159).

In a somewhat radically-inspired foundations of education classroom, I seek to stimulate thinking, and questioning ­ a little philosophical wondering and wandering - when I toss-out the statement that "teaching is a spiritual journey – as is life itself.”

From Knowing To Understanding Student Empowerment: A Narrative Approach To Research In A Middle School, Brian R. Horn

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This paper examines how, as a teacher researcher, I employed a narrative approach to research to better understand my 8th grade Language Arts students’ empowerment in school. Drawing on sociocultural theory, critical pedagogy and a narrative approach to teacher research, students’ voices were privileged and compared to the systemic assumptions regarding student empowerment inherent in No Child Left Behind (NCLB) policy in order to develop a stronger professional understanding of how schools empower and disempower students.

Inquiry Into Teaching: Using Reflective Teaching To Improve My Practice, Sarah E. Pennington

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

How effective is reflective teaching in increasing the engagement and achievement of pre-service teachers when utilized by a first-year college instructor? This article documents a practitioner inquiry project in which I reflected both on my own observations and student feedback regarding what teaching methods were most beneficial in an undergraduate elementary education class. Data included student feedback, personal researcher journal entries, student quiz scores, and format for presenting material in class. Pre-service teacher engagement and learning were both enhanced by integration of videos, activities, and higher level questions into class sessions. The results of this research affirm the power of …

Uncovering And Informing Preservice Teachers’ Prior Knowledge About Poverty, Charlotte Anne Mundy, Melinda Marie Leko

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This study explored 30 preservice teachers’ knowledge on issues related to poverty. In an openended questionnaire, preservice teachers’ perceptions of poverty and how teachers should respond to students from poverty were explored. Results indicated that preservice teachers’ knowledge was nonspecific and lacked focus on the relationship among poverty, schools, and students. These results indicate a need for us as teacher educators to provide preservice teachers with (a) specific details about realities of poverty, (b) opportunities to discuss and observe the relationship among poverty, teachers, and schools, and (c) examples of children and families from poverty who have positive attributes.

Editorial Introduction, Suzanne Porath

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Whether in the PreK-12 classroom or at the college level, action research empowers researchers to observe, reflect and take action on their own practice. In Volume 17, Number1 of Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research educators/researchers illustrate how their personal inquiries impacted their practice as pre-service teachers, classroom teachers, or university instructors. The articles in this edition encourage educators to listen to the voices of the students they teach because student voices can teach teachers.

Making The Leap To Teacher: Pre-Service Residents, Faculty, And School Mentors Taking On Action Research Together In An Urban Teacher Residency Program, Emily J. Klein, Monica Taylor, Karina Monteiro, William Romney, Meshelle Scipio, Alex Diaz, Barbara Dunn, Suzanne Poole

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This article explores what happens when school mentors and university faculty co-facilitate a cycle of action research with pre-service science teacher residents in an urban teacher residency. The voices of all three constituents describe the process of doing action research together in community and its impact on their practice. The pre-service teacher residents narrate their questions, how they explore them, and highlight their findings. They discuss how the use of action research as a methodology deepened and extended their development as critically reflective practitioners. Finally we discuss the implications of the inquiry stance of action research for both the individuals …

Time To Talk: A Review Of Reading Girls: The Lives And Literacies Of Adolescents, Erica Newhouse

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Hadar Dubowsky Ma’ayan regards Reading Girls: The Lives and Literacies of Adolescents as an important extension of Finder’s (1997) Just Girls: Hidden Literacies and Life in Junior High. Ma’ayan, a 5th grade teacher, conducts practitioner action research while taking a year off from teaching at Lincoln Middle School. Once a week, she met with a group of six racially and socioeconomically diverse 8th grade girls to participate in a Girls’ Literacy Discussion Group (GLDG).

Table Of Contents And Introductory Materials For Vol. 22, No. 3, 2015, Bruce Quantic

The Advocate

This content includes the table of contents and editorial information for vol. 22, issue 3 (Spring - Summer 2015).

Development Of A Standard-Based Instrument For Assessing Principal Leadership, Mingchu Neal Luo

The Advocate

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate a scale of instrument, the Principal Leadership Index (PLI), to assess principal leadership practices within the framework of ELCC (2011) standards adopted by the Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation. Items of the PLI were initially developed by the researcher followed by expert reviews in the field of school leadership and a pilot test. The instrument was used to collect the empirical data from 73 principals, which were investigated with exploratory factor analyses, reliability tests, and multilevel analyses. Results reveal four unique constructs for the leadership dimensions, showing robust …

T-Shirts For College Bound Students: A School-University Service-Learning Project, Kathryn Wallert, Beth Walizer

The Advocate

This paper explores how service-learning projects provide university students experiential learning opportunities to participate in innovative activities. While educating and fostering development through mentoring and teamwork, university students enhanced critical thinking and interpersonal skills, gained background knowledge of the elementary school, implemented the project, reflected on their experiences, and evaluated the project. The project encouraged elementary students to achieve their goals by instilling the expectation of furthering a higher education after secondary school. In addition to providing a service to the children, university students identified through their reflections the connection between their service and what they have acquired academically.

Mosaic: Teaching Cultural Competence, Douglas P. Smith, Sonja Ezell, Jason Brooks

The Advocate

Emporia State University sponsors a weekend, off-site program, MOSAIC, where participants explore issues of identity development, privilege, social inequality, and discrimination - the tenants of cultural competency. MOSAIC helps participants enhance their worldview and a greater appreciation of cultural competence through a series of large and small group activities. By creating these experiences and opportunities, participants are more apt to work effectively in a variety of situations, with a mix of culturally diverse people such as those found on a college campus. By leveraging these skills the university community can be benefited to have better outcomes.

Electronic Observation: 21st Century Model For Excellence In Teaching And Learning, Peggy Forsberg, Sue Jenkins, Kelly Gillespie

The Advocate

Assessing effective instruction, in support of student achievement is a requirement for institutional accreditation. Simultaneously, considering overall student success, “among school-related factors, teachers matter most” (Teachers Matter, n.a.). If education was a jigsaw puzzle, a missing piece is a strategic method of observing teachers to support institutional effectiveness. A system to monitor practice and expected outcomes; to generate dynamic data that drive decision-making; and to ensure program standards are met in a continuous improvement model (Cervone & Martinez-Miller, 2007; Downey et al., 2004). Walk-through observation is that system, a powerful and intentional missing puzzle piece (Glasgow, et.al., 2014)

Staff Development Modifications Necessary To Increase Teacher Readiness For Change To Common Core State Standards, Kirsten Limpert

The Advocate

Staff development is a crucial piece for successful implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS). A complete plan must be developed that focuses on implementation of the Common Core State Standards. The focus for this plan should be on teacher needs with an aim to improve student learning. If teacher needs are considered and they see the value for their students, teachers will be more likely to not only accept this change but become actively involved in planning for implementation of CCSS.

Literacy Applications For Today's Learner, Vickie Johnston, Michael Lancellot

The Advocate

Common Core English Language Arts Standards and changing technologies have shifted the ways students and teachers select and read text. Reasons for the lack of digital literacy implementation in instruction are due to the large amount of choices available without sufficient background information on how to critically evaluate literacy applications. This article presents the framework of the Common Core English Language Arts Standards and how they are used to enhance literacy instruction through implementation of literacy technology applications. Limitations and advantages of digital applications are explored, descriptions of the applications are provided, and strategies for implementation in the English/Language Arts …

Understanding The Role And Challenges Of Ell Departments At Public Schools: An Inquiry From Pre-Service Teachers’ Perspectives, Nilufer Guler, Jessica Christman, Jenna Larson, Ariane Smith

The Advocate

Number of English Language Learners (ELLs) at U.S. public schools is increasing each year, and putting more and more mainstream teachers in need of teaching to this student group. ELLs are a vulnerable group with low academic success level and high drop-out rate. Preparing in-service and pre-service teachers to teach these students is crucial since ELLs need special accommodations and scaffolding to be more successful academically. In addition, research on mainstream teachers and ELL students have uncovered that mainstream teachers may have some wrong and unwelcoming perceptions of ELLs. This study investigates how taking a class on ELL education affects …