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.”

Leadership Education And Development For What?: Civic Imagination For A More Just And Democratic Society, Brandon W. Kliewer, Jeff Zacharakis

Educational Considerations

When institutions assign meaning to individual rights and distribute resources in ways that shape the life chances of people, if appropriately designed they strengthen social justice aims. Yet the natural outcome of how individuals relate to institutions does not automatically align with justice.

Table Of Contents And Introductory Materials For Vol. 43, No. 1, Fall 2015, Brandon W. Kliewer, Jeff Zacharakis

Educational Considerations

This content includes the table of contents, an In Memoriam for Chad Litz, editorial information and more for this special issue "Approaches to Social Justice and Civic Leadership Education."

Addressing Dilemmas Of Social Justice Mathematics Through Collaboration Of Students, Educators, And Researchers, Kari Kokka

Educational Considerations

In this paper, I provide a definition of Social Justice Mathematics. I explore three dilemmas that arise with SJM instruction and suggest ways in which collaboration among students, educators, and researchers may address these dilemmas.

Leadership Education And Development For Justice Using The Canonical Framework Of John Rawls's A Theory Of Justice, Brandon W. Kliewer, Jeff Zacharakis

Educational Considerations

Higher education that presupposes a specific conception of justice do well in preparing students to make claims of justice from specific perspectives or positions. However, civic leadership students with a strong background in specific conceptions of justice are often not equipped with necessary skills, dispositions, and habits to exercise leadership in ways that can manage political contestation associated with competing claims of justice.

Educational Considerations - Issues - 1973-2015, David C. Thompson

Educational Considerations

An index to issues of the journal published from 1973-2015.

Community Connections: Integrating Community-Based Field Experiences To Support Teacher Education For Diversity, Christine Beaudry

Educational Considerations

In the United States, preservice teachers often graduate and go on to work with students whose backgrounds are different from their own and in communities in which they have limited lived experience. This holds significant implications for teacher education programs given the importance of life and educational experiences in informing teaching and learning knowledge and practices and the subsequent impact of these practices in shaping the experiences and trajectories of students’ lives.

Educational Considerations, Vol. 43 (1) Fall 2015 Full Issue, Brandon W. Kliewer, Jeff Zacharakis

Educational Considerations

Educational Considerations, vol. 43 (1) Fall 2015-Full Issue

Teaching The Truth: Difficulties With Social Justice And Social Class In Graduate School, Leona English, Carole Roy

Educational Considerations

Nowadays, anyone who wishes to combat lies and ignorance and to write the truth must overcome at least five difficulties. He must have the courage to write the truth when truth is everywhere opposed; the keenness to recognize it, although it is everywhere concealed; the skill to manipulate it as a weapon; the judgment to select those in whose hands it will be effective; and the cunning to spread the truth among such persons.

Implementing A Dominican Model Of Leadership, Suzanne Otte

Educational Considerations

Effective and ethical leadership, as practiced by scientists, statisticians, businesspeople, doctors, and politicians, is necessary to solving today’s vexing and knotty crises.

Robert Fraley Discusses Mitigating Global Challenges In Inaugural Henry C. Gardiner Lecture, Lindsey Elliott

Seek

In the next 35 years, farmers will have to produce more food than the world has produced in its history, a challenge some are calling the greatest we’ve ever faced. But however daunting it may seem, Robert Fraley is optimistic.

Introduction And Table Of Contents, Kirk Schulz, Karen Burg

Seek

Message from President Kirk Schulz and Vice President for Research Karen Burg; Kansas State University Perspectives and Table of Contents for the Fall 2015 issue

Accelerating Experience In Food Research, Education, Kelly Hannigan

Seek

The Global Food Systems Initiative, announced by Kansas State University President Kirk Schulz in January 2014, builds on the university’s legacy of leadership in food production, food safety and food security.

Food For All, Pat Melgares

Seek

An update on the university’s four Feed the Future Innovation Labs: In just over two years, Kansas State University has become a major player in implementing the U.S. Agency for International Development goal to reduce hunger and improve food security in the most impoverished nations of the world.

Scaling Up, News And Communications Services

Seek

University and city developing the North Campus Corridor for research, education and training. Kansas State University and Manhattan, Kansas, are quickly establishing themselves as a nexus for food and bio-/agro- defense research and expertise. A bird’s-eye view of the North Campus Corridor with descriptions of the facilities is presented in this section.

Experiential Learning Takes Students To A New Frontier, Beth Bohn

Seek

Ensuring a safe and healthy food supply for the world’s growing population requires preparing highly skilled leaders ready to meet this challenge.

Beefing Up The Beef Transport System, Lindsey Elliott

Seek

Electrical and computer engineering, psychological sciences, agricultural economics and veterinary epidemiology. These may not be the first disciplines you think of when it comes to solving issues in the beef industry, but a team of Kansas State University researchers believes the complex beef transportation system can be improved by using tools from their fields.