Education Commons^™

Input And Output In An English Classroom: A Young Learner Corpus Of English (Yolecore), Thomas Zapounidis, Marina Mattheoudakis

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This article highlights the need for a new type of corpus that will combine both a learner and a pedagogic corpus. The need for such a type of corpus is underlined by the interaction between input and output and the expected impact of the former on the latter within all instructional settings. Such a corpus will allow us to collect data, including teacher language, learner language, coursebook content, etc. and relate it to students’ output at specific points in time. Our study aims to present and describe the Young Learner Corpus of English (henceforth,YoLeCorE), which is an …

A Roadmap For Trauma-Informed Practice Integration In Teacher Preparation Content, Kathryn S. Young, Ofelia Castro Schepers

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

With the continued interest in trauma-informed practice (TIP) knowledge at the P-12 level, it has become imperative to consider the role of teacher preparation programs in providing this crucial knowledge to preservice educators. The TIP program at Mountain U (pseudonym) School of Education (SOE) is working to increase the current TIP knowledge of preservice teachers so that they are ready to implement TIP from the beginning of their careers. This paper adds to the trauma-informed literature in teacher preparation by describing the TIP initiative at Mountain U. It provides a roadmap for schools and departments that want to undertake this …

Alex Shevrin Venet’S Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education–A Book Review, Kimberly A. Mahovsky, Anne O. Davidson

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This review provides an overview of Alex Venet’s Equity-Centered Trauma-Informed Education and a critical analysis by teacher educators charged to include equity-centered trauma-informed practices in all education courses. This book serves as a catalyst for conversations around equity-centered and trauma-informed education as many states push for all educators in K-12 schools to recognize the prevalence of adversity and create professional development for their instructors to incorporate these practices in their classrooms. The review will evaluate the author’s organization of the book and the five shifts Venet suggests for movement toward educational equity.

The Effect Of Gameplay On The Creative Self-Efficacy Of Educators In Hypothetical Classroom Management Situations, Weihsuan Lo, Erin C. Wachter, Chelsea R. Miller

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

In an ever-changing emotional, psychological, and physically developing world of education, it is important for educators to adapt creative skills to meet learners' needs. It is paramount for educators to develop creative skills to meet the needs of their learners and demonstrate effective classroom management. There is a gap between preservice teacher preparation and the reality of the day-to-day demands of educators. Game-based learning can provide a measure to fill that gap by providing a simulated experience for preservice teachers to encounter possible challenging scenarios. This concept of educational gameplay uses interactive learning that can improve the classroom response to …

Growing Our Own For Urban Classrooms: The Paraprofessionals-To-Teachers Pipeline, Roseanne Fulton, Robert Fulton, Joanna Ross

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The Center for Urban Education (CUE) with the University of Northern Colorado hosts a grow-your-own paraprofessional to teacher pipeline program. CUE offers teacher preparation degree programs for Colorado licensure in elementary, early childhood and special education. Housed at the University of Northern Colorado’s Denver campus, the CUE teacher candidates complete a K–12 classroom apprenticeships; a broad liberal arts curriculum; and focused teaching methods courses.

The Center for Urban Education is designed to accommodate a non-traditional student body that ranges in age from 18-65 years old and includes individuals shouldering the responsibilities of work, school, and family simultaneously.

CUE offers the …

The Big Sky Five: A Statewide Effort To Increase Teacher Preparedness For Inclusive Classrooms, Trent Atkins, Estee Aiken, Jayne Downey

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The purpose of this paper is to describe a state-wide process used to determine which Teaching Works High Leverage Practices (Ball, 2016) pre-service teachers could be expected to implement at a proficient level by the completion of their preparation program (Initial HLPs), followed by two sets of high leverage practices novice teachers could master during their induction years (Induction and Expert HLPs) (Ball & Forzani, 2011; McLeskey & Brownell, 2015). Data were collected from a wide variety of stakeholders, including K-12 teachers, administrators, and educator preparation program faculty from across the state (N=203). Findings identified five High Leverage Practices that …

Dot Card Number Talks: Illustrating Counting Strategies With Preservice Elementary Teachers, Robert Knurek

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

A dot card number talk was implemented in a mathematics content course with preservice elementary teachers (PsETs) to highlight counting strategies that are commonly seen in elementary school mathematics. PsETs' sketches on the dot cards showcase many different strategies, such as counting-all, counting-on, matching, and subitizing. While their illustrations demonstrated these different strategies, their answers were ultimately the same. The dot card number talk sparked meaningful conversations and helped PsETs distinguish between the counting strategies.

Lessons Learned From Iep Meeting Experiences Of Parents And School Professionals During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Briceida Guerrero, Lindsey Hayes, Robin O'Shea, Katherine D. Wiedemann, Laurie Bowen

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The COVID-19 pandemic forced many Individualized Education Program (IEP) teams to hold virtual IEP meetings for students with disabilities instead of conducting them in person. Prior to the pandemic, research explored school professionals’ and parents’ perceptions of the IEP meeting experience in the context of in-person meetings. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how IEP meeting experiences changed for parents and school professionals as a result of the transition to virtual meeting collaboration due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten school professionals and nine parents from two public school districts in the United States participated in semi-structured interviews …

Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Migration To Emergency Remote Teaching During The Onset Of Covid-19, Shannon O.S. Driskell, Rachel Harrington, Ann Wheeler, Steve Rhine

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The Mathematics Teacher Educators’ Migration to Online Teaching in Response to COVID-19 survey was designed and then administered to mathematics teacher educators (MTEs) regarding experiences with migrating in-person instruction to emergency remote teaching (ERT). MTEs reported change in fostering opportunities for students to teach and to learn from their own teaching and the teaching of others, engaging students, assessing students, and using both general and mathematical technology tools for students’ learning, just to name a few. Five themes emerged: Instruction, Tools, Affective Experience, Outside Influences, and Learner Development. Implications about Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) are discussed.

Building Logarithms As Functions, Derek A. Williams

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

Students traditionally struggle to conceptualize logarithms as families of functions in their own right. I present an approach to support students' understanding of logarithmic functions. The common properties of logarithms become defining characteristics, which complements the traditional approach of studying logarithms as the inverses of exponentials.

The Advantages Of Algebra For Learning Proof, Samuel Otten, Mitchelle M. Wambua

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

Calls to expand proof beyond geometry are usually based on the general benefits of proving for students, but this essay argues that proof should be extended to algebra because the representational systems in algebra are well suited for understanding the generality and deductive flow of proofs.

Making It Work! Increasing Collaboration Between Our Special Education And General Education Licensure Programs At Msu Denver, Rebecca L. Canges, Lisa Altemueller, Kara Halley

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Teachers have been identified as one of the most important factors in the success of inclusive education. However, many preservice teachers report feeling inadequately prepared for supporting the needs of students with disabilities in their classroom. The following paper presents a detailed look at how one Institution of Higher Education has been working to build a collaborative program so that their preservice elementary and secondary teachers graduate with a higher rate of self-efficacy for teaching students with disabilities in an inclusive classroom.

Preparing English Teachers To Teach Global Englishes Language Teaching In Thailand: My Personal And Professional Journey, Denchai Prabjandee

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The global spread of English has implications for English language teaching (ELT), in which teachers need to prepare learners to use English with culturally diverse English users outside of the classrooms. This requires teachers to change how they conceptualize the kind of English they teach and how English should be taught. An emerging ELT paradigm of Global Englishes Language Teaching (GELT) was developed to respond this change. Based on a teacher educator’s experiences to equip English teachers in Thailand with GELT knowledge and skills to implement it in the classroom, this article explores his personal journey of learning about GELT …

Book Review: Transforming Educational Pathways For Chicana/O Students: A Critical Race Feminista Praxis. D. Delgado Bernal & E. Alemán, Jr. Teachers College Press, 2017. 126 Pages., James Gambrell

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This book follows the first decade of a university-school-community partnership—called Adelante—with bilingual/bicultural students and their families to form a college-going culture in an elementary school with a large Latin@1 student population. Created at Jackson Elementary in 2005, Dolores Delgado Bernal and Enrique Alemán2 chronical the path that the first group of students—L@s Primer@s–walked as they and their families participated in this partnership. One of the most important lessons outlined was to start small, recognizing the myriad assets and stakeholders that would be engaged to enact a sustainable partnership. Therefore, Delgado Bernal and Alemán commenced with a single dual-language kindergarten class, …

A Case Study Of Western Teachers' Perceptions Of Myanmar High School Student College Readiness In Western Society, Mark A. Speckien, Heng-Yu Ku

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The purpose of this case study was to explore eight Western teacher perceptions of Myanmar-based high school student college readiness to transition to a postsecondary educational setting in a Western country. The research question was answered using findings from individual teacher participant interviews. The five themes that emerged through the analysis of the interviews are (a) concerns over language barriers, (b) dependence on others, (c) mixed feelings over students’ ability to make friends, (d) adapting to a new culture, including mixed feelings over student immersion into Western culture and concerns over entitlement, and (e) preparedness for college-level academics, including mixed …

Rivers Of Change: The Wisdom Of The Rapids Within Transcultural Teacher Education, Jean Kirshner

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This manuscript describes the ongoing professional development project that involves educators from Belize and the United States. I argue that sustainable change within transnational and transcultural professional development is most effective when it involves Freirean-like dialogue, sharing life stories and sharing lifeworlds. I also explain how intentionally enacting Freirean-like dialogue, sharing life stories, and sharing lifeworlds, led to key changes in the professional identities and practices of all participants including my Belizean colleagues as well as members of Belize Education Project in the United States. Finally, I discuss the effects of changed relationships, identities, and practices on pedagogy and student …

Examining The Use Of Mathematics-Themed Children’S Books To Help Pre-Service Teachers Write Tasks, Winifred Mallam, Georgia A. Cobbs, Ann Wheeler

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

In this qualitative study, the researchers investigated the types of K-6th grade lessons 16 preservice elementary teachers created based on mathematics-themed children’s books. Lessons were analyzed using Stein et al.’s (2017) Task Analysis Guide (TAG), as well as grouped based on grade level and covered Common Core State Standards Mathematical Practices (CCSSO, 2010a) and Content Standards (CCSSOa, 2010). Through our analysis, we found that the most common CCSSM Standards used were Numbers and Operations as well as Expressions and Equations, while the most common CCSSMP were Reason Abstractly and Quantitatively and Model with Mathematics. Coding work showed the most …

Impact Of Covid-19 Pandemic On Spanish Speaking Families Who Have Children With Disabilities, Briceida Nuñez Martinez, Silvia M. Correa-Torres

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families encounter many challenges when trying to effectively advocate for and be a part of their children’s education. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has added additional struggles for many CLD families, including families of children with disabilities. Utilizing a qualitative phenomenological design, this study aimed to understand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Spanish speaking families of students with special needs. Ten Spanish speaking parents of children with special needs participated in this study. Participants were asked to share their experiences receiving services for their children with disabilities during the first year of the pandemic. …

Multiracial Identity From Theory To Praxis: A Literature Review For K12 Practitioners, Jackie M. Peng

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Multiraciality and mixed-race students have long been overlooked in K12 education discourse despite a significant increase in the number of students identifying as more than one race. Research that does address Multiracial students tends to focus on multiracial identity development of college students. However, educators and K12 school leaders must engage critically with how theoretical abstractions like ‘racial identity’ are being parsed and adopted in school policies, particularly as it pertains to mixed-race students. Having a deeper understanding how Multiracial identity is conceptualized and deployed makes it possible for K12 practitioners to better appreciate how race and racial identity operate …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflective Writing And Learning In Early Field Experiences, Deborah Romero, Mandi Leigh, Weihsuan Lo

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

As cultural and linguistic diversity (CLD) in schools increases so does the demand for more qualified teachers. Enrollment declines in teacher preparation programs and national teacher shortages, particularly teachers prepared to work with CLD students, further exacerbate the situation. As teacher preparation programs seek to meet the demands for teachers, this study addresses a gap in research and practice that examines pre-service teacher (PST) reflections conducted as part of a non-credit very early field experience (EFE). The study addresses two questions:1) How does participation in EFE shape PST learning and professional identities as expressed in written reflections? 2) In what …

Transitioning From High School Students To Aspiring Future Rural Educators: Promising Practices To Fuel The Rural Teacher Pipeline, Christine Kyser, Suzette Youngs, Amy Nelson, Tatum Monaghan

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This study examined the potential of a residency/concurrent enrollment program to support rural students that are interested in the field of education. With 17 students in the program, the goals were to make a career in teaching more accessible to rural high school students through concurrent enrollment, to help future teachers solidify their career choice, and to establish partnerships with rural districts to continue expanding concurrent enrollment and ultimately fuel the teacher pipeline. For the purposes of this study, we investigated how these efforts might influence high school students’ understanding of teaching as a profession and examined if and how …

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Beliefs About The Role Of Definition In The Learning Of Mathematics, Dana C. Cox, Suzanne Harper, Jane M. Keiser

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Answering a call to emphasize the act of defining over the learning of definitions, we have shifted the content of a geometry course for preservice elementary teachers (PSETs) away from comparing and applying pre-written classification structures to classroom episodes centered on authoring definitions for special quadrilaterals. PSETs complete activities using geometry software, and collaboratively create definitions for specific quadrilaterals. In order to fully understand the potential of this curricular shift, we asked preservice elementary mathematics teachers’ to share their perceptions of the process of writing mathematical definitions. Data from participant reflections were analyzed for themes related to mathematical definition and …

Gender Differences In Socio-Emotional And Socio-Cultural Perspectives Of Middle School Students In Stem Learning, Danielle A. Riney, Heng-Yu Ku

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This study investigated the socio-emotional and socio-cultural perspectives of 137 middle school students toward STEM learning in the U.S. Through a 27-item 5-point Likert scale, students’ responses were gathered to complete factor analysis, compute descriptive analysis, and calculate statistical differences found between genders. In socio-emotional learning, female participants scored higher than male participants in the grit and social-awareness factors, while both genders scored similarly in the self-efficacy factor. In socio-cultural learning, male participants scored higher than female participants in the socio-cultural influences factor while both genders scored similarly in the personal focus in STEM factor. However, a statistically significant difference …

Refining Research Representations Through Fiction, Journalism, And Creative Non-Fiction Writing Ideas, Maria Lahman, Becky De Oliveira, Evan Engle-Newman, Mckayla Gorman, Tiana Johnson, Sean Kershaw, Thuy Phan, Karen Schweihs, David Shimokawa, Amy Switzer, John Sylvester, Summer Yoast

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Research accounts have been critiqued as boring and unreasonably difficult to read when the actual research process is deeply fascinating and should be accessible to many. Academic researchers should draw on the creative writing disciplines (e.g., fiction, creative nonfiction, journalism) in order to improve the quality of written research accounts, and there are numerous style guides that give guidance on how to improve the quality of writing. An understanding of different academic disciplines’ style expectations seems to be needed in order to Publish and Persevere, yet literary understandings of writing will allow us to enliven writing in engaging ways. It …

Book Review: Critical Leadership Praxis For Educational And Social Change, Scott Gregory

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Theories and models have been promulgated in ordinary times to bring about change in a variety of aspects. With the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism at the forefront of education and society, prior leadership system are unable to respond to the pervasive and lingering effects these problems have wrought. With this in mind, Katy Pak and Sharon Ravitch explore a praxis of leadership that helps teachers, students, as well as all of those who are concerned about education, with the necessary tools and ideas to respond. The authors and fellow contributors provide a critical lens in educational thought, through which …

Three Questions From Cctm Teachers About Mathematical Modeling, Robyn Stankiewicz-Van Der Zanden, Rachel Levy

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

This article shares three questions and answers about mathematical modeling in the classroom from an April 2020 online conversation with participants of a CCTM webinar. We hope that the answers to these questions will motivate teachers to embrace the value of implementing math modeling tasks, help students see the math all around them in the world, and empower future professionals to reach for the mathematical tools in their pockets to make data-driven decisions.

Pre-Service Teachers As Curriculum Makers: What Could Social Justice Look Like In A Middle School Curriculum?, Brittany A. Aronson, Emily Culberson, Britt Hochstetler, Suzanne Lowman, Ash Mccartney, Jocelyn Mcminimy, Emily Murphy, Ralph Newlin, Emily Santen, Rachel Sutphin, Megan Terlau, Nicholas Vrzal, Imani Wheeler

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

In this article, we answer the questions 1) What could social justice look like in the middle school curriculum; 2) How do we help young adolescents recognize and repudiate racism and other forms of social injustice; and 3) What are some lessons learned from a middle level teacher preparation with a focus on social justice ? By presenting three examples of social justice curriculum created by pre-service teachers in their teacher leadership education course, we argue for spaces that allow pre-service teachers to be curriculum-makers if we are truly seeking social justice educators in schools. We conclude, through the perspective …

Teaching And Learning During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Stories From Educators Around The World, Madeline Milian, Catherine Linhardt, Christina M. Taylor, María E. Ballestrino Olivera, Veli Esen, Bechir Fraoua, Noelia Mazza, Ying Prapassorn, Susana De La Torre, Hamna Zahid

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

Educational institutions around the globe were considerably challenged by the unexpected health consequences of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Schools were rapidly forced to close their doors and begin exploring alternative options to educate students. Teachers, families, and students found themselves having to navigate completely new ways of offering and accessing educational services. Educators from eight different countries share their experiences at the beginning of the Pandemic and their creative efforts to continue providing educational services to their students.

A Comparative Study Of Saudi Arabian And U.S. Pre-Service Teachers’ Readiness For Technology Integration, Yosra M. Bugis, Randy Larkins

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

The purpose of this study is to understand how prepared teachers in two countries are to utilize technology effectively in a physical and virtual classroom environment. This research is a comparative study of Saudi Arabian and US preservice teachers’ readiness for technology integration in their actual teaching practices. Survey methodology was used to measure both knowledge and attitudinal variables found to be important to later integration of technology into teaching among preservice teachers. The results provide updated insight into the status of US and Saudi Arabian preservice teachers’ proficiencies and attitudes toward integrating technology into their teaching and implications for …

Book Review Of Motivation Matters And Interest Counts, Cassie Gannett

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

This book review of Motivation Matters and Interest Counts, written by by James A. Middleton and Amanda Jansen, yields insights for educators looking for ways to engage students in learning mathematics.