Education Commons^™

Impact Of A Yearlong Placement In A Pds On Teacher Interns’ Dispositions And Abilities To Teach Middle School, Chantelle Renaud-Grant

Georgia Educational Researcher

As students prepare to enter college and the workforce, there has been a demand for them to be more independent, critical thinkers, innovative designers, and thoughtful collaborators. This preliminary study describes how a Professional Development School (PDS) partnership, between a middle school and a university, provides a more authentic teaching opportunity for middle grades teacher interns compared to the traditional, middle grades internship route. An authentic teaching experience provides a successful transition from “student to teacher” through a collaborative work environment; observing and developing the dispositions of an effective teacher; and learning the culture and structure of a school. The …

Gang Risk Factors And Academic Readiness In A Southern Middle School, James Martinez, Jeremy Tost, Shani Wilfred, Larry Hilgert

Georgia Educational Researcher

The current Georgia study examines middle-school-aged gang and non-gang members regarding the risk factors of gang membership and potential effects of these risk factors on academic achievement. Participants, 406 eighth grade students from a suburban middle-school, completed a 42-item survey assessing an array of demographic and risk factor variables. In addition, students provided self-report information regarding their success on national standardized testing used to measure academics readiness. Of the 28 variables analyzed, lower academic readiness was associated with ethnicity and/or gang membership. Findings are discussed in light of the complexity of the gang issue and the importance of recognizing the …

Page Length And Methodological Characteristics Of Recently Published Doctoral Dissertations In Education, Justus Randolph, Sean Deweese, Austin Kureethara Manuel, Greg Baugher, Kimberly Tessmer, Amy Westbrook, Stacey Shoats, Joseph Balloun, Linda Crawford

Georgia Educational Researcher

In this methodological review, we conducted a quantitative content analysis of a random sample of 107 education-related doctoral dissertations published in Proquest Dissertations and Theses database in 2011. Seven raters coded each article in terms of page lengths (overall and within each chapter), research method (qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-methods), author gender, and university characteristics (online or traditional). We found that the median education dissertation length was 161 pages long, but those page lengths differed between research methods. The median page lengths of qualitative, mixed method, and quantitative dissertations were 210, 187, and 147 respectively. The median page length of education …

Voices From The Classroom: Elementary Students’ Perceptions Of Blogging, Ewa Mcgrail, Anne Davis

Georgia Educational Researcher

Blogging appears to be a promising instructional strategy which may provide solutions to some of the challenges in traditional writing instruction; however, few studies explore elementary students’ views on blogging. This qualitative case study gives elementary students voice as it examines their perceptions of blogging and their views of themselves as writers, readers, and learners. The researchers drew from multiple data sources, including student and teacher interviews, student and teacher blog writing, and classroom observations, to ascertain young writers’ perspectives. The findings indicate these student bloggers’ reader awareness and appreciation of the reader-writer relationship. Student bloggers also benefited from emotional …

Utilizing Tutors In The Classroom: An Extension Of Supplemental Instruction To Increase Student Performance And Retention, Evelyn Doman

Georgia Educational Researcher

Supplemental Instruction (SI) has widely been used in university classrooms around the world. However, many obstacles face SI – including low student attendance, lack of faculty support, and recognition of today’s online generation. This research helps to fill the gap in SI by posing to solve the problems mentioned above by extending SI into the classroom with the assistance of tutors. In response to the growing number of students and lack of space and instructors to accommodate the exploding enrollment, an initiative called “Tutors in the Classroom (TIC)” was started at a 4-year liberal arts college near Atlanta. TIC involved …

Geometry: A Medium To Facilitate Geometric Reasoning Among Sixth Grade African-American Males, Olufunke Adefope

Georgia Educational Researcher

In this article, the author describes how a curricular unit that provided opportunities for active engagement and participation was used to support the geometric reasoning of sixth grade African American (AA) male students. The curricular unit was designed to support students’ understanding of quadrilaterals. Data sources (pre- and post-tests, video recordings of classroom episodes, mathematics interviews) were analyzed through quantitative and qualitative methods. Findings showed that students improved in their understanding of quadrilateral classifications. Specifically, students were able to use their knowledge of geometry to evaluate the relationships between pairs of quadrilaterals. However, levels of understanding were varied. Little research …

Impediments To Using Or Sharing What Is “Known”, Winifred Nweke, Virginia Elliott

Georgia Educational Researcher

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to investigate variables that impede the utilization of research findings in, or the transfer of learning from professional development workshops into, classroom best practices. Participants comprised 202 Georgia Master Teachers who attended Leadership Institutes. Participants were taught strategies for differentiating assessment. A 21-item online survey was used to collect data two months after the institute. Eighty-six teachers (42.6%) completed the survey. Fifty-five (64%) respondents had implemented, at least, one strategy. The strategies they found most useful were allowing students redo assignments for full credit, isolating and retesting specific standards rather than a …

Transition To Online Assessments: A Personal Perspective Of Meeting Common Core State Standards In An Elementary School In Georgia, August Ogletree, Susan Ogletree, Bridgette Allen

Georgia Educational Researcher

This article provides a brief background on the evolution of the two testing consortia and the perspective of one principal with the transition to online testing in an elementary school.

The Reading And Writing Connection: Merging Two Reciprocal Content Areas, Renee Moran, Monica Billen

Georgia Educational Researcher

The purpose of this article is make connections between two content areas, reading and writing, which have traditionally been separated and consider the relationship between their theoretical underpinnings. Based on their reciprocal nature, the authors posit that students could greatly benefit by reading and writing being taught simultaneously. Relying on this premise, this article provides the reader with three practical strategies that could be applied in the literacy classroom to intertwine reading and writing. These practical strategies include: classroom blogs, graphic depictions, and pen pal responses to literature.

Teachers’ And Parents’ Perceptions Of Parental Involvement On Inner City Children’S Academic Success, Molly Zhou

Georgia Educational Researcher

Parental involvement (PI) is an important factor in children’s academic learning. In this study, teachers’ and parents’ perceptions of parental involvement on inner city children’s academic success were examined. The setting of the study was in an inner city Tittle I elementary school with a 90% African American student population. A purposeful random sampling method was used in the study. Fifty five parents and 14 teachers participated in the study. The Parental Involvement Survey was used to collect data from the 69 participants. Collected data were analyzed with SPSS. The findings revealed that parents and teachers perceived that family, extended …

Beliefs Of Efficacy And Elementary Teachers’ Computational Skills, Vanessa Hinton, Margaret Flores, Kate Simmons

Georgia Educational Researcher

Early mathematics content that is taught in elementary school lays the foundation for students’ advanced mathematics performance. Thus, researchers show it is important that pre-service elementary teachers build a strong background in numbers and operations, as well as efficacy beliefs in mathematics instruction. This study expands the literature in the investigation of pre-service teachers’ efficacy beliefs and mathematical knowledge by making comparisons of pre-service elementary teachers’ views of efficacy to their overall ability in computation skills. Results show that elementary pre-service teachers who demonstrated lower scores in efficacy beliefs also had significantly lower computation scores. Implications for teacher preparation are …

Caep, Nctm, And Secondary Mathematics Program Revisions, Dianna J. Spence

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Eight assessments were developed for CAEP (formerly NCATE) and NCTM recognition of our secondary mathematics program. These assessments include internship work samples, field evaluations, and candidate portfolios addressing content knowledge, pedagogical methods, and mathematics technology. Based on data collected from these assessments, alongside ongoing evaluation of the program, several curriculum and program revisions were implemented, including: 1) development of mathematics content-specific courses in classroom management, assessment, and secondary curriculum; 2) restructuring of a senior seminar course in mathematics education; and 3) an increased content focus in probability and statistics. The adoption of new NCTM standards in the CAEP review process …

A Mathematics Teacher’S Journey Of Identity Construction And Change, Anthony B. Stinson

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Despite some gains, improving mathematics instruction remains an area of concern in the United States. The implementation of the Common Core Standards and the challenge of teaching the 21st Century student require mathematics teachers to examine their pedagogy to determine if they need to change or improve their practices. This paper provides a personal account of my journey when determining my identity as a mathematics teacher and how constructing my identity helped in changing and improving my practices as a mathematics teacher. The study was done using autoethnography, a burgeoning research method, and identity theory. This study has the goals …

Behavioral Intervention Teams: A Campus Wide Collaboration, Douglas Bell

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Campus behavioral intervention teams vary greatly from campus to campus, guided by their institution’s mission statement, ensuring a safe, educational environment for all members of the campus community. Assessments and interventions of distressed students and students exhibiting disturbing behavior provide a unique opportunity to collaborate with constituents of the campus community. This collaborative approach will assist in eliminating information silos and allow meaningful student interventions to take place.

Collaborating For Professional Development, Jillian A. Martin

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Collaborations in higher education often focus on creating opportunities to promote student learning and development (Brower & Inkelas, 2010; Jacoby, 1999; Kuh, Kinzie, Schuh, Whitt,& Associates, 2010). While student learning is the chief concern of institutions of higher education, institutional leaders should also focus on the professional development of personnel, namely faculty and student affairs administrators, who are responsible for student learning in the classroom and co-curriculum. Institutional leaders can use professional development to transform the historically insular work of academic and student affairs into a collaborative enterprise.

Georgia Journal Of College Student Affairs, Georgia College Personnel Association (Gcpa)

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Complete issue

Developing Faculty-Staff Collaborations To Foster A Culture Of Environmental Justice, Andrew M. Wells

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

As science and society better understand the challenges of global climate change, colleges and universities must prepare students to be environmentally just actors. To prepare tomorrow’s leaders, today’s educators must foster a culture of environmental justice on college campuses through independent efforts and collaborations between faculty and staff. This article examines the potential for student and academic affairs to collaborate to enhance students’ learning about environmental justice through liberal arts education. The author also provides examples of pro-environmental work done in student and academic affairs and introduces opportunities for collaboration between staff and faculty.

Collaborating With Academic Affairs To Cultivate Environments That Support Student Integrity, J. Matthew Garrett, Alex C. Lange

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Integrity development has been recognized as a common outcome at many colleges and universities (Association of American Colleges & Universities, 2012; Chickering & Reisser, 1993; Dugan & Komives, 2007; Higher Education Research Institute, 1996). Thus, it is important to create academic and student affairs collaborations that promote the development of students’ integrity and values clarification. In this article, we briefly discuss existing and new integrity research that informs how practitioners and administrators can structure environments supportive of students’ value clarification and congruence with their actions on campus. We use student Honor Codes/Codes of Conduct as an example source of collaboration …

Georgia Journal Of College Student Affairs, Georgia College Personnel Association (Gcpa)

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Complete Issue

Undergraduate Research Experiences: An Opportunity For Academic And Student Affairs Collaboration, Tiffany J. Davis

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Participation in high-impact educational activities produces high levels of achievement of desirable educational outcomes across domains including intellectual and practical skills, personal and social responsibility, and integrative and applied learning (Kuh, 2008). The student co-curricular experience has traditionally been viewed as the ‘laboratory’ for this type of affective and psychosocial development, with student affairs professionals serving as guides and mentors. This article includes some ideas, grounded both in current literature and my professional experience, for how student affairs professionals can begin to create meaningful collaborations with academic affairs.

Introduction, Candace E. Maddox, T. W. Cauthen, Diane L. Cooper

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Introduction to issue

A Conceptual Model For Collaboration To Combat The Summer Melt Of Students From Low-Income Backgrounds, Carrie V. Smith

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

This article includes a suggested model for postsecondary institutions to address the problem of summer melt among students from low-income backgrounds. The model accounts for four areas deemed integral support systems for low-income students to matriculate. The following partners are advised: student affairs, admissions, counselor education graduate programs, K-12 counselors, and financial aid. Within this collaboration, personnel within the student affairs divisions serve as the conveners and developmental experts. The article also outlines a summer melt prevention program that could be the focus of this type of collaboration. Due to the unique multiltifaceted design of this model, the author includes …

African-American Male Initiatives: Collaborating For Success, Zoe M. Johnson

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

This article provides guidance for those looking to establish an African-American Male Initiative (AAMI) on their campus. The hallmark of a strong AAMI is collaboration. This article explores contextual factors that influence the recruitment, retention, and graduation rates of African-American males in higher education. It includes the development and growth of the University of Georgia’s African-American Male Experience. Reflections and recommendations are provided along with an in-depth review of collaborative challenges and questions to ask in launching an AAMI collaboration on any campus.

Collaborative Efforts: Raising Students’ Multicultural Consciousness Through Academic Affairs And Student Affairs Partnerships, Shannon R. Dean

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

This article presents the need to shift language around multicultural competence to multicultural consciousness in the context of college students’ learning and development. Engaging in collaboration between academic and student affairs around multicultural consciousness supports student learning. Finally, the article outlines examples of three collaborations that can enrich students’ learning and development in the area of multicultural consciousness.

Proceedings Of The Eighth Annual Meeting Of The Georgia Association Of Mathematics Teacher Educators Introductory Texts

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

• GAMTE 2014 Officers
• GAMTE 2014 Conference Committee
• GAMTE 2014 Proceedings Committee
• Purposes and Goals of GAMTE
• Letter from the President

Do You See What I See? Deepening Teachers’ Understanding Of Linear Equations Through Student Interviews, Tamara Pearson, Kelli L. Nipper, Catherine Matos

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Many teachers have trouble transitioning their students between natural recursive thinking about the data and algebraic notation for representing linear functions (Zazkis & Liljedahl, 2002).

In this study, we interviewed eighteen middle school students to see how they used prior instruction to think about a geometric pattern and construct its corresponding linear equation. All students

were given the same task to complete and were questioned about their thinking during the interview.

We found that the recording of pattern recognition plays a substantial part in helping students recognize and write explicit patterns. By having students decompose the total perimeter into how …

Differences In Beliefs Across A Series Of Four Mathematics Content Courses, Susanna Molitoris Miller, Caitlin Walkey

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

College students often ask questions such as, “Why do I have to take this class? Is there a point to it?” For Early Childhood Education (ECE) majors these questions may often take on a slightly different form, wondering, “How can I incorporate this information into my classroom?” or “Do I understand this well enough to teach this to my students?” It is especially important for pre- service teachers to feel confident working with the mathematical content that they are learning and for them to believe that they can successfully teach that same information to a group of students. Swackhamer, Koellner, …

A Proposed Pedagogical Approach For Preparing Teacher Candidates To Incorporate (Academic) Language, Woong Lim, Lynn Stallings

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

The edTPA is a performance-based assessment that aims to measure teacher candidates’ readiness for teaching. Beginning in the fall of 2015, this assessment will be a mandatory requirement for those seeking certification in Georgia. General agreement exists in the field of education about the basic knowledge and skills essential for beginning teachers to demonstrate in classroom teaching. Does edTPA measure the knowledge and skills essential for beginning mathematics teachers in particular? Assuming that edTPA can successfully measure that knowledge and skills for beginning teachers, the use of the assessment could be valuable.

One of the critical components of edTPA is …

Design Considerations For Visually-Aided Discussion Prompts: Emphasizing Mathematical Reasoning In Teacher Education, Anne Marie S. Marshall, Kadian M. Callahan

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

The availability and familiarity of online discussion tools create new instructional options that teacher educators can use to foster prospective teachers’ understanding of mathematics. In particular, online discussion blogs provide an avenue through which teacher educators can press prospective teachers to explore mathematical concepts and share their mathematical reasoning with peers. Furthermore, by incorporating visual stimulations as a design component of these discussion blogs, prospective teachers can make sense of and respond to others’ ideas about mathematical concepts with greater clarity. This paper shares preliminary findings of a research study that examined the extent to which the design of a …

Book Review, Brenda L.H. Marina

Georgia Journal of College Student Affairs

Book review on Women and Leadership in Higher Education (2014).