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Education Commons

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Selected Works

2016

Curriculum

Teacher Education and Professional Development

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Education

Problem-Based Learning And Self-Efficacy: How A Capstone Course Prepares Students For A Profession, Joanna C. Dunlap Mar 2016

Problem-Based Learning And Self-Efficacy: How A Capstone Course Prepares Students For A Profession, Joanna C. Dunlap

Joanna Dunlap

Problem-based learning (PBL) is apprenticeship for real-life problem solving, helping students acquire the knowledge and skills required in the workplace. Although the acquisition of knowledge and skills makes it possible for performance to occur, without self-efficacy the performance may not even be attempted. I examined how student self-efficacy, as it relates to being software development professionals, changed while involved in a PBL environment. Thirty-one undergraduate university computer science students completed a 16-week capstone course in software engineering during their final semester prior to graduation. Specific instructional strategies used in PBL--namely the use of authentic problems of practice, collaboration, and reflection--are …


Transitioning From Students To Professionals: Using A Writing Across The Curriculum Model To Scaffold Portfolio Development, Lori Elliott, Nancy Daily, Lori Fredricks, Meadow Graham Feb 2016

Transitioning From Students To Professionals: Using A Writing Across The Curriculum Model To Scaffold Portfolio Development, Lori Elliott, Nancy Daily, Lori Fredricks, Meadow Graham

Lori Elliott

Teacher educators have found portfolios to be a valuable way to judge readiness for student-teaching and initial certification as well as an effective means of examining and validating teacher preparation programs. Tension exists between using the portfolio as a product for evaluation and maintaining its focus as a personal examination, synthesis, and reflection on becoming a teacher. This qualitative action research study was designed to explore the effects of incorporating writing workshops built on Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) principles into the initial portfolio process required of students during their first semester in an undergraduate middle-grades teacher-education pro- gram. Findings …