Education Commons^™

"Endemic Uncertainties" : Teachers' Professional Lives In The High-Stakes Reform Movement, Harris Sockel

Graduate Student Independent Studies

Explores the effects that principles of certainty have on teachers' professional lives and their attitudes toward their work.

The Relationship Between Teacher Satisfaction And Developmentally Responsive Structures At New York City Middle Schools, Elianna Rose Lippold-Johnson

Graduate Student Independent Studies

The purpose of this research was to investigate the experience of teachers at two New York City middle schools to see how developmentally responsive school-wide structures influenced their professional satisfaction and commitment to their schools.

Creating Conversations, Changing Cultures: Case Study Of A Professional Development Plan, Alexis Goldberg

Graduate Student Independent Studies

There's a lot working against authentic demonstrations of thinking, and legitimate avenues of collaboration in our school cultures. We force-feed students high-stakes tests that promote a single "right answer" instead of multiple solution paths. Despite research that suggests teachers learn best from each other, we promote the ideal of the teacher-as-­maverick. Many of our systems endorse closed-set, closed-door thinking that leaves room for neither independent student thinking nor the collaborative generation of ideas.

Breaking cultures this strong, this endemic, is a weighty task. In a yearlong case study, Alexis Goldberg creates and executes a professional development plan that engages with …