Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

De Bono's Six Hats Thinking Strategy For All Content Areas, Jamie Mahoney, Lynn Patterson, Carol Hall

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Problem-solving and collaboration require people to compromise, negotiate, and brainstorm to understand, create, manage, judge, and be intuitive and remain positive and calm while working as a team to address problems. Teachers can teach students to collaborate and problem-solve in any content area using de Bono's Six Thinking Hats Strategy. Using de Bono's strategy, university students in this study explored learning hats and ways to apply learning hat properties to collaborate and problem solve in group activities. Researchers employed a mixed-method study enlisting both general education and special education pre-service undergraduate and in-service graduate teachers to discover personal thinking hat …

Uncommon And Non-Traditional Urban Relationship Strategies: From Relationship Loss To Relationship Recovery, Lasonya L. Moore

Journal of English Learner Education

With increasing student diversity across our nation, there is a growing need to scale up educational innovations related to building holistic relationships. Many students in K-12 public schools enter educational settings with uncommon and nontraditional ways of building and developing longitudinal relationships that allow students to thrive and not just survive. Specifically, teachers/educators feel ill-equipped and ill-trained to adequately support the increasing number of English learners(ELs) and Exceptional education students (specifically Students of Color (SOC) with emotional and behavioral disorders) identified in inclusive classrooms. Thus, there remains an urgent need to share uncommon and non-traditional strategies to develop and build …

“Math Talks Are Like An Alarm Clock Waking You Up”: Language’S Crucial Role In Mathematics, Ella Wasser

Masters of Education in Teaching and Learning

Whole group math talks, or number talks, are a common practice to get students talking about their own understanding of mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study was to implement math talks in small group settings to see what would happen, specifically to students’ conceptual understanding as well their general perceptions of math talks. This study took place in a fourth-grade math classroom, and math talks were implemented with the whole class for a week and then moved to small groups for the remaining three weeks of the study. During the study, a pre-and post-assessment was given, field notes were …

Counting On Collaboration: A Triangular Approach In The Educator Preparation Program For Teachers Of Mathematics, Jason Robinson, Patricia Mcclung, Caroline Maher-Boulis, Jennifer Cornett, Beth Fugate

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

This paper outlines the process of establishing a stronger and more reciprocal partnership for collaboration between an education preparation program and a local education agency. The essential partners identified included the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and the College of Education at Lee University and stakeholders in the local school district. First, this paper will discuss a theoretical framework that speaks to the importance of dialogue and a dialogic approach to teaching mathematics. Secondly, the processes and methods of the project involving collaboration through partnerships are described. These partnerships gave rise to the realization that coursework would be more …

Facilitating Collaboration Through A Co-Teaching Field Experience, Mark S. Montgomery, Adam Akerson

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This article describes an action research project in which two teacher educators implemented a co-teaching field experience with pre-service teacher candidates acting as co-teachers to facilitate collaboration among peers. The goal of the action research was to better meet the needs of pre-service teacher candidates and continually develop their ability to grow as reflective and collaborative future teaching educators. To increase collaboration, co-teaching models were implemented in an early field experience. Teaching activities and assignments provided opportunities for collaboration as co-teachers and as members of a teaching community. Data collection and observations indicate peer-to-peer co-teaching helped create a collaborative atmosphere …

Intention, Questions, And Creative Expression: An Antidiscriminatory Diversity Statement, Hannah S. Bright

Scholarship and Engagement in Education

Supporting education that reflects diversity involves maintaining awareness of one’s personal positionality, creating safe and inclusive learning communities, and using creativity and choice to empower and honor student voice and individual development. When working in educational settings, teachers may involve students in selecting relevant materials, and follow their lead in creating critical dialogue about salient factors of identity.

Multimodal Literacy: Journey Through The Collaborative Transmediation Of Wordless Picturebooks, Catherine Todd Thomson

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

With a shift towards 21st century literacy practices and a greater variety of literature, the mere definitions of literacy and text are shifting. The focus on traditional text that heavily relies on words and supporting pictures to convey meaning has changed to text of multiple modes. Teachers are now charged with fostering new skills in students in order to help them engage with these texts effectively and to allow them to make meaning of the multimodal texts that surround them (Siegel, 2006).

In this qualitative case study, the primary investigator assumed a dual role as the classroom teacher and researcher …

Teacher Perceptions On Changing Instructional Practices In Mathematics With The Implementation Of The Common Core State Standards, Esther M. Underwood

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

As schools across the U.S. begin to implement Common Core State Standards in Mathematics (CCSSM), teachers must shift their instructional practices from a traditional emphasis on procedures and algorithms to a conceptually based model in which students engage more meaningfully with mathematical concepts. The purpose of this study is to examine participants’ perspectives about the influence of CCSSM on their instructional practices, and the challenges they face in effectively implementing these changes. The literature reveals the need for professional development, standards aligned materials, and ongoing support of teachers in order for them to make substantial changes to their instructional approach. …

Class Exploration To A Campus Library Curriculum Center To Develop Book-Building Capacity For Teacher Candidates, Camille M. Russello Ph.D., Julie J. Henry

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The purpose of this pilot was to examine the effectiveness of the practice of providing opportunities for undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates to explore the campus library curriculum center as a group regularly during class time. During their visits, teacher candidates were guided in selecting and analyzing children’s literature for their future teaching. The research was focused on how these visits impacted teacher candidates’ understanding of children’s literature and literacy development. Data were collected through a survey administered at the conclusion of the course and responses were probed further during one-on-one interviews. Candidates described these visits as beneficial in …

Table Talk: Empowering Alive Conversations, Jeanine Judd, Beverly Anne Richardson

National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference

Are the skills of conversation becoming lost in today's fast-paced and technology-enhanced world? Table Talk is an instructional framework created to teach elementary students how to communicate and collaborate effectively. Just as technology's ubiquitousness and society's rapidness have sustained, Table Talk seeks to empower students to overcome barriers to successful and productive adult lives.

Communication: The Key To Collaboration Between Special And General Education Teachers, Alexandra Slatoff

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Teachers often do not communicate with one another when working to meet the needs of their students. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the need, nature and manner by which general and special education teachers communicate and collaborate to address the educational needs of their students.

A review of the educational literature reveals that a burden is placed on the educational community given the often conflicting statutory obligations to: fully include special needs students in the general classroom, comply with State mandated general education curriculum requirements and implement instructional guidelines required by Individual Educational Plans (IEP) …

The Impact Of Instructional Rounds Professional Development On Teacher Self-Efficacy, Melessa B. Widener

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of instructional rounds professional development on teacher self-efficacy. The scope of this study was a qualitative case study including interviews with teachers who had participated in instructional rounds professional development in a rural district in the foothills of North Carolina. The methodology included interviews with two teacher leaders from all elementary schools implementing Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) and teachers at the Early College who participated in instructional rounds professional learning through the New Schools Project. The findings include teachers' quotes from the transcriptions of the interviews as supporting the research …