Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Seeding Change: What Vvh Can Teach Us About Teaching And Learning In Digital Spaces, Michelle Ciccone

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, I reflect on a central question: “why did I experience something so profoundly different in Virtually Viral Hangouts (VVH) than I was able to help seed in my own district during the COVID-19 crisis?” I identify three key components of the VVH ethos that inspired new ways of thinking, namely: digital technologies free us from constraints to build something different, digital technologies are most effective when we use them to build community, and digital collaboration enables us to tap into the wisdom of the group. As we build better and more humane educational spaces, it is important …

Virtually Viral Hangouts: Reflections On The Role Of Community During Crisis, Lauren G. Mcclanahan

Journal of Media Literacy Education

In this essay, I reflect on two key aspects of my membership in the online community known as Virtually Viral Hangouts (VVH). First, I reflect on how membership in this group helped me professionally, providing important, in-time instruction as I learned to make the switch from in-person to remote learning in the early days of Covid-19. Next, I reflect on how membership in this group helped me personally, as I struggled to find my identity as a teacher through a computer screen. I conclude by reflecting upon what it means to be a member of a community and why such …

The Secret Sauce Of Online Community Of Practice During Covid-19 Pandemic: Nonviolent Communication, Yonty Friesem, Elizaveta Friesem

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The challenges of work-family balance while being asked to move to remote instruction and engage students creatively have affected us all globally on multiple levels - from our professional identity, to our own health, mortality and purpose in life. The idea behind Nonviolent Communication (NVC) is that as Rosenberg (2015/1999) put it, it is a language that celebrates life. Applying these practices in a community building initiative of the Media Education Lab during the COVID-19 pandemic supported our community not only for their professional needs, but also and most importantly in their social and emotional resiliency to keep positive their …

Teachers Leading Teachers: An Approach To Content-Area Literacy Instruction To Address Inequitable Education, Leah Metivier-Kearney

Culminating Experience Projects

The current state of education establishes the norm of consistent literacy intervention in elementary education and through specialized accommodations thereafter; unfortunately, many students reach secondary levels without the literacy skills necessary to be successful in their classes and beyond into adulthood. The task of managing this gap is overwhelming, and it stems from various economic, racial, and situational variables that schools cannot address entirely. Instead, teachers may make the choice to improve the equity within their immediate environments by prioritizing equity through direct literacy instruction, consequently providing opportunities for these students to attain those necessary skills for lifelong success.

The …

Teachers Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students And Effective Professional Development: A Critical Review Of Research, Irish Farley

Journal of English Learner Education

Effective Professional Development (PD) is essential for teachers of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CLD) students. Despite the continuing increase of diversity of students, teachers are underinformed with best practices for teaching and support. Many good teachers may not know how to best support CLD students. In 2018, the National Center for Education Statistics reported that only 44% of surveyed teachers who had at least one CLD student in their classroom received professional development specifically for working with these students. This review of the literature covers two distinct but related topics: why teachers of CLD students need more PD and what …

Impacts Of Early Childhood Professional Development On Educator Practice And Subsequent Student Experience In The Outdoor Environment, Hannah Mohr

Masters of Arts in Education Action Research Papers

The purpose of this project was to study the impact of professional development on early childhood educator practice and its subsequent effects on toddlers’ experiences with Risky Play in the outdoor environment. The setting of this project was a toddler classroom within a Montessori school in Missouri. The population for this action research study was three adult assistant guides with varying levels of experience with Montessori and early childhood education and 10 students in a Montessori toddler classroom between the ages of 17 and 32 months. The intervention consisted of a professional development workshop related to Montessori philosophy and benefits …

Improving Extension Curriculum Design Using Learner-Centered Templates, Mary L. Halbleib

The Journal of Extension

Extension professionals’ use of learner-centered instructional practices can maximize engagement and more effectively address expressed needs within their diverse communities. The Outcome-Based Extension Education Design and Facilitating Teaching and Learning templates enable educators to effectively implement curricula that identify context-specific learner needs, activities that increase learner engagement, and assessment tasks that gather evidence of essential knowledge construction and skills development. Using these two practical tools, Extension professionals can streamline the creation of compelling and efficacious programs that focus on the intended learning outcomes.

Vanuatu: Policy Insights From A Multi-Year Teaching And Learning Study Series, Elizabeth Cassity, Debbie Wong

Education Analytics Service

The Australian Government is supporting significant education reforms in Vanuatu. This policy note summarises findings on primary school teacher practice and student learning outcomes, during the first phase of major curriculum changes. Key findings include the need for consistent investment in ongoing professional learning given that new content and pedagogies require significant change and learning for teachers and other education actors. In addition, better engagement with school communities builds understanding of the reforms and encourages greater parental involvement in education. Part of a multi-year study, the Education Analytics Service is investigating how the Vanuatu Education Support Program (VESP) is making …

Next-Level Leadership: Preparing Assistant Principals For Campus Leadership, Jerry R. Burkett

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The workload of campus leaders continues to increase with new expectations for evaluation and supervision, changing legislative mandates, and mounting pressures for improved school accountability. Educational Leadership preparation programs are built on national and state standards related to principal leadership and competency. However, while principal preparation programs have focused intently on instructional leadership development for future principals, most educational leadership candidates do not immediately enter the principalship but rather start their administrative careers as assistant principals. School districts can implement a comprehensive training protocol for their emerging principals using research-based practices to ensure assistant principals have the training, coaching, and …

Life Is Complicated: The Urgent Call To Support Student Wellbeing Through Social Emotional Learning, Taya Kinzie

Dissertations

Abstract:

Students face increased mental health challenges, including depression, anxiety, trauma, racial trauma, and suicide risk, in addition to opportunity gaps. Despite educators’ work to support students through mental health services and despite the existence of social emotional learning (SEL) programs within the school environment, the impact on student learning and long-term post high school outcomes can feel overwhelming. There is also a perception that the responsibility for SEL belongs only to social workers, psychologists and counselors. The primary research question is; how does embedding of SEL practices vary within instructional, non-instructional, and leadership roles? The related questions are: to …

Examining The Effects Of A Curriculum-Based Professional Learning Community On Teacher Efficacy Toward Inquiry-Based Science Instruction, Samuel Joel Northern

Dissertations

Improving STEM education is pivotal to our country’s economic future and security. Unfortunately, most young students have limited access to standards-based science education. Science instruction is notoriously difficult to implement in the early grades. This dissertation explored the root causes for the lack of effective science instruction in elementary schools, including accountability testing, instructional time, historically weak standards, family factors, teacher efficacy, and professional development.

This study aimed to understand how elementary school teachers’ attitudes promote or hinder the implementation of science instruction. This study’s primary driver to improve science education in the early grades was a curriculum-based professional learning …

Ready To Engage? Urban Middle School Teachers’ Responsiveness To Targeted Engagement Interventions On Their Virtual Instructional Practices: An Action Research Study, Svetlana Nikic

Dissertations

Teachers’ effectiveness is associated with their instructional practices and is ultimately linked to students’ learning outcomes. In order to impact teachers’ effectiveness, schools focus substantial effort and resources on professional development led by an assumption that teachers’ classroom practices can be improved through targeted interventions. Even if this premise is correct, little information is available about how much a teacher’s practice may change through interventions, or which aspects of instructional practice are more receptive to improving teacher effectiveness (Garret et al., 2019).

This study took place at an urban middle school and examined teachers’ responsiveness to targeted engagement intervention in …

In Search Of Silver Linings: Strategies For Preparing Future Faculty During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tazin Daniels, Elizabeth Bailey, Anoff Nicholas Cobblah

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this article, we describe our experience as a racially and disciplinarily diverse, relatively junior program team who embraced the opportunity to transform a 20-year-old professional development seminar for graduate students into a remote offering in response to COVID-19. Our efforts to support our participants and champion an institutional move toward equitable and effective virtual programming are situated alongside the psychological tolls of remote work, a global health crisis, and ongoing racial violence across the United States. We recount our experience using, as a helpful metaphor, Lewin’s change model, which describes the process of “unfreezing,” “changing,” and “refreezing” long-standing assumptions …

Faculty-Librarian Information Literacy Collaboration, Kimmarie W. Lewis

Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy

Faculty and librarian collaboration is key in the quest for information literacy. As part of the reaccreditation effort at Lord Fairfax Community College -- a two-year institution in northwestern Virginia -- the QEP Leadership Team sought LFCC Librarians’ assistance in a multifaceted, 5-year, information literacy initiative. This effort included the addition of a librarian to the all-faculty QEP Leadership Team, the redesign of composition courses, and professional development through a new LFCC program: “Seeking the Truth: Faculty-Librarian Collaboration Mini-Grants.”

Data obtained from the mini-grant program show that LFCC faculty engaged in this multifaceted initiative gained an appreciation for collaboration with …

The Critical Effect: Exploring The Influence Of Critical Media Literacy Pedagogy On College Students’ Social Media Behaviors And Attitudes, Nolan Higdon

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This self-exploratory pilot qualitative study examines the impact of critical social media pedagogy on students’ behavior and attitudes toward social media. This study employs a critical lens of course content and self-reported student data from eighteen participants who completed a Northern California university course titled “Social Media, Social Change” in the fall of 2019. The changes in participants’ social media behaviors and attitudes were measured via a pre and post survey designed by the researcher. Exposure to critical pedagogy was associated with changing views of social media, especially heightened privacy concerns. The study reveals areas of further research and recommendations …

College Students’ Attitudes Towards Remote Instruction During The Coronavirus Pandemic: Future Directions, Selenid M. Gonzalez-Frey, Keli Garas-York, Corinne M. Kindzierski, Julie J. Henry

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Undergraduate and graduate education students completed a survey to examine their attitudes toward remote instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. At the conclusion of the Spring 2020 semester in which all courses transitioned from a face-to-face to an online format, students, N = 93, were asked to describe what worked well in their courses in regards to their remote instruction experience and, when things did not go so well, what would have helped to make their experience better. The qualitative data were coded, and inductive analysis was used to generate categories (Johnson, 2012; Strauss & Corbin, 1998). Responses were grouped into …

Coming Together Through Object Based Learning In A Pandemic, Brian Sheehy, Michael Sandstrom, John Heeg

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

In the summer of 2019, three history teachers from all over the US, met in France for National History Day’s Memorializing the Fallen program and commenced a lasting friendship. While in France, touring the WWI cemeteries, memorial sites, and museums, we all realized the importance of experience-based learning and the seeds were sown for our interest in object based learning. Aside from the philosophical and pedagogical discussions on long bus rides and our passion for history, we shared a belief in the importance of revitalizing history education and helping it to evolve in the face of our twenty-first century world. …

Procedural Fluency, Sandie Gilliam

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

This article presents main points from Diane Briars’ session, Supporting Teachers in Building Procedural Fluency from Conceptual Understanding, presented at the 2016 Annual Conference of the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics.

Connecting Algebra To Geometry: A Transition Summer Camp For At-Risk Students, Mary E. Pilgrim, John Bloemker

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

The authors share how they designed curriculum for a summer algebra camp, for eighth graders in a district serving high proportions of Latino students. They discuss the impact the algebra camp had on students’ confidence in mathematics and mathematical ability.

Nctm 2015 Summer High School Institute, Jennifer Perego, Mary E. Pilgrim

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

NCTM’s 2015 High School Interactive Institute engaged teachers in learning opportunities to promote effective mathematics teaching. Through keynote speeches, interactive workshops, and facilitated task discussion groups, teachers reflected on current and best practices, participated in classroom-ready lessons, and collaborate with other educators.

Are We There Yet? Educators As Lgbtq Advocates And Book Clubs As Professional Development, Alexis Marie Egan

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines Rainbow Advocates: An Educator’s Book Club, a book club study designed for educators wherein they read three works of LGBTQ young adult literature in Summer 2020. Purposes of the book club study include a consideration of how participating educators’ experiences with LGBTQ youth, literary materials, and training compare to past research. This dissertation includes an assessment of their readiness to handle LGBTQ issues in school sites and an evaluation of book clubs and reading LGBTQ young adult literature as a method of professional development for educators. In doing so, this dissertation draws on reader responses as per …

Timor-Leste: Policy Insights From A Multi-Year Teaching And Learning Study Series, Jennie Chainey, Elizabeth Cassity

Education Analytics Service

The Australian Government is supporting significant education reforms in Timor-Leste. This policy note summarises findings on primary school teacher practice and student learning outcomes during the phased introduction of major curriculum changes. Key areas identified for action include the need to promote inclusive classroom practices and address capacity gaps in this area. In addition, establish measures to ensure effective school leadership and school practices continue once the Apoiu Lideransa liuhosi Mentoria no Aprendizajen (ALMA) program support ceases or there are institutional changes. Part of a multi-year study, the Education Analytics Service is investigating how ALMA is making a difference to …

Teacher Development Multi-Year Study Series. Vanuatu: Interim Report 1, Elizabeth Cassity, Jacqueline Cheng, Debbie Wong

Education Analytics Service

The Government of Vanuatu is undertaking significant primary education reforms, including major curriculum changes, to improve equitable access to and the quality of education. Since 2016, a new primary education curriculum has been introduced by stages, accompanied by a suite of in-service teacher training. The new curriculum promotes teaching practices that support new pedagogies focused on student-centred learning and community support, language transition and class-based assessment practices. These reforms are being supported by the Australian Government, through its Vanuatu Education Support Program (VESP). The Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) has commissioned a study to investigate how …

An Exploration Of Principal Instructional Leadership Increasing Instructional Capacity Through Collaborative Relationships, Michael Henry Myers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

State and federal mandates designed to increase student learning and development through principal instructional leadership are based on research that demonstrates the potential benefits teacher collaboration can have on teacher efficacy, school culture, and student learning; however, many principals are inadequately trained for instructional leadership roles that utilize collaboration. The problem this study investigated is the lack of research about successful instructional leaders using collaboration to increase the instructional capacity of the teachers in high-achieving, suburban high schools. High-quality teaching is important and requires the collective skills and expertise of well-trained teachers. The organizational development theories of McGregor, the adult …

Factors Associated With Novice General Education Teachers’ Preparedness To Work With Multilingual Learners: A Multilevel Study, Qizhen Deng Ph.D., Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Kara Mitchell Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study examined factors linked to novice general education teachers’ perception of their preparedness to work with multilingual learners in the classroom. Using a multilevel modeling approach, we examined factors at the teacher and school levels using two AY 2015 to 2016 datasets: The National Teacher and Principal Survey from the National Center for Education Statistics and the Civil Rights Data Collection from the Office of Civil Rights. The results show that teacher perception of preparedness was positively associated with teacher education courses on working with multilingual learners, supports received during the first-year teaching, and the number of multilingual learners …

A Comprehensive Audit Of Professional Development For K-12 School Leaders In The Commonwealth Of Virginia, Melissa Davis Hill, Melisa J. Naumann, Timothy M. Tillman, Major R. Warner Jr.

Doctor of Education Capstones

The intent of this paper is to provide a mixed-methods audit of professional development provided to K-12 school leadership in Virginia's diverse landscape to include identification of providers, funding, effectiveness, and expectations.

In the Commonwealth of Virginia, geographical, political, and socio-economical differences across 132 school divisions cause variability in leaders' experiences with professional development. A mixed-methods approach was used, including a review of current literature, an online survey, virtual interviews, and virtual focus group discussions. This data collection results in a comprehensive audit of professional development provided to school leaders in Virginia's diverse landscape. The study defines effective professional development …