Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Teachers' Self-Directed Informal Learning For Technology Integration In 1:1 Device High Schools, Mary Moen

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Public schools are implementing 1:1 computing programs in the hopes of

transforming education to provide students with the digital literacy competencies that

will enable them to be successful in our technology driven world. Continuous

professional learning is critical in helping teachers develop the knowledge and skills

for effective educational technology integration. Research has found however, that

formal professional development, commonly implemented as one-time workshops

with outside facilitators, are ineffective due to the multi-dimensional nature of

technology integration. Teacher continuous professional learning outside of the formal

context needs be considered. This survey study explored the self-directed informal

online and offline learning …

Lessons Learned: Building A Better Laboratory School, Amanda S. Wilcox-Herzog, Meridyth S. Mclaren

NALS Journal

Laboratory schools serve an important function in the education and training of early educators as well as important sites for the development of new knowledge related to best practices in early care and education. To this end, it is important to determine how to promote and preserve Laboratory Schools in the United States. The following paper utilizes existing literature and field data to identify essential components of successful Laboratory schools and provides a case study of a relatively new Laboratory school serving infants and toddlers; both its successes and struggles.

The Anything Writing Project In First Grade, Stephanie J. Koplitzharty, Konnie Serr

NALS Journal

This article gives an overview of varying levels of engagement observed in the Grace B. Luhrs University Elementary School First Grade classroom during “Anything Writing” writing workshop. Children in first grade at Grace B. Luhrs are encouraged to use topics of their own choosing when creating their written work while at the same time following basic steps in the writing process.

The “Anything Writing” approach offers differentiated instruction opportunities for diverse learners within a community of writers. Observations by university faculty, university students and the first grade teacher are included along with student writing samples. This article is the result …

Blogging About Summer Reading, Janice Becker Place

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The purpose of this study was to investigate what happened when grade 11 high school honors students blogged about their summer reading under the monitoring of a teacher during vacation. I proposed that an educational blog might serve as an effective tool during summer vacation to help students retain skills or learning while at a physical distance from their school and teacher. In addition to the blog’s transcripts, a pre-project survey, post-project survey,and post-project interviews provided complementary data to inform my analysis. Qualitative analysis was applied to the blog discussion entries for evidence of peer learning, scaffolding, critical thinking, and …

How Districts Allocate Educational Resources In Rhode Island, Timothy P. Ryan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Considerable debate has taken place regarding the amount, adequacy, and effectiveness of funding public schools. At the macro level, research is mixed as to whether increased funding is associated with improved student performance. In some specific cases, such as increased funding for lower class size and early childhood education, spending on specific activities has shown to be effective.

This study examined whether spending categories are associated with academic performance. Spending allocations and student performance were examined at the school level for the school years 2004-05 through 2007-08. Spending data was obtained through the Rhode Island Department of Education In$ight financial …

The Dialectics Of Teacher Change Within A Community Of Practice, Armand R. Pires

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Teacher change is at the heart of school reform. The research on teacher change has been primarily focused on teacher change from an individualistic perspective and has identified three possible paths of teacher change: beliefs precede change, change precedes beliefs, or change is nonlinear and recursive. This study looked at teacher change within a middle school during a time the school was undergoing a district-driven change in student grouping practices.

The study was conducted during the 2009-2010 school year and included ten teachers of science, social studies, and English in a grade 6-8 middle school. A qualitative study approach was …

Time For Learning, Kris A. Monahan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Learning takes time, but providing time does not in itself ensure that learning will take place (Carroll, 1963; Stallings & Kaskowitz, 1974; Anderson, 1981; Aronson, Zimmer & Carlos, 1999; Berliner, 1990; Kidder et. al., 1975). We need to examine more closely how students are using time and which conditions maximize student engagement. As schools continue to struggle with meeting state and national standards using traditional educational pedagogies and structures, whole school reforms are often implemented to improve student learning and success. While several studies have attempted to begin this exploration, few, if any, actually ask students about their experiences, perspectives, …

A Comparison Of Hybrid/Online And Lecture College Courses, Katelyn Paquin

Honors Projects

The purpose of this research is to investigate relationships between online college courses and in-person courses with regard to student course completion rate and course grade averages. The personality characteristics of Introversion, Conscientiousness and Academic Self-Regulation, and professor student rapport were also examined in relation to performance of the students enrolled in online and in-person classes. This study was based on an integrative theory of self- and social regulation in learning contexts. A two-tailed t-test for independent samples found no significant difference between the end of previous semester cumulative GPAs (CGPAs) of students in the online/hybrid or in-person courses. The …

Parent-Teacher Partnerships In Special Education, Cassandra Braley

Honors Projects

There is an old African proverb that says, “It takes a village to raise a child (Buzzell, 1996, p.1).” In today’s society, this saying is applicable to the idea of parent-teacher partnerships in education. The underlying assumption of such partnerships is that everyone who has a stake in a child’s life, including the parents, teachers, and community, should work together to give that child the best education possible. In reality, however, key stakeholders in a child’s life may have many different ideas and beliefs, and, as a result, a disconnect in communication and relationships among them can arise. In such …

"Ok, I'M A Teacher Now:" Reading Young Adult Literature In A Teacher Education Program, Brittany Richer

Honors Projects

After taking a young adult literature course as part of my Secondary Education/ English program, I felt I had gained only a limited understanding of the importance of the genre to my future career. In the class, we read several popular young adult texts, learned about their authors, identified censorship issues, and mentioned a few strategies related to the teaching of the texts. Much of the “understanding” related only to future applications in imagined classrooms, which left no room for critical reflection about what we might learn from reading the texts about ourselves as students and teachers. A sense of …

Describing Comprehension, Susan Vander Does

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Teachers' observations of student performance in reading are abundant and insightful but often remain internal and unarticulated. As a result, such observations are an underutilized and undervalued source of data. Given the gaps in knowledge about students’ reading comprehension that exist in formal assessments, the frequent calls for teachers’ observational data to fill these gaps, and the paucity of research on teachers as assessment instruments, this study sought to learn more about the knowledge teachers gain about students’ comprehension through embedded observation.

This research was framed by a transactional conception of reading and informed by cognitive and sociocultural studies of …

Financially Sustaining University Lab Schools: One University’S Story, Gloria J. Gresham Dr.

NALS Journal

University lab schools connected to teacher preparation programs are based on the clinical teaching model. The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education and the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education encourage teacher preparation programs to extend the hours required in clinical settings for teacher candidates. For years, some teacher preparation programs have championed the clinical teaching model. The university that was the focus of this study has implemented the clinical teaching model for over 87 years. Sustaining this model was not easy but through perseverance, this university did just that. The intent of this study was to determine …

What About Me? An Examination Of Identity Formation Among Beginning Educators, Nicholas Bernardo

Honors Projects

Over the past decade, I have been an athlete, a stage manager, an actor, a parliament member, a treasurer, a resident assistant, a tour guide, a ballroom dancer, and very involved with music, participating in marching band throughout high school as well as my college wind ensemble. Of all those roles, the only one that has stuck is my most recent—teacher. I decided that I wanted to be a teacher in fourth grade, and I have grown to be very passionate about it. But even in that regard, the question “what is right?” continued to linger. What if I am …

The Relation Between Speech And Reading, Erin St. Jacques

Honors Projects

An analysis is made of the connection between speech and reading, and language and reading, and how both are related to a Speech-Language Pathologist's job in a school setting, working with struggling readers. Research about the process of learning how to read and how and SLP can be brought in at different stages is examined. This research paper looks at how a child learns to read; programs were executed involving young readers with reading disabilities. It also examines the different stages of learning to read and how an SLP can try to hep. The tactics were examined more closely as …

Doing Science Their Way, Carol M. Giuriceo

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

From the perspective of social cultural anthropology employing the field research techniques of ethnography this study focuses on the experiences and perspectives of sixth grade girls in a moderately-sized East Coast city as they construct meaning through active engagement i a science classroom. The study analyzes the ways in which girls change roles and incorporate social interaction during science activities to create their own unique engagement in science.

International Teaching Assistants And The Essence Of The Development Of Intercultural Competence, Mary Jo Fletcher Larocco

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Intercultural competence is an essential, but understudied, aspect of communication for successful interactions between international teaching assistants (ITAs) and undergraduate students. This qualitative study employs transcendental phenomenology (Moustakas, 1994) to describe the essence of the development of intercultural competence from the lived experiences of Chinese ITAs studying at a mid-size university in the northeast. The result is a composite textural-structural description of intercultural competence.

A Tale Of Two City Schools, Jill A. Proulx

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

The study examined how leaders in both schools define successful reform, perceive high-stakes testing, perceive a need to raise student achievement, and implement reforms in response to high-stakes testing. The study combined qualitative interview data and survey methodology to examine differing perceptions and to identify the factors most strongly associated with different levels of reform success.

Teaching Statistics To Elementary Children: Using A Problem-Solving Approach To Enhance Learning, Kayla Lee Botelho

Honors Projects

When teaching statistics (or data analysis) to elementary children, it is beneficial to use a problem-solving approach that incorporates meaningful tasks to enhance the students' learning. This was determined through a careful review of literature, observations of elementary teachers, and the creation and instruction of data analysis unit. The unit required the students to collect data on heights, organize the data in charts, and display the data in line plots. In addition, the students analyzed the data to recalculate the average and other measures of central tendency and to answer questions that arose through the implementation of the lessons. In …

The Effect Of Positive Behavioral Intervention And Supports (Pbts) On Elementary School Student Academic Performance And Behaviors, Michelle Leblanc

Honors Projects

Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) is a school-wide management program designed to improve student academic performance by providing a positive behavioral environment. Research was conducted to determine if there were any direct correlation between proper and consistent implementation of the PBIS framework and an overall increased student achievement on assessments such as the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). Test results were examined and 12 interviews were conducted with principals, teachers, and PBIS coordinators from six different Rhode Island public schools. The results demonstrated that a majority of the schools have improved over the last few years on the …

Characteristics And Predictors Associated With Teacher And Faculty Use Of Online Data Collection In Teacher Preparation Settings, Susan Gracia

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine some of the gaps in the research around the use of online surveys in teacher preparation settings by exploring the attitudes toward technology and online evaluations, as well as predictors of user assessment of online data collection methodology, among 222 College Supervisors and Cooperating Teachers. Research questions centered around the status of and relationships among College Supervisor/Cooperating Teacher demographic variables, level of computer experience, computer proficiency, attitude toward technology, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, facilitating conditions, and overall assessment of online student teacher evaluations. Findings indicated that Cooperating Teachers experienced far …

Literacy Coaching, Patricia Jane May

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Examines the experience of four elementary level classroom teachers and one coach as they engaged in a year-long literacy coaching program. Analysis of coach/teacher interactions highlights the role of reflective thought in teacher learning and positions reflective thought as a foundational premise of teacher learning. In addition, as a result of the discovery process inherent in the grounded theory design, finds that teachers' goal setting influenced movement along a gradual release of responsibility (GRR) continuum of adult learning.

Making Waves With Critical Literacy, Carolyn Fortuna

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

A qualitative study undertaken in 2007 that explores the application of critical literacy pedagogy within English language arts classes of an upper middle class public high school. Results demonstrate that when students recontextualize their own modalities, literacies, and cultures as part of their learning experience, they begin to understand the concept of social justice for all.

An Empathetic Approach To Physical Education Teacher Education, Tony Monahan

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Based on the theory that a more student-centered approach in physical education classes might encourage more students to engage in lifelong physical activity and, thereby, lead a healthier life, this study was undertaken to determine the effect of a semester-long empathy-focused educational intervention on empathy levels in 59 college-level students studying in Physical Education Teacher Education (PETE) Programs at three East-coast universities. ANCOVA results revealed statistically significant findings in "Higher Order" empathy levels in the experimental groups, and analysis of essays written for the study also suggested a change in experimental group subjects' personal view of PE toward an empathetic …

Exploring Some Inattended Affective Factors In Performing Nonroutine Mathematical Tasks, John Douglas Butler

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Describes students' attempts to solve nonroutine math problems and explores possible correlates of their performance, focusing on inattended (i.e., intentionally avoided) dimensions underrepresented in the literature, including attitudes, interests, values, aesthetics, metacognition, and representation. Analyzes objective and subjective data gathered from a sample of 9th-grade students at a high school in Rhode Island. Finds strong evidence of students' math-aesthetics in problem solving.

Judging Competence, Marie A. Lynch, Linda Capalbo

Faculty Publications

This study analyzed written records created by college clinical supervisors, of student teaching observations carried out during the Fall 2008 and Spring 2009 semester. Observations, conducted in public schools in a Northeastern state, reflected the dual enrollment status of each student teacher; that is, each candidate was observed, multiple times, in both a general elementary or middle level classroom and in a setting focused on students with special educational needs. The purposes of the analysis were to 1) examine the language used by the observer that both describes and evaluates the student teacher_s performance, particularly as it differentiates levels of …

Dialogic Visual Literacy, Sharon Lafrenaye

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Describes a visual art unit plan in which fifth grade students are taught visual literacy skills. Students first learn to decode a variety of imagery and then learn to encode their own imagery in the form of a narrative story scroll. Includes historical perspectives on visual literacy, along with case studies and commentary.

An Investigation Of Communication Patterns And Strategies Between International Teaching Assistants And Undergraduate Students In University-Level Science Labs, Barbara Elas Gourlay

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Investigates communication between international teaching assistants and their undergraduate students in university-level chemistry labs. Qualitative and quantitative data from observations and interviews with study participants guide the analysis of laboratory interactions, which examines patterns of conversational listening. Results reveal that successful communication depends on teaching assistant listening comprehension skills and on the coordination of verbal and visual (gestural and physical resources) sources of information.

A Qualitative Study Of The Epistemological Interplay Between Teachers And Students In A High Stakes Testing Environment, Donald Bruce Bierman

Master's Theses, Dissertations, Graduate Research and Major Papers Overview

Employing grounded theory methodology informed by microethnographic discourse analysis, studies the classroom conversations, interviews with students and teachers, and students' written texts in a high stakes test preparation program for tenth graders to determine the effects students and teachers have upon one another's epistemological beliefs concerning the source of knowledge. Students were preparing for the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT).

Rhode Island College: On The Move, A Fiftieth Anniversary Collective Memoir, Marlene L. Lopes, Editor, Oral History Committee, Ric

On the Move

As part of the 2008 celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of Rhode Island College's Mount Pleasant campus, the Oral History Committee collected oral histories on the years 1952 to 1960 in an effort to capture "the color behind the chronology." The Committee interviewed faculty members and administrators, alumni, and others. The final result appears here in a symposium format, as if all those interviewed were sitting around the same table.

Synthesizing Synthesis: A Unique Step Beyond Summary, Melissa A. Leblanc

Honors Projects

Analyzes the concept of synthesis, often referred to as a higher order thinking skill or an advanced form of reading comprehension strategy, and how the ability to synthesize can be incorporated into classroom and everyday life. Compares a survey of professionals to a model of how synthesis works to help generate methods for teaching students/thinkers to synthesize.