Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

A Library Approach To Establish An Educational Data Curation Framework (Edcf) That Supports K-12 Data Science Sustainability, Benjamin D. Branch, Kristin Wegner, Steven Smith, Darrell G. Schulze, Venkatesh Merwade, Jinha Jung

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

It has been the tradition of the libraries to support literacy. Executive Order, Making Open and Machine Readable the New Default for Government Information, May 9, 2013, implies new roles for libraries. The library has the responsibility to support geospatial data, big data, earth science data or cyber infrastructure data that may support STEM for educational pipeline stimulation. (More information can be found at http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/09/executive-order-making-open-and-machine-readable-new-default-government-.)

Provided is an Educational Data Curation Framework (EDCF) that has been initiated in Purdue research. The EDCF may be applied to geospatial data service, engagement and outreach endeavors to augment the data science and climate …

Nontraditional Graduate Students' Satisfaction With Their Transnational Educational Experience, Christopher Ihesiaba Nnoduechi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This retrospective, nonexperimental, quantitative study was designed to explore nontraditional students’ perceptions of satisfaction with their graduate education experience in a customized transnational educational context. This study was undergirded by theories and concepts gleaned from multiple disciplines. Disconfirmed expectations theory of consumer satisfaction derived from expectancy theory, which describes the motivations and behaviors of consumers who purchase a service but cannot fully evaluate the service until it has been consumed, provided the overarching conceptual framework for the research.

This research analyzed data from 62 graduates of a customized, transnational Master of Education program in educational leadership. Participants responded to a …

Classroom Intercultural Competence In Teacher Education Students, Interns, And Alumni, Christine K. Holland

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the impact of a student teaching internship upon the classroom intercultural competence (CIC) of teacher education students and alumni. Phase I employed quantitative methodology to compare the intercultural competence as measured by Ross, Thornson, McDonald, and Arrastia’s (2009) Cross Cultural Competence Inventory (3CI) for three groups. The 3CI is a 63-item survey that uses corresponding questions to assess intercultural competence. Survey items are scored with a 6-point, strongly agree-to-strongly disagree Likert scale (Thornson, 2010). The three groups included teacher education students enrolled in a field observation course, students enrolled in …

The Role Of Video In Early Field Experiences, Laura H. Baecher, Shiao-Chuan Kung, Abigail M. Jewkes, Christine Rosalia

Publications and Research

The purpose of this investigation was to explore the influence of video models on teacher candidates' capacity to self-evaluate their teaching performance in early fieldwork. This was examined by providing video models along with evaluation rubrics that represented desired performance standard to one group of pre-service teacher candidates, while another group was provided the descriptions of these lessons and corresponding evaluation rubrics. Participants then video recorded their teaching and self-evaluated this performance. Results indicated that the introduction of video models reduced inflation of scores in self-evaluation and enhanced candidates' understanding of the expectations for the performance assessment of teaching.

Intermediate-Level Chinese Language Learners' Social Communication In Chinese On Facebook: A Mixed Methods Study, Shenggao Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With Facebook widely embraced by college students, exploring its educational uses has piqued both educators' and researchers' interest (Mills, 2011; Reinhardt & Zander, 2011; Thorne, 2011). Drawing on a functional perspective of language use, this study explored what kind of language functions intermediate-level Chinese language learners performed when they conducted social communication in Chinese on Facebook and whether conducting weekly social communication in Chinese on Facebook impacted their writing ability. A mixed methods design was adopted. A qualitative approach addressed discourse functions of student communication on Facebook. The qualitative data were mainly collected from nine students' Facebook posts during one …

Library Paraeducators' Training: Assumptions Or Facts?, Virginia H. Knapp

Graduate Research Papers

Paraeducators seem to be in a quandary. State officials, administrators, teachers, special education teachers, librarians, local educational agencies, community colleges and school boards all have perceptions of what training paraeducators need but few consider the special expectations for a library paraeducator.

The current study seeks responses to the following research questions:

1. How well qualified for their positions do library paraeducators feel?

2. How do library paraeducators describe their job training?

3. What are perceptions-of teacher librarians and administrators regarding the training of paraprofessionals to work in school libraries?

The researcher will examine the requirements of the Iowa Department of …

Crossing The Bridge: Transitioning From A Teacher To A Professor, Steven Page, Charles Jenks

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This is a qualitative study that was conducted to gain a better understanding of the experiences of professors in Colleges of Education who were former K-12 teachers. The study presents the responses of eighty nine professors from across the United States. By coding the responses based on the university setting (National, Large Regional, Small Regional) in which the respondents worked the authors found that professors have different experiences in their transition from K-12. The authors found that the size of the university was a factor in how the new faculty felt welcomed and how they were treated by colleagues. Also, …

Exploring Supports Provided For Student Eportfolio Development In A Professional Development Context, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

This small scale study aimed to explore and establish if support strategies implemented to enhance student ePortfolios were helpful to students and to identify useful ways of supporting ePortfolio development with future cohorts of students. This action research study was informed through focus group discussion and individual interviews with students.

The importance of reflection for the development professional practice and of creative abilities is discussed. The substantial benefits of creativity within education are investigated and characteristics of creativity that might be developed with students’ ePortfolios are revealed. Specifically this paper seeks to foster Crafts (2011) four characteristics of creativity, pluralities, …

Supporting Professionalism In Educational Development In Irish Higher Education, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Higher education, in Ireland and globally, is undergoing profound change influenced by a variety of factors. In conjunction with these changes many initiatives to improve teaching and learning and the quality of graduates in higher education have been introduced in recent years. The changes and expansions in the sector has enabled growth of new roles in higher education described as ‘third space’ professionals by Whitchurch (2008).

This paper describes the struggle of those in third space professions, such as academic development, to establish a professional identity in higher education. The benefits of these contemporary roles to higher education are …

An Exploratory Study Of Teacher Empowerment And Technical Education In Kentucky, Lee Ann Wall

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between teachers’ perceptions of empowerment and principal use of power within career and technical education in Kentucky. The researcher posits that, with the continual process of educational reform, principals need to understand what empowers teachers to perform as additional expectations and responsibilities are being mandated.

The researcher used a mixed methods design to examine power bases that career and technical education teachers perceived were used by their principals to identify teachers’ perceived empowerment, as well as influencers and barriers. Data were collected with a survey and two open-ended questions from …

Authentic Assessment : An Approach To Enhance And Assess Students’ Learning, Sher Azim

Professional Development Centre, Chitral

This paper underscores the process of using Authentic Assessment (AA) not only as a tool to assess learning but also as an approach to enhance learning in a school in the context of Pakistan. Data was collected through classroom observations, conducting interviews, analyzing relevant documents and maintaining person reflective diary. Findings indicate that AA helped in enhancing students’ learning such as knowledge about the noise pollution, planning, developing interview questions, interviewing people, preparing posters, giving presentation and responding to audience question. The study also revealed that in AA the student’s role changed from a passive test taker to an active …

Darya Dino K Daryan : Promoting A Optimistic Learning Milieu In The Primary School, Yasmin Sultana Memon, Sardar Khalid Mahmood

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Traditionally, girls in most government schools remain inactive in the classroom and are shy to speak and express their views. They have been given very few chances to be recognized or to participate actively in the classroom. This tendency seems to be changing in one girls’ primary school situated in an urban part of district. Most of the students belongs to the poor and lower middle class families. Few years ago, their school was in a poor physical and learning condition, but when the current head teacher was hired, she tackled the problems of the school’s including physical condition. As …

The Value Based Professional Development For Teachers’ Attitude, Behavior And Enhanced Professionalism : A School Based Intervention Through A Whole School Improvement Program (Wsip), Khush Funer Murtaza, Abida Begum, Sharifullah Baig

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

This paper highlights the strategies and approaches employed to bring about positive changes in the attitude and behavior of the teachers and enhance their sense of professionalism in a girl’s high school of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan. In addition to that, it illuminates the successes, challenges and the influence of these strategies and approaches on the overall school environment. These interventions were part of the one year long whole school improvement program(WSIP) exercised by PDCN in the academic year 2009-10 of the particular school. The strategies started with vision building, team building and task delegation, distributing the leadership and teacher empowerment, …

A Journey Of Transformation : A Reflective Recount Of The Evolution Of Akes,P, Sadrudin Pardhan, Aien Shah, Samina Saad, Karim Panah, Mir Zaman, Khadija Khan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper presents an overall picture of the evolution of the Aga Khan Education Service, Pakistan (AKES,P) over a century. Reaching out to the remotest areas of Pakistan, AKES,P, has been providing quality education for over a hundred years. The first school of AKES,P, was established in 1905 in Gwadar, Balochistan. Over a century later, AKES,P, now operates 179 schools and 5 hostels in Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral, Punjab and Sindh, mostly in rural areas. These represent very diverse schools, ranging from a rural school with less than 30 children to a large urban school with over 3000 children. AKES,P, places special …

Students’ Views Of Impact Of Textbooks On Their Achievements, Riaz Hussain

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

The history of curricula and textbooks development in Pakistan has remained contentious particularly during Zia Ul Haq era (1977- 1988) and after. There have been quite a few reviews of the curricula and textbooks undertaken both by Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan and independent researchers. These reviews have mainly employed document/textbook analysis methods and few of them explored teachers or students’ views of curricula and textbooks. This paper argues that since teachers and students are the ultimate users and beneficiaries of textbooks so their views are worth exploring before suggesting or initiating any change process including curricula and textbooks …

Assessing Impact Of Aga Khan Academy Mombasa’S (Aka, M) Outreach Programme On Students’ Learning Outcomes – An Example Of English Language Classrooms, Sadia Muzaffar Bhutta, Anthony Gioko

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

AKA, M has been offering professional development programmes to English teachers and headteachers as part of its outreach activities since 2009. The Academy invited AKU-IED to develop AKA, M capacity in the area of monitoring and evaluation with a specific focus on outreach programmes. In response to this invitation, a small scale study was carried out to pilot teachers’ and students’ assessment tools developed as part of the capacity building workshop held in Mombasa, Kenya. The evaluation study aimed to examine the impact of AKA, M outreach programmes on students’ (grades 4 to 6) learning outcomes in English language in …

Building Capacity Of Teacher Educators To Implement Action Research : Feasibility Of A Local Model, Nahid Parween Anwar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

In the area of in-service professional development programmes, action research is considered to be a tool for generating practical knowledge and bringing improvement in practices. Teacher could use action research as a process for professional learning, and to improve classroom practices, where students could be one of the beneficiaries. However, the task is challenging in a developing country like Pakistan, where the concept of classroom research is not well recognized. Therefore, responding to the demands of the changing world and knowing the significance of action research, AKU-IED had offered Action Research course to two cohort of participant under Strengthening Teacher …

A Study Of Primary School Teachers’ Professional Development Programme : The Translation Of Theory Into Practice In Schools, Tajuddin, Mohammad Khan

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

Professional development programmes are criticized for not meeting the practical needs of teachers and teachers are blamed for going to their comfort zones despite their participations in professional development programmes. This qualitative case study explored effectiveness of the program of primary education certificate course looking into participant teachers’ new knowledge, skills and attitude gained from the programme and the implementation of their new learning into their respective classrooms. Nine teachers and 27 students participated in the study. Data was collected through semi-structured and open-ended interviews, classroom observations, documents analysis and focused group discussions with students.

The study reports a shift …

Transforming Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education Through The Early Childhood Development Project, Balochistan, Almina Pardhan, Cassandra Fernandes Faria, Noor Bano, Nighat Fatima, Rehana Jaffer, Mumtaz Murani, Salima Rajput

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

The Role Perceptions Of Deos In Pakistan : Toothless Tigers Or Selfless Servants?, Jan-E-Alam Khaki, Zubeda Bana, Mir Afzal Tajik, Qamar Safdar

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

The study of educational leadership and management in Pakistan is relatively a new territory – a road less travelled. This is truer when it comes to the study of District Education Officials’ (DEOs) ways of managing education. These officials actually bridge the government higher functionaries and policies in terms of policy implementation, monitoring and supervision of the schools in their respective districts. These officials theoretically should exercise significant control over the functioning of schools in their jurisdiction. Though on paper they have heavy responsibilities but actually they have limited arena to exercise; their power due largely to complex web of …