Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Effects Of Teacher Praise And Reprimand Rates On Classroom Engagement And Disruptions Of Elementary Students At Risk For Emotional And Behavioral Disorders, Kade Rolan Downs

Theses and Dissertations

In the United States educators often feel underprepared to manage student behavior in the classroom, which management is crucial for students with or at risk for Emotional and Behavioral Disorders (EBD) to learn effectively. Research on School-wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) programs has reflected how effective simple principles, such as increasing teacher praise and decreasing teacher reprimands, can be. The current study is a secondary analysis of data originally gathered from 65 teachers and 239 students across three states. Results of these analyses bring principles of effective SWPBS programs and educator needs together by identifying how teacher behaviors correlated with …

Faculty Drivers And Barriers: Laying The Groundwork For Undergraduate Stem Education Reform In Academic Departments, Susan E. Shadle, Anthony Marker, Brittnee Earl

CTL Teaching Gallery

Background: Calls to improve student learning and increase the number of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) college and university graduates assert the need for widespread adoption of evidence-based instructional practices in undergraduate STEM courses. For successful reforms to take hold and endure, it is likely that a significant shift in culture around teaching is needed. This study seeks to describe the initial response of faculty to an effort to shift teaching norms, with a long-term goal of altering the culture around teaching and learning in STEM. While the effort was envisioned and led at the institutional level, dialog about …

White Male Privilege: An Intersectional Deconstruction, Matthew J. Etchells, Elizabeth Deuermeyer, Vanessa M. Liles, Samantha M. Meister, Mario Itzel Suárez, Warren L. Chalklen

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This research saliently deconstructs the philosophical writing of a white, privileged male by five diverse academic peers by using a methodology of deconstruction to analyze the initial author's writing. Their reflects on his nascent perspectives address the stages of racism, mea culpa, the relationship between privilege, oppression, and classism, a feminist perspective, binary, and intersectionality. Further analysis connote for the need to deconstruct privilege in a literary context and to develop an autoethnography to fully delve into privilege beyond a superficial and neglectful narrative.

Assessing Teacher Attentiveness To Student Mathematical Thinking: Validity Claims And Evidence, Michele B. Carney, Laurie Cavey, Gwyneth Hughes

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article illustrates an argument-based approach to presenting validity evidence for assessment items intended to measure a complex construct. Our focus is developing a measure of teachers’ ability to analyze and respond to students’ mathematical thinking for the purpose of program evaluation. Our validity argument consists of claims addressing connections between our item-development process and the theoretical model for the construct we are trying to measure: attentiveness. Evidence derived from theoretical arguments in conjunction with our multiphased item-development process is used to support the claims, including psychometric evidence of Rasch model fit and category ordering. Taken collectively, the evidence provides …

S.T.O.R.I.E. Time, Fall Semester 2017, University Of Northern Iowa. Human Relations: Awareness And Applications (Fall 2017)

S.T.O.R.I.E. Time

Seniors Teach Others Real Intergenerational Experiences (S.T.O.R.I.E.)

Teacher Education Majors at the University of Northern Iowa are matched with senior adults residing at Western Home Communities. During their ten one-hour meetings, the students and residents are guided in their discussions by the book Gratitude: Affirming One Another through Stories (2013) written by UNI Emeritus Faculty, Dr. Len Froyen. Through conversations and stories, the seniors of both generations are enhancing their understanding, compassion and acceptance of each other. S.T.O.R.I.E. Time gives the seniors a chance to choose a story together that will be written for the book.

Business Students’ Perceptions Of Expected Skills And Traits For Their Professional Success, Steve S. Chen, Sam Stapleton, Janet Ratliff, Andrew Blevins

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Growing business literature reveals concerns about the quality and level of preparedness of business graduates entering the labor market. This study focused on the competencies, skills, and traits business students perceived as important for being a successful employee. Two hundred and sixty nine student participants from four business disciplines at a regional state university in Eastern Kentucky were randomly recruited to complete a 60-item survey. Participants rated the importance of traits and qualities as well as academic knowledge/subjects. The results indicated that participants categorized various traits and qualities of successful business professionals, suggested by experts and scholars (Beggs, 2012; Kavanagh, …

Wicor Walkthroughs And Teacher Practice, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

Watching experts execute their craft allows for learning. In four schools, this type of learning, teachers watching one another teach, was made available and the feedback from those interviewed showed positive results. This paper explains the process each school used for allowing teachers to watch others teach and the results that they got in the process. This program evaluation was designed to provide guidance to principals on some specific ways to ensure that they can avoid pitfalls if they were to employ a similar strategy with their staff. Teachers using high yield strategies with confidence in their classrooms has the …

Consistent Coaching And Alignment: A New Way Of Work For College Readiness System Staff, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

As an answer to a missing system of interaction and accountability between College Readiness System (CRS) Staff and school systems across the country, a coaching framework was created. This framework provides a repeatable, consistent model for CRS staff members to use with each school implementing CRS across the nation. This paper outlines the new coaching framework, the need for having a framework and the process for getting all stakeholders to support the new system. This process would be applicable for implementing any type of change within a large non-profit organization. This change leadership project includes ways to get organizations to …

“All Students Are Brilliant”: A Confession Of Injustice And A Call To Action, Amy D. Robertson, Leslie J. Atkins Elliott

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

The two of us (AR and LAE), in our teaching, research, and work with teachers, advocate for responsive teaching—an approach that seeks out and builds on the productive “seeds of science” in what our students say and do and assumes that “all students…are brilliant.” This pedagogical approach requires a commitment to listening to and intellectually empathizing with students’ scientific ideas.

"Hear Us, See Us": Constructing Citizenship In The Margins, Tricia M. Hagen Gray

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

The meatpacking industry has drawn an increasing number of immigrants to the Midwestern community of Washington River from Mexico and Central America, making it a New Latino Diaspora (NLD) receiving community. Demographic change amidst the sociopolitical landscape of neoliberalism, declining civic engagement, and polarized partisan politics has forced interaction between longstanding residents and newcomers who are socially, culturally, and linguistically different. Historically marginalized groups have sought to claim rights—especially since Donald Trump’s election in 2016—resulting in a deeper fissure of the social landscape.

Washington River High School provided a context in which to explore questions about how students construct citizen …

Mentoring Experiences In Medical Education: A Phenomenographic Study Among American Indian Medical Students And Those In Residency, Naomi M. Bender

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to better understand how currently enrolled American Indian (AI) medical students and recently graduated physicians in residency experienced mentoring during medical school. This study consisted of 19 participant-recorded interviews that were later transcribed, analyzed, and coded for thematic outcomes. Participants were all current AI medical students in the same Northern Midwest Medical School (NMMS) in years one, two, three, or four, or they were recent AI graduate physicians from the same institution and were in years one or two of residency. The theoretical frameworks that guided this research were Kalbfleisch’s Mentoring Enactment …

Science Georgia Standards Of Excellence In Southwest Georgia: A Mixed Method Study Of Science Teachers' Perceptions Of Science And Engineering Practices And Administrative Support, Shereca R. Harvey

Theses and Dissertations

With the publication of A Framework for K-12 Science Education: Practices, Crosscutting Concepts, and Core Ideas (National Research Council, 2012), the dominant instructional approach for science education in the United States changed from teaching science as a process of inquiry to teaching science as a practice, using science and engineering practices. Middle and high school science teachers in the State of Georgia implemented the practices for the first time during 2017-2018 school year while teaching the new Science Georgia Standards of Excellence. Teachers who have been successful at making such instructional changes have done so with the support of their …

Strengthening The Teacher Toolkit: Effective Autism Inclusion Methods, Roxanne Guel

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on Autism inclusion methods. This is an important issue for teachers because they are often not given the tools and resources to effectively include their students with Autism Spectrum Disorders into a general education classroom. It is argued that some of the most effective methods include peer-mediated instruction, antecedent procedures, and school-wide organizational change. Considerations of the issue, should include the perspectives of both Special Education and General Education teachers. Three themes/action options emerged from an analysis of the data and were explored as ways to address the issue presented. Antecedent procedures are …

Student Voice Initiative: Exploring Implementation Strategies, Blaine G. Alexander

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Student voice is the process of allowing students to work collaboratively with adults to produce a learning culture that is conducive for optimum growth in every student. In a traditional setting, the adults make the decisions and the students are passive observers in the learning process. Data has shown that this traditional culture is not advantageous to student learning for all students. Research has shown that students are seven times more academically motivated when they have the opportunity to have a voice in their personal learning process (Quaglia, 2016). This case study centered on the Northeast Arkansas Regional Student Voice …

The Influence Of Previous Subject Experience On Interactions During Peer Instruction In An Introductory Physics Course: A Mixed Methods Analysis, Judy A. Vondruska

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Over the past decade, peer instruction and the introduction of student response systems has provided a means of improving student engagement and achievement in large-lecture settings. While the nature of the student discourse occurring during peer instruction is less understood, existing studies have shown student ideas about the subject, extraneous cues, and confidence level appear to matter in the student-student discourse. Using a mixed methods research design, this study examined the influence of previous subject experience on peer instruction in an introductory, one-semester Survey of Physics course. Quantitative results indicated students in discussion pairs where both had previous subject experience …

Improving Reading Through Fine Motor Skill Development In First Grade, Tyler West-Higgins

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Children who struggle with learning to read in first grade, fall behind, and have difficulty catching up with their peers. Research has shown students who struggle to read in first grade, also struggle to read in later years. The purpose of this study was to determine if an intervention to enhance fine motor skills to a select group of students in one class room increased their reading abilities. This was a mixed methods research study which assessed the quantitative data from the running record assessments, and the qualitative data taken by teacher-aide during assessment process post fine motor intervention. This …

"It Teaches Them To Have A Conversation In The Real World" : An Analysis Of How Identity Performances Shape Classroom Discussions., Ashley Lauren Shelton Arnold

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Although discussion has long played a role in classroom learning, recent focus on moving discussion away from the evaluative and toward the dialogic is key to understanding how discussion can be driven by multiple, shared understandings. Adopting a sociocultural perspective, this dissertation explores the ways in which identity performances shape one teacher and his students’ participation in classroom discussions. The theoretical framework guiding this study draws on the relationship between discourse and identities construction, with further attention given to improvisations of identities, figured worlds, and the ways in which power shapes discourse. This dissertation argues that performed identities shape the …

Ongoing Professional Learning Opportunities, Christie L. Mcmullen

Dissertations

As an answer to a lack of policy around follow up training between CRS Center Staff and school systems across the country, a policy needs to be created around providing follow up training opportunities nationally. This policy provides a repeatable, consistent model for CRS Center staff members to use with each school implementing CRS across the nation. This paper outlines the policy for allowing teachers to see other teachers implementing CRS strategies in their schools, therefore increasing the use of these strategies in classrooms nationally. This process will be applicable for school districts that works with CRS nationally. This policy …

Policy Advocacy - Advocating For Redesigned Adult Learning In Support Of Value-Added Teacher Evaluation, Caletha White

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

Redesigning adult learning in order to move toward excellence in the classroom is critical to improving the state of the reform work occurring in our schools. Building coherence among teams of educators by linking staff development to student achievement is the goal of the advocated policy. Providing a professional learning network for educators to work in teams, engage in meaningful and relevant work and develop transformative practices for the classroom is essential to school reform. Creating practical learning networks for classroom teachers that are based on student achievement, current practice, and staff needs is the basis for the policy. …

Becoming A Learning System That Maximizes The Modes Of Professional Learning: A Change Leadership Plan In A Middle School Setting, Emily Crement

Dissertations

This paper follows a program evaluation conducted at Hamlin Middle School. It begins with the premise that the Modes of Professional Learning function somewhat independently of each other and therefore, Hamlin Middle School fails to function of a learning system. The goal of the research is to establish a set of structures that leverages each of the four modes to their greatest advantage. The methodology is mixed method, utilizing quantitative results from the Illinois 5Essential Survey and qualitative data gathered during focus groups that convened to discuss the survey data. Results suggested that a) a culture of compliance negatively impacts …