Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Undergraduates Crossing The Threshold: Assessing Library Interns Using The Framework, Carly Marino, Sarah Fay Phillips

Library Instruction West 2016

As librarians and educators we are committed to student learning as our highest goal. To be prepared for a competitive job market, undergraduate students benefit from the opportunity to produce work that is available and impactful to a global audience. Internships in libraries provide students an opportunity to work collaboratively with their peers and learn from multiple points of view. Using an internship program in Humboldt State University Library's Special Collections as a case study, we will explain how students construct meaning and knowledge as they create digital exhibits using the Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education. By engaging …

The Impact Of Collaboration On Clinical Practice In Teacher Education: A Pilot Study, Christina L. Wilcoxen

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This article shares one university’s work with two metropolitan districts to support preservice teachers during clinical practice through the use of a common language. The pilot merged the concept of co-teaching and coaching to the clinical practice experience. The study was completed over a year’s time and connected preservice teachers’ last methods class placement to their clinical practice placement. Preservice teachers participating in this pilot were paired with a cooperating teacher for an entire year as opposed to a semester experience. Preliminary findings yielded a positive outcome.

Trail Guide For New Teachers: Working With Graduate Teaching Practicum Students In First-Year Writing, Sara M. Whitver

Library Instruction West 2016

Come hear how one instruction coordinator librarian used the writing across the disciplines tradition to move beyond inviting new writing teachers to participate in one-shot library instruction to developing deep and lasting teaching collaborations. By assigning reading homework and conducting freewriting exercises during visits to the practicum class, librarians can engage new teachers in critically examining the crossover between writing and information literacy during their first-year as writing instructors. By assuming this role of co-educator, librarians have the opportunity to help first-time writing teachers develop collaborative relationships with librarians early in their teaching experience in order to lay the groundwork …

Building Up Stem: An Analysis Of Teacher-Developed Engineering Design-Based Stem Integration Curricular Materials, Siddika Selcen Guzey, Tamara J. Moore, Michael Harwell

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Improving K–12 Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education has a priority on numerous education reforms in the United States. To that end, developing and sustaining quality programs that focus on integrated STEM education is critical for educators. Successful implementation of any STEM program is related to the curriculum materials used. Educators increasingly recognize the challenge of finding quality curriculum materials for integrated STEM education. In this study, 48 teachers participated in a year-long professional development program on STEM integration, and they designed 20 new engineering design-based STEM curriculum units. Each STEM curriculum unit includes an engineering challenge in which …

Professional Development: Teacher As Learner For Differentiated Instruction, Marilyn L. Castellano

Theses and Dissertations

This action research study sought to investigate a sample of urban Catholic school teachers' perceptions of how an exploration of differentiated instruction through embedded professional development changed their traditional one-size-fits-all pedagogical practices to a model that addressed students diverse academic needs. Research studies provide evidence that a one-size-fits-all recipe of instruction continually fails to build students’ capacity to learn. Interviews are the primary source to elicit teachers' perceptions of changed pedagogical practices. In conjunction with classroom observations, a focus group formed to better understand the rationale for the principles of differentiated instruction, make sense of the practice, and determine if …

Enhancing Teacher Learning From Guided Video Analysis Of Literacy Instruction: An Interdisciplinary And Collaborative Approach, Carrie Eunyoung Hong, Irene Van Riper

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The technological infrastructure for the use of instructional and professional videos is common in today’s educational venues. However, there has been a dearth of awareness and training to help teachers critically analyze and effectively utilize video recordings of authentic classroom instruction for their professional development. This self-study examined the teaching and learning process, particularly knowledge and lessons that we, as teacher educators, learned from commentary regarding video analysis and pre- and post- surveys completed by the candidates in a graduate level special education course. The investigation explored the extent to which the guided video analysis process facilitated the candidates’ learning …

The Role Of Motivation And Understanding In The Change Of Teaching Practices, Giorgio Ostinelli

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This is a reflection on a case of in-service teacher education. Two Swiss teachers, assisted by a change agent, were developing an innovative teaching approach, inspired by Wiggins & McTighe’s methodology Understanding by Design (UbD). While one developed a real understanding and mastery of this approach – improving therefore his professional skills – the other didn’t. The analysis developed through the following pages tries to better understand why this happened. The situation is examined through the scrutiny of the relationship between teachers’ motivation and their understanding of UbD, using a mixed methods methodology.

Early Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Perception Of Their Support And Readiness For A Teacher Performance Assessment, Carmen Sherry Brown

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Comprehensive early childhood teacher preparation programs offer courses and curricula that are aligned with current research on best practices and related to the knowledge and skills that early childhood teacher candidates are expected to demonstrate on certification exams and teacher performance assessments. To support the alignment of early childhood coursework in a teacher preparation program with a teacher performance assessment (edTPA), the purpose of this study was to examine the degree to which teacher candidates felt their early childhood coursework prepared them for the edTPA. The findings from this study suggest that early childhood teachers’ perception of their readiness for …

Social Media As A Tool To Share Art Curriculum, Jordan James Dewilde

Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to discover how social media can be a tool for art educators. The researcher, an elementary art educator, created a Facebook page to share his curriculum and document his teaching experience. For a two month period he recorded the posts, the and responses and documented the process in a reflective journal to determine how interaction with social media would impact his teaching. He simultaneously conducted an online survey of art educators to ask how they used social media to inform their teaching.

An Investigation Of The Development Of Pre-Service Teacher Assessment Literacy Through Individualized Tutoring And Peer Debriefing, Dennis Murphy Odo

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Many pre-service teachers lack deep understanding of assessment concepts and have low self-efficacy for using assessments but pre-service on-campus programs have been shown to support their assessment literacy development. Likewise, individualized tutoring has helped pre-service candidates improve instructional practice and peer debriefing has been found to help push their thinking. However, questions remain regarding the usefulness of these techniques to develop candidates’ assessment literacy. The primary aim of this exploratory qualitative study was to describe pre-service teachers’ perceptions of assessment literacy and the process of their assessment literacy development during a literacy assessment class containing an individualized tutoring component. Five …

Middle School Teachers’ Perceptions Regarding The Motivation And Effectiveness Of Homework, Donald Snead

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The purpose of this study was to understand middle school teachers’ perspectives on the role of homework. Approximately 118 middle school teachers volunteered to complete open-ended surveys describing their perceptions regarding the effectiveness of homework. Qualitative analysis revealed teachers identified several instructional and non-instructional reasons for having to complete homework including: practice, reinforcement, review, responsible, and multiples of the aforementioned categories. Additional findings describe differences related with time spent on homework, assessing process and using homework for instructional and review. Implications describe both the ambiguous and inconsistent homework practices diminishing effective instruction. Further, findings identify the indecisiveness regarding homework assignments, …

World Cafe Discussion, Conference Attendees

Docs in the Woods: A Reunion Conference of the Adult and Continuing Education Doctoral Program of National Louis University

Discussion questions.

Postpositivism In Online Education: Is Big Data Driving The Teacher/Student Relationship Off A Cliff?, David S. Noffs

Docs in the Woods: A Reunion Conference of the Adult and Continuing Education Doctoral Program of National Louis University

As online education continues to grow and evolve in the information age, institutions are being deluged with offers from technology vendors to be able to identify student behaviors using predictive analysis. These analytics are derived from algorithms that sift through data drawn directly from student/teacher interaction in online classrooms. Where do we draw the line between the privacy of the teacher/learner relationship and the needs of the institution to mine data for profit?

Inclusive Strategies For The Global Virtual Classroom, Angela Atwell

Publications

In today’s digital age of global enterprise, higher education is focused on delivering high quality experiences in virtual learning environments. Instructors must be armed with the knowledge and skills to use online learning tools effectively in order to deliver an engaging learning experience for all students.It is crucial to create a welcoming and inclusive learning environment, possibly even more so in a virtual classroom. Students who feel welcomed and respected are more likely to engage, contribute to the course and add richness to the content. Instructors must facilitate student learning by encouraging cooperation, collaboration and professional networking. Students and instructors …

The Creative Child At Home, Ellen Loraine Herget

Theses and Dissertations

This was a study of how two children showed creativity in their own home environment. This study demonstrated four aspects of creativity, including problem solving, imagination, artistic expression, and play. Both children were very creative when making artwork in their own home. The more the children were engaged in the artwork, the more involved they were in the act of creativity. The girl demonstrated more problem solving skills, whereas the boy, due to his younger age, showed more imagination and play. While the children were working on their art projects, they showed imagination and problem solving through the association of …

What Factors Influence Urban School Leaders Arts Programming Decisions, Jennifer Katona

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

For some urban school leaders Arts Education is the most essential part of the students’ experience and to others it is something that can be easily taught in one afternoon a week. It is either a means of self-­‐expression or merely something fun for the kids. Where do these perspectives take shape and what role and impact does the school leaders’ belief have on the decisions surrounding offering an arts education in their school building? This study explores current research on the importance of an arts education as it pertains to its intrinsic and extrinsic value of the arts to …

A Comparative Analysis Of Demographics And Reported Preferential Learning Modes Of Florida And Non-Florida Osher Lifelong Learning Institutes Members, Jung Min Lee

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This research examined demographic factors and reported preferential learning mode among a sample of Florida Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) members compared to a national sample profile of OLLI members. This study was prompted by an earlier study of OLLI members conducted by the National Resource Center (NRC) for OLLIs, which produced a national profile describing OLLI members. Although there was a national profile for OLLI members, there were no existing profiles of Florida OLLI members that could be used by OLLI administrators and instructors.

This study employed an online survey to compare data between the national OLLI member profile …

Translating Stem Education Research Into Practice, Christine Rosicka

Professional learning for teachers and school leaders

This translational research project from the Centre for Education Policy and Practice sought evidence-based practical applications, programs or interventions that can be implemented in the primary classroom to address STEM learning. A literature search for STEM education interventions in primary years was undertaken in order to identify integrated STEM programs that have had a proven impact on student outcomes. This paper outlines the scope and methodology of the review. It then considers the findings in terms of four key themes and translates them into short messages for teachers. The recent literature on STEM education was found to centre around four …

Graduate Internship Report In Agricultural Education: Oakdale High School, Rebecca Jean Mendonza

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This internship report includes validation documents required in meeting the quality criteria for secondary-level programs of instruction in agriculture. The documents are concurrently used for the Agriculture Incentive Grant review process at Oakdale High School, conducted by representatives of the California Department of Education.

The Relationship Between High-School Mathematics Teachers' Beliefs And Their Practices In Regards To Intellectual Quality, Jonathan L. Brendefur, Michelle B. Carney

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This study examines the relationship between mathematics teachers’ beliefs and instructional practices related to learning, pedagogy, and mathematics in regards to components of intellectual quality for eight high-school mathematics teachers. Research has demonstrated that the higher the degree of intellectual quality for instruction is rated the higher student achievement is on standardized assessments. The findings in this study demonstrate a consistent pattern between teachers espoused beliefs and their instructional practices. Even though teachers’ practices changed as they wrote curricular units to be more in line with intellectual quality characteristics, their beliefs stayed consistent over an 18 month period and were …