Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Professional Competence To Promote Resilience For Children Living In Poverty, Jenna M. Voss, Susan Lenihan

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Poverty has a tremendous impact on the educational results of all children, including those who are deaf or hard of hearing. With targeted, evidence-based interventions during the first three years of life, Early Hearing Detection and Intervention (EHDI) professionals can protect children from the numerous risk factors which impede development. While EHDI professionals often serve children and families living in poverty, it remains the case that the professional preparation programs offer limited instruction and experience in how to best serve children and families living in poverty. The purpose of this study was to explore professional preparedness to serve children who …

Bilingual Special Education: Investigating And Implementing Evidence-Based Practices In Schools, Diane Rodríguez

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

Bilingual special education continues to be an important field to explore and understand in order to improve services for diverse students. The main goal of this special issue is to shed needed light on teaching and research practices currently implemented and explored in this field.

Outcome Of Implementing Multisensory Instruction With Second Grade Students Who Struggle With Reading, Elissa Anne Fisher

Theses and Dissertations

Students struggling with reading are at risk for academic and reading failure. It is imperative to engage and motivate these students through the use of multisensory instruction which appeals to their learning style. To improve the decoding and spelling of sight words, second grade students in a small group instruction setting were given four weeks of multisensory instruction using various materials. Data was collected in a qualitative framework throughout the study using multiple data sources. What was found was that when the struggling students preferred a multisensory activity, after consistent use with that material, they performed better in weekly assessments. …

Transformational Perceptions Of International Service Learning Projects: India And The Dominican Republic, Seth E. Jenny, Scot Rademaker, Geraldine Jenny

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

This presentation will share qualitative research regarding two distinctly different service learning projects from two diverse universities. First, participant voices will be presented regarding Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania undergraduate students serving at a home for poverty stricken lepers’ children in India. Post-hoc interviews focused on prior expectations, the reality of the experience, lessons learned, transformational change, and service learning outcomes. In addition, preliminary data will be shared regarding Winthrop University pre-service teachers perceptions from a short-term study abroad trip within the context of poverty of the Dominican Republic. These students served through leading small teaching episodes within Dominican public …

“Are We Playing A Game Today?” Classroom Engagement And Assessment Through Gamification, Tracy A. Hudson Ms, Kendall Lentz

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Today’s classroom demands a different style of engagement and assessment, primarily due to the changing nature of today’s learners. In fact, according to Liz Dwyer in “How Gaming is Changing the Classroom,” by the time students are age 21, they will have participated in over 10,000 hours of video gaming. As a result, using traditional pedagogies and “skill and drill” teaching strategies aren’t as effective with students who are more inclined to favor a controller over a book. Therefore, regardless of the discipline, adding gamification to the classroom can dramatically increase student engagement and also provide instructors with instantaneous assessment …

Quantitative Reasoning For The Social Science Classroom, Maria Aysa-Lastra

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Twenty five years ago the Mathematical Sciences Education Board (Scheaffer 1990) stated that “Citizens who cannot properly interpret quantitative data are, in this day and age, functionally illiterate” Quantitative reasoning then should not be reduced to the ability to perform arithmetic functions but must be conceived as “a habit of the mind, competency and comfort in working with numerical data” (AACU 2015). Moreover, quantitative reasoning is essential for the development of higher order level skills such as analyzing, evaluating and creating. In a world, in which data is produced more rapidly than it can be analyzed, employers note that …

Digital Badges As Micro-Credentials: An Opportunity To Improve Learning Or Just Another Education Technology Fad?, Patrick Guilbaud, Joyce Anne Camp, Andrew Vorder Bruegge

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Digital badges are online records of achievements that are awarded to learners for mastery of a specific set of educational contents. Often referred to as micro-credentials, digital badges are being used by many higher education institutions to assess and validate clearly defined chunks of knowledge, competency, or accomplishment.

At present, the use of digital badges is widespread. As a result, the perception exists that digital badges might be over-sold and over-hyped, as an assessment tool. Instructional design practice, however, reveals that learning objectives are best attained when course contents are broken into manageable chunks. In this context, digital badges, serving …

Organizing The Online Course, Kathleen A. Burke Ms.

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

If you are new to online instruction or are a veteran looking for fresh ideas for designing your online courses, this presentation will demonstrate user-friendly design for online courses, including course menu links, instructions, content examples and tips for making the all-important first week of class work to make the whole semester more dynamic. Take away ideas to jump-start your course organization and create a meaningful learning experience for students.

A Spoonful Of Success: Undergraduate Tutor-Tutee Interactions And Performance, Jonathan Marx, Michelle Wolf

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

We explore how the dynamics of the tutor-tutee relationship influence student self- reliance, and ultimately course performance. We examine 333 tutor and tutee pairs at a student success center at a public, comprehensive, university of about 5,000 undergraduates in over 60 different courses during the spring of 2015. We find as frequency and quality of the interactions between tutor and tutees increase that the tutors increasingly foster independent study habits on the part of the tutees. The incorporation of independent study habits was then associated with better course outcomes. In other words, the development of a positive, sustained relationship by …

Blended And Flipped, Theresa Butori

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

STEM courses, in particular, challenge educators and learners to learn complex processes, much of which is not intuitive or outside their realm of experience. Blended learning and flipped classrooms allow educators to tackle the rigors of STEM education head-on (Bishop & Verleger, 2013).

Defining blended and flipped: “Course that integrates online elements into face-to-face delivery. Content and materials are available online and typically keeps all or most face-to-face meetings. The inverted, active learning classroom “flips” the in-class and homework activities, often by moving content lectures before class, in that students watch online lectures at home, while class time is spent …

A Case Study: Using Blackboard Tools To Measure Correlations Between Student Engagement And Student Achievement, Andrew Vorder Bruegge

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

The Blackboard course management system includes the tool "statistics tracking." An instructor can use this tool to generate a report that "displays the summary of usage for that content item and [the students] enrolled in the course. The access date, hour and day of the week are all reported for the selected item and [students]." In this case study the researcher will correlate aggregate data about students' visits to numerous content items in a course and their final grade in the course. The instructor will also correlate aggregate data from a study log created to track the number of hours …

Life Lessons Of A Co-Teacher, Donna Cherveny

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Co-teaching is a common practice across schools. While research may be present regarding the effects of co-teaching, there is little literature that simply offers the perspective a co-teacher. As a former co-teacher of six years, I experienced various encounters and relationships that helped shape my current career as a professor of education. From these experiences, I have developed a list of “wisha wouldas” as a reflection. These “wisha wouldas” are basic things I wish I had done or experienced that I feel would have made me a stronger co-teacher. Included in my list of “wisha wouldas” are co-teaching contracts to …

Capstone Courses At Winthrop University: What Are They?, Marsha Bollinger

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Capstone courses are generally considered high-impact and transformative for students. In the process of redesigning the officially-designated capstone course for the environmental sciences and studies program at Winthrop University, the author discovered that there is no clear definition of what this senior culminating experience should be. Formats at Winthrop range from community field placements to individual research papers; course goals range from integrative discipline-based learning to career preparation to program assessment. Using course syllabi, catalog descriptions, and a questionnaire for department or program chairs, an analysis will be presented of the variety of experiences, formats, and goals for all undergraduate …

Credits Earned, Credits Due: Forging New Degree Completion Pathways For Post-Traditional Students With The Aid Of Prior Learning Assessment Portfolios, Patrick Guilbaud, Greg Oakes

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

In recent years, there has been a surge in the number of adult students who have expressed interest in returning back to school to complete their undergraduate degrees. Research, however, shows that many adult students who start degree completion programs do not complete them.

An oft-cited roadblock to degree completion by adult students is lack of recognition of prior learning obtained on the job or through other means. As a result, prior learning assessment (PLA) has now become an important tool used by colleges and universities to facilitate access to higher education by adult students.

The Council for Adult & …

"Can We Talk?": Strategies For Successful Classroom Discussion, John Bird

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

We all recognize the value and importance of class discussion for student learning and engagement, but we have probably had uneven results when we try to hold discussions in class. Sometimes it goes great, but sometimes it fails, miserably. In this workshop, we will examine some of the problems with class discussion: students who won’t talk, students who talk too much, students who go off topic, silent classes, and so on. Then we will explore and practice some techniques that can solve those problems, including more effective question design, effective questioning techniques, the use of writing as discussion starters, and …

Engaging Students Into Lifelong Learning Using Social Media, Allison Gibson

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

We’ve all seen it: Students distracted in class checking their phones under a desk or with Facebook pulled up on their laptops. Social media can often serve as a distraction for students’ education, but when implemented carefully social media can also serve as an effective tool to bringing the “real world” into the classroom. This presentation will review current research and pedagogy on the use of social media in the classroom. The presenter will share practices utilized in preparing and implementing different social media tools as well as specific concerns and challenges that can be problematic in implementing such educational …

All Aboard, All Attuned And All Involved: Fostering Learner Engagement And Teamwork With Clickers In An Introductory Computer Science Course At Winthrop University, Patrick Guilbaud, Michael Whitney

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Modern education technology tools and learning systems provide the means for faculty to develop courses that offer connected and engaging learning opportunities. However, many courses, particularly those in the sciences and engineering disciplines, are not often designed to encourage collaboration, cooperation and teamwork.

Given the presence of a global and interconnected economy, it is critical for students to interact with classmates who hold diverse perspectives, experiences and opinions. Moreover, research shows that students who have had the opportunity to participate in learning activities with heterogeneous teams --early in their college life-- are more likely to develop lasting relationships with classmates …

Critical Reading, Critical Research: Practical Strategies To Develop, Amanda L. Hiner

Winthrop Conference on Teaching and Learning

Perhaps no other skill affects students’ intellectual achievement more profoundly than the skill of critical reading. The analysis and assessment of written texts requires specific, learned skills in unpacking a text’s meaning, understanding its claims and implications, assessing its logic and coherence, evaluating its evidence, and drawing logical conclusions based on its claims. Both anecdotal evidence and qualitative research suggest that these skills are lacking in many high school and college students, and though teachers are intuitively aware of how crucial such skills are in the research and writing process, they often struggle to help students practice and apply critical …

Science Demonstrations, Steven Smith

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Use demonstrations to engage students and get them thinking about concepts through multiple science areas. Demos and brief discussions until we run out of time.

The Social Construction Of Teachers' Practical Knowledge In The Advisement Conference Group: Report Of A Case Study, Gail Hirsch

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

The work described here concerns the phenomenon of teachers' practical knowledge and the dynamic processes involved in its articulation and development within the local context of the teacher education experience as these were examined in a longitudinal case study, Telling Tales Out of School (Hirsch, 1987).