Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Critical Pedagogy And Participatory Democracy: Creating Classroom Contexts That Challenge “Common Sense”, Lilia D. Monzó, P. Zitlali Morales

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this response to “The Political Nuances of Narratives and an Urban Educator’s Response,” the authors applaud Pearman’s critical approach to deconstructing and challenging narratives of heroic figures who single-handedly change the world and agree with him that these narratives restrict the sense of agency that may propel citizens to become actively involved in social change efforts. We argue that it is important to question why these narratives exist and to understand them in light of the hegemonic capitalist structure that exploits the masses in service to the capitalist class. Although we agree with Pearman that democracy is best served …

Communication Practices In Technology Companies., Ruth Casey, Marc Gallagher

Teaching Fellowships

It is contended that the skills or competencies that are required of business graduates by technology companies, range from the ability to communicate complex information about global issues in ways that are accessible to and connect with the general public, to problem-solving and project-based interaction. This represents a shift in the type of communication practice that now characterises the technology company, with its main focus on “agile” frameworks of teamwork. This report examines the context for this development, and explores the role of assessment and pedagogy in preparing the student for these communication competencies, from the perspective of the technology …

Feedbackly – A Tool For Collecting Real-Time Feedback On The Student Experience., Steve Meaney

Teaching Fellowships

In higher education institutes feedback is collected via various formal (e.g. quality assurance processes) and informal (e.g. one-to-one discussion) methods. A core distinction between these approaches is the immediacy of informal feedback set against a slower, but potentially more powerful, formal feedback mechanism. This project aimed to explore a real-time mechanism to explore the student experience, using a simple data entry point connected to a webaccessible dashboard which summarises the data. A prototype was successfully developed and deployed, and collected feedback from students across the College of Sciences and Health. The system was broadly used by students, with more than …

The Planning And Development Of An Education Framework For Practice Educators Within Health And Social Care Professions., Maria Mcneill

Teaching Fellowships

Providing quality placements for students in the hospital setting is an essential component of the BSc in Clinical Measurement Science degree programme at DIT. The practice educator (hospital supervisor) role involves mentoring and supervising students on placement. Prior to 2012 practice educators received no training to support this role. Current training involves one full day of generic education and a second half-day of discipline specific knowledge relating to projects, log books and assessments. The aim of this research is to identify training needs for practice educators across the four disciplines and recommend an education framework to meet those needs. The …

“Scoring History” With The Vanbrugh Quartet: Developing An Online Archive And Teaching Resource., Cliona Doris

Teaching Fellowships

DIT Conservatory of Music and Drama and the National Concert Hall collaborated on a three-year residency for the internationally renowned Vanbrugh Quartet from 2014–2017. Six themed concert series explored a wide range of chamber music, including “Scoring History” curated by composer Ian Wilson, a Haydn and Schubert Series, Mozart and Brahms Chamber Music, the complete cycle of Beethoven String Quartets, Chamber Music of Ireland 1916–2016 and a Russian Season. An online archive and educational resource relating to and deriving from the residency, interweaves archival concert recordings, profiles, interviews and contextual information on the musical works.

Methods For Deriving Individual Marks From Group Work, Miriam Delaney, Lucy Bowe, Breiffni Fitzgerald, Peter Maccann, Christina Ryan

Practitioner Research Projects

Group assessment is a valuable teaching and learning method (Springer et al., 1999). This has been comprehensively demonstrated in the teaching and learning literature both in general (Johnson et al., 1991) and in specific contexts. This assessment practice promotes questioning, discussion and debate and encourages students to become active team players (DIT, 2013). However, when using this form of assessment, it is important to recognise that it is "individuals who graduate and gain qualifications" (Gibbs, 2009, p.4). The problem of freeloading has been identified and one of the suggested methods of reducing this is to incorporate individual assessment into the …

Facilitating Group Work: A Guide To Good Practice, Ronan Mccrea, Irene Neville, David Rickard, Ciara Walsh, David Williams

Practitioner Research Projects

Oakley et al. (2004) and Gibbs (2009) observe that owing to the extensive literature on group work, lecturers searching for a succinct guide on how to facilitate this activity effectively would find it challenging to digest such a large corpus. We extensively reviewed the literature in order to produce a quick and accessible guide for lecturers to use. It is our aspiration that this could be referred to when planning and facilitating group work projects with insights and recommendations informed by our research. Moreover, as this work draws on publications from educators in a wide range of disciplines, we expect …

An Exploration Of Fairness In The Assessment And Process Of Student Group Work, Rita Gibson, Emma Geoghegan, Oscar Macananey, Andrew Hines, Lorraine D'Arcy

Practitioner Research Projects

This project was driven by a motivation to be as fair as possible in the assessment of students' group work. Achieving fairness in assessment is a recurrent them in group project assessment literature (Nordberg, 2009). All authors of this report teach modules with group projects, and acknowledged that discrepancies often exist between a mark assigned to a group and an individual's contribution. Our aims were to (a) collectively enhance our understanding of the issues that need to be considered when assessing a group work project and (b) collectively build our confidence in approaches chosen to overcome these challenges. The findings …

Gamification To Improve First Year Engagement, John Colleran, Aoife Lloyd Mckernan, Julie Ann Naughton, Brian Vaughan

Practitioner Research Projects

The purpose of this project was to examine the role of Gamification in increasing first year student engagement within the third level educational setting. A literature review was carried out in order to explore the teaching philosophy behind gamification in education and review the quantitative and qualitative evidence regarding its use. Gamification can be broadly described as the application of gaming methods and elements in non-gaming contexts in order to improve user engagement and user experience (Deterding et al., 2011). Qualitative analysis suggests these factors result in beneficial emotional and social impacts on students, particularly in the area of increasing …

Discovering How The Pieces Fit Together: An Interdisciplinary Research Project Integrating The Disciplines Of Elementary Education And English, Angela Skrabec

Undergraduate Review

Introduction:
When I began my research project roughly two and half years ago, I had one main goal in mind: to find out the reasoning behind Massachusetts mandating Elementary Education majors, like myself, to have a second major in the sciences or the humanities. My mind was consumed with the fact that I wanted to become an elementary school teacher, so why in the world would the state require me to have two complete undergraduate degrees when I would really only use my degree in education? This question is what sparked the whole idea of performing an interdisciplinary undergraduate research …

Lingering Colonialities As Blockades To Peace Education: School Violence In Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Book Summary: Bringing together the voices of scholars and practitioners on challenges and possibilities of implementing peace education in diverse global sites, this book addresses key questions for students seeking to deepen their understanding of the field. The book not only highlights ground-breaking and rich qualitative studies from around the globe, but also analyses the limits and possibilities of peace education in diverse contexts of conflict and post-conflict societies. Contributing authors address how educators and learners can make meaning of international peace education efforts, how various forms of peace and violence interact in and around schools, and how the field …

A Guide To Support Coaching And Mentoring For School Improvement, Kathryn Moyle

Professional learning for teachers and school leaders

This guide emerged from policies and professional learning practices in the Northern Territory, Australia. Between 2014-2016, six experienced school principals located in remote urban and regional schools met twice a year to share plans, experiences and reflections about how they were using coaching and mentoring conversations to support teachers in their schools.

Literature Review Relating To The Current Context And Discourse Surrounding Indigenous Early Childhood Education, School Readiness And Transition Programs To Primary School, Jacynta Krakouer

Indigenous Education Research

Since the educational experiences of Aboriginal Australians are often framed from a ‘deficit’ perspective, whereby the failures of Indigenous people to engage with the mainstream educational system are seen as the ‘problem’, an alternative approach to Indigenous early childhood education discourse is preferable. This alternative approach highlights the strengths that many Aboriginal children possess when commencing school, strengths that may result from Indigenous child-rearing practices. Consequently, this literature review utilises a strengths-based perspective for Aboriginal early childhood education and school readiness, noting that Aboriginal children are frequently expected to adapt to a foreign educational system whereby school expectations differ from …

Supporting New Teachers: Aligning Professional Development To Educator Evaluation Data, Kathleen A. Torregrossa, Robert K. Gable

K-12 Education

Professional development programs and teacher evaluation systems should go hand-in-hand to support teachers across all career stages (Danielson, 2007). The professional development (PD) opportunities in a K-12 district were examined to determine the extent to which they related to, and supported, the novice teachers’ rating on their evaluations. This district addressed teacher evaluation and teacher professional development jointly with their local and state level teachers’ unions with the collective “conception of teacher evaluation as part of a teaching and learning system that supports continuous improvement” (Darling-Hammond, 2014, p. 5). However, in 2014/15, this district did not have a mentoring/induction program …

The Unemployed Adult In The Liminal Space Of A Job-Training Program: Transformations Of Learner Identities, Anthony Craig Adkisson

ETD Archive

This research addresses the impact job-readiness programs have on the identity of unemployed adults. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine the transformational learning that happened for a group of seven unemployed adults seeking employment. The research considered: 1) what meaning do unemployed adults make out of their experience going through job-training programs; 2) what are the liminal aspects of job-training programs; 3) how do aspects of the job-training programs influence the development of their identity; 4) what are the ways the programs shapes their views toward learning; and 5) in what ways was this experience transformative? …

Listening And Negotiation, Janet Callahan, Mary E. Besterfield-Sacre, Jenna P. Carpenter, Kim Lascola Needy, Cheryl B. Schrader

Materials Science and Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Negotiation is an important skill for faculty at all stages of their career, but one that research suggests is often uncomfortable for women faculty to employ. This paper focuses on the topic of negotiation, with an emphasis on providing practical ideas and strategies relevant to academic professionals at both entry-level and mid-career who find that they need to negotiate a career opportunity. The paper will review negotiation basics, as well as discuss what can be negotiated, how one might proceed to discuss these, and how listening is critical to negotiation. By viewing negotiation as a "wise agreement"¹ that seeks …

Reducing Math Anxiety In The Secondary Classroom, Haley Scheldorf

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

Cooperative Learning Activities In Social Studies Classrooms And The Effect On Self-Determination For Students With And Without Individualized Education Programs (Ieps), Carey Anne Aubrey-Martinez

Wayne State University Dissertations

Students with disabilities are spending significantly more time in the general education setting than they have historically. General education teachers are in need of strategies to enable them to work with these students more successfully. Additionally, research shows that all students could benefit from activities geared toward developing self-determination skills.

The purpose of this descriptive study was to see if the use of cooperative learning activities could improve the self-determination abilities of general education students and students with an Individualized Education Program in a social studies classroom. Students were given the American Institutes for Research Self-Determination Scale as a pretest …

Understanding The In-School Literacies Of African American Males Through A Sociocultural Paradigm: Implications For Teacher Professional Development, Aaron M. Johnson

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

UNDERSTANDING THE IN-SCHOOL LITERACIES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MALES THROUGH A SOCIOCULTURAL PARADIGM: IMPLICATIONS FOR TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

by

AARON M. JOHNSON

May 2016

Advisor: Dr. Gina DeBlase

Major: Curriculum and Instruction

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

There has been great debate about the reasons why African American male students reject the institution of school and school related content. Furthermore, data from multiple sources, including, national and local assessments and governmental studies, document a gap in achievement and school retention rates between African American students and their White counterparts. The data substantiates the notions that African American males have an aversion …

Balanced Literacy Activities In Ontario Jk - Grade 8 Comprehensive Literacy Classrooms: Examining Self-Reported Frequency Of Classroom Activities, Elizabeth Louise Pearsall

Wayne State University Dissertations

Balanced Literacy Activities in Ontario JK – Grade 8

Comprehensive Literacy Classrooms:

Examining Self-Reported Frequency of Classroom Activities

By

Elizabeth Louise Pearsall

August 2015

Advisor: Dr. G. Oglan

Major: Reading, Language & Literature

Degree: Doctor of Education

The purpose of this study was to discover the Frequency of Use rates for balanced/ comprehensive literacy activities as described in 46 survey statements across the four Ontario elementary school divisions (Early Years, JK/SK; Primary Division, Grades 1, 2, & 3; Junior Division, Grades 4, 5, & 6; and Intermediate Division, Grades 7 & 8). In addition another purpose of this study was …