Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Student Engagement And Professional Development In An Innovative Learning Community, Kim Hoosier Phd, Sam Pincus Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

As two Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) faculty set out to create an innovative learning community, they found that they also fostered a complex and rewarding professional development opportunity. This is an account of what it took to create such a community, and some of the lessons they learned along the way.

Integrating Universal Design And Response To Intervention In Methods Courses For General Education Mathematics Teachers, Kelley E. Buchheister, Christa Jackson, Cynthia Taylor

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Traditionally, teacher education programs have placed little emphasis on preparing mathematics teachers to work with students who struggle in mathematics. Therefore, it is crucial that mathematics teacher educators explicitly prepare prospective teachers to instruct students who struggle with mathematics by providing strategies and practices that specifically address their needs. In this study, we describe the principles of Universal Design for Learning and Response to Intervention. More specifically, we discuss how one Mathematics Teacher Educator uses these frame works in her mathematics methods course to help prospective teachers become cognizant of early interventions and effective strategies that can be implemented to …

Evaluating Inquiry-Based Learning As A Means To Advance Individual Student Achievement, Cherilyn Gwen Ziemer

Theses and Dissertations

Although inquiry-based learning has been debated throughout the greater educational community and demonstrated with some effect in modern classrooms, little quantitative analysis has been performed to empirically validate sustained benefits. This quantitative study focused on whether inquiry-based pedagogy actually brought about sustained and measurable improved learning and higher levels of student engagement, satisfaction, and understanding. The present study employed classic stratified random sampling to form two sample groups. Sixth-grade student subjects in two middle school science classes completed a four step process: all students completed a 40-question objective pretest, students completed a unit of study in either an inquiry-based learning …

Relationship Between The Emotional Intelligence Of Teachers And Student Academic Achievement, David Allen Rust

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Linda Darling-Hammond (1997) states that the classroom teacher is the most influential variable influencing student achievement outside of the child’s home environment. Many studies have attempted to identify the specific attributes of teachers who are more effective than others. During the last decade, research has shown that teachers who work to develop relationships, while delivering relevant and rigorous instruction, demonstrate greater student achievement.

Additional studies from the world of business tell us that those individuals with increased levels of emotional intelligence are better leaders, managers and salespersons, and are more frequently hired into those positions by large corporations. They are …

Destructive Anger Among Adolescents: Management Strategies For Principals And Teachers, Elvin Gabriel, Kimberly Nelson

Faculty Publications

This article will provide information to aid readers in understanding risk factors associated with adolescent anger. It will also recommend strategies to prevent and defuse anger, and discuss the role of spiritual nurture in promoting proper conduct and positive relationships among students.

Teaching Undergraduates How To Analyze, Ryan Andrew Nivens, Rosalind Raymond Gann

ETSU Faculty Works

Analysis is typically listed in taxonomies of higher order thinking. Academics consider these taxonomies worthwhile, but they are hard to teach and we are apt to ignore them. Today higher education is criticized for “dumbing down” curriculum or lowering standards. To rectify this, many policies at the state or national level are requiring higher education institutions to change. In K-12 education, Race to the Top and Common Core requirements are placing new demands on K-12 teacher preparation, which include evaluation of the analysis skills of pre-service teachers. But professors do not always view their disciplines as the proper place for …

Differences In Beliefs Across A Series Of Four Mathematics Content Courses, Susanna Molitoris Miller, Caitlin Walkey

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

College students often ask questions such as, “Why do I have to take this class? Is there a point to it?” For Early Childhood Education (ECE) majors these questions may often take on a slightly different form, wondering, “How can I incorporate this information into my classroom?” or “Do I understand this well enough to teach this to my students?” It is especially important for pre- service teachers to feel confident working with the mathematical content that they are learning and for them to believe that they can successfully teach that same information to a group of students. Swackhamer, Koellner, …

Education Policy And Social Justice: Exploring Possibilities Within Education Policy Context Of Pakistan, Sajid Ali

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

One of the major purposes of education policy is to ensure social justice in a society. The social justice needs to be thought of not only in conventional sense of ‘distributional’ justice, but also in the sense of ‘relational’ justice. Looking from this perspective the policies in Pakistan have historically focused only on distributional justice, albeit with dismal progress on this front. However, they have completely ignored the attainment of ‘relational’ justice as a policy objective. As a result power differentials not only exist but worsened through educational policies such as undermining of public schooling while encouraging privatization of education …

Training Teaching Assistants To Implement Systemic Teaching Strategies In Preschool Classrooms With Reliability, Rebecca V. Crawford

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

We are currently in an era of accountability, so the need for measuring fidelity of implementation is gaining attention. However, there is little research in the area of fidelity of implementation and an inclusive early childhood classroom. In addition, most of the research is conducted using teachers. This study examined the fidelity of implementation by two teaching assistants using the teaching strategies of time delay and system of least prompts with children with and without disabilities in an inclusive early childhood setting. A multiple-probe design with conditions across two behaviors and across two participants design was used to determine the …

Learning With Laz, Cynthia R. Chambers

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

We The People: Elementary Pre-Service Teachers And Constitutional Readability, Lori T. Meier, Karin Keith, Edward J. Dwyer

ETSU Faculty Works

In light of increasing mandates to incorporate close reading of primary source historical documents at the elementary level, this study explored the reading difficulty level of the US Constitution with preservice elementary teachers using a traditional cloze assessment procedure. While best practice pedagogy of social studies has long included thoughtful reading of primary sources, new language arts guidelines situate the analysis of primary documents within formulaic quantifiable frameworks, often problematic to the pre-service teacher. With implications for reading and social studies, this paper explores several relevant issues to both pre-service teachers and the elementary classrooms they will teach in.

Mentor Preparation: A Qualitative Study Of Stem Master Teacher Professional Development, Heather Lynn Click-Cuellar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 has required districts to staff all classrooms with highly qualified teachers. Yet, retaining certified teachers in the profession has been a national concern, especially among new teachers who leave at alarming rates within their first three years. This comes at a heavy cost to districts financially and in trying to maintain highly qualified status, but also to the continuity and effective education of students. Mentoring has been identified by many researchers as a plausible solution to reducing attrition rates for beginning teachers.

In this Dissertation, I conducted qualitative research to explore and …

Digital Biliteracy: Digital Technologies As Homes For Arab Immigrant Children's Biliteracy Development, Laila Al-Salmi

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The revolution of digital technologies and children's increasing access to them is

impacting the literacy development of children around the world. However, few studies have investigated the relationship between digital technologies and immigrant children's biliteracy development. The purpose of this study was to understand the digital literacy practices of Arab pre-kindergarten children and how these shape biliteracy development in Arabic and English. Tomake sense of the emergent biliteracy of these young participants, the study proposed Digital Biliteracy, a theoretical framework that draws on elements of New Literacy Studies, MultimodalLiteracies, Digital Literacies and Situated Learning Theory.

The study employed a qualitative …

Relationship Between Cognitive Types Of Teacher Content Knowledge And Knowing-To Act: A Mixed Methods Study Of Mexican Borderland Middle School Teachers, Maria De Los Angeles Cruz Quinones

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzed middle school mathematics teachers' content knowledge and its relationship with teachers' "knowing-to act" ability. Understanding what kinds of knowledge has a direct influence on teaching practices and student learning is critical in order to improve teacher education programs and professional development. An Explanatory sequential mixed methods design was used in the study. It involved collecting quantitative data and explaining the quantitative results with in-depth qualitative data. In the quantitative phase of the study, two surveys were administered to N=70 middle school mathematics teachers in the Mexican borderland to assess whether their mathematical content knowledge was related to …

True Blue: A Narrative Inquiry Exploring Instructional Practices Used During Reading Instruction In A Title I, 2010 National Blue Ribbon School In New Mexico, Debra Yvonne Kerney

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Over the past 32 years, the National Blue Ribbon Schools Program, a trademark of excellence and success in academics, has recognized nearly 7,000 American schools in which students have demonstrated high academic performance and achievement (U.S. Department of Education, 2012). Previous studies of National Blue Ribbon Schools have largely centered upon leadership characteristics (Carney-Dalton, 2001; Copeland, 2003; Kushner, 2000; Lyles, 2009; Maslyk, 2012;Sapone, 2001), but studies have not focused on the particular instructional practices that are used within these schools. Since 1982, 36 out of 862 New Mexico schools (NCES, 2013) have achieved National Blue Ribbon status (United States Department …

Higher Education And Foreign Direct Investment: A Study Of Mexican States, Yuyinska Krystal Sanchez-Osio

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Factors that attract Foreign Direct Investment in Mexico at the state level are analyzed. Special focus is placed on how human capital promotes growth by attracting more FDI flows in a state. A model that explains the amount of FDI received in Mexico in 2012 is developed at a subnational level. The main independent variable is human capital, and it is measured using percentage of university graduates. The model controls for other possible determinant factors such as population, infrastructure, wages, fiscal incentives, geographic location, ease of doing business, and past experience in attracting FDI. It is tested using ordinary least …

Exploring Dance Teachers' Perceptions: Video As A Teaching Tool, Daralyn Scurlock

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The process in which dance instructors evaluate dance students' technical skills has been dependent on spontaneity; it is time sensitive and almost synchronous. However, video introduces an asynchronous evaluating component. Video recording can be utilized in the dance profession not only to improve a dancer's overall performance, but as an injury prevention tool. Therefore video permits deeper reflection.

This is a preliminary study designed to open the door for future studies in the dance field. In order to gain the in depth knowledge required for this thesis, an instrumental case-study design was utilized based primarily on the analyses of broad, …

Assessing U.S. High School Mathematics Students' Dependency On Calculators For Basic Arithmetic Operations Involving Integers From Single-Digit Fact Families, John Jeremy Sneed

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate the extent to which high school students use calculators to perform basic operations, and how well they actually perform those same operations without using calculators. The investigation involved the testing of math classes of students--male and female, mixed ethnicities--in grades nine through twelve. Students were asked to perform all four basic math operations (add, subtract, multiply, divide) involving integers based on single-digit addition and multiplication fact families with and without calculators. The testing was in two environments--timed and untimed, with students recording their completion times--in order to investigate discrepancies in students' calculator use in …

Impact Of An Online Student Bridge Program For First-Year Nontraditional Students, Lisa Rene Adkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Low retention rates for first-year students plague many higher education institutions, and are even lower among online institutions of higher education. At Athena Colleges (a pseudonym), the attrition rate can be as high as 50% in students' first academic year. To address this concern, Athena Colleges has implemented an online bridge program that addresses students' academic needs and persistence. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the bridge program in reducing the first-time student attrition rate and academic performance in their first term. Most of Athena Colleges students are nontraditional students and due to this, the …

Principal And Mathematics Coaches' Journey To Improve Mathematics Learning, R. Cox

Journal of Mathematics and Science: Collaborative Explorations

My educational career path began as an elementary school teacher, then as an assistant principal, and now as a principal. With the educational experiences that I had at each level of my career, I was certain I would be able to handle an increase in the mathematical rigor presented to our students through the new Mathematics Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools (SOL) [1]. I found that, yes, I was able to understand the rigor. However, I found the challenge was providing the needed assistance to bring about results that would ultimately help our teachers and students be successful. …