Digital Commons Network^™

Triad Experiences: The Impact Of Joint Professional Development Forpre- And In- Service Science Teachers On Triad Dynamics, Todd Campbell, Kimberly H. Lott

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This presentation focuses on the results of in-depth phenomenological interviewing of triads involved in a pilot professional development project.

Partnerships To Recruit And Prepare Bilingual Teachers, Julie Esparza Brown

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

To address the need for teachers with the skills to effectively teach English Language Learner (ELL) students, Portland State University (PSU) collaborated with three Portland area community colleges and 17 school districts to develop a program to recruit and prepare bilingual/bicultural teachers. This nine-year-old program provides a career ladder for education paraprofessionals. Candidates begin their work at the community colleges or at the upper division or graduate levels at PSU depending upon their backgrounds. This article describes the program, assessment of the program, and lessons learned. To date, over 190 candidates have completed the program and 99 percent have been …

Front Matter

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Cover art: “Prime” by Katherine Blair Yancey, a student at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Science Excel: An Effective Teacher Recruitment Program For Rural Schools?, Kimberly H. Lott

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This study explored the possibility of using an Excel program to identify and recruit teachers into the profession at the secondary level.

Do Your Homework! Investigating The Role Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy In Comprehensive School Reform Models Serving Diverse Student Populations, Tonia Renee Durden

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Like the African proverb, “It takes a village to raise a child,” many educational researchers charge that it takes a comprehensive school reform to raise student achievement. With the passing of the No Child Left Behind legislation in 2002, national officials authorized the Comprehensive School Reform program to support low performing schools as they struggled to improve student achievement. As a result of this national effort, an increase in implementation of comprehensive school reforms is occurring in schools serving predominantly diverse student populations in urban areas. Therefore, this article explores the framework of comprehensive school reforms and challenges stakeholders to …

Using A Resiliency Perspective To Inform Bilingual Teachers’ Classroom Inquiry, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Recent research has established the importance of teacher quality in the academic success or failure of students (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Sanders, Wright, & Horn, 2004) and policy initiatives, such as NCLB, have propelled the issue of teacher quality to the forefront of educational reform in the U.S. While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been successful in establishing minimum teacher quality standards for general educators, the act has failed to highlight the importance of quality for teachers of second language learners (Nieto. 2003).

Teacher quality is especially impo1tant for second language learners. both because of the pedagogic and Iinguistic complexities inherent …

Promoting Higher Academic Achievement Among Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Edna Morris

All Graduate Projects

Designing a multicultural literature based library for use in the classroom setting to promote higher academic achievement among culturally and linguistically diverse students was the purpose of this project. Studies supporting the connection between culturally relevant literature and its use in the classroom with academic achievement among culturally and linguistically diverse students were summarized. The result of this research analysis supports the use of culturally relevant literature and activities with young children. The project provides brochures, resources and guides for use of culturally relevant literature with young children.

Integrating Transformative Multicultural Practice Into The Traditional Physical Education Curriculum, Kari Lea Breeden

All Graduate Projects

This study is intended to serve as a resource for upper elementary physical education teachers seeking supplemental materials to integrate diversity through multicultural education in their traditional physical education classroom. Two questions are the basis for this study: ( 1) Can multicultural education be integrated into the upper elementary physical education classroom? (2) How can teachers' use this study as an assessment tool in their upper elementary physical education program? This study is built upon the work of scholar James Banks. It will extend the work of James Banks by showing how his concept of changing the curriculum to integrate …

Teacher Capacity And Social Justice In Teacher Education, Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

In this chapter we discuss social justice and teacher capacity, an amalgam of teachers’ knowledge, skills and dispositions, by posing and answering three questions. How should education professionals define the concept of social justice? What is the relationship between teacher capacity and social justice? What are teacher educators doing in scholarship and practice to bring about social justice? Our purpose is to provide teacher educators with an overview of the concepts of social justice and teacher capacity, so they may understand the relationship between the two and consider how well they are contributing to Horace Mann’s vision of education as …

About The Authors, Volume 26 (2008)

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

About the editors and authors of volume 26 (2008) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development.

The Rhetoric Of Empathy: Ethical Foundations Of Dialogical Communication, Nathaniel Teich

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Peter Elbow's "Believing Game" can function as an ethical strategy and can be understood in terms of humanistic rhetorical traditions from Martin Buber to Carl Rogers and Michael Polanyi.

The Persuasiveness Of Pleasure: Play, Reciprocity, And Persuasion In Online Discussions, Sue Hum

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay explores the role of pleasure in facilitating diverse modes of rhetorical participation in online discussion.

Turning Today’S Students Into Tomorrow’S Stars, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine Theiler, Silvia Betta

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Selected Papers from the 2008 Central States Conference

Adeiline J. Moeller, Editor

Janine Theiler, Assistant Editor

Silvia Betta, Assistant Editor

1 The Important Work of Engaging Our 21st Century Learners — Toni Theisen

2 A Model for Teaching Cross-Cultural Perspectives — Susan M. Knight

3 The Stealth Approach to Critical Thinking in Beginning Spanish Classes — Deanna H. Mihaly

4 Teaching About the French Heritage of the Midwest — Randa Duvick

5 Integrating Russian Cuisine with Russian Language and Culture Classes — Marat Sanatullov

6 Preparing a Fotonovela in the Foreign Language Classroom — Carol Eiber

7 Engaging Students through …

Getting Ready: Promoting School Readiness Through A Relationship-Based Partnership Model, Susan M. Sheridan, Christine Marvin, Lisa Knoche, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

School readiness is determined by the life experiences of young children between birth and enrollment in formal education programs. Early intervention and education programs designed to promote school readiness often focus on skills a child fails to demonstrate that are believed to be of importance to social and academic success. The Getting Ready model of early childhood intervention (Sheridan, Edwards, & Knoche, 2003) recognizes the transactional nature of young children’s development and the important role parents play in pre-school readiness and school-age success. In the Getting Ready model, collaborative partnerships between parents and professionals are encouraged to promote parent’s competence …

Multicultural Education: Raj’S Story Using A Curricular Conceptual Lens Of The Particular, Vicki Ross, Elaine Chan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this study, we employ a curricular conceptual lens of the particular to explore the experience of multicultural education from the perspective of an immigrant student, Raj. Using a school-based narrative inquiry approach, we learn about Raj’s experiences at the intersections of immigration and settlement, adaptation and assimilation, English-language acquisition, unemployment, poverty, family violence, and family relocation. We employ Dewey’s [(1938). Experience and education. New York: Simon & Schuster] theory of experience, Connelly and Clandinin’s [(1988). Teachers as curriculum planners: Narratives of experience. New York: Teachers College Press, Columbia] understanding of curriculum as experience, and Schwab’s [(1969). The …

From Nuevo León To The Usa And Back Again: Transnational Students In Mexico, Edmund T. Hamann, Víctor A. Zúñiga, Juan Sánchez Garcia

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The movement of Mexicans to the United States is both longstanding and long studied and from that study we know that for many newcomers the attachment to the receiving community is fraught and tentative. The experience of immigrant children in U.S. schools is also relatively well studied and reveals challenges of intercultural communication as well as concurrent and contradictory features of welcome and unwelcome. What is less well known, in the study of migration generally and of transnational students in particular, is how students moving in a less common direction — from the U.S. to Mexico — experience that movement. …

Primary Teachers' Knowledge And Knowledge Calibration Of Early Literacy Practices, Tami Al-Hazza, Charlene Fleener, Jane Hager

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This research design was based on the knowledge calibration work by Cunningham, Perry, Stanovich, and Stanovich (2004). One hundred and forty-one full time teachers participated in a four day professional development workshop on research-based reading instruction. Participants were administered a three-part survey comprised of 1) demographic information 2) knowledge calibration items measuring perceived understanding of phonics, phonological awareness, and syllabication and 3) phonics pretest published in Self-Paced Phonics: A Text for Educators (2005). There were statistically significant differences between participants who rated their knowledge as high and those who rated their knowledge as low on the phonological and phonics items. …

Discourse In Inquiry Science Classrooms (Diisc): Reference Manual, Dale R. Baker, Rachelle Beard, Nievita Bueno-Watts, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Gokhan Özdemir, Giota Perkins, Sissy Wong, Senay Yaşar-Purzer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

One of the greatest challenges facing scholars and funding agencies interested in reform is determining the impact of classroom practice on student achievement. The degree to which this effect can be determined is contingent upon instruments that measure teachers’ ability to enact specific instructional strategies. Frequently, a general instrument will not do because it was not designed to measure the unique focus of a professional development program or a set of variables of interest to researchers.

Consequently, specific instruments should be developed to allow researchers to measure fidelity of classroom implementation. Fidelity of implementation is always the first step in …

Helping At-Risk Students Solve Mathematical Word Problems Through The Use Of Direct Instruction And Problem Solving Strategies, Lurdes Lopez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This action research study examined the influence mathematical strategies had on middle school students' mathematical ability. The purpose of this action research study was to observe students mathematical abilities and to investigate whether teaching students problem-solving strategies in mathematics will enhance student's mathematical thinking and their ability to comprehend and solve word problems. The study took place in an urban school in Orlando, Florida in the fall of 2004. The subjects will be 12 eighth grade students assigned to my intensive math class. Quantitative data was collected. Students' took a pre and post test designed to measure and give students …

Dual-Language Education: A Longitudinal Study Of Students' Achievement In An El Paso County, Texas School District, Pauline Anne Dow

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This Dissertation describes a longitudinal study of one-way and two-way bilingual education programs (also known as dual-language programs) to assess achievement of elementary-aged English learners (ELs) in a school district located in El Paso County, Texas, using both norm-referenced and criterion-referenced tests. The design features assessment for bilingual students' language skills in both English and Spanish, which allows for the examination of the interrelationships among skills in the two languages. The study also compares the achievement of ELs and non-ELs in the two-way program. The work reported in this Dissertation was conducted with a common group of children over a …

Engaging With Images And Stories : Using A Learning Approach To Develop Agency Of Beginning "At-Risk" Pre-Service Teachers, Karen Noble, Robyn Henderson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

At a regional Australian university, a Learning Circle approach was implemented with a small group of first year education students who identified themselves as “at risk” of failure in the tertiary context. As part of their participation in weekly meetings, the students engaged in discussion, reflection and problem-solving related to their transition to university study. They also participated in a visual research inquiry which included the construction of photographic images and research conversations about being university students and dealing with study demands. Through the privileging of interactions and relationships, the students were able to make connections to other Discourses from …

Paper 5: Preservice Teachers’ Disposition Self-Appraisals: Is There A Connection To Mathematics Instructional Practices?, Shonda Lemons-Smith

Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (GAMTE) Annual Conference (2007-2019)

This paper explores preservice teachers’ dispositions and the connection to mathematics instructional practices. The Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy served as the theoretical grounding for the study. Hence, its three broad propositions: conceptions of self and others, social relations, and conceptions of knowledge structure the argument presented. The participants in the study are elementary preservice teachers enrolled in a post-baccalaureate alternative certification program. The full-time, accelerated program focuses on and is specifically designed for individuals committed to teaching in urban, high-poverty schools. A dispositions survey, open-ended narratives, and teaching observation rubric served as data sources for the qualitative study. Findings …

Preservice Teachers’ Disposition Self-Appraisals: Is There A Connection To Mathematics Instructional Practices?, Shonda Lemons-Smith

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

This paper explores preservice teachers’ dispositions and the connection to mathematics instructional practices. The Theory of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy served as the theoretical grounding for the study. Hence, its three broad propositions: conceptions of self and others, social relations, and conceptions of knowledge structure the argument presented. The participants in the study are elementary preservice teachers enrolled in a post-baccalaureate alternative certification program. The full-time, accelerated program focuses on and is specifically designed for individuals committed to teaching in urban, high-poverty schools. A dispositions survey, open-ended narratives, and teaching observation rubric served as data sources for the qualitative study. Findings …

¡Oye!: Língua E Negócio Entre O Brasil E A Espanha, Laura Villa, José Del Valle

Publications and Research

Neste estudo sobre a promoção internacional do espanhol, centramos a análise no acordo ¡Oye! Espanhol para professores, assinado em setembro de 2006 entre o Banco Santander espanhol e a Secretaria de Educação do Estado de São Paulo, cuja finalidade era a formação de 45.000 professores de espanhol para atuarem no ensino médio brasileiro. O acordo, que envolveu também o Instituto Cervantes espanhol, recebeu uma forte oposição por parte da comunidade educacional, que se mobilizou para sustar sua implementação. Neste trabalho, apresentamos e analisamos diferentes ações e discursos face ao acordo por parte dos agentes envolvidos no debate, ao mesmo …

Upgrading Met Instructors : The Skills And Knowledge Enhancement Demanded By Met Stakeholders, Tarek Gamil

World Maritime University Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Do Parents' Literacy Beliefs And Home Literacy Experiences Relate To Children's Literacy Skills?, Rebecca C. Norman

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the relationship among parents' literacy beliefs, home literacy experiences, and children's literacy skills. Forty-three children, who attended a university preschool, and their parents participated in the study. Parents' literacy beliefs and the home literacy experience, namely shared book reading, were examined through a self-report questionnaire. One important section of this questionnaire provided information about parents' beliefs concerning literacy acquisition; specifically, whether they believed in a top-down or bottom-up approach. The children were tested individually for emergent literacy skills, including concepts of print, alphabetic knowledge, rhyming skills, oral language skills, word recognition, and invented spelling. The results were …

Evaluation And Needs-Based Assessment Of Special Education Teachers' Knowledge Of Austism Interventions, Dawn Richardson

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is being increasingly identified in children, yet there are only a minimal number of studies examining the use of research-based intervention strategies in a classroom educational setting. This present study examined the use of Discrete Trial Training, Picture Exchange Communication System, Social Stories, Structured Teaching, and Video Self-Modeling by special education teachers with students with ASD. A questionnaire was completed by 91 special education teachers from the Green River Region Educational Cooperative, which encompasses 17 different school districts in the area of western and south central Kentucky. They answered questions about their level of training, knowledge …

Intensive Professional Development In Early Literacy Instruction For Preschool Teachers, Rebecca Brinks

Dissertations

This study assesses the efficacy of using an intensive professional development program to improve preschool teachers' practices related to early literacy. A mixed methods approach was employed to review secondary data from a federally-funded Early Reading First Grant. The population studied consisted of thirty-one preschool teachers at four diverse programs serving low income children located in the mid-western urban community of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The intensive professional development used in this study resulted in significant improvements in the mean scores for all areas of the Early Language and Literacy Classroom Observation (ELLCO) when comparing baseline to the final scores in …

Defining And Interpreting Professional Knowledge In An Age Of Performativity: A Scottish Case-Study, Beth Dickson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper will argue that by considering in detail the Scottish Standard for Initial Teacher Education [SITE] (Quality Assurance Agency [QAA], 2000), the foundation document of the teaching profession in Scotland, a model exists that synthesises the positions of those involved in education who support a “technical-rational” position and others who support a “values” discourse. The paper will consider how the authors of SITE were affected by the contextual factors of policy and epistemology. Literary methods of reading will be used to show that SITE defines professional knowledge as being dynamic, intellectual, personal, developmental, research-informed and achieved in synthesis and …

Repositioning Research As Writing To Improve Student Learning, Sara Booth

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In recent years teacher education has used the process and practices of research to improve pre-service teachers’ pedagogical practices. Pre-service teachers, however, generally prefer to understand the practices of teaching rather than research. This paper considers the writing process rather than the research process as central to the construction of pre-service teachers’ subjectivities. It explores the responses of twenty-six Tasmanian Secondary English postgraduate pre-service teachers in 2004 and 2005, drawing on data from research writing projects, surveys and interviews. These responses indicated that when writing is positioned central to the research process it can change pre-service teachers’ construction of research …