Education Commons^™

Honors, Professionalism, And Teaching And Learning: A Response To Certification, John Zubizarreta

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay responds to an argument for certification based on a particular sociological theory of professionalization. The case for certification rests on the supposition that honors has evolved from a nascent educational movement focused on distinct teaching and learning approaches for high-ability students to one that is now ready to professionalize in ways that require more specialization, organizational oversight, systematic evaluation, and exclusive credentialing through certification. The author suggests that honors is already a full-fledged professional endeavor, recognizing that the core emphasis on teaching and learning in honors is a genuinely professional endeavor when performed authentically in the experimental, creative, …

Partners, Not Adversaries: Higher Education And Diverse Schools, Edmund T. Hamann

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

Often education researchers enter schools only to depict inequity and weak practice, but the same empirical skills that illuminate challenges can, under a different premise, illuminate excellence. This chapter describes how graduate students enrolled in an “Effecting High School Improvement” course helped a diverse public high school document its excellence and win National Education Policy Center (NEPC) recognition as a 'School of Opportunity'. Although this case is unique in specific detail, other school/higher education partnerships could clearly function like this one did. Good schools may not have staff to document their multifaceted responsiveness to diverse enrollments, but, with university assistance, …

Critical Relationships In Managing Students’ Emotional Responses To Science (And Evolution) Instruction, Lawrence C. Scharmann, Bette L. Grauer

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

Background

If an instructional environment that is conducive to learning generally requires the development of good student–teacher relationships, then a classroom atmosphere of trust is an especially important consideration when we engage students in the teaching and learning of evolution. Emotional scaffolding, therefore, is crucial to the successful teaching and learning of evolution. Quinlan (Coll Teach 64:101–111, 2016) refers to four key relationships necessary to construct this scaffolding—students with teachers being merely one of the four key relationships comprising a comprehensive emotional scaffolding—the others being students with subject matter, students with other students, and students with their developing selves. Our …

“Because Like – And So I Don’T – So I Think It’S Maybe, I Don’T Know”: Performing Traumatic Effects While Reading Lynda Barry’S The Freddie Stories, David Lewkowich, Michelle Miller Stafford

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

As a picture of childhood composed from the point of view of a young boy named Freddie, who suffers the effects of repeated and ongoing trauma, the experience of reading The Freddie Stories presents a number of interpretive challenges: its main character is often split and in various states of disassociation, the difference between dreaming and waking life is not always obvious, multiple monsters appear in different and changeable forms, and as Freddie experiences repeated difficulties with language and cognitive function, his traumatic past enfolds upon the time in which the story is set. In this paper, we analyze how …

Social Studies Teacher Perceptions Of News Source Credibility, Christopher H. Clark, Mardi Schmeichel, H. James Garrett

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

Politically tumultuous times have created a problematic space for teachers who include the news in their classrooms. Few studies have explored perceptions of news credibility among secondary social studies teachers, the educators most likely to regularly incorporate news media into their classrooms. We investigated teachers’ operational definitions of credibility and the relationships between political ideology and assessments of news source credibility. Most teachers in this study used either static or dynamic definitions to describe news media sources’ credibility. Further, teachers’ conceptualizations of credibility and perceived ideological differences with news sources were associated with how credible teachers found each source. These …

The Downfall: Listening To Non-Urban Communities And Their Language Ideologies, Jessica Sierk, Theresa Catalano

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

Increased mobility due to globalization and other geopolitical shifts has changed school demographics worldwide. In the Midwest, much of this new immigrant population is Spanishspeaking and in need of language support. Consequently, schools play an important role in responding to the New Latino Diaspora. In this paper, we describe how unconscious language ideologies inhibited social change that could improve conditions for new student populations in two non-urban high schools in Nebraska (Stockbridge and Springvale, pseudonyms). This critical discourse analysis draws on ethnographic data from a larger study, including participant observations and semi-structured interviews. Findings reveal language ideologies that use language …

Learning Opportunities Of Multiplication Fluency In Open Source K-5 Mathematics Curriculum, Katie L. Johnson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Three open source K-5 mathematics curricula, Bridges in Mathematics, Eureka Mathematics, and Texas Go Math!, were analyzed and coded to determine what learning opportunities they provided for students to develop multiplication fluency. Multiplication fluency is achieved when conceptual and procedural knowledge are layered to allow the learner to process the information. Across the three sets of materials, 429 items were coded, with 69.93% being coded as items that afforded the development of procedural knowledge. One of the goals of this study was to determine how curricular materials support rote learning versus more layered [scaffolded] learning. It was determined …

Adjusting The Late Policy: Using Smaller Intervals For Grading Deductions, Brandon Bosch

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Most late policies involve some type of initial large deduction when an assignment is late, followed by subsequent deductions around a certain interval. In many cases, instructors will select 24 hours as their interval. While this type of late policy is common, it can be criticized for being too punitive. Moreover, large intervals can encourage students to hold on to their assignments longer than necessary, increasing the possibility that students receive a second large deduction. To address some of these issues, I share my experience of using one-point deductions for each hour an assignment is late.

Motivation In The Mathematics Classroom, Evan Thornton-Kolbe

Honors Theses

Mathematics has always seemed to be an unpopular subject amongst primary and secondary students in the United States. This project seeks to identify the roots of these attitudes and examine them in ways that allow for personal reflection, community building, and student advocacy. An individual’s access to educational resources and equitable treatment play a large role in shaping their mathematics learning identity. This topic was examined via traditional research methods for the written paper portion and also includes a set of lesson plans for teachers to use. These lesson plans utilize the ideas discussed in the paper portion to provide …

Engagement And Computational Thinking Through Creative Coding, Dana Hoppe

Honors Theses

Rising enrollments in Computer Science pose an opportunity to engage students from diverse backgrounds and interests; and a challenge to deliver on positive learning outcomes. While student engagement is the driving factor for increased learning performance and retention, it has been declining to new lows for Computer Science students in recent years. In order to further explore the potential of contextualized computing as a tool for increasing engagement in computing and developing Computational Thinking aptitude in students, we have developed an introductory computing course contextualized with Art and Design with modules centered around guiding pedagogical principles and aimed at middle …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Spring/Summer 2020)

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Contents

Call for Papers . v

Editorial Policy, Deadlines, and Submission Guidelines . vi

Dedication to Rae Rosenthal . vii

Editor’s Introduction ix — Ada Long

Forum essays on “The Professionalization of Honors”

The Professionalization of Honors Education 3 — Patricia J. Smith

Honors, Professionalism, and Teaching and Learning: A Response to Certification 19 — John Zubizarreta

The Body of Honors: Certification as an Expression of Disciplinary Power 25 — Richard Badenhausen

A Requiem for Certification, A Song of Honors 33 — Jeffrey A. Portnoy

Swan Song 45 — Joan Digby

A Different Kind of Agitation . …

Periodic Table Club, Makayla Gill, Kailynn Jensen

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

This club is dedicated to teaching the generation of future scientists the periodic table. This is designed to be a unique take on a STEM club that uses the periodic table as a backbone for a solid foundation in chemistry.

The Equity And Engagement Challenges Of Teaching Reading In Middle School, Edmund T. Hamann, Stephanie Malone

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

The point is to look at midlevel and high school students—those often encapsulated by the term ‘adolescent literacy’—and to ask what it is that makes those students less likely to engage in productive reading practice. That may at first look like a psychological question about motivation, which makes the challenge seem like it is something inside the student that needs attention or ‘fixing’. But the orientation here is instead more sociological. If we talk about instruction, in this case reading instruction, it is intrinsically interactive, between teacher and student most obviously, but also interactive between students and their peers (e.g. …

Motivated Reasoning And Persuading Faculty Change In Teaching, Gary A. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many faculty members demonstrate unwavering resistance to adopting research-based instructional strategies. This phenomenon commonly fits with motivated reasoning, whereby a person feels threatened by persuasion to change, leading to overtly defensive and sometimes disruptive behaviors and refusal. Changing away from established practices may challenge one’s self-identity and values as an effective teacher and triggers arguments intended to invalidate research-based alternatives. Faculty who are motivated to reject consensus best practices may impede the implementation of these practices across entire departments or institutions. Motivated reasoning and its underlying cognitive processes are explained by self-determination theory, which leads to predictions of faculty behaviors …

What's The Problem Now?, Randall Bass

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Revisiting an essay from 1999, this article explores the current conditions in higher education, and society more broadly, that help shape the roles for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) and educational development. By seeing the current “crises” of higher education not only as “problems” to be investigated but as a “wicked problem,” we might be able to elevate and complicate the role that inquiry into teaching and learning might play in institutional change and the expansion of higher education. The article argues for the necessity, even urgency, of seeing educational development as a lever for change, fully engaged …

Building A Social Network Around Sotl Through Digital Space, Shannon M. Sipes, Samy L. Minix, Matt Barton

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In an effort to increase visibility of and access to the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) work on one campus, a collaboration formed between a faculty developer, a librarian, and a media specialist within a center for teaching and learning (CTL). Building on the frameworks of community of practice, professional learning network, and social networking, the authors strategically leveraged digital space to begin building a social network of faculty members interested in SoTL. This article will address the theoretical foundation and practical implementation of five digital strategies: (a) website redesign; (b) social media presence; (c) blog series; (d) filmed …

Assessment Literacy In College Teaching: Empirical Evidence On The Role And Effectiveness Of A Faculty Training Course, Kyle D. Massey, Christopher Deluca, Danielle Lapointe-Mcewan

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This research explores how faculty members’ conceptions of assessment and confidence in assessment change as a result of an instructor training course. Based on a sample of 27 faculty members enrolled in a semester-long instructional development course, this survey-based study provides initial evidence that faculty members can develop confidence in assessment while adopting increasingly complex conceptions of assessment. Based on this study’s findings, we argue that instructional development programs for college faculty have a critical role to play in stimulating faculty learning about assessment of student learning and are an important component in promoting a positive assessment culture.

Motivations And Obstacles Influencing Faculty Engagement In Adopting Teaching Innovations, Wayne Jacobson, Renee Cole

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Significant progress has been made in understanding science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and ways it can be improved, but propagation of change remains a challenge. This study presents an analysis of STEM faculty responses to open-text survey questions that asked them to identify motivations and obstacles to making changes in their teaching. Responses reveal wide variability among faculty perceptions, conceptualizations of change, and understandings of evidence. These findings suggest reasons faculty are not uniformly receptive to calls for change and challenge educational developers and advocates of STEM education reform to be explicit about their own understandings of meaningful …

Cultivating And Sustaining A Faculty Culture Of Data-Driven Teaching And Learning: A Systems Approach, Marsha Lovett, Chad Hershock

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

A prominent goal of colleges and universities today is to enact data-driven teaching and learning. Faculty clearly play a key role, and yet they tend to have limited time, a lack of training in assessment or education research, and few incentives for engaging in this work. We describe a framework designed to address the practical and cultural aspects of these challenges via a cycle of educational development and support: motivate, educate, facilitate, disseminate. We illustrate this systems approach with concrete examples and conclude with lessons learned from our experiences that should translate to a variety of institutional contexts.

Editor's Note, Lindsay Bernhagen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Editor's note for To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, volume 39, issue 1 from spring 2020.

The Diffusion Of Faculty Development: A Faculty Fellows Program, Tracy W. Smith, Sara J. Greenwald, Lillian Y. Nave, Victor N. Mansure, Michael L. Howell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This critical retrospective review describes the ideation, creation, and implementation of a faculty development fellows program at a regional comprehensive university. The authors share their perspectives as fellows regarding primary considerations for designing the program, including attention to the fellows selection process, required multilevel support, cultivation of communication and relationships, professional development of the fellows, development of unit programming, and lessons learned. Each section of the article concludes with critical questions institutions might consider when conceiving a faculty development fellows program.

(Cultural) Taxation Without Representation? How Educational Developer Can Broker Discourse On Black Faculty Lives In The #Blacklivesmatter Era, Richard J. Reddick, Beth E. Bukoski, Stella L. Smith

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in creative class cities offer contradictory experiences for Black faculty, who engage in invisible additional labor in response to racial aggressions, termed cultural taxation (CT). With an understanding that equity-minded faculty development is an essential space in which to respond to this reality, our study employed a phenomenological focus group design to investigate how Black faculty at a research-intensive PWI located in a creative class city buffeted by racial tensions navigated their service and community experiences. While finding their work meaningful, the participants shared experiences of the multifaceted nature of CT, their stress from teaching about …

Insights Into Nature Of Science And Evolution Education, Lawrence C. Scharmann

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

While the public misunderstanding of evolution is in part due to religious and political motives, it is also a result of didactic teaching. Dr Lawrence C. Scharmann, Professor of Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, specialises in science teacher education. He has been working with non-major biology and science teacher students developing strategies to enhance the teaching and learning of science theories, and in particular, evolution. Many secondary school students and undergraduates hold a dualistic worldview. This leads them to create dichotomies, albeit false ones, such as right vs wrong and science vs religion. These can obstruct their learning science …

The Visual Representation Of Dual Language Education, Theresa Catalano

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

Despite well documented benefits of dual language (DL) programs which deliver educational content in two languages, there are still few DL programs in the United States. As such, there is a need to understand how to effectively persuade more states/districts to adopt the programs. In addition, more critical research is needed that focuses on how the programs are represented visually, as well as how this visual representation reflects wider discourses about DL education that could impede the programs from reaching those who need them most. In this article, the author explores ideologies behind DL program discourse by looking at photojournalism …

Literacy Library And The Functional Literacy Skills Of The 21st Century Adult Learners, Sunday Olawale Olaniran

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Literacy and library are like Siamese twins that cannot be separated. Society draw literacy skills from the libraries the same way an individual draws from his memory to meet his immediate information needs. Examined in this paper is the relevance of literacy library to the functional literacy need of the 21^st Century adult learners. Literacy library is conceptualised as a special library provision targeted at adult members of the society who have enrolled or willing to enrol in a learning programme. Key features of Literacy library are outlined, followed by brief description of specific materials relevant to the 21 …

From Student To Citizen: The Impact Of Personal Narratives In University-Level Genocide Education, Ari Kohen, Gerald Steinacher

Department of History: Faculty Publications

What follows, then, are some of the lessons gleaned from the first ever long-term, multi-phase, interpretative case study conducted in higher education; a complete exploration and analysis of the data collected in the project is beyond the scope of this short essay. Using more than one thousand surveys, in-person interviews, and other evaluative materials gathered over the course of five years, our research team sought answers to the questions posed above and looked specifically at the ways in which certain types of instructional materials make impressions on students.

What is argued here is that narrative sources such as autobiographies, diaries, …

Kinder – 1st Grade: Spring Activity Packet #1, Jessica Mitchell-Mccollough, Tricia Gray, Alexa Yunes-Koch

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 1-2 of English Proficiency (K-5)

These packets are self-contained. Everything a child will need to be successful with the activities is provided in the packet. Students will only need a writing utensil. Additional tools like crayons or scissors can be used, but do not have to be.

My Plan for the Week

Day 1 • Design and name your buddy • Seasons in Nebraska • Read and Write Spring Worksheet • Seasons vocabulary cards • Math: Count the caterpillars • Read Spring, Spring, What Do You See?

Day 2 •Check the weather and dress your buddy • Draw a picture of Spring • Animal vocabulary …

2nd-3rd Grades, Level 1-2. Summer Packet #3 • Theme: Community, Tianna Bankhead, Molly Heeren, Jessica Spencer, Samantha Stuefer, Alexa Yunes-Koch

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 1-2 of English Proficiency (K-5)

This packet theme is Community. You will be working on water conservation, clouds and storm safety. There will be activities provided to help you know how to save water and stay safe during a storm. The math part of the activities will focus on know how to measure objects and liquids. It will also have a short activity on telling time on an analog clock. Please remember this packet is to continue to support learning. This is not a tool for frustration. Please have fun while working on the activities!

Este paquete es sobre la comunidad. Los estudiantes trabajarán sobre …

Kinder – 1st Grade: Summer Packet #2 • Theme: Differences, Tricia Gray, Jessica Mitchell-Mccollough, Alexa Yunes-Koch

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 1-2 of English Proficiency (K-5)

These packets are self-contained. Everything a child will need to be successful with the activities is provided in the packet. Students will only need a writing utensil. Additional tools like crayons or scissors can be used, but do not have to be.

Day 1 • My Buddy • Check the Weather • Let’s Write! • What will you wear? • Body Parts #1 • Body Parts #2 • Let’s Move! • Build a Creature • Let’s Count!

Day 2 • Check the Weather What will you wear? • Review • Read the story: All Bodies Are Strong and Beautiful • …

2nd-3rd Grades, Level 1-2: Summer Packet #2, Theme: Differences, Tianna Bankhead, Molly Heeren, Jessica Spencer, Samantha Stuefer, Alexa Yunes-Koch

ICMEE Learning Packets: Level 1-2 of English Proficiency (K-5)

This packet will focus on the importance of differences. We are all different and it is okay to be different from one another, it is what makes us strong and unique. This packet will also review shapes and measuring in math. It also reviews the water cycle in science. Have as much fun with this packet as you can!

Este paquete se centrará en la importancia de las diferencias. Todos somos diferentes y está bien serlo los unos de los otros, es lo que nos hace fuertes y únicos. Este paquete repasará las formas y las medidas en matemáticas, además, …