Education Commons^™

A Community Of Learning In An Elementary School Mathematics Classroom, Megan Louise Roeder

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The goal of this study was to investigate opportunities for cultivating a community of learning in an elementary school mathematics classroom using four guiding principles for productive disciplinary engagement. A community of learning involves teachers and students participating equally in negotiating, sharing, and producing knowledge as co-learners, coteachers, and co-collaborators in the classroom. Characteristics of a community of learning align with effective teaching and learning practices described by national governing bodies and researchers in the field of mathematics education. The essence of a community of learning is beneficial in an elementary mathematics classroom because it invokes deep learning about disciplinary …

The Role Of Covariational Reasoning In Pre-Service Teachers’ Meanings For Quadratic And Exponential Relationships, Madhavi Vishnubhotla

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Researchers have indicated that students have difficulties recognizing quadratic and exponential change and do not maintain productive meanings for these relationships. Other researchers have documented that students are capable of developing productive meanings for mathematical ideas via covariational reasoning. This dissertation reports the results of an investigation into ways in which preservice teachers can leverage covariational reasoning to develop meanings for quadratic and exponential relationships. I collected data by engaging two preservice teachers in semi-structured clinical interviews and a semester long teaching experiment. My analyses reveal that whereas in the pre-interviews, the participants did not have meanings that supported differentiating …

You Don’T Know My Story : Engaging Black Parents With Culturally Responsive School Practices, Lachan V. Hannon

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Black parents have reported feeling alienated from their children’s schooling experiences, citing weak school communications, challenges with trust, and teachers’ misperceived values of parents (Brandon, Higgins, Pierce, Tandy, & Sileo, 2010). Drawing from the tenets of critical race theory of education (Ladson-Billings & Tate, 1995) and culturally responsive teaching (Ladson-Billings, 1994; Villegas & Lucas, 2002), the purpose of this study was to better understand the qualities within schools that parents experience as welcoming their participation and influencing their motivation to maintain involvement. By privileging the voices of nine Black parents using one-time, semi-structured interviews, this study began to define what …

A Community Of Practice Approach To Teacher Learning, Jayne L. Tanis

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Teacher effectiveness has been targeted by government agencies and educational think tanks for raising student achievement and providing equitable education for all. Exploring how teachers enacted their development of practice in a teacher-initiated learning community of practice to improve student achievement in mathematics exposed mediating factors responsible for teacher learning. This qualitative study drew upon Aristotle’s discussion of phronesis and Lave and Wenger’s (1991) concept of legitimate peripheral participation to interpret how artifacts produced within and across communities of practice reified the elements of collaborative teacher learning that lead to changes in instructional practice during a reform initiative. These findings …

Using Video To Reframe The Teacher Evaluation Process As A Professional Learning Experience : An Action Research Study, Andrew C. Matteo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this action research study was to work with a group of teachers to refine an organizational routine dealing with teacher evaluation with the dual goals of (a) increasing the teachers’ sense of professionalism and improving the technical core of their work—instruction— and (b) moving toward a routine that the district will be able to use in the future. The research question that guided this work was, “How do we experience the organizational routine that I developed using video for teacher evaluation for improving teacher practice as compared to the existing teacher evaluation system, and how does our …

Grassroots Professional Learning : The Homegrown And Human Dimensions Of Teacher Learning, Heather A. Frank Matteo

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative study was prompted by the current climate of teacher accountability and educational reform efforts focused on teacher quality and effectiveness in the U.S. Initiatives, at both the national and state levels, reflect top-down professional development policies that tend to prioritize one-size-fits-all approaches to teacher development and ultimately serve to deprofessionalize teachers. As a result, little attention has been paid to understanding teachers’ professional learning in a grassroots sense. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine how a group of elementary school teachers of literacy engaged collectively in grassroots professional learning in the context of top-down professional …

Video Case Materials And The Development Of Collective Professional Knowledge, Victoria D. Bonaccorso

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The dynamic nature of teaching means that teachers are making in-the-moment decisions on a daily basis. Video case study professional development can be used as a way to provide teachers an opportunity to analyze real teaching scenarios to prepare to make these decisions in practice. While work has been done to reveal the effectiveness of using case studies as a teaching tool, there has not been research conducted to determine if video case studies can be used to foster the development of collective professional knowledge. This study utilizes a particular professional development model using video case studies grounded in the …

Preparing Preservice Teachers To Be Critical Literacy Educators : Co-Constructing An Early Childhood Critical Literacy Junk Art Club, Angela F. Pack

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This qualitative practitioner action research study examines the process of a teacher educator’s attempt to prepare three preservice teachers to be critical literacy educators. Prior to the study, the teacher educator and the three preservice teachers took part in a critical literacy workshop where they unpacked their relationship with literacy and power. The three preservice teachers then worked together to co-construct a Junk Art Club with the teacher educator for kindergarten, first-, and second-graders. Through the co-planning and co-constructing of a Junk Art Club, the study sought to answer the following questions: What happens when I, an early childhood teacher …

The Social Capital In Teacher Leadership Activities, Kristen Trabona

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation presents findings from a qualitative case study of two K-12 science teacher leader fellows involved in a corporate grant funded professional development program. I specifically examined how teacher leaders used social capital as they facilitated professional development in their schools. I explored the following question: How do teacher leadership activities facilitated by novice teacher leaders who participate in a grant funded teacher leadership professional development program rely on social capital to enact change? The following main themes emerged in the data: (a) intentionality plays a critical role in teacher leadership; (b) teacher leadership activities require an introspective lens; …

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy : The Views Of Latinx Students Inform Teacher Professional Development On Critical Consciousness, Florita Cotto

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The number of Latinx K-12 students has grown dramatically over recent years. There are approximately 12.5 million Latinx students in U.S. public schools. Despite these large population gains, inner city Latinx students continue to struggle academically. Their dropout rate is almost two times higher than that of white students, making it the highest of all ethnic and racial groups. In the past several decades, there has been a focus on accountability, school choice, and various other educational reforms that have been implemented with an aim to improve student performance. However, these reform efforts have not yielded the desired change and …

Institutional Racism And The Transformative Practices Of Black Women Educators In New York City Alternative Education, Gail M. Perry-Ryder

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

How does a teaching practice meet structural violence and oppression? And, how do teachers navigate systems they wish to change, in which they are also participating? This study is a qualitative investigation of institutional racism and power in U.S. alternative educational settings, and the knowledge and experiences of six Black women educators working to counteract the problem from the inside. There is a vast literature on preparing teachers for diverse classrooms; however, it has not adequately represented teachers who deploy transformative practices to directly challenge institutional racism in nontraditional educational settings, nor has it addressed the costs associated with doing …

Understanding Epistemic Cognition : Aspects That Emerge When Early Childhood Teachers Consider Materials And Plan Instruction For Literacy Learning, Kit Marie Saiz De La Mora

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain insight into early childhood teachers’ engagement in epistemic cognition in the context of literacy instruction practices. Early literacy instruction was an important context to examine epistemic cognition because of the complexity of the teaching task. Early literacy instruction involves the simultaneous consideration of knowledge about multiple components of language structure in addition to knowledge of pedagogy, child development, and understandings of immediate socio-cultural context.

Teacher educators need to know how teachers think about knowledge in these multiple areas when they are planning early literacy instruction so they can effectively prepare them …