Education Commons^™

Communication: The Key To Collaboration Between Special And General Education Teachers, Alexandra Slatoff

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Teachers often do not communicate with one another when working to meet the needs of their students. The purpose of this study is to examine and analyze the need, nature and manner by which general and special education teachers communicate and collaborate to address the educational needs of their students.

A review of the educational literature reveals that a burden is placed on the educational community given the often conflicting statutory obligations to: fully include special needs students in the general classroom, comply with State mandated general education curriculum requirements and implement instructional guidelines required by Individual Educational Plans (IEP) …

Co-Planning And Co-Teaching In A Summer Writing Institute: A Formative Experiment, Kelly Chandler-Olcott, Janine Nieroda, Bryan Ripley Crandall

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This paper reports findings from a two-year formative experiment (Reinking & Bradley, 2008) investigating a summer writing institute for students entering ninth grade at an urban high school. The three-week program was staffed by both university researchers and teachers. In contrast to traditional summer school, it was intended as enrichment, not remediation, for a heterogeneous group of students, and a learning experience, not just a teaching opportunity, for practitioners. The pedagogical goals of the intervention were two-fold: 1) increase students’ writing engagement and skill, and 2) improve teachers’ capacity to teach writing to diverse student populations. Findings focused on co-teaching …

Teacher Perspectives Of Professional Learning Community Teams With Respect To Their Collective Inquiries: A Case Study, Allen Pratt

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the perspectives of secondary level teachers in East Tennessee who are involved in Professional Learning Community (PLC) teams regarding both the environment and sharing of best teaching practices. The study examined PLC teams to better understand how the team design, interaction, and the process of collaboration enabled teachers to coexist as adult learners. The basic research question lies in what are teacher perspectives of PLCs relating to the environment of the collective inquiry and the transfer of knowledge at the secondary school level. The study examined PLC teams to better …

Teaching To The Technological Demands Of The 21st-Century Classroom, Michelle Trainor

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Learners of the 21st century are met with the need to collaborate, problem solve, critically think, and synthesize various sources of information. Simultaneously, teachers and learners are expected to utilize rapidly evolving digital technologies as tools to make teaching and learning more effective. As digital technologies become increasingly prominent in K-12 classrooms, the question becomes: in what ways are preservice teachers learning to teach to the technological demands of the 21^st-century classroom? Dr. Punya Mishra and Dr. Matthew J Koehler of Michigan State University propose the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework as a means for effective technology …

Collaboration: Advocacy For School Change, Cynthia Strong

Cynthia Strong

Adolescent literacy is a looming issue in secondary schools. Being able to read, comprehend, and write is imperative for students to understand the content of their classes and textbooks. According to Michael Kamil, professor of psychological studies in education and learning at Stanford University, "we almost need a trauma center to take care of this problem, it's that serious for kids that can't read...It's the number-one factor standing in the way of their graduating" (Manzo-Kennedy). Given the importance of literacy, this article provides a story of how a high school media specialist on the east coast sought to collaborate with …

The Impact Of Instructional Rounds Professional Development On Teacher Self-Efficacy, Melessa B. Widener

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of instructional rounds professional development on teacher self-efficacy. The scope of this study was a qualitative case study including interviews with teachers who had participated in instructional rounds professional development in a rural district in the foothills of North Carolina. The methodology included interviews with two teacher leaders from all elementary schools implementing Responsiveness to Instruction (RtI) and teachers at the Early College who participated in instructional rounds professional learning through the New Schools Project. The findings include teachers' quotes from the transcriptions of the interviews as supporting the research …