Education Commons^™

The Impact Of Professional Development Grounded In Social Learning On Community College Faculty Efficacy, Shanika Shantell Strickland-Davis

STEMPS Theses & Dissertations

Community college faculty have experienced a shift in focus from access to access and student success. Given this shift in responsibility for student learning, community college faculty should be sufficiently prepared to teach a diverse student body and subsequently uphold beliefs regarding their ability to bring about desired outcomes of student engagement and learning. Given preparedness is a measure of self-efficacy, professional development for community college faculty is a critical investment in the support and development of teacher efficacy and faculty skill.

Social learning theory specifically speaks to a means of increasing self-efficacy. As a professional development practice, social learning …

Building Resilience In New And Beginning Teachers: Contributions Of School Librarians, Rita Reinsel Soulen, Lois Diane Wine

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Building beginning teachers' resilience may contribute to increasing teacher retention in the early years, in turn improving student academic achievement. School librarians contribute to developing teaching skills by mentoring new teachers. This qualitative study of first to third year teachers and school librarians investigated the contributions that school librarians made in building resilience of beginning teachers through a focus group of new teachers and interviews of school librarians. Findings show that school librarians may contribute to early career teacher resilience, especially during the first days of school, by encouraging perseverance, providing nourishment and empathy, and offering the library as a …

Career Pathways Program Annual Report, 2017-2018, Wie Yusuf, Chris Osgood

Career Pathways

Career Pathways launched in August 2017 as the university-wide initiative to provide graduate student professional development. It encompasses both the Preparing Future Faculty program and the Preparing Future Professionals program. Preparing Future Faculty was an existing program, started in 2007, while Preparing Future Professionals was launched concurrently with Career Pathways. The Career Pathways program prepares graduate students for successful transition into thriving careers. Career Pathways is a gateway to resources, programs, events, and planning tools for ODU graduate students and postdocs.

School Leaders’ Conceptualizations Of Teacher Care For African American Middle School Students, Violet Keene Whiteman

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was to describe middle school leaders’ conceptualizations of caring teacher behaviors for African American middle school students. The qualitative case study focused on school leaders’ conceptualizations/identification of critical incidents (Flanagan, 1954) of care for African American middle school students. Noddings’ (1988) plan of action for implementing an ethic of care, including modeling, dialogue, practice, and confirmation, was used to inform the study. Data were collected through interviews, discussions of identified incidents of care, and observation documentation from the middle school leaders participating in the study.

Themes identified from the study included: build relationships, identify …

Understanding Technological, Pedagogical, And Content Knowledge In An Educational Technology Course: A Case Study Of Social Studies Preservice Teacher's Beliefs And Dispositions, Mark M. Diacopoulos

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

As beliefs and dispositions form the foundation of practice, the situations in which teachers develop belief is an important factor in their development (Roth, 1999). One aspect shaping the beliefs of teacher candidates is their experience with education. Lortie (2002) refers to this as the problem of “apprenticeship of observation”, the learning that occurs from watching teachers in the 12 or more years spent in school as a student. School experiences greatly affect the preconceptions teacher candidates have about teaching and learning. Richardson and Placier (2001) state most preservice teacher beliefs consist of unexamined assumptions. These views tend to focus …

Change In The Middle: Implementing Professional Learning Communities For Sustained Instructional Change, Johnna L. Bryd-King

Educational Foundations & Leadership Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to explore the influence of school leaders and teachers on surface level vs. sustained change through the implementation of professional learning communities, furthering the understanding of why some schools increase student achievement and others do not. Two predominant psychological theories, Kruglanski’s lay epistemic theory and Schwartz’s value theory, were used to explore the influence of cognition formation and values on the phenomenon within a complex environment. This research studied three Southeastern Virginia suburban middle schools. Case study methodologies were utilized, including school leader and PLC teacher member interviews, and an online survey that included …

A Continuum Of Care: School Librarian Interventions For New Teacher Resilience, Rita Reinsel Soulen

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

School librarians occupy a unique position to offer supports for first year teachers to build resilience, reduce burnout, and ensure retention. The researcher used the psychology theory of resilience to develop the Continuum of Care model which initiates in mentoring and moves toward a collaborative partnership. Fifteen school librarians in one urban district recruited 26 new teachers in their schools to form the treatment group. All new teachers in the district were surveyed to establish their initial level of resilience and collect demographics. A comparison group of 26 new teachers were matched by scores on a resilience scale at the …

Supporting Mathematics Coaches' Learning Of Probability Through Professional Development Tasks, Mary C. Enderson, Melva R. Grant, Yating Liu

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This study was conducted to propose a framework of professional development tasks (PDTs) that may be used to enhance mathematics coaches’ content knowledge and understanding of student work, as well as to help them conceptualize their role in facilitating a professional learning community in school. In this qualitative design experiment, researchers developed and implemented a set of PDTs to use with elementary and middle school mathematics coaches. The PDTs, with a focus on K-8 probability topics, required coaches to conduct mathematics problem solving, student work analysis, and create a community to reflect individually and collaboratively on such experiences. Qualitative data …

The Effects Of Self-Regulation Strategies On Middle School Students' Calibration Accuracy And Achievement, Deana Ford, Linda Bol, Jamie Colwell, Melva R. Grant

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This study investigated the impact that self-regulation strategies have on metacognitive judgements (calibration) and mathematics achievement of typical and advanced achieving 7th grade mathematics students over a period of seven weeks. Self-regulation strategies, four square graphic organizers and vocabulary games were implemented with the treatment condition while online games were implemented with the control condition. The results revealed that participants in the treatment condition were more accurate in their calibrations than participants in the control condition, more specifically for postdiction accuracy. Although the participants in the treatment condition scored higher on their achievement tests than the participants in the control …

Supporting Early-Childhood Teachers With Integrating A Humanoid Robot To Enhance Learning, Kristen Gregory, Helen Crompton, Diane Burke

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Anthropomorphic robots are increasingly being used as a technology in early childhood settings, and they have been found to enhance social interaction (Tanaka, Cicourel & Movellan, 2007), support foreign language development (Mazzoni & Benvenuti, 2015), and gain student attention and interest (Ioannou, Andreou & Christofi, 2015). Furthermore, integrating a humanoid robot can provide affordances across all domains of the Head Start Learning Outcomes Framework: approaches to learning; social and emotional development; language and communication; cognition; and perceptual, motor and physical development.

What Drives A Teacher Educator To Self-Study? An Exploration Of Personal, Professional And Programmatic Influences, Melva R. Grant, Brandon Butler, Dawn Garbett (Editor), Alan Ovens (Editor)

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

What drives a teacher educator to self-study? This is a question with what might be perceived as an easy answer. Perhaps there was an influential professor or colleague who conducted self-study. Or, an ingrained desire to engage in critical reflection. Maybe there was an experience that needed exploration. These are all valid reasons for why someone might choose to engage in self-study. In this work, our purpose was to look strictly to the past and investigate the experiences that we felt led a teacher educator to engage in self-study. Melva is a woman of color and recently tenured faculty member, …

Investigating The Third Space: A New Agenda For Teacher Education Research, Jori S. Beck

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of this article is to advocate for an expansion of third-space ideology to the research conducted in clinical teacher preparation programs including research designs and methods of data collection. Clinical teacher preparation has been advocated since the 1980s and is now being systematically realized in the early 21st century. Thus, it is time to revisit research designs and data collection related to this model. The author illustrates first-, second-, and third-space programs, including an overview of teacher residency programs, before advocating a mixed methods research paradigm that aims to create democratic spaces for teacher education research. Research and …

Perceptions Of Pre-Service Teachers On Mentor Teachers’ Roles In Promoting Inclusive Practicum: Case Studies In U.S. Elementary School Contexts, Jihea Maddamsetti

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

This case study examines a Chinese and Korean-Chinese pre-service teachers’ perceptions of their mentor teachers’ role in supporting inclusive practicum experiences in U.S. elementary school contexts. The findings demonstrate that a mentor teacher’s open conversations and willingness to host those students bring positive influence on their learning and growth. The findings also indicate that the facilitative roles of mentor teachers in the promotion of inclusive environments are intersected with the socio-cultural and political contexts of practicum schools and universities. The study concludes with implications for enhancing the inclusion of diverse pre-service teachers through collaborative roles of multiple practicum stakeholders, including …

The Researchers' Perspective: For And By The Community: Processes And Practices From The Development Of National School Library Standards, Elizabeth A. Burns, Marcia A. Mardis

STEMPS Faculty Publications

In this study, we describe the innovative and rigorous phased process used to compose the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) National School Library Standards (AASL, 2018). We begin by recounting previous standards iterations and compared their development processes to the most recent process used during the development of the AASL Standards. After we detail the development timeline and process phases, we conclude with implications for best practices in standards development for school librarians, professional leaders, and practitioners.