Education Commons^™

In Pursuit Of Democratic Practice: Self-Study As A Democratic Approach To Teaching Social Studies, Andrew L. Hostetler

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Dewey (1916/2009) viewed democracy as a “path or journey”. This suggests that there is no mutually agreed upon end. Similarly, in teaching and teacher education, if viewed as a learning problem, the end is the process according to Ritter (2010) “[t]eaching others how to teach for democratic citizenship represents a process that righteously lacks a conclusion” (p. 90). Without a definitive conclusion there are many potentially valuable conceptions and enactments of democratic living and learning.

Discussing these strong connections between democracy in social studies and self-study, Powell (2010) argues “when social studies teachers engage in ‘reflectively pragmatic’ study of their …

The History Of School And Summer Vacation, James M. Pedersen

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

For more than 100 years the public school system has been the foundation of our society. Millions of our nation’s citizens have moved through the primary, middle and secondary schools which, although they vary slightly from region to region, provided a shared experience and are a part of Americana. History tells us the reasons that school systems used only a 10 month calendar were due to agrarian needs, but in recent years this rationale does not seem as applicable. In light of global competition and America’s consistently poor international rankings, it would seem logical conclusion to extend the school year …

Crossing The Bridge: Transitioning From A Teacher To A Professor, Steven Page, Charles Jenks

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This is a qualitative study that was conducted to gain a better understanding of the experiences of professors in Colleges of Education who were former K-12 teachers. The study presents the responses of eighty nine professors from across the United States. By coding the responses based on the university setting (National, Large Regional, Small Regional) in which the respondents worked the authors found that professors have different experiences in their transition from K-12. The authors found that the size of the university was a factor in how the new faculty felt welcomed and how they were treated by colleagues. Also, …

Painting And Poetry: Third Graders' Free-Form Poems Inspired By Their Paintings, Emilie L. Sears

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

It is important to find the means by which struggling writers can find success in the English Language Arts. For students struggling with reading and writing, the visual arts may be a way of accessing and expressing their ideas and ultimately opening up a world of creative possibilities. This article explores drawing and painting as a pre-writing strategy. The article follows 6 third grade students as the participate in a workshop designed to faciliate poetry writing based on the students' artwork.

Engaging Families In Cross-Cultural Connections Through A School-Based Literacy Fair, Maria Anne Ceprano, Nancy Chicola

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This paper describes how 20 pre-service teachers enrolled in two social studies methods courses at Buffalo State College worked collaboratively to produce a Cross-cultural Literacy Fair at an urban-based elementary school. The participatory events created for the event were provided in conjunction with a community after school program and directed at promoting literacy and cross-cultural understandings not only for the children enrolled at the school but for their parents, as well. Events yielded a positive venue for Teacher Candidates (TCs) to interact with parents and children and demonstrated ways literacy and other cultural understandings can be successfully and appreciatively supported …

Creativity With Images: A Workshop For Learning And Practicing Ideational Thinking For Visual Thinkers, Ana L. Castelan Valles

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project is to communicate the foundations of creativity and some tools of ideational thinking to visual thinkers. The goal of this project is to bring visual thinkers into the science of creativity and demonstrate that they can use ideational thinking tools to improve their visual skills. This project also serves as an attempt to identify the cognitive preferences of visual thinkers to foster their creative skills and to enhance their creative process. The finished product is the content of a workshop comprised by five sections. Each section includes an explanation of the essential topics about creativity …

Deliberate Use Of Creative Problem Solving In Art Making, Rebecca Dame-Seidler

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project explores the productivity of the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) tools in the visual art making process. The project offered the opportunity for high school student volunteer’s to participate in an after school program called Creative Art Group Experience (CAGE). Volunteers learned and made use of CPS tools to guide their art making. The project researched the effectiveness of using CPS tools in art making documenting volunteer progress and feedback. As an art educator, I had the opportunity to evaluate the impact of using CPS tools with the art-making process. The results of CAGE will benefit how CPS tools …

Avatar Training - A Humanistic And Creativity Driven Approach, Nicole M.T. Charest

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Avatar Training

A Humanistic and Creativity Driven Approach

This project is about the development of a program prototype for a humanistic and creativity driven approach to avatar training to be delivered in Second Life™ (SL). Specifically, the program aims at developing the skills necessary to make a presentation in, and to safely explore, SL. It was proposed to create a unique learning framework that takes into account the targeted clientele, adult professionals with no or limited experience with SL, the sensibilities of 3D immersive social virtual environment, the avatar training needs, and the possibility to weave in creativity skills practice. …

Creating A Creativity Class In The Elementary School: Research And Development, Alyssa C. Charles

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project researches the need for a creativity class in the elementary school. Through literary research on current best practices in 21^st century education it becomes apparent that schools must alter what they do in preparing students for the future. Changes must be made to foster and value creative expression and creative problem solving. The goal of this project is to investigate how implicit and explicit creativity training and Creative Problem Solving (CPS) work with fourth and second grade children in a private school. The project outlines the steps taken to spread awareness about the importance of offering a …

Creativity As A 21st Century Skill: Training Teachers To Take It Beyond The Arts, Linda Salna

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Creative Thinking is a critical life skill needed for success in the 21^st Century. The next generation will be working in jobs that may not even exist today. It is education’s responsibility to prepare students by teaching them how to think not what to think.

Given my commitment to bringing creativity to education, this project focused on working with a small group of public school teachers to find effective methods and materials to assist teachers in using creativity tools. Given that teachers are busy people who work within time constraints and the demands of a large set of curriculum …

Everyday Creativity Without Group Brainstorming, Erik Op Ten Berg

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This Master’s project focuses on different ways to nurture everyday creativity at the work place apart from the well-known “scheduled” brainstorm sessions. The project covers an extensive literature review and the description of three concrete products as an outcome. The finished project includes the design of a two-hour workshop, a one-day training course, and a ten-step coaching program, all about “everyday creativity at work”. Workshops and coaching program are based on the Torrance Incubation Model (Torrance & Safter, 1990). They will assist companies and individuals in applying their creative potential with more impact on a daily basis, to ultimately improve …

Delivery Of A Pilot Training While On The Road To Becoming A Holistic Creativity Practitioner, Virginia E. Santos

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

This project was an effort to design, promote and offer a one-day pilot training in creativity from a holistic perspective. The approach to teaching creativity was holistic in the sense that it incorporated emotional intelligence, and introduced participants to cognitive skills, affective skills, and intuition. This project also served as a stepping stone to becoming a holistic creativity professional by giving me the opportunity to test my potential and incorporate holistic training into the array of skills and services that I can offer.

An Action Study Of The Design, Delivery And Evaluation Of An Undergraduate Course In Creative Problem Solving, Blake Steven Godkin

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The purpose of this project was to prepare and carry out a formal action study documenting the design, delivery and evaluation of an undergraduate course that emphasized the development of students’ understanding of creative thinking and the Creative Problem Solving process. This research project focused on a specific course that was available to junior and senior students at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. The title of the course was “Applications of Creativity and Creative Problem Solving” and the course was offered by the Department of Educational Psychology. This project contains an investigation of selected literature sources that could …

The Understanding And Application Of The Qar Strategy To Improve Test Scores, Sean Cummins, Melissa Streiff, Maria Ceprano

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The academic landscape has been changing over the last several years bringing with it an emphasis on high stakes testing. Studies conducted over the past several years that have shown the success of the Question-Answer-Relationships (QAR) strategy in helping students develop their comprehension skill. This study looks at the effects of the QAR strategy on a small group of 4th graders. The study shows how the students become more diligent in their efforts to find the correct answers in academic comprehension tasks, including tests.

Incorporating Rural And Farm Novels In The Secondary School Classroom: Where We Come From Is Who We Are, Jesse Moon Longhurst

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Place-based education has received significant attention in recent years. This article briefly surveys common place-based education models and then argues for a more place-focused English language arts classroom in secondary schools where rural and regional literature is often absent from the curricula. The author posits that teacher-education programs do not usually address rural or regional literature and consequently, teachers enter the classroom unprepared to teach it. The article presents a rationale for focusing on rural literature written before 1965 as well as a rationale for foregrounding the rural experience in such a course. The author then describes the process of …

Purpose As Content And Pedagogy: Rationale-Development As A Core Theme Of Social Studies Teacher Education, Todd Stevenson Hawley

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Grounded in a belief in the transformative possibilities of social studies teacher education, I present an argument for considering the development of purpose as both content and pedagogy of social studies teacher education. As part of developing a coherent pedagogy of rationale-based social studies teacher education, I begin by exploring the influence of competing conceptions regarding the purpose of social studies teaching and learning on the work of social studies teacher educators. Next, I consider three distinct paths social studies teacher educators have taken to prepare teacher candidates for content and pedagogical decision-making as first-year teachers. While each has potential, …

Adolescent Dating Violence: How Should Schools Respond?, Jeanne L. Surface, David Stader, Thomas Graca, Jerry Lowe

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Educational leaders have a substantial degree of control over students and generally have a tremendous influence on the decisions that they make. District administrators are already involved in comprehensive efforts to stem sexual harassment, teen violence and bullying, therefore, they may be well positioned to identify and address the problem of teen dating violence. Unfortunately, school district failure to take action is far too common, despite the statutory duty to ensure the safety of all students during school hours and at school sponsored events. School districts can be held liable for student dating violence under Title IX, under 42 U.S.C. …

The Effects Of Clinical Experiences On The Understanding Of Classroom Management Techniques, Carey Anne Cushmann, Andrew T. Kemp

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

For teacher educators, classroom management education is one of the least researched aspects of the profession. The purpose of this study was to determine if classroom management was most effective learned through textbook analysis coupled with classroom discussion, or the experience of observing and practicing classroom management in the clinical experience. The results of this study suggest that the clinical experience is the major contributor to feelings of confidence in classroom management situations. There is a significant difference in confidence between the classroom understanding and the post-clinical experience in regards to general classroom management understandings and confidence.

Engaging The Youngest Readers With Shared Reading Experiences, Barbara Ann Honchell, Melissa Martin Schulz

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This article explores Shared Reading as an instructional approach that mimics home reading experiences in a group setting for young children. The article includes information about how to use enlarged text as the teacher provides experiences with books that first focus on the meaning and enjoyment of the story and then shifts to how print works and conventions that enhance the meaning of the story. The importance of being able to see the print in enlarged text that allows the teacher to extend the read aloud experience to include viewing print in big books and charts establishing the beginnings of …