Education Commons^™

Using Touch Technology To Foster Storytelling In The Preschool Classroom, Eloah Decat, V Damjanovic, S Branson, J Blank, I. R. Berson

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This practitioner research explores ways children engage in literacy learning through storytelling with the use of touch technology in a VPK (Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten) classroom. With access to diverse touch technology devices but no experience using these technologies, a VPK teacher explored strategies to use the resources to enhance literacy learning in the classroom with the support of a professional learning community (PLC). The PLC consisted of a master’s student, university faculty, school director, and a technology liaison. The implementation of this study took place over three weeks, and every week children created a different story. Collected data include photographs, student …

Effects Of Providing Individualized Clinical Coaching With Bug-In-Ear Technology To Novice Educators Of Students With Emotional And Behavioral Disorders In Inclusive Secondary Science Classrooms, Dennis P. Garland Ph. D., Lisa A. Dieker Ph.D.

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) have been reported to benefit greatly from participating in general education science classrooms, yet also present behaviors making them least likely to be included. In this study, three novice middle school science teachers received individualized clinical coaching (ICC) with bug-in-ear (BIE) technology to increase their use of three-term contingency (TTC) trials among students who had EBD in inclusive science classrooms. Researchers used a multiple probe across participants single case design (Gast, 2010) to examine the percentage of the teachers’ completed TTC trials for managing student behaviors, the rate of correct student responses among …

Learning While Building: Enhancing Opportunities For Teacher Candidate Development Within Professional Development Schools Through Programmatic Analysis, Valerie Widdall 7532451, Andrea Lachance, John M. Livermore

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of differing models of practicum placements on teacher candidates’ (TC’s) abilities to practice teaching skills and receive feedback on their teaching. Within the Professional Development School (PDS) model TCs were placed as cohorts in a single PDS site with at least one college faculty member assigned as a liaison, and within the Traditional model TCs were placed across a variety of schools without college faculty connected to the various school sites. Teacher candidates completed a survey with Likert scale and open-ended items to measure TCs’ perceptions of how much time they spent teaching lessons …

The Demise Of Creativity In Tomorrow's Teachers, Elizabeth Alexis Bloom 4345947, Kjersti Vanslyke-Briggs

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

In the last several years a good deal of public discourse was devoted to describing the effects that more than two decades of education reforms, the last iteration of which was known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), has had on teaching and learning. It is widely argued that coupling teacher evaluations with students' test scores, enforced standardization, and over-reliance on testing for measuring achievement results in a deadened curriculum hyper-focused on math and ELA achievement, divorced from lived experience, the arts, sciences, and history (Ravitch, 2013). The specific focus of this study was to examine the consequences of …

Inquiry-Based Learning: Student Teachers’ Challenges And Perceptions, Alain Petro Gholam Dr.

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

Inquiry-based learning (IBL) is a student-centered approach driven by students’ questions and their innate curiosity. IBL was introduced and effectively implemented in the general secondary teaching methods course at the American University in Dubai. The study made use of a mixed methods approach. It was guided by two research questions: 1). What factors hinder the implementation of IBL in the student teachers’ classrooms? 2). Why do student teachers favor the use of IBL in their classroom? Eight student teachers enrolled in the general secondary teaching methodology course at the American University in Dubai (Fall 2017) participated in the study. First, …

Facilitating Pedagogies Of Possibility In Teacher Education: Experiences Of Faculty Members In A Self-Study Learning Group, Jason K. Ritter, Rachel Ayieko, Christie Vanorsdale, Sandra Quiñones, Xia Chao, Christopher J. Meidl, Laura Mahalingappa, Carla K. Meyer, Julia A. Williams

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This collaborative self-study explores how seven members of a Faculty Self-Study Learning Group (FS-SLG) attempt to foster cultures of inquiry with teacher candidates. In so doing, we simultaneously describe a professional learning community of teacher educators engaging in reflective practice via the teaching, learning, and enacting of self-study methodology. Findings from this collaborative self-study highlight how we attempt to translate our own efforts to be more purposeful and reflective into our teacher education practice through modeling, as well as the tensions we felt in promoting a view of teaching as a process of critical inquiry. The discussion focuses on lessons …

From Rocks To Amethysts: Combination Innovation To Increase Student Achievement In School, Jason M. Hall Mr.

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

My final project at the International Center for Studies in Creativity applies the Torrance Incubation Model of Learning, Creative Problem Solving, Design Thinking, creativity scholar George Land’s Transformation Theory, and skills I have gained during my work on the MSc in Creativity. My work herein provides new and useful combination innovations that catalyze creative ways of analyzing, operating more successfully within, and improving upon current state, federal and district mandates and programs in public education. This project is middle school based. The core combination innovations are designed to assist school administrators, instructional coaches, and classroom educators in their daily work …

Primary Teachers' Use Of Communicative Strategies For Linguistically Diverse Learners: A Cross-Cultural Case Study, Geraldine Mongillo, Dorothy Feola, Rochelle Goldberg Kaplan, Vered Vaknin, Randa Abbas

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of communicative strategies employed by two primary grade teachers whose students’ home language differed from the language of instruction. The communicative strategies examined included verbal, gestural, and other visual modes of interaction within classroom discourse to promote student learning. One school we studied was in Northern Israel and one was in New Jersey in the US. In Israel, the teacher taught using formal Modern Standard Arabic while the children were familiar only with Spoken Arabic. In New Jersey, the teacher taught using English while the students were largely from Spanish-speaking …

Collaborating Online: Tools For Improving Teacher Preparation In Literacy, Jennifer Van Allen, Lenora Forsythe

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Teacher preparation programs face the continual challenge to provide experiences that foster collaboration between teacher candidates and go beyond the boundaries of particular programs and classrooms. Collaborative learning structures improve learner achievement, attitudes, engagement, satisfaction, and retention rates when interactions between learners are facilitated and fostered. These structures have the potential to foster genuine collaboration in which groups create products and processes that change individuals’ understandings and actions as well as those of the collective group. In this format, learning occurs not only from the instructor but from other classmates as well. Many agencies and professional associations are calling for …

Sentence Construction: Supporting Elementary Students’ Editing Skills, Zoi A. Traga Philippakos

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Syntactic control is a necessary skill for quality writing and a needed knowledge for all writers who communicate in a specific language system. However, syntactic control is challenging for developing writers and for second-language learners. Instructionally, usually at the editing stage, attention is given to the syntax and grammatical clarity of a paper prior to it getting published or shared. The purpose of this paper is to explain specific practices that can support sentence construction. Specifically, evidence-based practices that refer to sentence combining and sentence expansion are explained and specific examples are shared. Implications for classroom practice are further discussed.

Motion, Matter, Force, And Writing???: Creating Space For Writing In A Secondary Physics Classroom, Lubna Javeed

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

This qualitative case study was an in-depth exploration into how writing may facilitate disciplinary literacy in an eleventh grade physics classroom. In response to the dearth of writing instruction in high school disciplinary classrooms, this study was an in-depth exploration into how writing may facilitate the cultivation of disciplinary writing in physics. The study focused on the perspectives of three participants during a semester of implementing writing by using sentence starters in physics. Findings showed participants were resistant to the change in curriculum and learning. Modelling effective disciplinary writing to support students may help improve attitudes and identities as writers.

Using Primary Sources In Content Areas To Increase Disciplinary Literacy Instruction, Salika A. Lawrence, Elise Langan, Julie Maurer

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

This paper describes how a three-day summer workshop on using primary sources helped teachers increase the emphasis placed on disciplinary literacy when teaching social studies and history. Two specific issues in teacher education and practice are addressed. First, increasing teachers’ content knowledge of history topics can help them plan lessons that connect local and global events. Second, content area reading requires literacy practices, which are unique to disciplines. Therefore, teachers need to apply historical inquiry and disciplinary literacy methods in the curriculum.

Developing A Creative Learning Format For Street Children, Shazina Masud

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Developing a Creative Learning Format for Street Children

As the number of street children grow globally, governments and UN agencies are looking at solutions to cater to their needs of shelter, health and safety. Efforts to provide formal education to street children are not always successful. This project hypothesizes that equipping these children with essential knowledge in an informal but creative learning environment will allow them to live safe and productive lives. The prototype of the creative learning format is based on approaches and tools that have worked with children in other settings and has been modified for street children. …

The Gamification Of Crs 559: Principles Of Creative Problem Solving, William D. Yates, Dylan Gafarian

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The well-respected Buffalo State College International Center for Studies in Creativity (ICSC) offers undergraduate and graduate degrees in face-to-face and online formats but has taught its online courses using predominantly traditional design formats. For their master’s degree project, graduate students David Yates and Dylan Gafarian hoped to lead the department in a new direction by creating and teaching an online game version of CRS 559--Principles in Creative Problem Solving, which is the first course in both the Certificate and Master’s Degree in Creativity and Change Leadership. Yates and Gafarian followed established practices for both game structure and online course design. …

Revamping Buffalo State Fashion And Textile Technology’S Runway Production, Erin C. Habes

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

Runway is produced by Buffalo State’s Fashion and Textile Technology Department and Fashion Show Production class. This project explores new ideas for the annual Runway fashion show, featuring the creation of a year-long project that is supported by two fashion merchandising courses. This project will include the creation of FTT 189 Fashion Styling and revamp FTT 452 Fashion Show Production courses. In addition to the redesign of Runway, this project also discusses the process of collaboration with the Fashion and Textile Technology Department faculty, other departments and Buffalo State students.

Using The Cornell Note-Taking System Can Help Eighth Grade Students Alleviate The Impact Of Interruptions While Reading At Home, Bradley Evans, Christopher Thomas Shively

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

A large group of eighth-grade social studies students (N=-101) received instruction and practice using the Cornell note-taking system and were assigned to one of three note-taking groups or one non-note-taking group. Students were asked to read an article about persuasion and use their assigned note-taking system to take notes at home. A 10-question multiple choice reading comprehension test and questionnaire were given. A one-way ANOVA found a significance in the group’s means and a Tukey HSD found significant differences between each note-taking group and the non-note-taking group. The students’ self-reported feelings of preparedness, their time spent reading and taking notes, …

Social-Emotional Learning (Sel) In A Field Course: Preservice Teachers Practice Sel-Supportive Instructional Strategies, Judy L. Sugishita

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This action research study examined social-emotional learning (SEL) strategies taught during a year-long elementary teaching credential field course to examine (a) what SEL strategies look like in practice, and (b) what training effects might be seen among twelve preservice student teacher (PST) participants. Part of a two-course clinical practice study, this paper focused solely on the research done in the field course during the 2013-2014 academic year. Drawing from program-based and integrated SEL literature, the strategies studied supported (a) active engagement in learning, (b) equitable access to instruction, including diversity and differentiated strategies, and (c) learner-centered classroom discipline. Frequency …

Conflicting Perspectives: A Comparison Of Edtpa Intended Outcomes To Actual Experiences Of Teacher Candidates And Educators In New York City Schools, Deborah Greenblatt

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The edTPA is a performance-based assessment of teacher candidates created by the Stanford Center for Assessment, Learning and Equity (SCALE) and nationally scored by Pearson Education. It is also promoted by American Association of Colleges of Teacher Educators (AACTE) as a “standards-based assessment.” As of the spring of 2018, the edTPA is used as a requirement for program accreditation or teacher candidate certification or program completion in 18 states.

This article analyzes the stated goals, objectives, and benefits made by SCALE and AACTE and compares them to data collected from interviews and open-ended questions with teacher candidates and teacher educators …

Data Diving Into “Noticing Poetry”: An Analysis Of Student Engagement With The “I Notice” Method, Scot Slaby, Jordan Benedict

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

This paper explores students’ engagement in reading poems, examining data on their self perceptions of their confidence and competence in reading poems before, during, and after using the “I Notice” methodology as adapted from The Academy of American Poets’ unit plan, “Noticing Poetry” (Slaby, 2017). The data was collected over the course of a month from January 9 through January 30, 2018 and involved five classes of one hundred general English tenth grade students across three teachers’ classrooms at Shanghai American School’s Puxi High School Campus. Data indicates that the “I Notice” method and the “Noticing Poetry” unit and its …