Education Commons^™

Infrastructure Redesign And Instructional Reform In Mathematics: Formal Structure And Teacher Leadership, Megan Hopkins, James P. Spillane, Paula M. Jakopovic, Ruth M. Heaton

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Designing infrastructures to support instruction remains a challenge in educational reform. This article reports on a study of one school system's efforts to redesign its infrastructure for mathematics instruction by promoting teacher leadership. Using social network and interview data from 12 elementary schools, we explore how the district's infrastructure redesign efforts were internally coherent with and built upon existing infrastructure components. We then explore relations between infrastructure and school practice as captured in the instructional advice- and information-seeking interactions among school staff, finding that teacher leaders emerged as central actors and brokers of advice and information about mathematics within and …

Stem Literacy For Ells Through Service Learning, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Barbara Brimmerman, Olga Zeisler

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This presentation features: Rationale, Model of Academic Language Proficiency/ Jim Cummins’s Quadrant, STEM Literacy for ELLs, ELLS-OPS, Tall grasses and Wildflowers of Nebraska: A Service Learning Experience, UNO Students, Objectives, First Year: 2011-2012, Second Year: 2012-2013, Community Partner: Allwine Prairie, Support from Service Learning Academy, Research Presentations, Literacy Strategies, Service Learning Project Outcomes, Visit to the Prairie, and Future Research.

Getting The Conversation Started: School Library Candidates Speak Out About The Importance Of Culturally Responsive Teaching, Bridget Kratt, Courtney Pentland

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

When hearing the term “culturally responsive teaching,” many people’s thoughts automatically go to race as culture. At the University of Nebraska at Omaha we have made a concerted effort to ensure that our Library Science Education Programs candidates come to realize that culturally responsive teaching is much broader and deeper than just considering our P-12 students’ race.

What Can Stem Educators Learn From A Teacher Induction Program? A Study Of Science And Mathematics Teachers’ Reflections On Teaching And Learning, Sheryl Mcglamery, Saundra Shillingstad

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

Research completed to date confirms that beginning science and mathematics teachers face many challenges, and must master numerous areas of teaching skill in order to demonstrate competence in teaching. Most will face the initial year of practice with little or no access to an induction program targeting their content areas (Luft, 2009). Research further suggests that science and math teachers left without critically needed guidance, a comprehensive induction program could provide, often develop practices that do not allow their students to participate in inquiry activities (e.g. labs, simulations, problem solving, research projects ( Luft, Roehrig, & Patterson, 2003). Instead the …

Bringing Latino Images And Voices To The Mainstream Classroom, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Kathy Everts Danielson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Librarians, teachers, and students play an important role in selecting good quality publications for their schools' book collections. Not knowing the possibilities is one obstacle to making wise choices about texts. This annotated bibliography provides examples of excellent texts that highlight Latino images and voices through personal stories, facts, and poetry.

Early-Childhood Teacher Candidates’ Service Learning With Family Book Celebrations, M. Susan Mcwilliams

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

An associate professor and a public school district administrator formed a family-school-community partnership to introduce family book celebrations to an early-learning center located in a high-poverty area in a midwestern city with more than 80% of children (n=75) who attended the center qualifying for free and reduced lunch. Primary goals for the celebrations were (a) to offer a venue for book-related experiences with families of children attending the early-learning center; (b) to engage early-childhood teacher candidates in service with families in an authentic and meaningful way; and (c) to analyze efficacy of the service-learning experience on teacher candidates. Overall, teacher …

Teacher Educators’ Professional Development In The 21st Century: Practicing What We Preach, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Wendy Loewenstein

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

As teacher educators encourage teacher education candidates to incorporate new technologies (SmartBoard, hardware, software, web tools) into teaching, there is a need for them to serve as role models for their students. To move beyond a paper and pencil approach, teacher educators should advance their own technological knowledge and apply it in their teaching. The focus of this brief paper is on the steps taken to encourage teacher educators at a Midwest institution to incorporate new technologies into their teaching. This professional development is still a work in progress, as teacher education faculty work in collaboration with an instructional technology …

Multicultural Dispositions: A Viable Tool For Teacher Training, Franklin Titus Thompson

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

The practice of assessing the dispositions of pre-service educators has gained increasing attention among institutions of teacher preparation. Current debate often centers on the needs and views of P-12 children, researchers, and policy makers, at the expense of a forgotten voice—teacher candidates. In particular, this study examines the multicultural portion of the larger dispositional debate. Education majors (N=420) from a Midwestern metropolitan university were asked to rate the viability of 13 selected multicultural dispositions as a training tool. Utilizing a 9-point Likert Scale, respondents gave strong support for multicultural dispositions not only during the posttest (M=8.38) but also the pretest …

Raise Awareness--Raise Confidence: Culturally Responsive Instruction For School Library Candidates, Bridget Kratt, Courtney Pentland

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

As the number of diverse and underserved student populations in our schools increases, it is imperative that school librarians create an environment where all students, regardless of cultural and linguistic background, are welcomed, feel supported, and are afforded authentic opportunities for learning.

In the library science education programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, we recognize the need to include a formal culturally responsive teaching component in our coursework, and have made a concerted effort to raise our candidates· confidence levels as culturally responsive educators by raising their awareness of culturally responsive teaching practices. In the UNO library …

Teacher Educators’ Professional Development In The 21st Century: Practicing What We Preach, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo, Wendy Loewenstein

Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

As teacher educators encourage teacher education candidates to incorporate new technologies (SmartBoard, hardware, software, web tools) into teaching, there is a need for them to serve as role models for their students. To move beyond a paper and pencil approach, teacher educators should advance their own technological knowledge and apply it in their teaching. The focus of this brief paper is on the steps taken to encourage teacher educators at a Midwest institution to incorporate new technologies into their teaching. This professional development is still a work in progress, as teacher education faculty work in collaboration with an instructional technology …

The Never Ending Story Of Language Policies In Puerto Rico, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

This literature review addresses some of the issues discussed in the literature written about the controversial topic of English teaching in Puerto Rico. A deeper look into the language policies established in Puerto Rico since the island became a U.S. colony (1898) could lead us to understand why after more than a century of U.S. occupation, the majority of Puerto Ricans are still not bilingual in English and Spanish.

The Never Ending Story Of Language Policy In Puerto Rico, Sandra Rodriguez-Arroyo

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

This literature review addresses some of the issues discussed in the literature written about the controversial topic of English teaching in Puerto Rico. A deeper look into the language policies established in Puerto Rico since the island became a U.S. colony (1898) could lead us to understand why after more than a century of U.S. occupation, the majority of Puerto Ricans are still not bilingual in English and Spanish.

Ready, Eager, & Well-Prepared: A Mantra For Military Personnel And Teachers, Connie Schaffer

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

It is a scene which most Armed Services personnel can recall with great detail. The stage is a training room on a military installation. Conversations about an upcoming exam intermingle with discussions about sports and fill the air of the room. The camaraderie of the soldiers provides a nervous distraction from the individual plots about to unwind for each soldier. Over the course of the next several days, one-by-one, the soldiers will open their first set of orders. The first post or base assignments which will follow their technical training are scheduled to be distributed in the upcoming days.