Education Commons^™

It Works For Me, Too! More Shared Tips For Effective Teaching, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

In the four years since our first book on teaching, we have noticed both on our campus and around the country a new emphasis on the instructor as teacher (vs. scholar). We have read books on the subject, attended the prestigious Lilly Conference, helped establish a Teaching & Learning Center on our campus (Hal served as its first director), and written for new journals focusing on pedagogy. It Works For Me, Too! is our contribution to the Renaissance in College Pedagogy, our attempt to fuel this brightening interest in effective teaching. Like its predecessor, this book is a compilation of …

Drawing On Memory: A Technique For Making Short Fiction Come Alive, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

Considers how to get today's schoolchild and college student to move from the words to the picture, then back again. Explores the teaching technique of having students draw what the piece of literature describes. Finds that drawing the visual image provides a much better chance of understanding a work's significance. Describes how to apply this idea with a homework assignment.

Making The Right Call: Criteria For Choosing Short Fiction, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Hal Blythe

Notes that teachers who teach short fiction must consider several things when choosing which works to teach. Describes criteria the authors use when selecting works for their literature classes (World Literature Survey, American Literature, and Principles of Literary Study). Concludes by affirming the importance of choosing short fiction.

Perceived Barriers To The National Board For Professional Teaching Standards Certification., Jan Woodard Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since its conception in 1987, much money and effort have been expended establishing the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards. Although 16,038 educators in 45 states and the District of Columbia have obtained National Board Certification, there are over 1,200 teachers in the East Tennessee counties of Cocke and Sevier who are eligible for National Board Certification, but have not obtained this certification. This study sought to identify the barriers that discouraged this population from attempting to gain National Board Certification.

The research design was inferential and utilized data from a survey instrument constructed by the researcher. A pilot test …

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Gian Galassi, Richard Jensen

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

After Turning Points: Evidence Of The Adoption Of Middle School Reforms In The United States 1987-2000., Nancy Barnes Mansberger

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the adoption by U.S. middle schools of key practices recommended by the 1989 Turning Points report. Three questions were examined: (1) To what extent have the organizational practices identified by research to impact the development of "small learning communities" been adopted by U.S. middle schools? (2) To what extent do the instructional practices of U.S. middle school teachers reflect developmentally responsive or traditional/bureaucratic methods?, and (3) Do the instructional practices of U.S. middle school teachers differ between those who teach in schools with developmentally responsive organizational practices and those who teach in …

Preservice Preparation For The Urban Context, William Sharpton, Renee Casbergue, Kyle Scafide

Kyle Scafide

Describes decision points facing teacher education programs with an urban focus. Provides examples of strategies resulting from each decision point from the perspectives of researchers involved in an effort to redesign an urban teacher education program at the University of New Orleans. (SLD)

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Mae Worthey-Flennoy, Cate Weeks, Gian Galassi

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Library As Laboratory, Patricia A. Iannuzzi, Diane Harvey

Library Faculty Presentations

Overview of Issues:

— Improving the Quality of Undergraduate Research

- Working with students and faculty
- Curricular and Extracurricular models

— Advancing the Undergraduate Research Agenda on Campus

- strategies
- partners
- projects

Teachers' Authentic E-Learning, Judi Harris, Neal Grandgenett

School of Education Articles

If professional development is understood to be teachers’professional learning, then authentic professional development occurs when we actively learn—and reflect on that learning, both individually and collaboratively—as we teach. What might characterize authentic learning for teachers—especially as it applies to using Internet tools and resources in the classroom? A series of research studies we have been doing provides some interesting insights into and potential answers to this question.

The Caufield Family Of Writers In The Catcher In The Rye, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Charlie Sweet

No abstract provided.

Moody's Blues, Hal Charles

Charlie Sweet

No abstract provided.

Ict Acheivers Program, Anne-Marie Chase, Greg Powell

Dr Anne-Marie Chase

Belonging In Parent-School Partnerships: Perspectives Of Parents Of Middle School Students With Autism, Michael Wayne Riley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to contribute to understandings of parent-school relationships involving parents of students with autism by exploring notions of belonging with a small group of parents. The purpose of the study is to describe the experiences of middle school parents of children with autism. From these descriptions, I examined how parents of students with autism might contribute to understandings of belonging in school-family partnerships and enable schools and families to collaborate more effectively. This study addresses an apparent gap in understandings of belonging of parents of children with autism in their relationships with their child's school. …

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell, Gian Galassi, Cate Weeks

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

The Academic Workplace (Fall/Winter 2002): The Politics Of Civic Engagement, New England Resource Center For Higher Education At The University Of Massachusetts Boston, Harry C. Boyte, Deborah Hirsch, Melvin Wade

The Academic Workplace

No abstract provided.

Confederate Operations In The Jackson Purchase: A History Of Camp Beauregard, Kentucky, Dieter C. Ullrich

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

No abstract provided.

Bringing Female Scientists Into The Elementary Classroom: Confronting The Strength Of Elementary Students' Stereotypical Images Of Scientists, Gayle A. Buck, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, Susan K. Kirby

Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

This study explored the effectiveness of bringing female scientists into the elementary classrooms on promoting changes in the stereotypical images of scientists. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed to illuminate changes in stereotypical images of scientists. Results indicate that despite the efforts of the scientists to encourage the students to question their image of a scientist, the students held on to stereotypical images. Instead, the students questioned the true identity of the scientists, categorizing them as teachers. The results led to questions of the strength of the image and the extent of efforts needed for students to question …

"You Don't Need To Time It, You Just Need To See It": Racing In Children's Science, Richard Frazier

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

The work I present here arose from a number of biases, several of which are described [in the introduction]. Prominent among the biases is extensive experience of teaching science with an averred emphasis on activity and inquiry. Along with the perspective of practitioner is the belief that children's ideas in science are worthy of scrutiny. Fascination with the research into children's conceptions and practices was tempered, however, by puzzlement over the actions teachers ought to take. Reflections on the gap between children's science and standard science came while straddling the gap between my perspective as a teacher of children and …

The Definition Of Enlightenment - Lighten Up: My Use Of Humor In Social Work Education And Practice, Rich Furman

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

In this narrative, I discuss how humor has become a central "tool" of my practice as a social work educator and social worker. I describe how I use humor as a conscious means of achieving student learning. In a very real sense, calling humor a tool is a misnomer as it is a central feature of my personality. Each of us possesses certain personality characteristics that, if nurtured and cherished, can become powerful allies in the processes of teaching and helping.

My Introspective Time Capsule, Michele Stafford-Levy

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This study takes place in the southwestern part of the United States on the Mexican-American border and is a narrative about a teacher's journey of self-discovery about her own teaching practices through reflection. Dr. Myriam Torres (New Mexico State University) and Michele Stafford-Levy ventured into the typical professor-student relationship. The professor guided her graduate student through a journey of self-discovery and how to document the process of self-reflection and action in her own classroom. By sharing these events from her professional life through autobiography, the student strives to serve as a model for both pre-service and in-service teachers to reflect, …

Inside Unlv, Diane Russell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Expecting, Accepting, And Respecting Difference In Middle School, Lori Olafson, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta

Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

The curriculum need not fight young adolescents’ need to engage in identity formation. It can assist that process when students are given the opportunity to address issues that matter to them through their school work.

Adolescence is a time when key questions of identity assume central importance in the lives of children (Brumberg, 1997). It is often a particularly traumatic time for girls as they negotiate through the quagmire of adolescent experience (Harper, 1997). During the time we spent researching and teaching in middle schools, we found that the voices of adolescent girls echoed this fragile and vulnerable sense of …

Preservice Elementary Teachers' Perceptions After Visiting An Interactive Science Center, David H. Palmer

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This paper reports an action research study involving preservice elementary teachers enrolled in a college science methods course (ie. the course focussed on how to teach science at elementary school). There was an interactive science center nearby which many local elementary classes regularly visited, so I decided to set my students the task of visiting the center and reporting on it. However, I was unsure as to what outcomes the students would gain from the experience. I therefore asked the students to each write a short passage explaining what they had learnt from the experience. According to their responses, the …

Learning From Others: Literacy Perspectives Of Middle-School English Teachers, Cynthia A. Lassonde

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

At the center of this interview-based study, middle-school English teachers talk and write about their literacy development, their teaching philosophies, and their curriculum, as they reflect upon their teaching. Portraits of their perspectives of literacy emerge. Using these portraits to reflect upon teaching practices, the author suggests we can effectively examine our own educational philosophies, contributing to our efforts to become increasingly competent educators.

Four Criteria For Engaging Girls In The Middle Level Classroom, Gayle A. Buck, Nancy Ehlers

Faculty Publications: Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education

Authenticity, choice, conceptual understanding, and motivation all play a role in engaging middle level learners. This article shows how these criteria apply to designing lessons for girls.

Listening to young adolescent girls has greatly altered my ideas of what it means to teach at the middle level. Using the ideas and attitudes that these girls bring with them to the science classroom, I now select what happens in that classroom. Others are encouraged to use this rubric to select activities as they attempt to engage the adolescent girls in the middle level curriculum. No longer looking upon girls to see …

Teacher Research: Learning To Listen, Jennifer Moore

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

When friends from out of town visit, I often take them jogging around my hometown. I have routes I have run hundreds of times; they are so familiar, I run as if on automatic pilot. I seem to forget, though, that my guest has no idea that this is where I turn left, and that is the place where I cross the street to run on the other side. On more than one occasion, I have nudged a friend off the sidewalk or run right into them in my single-minded routine. I forget to ask questions, to explain, to direct, …

Editorial Introduction, Gordon Wells

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

This issue of Networks is the last in a year that has seen a tightening of constraints, both political and educational, in response to the increasing violence that has characterized relationships between nations, cultures, religions and economic classes. In education, in almost all the richer countries, there has been a tighter focus on "basic skills" and the memorization of an increasingly large body of "core knowledge", assessed through standardized tests, and a concomitant narrowing of the opportunities for student initiative, choice, and sustained investigation of questions and issues that they find personally significant. Teachers feel harried and hurried, with little …

Grade-Span Configurations: The (Limited) Evidence Regarding Effects On Academic Achievement, Theodore Coladarci, Jullie Hancock

Maine Education Policy Research Institute

No abstract provided.

Holden's Mysterious Hat, Charlie Sweet, Hal Blythe

Charlie Sweet

No abstract provided.