Education Commons^™

Supporting Elementary Teachers In Effective Writing Instruction Through Professional Development, Whitney Nash Young

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for writing have created a challenge for teachers at an urban elementary school as they struggled to provide effective writing instruction to support the rigorous expectations of the standards. The purpose of this study was to explore elementary teachers' lived experiences of instruction and better understand instructional writing procedures and strategies. The conceptual framework of this study was based on Dennick's work for incorporating educational theory into teaching practices, which combined elements of constructivist, experiential, and humanist learning theories. Research questions investigated how teachers perceived the impact of the CCSS writing standards on their practice …

School Leaders' Perceptions Of Students' Antisocial Behaviors, Faye Britt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

There was a problem regarding students' antisocial behavior in a small rural school district in Washington State. Public data within the district indicated increasing incidents of students' antisocial behaviors. However, perceptions of school leaders regarding this problem were not known. As a result, there was a need to gain an understanding about school leaders' perceptions of students' antisocial behaviors in order to suggest potential solutions to reduce students' antisocial behaviors, as these perceptions are closely associated with their intent to address the problem. Bandura's theory of self-regulation provided the conceptual framework for collecting and analyzing data. Using an instrumental case …

Secondary School Teachers' Perceptions Of The Integration Of Laptops In The Classroom, Alfreda Justice Smith

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The district under study performed in the lowest academic growth percentage of the state for 5 consecutive years. Although the district received funding for technology resources, effective technology use in the classroom continued to be lacking. The purpose of this case study was to explore the perceptions of teachers at the middle and high school under study in integrating and enhancing instructional technology practices in a 1-to-1 classroom through professional development. In the 1-to-1 classroom, each student was assigned an individual laptop. The framework guiding the study was constructivist instructional methods that promoted best practices for student-centered technology integrated classrooms. …

Countering Student Apathy To Increase Student Engagement, Rebecca Ann Schou

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At a suburban elementary school in Maryland, 3 years of data revealed that the school is grappling with the problem of student apathy. While there is a growing body of research on apathy and its effects on student achievement, few researchers have examined the problem from the perspective of the apathetic student. The purpose of this qualitative case study, grounded in the social learning and cognitive development theories of Vygotsky and Piaget, was to explore student apathy and the learning environment at the target school through the perspectives of 8 former students and their parents. The research questions focused on …

Teacher Interventions Based On Childhood Bullying Experiences, Marcia Rushin Teemer

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Guided by Premack and Woodruff's theory of the mind and Bandura's social learning theory, this qualitative study examined the issue of bullying at school, and whether teachers' childhood experiences of bullying had effects on how they, as adults, handled bullying situations in their classrooms. Convenience sampling was used to administer the Bauman, Rigby, and Hoppa Handling Bullying Questionnaire to 22 middle school educators with three or more years of teaching experience at the participating school, to determine their responses to bullying scenarios. Twelve educators completed the questionnaire. Data collected from the questionnaire were analyzed for frequencies of responses. Teachers' responses …

Effects Of An Online Skills Program On Ela Achievement Among Ged Students, Gwendolyn Amanda Flowers

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

K-12 schools are more commonly using online learning to supplement traditional classroom learning. Previous online adult education researchers have found no significant differences between traditional and online learning outcomes. However, little research has been done with regard to online General Educational Development (GED)-level learning for adults. The purpose of this quantitative study was to explore the effect of the Skills Tutor program compared with traditional learning on GED student achievement in reading/language arts. The Skills Tutor program was used as a means to address the low GED graduation rates at an adult education program through Memphis City Schools. This research …

The Effectiveness Of Professional Learning Communities As Perceived By Elementary School Teachers, Quonias Hudson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

School districts in a southeastern state have faced the challenge of choosing an effective professional development model that assists teachers in improving student achievement. Some school districts have implemented professional learning communities (PLCs) as a means of addressing teachers' professional development. Guided by the social learning theories of Bandura, Vygotsky, and Wenger, the research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of the use of PLC experiences for making classroom decisions and their value for enhancing teacher learning, teacher collaboration, and student learning. Data for this case study were collected from 7 certified elementary teachers in 1 school who had participated in …

Humanities Unbound: Supporting Careers And Scholarship Beyond The Tenure Track, Katina Rogers

Publications and Research

As humanities scholars increasingly recognize the value of public engagement, and as the proportion of tenure-track faculty positions available continues to decline, many humanities programs are focusing renewed attention on equipping graduate students for careers as scholars both within and beyond academe. To support those efforts, the Scholarly Communication Institute has carried out a study investigating perceptions about career preparation provided by humanities graduate programs. The survey results help to create a more solid foundation on which to base curricular reform and new initiatives by moving the conversation about varied career paths from anecdote to data. The findings make it …

The Design, Implementation, And Evaluation Of A Professional Development Program, Ellen Riina Hirsch

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Ineffective professional development is a longstanding problem in education. Locally, the school district in the study lacked a comprehensive system for evaluating their secondary level professional development programs. The purpose of this case study was to investigate the district's professional development program, specifically examining its perceived strengths and weaknesses. The conceptual framework of the study was systems theory and the adaptive schools reform model. The research questions examined the perceptions of various school personnel on their experiences with the current professional development program at the study district's high school. Individual interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 3 teachers, …

Learning To See, Seeing To Learn: The Learning Journey Of Three Pre-Service Teachers In A Video Club Setting, Catherine Moore

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study sought to develop a deeper understanding of the phenomenon of professional growth in pre-service teachers during their final practicum. The research was situated in a primary school and involved three pre-service teachers with widely differing backgrounds who brought differing experiences to the practicum. The study identified personal and contextual variables that affected the pre-service teachers’ professional growth and explored how professional discourse within a learning community of peers, informed by multiple perspectives on teaching practice that were facilitated by video, influenced professional growth.

This qualitative research project used a broad phenomenological approach in that the methods used were …

Arts Immersion: Using The Arts As A Language Across The Primary School Curriculum, Susan N. Chapman

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: Australia’s national arts curriculum has potential to realise the following benefits: cognitive, social, affective and curricular. This curriculum is designed for generalist and special arts teachers, but its delivery may be hindered by the prioritisation of high-stakes-tested disciplines and pedagogies, and reduced government funding to arts education across school and tertiary sectors. This may lead to a lack of opportunities to build teacher capacity in arts education, and diminished support for arts education in terms of time allocation and resourcing. The notion of ‘silos’, where the separation of teaching practices persists between teachers of different disciplines, discourages meaningful interdisciplinary …

Documenting Current Instructional Design Practices: Towards A Typology Of Instructional Designer Activities, Roles, And Collaboration, William Sugar, Robert L. Moore

STEMPS Faculty Publications

The overall goal of this study was to conduct a yearlong inquiry into an instructional designer’s activities and interactions with his clients. Exclusive focus of this study was on an instructional designer who worked at a large public university in the southeastern region of the United States. Documented in an instructional design activities log, this study analyzed 115 distinct activities. Using an emergent theme analysis approach, specific instructional design activities and roles emerged. In addition, the instructional designer’s collaboration with his clients was analyzed. Results of this study augment the knowledge base of existing studies of instructional design practices.

Developmental Stages Of New Graduate Student Instructional Consultants: Implications For Professional Growth, Mary C. Wright, Laura N. Schram, Kristen S. Gorman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Effective consulting is a key skill for educational developers. Although most educational developers are new to the field, there is limited research about how new practitioners develop consulting skills. The key research question this study explores is: How do new graduate teaching consultants develop as practitioners? This study empirically applies several “classic” models of consulting to better understand new consultants’ perceived development of expertise, preferred consulting approaches, and reflection about them. The findings are generally confirmatory of the ways that classic frameworks map onto the development of consultants. They also suggest greater attention to supporting new consultants beyond “getting started,” …

Professional Learning Of Teachers In Ethiopia: Challenges And Implications For Reform, Fekede Tuli Gemeda, Päivi Tynjälä Professor

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract

Continuous professional development of teachers is of growing interest globally, as it is considered vital to cope effectively with ongoing changes and to improve the quality of education. This qualitative case study explores potential and actual barriers that hinder teachers’ professional development in Ethiopian schools. Data was collected via interviews and focus group discussions from 37 purposively sampled participants. The study reveals three major challenges in teachers’ development: 1) conceptions and conceptual issues related to teaching, professional development and mentoring, 2) management and leadership, and 3) teachers’ work conditions. The need to reconsider educational change management strategies, reform teacher …

Antecedents Of Teachers’ Educational Beliefs About Mathematics And Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching Among In-Service Teachers In High Poverty Urban Schools, Danya M. Corkin, Adem Ekmekci, Anne Papakonstantinou

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper examines the antecedents of three types of educational beliefs about mathematics among 151 teachers predominantly working in high poverty schools. Studies across various countries have found that teachers in high poverty schools are less likely to enact instructional approaches that align with mathematics reform standards set by national and international organizations. Researchers contend that for instruction to change, educational beliefs about mathematics and teaching must change. Regression analyses indicated that mathematics-teaching experience was associated with teachers’ self-efficacy for teaching mathematics at the onset of professional development and the number of mathematics college courses teachers had taken moderated their …

Engaging In Lesson Study At Georgia College, Angel R. Abney, Brandon Samples, Doris Santarone

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

A lesson study cycle is a professional development process that integrates research and reflection through collaboration. The cycle allows a group to refine a lesson based on these collaboration efforts such as interaction with students and the post-lesson discussion. Secondary pre-service teachers in a mathematics methods course engaged in a lesson study cycle through collaboration between in-service teachers, Georgia College professors, and students in a local high school classroom. We systematically investigated this process to determine that through preparing, enacting and reflecting on their practice, Pre-service Teachers (PST) developed insight, reasoning, and understanding of the mathematics that they taught.

Evolution Of The Blendkit Course: Fine-Tuning A Professional Development Mooc, Kelvin Thompson, Patsy Moskal

Current Issues in Emerging eLearning

While many MOOCs modeled on traditional university curricula may be undertaken as sources of professional development, the University of Central Florida has released open courseware and a series of MOOCs specifically for the professional development of higher education faculty and designers preparing to design and teach blended learning courses. This article details experiences with offering multiple iterations of the BlendKit Course in order that others interested in professional development MOOCs may benefit from the authors' successes and lessons learned. The article addresses: background influences on the design of the BlendKit Course; the evolution of the BlendKit Course from its initial …

Paper 1: Engaging In Lesson Study At Georgia College, Angel R. Abney, Brandon Samples, Doris Santarone

Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (GAMTE) Annual Conference

A lesson study cycle is a professional development process that integrates research and reflection through collaboration. The cycle allows a group to refine a lesson based on these collaboration efforts such as interaction with students and the post-lesson discussion. Secondary pre-service teachers in a mathematics methods course engaged in a lesson study cycle through collaboration between in-service teachers, Georgia College professors, and students in a local high school classroom. We systematically investigated this process to determine that through preparing, enacting and reflecting on their practice, Pre-service Teachers (PST) developed insight, reasoning, and understanding of the mathematics that they taught.