Education Commons^™

Attracting Top Teaching Talent, Geoff Masters

Prof Geoff Masters AO

In some of the world’s highest-performing countries, entry to teaching is now as competitive as courses such as engineering, science, law and medicine.

Media Literacy In Teacher Education: A Good Fit Across The Curriculum, Jessica Meehan, Brandi Ray, Sunny Wells, Amanda Walker, Gretchen Schwarz

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Abstract

Current preoccupations in teacher education reform include data gathering, teaching technique, and preparing PK-12 students for standardized tests. The purpose of American education has been reduced to economic benefit. Concerns with ethical behavior, the good life, and democratic citizenship have fallen by the wayside except perhaps in a single social foundations course. Media literacy education infused in the teacher education curriculum offers one way to restore purpose to teacher education, encouraging both pre-service teachers and their students to think critically about their media-dominated society.

Class Exploration To A Campus Library Curriculum Center To Develop Book-Building Capacity For Teacher Candidates, Camille M. Russello Ph.D., Julie J. Henry

Journal of Inquiry and Action in Education

The purpose of this pilot was to examine the effectiveness of the practice of providing opportunities for undergraduate elementary education teacher candidates to explore the campus library curriculum center as a group regularly during class time. During their visits, teacher candidates were guided in selecting and analyzing children’s literature for their future teaching. The research was focused on how these visits impacted teacher candidates’ understanding of children’s literature and literacy development. Data were collected through a survey administered at the conclusion of the course and responses were probed further during one-on-one interviews. Candidates described these visits as beneficial in …

Addressing The Research/Practice Divide In Teacher Education, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

Educational scholars often describe a research/practice divide. Similarly, students in teacher education programs often struggle to navigate the differences between university coursework and expectations they face in field-based placements. This self-study analyzes one researcher's attempt to address the research/practice divide from the position of a teacher educator. Teaching in a university-based mathematics methods course during the academic year and an elementary classroom during the summer recess provided opportunities to make connections between research and practice. This article examines the effects this study had on the researcher's instruction at the university level. Specifically, the article suggests ways for teacher educators to …

Agency Through Teacher Education: Reflection, Community, And Learning, Ryan Flessner, Grant Miller, Kami Patrizio, Julie Horwitz

Ryan Flessner

Agency through Teacher Education: Reflection, Community, and Learning addresses the ways that agency functions for those involved in twenty-first-century teacher education. This book, commissioned by the Association of Teacher Educators, relies on the voices of teacher education candidates, in-service teachers, school leaders, and university-based educators to illustrate what agency looks like, sounds like, and feels like for people trying to act as agents of change. These examples take the form of narratives, theoretical explorations, formal research studies, and reflective essays. Agency through Teacher Education does not seek to establish one definition for agency, but rather to conceptualize it from three …

Embedding Employability In The Curriculum – Strategies To Improve Outcomes For University Graduates, Sarah Richardson

Dr Sarah Richardson

No abstract provided.

Breathing Life Into Information Literacy Skills: Results Of A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Janelle Wertzberger

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Making All Children Count: Teach For All And The Universalizing Appeal Of Data, Daniel Friedrich, Mia Walter, Erica Eva Colmenares

Faculty Research, Scholarly, and Creative Activity

In this paper, we argue that in order to bind Teach For All’s universal/izing statement of problems and solutions to the specificities and the special conditions of member programs’ local contexts, what is needed is a shared set of discursive practices, a way of bringing together the commonalities found in each country while separating the noise of particular politics and histories. That common set of discursive practices is shaped around the notion of data. This paper is structured as follows: First, we contextualize Teach for All by (briefly) juxtaposing the universal and specific elements of the network, including the organization’s …

Breathing Life Into Information Literacy Skills: Results Of A Faculty-Librarian Collaboration, Divonna M. Stebick, Janelle L. Wertzberger, Margaret E. Flora, Joseph W. Miller

Education Faculty Publications

When an education professor and a reference librarian sought to improve the quality of undergraduate student research, their partnership led to a new focus on assessing the research process in addition to the product. In this study, we reflect on our collaborative experience introducing information literacy as the foundation for undergraduate teacher education research. We examine the outcomes of this collaboration, focusing on the assessment of the process. Using a mixed methods approach, we found that direct instruction supporting effective research strategies positively impacted student projects. Our data also suggest that undergraduate students benefit from not only sound research strategies, …

Impact On P-12 Student Learning: Perspectives From Multiple Stakeholders, Xiaoli Wen, Geri Chesner, Ayn Keneman, Arlene Borthwick

NCE Research Residencies

Statement of Research Problem

It is essential for teacher preparation programs to be able to track teacher candidates’ impact on P-12 student learning in school sites in order to fulfill accreditation requirements and measure candidate and program success. Additionally, it is critical for us to understand how candidates’ opportunities to impact P-12 student learning are influenced by their host school sites, including their classroom cooperating teachers. Therefore, we conducted an exploratory study to collect qualitative input from multiple stakeholders, including teacher candidates, cooperating teachers, and school. The perspectives collected in this study has helped our program, the college, and the …

A Healthy Dose Of Race? White Students’ And Teachers’ Unintentional Brushes With Whiteness, Samantha Schulz, Jennifer Fane

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper reports on efforts by three Australian academics to develop students’ sociocultural awareness (in particular, their racial literacy) during a time of mounting pressure on teacher educators to narrow and standardise their approaches. The field of health education provides a vehicle for research; however, it is not the paper’s central foci. Of key concern is the development of a critical disposition in students – a disposition geared toward teaching for social equity. Learning of this nature transcends topic domains, and therefore allows for collaboration between academics in different parts of teacher education. Specifically, the paper focuses upon ‘whiteness’ and …

International Students’ Experience Of Practicum In Teacher Education: An Exploration Through Internationalisation And Professional Socialisation, Georgina M. Barton, Kay A. Hartwig, Melissa Cain

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper explores the practicum experience of international students studying in a teacher education course. Much research has investigated the experience of international students during their degree experience but there is limited research that has addressed the practicum; a key component of teacher education. The research that does exist tends to view international students as analogous rather than individual students with distinct needs and experiences. The current paper will draw evidence from fourteen (14) international students gathered via interviews. The themes of learning and teaching contexts and relationships; curriculum, pedagogy and assessment; and personal attributes were identified and the conceptual …

Teac 921b: Seminar In Literacy Studies (Special Topics: Schooling And The Multilingual Mind)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Theresa Catalano

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio will document the creation and implementation of a new doctoral seminar in my department. This introductory course to multilingualism and schooling (TEAC 921B) will cover topics related to teaching and learning in the multilingual classroom. The key goals for creating this portfolio are to aid me in creating this new doctoral seminar that reflects and builds on departmental goals for graduate students. In particular I would like to document and address the implementation of two new activities to my teaching ; a language study/journal, and the creation of a documentary film. I foresee using this course portfolio as …

Collaborative Teaching And Self-Study: Engaging Student Teachers In Sociological Theory In Teacher Education., Vivienne Hogan, Linda Daniell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article presents some of the findings of a three-year project researching the impact of changes made to teaching and learning in a first-year sociology paper for primary and early childhood education (ece) student teachers. The context of the research is an undergraduate Initial Teacher Education (ITE) programme situated in the School of Education in a New Zealand University. Through self-study, teacher educators sought to gain a deeper understanding of how changes made to the paper influenced their teaching and student learning.

A collaborative teaching relationship was particularly important for the teacher educators to share concerns and present ideas for …