Education Commons^™

Three Ways To Help Esl Content Linger Beyond The “El Course” In Teacher Preparation Programs, Melanie Gonzalez

Journal of English Learner Education

Like many other states, our teacher preparation program arrived at this compartmentalized, “single-experience” ESL-focused course model as a result of local, state, and federal policies in the United States that have increasingly placed ELs into mainstream classrooms rather than into language and literacy development courses (de Jong, 2014). TESOL faculty might have questioned: how can everything related to effective ESL teaching be covered in one semester? The fact of the matter is that the onus on this work largely rests upon teacher candidates’ shoulders after they depart the ESL-focused course. What follows are three practices that largely have arisen …

How Do Literacy Teacher Educators Engage As Literacy Leaders?, Laurie A. Sharp, Marla Robertson, Rebekah E. Piper, Teresa Young, Roberta D. Raymond

The Advocate

Literacy teacher educators play a pivotal role in developing future PreK-12 classroom teachers for the task of literacy leadership. However, little is known about literacy teacher educators and how they engage as literacy leaders. In the current study, we retrieved data from 132 literacy teacher educators and analyzed it descriptively using teacher educator identify as a theoretical lens. Findings revealed 15 different literacy leadership practices that represented five distinct groups. Among these groups, respondents demonstrated high and low levels of engagement with literacy leadership practices that pointed to important implications for administrators of teacher education programs.

Rural Multilingual Family Engagement, Maria Coady

The Rural Educator

Rural teachers and educators are increasingly called upon to build partnerships with families who use languages other than English in the home (US DOE, 2016). This is equally true for rural schools, where the number of multilingual families is small, and the language and cultural backgrounds of students differs from those of school. This article reviews the research on parental involvement and three common models of parental involvement. In this article, I propose a revised conceptual model for teachers and educators for rural multilingual family engagement. This article calls for increasingly refined research that addresses the sociohistorical backgrounds of families …

Critical Intersections Through Poetry In A Tesol & World Language Graduate Education Program, Melisa Cahnmann-Taylor, Sharon M. Nuruddin, Kuo Zhang, Yixuan Wang, Amanda Brady Deaton, Xinyi Meng, Ashley Brown-Lemley, Ming Sun

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

In this studio submission, Language Education students who took one or more poetry writing courses along with their instructor share one poem draft and critical reflection, noting the political climate of the work co-produced and inquiry regarding the impact of producing creative work as reflexive, critical teacher education scholarship. Together they draw a context and implications for creative and critical teacher education through shared poetry writing.

Reading Instruction For Students With Intellectual Disabilities:Inservice Teachers' Perceptions, Agatha Lee Gibbons

Theses and Dissertations

Students with intellectual disabilities have at times been overlooked and denied effective reading instruction. Teachers tasked with instructing such students are often limited in the training, resources, and support necessary to effectively instruct these students in reading. These problems are further compounded by the fact that students with intellectual disabilities have historically been misperceived, often by the very educators tasked with instructing them, as either being unable to learn to read or that the prospect of teaching them to read is simply too daunting and complicated to be of sufficient worth (Aldridge, 2014; Kluth & Chandler-Olcott, 2008). Such misperception may …

Pedagogy, Practice, And Mentorship: Core Elements Of Connecting Theory To Practice In Teacher Educator Preparation Programs, Monique Alexander

Journal of Educational Supervision

experiences as the heart of preservice teacher preparation, the research community has attempted to understand more about the pedagogies and personnel that will support learning in these areas. Supervisors are a staple in the clinical field experience, yet the research community has a limited viewpoint of the practices and decision-making that lay underneath their work. Using a multiple case study methodology and a select but diverse group of participants, this study investigated the resources that supervisors draw on to resolve challenges in their practice. The results of this study highlight the significance of coursework for the preparation of teacher educators. …

Seeing In Color: How Are Teachers Perceiving Our Diverse Autistic Students?, Merida Lang

Ought: The Journal of Autistic Culture

Although the discipline gap between Black and White students is well documented and the discipline gap between students with disabilities and those without has also been researched, the discipline gap between autistic students of color and White students has received very little attention. This essay asks educators to consider the ways in which autistic students of color exist in a specific cross section of double-discrimination and considers what can be done to reduce unconscious bias, including developing a broader and more diverse understanding of autistic culture.

A Validity Study Of The Cognitively Guided Instruction Teacher Knowledge Assessment, Debra Smith Fuentes

Theses and Dissertations

This study reports the development of an instrument intended to measure mathematics teachers' knowledge of Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI). CGI is a mathematics professional development framework based on how students think about and solve problems and how that knowledge guides instruction for developing mathematical understanding. The purpose of this study was to (a) analyze and revise the original CGI Teacher Knowledge Assessment (CGI TKA), (b) administer the revised CGI TKA, and (c) analyze the results from the revised CGI TKA. As part of the revision of the original CGI TKA, distractor analysis identified distractors that could be improved. Experts in …

“If We Don’T Include Literature, Where Do We Teach Our Students From?” An Effort To Introduce Children’S Literature To Indonesian Preservice Teachers, Tati L Durriyah

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Indonesia’s new literacy initiative called Gerakan Literasi Sekolah (GLS) focuses on developing literacy-rich school environments through a sequence of book engagements. As the locus of control in daily literacy activities (Lehman, 2007), teachers in Indonesia assume much of the responsibility for student literacy learning. Despite this, Indonesian teachers receive minimal preparation in facilitating literacy instruction using literature; for example, courses that introduce student teachers to children’s literature are not commonly offered in Indonesian teacher education. This study aims to fill in the dearth of data regarding the efforts to introduce Indonesian preservice teachers to literature for children and the pedagogy …

Teacher Recruitment: Factors That Predict High School Students’ Willingness To Become Teachers, Steve Christensen, Randall Davies, Scott Harris, Joseph Hanks, Byran Bowles

Faculty Publications

This study examines factors that influence high school students’ willingness to consider teaching as a career. Using predictive modeling, we identified five factors that are highly predictive of a students’ willingness to consider teaching and their belief that teaching is their best career option. Results indicated that high school students were more likely to consider teaching when they had confidence in their ability to be good teachers, when family members and others encouraged them to become teachers, and when they felt their community supported teachers. Most of those who considered teaching thought of themselves as average students. Less impactful factors …

Designing Teacher Preparation Courses: Integrating Mobile Technology, Program Standards, And Course Outcomes, Serena Hicks, Devshikha Bose

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This discussion paper demonstrates the need for applying backwards design principles to already-existing course syllabi in order to embed technology alongside pedagogy in teacher preparation programs. The problem is first addressed as a need to integrate technology in one secondary course based on lack of proficiency demonstrated on multiple measures. A design framework that was implemented is then explained, including a step-by-step process for aligning mobile technology applications to course standards and outcomes. Challenges to the process are explored, as well as supports available for duplicating this work in other contexts. The paper concludes with steps the instructor is now …

“We Cannot Imagine”: Us Preservice Teachers’ Othering Of Trans And Gender Creative Student Experiences, Elizabeth E. Blair, Sherry L. Deckman

Publications and Research

Research suggests that teachers are not meeting the needs of trans and gender creative students. Thus, we ask: How do US preservice teachers (PSTs) discursively construct the experiences of trans and gender creative students? How are these constructions informed by and reinscribe broader gender normativities in educational contexts? We analyzed 549 PST authored, online discussion posts from an educational foundations course, finding PSTs lacked familiarity with and engaged in rhetorical distancing from trans and gender creative student experiences suggesting barriers to empathy that may obstruct teacher-student relationships and promotion of equity, which teacher education is called to address.

Recognition And Positional Identity In An Elementary Professional Learning Community: A Case Study, Christopher G. Wright, Rasheda Likely, Kristen B. Wendell, Patricia P. Paugh, Elizabeth Smith

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

Professional learning communities are typically conceived of as spaces for reducing teacher isolation, supporting informed and committed teachers, and fostering student academic gains. Focusing on a professional learning community that supported the teaching and learning of engineering in elementary schools, we also conceived of this learning environment as a space for negotiating a teacher-of- engineering identity. Calling attention to emergent issues of power and status through a lens of positional identity, this article examines a Black female educator’s sense of self as a teacher-of-engineering and how this perception was informed by participation in the professional learning community. Findings reveal that …

Literacy Curricula, The Common Core, And Defending An Unpopular Profession: The Lived Experiences Of Undergraduate Preservice Literacy Teachers, Susan A. Sturm

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This study explored the lived experiences of eight pre-service teachers, specifically their understandings of teaching Common Core-aligned English language arts (ELA) and their feelings about becoming teachers of literacy amid the current era of accountability. Phenomenological methods were used to interview participants and analyze data for significant statements made by all eight pre-service teachers involved. Major themes to emerge include that pre-service teachers felt prepared to design ELA lessons but unprepared to develop an ELA curriculum; they felt the Common Core State Standards had changed everything about teaching; and they were anxious about becoming teachers during a time of great …

Being In Tension: Faculty Explorations Of The Meaning Of Social Justice In Teacher Education, Mary Shelley Thomas, Christine D. Clayton, Shin-Ying Huang, Roberto Garcia

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This study explores faculty perspectives of social justice in teacher education within one New York institution with a social justice focus. Grounded in the institution’s self-study process for accreditation, the researchers were a part of a team that collected data from structured interviews, including a card sort, of 42 full time teacher educators across 16 programs in the institution. Informed by sociocultural theories (Vygotsky, 1978, Wertsch, 1991), a content analysis revealed the language selected by faculty as well as their meaning-making process and describes how individuals contextualized those meanings. Findings demonstrated a range of meanings and lack of a shared …

Relationship-Based Infant Care As A Framework For Authentic Practice: How Eun Mi Rediscovered Her Teaching Soul, Susan L. Recchia, Seung Eun Mcdevitt

Occasional Paper Series

In this paper, we explore the complex nature of preparing diverse professionals for authentic, relationship-based care for infants and toddlers in child care. Looking through the eyes of one student caregiver, we travel with her through a semester-long course introducing her to infant care as an integral part of early childhood teacher preparation. We draw on her descriptions of her weekly experiences in an infant room focusing on a key child, her formal reflections in written assignments, and her responses to a series of interview questions once the course was completed to construct a theory of authentic practice through relationship-based …

Promoting Mentally Healthy Classrooms: Evaluation Of Online Mental Health Literacy Instruction In Pre-Service Teacher Education, E. Robyn Masters

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

To better understand how to prepare large numbers of pre-service teachers for their role in creating and leading mentally healthy classrooms, this program evaluation explores outcomes related to an online mental health literacy course at a large central Canadian university. The course was delivered to 275 teacher education students simultaneously over 10-weeks and 20-hours of online instruction and professional reflection. Results indicated significant improvement in self-reported levels of mental health literacy, stigma toward mental illness, and self-efficacy for teaching students with diverse challenges. Qualitative reviews of participant feedback identified the most valuable aspects of the course and the ways in …

Mentoring Future Mathematics Teachers: Lessons Learned From Four Mentoring Partnerships, Angie Hodge, Janice Rech, Michael Matthews, Kelly Gomez Johnson, Paula Jakopovic

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Mentoring is an important aspect of mathematics teacher education, and in particular, pre-service teacher education. Faculty at a large Midwestern university developed and refined a mentoring program designed to help pre-service secondary mathematics teachers, called Scholars, become future leaders in mathematics education. This paper describes how faculty mentors leveraged challenges in the mentoring program’s early stages based on their reflections and initial mentee outcomes to create a more effective mentoring program. Recommendations based on research and practice are provided for other university programs interested in mentoring future mathematics teachers.

Writing Instruction In China: Challenges And Efforts, Rongrong Dong, Danling Fu, Xiaodi Zhou, Buyi Wang

Bilingual and Literacy Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This qualitative study examined the current writing instruction in 1-12 level education with the data collected in three Chinese cities. The data from the Interviews of teachers and teacher-educators at different levels and from classroom observations at upper elementary to high schools in three metropolitan cities across China provide insights into 1-12 writing instruction in contemporary China. To further reveal the efforts taken by writing teacher under China’s high-stakes testing culture, this paper also presented a case study of an exemplary 10th grade writing teacher, who took tremendous efforts in nurturing true readers and writers in his classroom under the …

An Integrated Map Of The Iste Standards For Educators, Danielson Framework For Teaching, And Interstate Teacher Assessment And Support Consortium (Intasc) Standards, Tonia A. Dousay

Tonia A. Dousay

Developing Open Practices In Teacher Education: An Example Of Integrating Oer And Developing Renewable Assignments, Jennifer Van Allen, Stacy Katz

Publications and Research

This manuscript offers a reasoning for and example of integrating Open Educational Resources (OER) and open pedagogy within a teacher education course. We highlight a collaborative partnership between library faculty and education faculty and the decision points and processes we used when redesigning this course to provide an example of adopting OER and our considerations for developing a renewable assignment. The benefits of using OER for K-12 teachers include increasing awareness of and providing opportunities to develop open practices. The transition to a renewable assignment creates a space for teaching candidates to meaningfully contribute to the profession and engage in …

Documenting Undocumented Motives Influencing The Career Choice Of The First-Year Science And Math Student Teachers In Indonesia, Amirul Mukminin, Masbirorotni Masbirorotni, Lenny Marzulina, Dian Erlina, Akhmad Habibi, Fridiyanto Fridiyanto, Mia Aina, Nunung Fajaryani, Nurulanningsih Nurulanningsih

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The aim of this study was to investigate the motives that were instrumental in driving the first-year science and math student teachers to be a teacher at one public university in Sumatra, Indonesia. A questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. 378 participants completed questionnaires consisting of 318 females and 60 males while the interview data were collected from voluntary participants. The data of the fulfilled questionnaires were calculated as percentage of their whole results while the data of the interviews were carefully analysed by looking at the responses from all interviewees. Our results indicated that there …

Co-Teaching: Collaborative And Caring Teacher Preparation, Colette Rabin

Faculty Publications

This study investigated what happened during the implementation of a co-teaching model for student-teaching from a relational perspective. When analyzed through the theoretical framework of care ethics, teacher-candidates and their mentor-teachers developed caring relationships, acknowledged and negotiated differential power dynamics, and described cultivating a caring climate through dialogue and modeling.

Exploring The Experiences Of Male Early Childhood Aspiring Teachers, Tingting Xu

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This exploratory study investigated the reasons why males chose early childhood

education and their lived experiences in a teacher education program. Qualitative data

were collected through interviews with twelve male early childhood pre-service

teachers. Results demonstrated that: Participates were passionate about teaching

young children. They were mostly supported by their relatives and friends in their

decision to become an early childhood teacher. They were positive about future career

opportunities but still had an underlying fear of losing job or being seen as sexual

predators. Meanwhile, participates indicated some conflicts might exist between the

field experience and program learning experience. They …

White Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions And Their Development Of Culturally Relevant Literacy Practices, Lakia M. Scott, Elena Venegas

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Existent literature purports that providing White teacher candidates with increased exposure to urban schools in order to create culturally competent educators has failed. These findings reflect the notion that teacher ideologies and overall perspectives about working with diverse student groups must be harnessed in a genuine ethic of care and intentionality for students of color. However, few studies have taken the approach of examining the development of culturally relevant pedagogy through context-specific field experiences using content-specific courses. This study examines the perspectives of twenty-five White pre-service teachers from a predominately White, private university regarding their initial perceptions and gained conceptual …

Real-Time Support: Using Ecoaching To Increase Preservice Teachers’ Confidence To Teach, Morgan V. Blanton, Aftynne E. Cheek, Elizabeth Bellows

Journal of Media Literacy Education

The role of teacher education preparation programs is to equip preservice teachers (PSTs) with the knowledge and skills to support the development of all students. To do this, university faculty must establish and monitor PST’s progress toward quality standards for teaching. eCoaching is a professional learning tool that provides real-time feedback to PSTs during instruction. In this article, the authors present eCoaching as a professional learning strategy. An overview of eCoaching logistics, perceived impact of eCoaching on PSTs, a description of eCoaching in action, and an explanation of how it meshes with current support practices are provided.

Inclusion And Policy Enactment In Teacher Education: A Focus On Pre-Service Teacher Preparation For The Inclusive Classroom, Ayman Massouti

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Preparing pre-service teachers to enact inclusive teaching practices in the inclusive classroom has become a concern for national and international educational organizations. Adding to these concerns, research on inclusive educati­on policy enactment in teacher education programs, particularly in a continuously growing and recognized diverse society such as Ontario, Canada, is scarce. In order to provide insight to address these issues, this study aimed to examine the enactment of the policy document titled Equity and Inclusive Education in Ontario Schools: Guidelines for Policy Development and Implementation (OME, 2014) in one Ontario teacher education program. In particular, the study focused on exploring …

Re-Envisioning Teacher Education: Using Discrit Perspectives To Disrupt Deficit Thinking, Kathleen M. Olmstead, Kathleen Colantonio-Yurko, Jennifer Randhare Ashton, Logan T. Rath

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

This paper suggests that teacher educators engage in research that investigates practices and curriculum to consider how they might best confront issues of equity and deficit thinking in individual courses and disciplines. Rooted in the tenets of culturally responsive teaching and culturally sustaining pedagogy, the authors explore how DisCrit theory further informs understandings of hegemonic schooling practices, imploring faculty to upset the implicitly biased narratives that are so often reproduced in teacher education.

Developing Instructional Skills: Perspectives Of Feedback In Student Teaching, Noelle Won, Kimy Liu, Debra Bukko

Networks: An Online Journal for Teacher Research

Feedback is essential for the transformation and development of new teachers. This action research study explored perceptions of feedback givers/receivers in the development of essential teaching skills in a new co-teaching model. Outcomes informed programmatic changes to teacher education trainings and protocols. The research team included teacher education faculty, including the program leader (author 1), faculty (author 2) and K-12 teacher leader (author 3). Student teachers (6), cooperating teachers (7), and university supervisors (3) participated in semi-standard interviews and close-ended surveys. Responses were analyzed for feedback content, frequency, timing, effectiveness, reception and application. Three key components of the feedback process …

Secondary Mathematics Teachers’ Responses To Pivotal Teaching Moments, Kami M. Dupree

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study used a multiple case study design to explore the occurrence of pivotal teaching moments, teachers’ responses to these moments, and teachers’ own perceptions of the impact of these moments on their own knowledge development. The participants were six practicing secondary mathematics teachers. The researcher collected data from teacher created lesson plan outlines, observations of the same lesson delivered to two different classes, participant interviews, and teacher reflection journals. The researcher reviewed the lesson plan outlines prior to observations to understand teachers’ anticipations. During observations, the researcher recorded observed pivotal teaching moments, corresponding teacher responses to these moments, and …