Education Commons^™

Teaching For Social Justice In Middle Grades Mathematics: Lessons From A Field Instructor/Preservice Teacher Partnership, Kelsey L. Benson, Ashley Conlon

Middle Grades Review

This paper discusses the implementation of social justice lessons in middle grades mathematics by a preservice teacher enrolled in a social justice-oriented teacher education program during her practicum placements in 7^th and 8^th grade classrooms in a rural county in the southeastern United States. We begin with an overview of relevant literature on the importance of teaching for social justice in mathematics, particularly with/for young adolescents. Next we describe the social justice Math lessons Ashley designed and taught. We conclude with implications for both teachers and teacher education programs undertaking justice-oriented work in divisive and hostile political contexts.

“Always A Place To Start” In Middle Grades Education: Editorial Remarks, Penny A. Bishop, James F. Nagle

Middle Grades Review

No abstract provided.

Pre-Service Teachers’ Experiences With Multi-Tiered Systems Of Support: Universal Screening & Intervention Planning, Alexandra J. Taylor, Tommy Wells, Amy Lein

Kentucky Teacher Education Journal: The Journal of the Teacher Education Division of the Kentucky Council for Exceptional Children

Assessment plays a key role in the multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) model. Universal screening is an assessment component embedded into MTSS, specifically within the response to intervention framework. The process of administering, scoring, and analyzing data from a universal screener is an essential skill that pre-service teachers need to gain in their educator preparation programs. In this qualitative, case study approach, we examined the ways an experimental learning project in implementing universal screeners impact pre-service teachers’ beliefs and practices for Tier 1 of MTSS. The project was provided to pre-service teachers to give them familiarization with the implementation of …

Learning From Faculty Mentors Who Had To Mentor And Evaluate Teacher Candidates Completing A Remote Practicum In The Early Stages Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In Canada, Sheryl Macmath, Deirdre Degagne

Journal of Educational Supervision

In the Spring of 2020, the COVID-19 global pandemic impacted all aspects of life throughout the world, including education. Teachers who had never taught online before, all of a sudden had one week to get ready to engage with their students in a virtual setting. On top of these changes, our small post-degree Canadian teacher education program had teacher candidates on practicum in K-12 schools. That meant our faculty mentors, responsible for recommending teacher candidates for certification, had to figure out how to mentor, support, and evaluate teacher candidates who were teaching remotely. This research aimed to address the following …

Special Education Teachers’ Emotional Well-Being And Work-Related Stressors In The School Environment, Mallory J. Laravie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There is little to no research regarding novice elementary special education teachers (SETs) and their emotional well-being while in the school environment. The goal of this work is to illuminate special education teacher’s voices missing in previous research. Additionally, this research examines the impact of work-related stressors on novice elementary SETs' emotional well-being in the school environment. The theoretical perspective of heuristics is used to illuminate a problem or answer a question about the lived experience of the researcher. Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) transactional theory of stress and coping framework guided the research question development, data analysis, and presentation of …

Building A Community Of Practice: Shifting An M.Ed. Program To A Pds School-Based Cohort Model, Elizabeth Hale, Hope E. Wilson, Lauren Gibbs, Jessie Didier, Carolyne Ali-Khan

Faculty Publications: Education

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine how participants experienced and perceived an M.Ed. program that had a school-based design. In particular, the authors sought to understand: (1) how participants experienced being in a school-based cohort and (2) whether and how participants experienced the three designated tenets of the M.Ed. program: teacher inquiry, social justice and student engagement and motivation.

Design/methodology/approach

This qualitative study used semi-structured focus group interviews (n = 7) to examine teachers’ perceptions, using a constant comparative method (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) of open coding to analyze the data and determine emergent themes.

Findings

The …

Adaptive Instruction Through Reflection: How Preservice Teachers Create And Implement Individualized Literacy Lessons In A University Reading Center, Jennifer Marie Lennon

Dissertations

Modern classrooms are increasingly diverse. Students vary in their academic abilities, personal interests, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, and previous experiences (Allen et al., 2013). To meet the varied needs of students, educators must adapt their instruction so all are able to find success. Modifying lesson plans and changing instruction based on student needs are forms of adaptive instruction (Hoffman & Duffy, 2016; Vaughn, 2019). This study explored the metacognitive processes of preservice teachers (PSTs) as they implemented adaptive instruction within their literacy lessons in a university reading center tutoring program. Adaptive instruction was examined through two lenses: first, as PSTs …

Looking Back In Order To Move Forward: Lessons From Covid-19 For Teacher Education, Kiersten Greene, Lizabeth Cain, Elizabeth Brennan, Brianna Vaughan

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

This article provides critical perspectives on education technology integration in a teacher education context in a post-pandemic world. The authors—two early career teachers, one in a pre-school and one in an elementary school, and two elementary teacher education faculty members at a mid-sized public university—use the U.S. Department of Education’s 2016 guiding principles for educational technology in teacher education for analysis. The commentary evolves directly from and reflects the authors’ collective experience across the P-20 spectrum in education technology, with close attention paid to what was learned during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent pivot to remote learning …

“I Changed My Mind”: Exploring Why College Students Change Majors To Become Teachers, Ross Bussell

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

While teacher education programs have long studied what draws students to choose a career in teaching, a less studied aspect of teacher candidates relates to students who change majors to become teachers. As a phenomenon that is common in teacher preparation, I am interested in better understanding why this happens. This article centers around six participants who began college choosing a science major, changing their course of study after at least one full year. Through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews, a discussion of what led the participants to change majors, what they were looking for when deciding to become teachers, and …

Book-Tasting Presentations Within An Early Childhood Educator Preparation Program, Johannah D. Baugher, Narges Sareh

The Advocate

This manuscript discusses a teacher education experience utilized within an early childhood literacy methods course named, book-tasting presentation. Existing literature suggests that book-tastings, in a variety of forms, are evident at the PK-12 level, yet not prevalent in higher education and specifically, teacher education. The aim of the book-tasting presentations is to expose early childhood teacher candidates to diverse, high-quality picturebooks and their application in early childhood settings to cook up a love of literacy among our youngest readers. This is achieved through the Experiential Learning Cycle as teacher candidates are tasked to experience, reflect, think, and act throughout this …

Preparing Preservice Teacher For All Learners: A Book Critique On Gifted Education And Gifted Students, David S. Wolff

The Advocate

If is often said that undergraduate coursework in gifted education is a paragraph or chapter in a book. Without specific coursework regarding gifted education and gifted learners, preservice teachers are partially equipped to meet the diverse learning needs in today’s classrooms. This article provides a review of Gifted Education and Gifted Students: A Guide for Inservice and Preservice Teachers by Margot and Melin (2020) as a recommended primer for preservice teachers to gain basic knowledge and understanding of who gifted learners are and how to provided appropriate services for them.

Meeting The Needs Of Multilingual Students: Using Teacher-Reported Challenges And Successes For Teacher Preparation, Vanessa Z. Mari, Steve Hayden

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

Preparing teachers to meet the needs of multilingual students is the goal of TESOL and Bilingual education programs in higher education. What these programs use to determine what these needs are can vary by location, faculty, and population of learners. This qualitative study surveyed in-service teachers applying for their TESOL or Bilingual endorsements in a college in the southwest United States. Research questions asked about the challenges and successes teachers face in meeting the needs of multilingual students and used this data to determine themes. The data showed that teachers encounter challenges meeting the needs of multilingual students in the …

Investigating An Instructional Model For Integrated Stem In Teacher Education, Laurie O. Campbell, Nicole Damico

Journal of STEM Teacher Education

Active learning experiences that incorporate technology, design, and making combine to form an important and necessary pedagogical approach that supports the 21st century skills of collaboration, communication, creativity, digital literacies, and computational thinking as a problem-solving framework. Active learning experiences in teacher preparation serve as a model for future educators to follow, while building the educators' efficacy to conduct future implementations with their own students. In this study, a multidisciplinary Pop-Up Makerspaces activity was conducted as an active hands-on approach to interdisciplinary STEM education. The intersectionality of English language arts with integrated STEM through design and making included: (a) enriching …

Preparing Educators To Coach For Equity: Title Ix And The Power Of A Coach, Rebekah Dimick Eastman

Essays in Education

This piece takes a look at Title IX history and policy and the potential impact that teacher educators can have on the athletic landscape, especially as it pertains to girls. History of Title IX and athletics is reviewed. The current situation is reviewed, showing a stagnation of growth of girls’ and women’s sports. New data, collated from coaching directories, is shared and clearly shows a need for improvement in gender representation in coaching. Finally, a path forward to recruit and prepare coaches to coach for gender equity is given.

Navigating The Chasms Between Real And Ideal Literacy Professional Development, Poonam Arya, Kathryn L. Roberts

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

In this study, we examine the supportive and hindering factors that influenced 26 teachers’ implementation of pedagogy learned through a research-based, resource-intensive literacy PD initiative (100+ hours). Through post-intervention interviews, we explore the space between learning and enactment of new practices for literacy teaching and learning. Specifically, we ask, What are teachers’ perceptions of the contextual factors that support and hinder their moving from learning to implementation of literacy PD? Results indicate four primary supportive factors (PD facilitators, communities of practice, schools/administrators, and student affective responses) and three primary hindering factors (circumstantial factors, lack of resources, and mismatches between school …

Investment In Teacher-Education Versus Teacher-Educational Research For Effective Teacher-Professional Learning, Nipael Mrutu, Esther Kibga, Aladini Hoka, Peter Kajoro, Fredrick Mtenzi, Hamis Nkota, Tage Biswalo

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

Purpose: This systematic research paper provides a comprehensive review of studies and literature on three terms i.e., teacher education, teacher professional learning and teacher education research more specifically in the context of the Tanzania education system. One of the most important aspects identified in teacher education in recent years is teacher educational research despite being yet overlooked. Teacher educational research creates a better juncture through which a gap between teacher education and teacher professional learning is bridged and the two present well with one another.

Methodology: The analysis used 45 articles related to the three aspects, published in ten …

A Look At Diversity Through The Lens Of Universal Design For Learning And Differentiated Instruction To Better Educate Learners, Mokysha Benford

The Journal of the Research Association of Minority Professors

In addition to the COrona VIrus Disease (COVID) gap, the teacher shortage, and increasing accountability, schools and classrooms continue to grow more and more diverse. This diversity presents its own set of challenges as teachers are expected to meet the needs of all learners. In addition to linguistic, religious, gender, sexual preference, race, socioeconomic status, and family structure diversity, students bring their varied culture and prior experiences to the classroom, and this impacts learning. This article presents a critical review of literature that examines Universal Design for Learning and Differentiated Instruction to address the instructional challenges diversity can create. It …

Time To Transform: Challenges And Opportunities For Teaching Practice During Covid-19 And Beyond, Muhammad Abid Malik Mam, Hina Amin Ha, Saleha Ali Sa

The Qualitative Report

Teaching practice is one of the most significant components of a teacher education program that prepares prospective teachers for a fast-changing and technology-infused world. However, in many developing countries like Pakistan, it has remained stuck in the traditional methods (face-to-face, without proper utilization of technology) which made it vulnerable during COVID-19. This study explores teaching practice methods and strategies used by Pakistani universities before and during COVID-19. It further identifies the causes behind its deficiencies to prepare prospective teachers for the challenges of the current era. Using semi-structured interviews, data was gathered from nine teaching practice supervisors from nine different …

For The Love Of Teaching: Pre-Service Teachers’ Experience Of Moral Education, Anne Marie Foley Ruiz

Doctoral Dissertations

Moral aspects of teaching arise each and every day, yet we lack information about how prepared teachers feel about this critical aspect of teaching. This multi-case study explores perceptions of five pre-service teachers in an elementary teacher education program in Western Massachusetts. A series of interviews explore their histories prior to the program and their experiences in the program as related to the pre-service teachers’ orientations to the moral work of teaching. Research questions address the awareness and self-efficacy of student teachers in implementing the moral aspects of teaching. Using Thematic Analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006), this study explores beliefs …

Dismantling Anti-Blackness In Teacher Education: Centering Black Epistemologies To (Re)Construct Elementary Language Arts Education For Linguistic And Racial Justice, Jasmyn Kymberly Jones

Teaching & Learning Theses & Dissertations

Black students and their linguistic resources are undervalued, disdained, disrespected, and disregarded in language arts classrooms. Not only is Black Language often ignored in English language arts instruction, but language more generally remains largely hidden within elementary ELA. Elementary ELA educators are tasked with teaching a vast array of skills, content, and concepts. So, teacher education programs are responsible for ensuring that preservice teachers leave prepared to take on the task of cultivating language arts classrooms that foster students’ literacy development. However, traditionally, literacy teacher education and the ELA curriculum has maintained white mainstream English as the standard for which …

The Relationship Between Discipline-Specific Subject Matter Knowledge And Discipline-Specific Science Teaching Efficacy Of Elementary Teachers, Douglas Ball

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Because a teacher's confidence in their ability to teach science is associated with instructional methods and their persistence in the face of challenges, improving science teaching confidence becomes critical for improving science teaching of young children. Science teaching confidence also varies by discipline for elementary teachers: physical science teaching confidence tends to measure lower than life science. This discrepancy leads to elementary teachers engaging in less effective science teaching practices with physical science than life science. A teacher's subject matter knowledge influences their confidence in their ability to teach that subject. Subject matter knowledge impacts science teaching confidence because when …

Transformational Leadership Qualities Of Teacher Candidates In Classrooms: A Study From Uae, Laila Mohebi, Areej Elsayary

All Works

Universities have an objective of enhancing leadership skills in its students’ personalities. This study explores these skills in College of Education teacher candidates’ character, personality and performance during teaching in classrooms. The current research is structured around Northouse (2016) transformational leadership model. He states that transformational leaders possess four components; idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration. In the current study, the four components were identified during teaching and interaction with students in classrooms. Thirty-two teacher candidates were observed during teaching in the classroom and several traits were exhibited most while another set were observed least. The study …

Infographic: Music Education Skills Among Primary Teachers, Jo Earp

Teacher infographics

The new Fading Notes report explores the provision of music education in Australian primary teaching degrees. Researchers surveyed lecturers responsible for music education within Initial Teacher Education degrees, representing a student pool of more than 4,600 primary teaching students across 73% of universities delivering generalist primary teaching degrees. Topics included music training hours, and knowledge, skills and competency to teach. Here are some of the results.

So Much New To Learn And So Much Unknown: Novice Teachers’ Experiences During Covid-19, Angela W. Webb, Jennifer J. Baumgartner

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

To support novice teachers, we need to listen to and honor their experiences in the classroom. This is true during the best of times and especially true amid the tumultuous teaching and learning experiences brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we discuss emergent themes from interviews with student teachers and early career teachers in spring 2021 about their experiences with the transition to virtual or remote teaching in response to COVID-19. We explore how student teachers and early career teachers experienced the stress of pandemic teaching, what they found supportive, and how their experiences can inform care-full …

Uplifting The Cultural And Ethical Desires Of A Student Of Color: An Intercultural Phenomenological Exploration Of Marginalized Desires In Teacher Education, Younkyung Hong

Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education

In this study, I engage in the intercultural phenomenological analysis of discovering and naming marginalized and undervalued desires in a teacher education space. Based on Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) conceptualization of desire, I challenge the understanding of desire as an absence or lack. I chose to focus on an Asian American female student’s story that has the power and potential to provoke awareness and prompt further examination and discussion about the complex realities of preservice teachers’ learning practices. This study highlights the value of adjusting the understanding of “what is manifested” in a phenomenological study to “what is not manifested?” …

A Study On The Influence And Importance Of Black Science Teachers, Demetrice Smith-Mutegi

Journal of Research Initiatives

Black teachers have been known to provide positive experiences and outcomes for students, especially Black students. Nevertheless, Black science teachers are marginally represented in public classrooms across the United States, and Black students are marginally under-represented in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Black science teachers provide an inherent value to the education of Black children, including their ability to make science meaningful and relevant, contribute to the community where they live and work, and relate to students' experiences more intimately. Further, All levels of education should prioritize Black science teacher recruitment, and educational researchers should provide more evidence of …

Developing Horizontal Expertise With Professional Learning Communities In Social Studies Teacher Preparation, Charles Tocci, Ann Marie Ryan

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

As teacher education programs become increasingly organized around accreditation and licensure standards, finding opportunities to be responsive to teacher candidates' needs and interests has become more difficult. This paper traces the evolution of a professional learning community for secondary social studies teacher candidates as a key feature of one teacher education program and analyzes the collaborative projects designed for the purpose of developing horizontal expertise. We find that professional learning communities can serve as dynamic spaces to co-construct learning experiences with candidates in ways that prepare them for future professional learning as practicing social studies teachers.

“Back To Basics:” Converging Mattering, Dialogue, And Love Within Pedagogy, Research, And Community-Engaged Work, Camilla Bell, Martín Alberto Gonzalez, Terrence Burgess

Chicano/Latino Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article highlights the intersections of Mattering, Dialogue, and Love— three seemingly distinct concepts, within schooling and research. Using sister circles, book presentations, and a critical ethnography, we underscore how a critical examination of one’s lived experiences can serve as a platform for anti-racist and social justice work. In this way, this article functions as a medium through which we acknowledge systemic inequities perpetuated within schools and recenter schools as extensions of the communities they serve.

Three Rs For Middle Level Education: The 2022 Ncpomle John Vanhoose Lecture, David C. Virtue

Middle Grades Review

The author contends the most prominent challenges and conditions facing middle level education now and in the near future point to three imperatives for the field: middle level education must be relevant, resilient, and robust. After conceptualizing the field of middle level education as an interdisciplinary, applied field of study concerned with the formal education of young adolescent learners in school settings, the author discusses each of the three imperatives and provides recommendations for scholars to move forward alongside professionals in middle level schools and classrooms to achieve a bright educational future for young adolescents.

Making Middle Grades Education Relevant, Resilient, And Robust: Editorial Remarks, James F. Nagle, Penny A. Bishop

Middle Grades Review

No abstract provided.