Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

The Impact Of Teacher Preparedness And Professional Development On Fourth-Grade Students' Science Achievement, Craig L. Mayo, Faye Bradley

Journal of Research Initiatives

Science scores among US fourth-grade students have declined compared to their international counterparts in recent years. Recent results show that teachers are the most impactful influence on student success and accountability. Teacher preparedness and professional development are two key areas that serve as indicators of providing relevant and essential information for students' success. A correlational quantitative study was conducted to assess the relationship between teacher preparedness and professional development on fourth-grade students’ science achievement. The TIMSS 2019 data were secured from the Boston College, TIMSS, and PIRLS International websites. The data was evaluated using the SPSS 27 Hierarchical Linear Regression. …

Historical Inquiry: Who Has The Power? Using Film To Introduce Students To Medieval Social Class Structures, Megan Todd, Janie Hubbard

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Using film in the classroom to teach history has long been endorsed as an effective pedagogical method when the lessons’ purposes and goals are clearly supported with facts. This article, which includes a National Council for the Social Studies C3 inquiry-based lesson plan, is targeted for educators who aspire to help students understand basic European Medieval history and engage in critical thinking. Medieval history is listed in many U.S. state curriculum standards and international teaching benchmarks; thus, this lesson contributes a teaching-ready source, particularly to introduce students to historical concepts, geographies, and politics (i.e., power structures). Clips from A Knight’s …

To Close The Skills Gap, Technology And Higher-Order Thinking Skills Must Go Hand In Hand, Manying Qiu, Yaquan Xu, Emmanuel O. Omojokun

Journal of International Technology and Information Management

Technology is rapidly changing the business landscape. Workforce skills gap is widening in the digital business environment. Universities and employers call for developing students’ higher-order thinking skills along with integrating technology into academic curricula. We conducted a survey to assess learning outcomes from two groups of undergraduate students: business majors and information technology (IT) majors. SAP ERP hands-on case studies were used for this comparative experiment. The student survey results showed that the students of both majors believed that learning SAP software can lead to more rewarding jobs and they felt confident about their competitiveness in the job market. Although …

Interrogating Fake News In The Composition Classroom: Pedagogical Plans, Shelly A. Galliah

The Liminal: Interdisciplinary Journal of Technology in Education

This brief article argues that the skills developed in the first-year Composition classroom, such as analyzing texts, interrogating arguments, investigating media bias, conducting research, and thinking critically are crucial for helping students recognize the various forms of disinformation and post-truth as well as how to avoid circulating these and further polluting the media and information ecospheres. It also argues that Composition instructors must remain centrist to avoid exacerbating political polarization and alienating students who might be resistant to investigating fake news. This article summarizes some key readings and practical activities that Composition instructors may incorporate into their classrooms.

How Do We Change Statistical And Critical Thinking Attitudes In Young People?, Rhys C. Jones

Numeracy

A quasi-experimental design was used to measure the impacts on student attitudes in statistics, mathematics and critical thinking (16-18 years of age) on a group of students who received a 21-week-long contextualised statistics course (called the Pilot Scheme in Social Analytics), in South Wales. This paper will discuss the development and delivery stages of the course as well as the student recruitment strategies employed. This paper will also discuss the changes in attitudes observed after the course had finished. Results suggest the course did lead to changes in the students’ attitudes becoming more positive with respect to statistics, mathematics, and …

The Green Book: Race, Geography, And Critical Understanding, Mark Pearcy Ph.D.

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

Social studies teachers face a number of disciplinary challenges--for instance, insufficient geographic knowledge, fewer opportunities for critical analysis amid shrinking instructional time--and, in terms of confronting discrimination and disparity, an increasingly racially segregated society. Teachers can, however, make excellent use of historical resources and modern mapping tools to empower students in their analysis of the Jim Crow era and segregation in American daily life. This article describes the use of The Negro Motorist Green Book, a guide produced from 1937 to 1963 for African-American drivers which detailed American businesses which catered to black travelers. Using the data from these books, …

Integrating Creative, Critical, And Historical Thinking Through Close Reading, Document- Based Writing, And Original Political Cartooning, John H. Bickford Iii

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

State and national education initiatives prescribe diverse thinking through age-appropriate content area literacy tasks at all grade levels. History education researchers encourage teachers to intentionally integrate content, methods, and assessment in discipline-specific ways. This paper—targeting middle level and secondary students—proposes a fusion between scrutiny of juxtaposed texts, evidentiary writing, and creative expression of newly generated understandings. This model elicits students’ content area literacy through close reading and text-based writing; it evokes students’ criticality through historical thinking and creation. Interested teachers are offered a representative sample of student work.

Teaching Students To Challenge The Status Quo: Recognizing Oppression In African Film, Roberta Di Carmine

The Councilor: A National Journal of the Social Studies

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to share experiences and strategies about teaching race and oppression with African films and promote the use of non-Western films in the classroom. By referring to bell hooks' and Richard Dyer's works, the paper discusses how teachers have a responsibility to create a learning environment in which students learn to be open minded and to challenge the status quo.

African films offer an opportunity to achieve this goal. Films such as Black Girl demand students’ attention but also require in-depth discussions if we want to raise students’ awareness of films as political weapons …

Creating Order Out Of The Chaos Of Differentiated Lesson Planning For The Novice Teacher Candidate, J. Dusteen Knotts Ph.D.

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

Current classroom settings are more diverse than ever before. Preservice teacher candidates must learn the principles of differentiation and how to apply them to lesson preparation. Lesson planning is multi-faceted and this paper offers an integral tool to promote differentiated lesson planning to the novice teacher. These principles are presented in a concise, foundational chart aligning the components with Blooms Cognitive Taxonomy, classroom activities, assessment, scoring guides, and student grouping. Understanding of these aligned concepts sets the foundation to facilitate differentiated lesson planning.

Using Game-Based Learning To Foster Critical Thinking In Student Discourse, Marc I. Cicchino

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

Previous research indicates the importance of student discourse in the construction of knowledge and the fostering of critical thinking skills, especially in the field of problem-based learning (PBL). Further, a growing body of research on game-based learning (GBL) draws parallels between playing certain types of games and the solving of ill-structured problems, citing similar conditions for learning (student centered, small student groups, teachers as facilitators, problems as vehicles for development), and similar learning outcomes (communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, collaboration) as PBL. However, there is a gap in understanding how GBL affects critical thinking as embodied by student discourse when implemented …