Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Supporting English Learners Through Practice-Based Research, Catherine Lammert, Erica B. Steinitz Holyoke

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Learning to use critical practice-based research as part of teaching is an important goal for preservice teachers, especially for those who plan to teach English learners in linguistically diverse settings. In this study, we examine the experiences of preservice teachers who were introduced to a framework for enacting iterative, transformative action research, and used the framework to study their own teaching in a one-on-one writing partnership with young English learners. Using an established self-efficacy survey instrument, as well as qualitative measures such as course artifacts and observations of teaching, we conducted a mixed-methods study to examine the impact of research …

Editorial Review Board Rh V. 59 N.1

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

No abstract provided.

Examining Literacy Specialist Candidates’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs In Leadership Competencies Before And After Internships In Schools, Nina L. Nilsson

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

The purpose of this study was to examine differences in the self-efficacy beliefs of 25 literacy specialist candidates in three key leadership areas before and after 15-week internships in schools. The three leadership areas, identified by university faculty as important to the leadership role of literacy specialists in schools today, are: 1) serving as a resource to classroom teachers, administrators, and parents; 2) conducting staff development; and 3) engaging in literacy program development and coordination. Paired-sample t-tests used to evaluate pre/post-survey scores at the end of the 15 weeks suggest self-efficacy beliefs in all three categories grew significantly over …

Disruptive Teaching: Centering Equity And Diversity In Literacy Pedagogical Practices, Anne Swenson Ticknor, Mikkaka Overstreet, Christy M. Howard

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Teacher educators must prepare preservice teachers (PSTs) to become equitable practitioners who honor the voices and experiences of their future students. In this article, we advocate for centering equitable teaching in literacy education courses and making explicit how to disrupt traditional perspectives of teaching diverse students. This qualitative study investigated PSTs’ perceptions and attitudes about teaching diverse students after a series of modeled lessons. Analysis revealed that over the course of the semester PSTs either continued to focus on barriers related to equitable teaching, began to discuss new possibilities for teaching, or were ready to enact the practices they had …

Self-Efficacy And Attitudes For Vocabulary Strategies Among English Learners And Native Speakers, Qizhen Deng, Guy Trainin

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

This study examined university students’ self-efficacy and attitudes for employing vocabulary strategies in four learning contexts. The contexts are characterized by input modality (reading vs. listening) and purpose (academic vs. leisure). Another goal was to compare the self-efficacy and attitudes between English learners (ELs) and native speakers. A total of 112 participants responded to four short scenarios by rating their self-efficacy and attitudes toward employing vocabulary strategies under each scenario. Among the results, students reported higher self-efficacy using morphological analysis and dictionary use when reading, and higher self-efficacy to seek help when learning for academic purpose. There were no differences …

Cal Poly Rodeo Ag 243 Rodeo Class, Serth Chance Niederhauser

Agricultural Education: Graduate Internship Reports

This report details the role of an assistant coach with the Cal Poly Rodeo program with the responsibilities of revising the AG 243 rodeo course.

Social Justice Leadership: A Case Study Of Engagement Practices With Multilingual Families, Vera J. Lee, Kristine Lewis Grant, Barbara Hoekje

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Traditionally established best practices for parent engagement cannot be assumed to be effective when serving culturally and linguistically diverse families. Such practices do not account for cultural variation and linguistic differences in family involvement with school-based activities. School leaders with a social justice orientation are key to challenging established practices and creating school cultures where multilingual families are welcomed and engaged. The authors present a qualitative case study of an administrator and the lead ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher of a large urban charter school in the northeast region of the United States, and their efforts to serve …

Moving Beyond Tradition: Designing An Online Course For School Leaders, Larry J. Walker, Michelle Sullivan

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Increasingly post-secondary institutions are dedicating resources to develop online courses. This includes hybrid (classroom and online instruction) and fully online classes. The growth of online options coincides with the creation of various platforms that make communication between graduate students and faculty members seamless. However, there is a gap in the research which examines the development of online courses for current and aspiring school leaders (e.g., teachers, principals, district staff). For this reason, this article utilizes extant literature and autoethnographic vignettes to 1) investigate the steps universities and school districts should take to make online classes more accessible for school leaders; …

School Districts And A University Principal Preparation Program Partnership: A Cohort Model, Alejandro Garcia, Velma Manchaca, Frederico Guerra

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover the perceived benefits and challenges of preparing principal candidates for school district/university partnerships. Data analysis from focus group interviews revealed both benefits and challenges. Themes that were perceived as benefits were: 1) increased opportunities for graduate students in educational leadership preparation programs, 2) integration of field-based experiences, 3) a supportive learning environment, and 4) networking opportunities. Conversely, challenging themes were: 1) need for school district liaison, 2) better collaboration between school district/university partnerships, 3) employment consideration for graduates of educational leadership preparation programs, and 4) better school facilities and equipment. The …

Relationship Between Internal School Crises And Effectiveness Of University Education In Nigeria, Abdulganiyu Adebayo Tijani, Stephen Olufemi Afolabi

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The study was a correlation research design that investigated relationship between internal school crisis and university effectiveness in Nigeria. The target population was academic staff of three universities in a Nigerian State from which a sample of 611 academic staff was chosen using a stratified sampling technique. The instrument tagged “Internal School Crisis and University Effectiveness Questionnaire (ISCUEQ)” was adopted to collect data. Test-retest method reliability test was carried out to obtain reliability coefficient of 0.72. Mean, standard deviation, and Pearson product moment statistics were used to analyze data at 0.05 significant level. The finding revealed, among others, a significant …

Making Change Stick: A Case Study Of One High School’S Journey Towards Standards-Based Grading, Matt Townsley, Megan Knight

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

The purpose of this study was to explain the experiences of high school teachers and administrators in the midst of transitioning to standards-based grading practices. The researchers used a single case study methodology to investigate how teachers and administrators described their school’s implementation successes and challenges. Data triangulation occurred through analyzing semi-structured interviews, meeting agendas, handbooks, and relevant documents provided by study participants. Using Kotter’s eight steps for leading organizational change as a framework, we recommend school leaders blow off the cobwebs and get started, understand staff needs and provide teacher support, and be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

The Influence Of Principal Leadership On Literate Practices And Instruction In A Middle School, Travis W. Duncan

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This case study uses Nicholls’s (1987) meta, macro, and micro levels of leadership merged with Dowell, Bickmore, and Hoewing (2012) and other literacy leadership research (Conley, 1989; Hall, Burns, & Edwards, 2011; Irvin, Meltzer, & Duke, 2007; Marks & Printy, 2003) to analyze the influence of a principal’s leadership on literacy instruction. The findings are similar to the integrated leadership approach emphasized in Marks and Printy (2003) but add additional evidence of cultural and human resource leadership. Strategies and structures that built culture around literate practices were evident. Teacher empowerment and building trust in school culture were important components.

A Predictive And Causal-Comparative Analysis Of Teacher Burnout And Emotional Empathy Among K-12 Public School Teachers, Lori Jean Rosensteel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Recent research has shown that teacher burnout is a contributing factor to many teachers leaving the field of education early on in their careers. Many teachers of all levels and subjects leave before ever reaching their full potential due to decreased job-satisfaction and the overwhelming symptoms of burnout crippling other areas of their life. Emotional exhaustion is a major component of burnout. Thus, emotional empathy may be related to teacher burnout. In this quantitative, correlational and causal-comparative study, the researcher examined the relationship between emotional empathy and teacher burnout among K-12 teachers. Further, the researcher investigated whether the relationship between …

Perspectives Of Professional Development On Supervision Skills, Roger "Mitch" Nasser

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Supervision skills are essential at all levels of administration in higher education. However, it is unclear where many professionals attain these skills. New professionals, who often supervise student workers, receive training during their graduate program experiences. Senior level professionals, those who run Student Affairs divisions or segments of those divisions, are often not questioned in their practices. Senior administrators are valued for decision making and strategic planning. Unfortunately, the final population, middle managers, do not receive training and may be expected to have skills upon arriving in a position. The following study examined perceptions of middle and senior administrators in …

How To Be An Online Student: Success Tips, Peggy Semingson, Karabi Bezboruah

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

No abstract provided.

Strategies Exemplary Social Studies Teachers’ Implement When Facilitating Discussions About Race, Candice Nicole Jasmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teachers experience difficulty in introducing some sensitive and controversial issues in the classroom environment. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to identify strategies that exemplary secondary social studies teachers implement when facilitating classroom discussions about sensitive and controversial issues, specifically, racial issues framed within Singleton and Linton’s 4 agreements of courageous conversations: stay engaged, speak your truth, experience discomfort, and accept and expect nonclosure. This study utilized qualitative data collection. Semi-structured, online one-to-one internet-based interviews were used to document the lived experiences of exemplary secondary social studies teachers and the strategies they use when facilitating discussions about …

Multiple Intelligences Approach To Infuse Critical Thinking Skills Among Preschoolers, Siew Nget Yong

Student Works (2020-2029)

Critical thinking skills (CTS) are regarded as the imperative skills for the complex and rapidly changing twenty-first century. The national educational goal should focus on developing CTS during early years. However, the infusion of CTS is not evident in our national preschool curriculum. There are no explicit guidelines and instructional consensus for teaching CTS in preschool. Thus, this study aimed to explore the ‘how’ and ‘what’ for the teaching and development of CTS among preschoolers through the adoption of the Multiple Intelligences approach (MIA). In addition, this study also explored how the acquired CTS can be applied for solving problems …

Taking Your Teaching To The Next Level Through The Use Of Oer, Nicole N. Williams

Publications and Research

Faculty creation, adaptation, and adoption of open educational resources (OER) can be used to enrich every aspect of the professor-student teaching relationship. Adding to the body of OER available allows faculty to rethink every aspect of what they teach and refine how they present that information. Having the ability to edit and adapt existing OER provides faculty with the benefits of collaboration, but without the scheduling concerns that often plague collaborative efforts. OER creation can be as simple as licensing handouts and presentation slides for sharing, or as involved as redesigning an entire course. Putting one’s own stamp on OER …

A Study Of The Impact Of Site-Based Mathematics Professional Development On Student Mathematics Achievement, Christine Attenhofer

Dissertations

Student achievement at one suburban elementary school under study dropped notably in mathematics in one school year, as measured by the state standards assessment. The purpose of this inquiry was to determine what impact ongoing, on-demand, job-embedded, site-based professional development opportunities provided by a full-time, site-base math content area specialist had on teachers' instructional practices and students' mathematics achievement. I implemented a mixed methods approach to this inquiry. I analyzed the end of the year state mathematics standards assessments for second through fifth grade students following the implementation of full-time, site-based professional development provided by a math content area specialist …

How Teachers Understand The Curriculum And Frameworks They Use, Kristin Vanwyngaarden, Michelle Friend

Teacher Education Faculty Proceedings & Presentations

This qualitative study investigates and compares teachers’ understanding of two curricular frameworks: Next Generation Science Storylines and the 5E Model. Teachers (grades K-6) participated in a three-week summer workshop designed to introduce elementary teachers to biomechanics, the study of the body in motion and help them develop inquiry-based biomechanics lessons using the NGSS Storyline framework in order to enhance their implementation of interdisciplinary, culturally responsive, and technology-enhanced STEM education. During a follow-up session to the workshop, eleven teachers read an article about implementing biomechanics into school science (Trauth-Nare, Pavilonis, Paganucci, Ciabattoni, & Buckley, 2016); this article used the 5E framework, …

Reinforcing Inequity: The Advanced Placement English Language And Composition Exam As Gatekeeper, Lorrie Cobain

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

The Advanced Placement (AP) program was started in the 1950s to give talented students an opportunity to accelerate their studies and earn college credit. The AP English Language and Composition test that was established in 1980 became a cornerstone of the program because it allowed students to skip part or all of first-year composition. Despite the exponential growth of the course throughout the country and attention from the College Board to foster increased access for underserved students and to support program equity, the mean score on the AP Language exam for all but one ethnic minority is consistently below the …

Creating And Using Open Educational Resources (Oer) In Reading And Writing Classes, Christine E. Hutchins

Publications and Research

Creating her own assignments using openly licensed course materials allows this professor and her students to be more creative and to take greater advantage of digital resources.

Deaning From The Middle: Academic Deans’ Emotional Intelligence And Leadership Effectiveness, Christy M. Tabors, Jacob F. Brewer

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

As higher education changes, academic deans’ roles also adapt to meet the demands of increased enrollment and serving diverse student populations. Academic deans lead from the middle of their institutions; they must report to university administration, while serving the faculty members within their respective colleges or schools (Bright & Richards, 2001; Buller, 2007; Butin, 2016; Dill, 1980; Gallos, 2002; Morris, 1981; Perlmutter, 2017). To meet these demands, academic deans must develop emotional intelligence to lead effectively. Emotional intelligence serves as a skillset for academic deans to use in navigating their administrative duties and serving as leaders for their faculty and …

Cyberpdx: An Interdisciplinary Professional Development Program For Middle And High School Teachers, Ellie Harmon, Veronica Hotton, Robert Liebman, Michael Mooradian Lupro, Wu-Chang Feng, Lois Delcambre, David Joel Pouliot

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

CyberPDX is an annual professional development program hosted at Portland State University. Our long-term goal is to broaden participation in cybersecurity. Since 2016, over 70 middle and high school teachers from the Pacific Northwest have participated in the STREAM program, which offers interdisciplinary instruction in programming, cryptography, personal security, policy, literature, and arts. In this poster, we share our interdisciplinary curriculum, present data on short-term impacts, and describe our in-progress work to evaluate the program’s longer term impacts.

Securing The Next Generation, Wu-Chang Feng, Robert Liebman, Ellie Harmon, Veronica Hotton, Michael Mooradian Lupro, Lois Delcambre

University Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Weak authentication practices that rely on passwords for security have led to widespread data breaches and successful phishing attacks. Recent advances in the cost and usability of hardware security tokens have made the prospect of effectively augmenting password-based authentication or removing it altogether a possibility. To actualize this, a paradigm change in how people learn to authenticate accounts on-line must occur. Towards this end, we describe a curriculum to teach high-school students the perils of passwords and a program to distribute hardware security tokens to them as they are first setting up their on-line presence in order to improve the …

Bringing College Classes To High School, Stephanie M. Wieland

Education Dissertations

Recent education reforms have focused heavily on increasing academic rigor for secondary students attending public schools with a goal of improved academic outcomes for all students. A common practice for increasing rigor school-wide is the adoption of college-level curriculums such as dual-credit, Advanced Placement, and the International Baccalaureate in U.S public secondary schools.

This study examined the relationship between the implementation of one or more college-level curriculum(s) in a public secondary school and overall student academic achievement. Academic achievement was measured by student performance on the Washington state standardized End of Course exam in Biology and the Smarter Balanced exams …

Conducting Classroom Preference Assessments To Determine Effective Reinforcers For Students With Disabilities, Jessica Mitchell

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Reinforcement is a way to help students acquire and maintain skills and appropriate behaviors. This review of literature focuses on a variety of educational studies on students who have special needs. A majority of these studies discussed the types of reinforcers and assessments utilized in either these students’ classrooms or in the researchers’ offices.

All educators should find a variety of reinforcers for their students; in order to avoid a student’s satiation (when they are bored of a specific reinforcer) for a specific item. The most productive way educators can avoid a student becoming satiated with a specific reinforcer is …

Expanding Kindergarteners’ Understanding Of Family Structure Regarding Same-Sex Parents, Emilia Sique

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

There is a lack of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ+) representation in elementary school curriculum. This deficit leads to a lack of understanding of LGBTQ+ identities, limited gender role diversity, and a predisposition to teasing and anti-gay bullying among children. Therefore, I created a two-day lesson for kindergarteners at Del Rey Woods Elementary in Seaside, California. Participants were evaluated before, during, and after the sessions. Results showed an increase in understanding and acknowledging LGBTQ+ families.

The Impact Of Professional Development Of Effective Teachers In Low Performing Schools, Brian Gibson

Dissertations

Abstract

Professional development is a substantial contributing factor to the success or lack of success in low-performing schools. Specific student-focused professional development can be used to increase academic achievement, school culture, and the level of effective teaching. A lack of attention to school-specific professional development can contribute to low student achievement, diminished school culture, and reduced teacher efficiency. In Florida, public schools have implemented the “4 Professional Development Standards” (Planning, Learning, Implementation, and Evaluation) to act as a tool to identify best practices in schools and classrooms as well as to determine what professional development is needed to improve instructional …

Next Generation Science Standards Aligned Curriculum's Impact On Students' Academic Scores And Attitude Towards Science, Jessica Louise Priester

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this causal-comparative study was to compare student test scores and attitude toward science before and after the implementation of a curriculum aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards. The Next Generation Science Standards are built on The Framework which include science and engineering practices, crosscutting concepts, and disciplinary core ideas. The approach of The Framework is to allow for student-centered rather than teacher-led lessons. The Framework shares similar outcome goals as those with constructivist views as this theory focuses on learning by experience. The participants in this study were a convenience sample of 7th and 8th grade …