Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Differentiation Revealed: A Multiple-Methods Qualitative Study On The Implementation Of Differentiated Instruction In A Mixed-Ability Elementary Classroom, Curtis James Cunningham

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Differentiated instruction as a philosophical approach to teaching has been around for decades. In recent weeks differentiation has come under fire as being an approach to teaching that is simply too difficult for teachers to implement. While teachers may attend a workshop or take a graduate class on the topic of differentiation and choose not to embrace the philosophy, there are also teachers who have successfully implemented differentiation. The argument against differentiation is based on the amount of effort required to simultaneously implement all components of differentiation.

To address these concerns the following question provided guidance for the present multi-method …

Does Teacher Behavior Change In Middle School Math Classes When Teachers Receive Instructional Coaching Using Bug-In-Ear Technology?, Ellen L. Browning

Communication Disorders & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate if there is a relationship between the use of immediate feedback provided through instructional coaching and teacher behaviors shown to improve student achievement. Specifically this study used a time-series nonequivalent control group design to explore the relationship between instructional coaching using Bug-In-Ear (BIE) technology and teacher frequency of the following behaviors: (a) teacher use of technology-enhanced choral response as part of completed three-term contingency trials, (b) the high-access strategy of choral response versus the low-access strategy of call-outs and blurt-outs, (c) re-directs, reprimands, and behavior-specific praise statements. Measures of student engagement and …

Cultural Learning Processes Through Local Wisdom: A Case Study On Adult And Lifelong Learning In Thailand, John A. Henschke Edd

Adult Education Faculty Works

This article provides the background and concept of Thailand Lifelong Learning [LLL], even attempting a definition. The Thai LLL vision encompasses strategies for developing human qualities such as integrity, self-reliance, adaptability, resilience, and spirituality, to name a few. In some regards LLL seeks to recapture a more fully-developed perspective, on what in earlier times and places [1238 AD in Thailand], was called 'indigenous education', as it now pursues the benefits of a vibrant Learning Society. Progress of LLL in Thailand at times seems to be very slow and methodological rather than dynamic. It stems from developing a policy of learning …

How Instructional Strategies Engaged Fourth Graders In Math Learning, Ryan Wallace Patrie

All Theses And Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the experiences of fourth-grade learners in a math classroom, how fourth graders express their interest and desire to learn math, and how different instructional strategies influence that interest and desire. The participants for this study were all fourth graders enrolled at a rural school district in Maine that serves approximately 1,200 learners in grades pre-kindergarten through Grade 6. Fifteen fourth graders provided the data to determine student perceptions on how they engage in math instruction. The findings of this study indicate strong relationships between instructional strategies and the self-determination theory of …

Teaching For Diversity And Equity: Scholarship And Practice, Elizabeth Mccormack, Esther Chiang, Jancy Munguia

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

Research has shown that factors such as race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status can have a significant impact on a student’s ability to complete a college degree. As our classrooms become more culturally and experientially diverse, what can we as faculty do to ensure that all students have the opportunity to succeed? There is a growing body of research that identifies issues that low-income, first-generation, underrepresented minority, and international students face and describes tested strategies for helping students overcome them. Our goal in this workshop is share these findings with faculty and empower them to adapt and integrate relevant strategies into …

Workshop: Enhancing Content For Mixed Skill Classrooms, Lesley Skousen

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

The explosion of online learning has provided many unbelievable new options for reaching students and engaging them on a personal level. However, so many options make responsible lesson-planning a daunting task. This presentation will explore the best practices of using online platforms for both native speakers and an international audience. Dr. Skousen draws from her experience working with international students and seven years of online course design, teaching, and consulting in order to present various lesson plans that engage students personally. In addition to discussing the creation of modules to facilitate different learning styles, there will also be a practical …

From The Co-Editors, Todd Pagano

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

We continue to work diligently to improve JSESD. One of the largest challenges to the journal remains the solicitation of manuscript submissions. As such, we are asking the journal’s readership to assist us in advertising the journal. If you are familiar with individuals who might be interested in submitting a manuscript, please pass along the JSESD author link provided above. We are especially interested in articles on science education for students with varying types of disabilities and at a full range of grade levels (K-12 and postsecondary).

Encouraging Esl Teachers To Empower Their Students To Read, Rachael M. Van Liefde

Master's Projects and Capstones

In the US, thousands of international students are studying, or are preparing to study, at institutions of higher education. Unfortunately, the below satisfactory English skills of these students are a concern worldwide. One of the most critical factors affecting their academic progress is their reading skills.

It is widely accepted that a successful student in higher education must be able to read and comprehend assigned readings quickly. However, reading speed and comprehension pose a significant obstacle for ESL students who are pursuing these goals. How can ESL teachers assist their students at the high beginning, intermediate or advanced levels in …

Incorporating Online Materials And Digital Learning/Assessing Tools Into Advanced Chinese Newspaper Reading And News Watching, Ying Wang, Lisha Xu

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

This is the report of a year-long blended learning project designed for advanced Chinese newspaper reading and news video watching. In advanced Chinese learning, newspaper reading and news video watching are considered quite challenging for Chinese language learners for their formal style, large and time-sensitive vocabulary, and limited exposure through traditional ways of learning/teaching. To meet these challenges, we incorporated three blended learning components into the traditional language teaching/learning, including: online video news subtitling, the digital exercises and assessment system, and computerized vocabulary-learning modules tailored to the course materials used for two advanced Chinese classes. The project is carried out …

Objects, Omeka, And The "Oops!" Factor: Two Case Studies Of Collection-Based Projects At Wheaton College, Claire Buck, Leah Niederstadt

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

In Spring 2014, Omeka was first used as part of a course assignment at Wheaton College. Students in Professor Leah Niederstadt’s Introduction to Museum Studies were each asked to conduct provenance research on an object from Wheaton’s Permanent Collection. They shared their research using Omeka, an online content management platform. Throughout the semester, students learned new technology, conducted research using primary and secondary sources, and identified images to support the provenance narratives they discovered. Lastly, they presented their research using Omeka. Assessment was conducted at the start and end of the semester to determine the project’s effect on student learning. …

Fitw Module Demos, Jennifer Spohrer, Hannah Weinstein, Rhonda Hughes, Jia Li

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

This session is for representatives from partner colleges on the U. S. Department of Education FIPSE's First in the World grant-funded project to develop a just-in-time, blended approach to mathematics fundamentals support in introductory STEM courses. Partner colleges are Allegheny, Bryn Mawr, Denison, Franklin & Marshall, Grinnell, Lafayette, Mills, Oberlin, Smith, St. Olaf, Vassar, and Wellesley. In this session members from the Bryn Mawr team will demonstrate the prototype modules we have developed using Khan Academy and WeBWorK materials. Our goal is to get feedback on these prototypes, partners envision implementing them to support our target courses (introductory calculus, chemistry …

Teaching Critical Thinking Through Online Writing And Debate, Douglas Harvey

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

Establishing an asynchronous learning environment that fosters critical thinking can be difficult due to the constraints of the format. The value of back-and-forth exchange of ideas and points can be muted by the lag time between posts. Students also tend to view forum posting as an individual writing activity, not the debate or discussion that faculty designed such environments to foster. This presentation will examine an attempt during the spring 2015 semester to employ a scaffold approach that supports moving students from individual blogging to debate in an online course. The course content involves the study of the impact of …

Digital Learning, Blended Courses: Faculty Innovations And Goals For Student Learning At Keuka College, Nicholas Koberstein, Nancy Marksbury, Enid Bryant, Jennie Joiner, Laurel Hester

Blended Learning in the Liberal Arts Conference

No abstract provided.

"A Boy Told Me I Was Ugly." Voices Of At Risk Adolescent Girls On Gender Identity And Dating Roles, Mellinee Lesley Ph.D., Heather M. Kelley Ph.D.

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

Through an exploration of urban middle school girls’ Discourse, this study sought to investigate how at risk females defined their gendered identity. Based on an analysis of spoken and written Discourse in a Third Space writing group, we discovered that at risk girls’ notions of patriarchal dating roles, which were predicated upon ideas of physical attractiveness and “datability,” drove much of their perspectives about gender. This study reveals girls’ strong desire to conform and adhere to dating roles with boys despite their depiction of relationships as tumultuous, necessary, exciting, and inevitably painful. Implications for educators pertain to the importance of …

Middle School Single-Gender Science Classes: Self-Concept And Discourse Analysis, Pauline M. Sampson, Gloria J. Gresham Dr., Melissa M. Leigh, Denice Mccormick Myers Ed.D

MLET: The Journal of Middle Level Education in Texas

One southwestern, suburban middle school in the United States implemented a voluntary, single-gender science program. Although other studies have documented the effects of single-gender instruction and recent educational innovations have focused on its benefits, minimal current research has investigated the effects in middle school science classroom contexts. This study indicated that the patterns of discourse differed between single-gender and mixed-gender classes, with single-gender male classes participating in higher levels of discourse than females in middle school single-gender classes. Overall, the self-concept for females was low in science and school performance. The discourse analysis revealed that males and females used higher …

We The People: A Simulation For Young Voters, Jessee Hankins

Honors Projects

This project discusses the evolution of my project from its inception through its completion. As a pre-service teacher in student teaching, my experiences directly influenced the development of this project. The project is one that discusses the use of simulations in a social studies classroom, and includes a lesson plan of the lesson that I used within my student teaching experience. The lesson plan also comes with materials that teachers may take advantage of the lesson plan, using it in their classroom to teach their students about the compromises that were created at the Constitutional Convention.

Blank Page: A Teacher Begins, John D. Wolfe

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Comprised of seven essays, this collection of literary nonfiction explores one man's journey into the teaching profession. The author recounts his experiences from just before he heard the call, to his first year teaching as an intern at Punahou School in Honolulu, through his first three years teaching full-time, and the challenges, mostly internal conflicts, he worked through as he taught freshmen and then two junior/senior electives before eventually going on sabbatical to Tanzania for his ninth year.

A Historical Perspective On The Revolution Of Science Education For Students Who Are Blind Or Visually Impaired In The United States, Cary A. Supalo Dr.

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The following was an invited presentation given by Dr. Cary A. Supalo to the National Federation of the Blind of Illinois annual state convention that was held in Chicago, Illinois on Saturday, October 28, 2011. These remarks were slightly modified for the Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities.

Cary A. Supalo

What does the term Revolution mean? To some it can simply mean change. To others, it can mean drastic change, and still to others, revolution is no more than a descriptor for something else. In this context, I believe revolution refers to a time of significant change.1 …

Improving Motivation, Engagement And Differentiation In Lesson Development Using An Interactive White Board: 10-Hour Workshop Cycle Toward Professional Development Certificate, Leslie Lieman, Jenelle Fiori, Naliza Sadik

Publications and Research

The School of Education prepares aspiring teachers for teaching in 21st century classrooms by offering intensive interactive white board training cycles. In designing interactive lessons, the workshop cycle focuses on the pedagogical decision making that can improve classroom teaching and student engagement and understanding.

Queering Social Justice Curricula Within Higher Education, Kate P. Cabot

Master's Projects and Capstones

Within higher education, social justice education has gained significant ground. While issues of gender, race, and class are increasingly addressed and incorporated into classes there remains a lack in inclusive curricula and pedagogies within colleges and universities when it comes to issues of gender and sexual identity. The social construction of gender and sexualities remains overlooked on the majority of college and university campuses, as well as the discrimination faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQIA) students unaddressed within curricula. The representation of the LGBTQIA community can be attended to within classrooms, campuses, and curriculums in …

Imparting Practical Wisdom And Resilience To Our Students, Charles (Derrick) Lawson

Journal of Critical Issues in Educational Practice

The powerful impact of communicating a teacher’s belief in a student is presented. By sharing trade books and novels with metaphoric messages, teachers can impart practical wisdom and enable students to develop resilience when facing challenges.

Classrooms As Creative Learning Communities: A Lived Curricular Expression, Soon Ye Hwang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Creativity—the fundamental basis of human experience, expression, and learning in the communal world of the classroom—is the primary concern of this dissertation. While creativity is one of the buzzwords of 21^st century education the world over, its lived understanding as fundamental to being human is understudied. This gap calls attention to the significances for all involved of entering into meaning making as creators. To explore the significances, I draw upon and give expression to my experiences of building such creative learning communities (CLC) in my own Multicultural Education (ME) classrooms as a teacher educator and curriculum theorist. Ways to …

Honoring Diversity In An Online Classroom: Approaches Used By Instructors Engaging Through An Lms, Jacob Petersen

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This is an inquiry into how online instructors embrace the diversity of their student body while facing the inherent differences between a traditional face-to-face class and one that is taught online. Current research suggests that diversity in a traditional classroom is an asset if the instructor is sensitive to students’ backgrounds. This paper examines if such philosophies in traditional classrooms translate well into a distance education environment, where the student body may be even more diverse than a face-to-face class, but possibly unrecognizable because of the lack of physical cues. Research on the topic of multiculturalism in an online classroom …

Collecting & Infusing Locally Relevant Video To Support Teacher Learning, Aliex Ross, Jeanne Peloso, Nancy Dubetz, Laura H. Baecher, Leslie Lieman, Naliza Sadik

Publications and Research

Context: Although online teaching videos are easy to find, few demonstrate locally relevant models for our aspiring teachers. Lehman College School of Education began a project in Fall 2014 to collect locally relevant video of teaching and student learning to demonstrate key practices in the field. We identified classrooms of highly competent program graduates as well as Professional Development Network Schools (PDS) teachers working in classrooms with co-teaching models and/or work with English Language Learners. 6 teachers and 2 literacy coaches from our Bronx public school PDS classrooms welcomed us to videotape teaching and student learning. Teachers and Lehman College …

Lessons Learned From Lesson Study: Focusing On Differentiation For Ells And Students With Special Needs, Anne Marie Marshall, Khalilah Arrington

Publications and Research

This poster will present an overview of the lesson study process within the MATH-UP program. The poster will summarize the components of lesson study and highlight candidate learning from the process. Specifically, the lesson study selected will demonstrate evidence of candidate learning about emergent bilinguals.

Experts As Teachers: Can We Abate The Disconnect Between Expert And Student?, Bailey Mallon

Senior Honors Projects

Studies have found that experts often fail as good teachers, mainly because there is a lack of communication within their specific area (Feldon, 2007). Experts may routinely underestimate how difficult a task can be for a newcomer (Hinds, 1999) and even when attempting to make a task easier, they omit information a novice would find valuable (Hinds, Patterson, & Pfeffer, 2001) because they unintentionally assume that non-experts are aware of and possess knowledge that only those already familiar in the field might have, and would thus know what they are talking about. Furthermore, there are factors controllable by the professor, …

The Teaching Of Explicit Phonics Effects On Kindergarten Reading Readiness Scores, Shannon Michele Price

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the impact of an explicit phonics program, entitled Ten Minute Phonics, on kindergarten reading readiness scores when compared to students receiving phonics through an integrated curriculum approach. The problem studied ways to determine if the Ten Minute Phonics program participants' mean overall standard scores, alphabetic principle scores, and phonics scores on the STAR Early Literacy test would be significantly higher than kindergarten students who did not complete the program. The population of students was chosen from a school in a suburb of Atlanta. Using a small group format, the treatment group …

Building Anti-Bias Early Childhood Programs: The Role Of The Leader, Louise Derman-Sparks, Debbie Leekeenan, John Nimmo

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

An anti-bias early childhood care and education (ECCE) program puts diversity and equity goals at the center of all aspects of its organization and daily life. It involves much more than adding new materials and activities into the already existing learning environment. Rather, broad systemic changes are necessary. The learning environment and curriculum, as well as program policies, structures, procedures, and processes, all come into play. Change also includes the attitudes of the individuals who serve the children and families. In sum, it is "a process, not an event".

Defining Primary And Academic Discourse Through Instructional Methods In A Single Junior High Classroom, Ashley Nicole Gerhardson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I examine the use of academic discourse in the school setting and discuss the relation of the primary discourse to academic discourse. I focus on the verbal exchanges between a teacher and her students as these students acquire the academic discourse of the English classroom. The study focuses on the ideas of primary discourse and secondary or academic discourse as presented by Gee (1996) and focuses on his idea of Social languages.

Using a microethnographic study, I develop the idea of how the teacher related to her students and how a single educator felt about the purpose …

The Writing Process: Using Peer Review To Develop Student Writing, Jennifer M. Selting Troester

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The following thesis will explore how peer review through an online writing exchange influences student writers during the writing process. I propose that when students participate in this online writing exchange to peer review, it will assure that they will have a better understanding of the writing process, and more confidence in analyzing their own writing and in themselves as writers. It also makes these students more conscientious of the writing they share with peers because they have a wider audience than just their teacher, and this motivates them to improve their writing. The last part of the document features …