Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Student Centered Learning In A Blended Learning Approach, Sharon Aka

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Student Centered Learning is an intentional teaching philosophy utilized in the blended learning environment. It’s about facilitating learning, not content presentation. Come discuss building rapport, learning retention, active learning, Bloom’s taxonomy, and the issue of what to do online, versus what to do in class.

Stories From The Field: Lessons From First Time Online Teachers, Shirley Freed, Kristi Kis, Joyce Susanne Virginia Irrgang, Klaus Irrgang, Tony Reeves

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Teaching online for the first time is a unique experience! Hear stories from first time online teachers, with reflections, recommendations, and suggestions for administrators providing support and training for faculty.

Building Communication Plans For Online Student Service Beyond Course Interaction, Glynis M. Bradfield

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

How do we develop support for students at a distance comparable to service on a physical campus? Come to learn and share best practices in creating communication plans that consider the student’s journey from interest to applicant to admitted and enrolled student all the way to contributing alumnus.

Integrating The Scholarship Of Teaching, Learning And Assessment Into One Institution’S Homegrown Professional Learning Resources, Maria Northcote, Anthony Williams, Kevin Petrie, John Seddon, Sherene Hattingh

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Many professional learning (PL) programs in universities aspire to support tertiary educators to perform duties associated with teaching, student learning and assessment. Additionally, because much of a university academic’s work is associated with conducting scholarly research and supervising students’ research, PL programs also need to provide support associated with supervision and research activities. Faced with these multiple PL demands, one small Australian higher education institution developed a suite of resources to support faculty teaching staff and researchers in their professional capacities using a heuristic (self-determined) approach to resource development. The content of the resources drew on the principles of the …

How Are They Going?: A Project To Monitor Student Engagement, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote, John Reddin

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

The transition from school or work to university studies is not always a smooth change for many students. The university context may appear threatening, strange and isolating for some students, whether the courses be offered in on-campus or online contexts. While most modern day universities offer a raft of support services for students, including both academic and non-academic services, problems of low retention and high attrition rates still plague some institutions and some sections of particular institutions in the higher education sector. This paper presents an innovative program that uses technology-supported strategies within a regular learning management system (LMS) to …

Getting On The Online Education Train: The Journey Of A Small Higher Education Institution, Anthony Williams, Maria T. Northcote

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Many universities have instituted professional learning centres that support academic teaching staff in their capacity to facilitate student-centred learning. Some of these centres also extend their reach to incorporate scholarship and research. This paper reports on one such case, in which a small higher education institution in Australia established what has become known as the Centre for Advancement of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL). From its inception, the CASTL’s intentions have been multi-dimensional, in that its programs, activities and resource development span the following areas of scholarship: 1) learning and teaching; 2) researcher education and support of postgraduate …

Advising Strategies That Increase Online And Post-Traditional Student Persistence, Glynis M. Bradfield

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Research indicates that a crucial factor to student persistence is the quality of student relationship with at least one person in the university community, often the academic advisor. Even though retention and persistence rates are consistently lower for online and non-traditional (or adult) students than traditional (young, on-campus) students, distance education continues to grow. This paper reviews research and one university’s journey to build capacity and quality of distance student services. Considering academic advisor evaluation survey results, online learning management and student information system quantitative data, along with distance degree student qualitative data, this paper shares mix methods action research …

Design Thinking And Online Education, Andrea Filatro, Carolina Costa Cavalcanti, Everson Muckenberger

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

DT is an approach that promotes innovation, creativity and problem solving. At UNASP Virtual Campus, DT is incorporated into the planning and execution of distance undergraduate programs. As the students develop integrative projects that articulate the content from different courses of the program, they build collaboratively bridges between theory and practice.

Upgrading Lmss: Understanding Faculty Perceptions And Use For Improved Implementation, David A. Jeffrey Ph.D., Randy J. Siebold Ph.D.

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Adventist schools are in a constantly changing academic environment and are under consistent pressure to implement the latest technologies, such as Learning Management Systems (LMSs). This research study seeks to provide a better understanding of faculty perceptions of their LMS. We explore factors leading to successful faculty use of LMSs.

Keynote: Redefining The 100%, Larry Blackmer

Adventist Online Learning Conference / Conferencia de Aprendizaje en Línea

Examine the compelling reasons for pursuing, persisting, and providing Adventist education. Be inspired by a compelling vision to supply Adventist education to all Adventists, using digital tools and pedagogies to make Adventist education accessible to all.

Larry Blackmer is the North American Division Vice President for Education. He has served as a teacher, principal, and boys’ dean at the K-12 level throughout the United States. Larry served as associate superintendent in the Michigan Conference and superintendent of schools in the Idaho Conference. As associate director and then vice president for NAD Education, his duties include secondary education, marketing and technology. …

A Study Of Work Practices In Tasmanian Government Schools: Final Report To The Australian Education Union – Tasmanian Branch, Sheldon Rothman, Lawrence C. Ingvarson, Paul R. Weldon, Ali Radloff, Darren Matthews

Teacher workforce and careers

The Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) conducted an online survey of members on behalf of the Tasmanian Branch of the Australian Education Union (AEU). The survey, which was open to teachers, school leaders (principals and assistant principals) and education support staff working in Tasmanian government schools and offices, was available to the majority of members of the Union in August 2017, and remained open for four weeks during Term 3. The survey was based on one conducted for the Victorian branch of the AEU in 2016. The survey of the work of union members in Tasmanian government schools focussed …

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions Of Using Ipads With Students With Learning Disabilities, Daljit Kaur

The Qualitative Report

Preservice teachers reflected on their experiences teaching mathematics to ten students using iPads. The students had learning disabilities and were tutored over 5 consecutive weeks. Teachers reflected weekly for 5 weeks then responded to an online open-ended survey regarding their overall teaching experience. Findings suggest that the experience allowed preservice teachers to gain helpful insight, knowledge, and ideas on how to use iPads as an instructional tool.

Against The Clock, Trey Conatser

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

In The Slow Professor, Maggie Berg and Barbara K. Seeber's thoughtful contribution to the conversation on academic labor is to challenge what often goes without saying: that it's good to be more efficient, to be faster, to manage as many tasks as possible at once. How can we practice slowness and pleasure in thoughtful ways for the good of our disciplines and colleagues and, more importantly, for those whom our decisions and actions affect profoundly?

Front Matter

Greater Faculties: A Review of Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

The Chameleon Characteristics: A Phenomenological Study Of Instructional Designer, Faculty, And Administrator Perceptions Of Collaborative Instructional Design Environments, Papia Bawa, Sunnie Watson

The Qualitative Report

While several professionals, organizations and departments may be a part of the instructional designing process usually faculty, instructional designers, and administrators are key stakeholders and collaborators. Although there are some studies related to the process of instructional designing, there is little by way of research that has investigated the stakeholders’ perceptions of the key characteristics of effective collaboration within instructional designing projects. Thus, there is a gap in our understanding of the phenomenon of instructional designing project collaboration. This hermeneutic phenomenological study seeks to add to the literature by sharing the perceptions of seven stakeholders in different roles, who have …

A Study On Leadership Styles Executed By Principal And Academic Coordinator In One Of The Private Schools In Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan, Sultan Alam

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

This study investigates the leadership styles of school principal and academic coordinator in one of the private schools in Gilgit-Baltistan, Pakistan. A qualitative case study approach was employed to generate the study data using semi-structured interviews as major data generation tool. A pre-designed interview guide was used to facilitate the interview discourses. The findings of the study showed that both, the principal and academic coordinator mostly execute democratic leadership approach to facilitate learning processes in the school, though this style becomes varied under different circumstances. This dominant leadership style was seen effective in bringing about positive learning environment within the …

Walking As Ontological Shifter: Thoughts In The Key Of Life, Bibi (Silvina) Calderaro

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

With walking as ontological shifter I pursue an alternative to the dominant modernist episteme that offers either/or onto-epistemologies of opposition and their reifying engagements. I propose this type of walking is an intentional turning towards a set of radical positions that, as integrative aesthetic and therapeutic practice, brings multiplicity and synchronicity to experience and being in an expanded sociality. This practice facilitates the conditions of possibility for recurring points of contact between the interiority perceived as ‘body’ and the exteriority perceived as ‘world.’ While making evident the self’s at once incoherence with it-self, it opens to a space beyond the …

Exploring Teacher Candidates’ Civic Efficacy Through Civic Engagement And Critical Literacy In A Literacy Methods Course, Dana M. Karraker

Theses and Dissertations

Public school spaces play a large role in developing people’s understandings of civic knowledge and responsibility. Teachers, administrators, and policy-makers design school curriculum to reflect the types of citizens they believe a society needs, and thus, determines approaches to teaching and curriculum development (Labaree, 1997). This action research study examined the civic efficacy and critical literacy understandings of seven elementary education teacher candidates enrolled in a content area literacy course. The course and the study were designed using a critical literacy and civic efficacy framework as literacy practices are closely connected to the ways in which people are able to …

Discovering The Leader Within: An Autoethnophenomenographic Study Of Mindfulness In Educational Leadership, Alyssa Fraser

Educational Studies Dissertations

This qualitative study combined autoethnographic and phenomenological methods to examine a researcher-leader’s attempt to cultivate cognitive, relational, and emotional capacities through regular mindfulness practice, and how the cultivation of such capacities aligns with the enactment of leadership. The interrogation of lived experience and self-analysis was entered with the intention to better understand the promise of mindfulness as a resource for the development of educational leaders. This study explored the perceived connections between mindfulness practice and the enactment of educational leadership by examining internal and external perspectives of an individual leader’s practice. Methods of self-observation, including both interval and occurrence recording …

Facilitating The Transition From Military Instructor To Academic Educator: Cognitive Apprenticeship In Teacher Induction At The United States Air Force Academy, Thomas T. Swaim

The Qualitative Report

This article examines teacher induction in the military undergraduate education context. The U.S. Air Force Academy relies on approximately 520 military and civilian instructors to educate nearly 4000 future military officers each year. These educators must be highly skilled and unquestionably capable in their abilities to teach these future leaders. Many of these instructors derive from highly technical active duty operational career fields (such as pilot, missile operator, etc.). This article reveals how Collins’, Brown’s, and Newman’s (1989) theory of cognitive apprenticeship is manifested within teacher induction experiences at the U.S. Air Force Academy. Using a qualitative multiple-case study approach, …

The Impact Of Student Abroad On Intercultural Competence As A Professional Disposition: Narrative Stories From Student Affairs Professionals, Dare Chronister

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Student affairs professionals (SAP) have been tasked to educate students and provide opportunities to develop skills to live in a culturally diverse and global society. The shortage of culturally competent SAP could hinder students’ abilities to gain intercultural competence. The purpose of this narrative non-fiction study was to understand how SAP’ study abroad experiences helped them to grow and develop intercultural competence. Furthermore, the study aimed to identify how intercultural competence shaped their practices and strategies to provide students with safe environments to gain knowledge and understanding about different cultures. Data collection included three levels of semi-structured interviews. Identified themes …

Student Demographic And Academic Characteristics That Predict Community College Student Success In Online Courses, Jennifer L. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations

Online student success is a concern for higher education institutions especially community colleges with open enrollment admission. This study analyzed online student success using online GPA (dependent variable) and both demographic and academic characteristics of online students (independent variables) to determine which characteristics significantly correlated to and predicted student success in online courses. The sample included an unduplicated count of 4,046 online students enrolled in at least one online course during fall 2015 and spring 2016 at a public, Midwestern community college. Six research questions and twelve hypotheses were used to determine which independent variables led online students to a …

An Examination Of The Factors That Influence The Transfer Of Learning Among K-12 Educators Participating In Professional Learning Communities, Charcelor C. Mccullum

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the factors that either support or inhibit learning transfer among educators within K-12 professional learning communities (PLCs) as well as to obtain a better understanding of how adult education principles relate to teacher learning and job satisfaction within this environment. Although research regarding professional learning for educators within the K-12 setting is available, much of this research is not focused directly on adult education principles and often fails to examine learning transfer. The present study addresses both areas using a two-phase exploratory sequential mixed methods approach to obtain both qualitative …

A Phenomenological Study On The Motivating Factors Influencing Participation In Tennessee’S Governor’S Academy For School Leadership, Amy B. Horton Mrs.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational administration is such a demanding field, so it is important to understand why an aspiring principal would self-select to commit to an optional yearlong, intensive professional development activity with very little compensation and no promotion. Motivation may prove to be a key component of the recruitment and sustainability of professional development activities. By discovering the factors affecting both personal and professional motivation of beginning administrators to participate in a professional development led by the collaboration among the Tennessee Department of Education, Vanderbilt University, and Governor Bill Haslam, the researcher hopes to gain an understanding that may apply to future …

A Qualitative Study Of The Positive Transformation Of Public High School Cultures As Perceived By Administrators, Teachers, And Classified Staff Members, Amy L. Besler

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to discover the factors which contribute to the positive transformation of a comprehensive public high school’s culture as perceived by the school’s administrators, teachers, and classified staff. An additional purpose of the study is to determine what similarities and differences exist between the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and classified staff.

Methodology: The researcher identified comprehensive public high schools within the state of California where measurable growth in positive perceptions of school culture had been achieved within the preceding two to four years. Of this target population, six schools were identified, through …

What Complicates Or Enables Teachers’ Enactment Of Leadership, Jill Bradley-Levine 8881892

The Qualitative Report

This article presents findings from a case study that describes the ways that four teachers pursuing their master’s degree in teacher leadership engaged in leadership activities in their schools. In order to explore this purpose, this study examines two research questions: (1) How do teachers enact leadership in their schools and (2) What complicates or enables teachers’ leadership activity? Findings indicate that the norms of the teaching profession including equality and privacy affect teachers’ enactment of leadership in their schools. Teacher leaders limit their work based on their knowledge of these norms, their past experiences engaging in leadership, and the …

Evaluation And Student Learning Objectives In Connecticut Schools, Vittoria Fielosh

EDL Sixth Year Theses

Over the past several years, states across the country have been restructuring their teacher evaluation models due to changes in federal education policies. The focus of many of these models has become student achievement, and there are many ways states are measuring a teacher’s impact on student achievement. Connecticut, along with more than 20 other states, uses student learning objectives to measure a teacher’s impact on student learning. Unlike other states, Connecticut has not specified what assessment be used to measure student growth. This case study, of one school district in Connecticut, examines the type of assessments used as a …

Central Virginia Ews: Identifying Middle And High School Indicators Of On-Time Graduation With An Early Warning System, Ryan D. Yarzebinski

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between different variables and whether a student attained an on-time graduation outcome. A retrospective cohort study was conducted within a single school division in central Virginia serving a population of 8,338 students. The organizational structure of the school division was unique as it is comprised of two combined schools and two high schools fed by a separate middle school.

The study utilized logistic regression and ROC analysis to identify the variables most predictive of graduation for use in an EWS. The model was designed to be predictive in nature and …

The Plight Of The Gifted Student: A Call To Action, Krista M. Shilvock

Empowering Research for Educators

With so many needs in today’s public education classroom, we cannot forget the needs of those who excel in the classroom, too. Gifted students face severe neglect in class due to the appearance of their competence and maturity. However, we quickly face losing the contributions of a major group of students as this neglect causes them to lose interest in their own education. As teachers, we must challenge ourselves to help gifted students reach their potential just as we attempt to do for all subgroups of students. A poll of 22 gifted students confirms these frustrations and needs of students. …

Immigrant Parental Involvement In Student Academics, Charles Tebben

Empowering Research for Educators

Abstract

This study is meant to focus discussions about the importance of the involvement of immigrant parents in respect to student academics. In this study I intend to make evident a relationship between parental involvement and student academics, after which I will draw in a conclusion of the resources utilized by my community at the elementary and middle schools. I’m conducting my research study starting at elementary school and running through middle school. I’m eliminating the high school period because of their unique parental involvement complexities which share little constraints and outcomes with the lower levels. To build my study, …