Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

A Case Study To Determine Characteristics For A Successful, Diverse School District, Tanya J. Vest

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a rapidly changing society, education must make adjustments and keep learning focused on the needs of students by providing increased opportunities for success. Classrooms are filled with students of different cultural backgrounds which makes education a challenge to every building leader and teacher. The challenges are how to design instruction and implement it to meet the academic and Social needs of all learners. Understanding different lifestyles, languages, word context, body language, traditions, and dress present opportunities for educators to expand their cultural knowledge and create learning objectives for students which ultimately affect student achievement in the educational environment.

The …

Leadership Behaviors Used By Principals Of Large High Schools Compared To Principals Of Small High Schools: A Comparative Multiple-Case Study, Kimberly Lynn Baker Garrett

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case study was to examine if there may be a perceived relationship between the size of the school and the leadership behaviors of the four principals. This purpose was achieved through a qualitative inquiry of principal interviews, principal survey, observation of a principals' leadership team meeting, focus group interview with the principals' leadership team, and analysis of the extant texts: principals' time log for one week, organizational chart, and agenda for a leadership team meeting. The data were reduced through two cycles of coding which then further analyzed resulting in the identification of five major themes. …

The Value Of Student Choice In Reading. A Book Review Of Keep Them Reading: An Anti-Censorship Handbook For Educators, Christi R. Keelen

Democracy & Education

Keep Them Reading: An Anti-Censorship Handbooks for Educators is a must-have for elementary and secondary English and reading teachers, administrators, and librarians or media specialists. While the focus for this text is how to handle and avoid challenges on books, how to create an environment where reading is important and the students' ability to choose what they want to read is part of the classroom culture is also addressed.

We Get To Carry Each Other: Using The Musical Activism Of U2 As Framework For An Engaged Spirituality And Community Engagement Course, Marshall Welch

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

This article describes a January term community engagement service-learning course that used the musical and spiritually-based activism of the rock group U2 as an example of engaged spirituality using activism and advocacy. In addition to learning about the history, music, and activism of the band, students were taught a specific set of skills for activism, advocacy, and community organizing that included creating goal statements, developing and implementing action plans, and coordinating logistics for advocacy-based events on campus. Students were assigned to apply these skills as the service-learning component of the course. These activities were conceptualized as indirect service that reflected …

Interfacing Catholic Social Meanings, Sociology, Self, And Pedagogical Practices, Daniel J. Myers, Andrew J. Weigert

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

What connects Catholic Social Tradition with Sociology? How do each inform the other and how do they, together, flow through and animate the sociologist? Within a student-driven learning community pedagogy, this course builds on the humanistic aspects of Sociology as a scientific perspective a la Peter Berger’s Invitation to Sociology. This foundation is then filtered through a social psychological understanding of self with a sense of vocation through which persons’ deepest passions meets humans’ greatest needs. Biographical vignettes of sociologists’ careers of study that address issues of racial and gender inequalities and psycho-social shifts in values over the life course …

Journey Into Shame: Implications For Justice Pedagogies, Roger C. Bergman

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

Being formed for justice can be a painful experience. Sometimes that pain takes the form of shame and contributes to the formation and exercise of conscience. But shame in other forms can be opposed to human flourishing and social justice. Psychologist James Fowler provides a spectrum of two forms of healthy shame and four forms of unhealthy shame, to which the author adds four other varieties, strategic shame and spiritual shame, at one end of the spectrum, and murderous shame and genocidal shame, at the other. Various experiences of shame are dramatically illustrated in Black Like Me, John Howard …

Prophetic Imagination: Confronting The New Jim Crow & Income Inequality In America, Cornel West

Engaging Pedagogies in Catholic Higher Education (EPiCHE)

On October 11, 2014, Cornel West delivered the keynote address to nearly 600 students at the regional Leadership & Social Justice Conference, hosted at Saint Mary’s College of California. The conference occurred two days before West was arrested in Ferguson, Missouri, during a demonstration to protest the killing of young Black men by White police officers, as in the case of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson. Speaking of the students, West said, "I would like to see these precious young people commit themselves to lives of integrity, honesty and decency, where they are vigilant against all forms of evil—White supremacists, …

A Delphi Study: Technology Leadership Network’S Perceptions Of Iste Essential Conditions For Technology Integration In Professional Learning Communities, Amna K. Ahmad

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

A Delphi Study: Technology Leadership Network Perceptions of ISTE Essential Conditions for Technology Integration in Professional Learning Communities

Purpose: The purpose of this Delphi study was to identify the essential conditions (ISTE) required for technology integration in Professional Learning Communities for building effective teams, promoting collaboration, and endorsing shared decision making processes as perceived by members of the joint Technology Leadership Network of the Riverside County Office of Education and San Bernardino County Superintendent of Schools, California.

Methodology: A structured Delphi Study using mixed methods was conducted to find the expert panel’s opinions, the members of the Technology Leadership …

A Descriptive Study Of Factors Influencing Parental Choice Of High School Selection For Their Middle School-Aged Children Enrolled In Catholic Grade School, Beatrice Margaret Drics-Bursten

Open Access Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to examine the factors parents of middle school-aged children, enrolled in Catholic elementary school, identified as those having an influence on their selection of a secondary school for their child. With a shrinking pool of potential students in Catholic middle schools, competition for these students is keen among Catholic secondary schools in order to meet their sustainability enrollment levels. The study also examined the timing when parents began researching prospective secondary schools and when the final school selection decision occurred for their child. ^ The study provides an overview of historical and current …

Masculinities, Gendered Expression, And The Social, Emotional, And Academic Well-Being Of High School Boys, Cynthia Bazinet

Educational Studies Dissertations

There has been longstanding concern over the seemingly intractable problem of boys’ academic achievement. Despite extensive research, there is little consensus among researchers and educators regarding best practices and approaches in mitigating and remediating the problem. This mixed-methods study sought to illuminate the issue further by focusing on the meaningful lived experiences of six young men aged 18 to 24 who attended and graduated from a central Massachusetts public high school. The study asked participants to reflect through prompted writing upon the stresses and pressures as well as the factors and conditions that affected their abilities to manage their performativities …

2015 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

Leaders All: Teacher-Led Participatory Action Research At The Middle School Level, Corinna Crafton

All Theses And Dissertations

Classroom teachers who wish to have voice in decisions that influence their daily practice often confront barriers, causing some to leave the classroom altogether to become school administrators. There is little participatory action research conducted by classroom-based educators on teachers’ perceptions of transcending the organizational, political, and cultural barriers to their own leadership. The dearth of such studies exemplifies an acute example of the marginalization experienced by many classroom teachers.

By examining the perceptions of teachers working in a distributed leadership practice, this study contributes to a deeper understanding of how teachers become agents of transformation without leaving their positions …

The Study Of Pre-Service Teachers Participating In Candidate Learning Communities: A Mixed Methods Study, Barbara Sunderman

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of instructional skill and professional dispositions of pre-service teacher education candidates’ understanding of their own teaching skills. The research examined perceptions before and after the clinical experience while participating in a Candidate Learning Community. In this mixed-methods study, perceptions were quantitatively measured with a pre-survey and a post survey of 17 participants and qualitatively described by 11 participants in follow up interviews; each intensely studied teaching skill and professional pedagogy in coursework and cooperative classrooms.

The research revealed significant increase in personal perception of teaching skills and dispositions during the …

Catholic Labor Education And The Association Of Catholic Trade Unionists. Instructing Workers To Christianize The Workplace, Paul Lubienecki Ph.D.

Journal of Catholic Education

This article analyzes the effect of the American Catholic Church, through its program of specialized labor education, on the growth and development of organized labor in the twentieth century. With the proclamation of Pope Pius XI’s encyclical Quadragesimo Anno, he requested that the Church complete the work began by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 with his landmark social encyclical Rerum Novarum.

However, the American interpretation and utilization of the social encyclicals varied from their intended European meaning. The cumulative effect of these two encyclicals was support for the workers’ rights to organize and create Christian labor associations. From …

Critical Theory And Catholic Social Teaching: A Research Framework For Catholic Schools, Jill Bradley-Levine, Kari A. Carr

Journal of Catholic Education

In this article, the authors share findings from an ethnographic study drawn from an evaluation of an after-school program directed by a Catholic diocese to meet the educational needs of children attending urban Catholic schools. The authors used critical research methods within the context of Catholic social teaching (CST) as a theoretical framework for the data presented in this article. Two themes emerged during this data collection and analysis. The first theme, student interactions, describes the helpful ways that students engaged with each other during the after-school program, and also the manner in which students exhibited a need for greater …

Cyberbullying Prevention: Intervention Effects On Student Involvement, Sarah Nash Bumpas

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

Repeated studies show that cyberbullying is pervasive amongst adolescents. Cyberbullying can lead to self-harm, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Educators are called to intervene in educating students about cyberbullying through research and federal legislation. However, there is little research examining whether this education is taking place or having an effect.

This study investigates the relationship between the incidences of cyberbullying victimization and offending over time and the direct cyberbullying instruction and activities facilitated by classroom teachers. The study took place amongst sixth graders in Jefferson County Public Schools, a large urban school district located in northern Kentucky. Students in one school …

Survival Analysis: Timelines To English Language Proficiency At The Secondary School Level, Elisha W. Beardsley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Capstones

The ELL population in the United States continues to increase. Research suggests that the English language proficiency growth rates for numerous ELL students are strongly correlated with their English language proficiency levels (Cook & Zhao, 2011; Conger, 2008). The results of Conger’s 2008 study suggested that just over fifty percent of students gained English language proficiency after three years. According to the same study, the students that did not typically gain English language proficiency were students who entered public schools older and with a lower English language proficiency level. The current study examines the likelihood of high school ELLs in …

P17 Black Male Summit, Brandon Jackson

Black Male Summit

Tale of Two African American Males and Their Journey to Ivy League Schools: A Case Study

How do we get more African American males to show their GREATNESS and academic prowess? Can Black Males attend Ivy League schools? How do we prepare our Black Male Scholars for college and career readiness to maximize their education?

P18 Black Male Summit, Brandon Jackson

Black Male Summit

GRAB “A Hands-On Approach to Student Engagement and Academic Performance for African American Males”

Can a handful of words change the trajectory of a persons’ life? Can this acronym G.R.A.B. lead to enhanced college and career readiness in addition enhance their quality of life?

When All Hope Is Gone, Trust Then Believe: “At Risk” Or “At Potential"?, Erica C. Pooler, Barbara Kirby-Bentley Dr.

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

The Cards of Life, when all hope is gone; trust then believe forces educators to view students differently. The notion that we can’t teach students until we truly begin to know them and they begin to trust us is challenged. The fact that our actions have to align with our words and meaningful conversations and relationships must be established in the classroom. At Risk or At Potential? Every school across the nation have students that struggle, academically, socially or behaviorally. There are a variety of reasons as to why? We can no longer ignore these students and pad the numbers …

Count Yourself In:Encouraging Students To Take The 180-Day Challenge, Takeysha Ray, Curlandra Lightfoot-Smith

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

In this presentation, participants will focus on the importance of a holistic approach addressing chronic absenteeism in schools. Participants are provided with tools to take to their district and community helping bring awareness to regular, punctual school attendance. We will provide exciting, hands-on, interactive experiences on initiatives and creative strategies addressing truancy.

Supporting The Needs Of At-Risk Beginning Teachers, Adam Myers Dr.

National Youth Advocacy & Resilience Conference

This session is designed to provide teachers, teacher leaders, principals, and support staff relevant research and best practices for incorporating induction support to novice teachers who have been placed in low-performing schools. This interactive session will include participant discussion on the characteristics of beginning teachers, and how mentoring and coaching can significantly impact their retention and effectiveness.

"Friending" Students On Social Media, Charles J. Russo

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The use of social media, particularly services such as Facebook and Twitter, has grown exponentially in recent years. Yet to date, relatively little litigation has arisen around the issue of teachers and other educators engaging in questionable or inappropriate use of social media when communicating with students. Even so, parental complaints do arise when teachers share inappropriate communications with students through social media. Consequently, as social networking continues to increase, school business officials and other education leaders should devise policies to help deal with this growing trend.

Given the widespread use of social media, this column examines emerging legal questions …

Equitable Education Of English Learners In The Common Core Age: Implications For Principal Leadership, David Whitenack

Faculty Publications

This paper highlights the importance of school principals in English Learners’ academic achievement in the age of the Common Core State Standards. Revising the curriculum of administrator preparation programs to include a greater emphasis on curriculum and instruction is one approach to enhancing principal leadership for English Leaners. Another approach is to reculture site-level instructional leadership through professional development to address the academic learning needs of English Learners.

Principals' Leadership And Teachers' Motivation : A Study Of The Relationship In The School Reform Era, Charlotte Rognmoe Gilbar

Graduate Dissertations and Theses

This study investigated the relationship between principal leadership behaviors and the level of teacher motivation in a specific region of Virginia, within school divisions that have at least one elementary school designated as a focus school. This study will examine whether the relationship between leadership and motivation differs in elementary schools classified as focus, in-improvement and those with no designation as defined by the flexibility waiver received by Virginia Department of Education. Of particular interest are the specific principal behaviors within each leadership style that support increased levels of motivation in elementary teachers. This study was relevant because there were …

School Administrators' And Teachers' Perceptions Of Single-Gender Classrooms In Coeducational Public Middle Schools Within South Carolina, Shemmicca M. Moore

Education Dissertations and Projects

The academic achievement gap between male and female students set in motion a flurry of initiatives to help address male underachievement. The amendments made to Title IX allowed single-gender education to become a viable option for addressing those gaps in achievement. After the adjustments made to Title IX, South Carolina led the nation in the implementation of single-gender classrooms. In fact, South Carolina was the only state to have an office dedicated to ensuring the successful implementation of single-gender programs. This quantitative study examined the perceptions of school administrators and teachers concerning the effectiveness of single-gender education. The study surveyed …

Teaching China, Meghan Armstrong

Progressive Education in Context

Describes the teaching fellows program of China Institute's Teach China program.

When Good Ideas Flow Two Ways, Mary Ellen Kenny

Progressive Education in Context

Describes the collaboration between Bank Street College Graduate School of Education and the Bank Street School for Children.

Developing Agency For Advocacy: Collaborative Inquiry-Focused School Change Projects As Transformative Learning For Practicing Teachers. The New Educator, Kathryn Brooks, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Many mainstream educators of English language learners (ELLs) have experienced neither adequate pre-service preparation nor appropriate in-service professional development. Yet, ELLs are one of the fastest growing student populations in the United States. While practicing teachers typically espouse the view that all students can learn, they often lack the knowledge and skills necessary to support ELLs in their academic and language development.This gap in preservice teacher education programs often leads general education teachers to rely heavily on bilingual paraprofessionals and language teachers for educating ELL students. This paper describes a 5-year professional development initiative, Project Alianza, during which the researchers …

Introduction To The Case Studies 2015 : A Compendium Of Cases & Voices From The Field, Mola Dad Shafa, Khadija Khan

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.