Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Eyes Wide Shut: Using Accreditation Regulation To Address The “Pass-The-Harasser” Problem In Higher Education, Susan Saab Fortney, Theresa Morris

Faculty Scholarship

The #MeToo Movement cast a spotlight on sexual harassment in various sectors, including higher education. Studies reveal alarming percentages of students reporting that they have been sexually harassed by faculty and administrators. Despite annually devoting hundreds of millions of dollars to addressing sexual harassment and misconduct, nationwide university officials largely take an ostrich approach when hiring faculty and administrators with little or no scrutiny related to their past misconduct. Critics use the term “pass the harasser” or more pejoratively, “pass the trash” to capture the role that institutions play in allowing individuals to change institutions without the new employer learning …

Experiences That Support Persistence And Retention Of Latinx First-Generation College Students (Fgcs) At Community Colleges, Veronica Rios

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this instrumental case study was to describe experiences of successful Latinx first-generation college students that support persistence and retention toward graduation for Latinx first-generation college students at California community colleges. The study was framed using Tinto’s retention theory. Successful Latinx first-generation college students were defined as those who have attained graduation from a California community college. This study focused on Latinx first-generation college students not persisting toward graduation at California community colleges, a situation that extends to the national level. This case study included nine Latinx first-generation college students, and the researcher collected data through virtual semistructured …

Intrusive Academic Advising Student-Athletes At A Division Iii University, Robert Holmes

Dissertations

Abstract

There are many factors that affect the graduation of collegiate student-athletes. Factors include student-athlete characteristics, academic advising, engagement, and relationships. These factors affect student-athlete retention at the university. Student-athletes must navigate their academic and athletic success with assistance from academic advisors and other university support systems. The ability of the student-athlete and the academic advisor to communicate and cultivate a relationship that is built on regularly scheduled meetings, sharing of the student-athlete’s personal goals, suggestions for personal and professional improvement culminating in trust is paramount to the success of the student-athlete. This research focuses on the relationship between the …

An Evaluation Of One School's Reading Program To Support Struggling Readers Through The Use Of Data, Gabrielle Jones

Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of one school’s reading intervention program, and its impact on struggling readers reading performance. Participants in this study included administrators, Grades 3 through 5instructional staff that directly impact student learning in reading through reading instruction. I collected survey data and analyzed it to determine teachers’ ability to instruct struggling readers with high expectations for student learning. As a result, this evaluation exhibit teachers require more quality planning time to prepare effective reading intervention lessons that includes strategies attained from strategically designed professional development structured to increase students’ reading ability. …

Faculty Perceptions Of Dyadic Advising Relationships, Power, And Cultural Consciousness On College Student Learning Outcomes, Hind Albana

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Abstract

Academic advising in institutions of higher education lack consistent assessment and evaluation of practices impairing the ability to define the role, objectives, and methods utilized. Over-reliance on student satisfaction surveys for evaluating advising reinforces this phenomenon. To break the cycle, this study used survey responses from a nationwide sample (N = 156) of faculty advisors from public and private 4-year colleges and universities to examine the relationship between and among the constructs of a working relationship, shared power, cultural consciousness, and student learning outcomes. The questionnaire instrument score produced a Cronbach's alpha of .927, illustrating substantially strong internal consistency. …

Chronic Codeswitching: A Phenomenological Study Examining Multiracial Student Sense Of Belonging In A Predominantly White Institution., Nicholas Lamar Wright

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Constantly feeling a lack of acceptance and getting the comment “You are too Black” or “You are too White” is a challenging, common occurrence for multiracial students, but especially those in predominantly White institutions. This is just one of the barriers that stand between multiracial students and forming a sense of belonging at a predominantly White institution. The majority of research examining sense of belonging focuses on either Black or White students, but neglect multiracial students and their experiences. This dissertation examines sense of belonging for multiracial (Black/White) students in a predominantly White institution, by interviewing 11 multiracial students at …

A Mixed Methods Study Of Impostor Phenomenon In A Hispanic Serving Institution, Olympia Caudillo

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Impostor phenomenon is a psychological experience where a highly talented individual doubts innate skills and accomplishments. Instead, success is attributed to factors other than intellectual ability, so the individual fears exposure as a fraud. Experiences of impostor phenomenon among students enrolled in Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI) remains under-researched. This mixed-methods study aims to explore impostor phenomenon between doctoral students enrolled in a Hispanic Serving Institution based on existing research on impostor phenomenon, conducted in predominantly White institutions. The first phase of the study focuses on exploring impostor phenomenon in relation to doctoral studentsâ?? gender, type of program and generational status; …

Overview Of The Proceedings Of The 2020 Inclusion In Science, Learning A New Direction, Conference On Disability (Island), Cary Supalo, Jasodhara Bhattacharya, Daniel Steinberg

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Elevating The Voices For All Learners Through Shared Stories Of Science Learning, Lauren Madden, Stuart Z. Carroll, Amy K. Schuler

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study examines the science learning experiences across the lifespan of two groups of college students: adults with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities in a post-secondary inclusive program, and adults in a preservice secondary education teacher candidate program. Data, in the form of personal narrative science stories were collected using a paired-interview approach in which students from each group interviewed one another about their science learning across their lifespans, and recorded responses using an online form. Across the stories, several clear themes emerged. Similarities and differences were found across and within the groups and are shared in a narrative format. Trends …

Letter From The Co-Editors, Todd Pagano, Sami Kahn

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

No abstract provided.

Transcending Adversity: Trauma-Informed Educational Development, Mays Imad

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The purpose of this article is to reflect on the pertinence and utility of using a trauma-informed lens in educational development. A trauma-informed approach is a framework grounded in an understanding of and responsiveness to the impact of trauma. After I describe the primary source of traumatic stress many faculty members are experiencing, I offer trauma-informed suggestions for how educational developers can help mitigate the effects of that stress. Importantly, in order to do this work of supporting faculty effectively and sustainably, it is critical that educational developers continue to attend to their own well-being. The overarching theme of this …

Holding Tight To Our Convictions And Lightly To Our Ways: Inviting Shared Expertise As A Strategy For Expanding Inclusion, Reach, And Impact, Kylie Korsnack, Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

When the global pandemic forced campuses across the United States to send students home in March 2020, instructors were thrown into triage mode, forced to rapidly transition their on-the-ground classroom curriculum to a format that could be completed remotely by students spread out across the country. At the same time, centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) also entered triage mode, puzzling over how to quickly but effectively provide appropriate training and meaningful support to prepare faculty for this rapid transition (Aebersold et al., 2020). The situation’s urgency, coupled with the significant constraints many CTL directors already experienced, necessitated creative, flexible, …

Fractal Reflection: Cultivating Community And Meaning In Times Of Crises, Deandra Little, Joshua Caulkins, Eric C. Kaldor, Lindsay Wheeler

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The Pandemic Educational Development Research Collaborative (PEDRC) formed in April 2020 to record research-participants’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic racism crises and includes 18 educational developers across various 4-year institutions, types of centers, and positions in the field. The novel research methodology used by PEDRC, called “fractal reflection,” includes an iterative process of reflection, analysis, and meaning-making at the individual, paired, and group levels. However, this methodology served as more than just a means to collect data; it also provided a set of effective reflective practices to support educational developers managing the emotional labor of their work in …

Growing Pains (And Opportunities): Launching A Center For Teaching And Learning During A Global Pandemic, Johanna Inman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article provides a summary of the steps that were taken to launch a new center for teaching and learning (CTL) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Analysis of these steps explain how the inaugural director leveraged the pivot to emergency remote teaching to capitalize on faculty interest for educational development and increase collaboration between non-academic units that support teaching. Discussion also includes how strategic planning guided this process and ultimately garnered new staffing for this small center-of-one.

How A Small Teaching Center Made A Big Impact During The Pandemic Crises, J. A. Carter, Bradford Mallory, Brenda Refaei, Ruth Benander

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

For many faculty developers, 2020’s challenges changed our approach to our work. We found that by expanding our networks and relying on our collaborative spirit, we were able to adapt quickly and effectively to changing events. Each member of our four-person Learning + Teaching Center (LTC) team brings expertise and skills for faculty development. We employ a holistic approach to faculty development that not only provides programming for teaching improvement but also addresses the social and emotional needs of faculty and staff. The challenges of 2020 forced faculty and staff to work remotely, which necessitated more programming in how to …

In Search Of Silver Linings: Strategies For Preparing Future Faculty During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tazin Daniels, Elizabeth Bailey, Anoff Nicholas Cobblah

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In this article, we describe our experience as a racially and disciplinarily diverse, relatively junior program team who embraced the opportunity to transform a 20-year-old professional development seminar for graduate students into a remote offering in response to COVID-19. Our efforts to support our participants and champion an institutional move toward equitable and effective virtual programming are situated alongside the psychological tolls of remote work, a global health crisis, and ongoing racial violence across the United States. We recount our experience using, as a helpful metaphor, Lewin’s change model, which describes the process of “unfreezing,” “changing,” and “refreezing” long-standing assumptions …

How A Flexible Teaching “Camp” Answered Our Pandemic Teaching Emergency, Patricia Dineen

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty scrambled to move courses online and to master technology tools seemingly overnight. Keeping a focus on course design and teaching techniques became a central challenge for a center for teaching and learning (CTL) in the midst of the emergency move to online and blended learning. This article chronicles one CTL’s design and implementation of a virtual Forward Looking Explorations in Teaching Camp (FLEX Camp) that aimed to address pedagogy and technology simultaneously by immersing faculty in learning experiences. It details the planning process, learning goals, key activities, assessment methods, and lessons learned …

What Happens When You Close The Door On Remote Proctoring? Moving Toward Authentic Assessments With A People-Centered Approach, Sarah Silverman, Autumn Caines, Christopher Casey, Belen Garcia De Hurtado, Jessica Riviere, Alfonso Sintjago, Carla Vecchiola

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The COVID-19 pandemic made traditionally proctored in-person exams impossible. This article provides a summary of the arguments against institutional adoption of remote proctoring services with a focus on equity, an account of the decision to avoid remote proctoring on the University of Michigan–Dearborn campus, and conclusions and suggestions for other teaching and learning professionals who would like to take a similar approach. Remote proctoring services require access to technology that not all students are guaranteed to have, can constitute an invasion of privacy for students, and can discriminate against students of color and disabled students. Administrators and teaching and learning …

Rebuilding A Teaching Conference In A Pandemic: User-Centered Guiding Principles And Lessons Learned, Laura A. Lukes, E. Shelley Reid

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The COVID-19 pandemic challenged educational developers, like instructors across the world, to pivot their traditionally face-to-face faculty development programs to online formats. At the Stearns Center for Teaching and Learning at George Mason University (classified as research-intensive and the largest public institution in Virginia, United States), we faced the challenge of reimagining our annual pedagogy conference that scaled from 497 registered in 2019 when it was face-to-face to over 800 in 2020 as it was moved online. Under pressures of limited resources and increased uncertainty, leaders can find it difficult to imagine pathways toward innovation rather than just daily responses …

Student Perceptions Of Advising For Retention At A Midwestern Technical College, Joseph Mollner

Education Doctorate Dissertations

Student retention continues to be an issue across the United States, with only 69% of students remaining in their higher education institution until graduation. This number drops dramatically to 59.1% at two-year public schools, including technical schools. Past studies proved that proper advising is the cornerstone of improving student retention. In this phenomenological study, ten participants shared their experiences with advising at a technical college in the midwestern United States. Four common advisor-centered themes appeared from technical students’ advising experiences: these themes were flexibility, compassion, helpfulness, and the ability to provide constructive feedback.

There were significant differences in advising experiences …

A Teacher Shortage And Lack Of Representation In The Classroom: A Neoliberal And Critical Race Study Of The Broken Teacher Pipeline And The Impact On Education Majors, Sara Piotrowski

Theses and Dissertations

Teacher education attrition is a largely understudied topic, especially from the perspective of the college student. What factors prevented education majors from graduating with a teaching degree? There are countless studies about teacher attrition within the first five years in the classroom (DeAngelis et al., 2013; Kopkowski, 2008; Office of Postsecondary Education [OPE], 2015), but the research is sparse when it comes to the retention rate of education majors. Why do students get accepted and enter college as education majors and then not graduate with a degree to become a teacher? The purpose of this study was to consider factors …

Book Review: Cracks In The Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess Of Higher Education, Bruce Henderson

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

Review of Jason Brennan and Phillip Magness, Cracks in the Ivory Tower: The Moral Mess of Higher Education.

Preface To The Special Issue: Student Affairs At The State Comprehensive University, Phillip A. Olt

Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University

In this special issue of Teacher-Scholar: The Journal of the State Comprehensive University, authors are encouraged to submit original manuscripts based on new data collection and/or analysis that investigate student affairs within the context of the state comprehensive university. For the purposes of this special issue, “student affairs” is defined broadly and does not exclude specific divisions of practice (ex. academic advising); rather, it may include anything that extends beyond the standard curriculum of academia in order to develop the whole student. This may even include coursework wherein it is oriented toward the student affairs mission (ex. freshman orientation taught …

A Phenomenological Examination Of The Experience For Deaf Faculty Members In A Post-Secondary Institution In America, Amy Anne Schilling

Online Theses and Dissertations

The experience of Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty in post-secondary education is largely unknown. This qualitative phenomenological examination afforded six Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty to share their experiences. The purpose of this study is to share the day-to-day lived experience of Deaf tenure track or tenured faculty in post-secondary institutions. The goal of the study was to reveal areas of growths and strengths to allow institutions to better recruit, support, and retain Deaf tenure track faculty. Deaf faculty shared their experiences and have overcome barriers leading to success in their field. Interviews were conducted with each participant …

An Educator Out Of Water: A Phenomenological Study Into Identity-As-Educator For Student Affairs Professionals, David Mccoy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work of student affairs professionals has been happening since the inception of western higher education. The profession has shifted a great deal since that time, with an emphasis now on student affairs professionals as ‘educators’ alongside their faculty counterparts. Regardless of change, research has consistently demonstrated the impact student affairs can have on the experiences of students and colleges as a whole. Given the emergence of identity-as-educator, for these professionals to best continue their work, it is imperative to understand how they understand and make sense of this professional identity. This research was a phenomenological study to understand how …

Discomfort And Other Factors That Influence The Effectiveness Of Graduate Student Peer Consultations, Mark W. Pleiss, Krisztina Erzsebet Dearborn

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The following study reports the findings of two surveys given to graduate teacher consultants (n = 30) and graduate student teachers (n = 59) who completed video-teacher consultations at a public, R1 university. The surveys assessed the overall effectiveness of peer consultation for both sides and identified the factors that influenced those assessments. We found that the level of comfort expressed by consultants and graduate teachers during their first consultations had the greatest impact on their perceived level of effectiveness. The time between consultants’ training and their first consultation also affected their assessments. Other factors that did and did not …

An Efficient And Coherent Pipeline For Graduate Student And Postdoctoral Scholar Educational Development, Daniel Mann, Matthew Mahavongtrakul, Ashley Hooper

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

As higher education shifts toward a culture of evidence-based teaching practices, future faculty are seeking opportunities to develop their pedagogical knowledge and skills. Many centers for teaching and learning (CTLs) have not proportionally grown in resources to meet the demand for graduate student and postdoctoral scholar programming (e.g., teaching certificates and pedagogy seminars). This article presents a model of a wide-ranging, coherent pipeline of educational development for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars managed by a CTL with modest staffing.

Focus On Outcomes: Fostering Systemic Departmental Improvements, Daniel L. Reinholz, Mary E. Pilgrim, Amelia Stone-Johnson, Karen Falkenburg, Christopher Geanious, Courtney Ngai, Joel Christopher Corbo, Sarah B. Wise

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article describes how a focus on outcomes can be a tool for guiding systemic change. By focusing on positive outcomes to be achieved, a group can guide its collective efforts toward an ideal future rather than becoming fixated on individual problems to solve. While there is support for an outcome-guided approach in the literature on individual and organizational change, this approach has not been used extensively to support department-level changes in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education.

Implementation Plans For Course Redesigns: An Exploration Of Identified Strategies, Rebecca Campbell, Benjamin Blankenship

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Institutions are redesigning gateway courses—lower-division courses known to create student success bottlenecks—to influence persistence and completion goals. These initiatives, student success course redesigns (SSCR), are specialized versions of course design institutes (CDIs). This investigation into SSCRs uses content analysis to examine the implementation plans created during a SSCR. Results demonstrated that the majority of the strategies planned focused on the Learning key performance indicator (KPI), and the minority of the planned-for strategies focused on the Monitoring Student Performance KPI. A more granular analysis of the Learning strategies revealed five themes: Content, Assessment, Pedagogy, Syllabus, and Student Success. Additional results indicated …

Finding Our Voice: Highly Flexible Ed For The Hyflex World, Kristine Larsen, Cristina Robinson, Jason A. Melnyk, Jennifer Nicoletti, Amy Gagnon, Kelly Mclaughlin, Mina Hussaini

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about unprecedented changes in our approach to delivering educational development (ED) programming. In this article we discuss how our dual ED centers pivoted during the sudden switch to online learning, highlighting how we overcame challenges such as a small staff, tight timelines, and faculty anxieties. Particularly, we explore how we adapted to the university’s investment in technologically advanced Hybrid-Flexible (HyFlex) classroom spaces and utilized a multi-pronged team approach to provide effective and timely ED to faculty. By identifying key faculty leaders, identifying multiple sources of data, and using multiple modalities, we supported the faculty in their …