Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Flipped Classroom As Blended Learning In A Fluid Mechanics Course In Engineering Technology, Orlando M. Ayala, Otilia Popescu, Vukica M. Jovanovic

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Flipped classroom has gained attention in recent years as a teaching method in which the time allocated for introducing new concepts and the time used for practicing them are inverted, in order to provide more time for problem based learning and class interaction under direct supervision of the instructor. The implementation of this teaching method is comprised of two main components, the pre-class activities, which consist of individual student work and are largely based on pre-recorded videos, and in-class activities, which are group activities supervised by the instructor. This paper discusses the implementation of the flipped classroom method in a …

Improving Instructional Strategies In Higher Education For Students With A Learning Disability In A General Education Science Course, Brian Ogle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Dissertation in Practice employed a mixed-methods design to identify preferred instructional methods in a college level science course as well as the self-reported challenges to learning science in college by students with a learning disability. In addition, the relationships between preferred instructional strategies and learner characteristics such as declared major, and learning disability were examined. Qualitative and quantitative data was collected from a sample of 48 participants using an electronic survey. Additionally, eight participants participated in focus groups to collect in-depth qualitative data. All participants are current students enrolled full-time at Beacon College. Each participant completed a science college …

Self-Efficacy: Understanding African American Male Students Pathways To Confidence In Mathematics, Lisa Ann Williams

Wayne State University Dissertations

This dissertation is about the stories of African American male undergraduate students who have experienced success in mathematics. Bandura’s (1997) social cognitive theory and Tillman’s (2000) culturally sensitive research approach which promotes qualitative methods, recognizes ethnicity, and positions culture as central to the research were applied. Student interviews, parent interviews, teacher interviews, and mathematical autobiographies were used to investigate African American men self-efficacy, the sources of their beliefs, and societal factors that impacted their motivation and academic achievement in mathematics.

The descriptive portraits and the interviews revealed five broad themes: (1) college experiences, (2) K-12 experiences, (3) access and equity, …

Alec 405: Method Of Instruction For Secondary Career And Technical Education—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Nathan W. Conner

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The objective of this portfolio is to showcase and provide evidence of how students become able to grow and develop in the area of lesson plan development over the course of the semester. This portfolio will also serve to document the importance of providing classroom learning activities that allow students the opportunity to practice and apply the skills that they obtain from new content knowledge. This portfolio will show evidence of the importance that I put on my personal growth and reflection in order to continually improve my teaching and provide the best learning opportunities possible. The course I selected …

Adpr 221: Strategic Writing For Advertising And Public Relations—A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Michael D. Hanus

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The objective for this course portfolio was to document the changes implemented to a core advertising and public relations writing course. The portfolio outlines five proposed goals for the revised course: students should be able to write for an audience, give and receive quality feedback, prepare for novel situations in the workplace, see writing as rewarding, creative, and fun, and learn professional conventions and industry standards for strategic writing. The course was significantly restructured in order to better reach these goals on student assignments, activities, and during lectures. Each goal was assessed with a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. …

Nsst 475: Security In The 21st Century—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Tyler R. White

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark course portfolio is the culmination of a year’s long planning and execution process to improve an existing capstone course NSST 475. This course has two goals: to teach students about subject matter and to expose them to structured analytic techniques (SATs) before they graduate. This course is a minor capstone which means that the students come from a diverse set of disciplinary backgrounds. I targeted two course objectives to examine for this project with the intention of employing backward course design to think through what students should be learning and how I can improve that process. This portfolio …

Nutr 356: Nutrition Education In The Community—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Virginia Chaidez

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio summarizes a thoughtful documentation of a peer review process of teaching for an undergraduate course in community nutrition. The portfolio provides my description of the course and course goals utilizing the 'Backwards Design' approach; a reflection of teaching methods and activities used to enhance learning and reach course goals; an analysis of teaching activities at the end of the semester and planned changes for teaching this course moving forward.

Teac 308: Teaching Mathematics In The Elementary School–A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Amanda Thomas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio outlines four aspects of the peer review of teaching project, which focused on TEAC 308: Teaching Mathematics in the Elementary School. The first aspect was the explicit articulation of student learning objectives drawn from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Principles to Actions: Ensuring Mathematical Success for All (2014). During this project, the nine objectives were aligned with instructional opportunities and assignments with those objectives. In addition to defining these objectives, the portfolio describes analysis of three components: student progress toward developing and demonstrating productive beliefs about aspects of teaching and learning mathematics, student progress across three …

Mech 350: Introduction To Dynamics And Controls Of Engineering Systems—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Benjamin S. Terry

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

There are two purposes of this portfolio. The first purpose is to outline and explain my approach to teaching this classic and fundamental course. I highlight in detail the purpose and curricula, the desired outcomes, and the goals and objectives. I also describe how the course activities and my teaching methodology support the course objectives. The second purpose of this portfolio is to describe a simple course modification—the introduction of a recitation session—and to test in a preliminary way the effect of this change on students’ attitudes towards the examples worked out in class. The results show that in the …

Engl 254: Writing And Communities—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Rachael Wendler Shah

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio analyzes a section of English 254: Writing and Communities, exploring how well the course met individual teaching goals and the departmental course goals for English 254, with a particular focus on how the new English Department mission statement priorities are actualized in the class and how well the class supported learning to communicate across difference. The portfolio includes an outline of institutional context, course outcomes, and student background, as well as a backwards planning chart that demonstrates alignment between outcomes, activities, and assessment strategy. Then, the portfolio examines student data from each of the three major assignments, …

Law 658/G: Weibling Entrepreneurship Clinic—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Brett C. Stohs

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio summarizes a study conducted by Professor Brett C. Stohs of students in the Weibling Entrepreneurship Clinic during the 2017 Spring semester. Specifically, the study sought to determine whether students who participate in the clinic develop their professional identities as soon-to-be lawyers. Using qualitative and quantitative measurements, the study determined that participating students do tend to develop their professional identities while in the clinic. This portfolio examines the extent of that development and identifies opportunities for continued course improvement.

Vmed 646: Animal Physiology Ii—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Renee M. Mcfee

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This Peer Review of Teaching Project portfolio focuses on the Animal Physiology II course which is required for first year veterinary medicine students. Weekly quizzes assess baseline knowledge and had been administered individually and in groups. I hypothesized the discontinuation of group quizzes would increase student effort when preparing for quizzes. Unit exams involve scenario-based questions and require students to apply information. I hypothesized the implementation of group exams would help under-performing students improve their ability to apply information they had learned. Exams were still taken individually prior to being taken in groups to encourage adequate preparation. Student impacts were …

Embedding For Empathy: Helping Journalism Students Become Better Reporters | Journalism 446/846: Mosaic—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Michelle Carr Hassler

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

As part of Nebraska Mosaic, a senior-level journalism capstone course, students are tasked with interviewing, writing and producing stories for and about refugees and immigrants in Nebraska. But students face a steep learning curve in this experiential learning class. Their knowledge about refugees and immigrants is limited, and they have little understanding of the issues refugees and immigrants face in their new country. Students also have little experience interacting with them, much less interviewing them and writing about them. Using an experiential learning assignment that mimics the journalism practice of embedding, students have an opportunity to develop empathy, gain confidence …

Engl 487: English Capstone Experience—A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Kelly Stage

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the teaching objectives, strategies, and assessments for a capstone course in the English major at UNL. As the English Studies Capstone and as an ACE (Achievement-Centered Education) 10 course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, English 487 must help students meet key outcomes for the department and the University, but it also allows flexibility and creativity in the methods chosen to meet these requirements and structure the course. This portfolio thereby reflects on the intellectual labor of designing a particular version of these requirements and on guiding students through the design. The assessments included here are measuring traditional …

Teac 908e: Critical Conversations In U.S. Teacher Education Policy And Practice—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Lauren Gatti

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Since compulsory school began in the early 1900s, there have been lively and at times intense debates regarding how teachers ought to be prepared. Current debates are particularly pitched as the achievement gap persists and teacher attrition remains high, made more intense by the level of polarization in the country. Debates in the field of teacher preparation, like the country writ large, are often characterized more by heat than light. Given this reality, I opted to use this peer review of teaching opportunity to think about my graduate course as a place where students could practice perspective-taking and dialogue around …

Meng 3250: Mechanics Of Elastic Bodies—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Jinying Zhu

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio focuses on mechanics of materials (course title: Mechanics of Elastic Bodies), a sophomore level course taken primarily by civil engineering and architectural engineering majors on Omaha campus. It is a prerequisite for broad range of courses in mechanical, civil and agricultural engineering majors. This course studies the mechanics of solids with applications to science and engineering, including stress, strains and deformation in structural elements (axial, torsional and bending), shear and moment diagram for beams, and a brief introduction to material failure mechanisms.

This portfolio describes the teaching methods used to help students understand the fundamental knowledge about material …

Cive 463: Traffic Engineering—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, John Sangster

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio documents the backward design of a senior-level design elective course in traffic engineering within the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Nebraska. An extensive discussion of stakeholder needs for the course is followed by an analysis of formative and summative feedback assessments that are designed to meet the needs of a heterogeneous group of students in the course. As a senior-level design elective, there is a wide variety of interest levels among participants in the course, varying from those who have experience with internships in the topic and offer letters to conduct work in this …

Edad 925: Law And Higher Education—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Stephanie Bondi

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents three learning outcomes of the EDAD925 Law and Higher Education course taught Spring 2017 in the Department of Educational Leadership. The learning outcomes include (a) understanding the role of the higher education administrator within the legal context, (b) using professional standards to inform decision-making, and (c) examining social justice concepts within professional practice in the legal context of higher education. The portfolio shows what was done and how students demonstrated learning on the outcomes. The portfolio includes suggestions of how to better address the three learning outcomes.

Aecn 436: Commodity Price Forecasting—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Fabio Mattos

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This study explores the impact of distinct teaching approaches on students’ learning. In my course, we cover two main topics, technical analysis and fundamental analysis, which I decided to teach in different ways. I used activities associated with active learning to teach technical analysis, and traditional lectures (recitation) to teach fundamental analysis. Then I compared students’ performance in two exams to assess how much they learned about each topic. Students generally performed better in the exam on technical analysis than they did in the exam on fundamental analysis, suggesting that they learned technical analysis better than they learned fundamental analysis. …

Program Evaluation Of A Competency-Based Online Model In Higher Education, Karen Digiacomo

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In order to serve its nontraditional students, a university piloted a competency-based program as alternative method for its students to earn college credit. The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to conduct a summative program evaluation to determine if the program was successful in order to make decisions about program revision and expansion. The conceptual framework for the study was grounded in Knowles's adult learning theory and Bandura's social learning theory as they relate to adult learners being self-directed and self-motivated to complete their educational goals. The pilot program involved 60 students taking 12 different courses over 3 semesters. Quantitative …

Faculty Self-Efficacy Instructing In A Hybrid Learning Environment At A Career College, Donna Gosselin Gosselin

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since the inception of the hybrid instruction model at a career college in the western United States, there has not been an exploration of faculty members' understanding of hybrid instruction. Therefore, campus administrators do not have a clear understanding of the faculty perception of teaching in a hybrid learning environment. Using Bandura's social cognitive theory, this qualitative narrative inquiry study was conducted to explore faculty self-efficacy instructing in a hybrid learning environment at the career college. A purposeful sampling method was used to select 9 faculty who have taught less than 2 hybrid learning courses and attended the college professional …

Faculty Perceptions Of Instructional Strategies That Foster Student Engagement In Online Courses, Sharon M. Hope

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developing online instructional strategies for increasing student engagement and success is significant locally and nationally due to growth in the online field, advances in technology, and the need for colleges to maximize student success. This study stemmed from the desire of administrators at an upstate New York private college to discover additional ways to design and deliver effective online instruction. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to discover faculty perceptions of and experiences with instructional strategies that they used to foster student engagement in online learning. Kearsley and Shneiderman's engagement theory formed the study's conceptual framework. Ten …

High School To College Transition Among Black Males: An Action Research Project, Orval Albert Jewett

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A participatory action research project involving social workers as stakeholders from high schools and the local community college in Nassau County, New York, provided the basis for an inquiry that addressed the effectiveness and implementation of clinical social work practice with Black male students transitioning to community college from high school. This study addresses how clinical social work practice may be utilized to enhance the experience of the transition process for Black male students from high school to college. Through the use of a qualitative in-depth interview process, 16 school-based social workers provided professional perspective and expertise that resulted in …

Elementary Teachers' Perceptions On Writing Proficiency Of Military-Connected Students, Kerrin Weatherwax

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At Base Elementary School (BES) in the Southwest United States school administrators were concerned that writing proficiency levels for 2014-2015 were below district and state standards and there was not a clear understanding of teachers' perceptions on writing proficiency of military-connected (MC) students at the target site. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore teachers' perceptions on writing proficiency of MC students at BES. Using Lave and Wenger's communities of practice framework, a qualitative instrumental case study was used to discern perceptions of elementary English Language Arts (ELA) teachers regarding the writing proficiency of MC students. …

Addressing Laterality To Prevent Injury In Dance Education: Teaching Methods To Compensate For The Right Bias And Asymmetry, Olivia M. Alsamadi

UROP Posters

Despite the vast knowledge available about proper alignment and safe dance training, the growing demands for university dancers have plagued them with increasing rates of overuse injuries stemming from an imbalance in their practice often influenced by their professors. The purpose of this review is to study teaching methods in dance education and the right bias in university dance classes to learn how unbalanced teaching methods and dancers’ asymmetric physicalities cause injuries. This research will help professors understand how to effectively communicate with their students to promote safe, injury preventing practice. The research explores the various roles present in the …

Virtual Faculty Learning Community Implementation Framework, Angela Atwell, Cristina Cottom, Lisa Martino, Sara Ombres

Publications

This framework is meant to be a useful guide for those interested in creating a V-FLC. You may skip around to the various sections or read the framework from start to finish. The framework consists of twelve questions to ask as you begin developing a V-FLC, answers to these questions based on our experience, as well as a visual representation of the framework.

Supplemental Instruction And The Promotion Of Construction Of Knowledge, Ruth C. Chambers-Turner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Supplemental instruction (SI), a peer assisted learning model, improves course performance, retention, and graduation rates of post-secondary education students. Researchers have questioned if the success of SI is due to students becoming more aware of assessment demands or if SI also promotes construction of new knowledge. The purposes of this case study were to describe techniques utilized by SI peer leaders, explore how sociocognitive learning techniques are implemented, and explore the perceptions of supplemental instruction program stakeholders regarding sociocognitive learning techniques. The research questions focused on what techniques peer leaders are trained to implement and what peer leaders' perceptions of …

Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide To Lecturing, Presenting, And Engaging Students, Norman Eng

Publications and Research

Your students aren’t reading. They aren’t engaged in class. Getting them to talk is like pulling teeth. Whatever the situation, your reality is not meeting your expectations. Change is needed. But who’s got the time? Or maybe you’re just starting out, and you want to get it right the first time.

If so, Teaching College: The Ultimate Guide to Lecturing, Presenting, and Engaging Students is the blueprint. Written for early career instructors, this easy-to-implement guide teaches you to:

• Think like advertisers to understand your target audience—your students
• Adopt the active learning approach of the best K-12 teachers
• Write a syllabus …

Raising The Curtain: Investigating The Practicum Experiences Of Pre-Service Drama Teachers, Christina C. Gray, Peter R. Wright, Robin Pascoe

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The practicum is internationally recognised as a valuable component of teacher education. It is an opportunity for pre-service teachers to develop teaching skills in authentic ways and pursue professional inquiry into practice. While extensive research has been conducted into the practicum generally, little research focuses on the practicum experience for pre-service drama teachers. This article, investigates the preparation of drama teachers for the profession with a particular focus on the practicum component of pre-service education. Drawing on the experiences of 19 pre-service drama teachers from a Western Australian university, focus-groups were conducted in order to scope the key components of …

A Comparison Of The Motivations Of Pre-Degree And Degree Education Students For Becoming Teachers In Aotearoa New Zealand, Vivienne Hogan, Lynette Reid, Dale Furbish

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In New Zealand the Ministry of Education is committed to attracting and retaining ‘high quality individuals’ to the teaching profession who represent the diverse cultural and socio-economic communities in the country. One way to achieve this has been through the provision of multiple pathways into initial teacher education (ITE). Such pathways provide access for students significantly underrepresented in Teacher Education. This research sought to investigate and compare the motivation of students enrolled on the Certificate of Introduction to Early Childhood Education (ECE) or the Bachelor of Education (BEd) Primary and ECE specialism. As other research has suggested, there is a …