Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Science Teachers’ Professional Growth And The Communication In Science Inquiry Project, Elizabeth Lewis, Dale Baker, Nievita Bueno Watts, Katrien Van Der Hoeven Kraft

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The Communication in Science Inquiry Project (CISIP) a National Science Foundation-funded, standards-based model of a scientific classroom discourse community (SCDC) was designed to meet the need for highly-qualified teachers and science education reform. The model included: (a) inquiry; (b) oral discourse; (c) written discourse; (d) academic language development, and (e) learning principles. Research and evaluation feedback were mechanisms by which CISIP become self-regulating, promoting instructional change and incorporating more aspects of inquiry-based learning with academic language development strategies. The program underwent a philosophical shift from teachers-as-consumers to teachers-as-producers based on classroom observations using a professional development-aligned classroom observation instrument that …

The Road To Reform: A Grounded Theory Study Of Parents’ And Teachers’ Influence On Elementary School Science And Mathematics, Julie Thomas, Sandi Cooper

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Though elementary teacher educators introduce new, reform-based strategies in science and mathematics methods courses, researchers wondered how novices negotiate reform strategies once they enter the elementary school culture. Given that the extent of parents’ and veteran teachers’ influence on novice teachers is largely unknown, this grounded theory study explored parents’ and teachers’ expectations of children’s optimal science and mathematics learning in the current era of reform. Data consisted of semistructured, open-ended interviews with novice teachers (n = 20), veteran teachers (n = 9), and parents (n = 28). Researchers followed three stages of coding procedures to develop …

Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Science Self-Efficacy Beliefs And Science Content Knowledge, Deepika Menon, Troy D. Sadler

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Self-efficacy beliefs that relate to teachers’ motivation and performance have been an important area of concern for preservice teacher education. Research suggests high-quality science coursework has the potential to shape preservice teachers’ science self-efficacy beliefs. However, there are few studies examining the relationship between science self-efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge. The purpose of this mixed methods study is to investigate changes in preservice teachers’ science self-efficacy beliefs and science content knowledge and the relationship between the two variables as they co-evolve in a specialized science content course. Results from pre- and post-course administrations of the Science Teaching Efficacy Belief …

Examination Of Learning Equity Among Prospective Science Teachers Who Are Concrete, Formal And Postformal Reasoners After An Argumentation-Based Inquiry Course, Ömer Acar, Bruce R. Patton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study had two research purposes. First, we examined the scientific reasoning gains of prospective science teachers who are concrete, formal, and postformal reasoners in an argumentation-based physics inquiry instruction. Second, we sought conceptual knowledge and achievement gaps between these student groups before and after the instruction. Results were reported for 114 prospective science teachers. Results showed that concrete reasoners’ scientific reasoning gain was higher than those of formal and postformal reasoners. Moreover postformal reasoners outperformed formal and concrete reasoners on a situational conceptual knowledge subscale before and after instruction. In addition, postformal and formal reasoners scored higher than concrete …

Pre-Service Teachers And Climate Change: A Stalemate?, Helen J. Boon

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Findings from the second phase of a study of pre-service teachers’ attitudes to environmental education and knowledge of climate change are reported in this paper. A sample of 87 pre-service teachers participated in a survey study in the last year of their Bachelor of Education degree to examine developments to their attitudes to environmental education and their knowledge of climate change as a result of training. Results showed their attitudes towards environmental education were consistently favourable, but their climate change science knowledge had not changed as a result of their participation in their degree. Data on preservice teachers’ sources of …

Kindergarten Children Demonstrating Numeracy Concepts Through Drawings And Explanations: Intentional Teaching Within Play-Based Learning, Philemon Chigeza, Reesa Sorin

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Using both child-guided and adult-guided learning, Intentional Teaching in the early years can be a powerful tool for enhancing young children’s numeracy skills. As Epstein (2009) notes, this can include providing “opportunities for children to represent things by drawing, building and moving” (p. 47). This paper investigates how kindergarten (four-five year olds) children represented and demonstrated numeracy concepts through their drawings and explanations, completed for a research study that used arts-based strategies to enhance children’s environmental understanding. This research study involved kindergarten children in Australia creating and exchanging postcards (drawings and explanations) of their local environments with their peers in …

Emotional Literacy And Pedagogical Confidence In Pre-Service Science And Mathematics Teachers, Tony Yeigh, Geoff Woolcott, Jim Donnelly, Rob Whannell, Matthew Snow, Amanda Scott

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This report details the findings from initial research seeking to improve the pedagogical confidence of pre-service STEM teachers by encouraging emotional literacy in the form of affect awareness. The report discusses how affect was measured for the study, what the affect outcomes were and how these measures are conceptually related to improving confidence for the pre-service teachers (PSTs). Findings indicate enhanced emotional feedback enabled the PSTs to analyse, understand and make use of affect information to reflect on their teaching confidence overall. Ongoing research will need to address the issue of negative affect awareness in teacher training, and strategies for …

Ua64/2 The Challenge: Magazine For The Center For Gifted Studies (No. 38, Winter 2016), Center For Gifted Studies, Tracy Inman Editor

Gifted Studies Publications

No abstract provided.

The Problem-Solving Process In A Mathematics Classroom, Enrique Ortiz

Transformations

Problem solving provides a working framework to apply mathematics, and well chosen mathematics problems provide students with the opportunity to solidify and extend what they know, and can stimulate students’ mathematics learning (NCTM, 2001). Using this framework, students may utilize ways to learn mathematics concepts and skills that are rich with meaning and connections, and pre- and in-service teachers may implement teaching and assessment procedures to establish teaching and assessment environments.

Function Concept: Learning From History, Ruthmae Sears, Dung Tran, Seoung Woo Lee, Amanda Thomas

Transformations

The importance of functions in school mathematics has grown tremendously within the past century. Functions have progressed from being scantly represented in school mathematics to being a core mathematical topic. C.B. Boyer (1946) acknowledged “The development of the function concept has revolutionized mathematics in much the same way as did the nearly simultaneous rise of non-Euclidean geometry. It has transformed mathematics from a pure natural science- the queen of the sciences- into something vastly large. It has established mathematics as the basis of all rigorous thinking – the logic of all possible relations” (Markovits, Eylor, & Bruckheimer, 1986, p. 18). …

Mathematics Anxiety In Society: A Real Phenomena And A Real Solution, Joseph M. Furner, Carol A. Marinas

Transformations

While math anxiety still remains a real issue affecting student performance and confidence, today it is even more critical with the greater emphasis on producing more students for careers in STEM fields. In an effort to understand ways to ease math anxiety and encourage adaptive achievement behaviors to deal with such anxiety, this paper will explore the topic and provide research-based practices in providing a solution to this existing problem in our schools. There are many studies that show using technology in the teaching of mathematics will help to alleviate math anxiety and encourage students to enjoy learning mathematics. GeoGebra, …

When Two Wrongs Made A Right: A Classroom Scenario Of Critial Thinking As Problem Solving, Hui Fan Huang "Angie" Su, Frederick A. Ricci, Mamikon Mnatsakanian

Transformations

Educators from kindergarten through college often stress the importance of teaching critical thinking within all academic content areas (Foundation for Critical Thinking, 2007, 2013). As indicated by the position statements of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, high quality mathematics education before the first grade should use curriculum and teaching practices that strengthen children’s problem-solving and reasoning processes as well as representing, communicating, and connecting mathematical ideas” The joint position statement of NAEYC and the National Council of” (NAEYC & NCTM [2002] 2010, 3). Through the educational and academic institutions critical thinking is identified as an important outcome for …

Winter 2016, Transformations

Transformations

No abstract provided.

Enhancing The Stem Ecosystem Through Teacher-Researcher Partnerships, William E. Tapprich, Neal Grandgenett, Heather Leas, Steven N. Rodie, Robert Duncan Shuster, Chris Schaben, Christine E. Cutucache

Biology Faculty Publications

STEM faculty at the University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) have partnered with teachers and administrators in the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) to implement a Teacher-Researcher Partnership Program. This program establishes resources and infrastructure that engage K-12 science teachers in scientific research experiences. In the first implementation of this program, eleven UNO faculty mentors, drawn from several STEM disciplines, were matched with eleven OPS teachers to conduct genuine research projects in support of their teaching.

What Does Motivated Mean? Re-Presenting Learning, Technology, And Motivation In Middle Schools Via New Ethnographic Writing, Justin Olmanson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This article offers a critique of the way middle schoolers are often positioned as generalizable objects that can be acted upon to produce measurable increases in motivation and learning. The critique invites a reconsideration and cultural analysis of some of the dominant discourses and perceptions of technology, young adolescence, and the study of motivation. The use of New Ethnographic Writing—a method that performs a cultural critique via extended scenes—connects to the roles and status of motivation, technology, and educational research methods deployed within public schools. Coupled with weak theory, this approach offers a way to understand young adolescents as navigating …

Integrating Reading Into Mathematics Instruction, Meredith Eby

Honors College Theses

Reading is not often thought of as a topic that affects mathematics, but it is a reality for low-level reader students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how teachers describe the relationship between mathematics and literacy skills, and to explore specific methods mathematics teachers used to accommodate low-level readers in their mathematics instruction. Participants were six teachers from a rural elementary school. Data was collected through recorded interviews and supplemental email questions that were coded. The data gathered showed that teachers use literacy in mathematics classrooms through word problems and mathematics stories. The most common accommodation was …

Noyce Science Teacher Master Of Arts With Emphasis In Science Teaching Program: Meeting Challenges Of 21st Century Classrooms. Unl Noyce Track I, Phase I, Final Report., Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lindsay Augustyn, Amanda Garrett, Lyrica L. Lucas, Aaron A. Musson, Ana Rivero, Andy Frederick

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

To meet the state’s and the nation’s need for more highly qualified science teachers, the 14-month Master of Arts with emphasis in science teaching (MAst) program was established in the College of Education’s Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, along with a Robert Noyce, Track I, Phase I grant from the National Science Foundation, awarded in 2010. This report presents a summary of the accomplishments of this Noyce grant, in which 60 post-baccalaureate science majors and professionals were provided with Noyce stipends to become science teachers. The MAst program is now in its sixth …

The Influence Of Instruction In Base 8 On Prospective Teachers' Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching, Katie Harshman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research project was to extend existing research literature by providing insight to how prospective teachers with differing levels of mathematical knowledge developed their conceptual understanding of whole number concepts and operations. Prospective teachers of interest were enrolled in an Elementary School Mathematics Course for Teachers (in the College of Education) with a whole number concepts and operations unit set entirely in base 8. In this mixed-mode study, participants were given the MKT, a measure designed to measure teacher mathematical knowledge for teaching, before and after taking the base 8 unit. The researcher focused on two specific …

Nsu Science Education Curriculum 2016, Nova Southeastern University

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice College Archive

No abstract provided.

Training In Summarizing Notes: Effects Of Teaching Students A Self-Regulation Study Strategy In Science Learning, Michelle Mendoza Nebres

Doctoral Dissertations

The last two decades of national data assessments reveal that there has been a sharp decline in nationwide standardized test scores. International assessment data show that in 2012 a very low amount of American students were performing at proficiency or above in science literacy. Research in science literacy education suggests that students benefit most when they are self-regulated (SR) learners. Unfortunately, SR poses a challenge for many students because students lack these skills. The effects of having learned few SR strategies at an early age may lead to long term learning difficulties—preventing students from achieving academic success in college and …

Integrating Diversity Training Into Doctoral Programs In Mathematics Education, Ruthmae Sears, Tonisha B. Lane

Transformations

There exists a need to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in mathematics education (Wilson and Franke, 2008). Being cognizant that there are few underrepresented groups that obtain doctoral degrees in mathematical sciences or mathematics education (AMS, 2014; Reys and Dossey, 2008), focused training is needed to prepare doctoral students on diversity issues that may arise in higher education and the means by to address such issues. An advance seminar course or colloquium that would be helpful to mathematics education doctoral students who seek a career position in higher education should be entitled, “Gaining a better perspective of diversity in higher …

Montana K-8 Teacher Preparation In Stem, Jeanette Murnane

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

The goal of this thesis is to find out how K-8 teacher education programs in Montana can

be improved to better prepare teachers to teach science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts. While research has been done on what types of courses best prepare teachers for the classroom, my study focuses on how well Montana colleges and universities prepare K-8 certified teachers to teach STEM concepts. A survey was sent out to K-8 certified teachers across Montana to determine how well new teachers can utilize the technology available in their classrooms and what concepts within Common Core Math and Next …

Integration Of Place-Based Education Into Science Classes From Prekindergarten Through Grade 5, Terri Adele Wade-Lyles

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a large urban district in Ohio, 29.2% of Grade 5, 28.7% of Grade 8, and 45.7% of Grade 10 students passed the state test in science. School district administrators formed a community partnership with local science institutions in order to provide students with hands-on place-based learning experiences intended to improve science academic achievement in PK-Grade 5. The purpose of this qualitative program evaluation was to determine the level of implementation of that place-based program by examining the efficacy of the teachers' embedded professional development and their experiences with the training components. Bruner's theory of cognitive development was used to …

How Social Presence On Twitter Impacts Student Engagement And Learning In A Grade 8 Mathematics Classroom, Shelly Vohra

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social media for personal use has evolved rapidly among adolescents, changing the way they communicate with each other. However, little research has been conducted about how teachers use social media in the classroom to improve student learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe how social presence on Twitter impacts student engagement and learning when a mathematics teacher integrates this social media tool into an instructional unit. The conceptual framework was based on social presence theory developed by Short, Williams, and Christie. This qualitative study used a single case study design. Participants included 6 students and 1 classroom …

Relationship Between Teacher Inquiry Science Instruction Self-Efficacy And Student Achievement, Grace Hanners

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Standardized test data indicate that student achievement in science is a problem both nationally and locally. At the study site, only a small percentage of fifth-grade students score at the advanced level on the Maryland state science assessment (MSA). In addition, the performance of African American, economically disadvantaged, and special education students is well below that of the general student population. Some studies have shown that teacher self-efficacy affects student achievement. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between fifth-grade teacher inquiry science instruction self-efficacy scores and the scores of their students on the MSA. Bandura's …

A Phenomenological Study On The Impacts Of Embedding Disciplinary Literacy During Science Instruction On Elementary Teachers’ Metacognition Of Instructional Techniques, Kelley Weiss

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The educational community has been increasing its focus on literacy for several years. The modern definition of literacy requires students to be an informed and integrated thinker, synthesizing new information beyond the mere ability to read and write (Guzzetti & Bang, 2011). This qualitative phenomenological study focused on how teachers of science view literacy and how that view changes when they implement the concept of disciplinary literacy into science instruction. This phenomenological study examined how teachers became more metacognitive of their instructional methods after implementation of the Question-Answer Relationship strategy (QAR) and direct vocabulary instruction into their science instruction. Teachers …

Holography In The Secondary Physics Curriculum, Stephen P. Hogan

Masters Theses

This paper presents a unit plan for effective implementation of a holography learning activity in the secondary science physics classroom. The study of holography has traditionally been limited to collegiate optics courses due to financial and physical constraints. Recent developments in the technology of holographic film has eliminated these two limiting factors. Recent secondary educators who have introduced holography with their secondary science classes have completed the activities, without much discussion or explanation regarding the scientific principles that allow the phenomenon to occur. In this paper we develop a foundational unit plan that finishes with holography as the pinnacle activity, …

Critical Thinking To Justify An Answer In Mathematics Classrooms, Angelique E. Brown

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Students' critical thinking in mathematics was a concern for grade 5 through 8 teachers at a Title 1 public school in the northeastern United States because of the students' poor performance on constructed response questions on the state's mathematics exam. In this exam, students were required to justify their answers in writing. When teachers recognize the connection between writing and critical thinking, they can devise strategies to help students develop mathematical literacy. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how 5th through 8th grade mathematics teachers use the GoMath mathematics literacy program to teach the critical thinking …

Preschool Teachers' Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Science, Sharon Henry Lloyd

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In the United States, a current initiative, Advancing Active STEM Education for Our Youngest Learners, aims to advance science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in early childhood. The purpose of this study was to understand preschool teachers' proficiency with science and address the problem of whether or not science learning opportunities are provided to young children based on teachers' attitudes and beliefs. A theoretical framework for establishing teachers' attitudes toward science developed by van Aalderen-Smeets, van der Molen, and Asma, along with Bandura's theory of self-efficacy were the foundations for this research. Research questions explored preschool teachers' attitudes and …

Factors For Success In Community College Online Gateway Math, Lisa Marie Borzewski

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Researchers have found that student success rates in online classes are lower than in comparable face-to-face courses. Yet, the research is unclear as to whether student demographic and academic history variables are related to the lower success rates. At a large community college in Florida, low success rates for students in the online Intermediate Algebra course led to delays in the continuation of required coursework and graduation for many students and the factors associated with low success rates were largely unknown. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to examine the associations between several student variables and student success in …