Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Talking Circles For Adolescent Girls In An Urban High School: A Restorative Practices Program For Building Friendships And Developing Emotional Literacy Skills, Martha Ann Schumacher

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

TALKING CIRCLES FOR ADOLESCENT GIRLS

IN AN URBAN HIGH SCHOOL: A RESTORATIVE PRACTCES' PROGRAM FOR BUILDING FRIENDHIPS AND DEVELOPING

EMOTIONAL LITERACY SKILLS

by

MARTHA ANN SCHUMACHER

DECEMBER 2012

ADVISOR: Dr. Loraleigh Keashly

MAJOR: Communication

DEGREE: Doctor of Philosophy

Restorative Practices and Restorative Justice programs in schools are a new and emerging field. Meeting in Circles to build community, resolve conflict, and learn interactively are core components of these programs. This ethnographic study, which took place February 2010 to December 2011, evaluates 12 small, out-of-classroom Talking Circles for 60 adolescent girls as part of a Restorative Practices program in an …

Dispositions In The Twenty First Century School Library Profession, Sue C. Kimmel, Gail K. Dickinson, Carol A. Doll

STEMPS Faculty Publications

Within the school library profession there is an emerging focus on dispositions, defined as "a tendency to exhibit frequently, consciously, and voluntarily a pattern of behavior that is directed to a broad goal" (Katz, 1993). Directed focus groups of practicing school librarians were asked to articulate their vision for school libraries of the future. Data from these groups informed development of six dispositional continua to guide both school library education and school librarianship in the 21st century. This study clarifies the dispositions needed by school librarians in the future.

Hitch Your Wagon To Institutional Goals, Anne E. Zald, Michelle Millet

Library Faculty Research

The landscape of accreditation and accountability in higher education is in a period of rapid change, coalescing around issues identified in the 2006 report of the Spellings Commission, “A Test of Leadership: Charting the Future of U.S. Higher Education.” Information literacy librarians need to connect their instructional efforts to the institutional strategies and initiatives that address continuous improvement whatever their source, e.g. accreditation agencies, funding bodies such as state legislatures, institutional participation in the Voluntary System of Accountability (VSA), University & College Accountability Network (U-CAN), or internal initiatives of the institution’s administration. The challenge for instruction librarians is great, requiring …

Parent Involvement Plan For Lincoln Elementary, Michelle Kaune

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

The purpose of this capstone project was to create a parent involvement plan for Lincoln Elementary using research based information. The information gathered during the literature review will be used to gain a better understanding of parent involvement along with evidence based strategies to improve parent involvement. This plan will then be used by the school to work to increase the amount of involvement parents during the 2012-13 school year. Creating a strategy to increase parent involvement has been identified as a need by the school. It is also part of the school’s Adequate Yearly Progress plan which was submitted …

Cultivating Teachers’ Morality And The Pedagogy Of Emotional Rationality, Minkang Kim

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teachers are expected to act ethically and provide moral role models in performing their duties, even though teacher education has often relegated the cultivation of teachers’ ethical awareness and moral development to the margins. When it is addressed, the main theoretical assumptions have relied heavily on the cognitivist developmental theories of Piaget and Kohlberg. A major pedagogical problem in adopting these theories of moral reasoning is that they may not help teachers to act as moral agents in real-life classrooms. This paper argues that one underlying difficulty is the insufficient attention given to the role of emotion in moral reasoning, …

Examining Teacher Identity And Prospective Efficacy Beliefs Among Students Enrolled In A Precollegiate Urban Teaching Academy (Uta), Marsha Simon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teacher recruitment and retention challenges facing urban school contexts provided the impetus for this study. High percentages of historically marginalized students, plagued by high poverty rates and low academic performance, as well as substandard facilities and inadequate material resources, serve as causative factors inhibiting recruitment and retention of credentialed teachers in urban schools (Education Commission of the States [ECS], 1999; Guarino et al., 2006; Horng, 2009; USDOE, 2003; 2004; Wirt et al, 2004). Schools and districts attempt to meet chronic teacher shortages in hard-to-staff urban schools by creating innovative teacher preparation schemes, such as the Urban Teaching Academy (UTA). This …

Giving Voice To The Peace And Justice Challenger Intellectuals: Counterpublic Development As Civic Engagement, Tom Harry Hastings

Dissertations and Theses

"Let knowledge serve the city" reads the golden letters on a pedestrian bridge just 200 feet from my faculty office in Neuberger Hall at Portland State University. Public peace scholarship might allow knowledge to help the polis by keeping it out of war via changing the national discourse toward a strong and informed peace analysis. Educators have an uneasy relationship to public scholarship and mainstream media have a nervous attitude toward public peace intellectuals. Institutions of higher learning are also often either unaware or uncomfortable with a public promotion of a positive peace platform. Academic writing and research is hard …

Implementation Of A One-To-One Ipod Touch Program In A Middle School, Helen Crompton, Julie Keane

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study is to investigate the implementation of a whole school one-to-one iPod Touch project in a middle school in the southeastern United States. While some focused studies have been undertaken in this new field of learning, there has been little research to date that documents activity within a whole school implementation (Chen, Kao, & Sheu, 2003; Conti-Ramsden, Durkin, & Simkin, 2010). Using Rogers' (1963, 2003) theory of diffusion of innovation as a lens for this research, we gathered data from observations, focus groups, and interviews. Our findings indicated that teachers focused on internet-based research activities, formative …

Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority, Nancy Edick, Samantha K. Ammons, Melissa Cast-Brede, Ann Coyne, Karen Falconer Al-Hindi, Shari Hofschire, Lisa Kelly-Vance, Jay Killion, Sajda Qureshi, Bridget O. Ryalls, Peter Simi, Peter Wolcott

Foundational Documents

This is the executive summary of a white paper that describes the context, current capacity, areas of opportunity, and next steps for the UNO Early Childhood/Child Welfare Priority (ECCW). It responds to the need for comprehensive integrated systems of services designed to give all young children (birth through age eight) access to what they need in the early years to succeed in school and in life. In this context, UNO recognizes ECCW as critical to our metropolitan university mission. Further, we must come together with early childhood service providers, P-12 districts, parents, policy makers, other University of Nebraska campuses, community …

Job Stress, Mentoring, Psychological Empowerment, And Job Satisfaction Among Nursing Faculty, Catherine Emily Ebersole Chung

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The National League for Nursing (NLN) endorses mentoring throughout the nursing faculty career trajectory as the method to recruit nurses into academia and improve retention of nursing faculty within the academy (NLN, 2006). One way mentoring assists faculty is by easing socialization to the culture of the employing institution and decreasing faculty stress (Lewallen, Crane, Letvak, Jones, & Hu, 2003). Mentoring can also be a facilitating factor of an individual's psychological empowerment. Academia is an environment able to foster psychological empowerment, a state in which faculty may be self-directed, highly productive, confident, and find a meaningful connection to their work …

Teacher Professional Standards, Accountability, And Ideology: Alternative Discourses, Katarina Tuinamuana

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher professional standards and accountability are today writ large on the landscape of both schooling and teacher education practice around the world. This paper explores some of the related debates through a discussion of four discourses on teacher professional standards: namely, discourses of commonsense, professionalism and quality, managerialism/performativity, and strategic manoeuvring. It is argued that each of these discourses legitimises particular understandings of standards and quality, illustrating the competing set of lenses through which they are viewed, as well as the broader ideologies from which they emerge, including neoliberalism and technical rationality. These discourses also represent the interpretive practice that …

Fall Prevention Training And Its Impact To Southern Nevada Construction Workers, Vedaspati Joshi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Death and injury from falls are a long-standing and continuing problem in construction, responsible for at least a third of the construction deaths in the U.S. from 2004 to 2007. Each of those years, Nevada has exceeded the national percentage. Although 29 CFR 1926.503 sets forth Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)'s requirements that construction employers train employees exposed to fall hazards and document such training, the incidence of deaths and injuries from falls are an indicator that this training was not provided or else was not effective.

Conventional fall protection training is more narrowly focused on recognizing fall hazards …

The Impact Of Regulating Social Science Research With Biomedical Regulations, Brenda Braxton Durosinmi

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Impact of Regulating Social Science Research with Biomedical Regulations Since 1974 Federal regulations have governed the use of human subjects in biomedical and social science research. The regulations are known as the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects, and often referred to as the "Common Rule" because 18 Federal agencies follow some form of the policy. The Common Rule defines basic policies for conducting biomedical and social science research. Almost from the inception of the Common Rule social scientists have expressed concerns of the policy's medical framework of regulations having its applicability also to human research in …

School Counselor Assignment In Secondary Schools: Replication And Extension, Jennifer L. Williamson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Before school counselors can carry out the duties and responsibilities outlined as part of a comprehensive school counseling program, they must know which students they are responsible for helping. The topic of assigning students to school counselors has only recently been seen in the educational research arena in a study by Akos, Schuldt, and Walendin (2009). The current study attempts to replicate and extend the findings of Akos, Schuldt, and Walendin by addressing the questions of how secondary school counselors are assigned and what are their perceptions of their assignment. In addition, the study attempts to determine whether a particular …

Guest Editors' Column: The Solo Librarian, Audrey Church, Frances Reeve

Education & Human Services Faculty Publications

An introduction to the journal is presented in which the guest editor discusses the various stories of solo school librarians in the U.S.

Definitely Not Alone!, Audrey Church

Education & Human Services Faculty Publications

The article discusses the importance of technological innovations for solo school librarians in accomplishing their tasks in various schools in the U.S. It notes that the availability of web sites allows librarians to have an easy and constant access to professional information including several conferences and opportunities, continuing education, and grants. Electronic (e) mails and social media will also promote connections and communications among professionals.

Schooling, National Affinity(Ies), And Transnational Students In Mexico, Edmund T. Hamann, Víctor Zúñiga

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

An examination of responses by 346 students from Nuevo León and Zacatecas, Mexico, who had previously attended schools in the United States, found that 37% asserted a hyphenated identity as "Mexican-American," while an additional 5% identified as "American." Put another way, 42% did not identify singularly as "Mexican." Those who insisted on a hyphenated identity were not a random segment of the larger sample, but rather had distinct profiles in terms of gender, time in the United States, and more. This chapter describes these students, broaches implications of their hyphenated identities for their schooling, and considers how this example may …

Hyphenated Identities As A Challenge To Nation-State School Practice?, Edmund T. Hamann, William England

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

This chapter concludes the edited volume Hyphenated Identities and affords a chance to juxtapose how transnational students negotiate school and identity with how school systems in turn view such students, and then it allows the examination of two different strategies -- situational ethnicity versus the assertion of hyphenated identity -- as a glimpse into the cosmology of transnationally mobile students as they come into adulthood.

Strategies For Teaching 21st Century Skills To Tomorrow's College Students, Ann Marie Smeraldi, Kenneth J. Burhanna, Joanna Mcnally, Jennifer Schwelik

Michael Schwartz Library Publications

Today’s first year college students arrive on campus underprepared for the academic demands that await them. Despite the dedicated efforts of high school librarians, research continues to illustrate that students lack basic information literacy skills crucial to their academic success in higher education. In this session high school and academic librarians will explore this issue with participants to identify key deficits in students’ 21st Century Skills.

The presenters will share their insights on college professors’ expectations and offer best practices for educating tomorrow’s college students. Presenters will provide ideas for lesson plans and assessment; actual college assignments will be shared.

Morality, Mathematics, & Music Class: A Case Study Of A First Grade Vietnamese Classroom, Emma James

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

For a Vietnamese child, first grade is their introductory gateway to society. It is the first time they will be working within a large group of people their own age, learning how to become an effective and contributing citizen to the community they’re within. Much of the first grade curriculum focuses on how students should behave not only in the classroom, but outside the school walls. This case study was conducted in the Le Loi Primary School in Hue, Vietnam. My goal was to uncover the main moral values instilled at the first grade level. For two weeks I observed …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Feeling, Experiencing, Learning: Environmental Education At Escola Vila, Isabelle Aida Heilman

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Teaching children about the importance of the protecting environment is a key step in preparing future generations to solve environmental issues. The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how Escola Vila in Fortaleza, Brazil integrates environmental education into its curriculum to promote positive environmental actions later in the children’s lives. Classroom observations revealed how environmental education is incorporated into the curriculum in an interdisciplinary way. Students at Escola Vila learn about the environment through creative projects, experiential learning, sustainable practices on the campus and human rights education. Interviews with alumni showed that these four ways that Escola …

Teaching Grantsmanship In A Nonprofit Leadership Class, Audrey Falk

Education Faculty Publications

Proposal-writing skills are critical for employees in a wide range of organizations, particularly in challenging economic times which demand diverse funding sources. This paper describes an innovative and multifaceted approach to teaching proposal writing to students enrolled in a nonprofit leadership course at a large, metropolitan university. The approach included a hands-on, field component in nonprofit organizations, in-depth organizational analyses involving interviews with nonprofit leaders, guest speakers including a grant professional and a foundation officer, grantsmanship textbooks loaned to all students for the semester, and review of students’ completed proposals by a grant professional and the course instructor. Students presented …

Using Toys To Support Infant-Toddler Learning And Development, Gabriel Guyton

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Being mindful of the basic principles of child development and the role of play, teachers can intentionally select toys to meet young children's unique needs and interests, supporting learning.

Best Instructional Practices For Distance Education: A Meta-Analysis, Robin Michael Roberts

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Recent meta-analyses on the efficacy of distance education have concluded that no significant difference exists between face-to-face and distance education. At the same time, these meta-analyses noted that considerable heterogeneity existed between the individual studies used in the meta-analyses. Investigation of moderators responsible for that heterogeneity suggested that four things other than media delivery were primarily responsible for the majority of variation between study outcomes: methodological quality, instructor involvement, type of interaction, instructional methods and time-on-task. A comparative meta-analysis was performed to further investigate these moderators. Methodological quality, maturational differences in students and any undetermined media effects were controlled for …

In Quest Of A Dropout Theory: Examining The Utility Of An Ecological Approach Through Survey Research, Tiffany G. Tyler

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study examined the utility of Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Theory as a metatheory of dropout. Using the NELS: 1988 dataset, the present study examined the relationship between dropout attributions and Bronfenbrenner's construct, the microsystem. Attention was given to accounting for students' attributions regarding their identity (e.g., demographic and profile characteristics) with environmental and regional contexts as possible moderators. In particular, the present study examined the responses given as reasons for dropout in view of how those responses could be categorized with Bronfenbrenner's theoretical structure and the extent to which the resulting categorization could predict dropout, considering related demographic variable.

This study …

The Status Of Students With Special Needs In The Instrumental Musical Ensemble And The Effect Of Selected Educator And Institutional Variables On Rates Of Inclusion, Edward C. Hoffman Iii

Glenn Korff School of Music: Dissertations, Theses, Student Creative Work, and Performances

The purpose of this study was to describe the current status of students with special needs in the instrumental musical ensemble and to examine the effect of selected educator and institutional variables on rates of inclusion. An online survey was designed by the researcher and distributed electronically to 600 practicing K-12 instrumental music educators in the states of Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, and Rhode Island. While 13.6% of the total school-aged population nationwide received special education services, demographic data provided by respondents revealed that students with special needs accounted for 6.8% of all students participating in bands, orchestras, …

“The Warm Heart Of Africa” Program Proposal For S.T.E.P Into The World, Adam Goldberg

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper introduces “The Warm Heart of Africa”, an education abroad program proposal for pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers designed for the newly formed organization, S.T.E.P (Supporting.Teachers.Educational.Progression) Into The World. “The Warm Heart of Africa” will offer a month-long intensive program in the African nation of Malawi during the summer of 2012 with the purpose of providing participants with training in intercultural communication alongside an unforgettable cultural immersion experience. With a base of experiential learning, “The Warm Heart of Africa” design focuses on providing participants with a strong foundation in cross-cultural competency and sensitivity as it combines service-learning projects, …

Arabic Diglossia And Arabic As A Foregn Language: The Perception Of Students In World Learning Oman Center, Hilal Al-Mamari

Capstone Collection

The principle objective of this independent inquiry is to address the research question: what are the impacts of Arabic Diglossia, if any, on the experience of learners of Arabic as a foreign language? The study attempts to answer this question through the perception of a sample group of 23 learners studying Arabic as a foreign language in World Learning Oman Center in semester of Spring 2011.

Diglossia is defined by linguists as a sociolinguistic phenomenon in which a particular language has two varieties, one of which is considered High and more standard and used in exclusive domains, while the other …

Ua51 Preparing Information Literate Students At Wku: Report Of The Task Force On Universal Information Literacy, Bryan Carson Chair, John C. Gottfried, Amanda Hardin, Jonathan J. Jeffrey, Sara Mccaslin, Tammera Race, Amy J W Slowik, Wku University Libraries

Library Annual Reports, Reports, and Statistics

Purpose:

The Task Force on Universal Information Literacy was formed in the fall of 2010 and charged with reviewing the advisability and viability of providing information literacy instruction to every student at WKU.