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Full-Text Articles in Teacher Education and Professional Development

Practitioner Inquiry For Turbulent Times: Learning To Take An Inquiry Stance Toward Teaching Difficult Topics Through A Teacher Inquiry Community, Logan Rutten, Danielle Butville, Wendy Lane Smith, Boaz Dvir Oct 2023

Practitioner Inquiry For Turbulent Times: Learning To Take An Inquiry Stance Toward Teaching Difficult Topics Through A Teacher Inquiry Community, Logan Rutten, Danielle Butville, Wendy Lane Smith, Boaz Dvir

Journal of Practitioner Research

Amid turbulent times and politically polarized communities, many teachers require support if they are to teach or engage with difficult topics in their curricula or professional practices, yet few teachers actually receive any formalized support for addressing such topics. This article responds by describing the work of an inquiry community of inservice educators that was designed to assist teachers in learning to address difficult topics by integrating practitioner inquiry and student inquiry with asset-based and trauma-informed lenses. The article outlines the community’s conceptual foundations then describes how a team of university-based teacher educators facilitated the community’s work. A participating teacher’s …


Becoming Knowledgeable Agents Of Change: Early Career Teachers Enacting Inquiry-Oriented Professional Learning, Tracy Harper Sep 2023

Becoming Knowledgeable Agents Of Change: Early Career Teachers Enacting Inquiry-Oriented Professional Learning, Tracy Harper

Journal of Practitioner Research

In pursuit of more effective professional learning for early career teachers, this paper presents findings from a multiple case study of practitioner inquiry with beginning teachers. The study examined the lived experiences of Kelly, Sally, and Donna as they took up inquiry-oriented professional learning in their literacy classrooms. Over the course of a semester, the teachers identified a problem of practice, co-constructed professional learning plans, explored relevant professional learning, and implemented new literacy practices. The findings demonstrated that the individualized and responsive nature of inquiry-oriented professional learning supported the teachers in developing agency and self-efficacy as they addressed areas of …


Introduction To The Special Issue: Inquiring Into, About, And During Covid-19, Nancy Fichtman Dana, Karen L. Kilgore Sep 2021

Introduction To The Special Issue: Inquiring Into, About, And During Covid-19, Nancy Fichtman Dana, Karen L. Kilgore

Journal of Practitioner Research

One of the most pervasive ways the inquiry movement has needed to be reshaped since its inception is as a mechanism to respond to a global pandemic. As COVID-19 necessitated an abrupt transition to remote delivery of instruction, teachers needed a powerful form of professional learning to understand and respond with changes to serve their students during this challenging time. At P. K. Yonge Developmental Research School, a K-12 school, the leadership team designed a Canvas website devoted to teacher inquiry, enabling teachers to share experiences, collaborate, and address issues regarding the abrupt transition to emergency remote instruction. In this …


Sustaining A Continuous Improvement Culture In Educator Preparation: A Higher Education Network Based On Data Wise, Sara Quay, Meghan Lockwood Jan 2019

Sustaining A Continuous Improvement Culture In Educator Preparation: A Higher Education Network Based On Data Wise, Sara Quay, Meghan Lockwood

Journal of Practitioner Research

Educator preparation programs across the U.S. are grappling with the best way to respond to new state policies requiring they use data to demonstrate and accelerate improvement in program outcomes. Supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the educator preparation program at Endicott College integrated the Data Wise Improvement Process into its practice. Not only did the Data Wise work help improve student outcomes by engaging the Endicott team in a form of practitioner research, but it also led to the creation of a network of educator preparation programs that, since 2015, has used …


Social Studies In The Elementary Classroom: Helping Students Make Sense Of Their World, Lauren Clark, Angela Hooser Jul 2018

Social Studies In The Elementary Classroom: Helping Students Make Sense Of Their World, Lauren Clark, Angela Hooser

Journal of Practitioner Research

This paper documents my journey as a preservice teacher engaging in practitioner inquiry to make social studies more meaningful for my first grade students. I begin by briefly introducing my background with social studies as an elementary student and my growing interest in making improvements to my own social studies instruction. Next, I provide information on the data I collected and the social studies lessons that I designed and taught. Then, I discuss three themes identified from the data that encapsulate the most important learning related to planning and engaging students in meaningful social studies lessons. Finally, I share reflections …


Inquiry, Discovery, And The Complexities Of Teaching: Learning From The Research Of Practitioners, Angela Hooser, Laura Sabella Jul 2018

Inquiry, Discovery, And The Complexities Of Teaching: Learning From The Research Of Practitioners, Angela Hooser, Laura Sabella

Journal of Practitioner Research

In this opening article, Guest Editors Angela Hooser and Laura Sabella define the purpose of this special themed issue of Journal of Practitioner Research: Inquiry, Discovery, and the Complexities of Teaching: Learning from the Research of Practitioners and introduce the seven pieces of teacher research published in this volume that encapsulate this theme.


“Inquiry Is Confidence”: How Practitioner Inquiry Can Support New Teachers, Rachel Wolkenhauer, Angela Hooser Jan 2018

“Inquiry Is Confidence”: How Practitioner Inquiry Can Support New Teachers, Rachel Wolkenhauer, Angela Hooser

Journal of Practitioner Research

This paper focuses on the profile of “Hannah,” who was having a successful first year of teaching until February when her principal shifted gears. At this point administration expected, as Hannah quoted her principal, “to walk into your classroom, at any point of the day, and see you in front of the classroom and the kids sitting at desks answering bubble-in questions and not talking to each other.” Hannah teaches first grade. Rather than being discouraged by this, Hannah turned to her knowledge of practitioner inquiry to systematically study and stand behind the professional decisions she knew she needed to …


Preservice Teachers Engaged In Professional Learning Community To Explore Critical Literacy, Vanessa Casciola Jun 2016

Preservice Teachers Engaged In Professional Learning Community To Explore Critical Literacy, Vanessa Casciola

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As demographics change, our school populations are ever changing. Preservice teachers (PSTs) need to be aware of how to meet the needs of all of their future students. Teacher education programs have been charged with the duty of preparing these PSTs for the diverse school population they will encounter. This qualitative multiple case study focused on the influence of specific work with PSTs in the inquiry process within a learning community to make sense of critical literacy. The following research questions guided this study: (1) How do elementary PSTs engaged in practitioner inquiry make meaning of critical literacy instruction within …