Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Impact Of Robotic Challenges On Fifth Grade Problem Solving, Julie Rankin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This action research project was designed to investigate the impact of educational robotics in a fifth grade rural classroom. The integration of science, technology, engineering, and math in education (STEM) has sparked an increase of robotics in the classroom. The purpose of the study was to determine if problem-solving skills can be impacted through continuing involvement with challenges using various educational robotics and programming tools. The study sought to answer two research questions: (1) How does the introduction of robotics challenges in a fifth-grade classroom impact students’ problem solving skills? (2) How do robotics in the classroom impact student interest …

Strategies That Promote Elementary Student Stem Engagement, Jennifer Bauer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Collaboration, creativity, persistence, and critical thinking are all skills encompassed when integrating STEM into today’s classrooms. Empowering students in STEM related areas is essential for students’ future success in the 21^st century and educators must prepare citizens for these types of creative skills (Cook & Bush, 2018). Integrating STEM disciplines through project-based learning and providing real-world situations to solve problems enhances student engagement and achievement in STEM concepts (Cook & Bush, 2018; Hall & Miro, 2016). The topic defined in this research plan focuses on instructional strategies that make STEM more meaningful to science curriculum, as well as engaging …

The Impacts On Rural Families When Engaging In Stem Education, Kimberly Felton-Canfield

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Family STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Nights and Family STEM Backpacks are a way for schools to provide stakeholders the opportunity to work together in a hands-on, interactive environment to learn more about STEM subjects. Students, teachers, parents and community partners learn through various activities what career choices are available that engage STEM disciplines. Through action research, qualitative data was gathered to discover the community impact of attending a Family STEM night and participating in Family STEM Backpack Projects. Participants completed pre- and post- event surveys and open-ended interview questions. The whole community was invited to participate in Family …

Hands-On, Guided Inquiry Science Investigation And Science Vocabulary Acquisition In A Rural Elementary School, Jennifer Mulder

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Much research has been done to show how inquiry science instruction and inquiry student investigation provide students with hands-on experiences to effectively learn science content in the classroom. Additionally, many methods to efficaciously teach students vocabulary has been thoroughly investigated. However, not much research has been done to study what effect hands-on, guided inquiry science investigation has on student content vocabulary acquisition. Within one rural classroom, fourth graders engaged in hands-on, guided inquiry investigation, and then vocabulary words were explicitly taught and discussed. After that, students practiced the vocabulary words in a variety of ways in pairs and as a …

Assessment And Engagement Strategies For Stem, Aaron Rohde

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

In this study, I looked at how does student engagement change when a certain assessment is announced prior to a unit. This study looks at what different assessment levels have been researched to accomplish and how to utilize that to our advantage. I researched how does student engagement change when STEM projects are introduced in a 5th grade classroom. It is the role as educators to work towards providing our students with the opportunities to express their levels of knowledge and to show students what they have achieved. This study looks at what I found to be important about STEM …

How Vocabulary Notebooks Change Student Knowledge Of Science Concepts And Vocabulary, Justin Wheeler

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study was conducted to determine the effect that an explicit vocabulary strategy, the use of vocabulary notebooks, may have on students in an upper elementary science classroom. The study was conducted in a small mid-western town of approximately 14,000 people in an elementary school with approximately 415 students. The study was conducted in a science classroom of fifth-grade students in which the primary investigator was the teacher. The research question for this study was: How does student’s vocabulary knowledge of science concepts change when students create vocabulary notebook entries including definition, science concept, examples, and non-examples? Data sources collected …

Creating Children’S Literature Teac 854: Fall 2019 Tuesday 5 – 7:50 Pm, Judy Diamond

Department of Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education: Department Information

Participate in the experience of becoming a published children’s book author. What are the elements to writing a successful children’s book? Class members will develop and evaluate original stories targeted to a particular young audience. The stories can be written for print or digital formats, and they can be text-based and/or illustrated, including comics. The class will access appropriate print and digital publishing venues, and stories will be submitted for publication by the end of the semester.

Instructor: Judy Diamond PhD, Professor and Curator, University of Nebraska State Museum

Meeting The Vision Of The Ngss: Critical Factors Of Effective Science Teaching (Poster), Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Presentations

With new national science education standards, we must understand how to prepare science teachers capable of advancing reform initiatives. In a 3-year longitudinal study we adopted a multi-method approach to investigate beginning science teachers’ instructional practices. We analyzed transcripts, observed science lessons, and documented weeks of lessons. Using this large dataset we posed research questions about the use of NGSS scientific practices in teachers’ science lessons (Project #1) and classroom diversity as it relates to teachers’ use of inquiry (Project #2). In order to expand our coding capability of science teaching data for use in our structural equation modelling efforts …

“Her Sentence Is Correct, Isn’T It?”: Regulative Discourse In English Medium Classrooms, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Patrick Henry Smith

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

Research on discourse in African classrooms has shown the predominance of teacher centered instructional practices. Teacher centered discourse patterns have been blamed for student passivity and disengagement in knowledge production. In this article, we investigate teachers' use of the invariant tag isn't it in Kenyan primary classrooms during ELA and math lessons. Using Bernstein's pedagogical device theory, we submit that the tag plays a regulative function in classroom discourse. Based on our findings, we argue for greater attention to teachers' language choices and discuss implications for classroom discourse practice and research. The invariant tag isn't it is a common linguistic …

The Paradoxical Implications Of Deported American Students, Edmund T. Hamann, Jessica Mitchell-Mccollough

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

This book chapter (which has no formal abstract) uses the case of two children who had to leave the United States because their father was deported to raise questions about how US schooling does or does not anticipate and support students who will need to negotiate schooling in two countries.

Principals and teachers throughout the United States (and world) have students with transnational ties. Sometimes students were born in another country. More commonly, one or both parents were. Sometimes that means students and/or parents lack documentation, which creates anxiety and ambiguity in students’ lives that schools need to negotiate. Suro …

International Comparisons In Education (Why Doesn’T The Usa Perform Better?), Lawrence C. Scharmann

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

I spent 23 years of my career in higher education as an administrator of teacher education programs (15 at Kansas State, 4 at Florida State, and 4 at UNL). I would, on occasion, find myself in discussion with school board members or state legislators concerning the standing of American schools in relation to rankings reported, for instance, by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Before making a case why our educational system has no need to apologize, let’s examine our 2015 PISA rankings.

• Reading literacy – 24th (tied with Chinese Taipei)

• Mathematics literacy – 40th (tied with Israel)

• Science …

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Teacher Education In México: Higher Expectations, Significant Change, But Still Finite Capacity, Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García, Yara Amparo Lopez Lopez

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

While teaching and therefore teacher education in Mexico can, in one sense, be traced back to pre-Conquest Aztec military academies, the first significant expansion of Western-style schooling in Mexico occurred in the early 19th century, while the first substantial national efforts at teacher education date to the Porfiriato in the late 19th century. In the 100-plus-year history of teacher education in Mexico, attention has been episodic, has often reflected national refractions of ideas originating elsewhere, and has been centrally intertwined with national governmental efforts to shape what it means to be Mexican. Variously, teacher education has been buffeted by attempts …

Nefdc Conference Program, Spring 2019, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Conference Programs

New England Faculty Development Consortium Conference Program, spring 2019

Theme: Education in the Age of Anxiety

June 7, 2019, Landmark College, Putney, Vermont

Keynote Address: Rescuing the Canary in the Coal Mine: Anxiety and Stress Go to College. What to Know, What to Do, Dr. Jerome Schultz, Ph.D. Clinical Neuropsychologist and Lecturer on Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical Schoo

Conference Overview

Conference Planning Grid

Call for proposals: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Grants

SAVE THE DATE! NEFDC FALL CONFERENCE: Constructing our Students, Constructing Ourselves, November 8, 2019, Hogan Center, College of the Holy Cross Worcester, Massachusetts. The Architecture of …

Measuring And Modelling How And When Effective Science Teaching Occurs, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy N. Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler, Brandon A. Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Presentations

With new national science education standards, we must understand how to prepare science teachers capable of advancing reform initiatives. In a 3-year longitudinal study we adopted a multi-method approach to investigate beginning science teachers’ instructional practices. We analyzed transcripts, administered a teaching self-efficacy survey, observed science lessons, and documented weeks of lessons. Using this large dataset, we posed research questions about the use of NGSS scientific practices in teachers’ science lessons (Paper #1) and teacher- and student-level characteristics as it relates to teachers’ use of inquiry in the classroom (Paper #2). In order to expand our coding capability of science …

Why Domain-Specific Science Knowledge Matters In Teacher Certification: Focusing On Evidence For Effective Science Teaching, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Lyrica L. Lucas, Amy Tankersley, Elizabeth Hasseler

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

The landscape of teacher preparation is complex. From a research perspective, how to prepare teachers presents as a multilevel, multivariable puzzle. For decades, federal and state policymakers, educational researchers, and administrators, along with teacher education institutions, school districts, and other stakeholders have tried to determine and measure the key malleable factors that result in effective teaching (NRC, 2010).

Periodically, state departments of education review secondary science teaching endorsement policy guidelines. As revisions occur, teacher educators in higher education and district administrators need to engage in a multidisciplinary discussion about:

1. the ways in which strong domain-specific science content knowledge contributes …

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 32, Spring 2019, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

President's Message, Marc Ebenfield - Salem State University

Social and emotional learning, the key to college success, Kathleen Driscoll, MFA - Formerly Mount Ida College, School of Design and Alison Poor-Donahue, MFA - University of Massachusetts, College of Visual and Performing Arts

Save the date, fall conference, Friday, November 8, 2019

3-C’s For Technology Integration: Coordination, Collaboration, and Co-Construction, Sara Donaldson, Ed.D. - Johns Hopkins University

Using Screencast Technology To Assess And Improve Student Writing: Research and Effectiveness, Forrest R. Rodgers, Ph.D. - Salem State University

The Classroom as Practice, Cris Hakala, Ph.D. - Springfield College

Career-Focused First-Year Seminars: …

Establishing Enhanced Learning Outcomes In Science For First Generational Undergraduate College Students, Marianna Burks

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

First-generation students represent an increasing percentage of the demographic for college and university enrollment at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Since 2001, results from the National Center for Education Statistics Longitudinal Study, indicates ‘higher percentages of first-generations college students attended public postsecondary institutions-76 vs. 72%’ (Redford & Hoyer, 2017). There is insufficient research, however, concerning how first-generation students’ needs are different, even unique, from those students who are second- generation and beyond attending college (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2017). Since this increase of students enrolling in post-secondary education, ‘understanding the needs of first-generation students is imperative more now …

Valuing Rural Dexterity: Experiential Funds Of Knowledge, Science Education, And Rural Kids, Amanda Morales

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

One’s sense of place is tied inextricably to one’s identity. Who we become as adults is closely connected to our interweaving of experience over time and how we come to understand the world and ourselves relative to it. Th ese informal and organic interactions within the specifi c environmental contexts of our childhoods can seem insignifi cant and inconsequential, particularly given that children’s imaginative explorations, informal investigations, and authentic observations of ecological phenomena present in their daily lives are oft en not acknowledged by or valued within formal educational settings. In this essay, I use Gonzalez, Moll, and Amanti’s (2005) …

Treating Participation As An Assignment, Brandon Bosch

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Participation is a funny thing. Some of us grade it obliquely, bumping up the final grades for students that were truly exceptional at it. Some of us explicitly state on the syllabus how important it is for students to come to class “ready and willing to participate,” but only allocate 10% of the overall grade to this supposedly valued activity. But perhaps the most common thing that we do as instructors with participation is this: despite the fact that participation is one of the most commonly “submitted” activities in a class, very few instructors treat participation like an actual assignment. …

Creating A New Normal: Language Education For All, Aleidine J. Moeller, Martha G. Abbott

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

Challenge: Language educators play a significant role as agents of change both within our classrooms and beyond. How can we position languages and help policy-makers and administrators at the local, state, and national levels to value multilingualism and multiculturalism as an integral and essential part of every learner’s education? What will that “new normal” look like?

Abstract: How close are we to the reality of all students having the opportunity to learn another language and gaining support for these efforts from the general public? The answer has a long history, which we point out by referencing articles that span the …

The Nature Of Science As A Foundation For Fostering A Better Understanding Of Evolution, Craig E. Nelson, Lawrence C. Scharmann, Jean Beard, Lawrence I. Flammer

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

Misunderstandings of the nature of science (NOS) contribute greatly to resistance to evolutionary theory especially among non-scientific audiences. Here we delineate three extended instructional examples that make extensive use of NOS to establish a foundation upon which to more successfully introduce evolution. Specifically, these instructional examples enable students to consider evolutionary biology using NOS as a lens for interpretation of evolutionary concepts. We have further found, through our respective research efforts and instructional experiences, that a deep understanding of NOS helps students understand and accept the scientific validity of evolution and, conversely, that evolution provides an especially effective context for …

Missing The (Turning) Point: The Erosion Of Democracy At An American University, Anthony Fucci, Theresa Catalano

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

On August 25, 2017, student members of Turning Point USA (TPUSA), a right-wing conservative organization who advocates for smaller government and free market enterprise, recruited on the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) campus. Members of the UNL community protested nearby. Part of the protest was recorded on video and released to social media leading to harsh public criticism that accused the university of restricting free speech and being an unsafe environment for conservative students. Drawing on cognitive linguistics (e.g. metonymy, framing) and multimodal critical discourse analysis (MCDA), this paper explores how the TPUSA incident at UNL was recontextualized in local and …

Islamophobia In U.S. Education, Shabana Mir, Loukia K. Sarroub

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

Anti-Muslim sentiment has grown in scale and visibility far beyond its association with the horrific attacks of 2001. The US government’s “War on Terror,” which began after the attacks, often pervades the domestic landscape as a war on Islamic religious “extremism.” The definitions and content of such religious extremism are so extensive that they encompass large numbers of Muslims, and they highlight Muslims as being inherently problematic. For example, the success of the 2016 presidential campaign can be said to have relied significantly on a right-wing Islamophobic fear-mongering that shariah was set to take over the US. As we grappled …

Buffett Early Childhood Institute: Five Year Report 2013-18, Buffett Early Childhood Institute

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Buffett Early Childhood Institute began operations in June 2013. We were charged with creating a new model for how public higher education can engage in early education by helping to transform the lives of young children and their families. This report presents a by-thenumbers profile of who we are and what we’ve accomplished in our first five years. Following the numbers you’ll find brief descriptions of programs, initiatives, financials, and the Institute itself.

The Nebraska Panhandle: An Assessment Of Birth-Grade 3 Care And Education, Panhandle Birth – Grade 3 Leadership Team

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

This report summarizes the collaborative work of the Panhandle Partnership, Inc., Educational Service Unit (ESU) 13, and the Buffett Early Childhood Institute at the University of Nebraska in documenting and assessing birth through Grade 3 programming in the Nebraska Panhandle. The report summarizes findings from 15 school-community conversations and includes data snapshots from local communities that provide information about the status of young children and the services and supports that exist to serve them and their families. Work in the Panhandle was undertaken on the basis of an agreement between the three organizations to work together to better understand and …

Nebraska Child Care Market Rate Survey Report 2019, Greg W. Welch, Elizabeth Svoboda, Amanda Garrett, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Molly Goldberg, Alexandra Daro

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

The Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG) Act of 2014 was reauthorized with renewed emphasis placed on the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) program, which seeks to provide equal access to quality child care for families. The CCDF program is necessary to ensure children from low-income families have the opportunity to experience stable, high-quality early experiences while their parents experience a pathway to economic stability. A primary goal of the CCDF program is to ensure that low-income families receive CCDF funds to help them access quality child care in the same manner as families that pay the full …

A Narrative Inquiry Into Experiences Of Indigenous Teachers During And After Teacher Preparation, James Alan Oloo, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba

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

This narrative inquiry is informed by a concern to increase the number of Indigenous teachers in Canadian classrooms. While the Indigenous population is younger and growing faster than the non-Indigenous population, educational attainment gap remains between the two groups of Canadians. The gap is widening at the university level. This study explores the experiences of two Indigenous teachers during and after teacher education in an Indigenous teacher education program and attempts to reframe teacher education to enhance the meaningful engagement of pre-service Indigenous teachers. We conducted interviews as conversations with the study participants as guided by open-ended unstructured research questions …

Quando O Dinheiro Fala Mais Alto: Privatização, Formação De Professores E Imaginários Sociais Conflitantes Nas Escolas Dos Estados Unidos, Lauren Gatti, Theresa Catalano

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

O resultado da eleição presidencial de 2016 foi um dos mais imprevisíveis da história dos Estados Unidos. Naquela eleição, a ex-Secretária de Estado norte-americana e senadora Hillary Clinton foi derrotada por Donald Trump, astro de reality shows, empresário e bilionário do setor imobiliário. Ele não tinha experiência em política ou governo. No entanto, havia outras coisas que ele possuía e que repercutiram no eleitorado: a falta de filtro (e sutileza) quando se tratava de discutir questões de política, a experiência de fazer (com graus variados de sucesso) acordos de negócios importantes e de alto risco, e um desdém aberto pela …

Delineating A Regional Education Research Agenda, Edmund T. Hamann

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

If one wants to advance the argument that the Great Plains, as a region, matters— and the very existence of Great Plains Research and the Center for Great Plains Studies that publishes it suggest significant support for the idea— then one can ask, How did we learn that they matter? How do they matter? Can we live on them ethically, with a regard for each other and sense of stewardship and responsibility? Education research in, of, for, and with a region allows us to pursue each of these questions, plus more. Here we do so, informed by the two central …

Preparing Content Teachers To Work With Multilingual Students, Kara Viesca, Annela Teemant

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

It is well‐documented that content teachers (e.g., math, science, social studies, etc.) have not been adequately prepared to address the increasing number of multilingual students in their classes (Freeman & Freeman, 2014; Lucas, 2011). While many teacher education programs strive to prepare teachers during initial licensure programs (e.g., de Oliveira & Yough, 2015; Freeman & Freeman, 2014; Levine, Howard, & Moss, 2014) and recent work has focused on secondary teacher preparation at both pre‐service and in‐service levels (de Oliveira & Obenchain, 2018; de Oliveira, Obenchain, Kenney, & Oliveira, in press; de Oliveira & Shoffner, 2016; de Oliveira & Wilcox, 2017), …