Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Preparing Nebraska Teachers To See Demographic Change As An Opportunity, Jenelle Reeves, Edmund T. Hamann

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

This paper reflects on an effort to support Nebraska teachers, both practicing and preservice, to become more ready for the state‘s changing demographics, notably for the growth in Latino and Spanish-speaking populations. To that end, it describes an effort funded by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln‘s Initiative on Teaching and Learning Excellence called, ―Schooling in Nebraska‘s Demographically Transitioning Communities.‖ That initiative makes mentors of practicing teachers who have enrolled in summer courses in second language acquisition. In the fall of 2006, ten such teachers mentored 44 undergraduates enrolled in TEAC 331 ―Cultural Foundation of American Education‖ or TEAC 413A ―Second Language …

Alumnos Transnacionales: Las Escuelas Mexicanas Frente A La Globalización, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García

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

Counter to the expectations that Mexico-U.S. migration is one-way, adult, and from Mexico to the United States, this Spanish-language book includes nine chapters describing various facets of the lives and educational circumstances of students encountered in Mexican schools who have previously attended U.S. schools. Data were derived from written questionnaires from a sample of more than 24,000 students in the Mexican states of Zacatecas and Nuevo León, of whom 632 had U.S. school experience and/or a U.S. birthplace and thereby American citizenship, and from more than 125 interviews with transnational students and their teachers. This study variously considers transnational students' …

Discourse In Inquiry Science Classrooms (Diisc): Reference Manual, Dale R. Baker, Rachelle Beard, Nievita Bueno-Watts, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Gokhan Özdemir, Giota Perkins, Sissy Wong, Senay Yaşar-Purzer

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

One of the greatest challenges facing scholars and funding agencies interested in reform is determining the impact of classroom practice on student achievement. The degree to which this effect can be determined is contingent upon instruments that measure teachers’ ability to enact specific instructional strategies. Frequently, a general instrument will not do because it was not designed to measure the unique focus of a professional development program or a set of variables of interest to researchers.

Consequently, specific instruments should be developed to allow researchers to measure fidelity of classroom implementation. Fidelity of implementation is always the first step in …

Turning Today’S Students Into Tomorrow’S Stars, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine Theiler, Silvia Betta

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

Selected Papers from the 2008 Central States Conference

Adeiline J. Moeller, Editor

Janine Theiler, Assistant Editor

Silvia Betta, Assistant Editor

1 The Important Work of Engaging Our 21st Century Learners — Toni Theisen

2 A Model for Teaching Cross-Cultural Perspectives — Susan M. Knight

3 The Stealth Approach to Critical Thinking in Beginning Spanish Classes — Deanna H. Mihaly

4 Teaching About the French Heritage of the Midwest — Randa Duvick

5 Integrating Russian Cuisine with Russian Language and Culture Classes — Marat Sanatullov

6 Preparing a Fotonovela in the Foreign Language Classroom — Carol Eiber

7 Engaging Students through …

A Multi-Year Program Developing An Explicit Reflective Pedagogy For Teaching Pre-Service Teachers The Nature Of Science By Ostention, Mike U. Smith, Lawrence C. Scharmann

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

This investigation delineates a multi-year action research agenda designed to develop an instructional model for teaching the nature of science (NOS) to preservice science teachers. Our past research strongly supports the use of explicit reflective instructional methods, which includes Thomas Kuhn’s notion of learning by ostention and treating science as a continuum (i.e., comparing fields of study to one another for relative placement as less to more scientific). Instruction based on conceptual change precepts, however, also exhibits promise. Thus, the investigators sought to ascertain the degree to which conceptual change took place among students (n=15) participating in the NOS instructional …

Seeking Refuge In Literacy From A Scorpion Bite, Loukia K. Sarroub

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

The purpose of this study is to examine a refugee boy’s experiences with literacy in and out of school in the US. Within these contexts, I explore this youth’s literacy development in light of his identity as a poor Yezidi Kurdish refugee from Iraq. Central to the article are two main themes. The first, life as a scorpion sting, explicates the young man’s life as a refugee, and the difficulties he faces in and out of school. The second theme, reading for mayonnaise, alerts us to the limitations of literacy programs in which unconnected texts and distanced narratives are prominent, …

Language: Use By Women: North America: Yemeni American Girls, Loukia K. Sarroub

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

Yemeni migration to the United States is part of a larger historical trend of Arab immigration to North America. Many recent immigrants moved to the Detroit area because they could find work in the shipping and auto industries, and since the 1970s, southeastern Michigan has had the highest concentration of Arabic-speaking people outside the Middle East, an estimated 250,000 residents (Ameri and Ramey 2000, Zogby 1995). Unlike earlier Arab immigrants, recent arrivals from northern Yemen have persisted in preserving both their Muslim ways of life and their Arab identities. These immigrants have kept strong ties with their motherland, buying land …

Transracialized Selves And The Emergence Of Post-White Teacher Identities, John Raible, Jason G. Irizarry

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

This article draws on two previous studies by the authors, both based on interviews with European-American individuals, to document white experiences with multiculturalism, race, and cultural differences. We consider recent developments in research on whiteness and offer a perspective on racial identities defined as discursively enacted identifications that are rooted in racialized discourse communities. We provide profiles of two white women who draw upon assets developed, in our view, largely through their successful negotiation of relationships with racially and culturally different members of multicultural discourse communities. Next, we demonstrate a methodology based on the narrative analytic tools of Stanton Wortham …

Retention Of First-Generation Mexican American Paraeducators In Teacher Education: The Juggling Act Of Nontraditional Students, Amanda Morales, Gabriela Díaz De Sabatés, Cristina Fanning, Kevin Murry

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

This paper discusses the dynamics and challenges encountered by culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) paraeducators who are participating in a 2+2, distance-delivered, teacher education program in the Midwest. The theoretical framework that serves as the basis of this case study is Thomas and Collier’s Prism Model (Collier, 19878: Collier & Thomas, 1989; Thomas & Collier, 1997), which focuses on the four essential dimensions of the student biography (linguistic, socio-cultural, academic, and cognitive). This case study should be understood as an account of the lived experiences of 30 CLD paraeducators in a unique recruitment and retention program designed to support all …

Retrieving Meaning In Teacher Education: The Question Of Being, Karl Hostetler, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Loukia K. Sarroub

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

In this article we examine “meaning” and “action” within the “good” work of teaching and learning. One premise of our argument is that teachers and students deserve to experience this good. The second premise is that meaning is part and parcel of Being; the debate about meaning must include attention to meaning as a question/project of Being. We offer our experiences as an educational anthropologist, educational philosopher, and teacher educator who strive to retrieve and pursue meaning and Being as common resources and aspirations.

Learning How To Make Inquiry Into Electricity And Magnetism Discernible To Middle Level Teachers , Gayle A. Buck, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky

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

As university professors we sought to disrupt the practice of giving our students the actions we felt they should imitate in their teaching practice. Instead, we sought to actively engage teachers in the creation of workable solutions to real-life problems. We accomplished this by conducting a participatory action research project. This paper illustrates our action research project focused on preparing middle level science teachers to foster inquiry-based learning in their classrooms. The findings of this study not only lead to a revised professional development opportunity for science teachers, but also provided an example of university faculty engaging in pragmatic research …

Formative Assessment Requires Artistic Vision, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Gayle Buck, April Beckenhauer

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

This two-year study focused on the lived terms of inquiry in middle-school science classrooms. The conditions that enable teachers to see and act on science learning as ongoing inquiry were deliberately sought in Year 2. Nine science teachers participated in search of capacities connecting curriculum, teaching, and assessment for greater student and teacher inquiry. An online logbook chronicled this search, serving as a dialogic medium revealing a movement of teachers seeking out and seizing back possibilities for teaching and learning in relation to the given realities of classrooms. The nature and role of formative assessments in support of learning were …

A Dynamic Professional Development School Partnership In Science Education, Lawrence C. Scharmann

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

The author describes the evolution of a traditional on-campus secondary science methods course into a dynamic field- and campus-based professional development school collaboration. Whereas science teaching methods were taught in an isolated and independent course, they are now integrated within an interdependent experiential semester that carefully integrates teaching methods, professional seminars, interpersonal relations, classroom management, reading strategies, and multicultural education into a dynamic field-based curriculum for preservice teachers. A faculty team from the Kansas State University (KSU) Department of Secondary Education conducted a series of meetings to establish a collaborative climate in which to investigate the benefits of simultaneous reform …

Terms Of Inquiry, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Gayle Buck, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky, Lora Carpenter

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

Teaching and learning continues to be driven by a version of professionalism that construes practice to be a form of applied science. This paper challenges that paradigm. In particular, subjecting and assimilating practical activity to a technical mode of rationality is challenged as not being the most appropriate way to approach teaching, learning, and the process that drives both of these phenomena, inquiry. Middle school science classrooms provide the contexts to explore the situated consequences of embracing the terms of inquiry. Placing inquiry at the core of the thinking and experiences of middle school science educators as a philosophical/theoretical/practical educative …

But Sometimes Labor Migration Is About More Than Labor Migration: Complementary Perspectives Of An Educational Anthropologist, Edmund T. Hamann

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

This response to Dr. Philip Martin’s work has three main dimensions: (1) explicating how an interdisciplinary dialogue can accomplish more than an intra-disciplinary one, (2) addressing the core policy choice Martin frames of planning, to have transnational migration more often create a virtuous circle than a vicious one, and (3) considering how the subfield of educational anthropology informs and/or complicates Martin’s 3 R’s of recruitment, remittance, and return. The first of these topics relates to the context for the generation of this paper: the interlocutor session organized by the Society for Urban, National, and Transnational Anthropology (SUNTA) at the 2006 …

“I Was Bitten By A Scorpion”: Reading In And Out Of School In A Refugee’S Life, Loukia K. Sarroub, Todd Pernicek, Tracy Sweeney

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

A refugee student’s literacy practices are examined. Discrepancies between his in-school and out-of-school literacies highlight the tension he and his teachers experience.

The purpose of this study is to examine a high school boy’s experiences in an ELL language acquisition program, at home, and in the work place. Within these contexts, we explore Hayder’s participation in literacy events in light of his identity as a Yezidi Kurdish refugee in and out of school.

Our study indicates that reading instruction works for students such as Hayder when certain support structures are in place. Teaching “styles” matter, as does the content of …

Evaluation Of Pre-Service Teachers’ Images Of Science Teaching In Turkey, Hulya Yilmaz, Hakan Turkmen, Jon E. Pedersen, Pinar Huyuguzel Cavas

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

The purpose of this study is to investigate elementary pre-service teachers’ image of science teaching, analyze the gender differences in image of science teaching, and evaluate restructured 2004 education reform by using a Draw-A-Science-Teacher-Test Checklist (DASTT-C). Two hundred thirteen (213) pre-service elementary teachers from three different western universities participated in the data collection for this study. The results of study showed that Turkish elementary pre-service teachers’ perspective of science teaching style is 20% student-centered, 41% teacher-centered, and 39% between student-centered and teacher-centered. These results give some vital concerns regarding the preparation of future elementary teachers and the in-service development of …

Exploring Turkish Pre-Service Science Education Teachers’ Understanding Of Educational Technology And Use, Hakan Türkmen, Jon E. Pedersen, Robbie Mccarty

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

Helping prospective teachers become more knowledgeable and skilled in the use of technology in education is an important goal of today’s teacher preparation programs. This article reports the results of a survey, ‘Pre-service Teacher Technology Survey: technology usage and needs of science educators’, that determined pre-service science education teachers’ perceptions of their preparation vis-à-vis technology and the pre-service teachers’ knowledge and desired knowledge of technology. More specifically, the focus was to address the understandings of Turkish pre-service teachers regarding their current and desired knowledge of educational technology. The findings of this study show that Turkish pre-service science education teachers are …

Using Analogies To Improve The Teaching Performance Of Preservice Teachers, Mark C. James, Lawrence C. Scharmann

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

Abstract: Prior research in both education and cognitive science has identified analogy making as a powerful tool for explanation as well as a fundamental mechanism for facilitating an individual’s construction of knowledge. While a considerable body of research exists focusing on the role analogy plays in learning science concepts, relatively little is known about how instruction in the use of analogies might influence the teaching performance of preservice teachers. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between pedagogical analogy use and pedagogical reasoning ability in a sample of preservice elementary teachers (PTs), a group that …

Technology Integration: Pdas As An Instructional And Reflective Tool In The Science Classroom, Jon E. Pedersen, Edmund A. Marek

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

The role of technology has an increased emphasis in the PK-12 classroom and in the preparation of teachers. The wide support for the integration of technology in day-to-day instruction is evidenced at many levels and through many organizations. The current study focused on examining and describing the experiences of faculty and interns as they relate to the use of the PDA. Results indicate that a clear and effective purpose for technology that matched specified outcomes was key for all of informants in this study. Results also indicated that the simplest, most efficient technology for a particular task was essential.

Student Experiences Of A Culturally Sensitive Curriculum: Ethnic Identity Development Amid Conflicting Stories To Live By, Elaine Chan

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

This study examines ways in which students’ experiences of a culturally sensitive curriculum may contribute to their developing sense of ethnic identity. It uses a narrative inquiry approach to explore students’ experiences of the interaction of culture and curriculum in a Canadian inner-city, middle-school context. It considers ways in which the curriculum may be interpreted as the intersection of the students’ home and school cultures. Teachers, administrators, and other members of the school community made efforts to be accepting of the diverse ethnic, linguistic, and religious backgrounds that students brought to the school. However, examination of students’ experiences of school …

Learning Languages In A Digital World, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine M. Theiler

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

Aleidine J. Moeller, Editor
Janine Theiler, Assistant Editor

I. Embracing Technology: Tools Teacher Can Use to Improve Language Learning — Introduction to the section: Frauke Hachtmann, Katie Hayes, Leyla Masmaliyeva, Malia Perkins

1 Rich Internet Applications for Language Learning — Dennie Hoopingarner and Vineet Bansal

2 Leveraging Podcasting for Language Learning — Dan Schmit

3 Using PowerPoint Templates to Enhance Student Presentations — J. Sanford Dugan

II. Teacher Education and Professional Development: Agents of Change — Introduction to the section: Silvia Betta and Janine Theiler

4 Preparing for the ACTFL/NCATE Program Report: Three Case Studies — Susan Colville-Hall, Bonnie Fonseca-Greber, …

Informing Teacher Education Through Cross-Cultural Teaching And Learning: Dialogic Inquiry Into Japanese And Canadian School Experiences, Mitsuyo Sakamoto, Elaine Chan

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

This article examines the hermeneutic, narrative, and social co-construction of cultural understanding as two educators shared their teaching and learning experiences in Japanese and Canadian schools. Our dialogic inquiry reveals how perceptions of practices in one culture—including curricula in non-core, academic subjects, stances on student assessment, and attitudes toward extracurricular activities—were shaped by our prior school experiences. The study reveals that reconstruction of previous overseas experience and co-construction of meaning from this reconstruction can serve as a powerful means of enhancing understanding of cross-cultural issues. The reconstruction process also offers a means of engaging those who do not have international, …

Going Home? Schooling In Mexico Of Transnational Children, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann

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

The literature in international migration from Mexico to the U.S. has usually examined labor, juridical, political, and public health dimensions of the phenomena. However, the educational aspect of international migration is becoming a major concern for both countries. This article offers preliminary results from a survey of transnational students coming back from the U.S. to Mexican schools. The database includes information from a representative sample of public and private schools of Nuevo León (1st to 9th grade). It includes estimates of the number of transnational students, their school trajectories, and perspectives on their educational experience in both countries.

Pensando En Cynthia Y Su Hermana: Educational Implications Of United States–Mexico Transnationalism For Children, Edmund T. Hamann, Victor Zuniga, Juan Sanchez Garcia

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

We use 3 brief educational biographies of students in Mexico who have previously attended public school in the United States to introduce this literature review on United States–Mexico transnational students. This article is also the first of several planned articles stemming from a currently ongoing, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia-supported research study. As such, the purpose here is to highlight some of the dynamics faced by students who need to negotiate 2 educational systems (the United States and Mexico) and who fit neither a classic United States immigrant typology nor the typical premises around which schooling in Mexico is …

Identities In The Making: Realized In-Between Self And Other, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Lori Olafson

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

A middle school is a complex setting in which to develop a sense of self. The following accounts of three young women reveal ways that identity is confronted, offering insights for all learners. The intent is to show how prospective and practicing teachers can gain greater access to fostering identities in the making. The language of Bakhtin gives expression to the necessary teaching and learning conditions for students to look at the sense and selves being made on a continual basis. We conclude that valuing and validating identities in the making require that learning spaces be created, sustained, and nurtured …

Teaching Courses Online: A Review Of The Research, Mary K. Tallent-Runnels, Julie A. Thomas, William Y. Lan, Sandi Cooper, Terence C. Ahern, Shana M. Shaw, Xiaoming Liu

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

This literature review summarizes research on online teaching and learning. It is organized into four topics: course environment, learners’ outcomes, learners’ characteristics, and institutional and administrative factors. The authors found little consistency of terminology, discovered some conclusive guidelines, and identified developing lines of inquiry. The conclusions overall suggest that most of the studies reviewed were descriptive and exploratory, that most online students are nontraditional and Anglo American, and that few universities have written policies, guidelines, or technical support for faculty members or students. Asynchronous communication seemed to facilitate in-depth communication (but not more than in traditional classes), students liked to …

Risks And Opportunities Within Self-Study: A Presentation For The S-Step Sig, American Educational Research Association, 2006, Margaret A. Macintyre Latta, Gayle A. Buck, Teresa Abrahams, Chandra Diaz-Debose, Sandra Dop, Kathy Fuchser, Joyce Lehn, Colette Mast, Virginia Newton, Judith Ruskamp, Sarah Thomas

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

This paper documents a self-study research group from its inception, storying its development and impacts on the curricular lives of 11 participating educators individually and collectively. Drawing on the scholarship of the self-study tradition within educational research (Loughran et al. 2004), we see teacher knowledge as largely untapped and an important source for the improvement of teaching. Positioning participants to look at the sense and selves being made on a continual basis places reflexivity is at the heart of self-study. Our paper reveals multiple ways educators might engage reflexively, considering and reconsidering beliefs about the nature of learners, learning, teachers, …

Starting Conversations With Content Area Peers [Out Of The Box], Jenelle Reeves

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

I offer three principles to guide you as you initiate conversations with content area peers: make it personal, make it positive, and make a connection.

Considering the importance of the relationship between ESOL professionals and content teachers, it is critically important to consider how you engage colleagues in conversation about effective English language learner inclusion. If you open your conversations with content area peers in a positive way, it will set the tone for harmonious, mutually beneficial relationships to follow.

Secondary Teacher Attitudes Toward Including English-Language Learners In Mainstream Classrooms, Jenelle Reeves

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

Researchers have given limited attention to teacher attitudes toward inclusion of English-language learners (ELLs) in mainstream classrooms. The author explored four categories within secondary teacher attitudes toward ELL inclusion: (a) ELL inclusion, (b) coursework modification for ELLS, (c) professional development for working with ELLs, and (d) perceptions of language and language learning. Findings from a survey of 279 subject-area high school teachers indicate a neutral to slightly positive attitude toward ELL inclusion, a somewhat positive attitude toward coursework modification, a neutral attitude toward professional development for working with ELLs, and educator misconceptions regarding how second languages are learned.