Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Empowering Faculty Through Assessment, Katherine Simpson Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

This article explains how faculty and administrators at Lord Fairfax Community College have made assessment a vital practice across campus.

The Influence Of Learning Communities On The Interaction Levels Of English Students, Elizabeth Wilmer Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

This study investigates whether learning communities significantly increase the level of interaction of community-college students enrolled in developmental English.

Are New Faculty Prepared To Teach Diverse Learners?, Audrey Lail Phd

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author examines the preparation of community-college faculty, especially those recently hired, to teach the varied students our institutions enroll.

Job Satisfaction Determinants Of Certificated Staff In The Xyz School District, Grant Edward Schmidt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Job satisfaction is closely related to motivation theory. Many factors influence human motivation. For example, employee performance is greatly influenced by the expectancy of what the job will provide, the employees attitude toward personal achievement and advancement, and their wish for harmony in the workplace (Bittel, 1990). The amount of opportunity people see in their jobs also has a direct relationship to their job performance (Hill, 1979). Motivation can be provided by allowing employees to participate in the goal-setting activities (Catt, 1989). Motivators, such as sick leave, medical/ dental plans, and holiday pay are best enjoyed by the employees when …

Effectiveness Of Teacher Preparation Programs As Perceived By First Year Teachers, Loren Harriet Brevik

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

High rates of teacher attrition, particularly among those within their first years of teaching, have prompted studies aimed at identifying issues and recommendations for analyzing and improving teacher preparation programs. This study used a mixed methodology to investigate effectiveness of teacher preparation programs as perceived by first year teachers. Preliminary focus groups were formed to promote conversation and identify perceived strengths and weaknesses of preparation programs. Feedback from the focus groups combined with topics from extant literature resulted in a survey instrument that was administered to novice teachers as they completed their preparation/certification programs and began their first year of …

Service Learning In Preservice Teacher Preparation: Building Foundations For Engaged Professionalism In The New Millenium, Amy Strage, Susan Gomez, Kari Knutson-Miller, Ana Garcia-Nevarez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessment Of General Education Of Doctoral Students Matriculating In An Educational Leadership Program In A Southern New England University, Martin Sivula Ph.D., Thomas D. Sepe, Ph.D.

Higher Education

Higher education usually reserves talk of “general education” to the undergraduate experience. When entering graduate schools, graduate students have dissimilar and diverse undergraduate experiences in general education. Some graduate students have benefit of a solidly constructed undergraduate curriculum, while others have experienced broad distribution or no requirements whatsoever. Demography, language, and their disciplinary curriculum serve to divide them. Interdisciplinary programs have students usually study within the confines of two or more disciplines, and still they would be studying and researching within their disciplinary structures. Even bi-lingual and multi-lingual students still act within their linguistic structures. Stimpson (2002) created a term …

Guyland: A Tough Place To Be, Charles Eberly

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

This is a book review of Michael Kimmel's 2008 book, Guyland: The perilous world where boys become men. The review was written with a focus on the challenges young men face during the college years, and the impact that a "charasmatic adult" such as a fraternity advisor can have on their lives.

Bridging The Gap Between Real World Polar Science And The Classroom, William Robertson, Vanessa Lougheed, Craig Tweedie, Aaron Velasco, Claudia Garcia

Selected Works Temporary Series

The International Polar Year - Research and Educational Opportunities in Antarctica for Minorities (IPY-ROAM) program was designed to increase minority participation in polar science by immersing participants in an academic program that included a trip to Antarctica. The IPY-ROAM program was focused on increasing the public understanding of the Polar Regions and stimulating a new interest in polar science. This effort was coordinated by faculty from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) and was implemented to positively contribute to the intense, internationally coordinated IPY scientific campaign. Through a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of …

Dr. Skateboard’S Action Science: Transforming Science Education For Middle School Students, William Robertson

Selected Works Temporary Series

The main objective of this article is to describe an example of unique and creative classroom materials that are built around a real world interest of Middle School students. Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science is a curriculum supplement that integrates both skateboarding and BMX. As an example of transformative education, it is built around student interests with a direct link to specific science knowledge and skills that need to be learned. It incorporates a four part video series and twenty classroom activities for students and teachers to use in the classroom. The video and classroom materials focus on the physical science …

Skateboard: Ciencia De Acción De Doctor Skateboard: Educacion Transformativa En Física, William Robertson

Selected Works Temporary Series

This article, written in Spanish, describes a transformative process for teaching physics in the middle school science classroom through an analysis of the use of Dr. Skateboard’s Action Science. Additionally, the article attempts to bridge efforts in the US, specifically in El Paso, Texas to opportunities that exist in Spanish speaking countries, including Mexico and Chile. The provided abstracts, in Spanish and English, describe how “action science” can be used in presenting fundamental science concepts and that this approach can be expanded from Middle schools to high schools and universities. Action science is an active learning methodology for teaching physics …

Supporting Teacher Education Through A Combined Model Of Philosophical, Collaborative And Experiential Learning, Roisin Donnelly

Journal Articles

This paper provides insights into teaching and learning based on the analysis of an accredited professional development program, entitled the Postgraduate Certificate in Third Level Learning and Teaching, aimed at lecturing staff/faculty in Irish higher education. The program has its theoretical basis in the Kolb Experiential Learning Cycle (Kolb, 1983), combined with principles of collaborative learning and a philosophical understanding of teaching in higher education. An action research study was conducted to investigate the lecturers’ perceptions of the program, with a particular focus on how support could be provided to them through a combined model of learning. As a core …

Teaching Research To Teachers: A Self-Study Of Course Design, Student Outcomes, And Instructor Learning, Susan A. Turner

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Front Matter

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

Cover art: “Running Fields” by Kreela Moore, a student at Piedmont Virginia Community College.

Ninth-Grade Interventions And The Impact On High School Graduation Rates, Shannon Mcbrady

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

There is a need to become economically sensible when deciding on new school initiatives and reforms. This is partly due to increasing accountability and tightening school budgets. Hertzog & Morgan (1999) found the freshman year sets the tone for a student‟s entire high school career. Yet, frequently, ninth-graders struggle to feel connected to school and therefore experience failure. Often times this period of failure is related to the developmental process the ninth-grader experiences. Many ninth-graders struggle in various areas including behavioral growth, social pressures, and adjusting to the rigidity of high school (Mizelle & Irvin, 2000). Researchers have found that …

The Relationship Between Teacher Efficacy And Reading Program Type In West Virginia Elementary Schools, Patricia Lee Harvey

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This study, based on Bandura’s social cognitive theory, explored the two dimensions of teacher efficacy among reading program types (Harcourt; Houghton Mifflin; MacMillan McGraw Hill; Pearson Scott Foresman; and, Other) and selected demographic factors (school enrollment size; student ethnicity; school district of urban, rural, and suburban; student socioeconomic status; teacher’s level of education; teacher’s years of experience; and, teacher certification of highly qualified or not-highly qualified). Utilizing Gibson and Dembo’s Teacher Efficacy Scale (TES) combined with an author-created selected demographic questionnaire, a sample of 364 elementary teachers participated representing a population of 6,204 elementary teachers of reading. A one-way ANOVA …

Surviving A Doctoral Program: Student Perspectives Of Support Services, Felice D. Billups, Stacey L. Kite

Higher Education

The purpose of this study is to investigate student perspectives on factors that impede and assist in the completion of an Ed.D. program. Students at a small university in the northeast currently enrolled in their courses, as well as those enrolled in their dissertation phase, were included in this study.

Intergenerational Differnces: Adult And Teacher Development; Adults As Learners, Susan A. Turner

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Review Of Forming Ethical Identities In Early Childhood Play By Brian Edmiston, Tonia Renee Durden, Julie Rainer Dangel

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

What do parents and educators do when a child pretends to be a roaring T. Rex who devours his victims or becomes a dragon that burns fields and houses? Does allowing young children to engage in violence during pretend play negatively influence their moral and ethical development? In Edmiston’s book Forming ethical identities in early childhood play (2008), he boldly addresses this question using both experiential as well as scholarly evidence to support his proposition that children can develop an ethical identity through violent or what he describes as mythical adult–child play. The foundation of his proposition stems from a …

Occupational Stress And Coping Resources Of K-12 Probationary Teachers, Lori Ann Wagner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to measure what factors impact the stress levels of probationary teachers who may or may not be new to the field of education, to determine what demographic characteristics are related to higher levels of stress, to determine what coping resources were successful in reducing stress, and to compare the stress levels and coping resources of probationary teachers to other professionals.

The study used the OSI-R to determine the stress levels of k-12 probationary teachers as related to role overload, role insufficiency, role ambiguity, role boundary, responsibility, and physical environment as measured by the Occupational …

Leadership In The Bachelor Of Education: A Dialogue Between Student And Professor, Lauren Sacchetti, Jennifer Barnett

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

There are true leaders in education who have overcome the traditional ways of hierarchical thinking and have developed transformational and collaborative orientations. They accomplished this in spite of the fact that our school system does not support these foci. As part of the educational system, the Bachelor of Education program contributes little to the development of this type of leadership in its students.

Benefits Of Co-Teaching For Esl Classrooms, Jameelah Abdallah

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Co-teaching has recently become more popular in schools throughout the nation. It has been recognized to have several positive implications for teachers, including increased collegiality, cooperation and information exchange. Co-teaching lowers the student-teacher ratio and exposes the students to differentiated teaching methods. This supports evidence that indicates that students who learn in smaller groups both retain and achieve more in the classroom (Davis, 1993). While co-teaching is widely accepted in special education classrooms, it can also be very beneficial when teaching English to speakers of other languages. At the same time, it exposes English language learners to authentic language; it …

Race, Ethnicity, And Specialized Business Accreditation, Bonnie Garrity, Veronika Lengyel

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Black and Hispanic students are underrepresented at selective colleges and universities in the United States (Dickerson and Jacobs 2006; Niu et al. 2006). The colleges themselves also play a role by deciding which students are admitted. Since Black and Hispanic students have lower average SAT scores than White and Asian students (Davies and Guppy 1997) and Black students have lower average GMAT scores than White and Asian students (Cross and Slater 1998), heavy emphasis on these test scores in admissions decisions may limit the opportunities for Black and Hispanic students. However, the long-term implications of enrollment patterns and economic returns …

Curriculum Evolution At The Department Of Baking Technology (National Bakery School), Dit, Kevin Street 1998-2008: What Factors Have Brought About A Change In The Curriculum, Mary Kavanagh

Theses

This thesis research set out to examine the factors which have contributed to curriculum evolution at the National Bakery School, Technologicl University Dublin (DIT) from 1998 to 2008. It focused on a number of dimensions which have contributed to a radical shift in curriculum. Those dimensions include biographical, cultural, micro-political, structural, socio-historical, technological and scientific. The research design was essentially a hermeneutical, interpretative case study using qualitative data gathering techniques. The primary research methods employed were interviews conducted with lecturing staff, and a survey conducted with students travelling to Germany for continuing professional development. An extensive literature review was conducted …

The Digest Edition 2009/1 : The Use Of Icts In Schools In The Digital Age: What Does The Research Say?, Marion Meiers, Pat Knight, Gerry White

Research Digest

This edition of The Digest is focused on research that has investigated aspects of digital learning. The body of research sometimes described as ‘e-learning research’ encompasses many aspects of ICT in education, at many levels and in many contexts. For the purposes of this digest, the key question is What does research tell us about digital learning in schools? The first section of the digest is focused on the diverse uses of ICT in schools, and evidence about the ICT literacy of Australian students. This is followed by an overview of evidence about the impact of ICT on student learning. …

Analysis Of Factors Influencing West Virginia Secondary Biology And Science Teacher Attrition Rates, Seth Perry

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The high rate of attrition for beginning teachers has been blamed on many factors. Nationally these include low pay, urban versus rural school settings, age, with younger teachers leaving sooner, and other variables making a complex problem with no clear component responsible for the loss of teachers. This study examined the self reported variables that contribute to high school teachers in West Virginia leaving their profession. An electronic survey instrument was distributed to current secondary teachers across the state. Teachers were asked to respond to questions related to professional satisfaction, perceived value from students and parents, administrative support, content versus …

Examining The Impact Of A Comprehensive Approach To Student Orientation, Thomas Hollins

Inquiry: The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges

The author presents research on the benefits of providing students with more than one form of orientation to college.

Using Rubrics To Teach Science Writing, Paul E. Bennett Jr.

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

An often-stated goal of education in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) fields is to teach students to communicate like professionals. In the STEM fields, the single most important thing we can do to teach our students better communication skills is to teach them how to write a lab report. The reason a lab report is so important is not just because it is the end product of a research project, but because each section of a lab report has a particular function that often correlates with different types of communication that a STEM professional needs to use. For …

Rules And Insights: Connecting The Mathematical And Linguistic Abilities Of C.S. Lewis, Kim Regnier Jongerius

ACMS Journal 2008-2009

While most biographical works on C.S. Lewis give passing reference to Lewis' problems with elementary mathematics, few have made an attempt at diagnosing the difficulty or exploring its impact on his writing. A careful study of family correspondence, however, makes it clear that his learning difficulties were not with mathematics alone and suggests connections between attitudes toward and abilities in both mathematics and language. This paper will make these connections clear and will illustrate their ties to Lewis' effective mathematical references.

Embodied Discourses Of Literacy In The Lives Of Two Preservice Teachers, Donna Kalmbach Phillips, Mindy Legard Larson

Faculty Publications

This study examines the emerging teacher literacy identities of Ian and A.J., two preservice teachers in a graduate teacher education program in the United States. Using a poststructural feminisms theoretical framework, the study illustrates the embodiment of literacy pedagogy discourses in relation to the literacy courses’ discourse of comprehensive literacy and the literacy biographical discourses of Ian and A.J. The results of this study indicate the need to deconstruct how the discourse of comprehensive literacy limits how we, as literacy teacher educators, position, hear and respond to our preservice teachers and suggests the need for differentiation in our teacher education …