Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Designing For Problem Based Learning: A Comparative Study Of Technology Professional Development, Andrew Walker, Mimi Recker, Brooke Robertshaw, Jeffrey Olsen, Linda Sellers, Heather Leary, Yu-Chun Kuo, Lei Ye

The Instructional Architect Research Group

No abstract provided.

Connecting Mathematics Students To Philosophy And Faith, Nathan Moyer

ACMS Journal 2010-2011

This paper describes an upper-division class project that helps students wrestle with the deep philosophical questions of mathematics in a relevant way. Through article readings and group discussions, various historical views of mathematical philosophy are examined and critiqued. An emphasis is placed upon students making meaningful connections between their own views of mathematics and their personal Christian faith or worldview.

What Matters: Preparing Teachers Of Reading, Sara R. Helfrich, Rita M. Bean

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

A descriptive study was employed to determine differences in knowledge of literacy instruction and perceived preparedness to teach literacy between two groups of teacher candidates enrolled in two different teacher preparation programs at one university. This study investigated which components — coursework, field experience, and collaboration — candidates perceived as best preparing them to teach literacy while enrolled in their program. Data collection instruments included the Survey of Perceptions and the Knowledge Inventory. Both groups of candidates, regardless of program and amount of time in the field, viewed both coursework and field experience as important. Few significant differences were found …

Early Career Physical Educators' Perspectives On Learning To Teach In Urban Schools, Sara Barnard Flory

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to examine early career physical educators' perspectives on learning to teach in urban schools. Using occupational socialization theory (Lawson, 1983a, 1983b; Lortie, 1975) and cultural relevance theory (Flory & McCaughtry, 2011), I studied three early-career physical education teachers who taught in urban schools but did not grow up in urban communities. Data collection occurred for approximately six weeks with each teacher via lesson observation and in-depth interviews. Data were analyzed using constant comparison. The findings of this study outlined the particular elements from each teachers' experience during their pre-professional socialization, professional socialization, and induction …

A Qualitative Study On African American Males' Perceptions Of Reading, Phyllis Marie Stallings

Wayne State University Dissertations

African American male students begin experiencing failure when they enter fourth grade. At this grade, the curriculum becomes more focused, students are expected to complete high-stakes standardized tests, teachers become more distant, and students are expected to become independent learners. Many African American male students are not ready for this transformation. They may not have developed the reading skills needed to understand text books for social studies and science, and are deficient in regard to the math skills needed for problem solving. Understanding which factors are contributing to African American male student failure is important, especially in determining if these …

Examination Of Dispositions And Practices In Diversity: The Impact Of A Teacher Education Course Promoting Culturally And Responsive Pedagogy, Deuslene Leite Bastos

Wayne State University Dissertations

Assimilation ideology guiding teachers and policy makers to mainstream immigrant children into the American schools has prevailed in spite of pluralists' efforts for reform schools to provide more opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Research shows a need to change assimilation driven policies and practices which are harmful to students into a reconstructivist ideology that has shown to be more conducive for the application of culturally responsive teaching. Teacher education courses aimed to prepare teacher candidates for diverse classrooms have shown limitations due to abundant focus on theory or lack of elements in course work that are known to …

Cultural Enrichment: Connecting African American Elementary Children To Academic Achievement, Deborah L. Winston

Wayne State University Dissertations

A large, growing number of mis-educated American citizens are being produced by America's public schools. Many of these students are being funneled into the penal system shortly after dropping out of high school. This phenomenon is especially prevalent among African American male students, many of whom have withdrawn academically years prior to permanently dropping out of school. Additionally, to further underscore the importance of successfully educating African American students are the debilitating effects brought about after incarceration. About 4 million people in the United States, including 1.4 million Black men (13 percent of the adult male Black population) have currently …

No.3, January 2011: The Promise Model: An English-Learner Focused Approach To School Reform, Laurie Olsen Ph.D.

Education and Policy Briefs

Findings from a 3-year (2006-2009) evaluation of the PROMISE Model pilot are presented in this policy brief that seeks to address three questions: 1) What is the PROMISE Model ?; 2) What changes occurred in schools as a results of implementing the PROMISE Model ?; and 3) What are the lessons learned from the PROMISE Model pilot that can contribute to an understanding of school reform for English Learners? A qualitative, ethnographic approach allowed for exploration of the research questions. The researcher identified five foundational elements to the PROMISE Model. Implementation of the PROMISE Model increased use of EL specific …

"American Examples For German Universities: Admitting Women Before World War I", Charles E. Mcclelland

History Faculty Publications

Women were not allowed to enroll a regular students in Prussian universities until 1909, although most other German states had already changed this policy. This chapter analyzes the terms of controversy swirling around the issue, and how American university policies ultimately helped bring about the change.

Graduate Student Mentoring, Mary C. Wright, Laura N. Schram

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Many graduate programs are reviewing how they mentor their students, taking note of the time to degree and low completion rates in their programs. Given the enormous time challenges that academics face and the complexities of effective mentoring, it can be difficult to change practice despite good will. We write about graduate student mentoring, drawing from research on graduate student careers and the role of mentorship, to make practical suggestions for cultivating an effective mentoring relationship.

The benefits of effective graduate student mentoring noted in the literature are numerous, with large national studies linking effective mentorship to degree completion, high …

Discovering And Developing Diverse Stem Talent: Enabling Academically Talented Urban Youth To Flourish, Stephanie Pace Marshall, Glenn W. "Max" Mcgee, Eric Mclaren, Catherine C. Veal

Publications & Research

The Growing Excellence Gap in K-12 Education, Plucker, Burroughs, and Song (2010) provided compelling evidence that "the presence of an excellence gap is demonstrated on both national and state assessments of student performance," with "economically disadvantaged, English Language Learners, and historically underprivileged minorities representing a smaller proportion of students scoring at the highest levels of achievement" (p. 28). Three "case stories" of students from IMSA illuminate some of the (a) challenges and opportunities inherent in igniting STEM talent in urban youth and ensuring their success; (b) principles for designing and creating learning experiences and environments that ignite and nurture the …

Teacher Educators Under Surveillance At A Religious University, Genevieve Harris

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine how institutional norms are enforced through surveillance and self-discipline among teacher educators at a religious university. The study builds on prior research regarding university norms and surveillance, as well as religious orientation and prejudice. Eight teacher educators met as part of a larger study on white racial identity and praxis. Focus groups and personal interviews were transcribed and analyzed using situational mapping, a postmodern form of grounded theory. Participants discussed four themes that illustrate surveillance and self-discipline: the university, academic culture, religion and whiteness, and sexism. The data reveal participant responses as …

Depictions And Gaps: Portrayal Of U.S. Poverty In Realistic Fiction Children’S Picture Books, Jane E. Kelley, Janine J. Darragh

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Researchers conducted a critical multicultural analysis of 58 realistic fiction children’s picture books that portray people living in poverty and compared these depictions to recent statistics from the United States Census Bureau. The picture books were examined for the following qualities: main character, geographic locale and time era, focal poor character (gender, age, and race), who demonstrated action, and the type of action (individual, community, systemic) demonstrated. Results of the analysis showed that while in some areas the books accurately reflect the reality in the United States today, there are other areas in which poverty is misrepresented. For example, while …

Cultural Capital—Now You See It, Now You Don’T: Using Race To Unpack Systemic Class Differences, Leslie Martin

History and American Studies Articles

The article focuses on the discussion of the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) as one method to bridge the cultural gap among the students in the U.S. The cultural differences among students have been observed to affect their schooling experience. It provides an analysis of the AAVE as a form of cultural capital which promotes respect on the languages and dialects of the students.

Developing A Paradigm Model Of Youth Leadership Development And Community Engagement: A Grounded Theory, Lindsay J. Hastings, Leverne A. Barrett, John E. Barbuto, Jr., Lloyd C. Bell

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

This grounded theory study explored the impact of community engagement on how youth leaders develop. A paradigm model illustrating this developmental process is presented, which includes the conditions that empowered the youth to engage in their community, the strategies used by the youth and the adults in their work together, the conditions that helped/hindered those strategies, and the resulting outcomes. Results of the analysis indicated that individual connections, common sentiments, and being asked to engage were identified as the most salient causal conditions. The action taken by the youth and adult respondents mobilized those individual connections and common sentiments into …

Table Of Contents - Winter 2011, Fort Hays State University College Of Education

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Academic Leadership Journal Winter 2011 table of contents

A Survival Guide: Seven Practices All Beginning Teachers Should Know, Derrick Davis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Whether you have just graduated college or entering the teaching profession from a previous career, there are seven practices that all beginning teachers come to understand. Implementing these strategies could help to prevent costly beginning teaching errors from occurring and will aid in improving one’s overall experience as a beginning teacher, whether on the K-12 level.

A Study On The Consequences Of Workplace Romance In Iranian Organizations, Davood Salmani, Ali Taatian, Masoud Hakiminia

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The Central Educational Center is a product of multiple visions, desires, and hopes. The ideal vision is outlined in a book entitled “The Eden Conspiracy” (Harless, 1997). Other perspectives include a requirement from local business that basic skills of high school graduates need to be rapidly improved, the desire of a growing local school system to provide costly industry-standard career-technical education to all high school students, the vision of a regional technical college to “dual enroll” high school students and make technical college a viable post-secondary option, and the hopes of a Governor looking for a viable model to support …

Accreditation Discrimination In The Contexts Of Business Schools And Colleges: Concerns And Challenges For Administrators And Scholars, Donovan Mcfarlane

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Academia is losing both its appeal and prestige as declining morale among current and future or prospective academics is being further eroded by several factors. One of these factors is accreditation, which was originally designed and developed to facilitate reputation building through the implementation and application of quality assurance principles and standards across institutions. In any society, the type of political order and social system which exist will certainly affect education as a process and institutional agent. American capitalism as such, has had both desirable and undesirable effects on educational institutions, especially at the level of the university and college …

An Exploration Of Organizational Climate In Greek High Schools, Angeliki Lazridou, Ioannis Tsolakidis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In the theoretical and research literature about school administration, organizational climate receives considerable attention. A major reason is that school climate is often represented as the heart and soul of the school and the essence of the school that causes teachers and students to love the school and to want to be a part of it (Freiberg & Stein, 1999). Another reason is that climate is often seen to be associated with school effectiveness. Furthermore, research has shown consistently that the principal of a school does not affect student achievement directly but does so indirectly by fostering a healthy climate …

An Introduction To Cyrus* Engineering Leadership Paradigm, Davood Salmani, Ali Taatian

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

In this time of dwindling resources, economic uncertainty, climate change, global conflict and both natural and manmade disasters causing massive impact to whole communities and cultures, there is a significant need developing for new leadership, for a new way. The increasing global competition in technology leads to a concept called Engineering Leadership including leadership skills and engineering competencies. They address the “Real Problems facing mankind” like energy security (D. Apelian, 2007, pp. 21-30). Greenhouse effect, the diminishing ozone layer, water and air pollution, the growing desserts, energy related problems along with global economy recession are the issues that seriously challenge …

Challenges In Designing And Implementing A Meaningful Field Experience For Future School Leaders, Mike Dishman, Traci Redish

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

During the past decade, educational leadership programs have faced significant criticism for degree programs not adequately preparing students for the current demands of school administration, particularly for not providing meaningful field experiences. Leadership programs have been challenged to replicate experiences provided in “model” programs, contain discrete and multi-month formalized internships in which candidates are released from teaching responsibilities. Unfortunately, such programs are highly dependent upon both external grant funding and significant financial support from universities and school districts. This paper examines the solution reached by one large suburban institution in Georgia when required to redesign its master’s degree program in …

Degree Of Availability And Utilization Of Information Technology By Jordanian School Principals, Nawaf Shatnawi

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

No doubt that the most striking features of this century is the technological revolution: Computers, communications and other electronic mediums are main components for any developing program in the educational field. Therefore, the Ministry of Education in Jordan adapted an educational reform program aimed at utilizing information technology in schools. The program was called “Educational reform for Knowledge Economy” ( ERFKE). School’s administration was one of (ERFKE) domains. For the importance of Information Technology, the Ministry Of Education did its best to broaden the use of computers in all Jordanian schools ( Al Heleh, 2001) as part of reaching its …

Ethical Issues In Higher Education And Scientific Research: Erosion Of Academic Integrity, A. Singh, Bharathi Purohit

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Ethics is the cornerstone of dental research or for that matter any research. Authorship in a scientific research is an important issue which requires considerable debate. The pressure to publish is well-established in the university community. Faculty member’s performance and promotion are judged by the number of published articles in academic scholarly journals. If survival means publish or perish, any and every effort to see one’s name in print becomes important. In such a situation, we should not be surprised to see the operation of the cliché, “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” (Lazar, 1995).

From Hell: The Surge Of Corruption In Nigeria (1999 – 2007), Segun Oshewolo, J. Olanrewaju

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Nigeria is one of the world’s most endowed nations, with abundant human and natural resources. These resources are located in all the states of the federation and exist in commercial quantities (see Ajibewa, 2006:261). The proceeds from these resources have been disproportionately distributed to the disadvantage of the poor population while through the paraphernalia of the presidium of government, the allocation of resources has been done to generously favour the ruling and business elites as well as their cronies. This situation has given rise to the grave issue of inequality in the country. The availability of these resources notwithstanding, Nigeria …

Getting The Right Scope: How To Equip Online Faculty Of The 21st Century With Perfected Knowledge And Skills, Derrick Davis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Technology consumes us and has become so intimately connected in our lives that now, to a large degree, it is dictating its use (in educational settings throughout the globe). It’s like a lion that never stops roaring-it’s demanding our attention, and its’ breathe and impact are so far reaching; it can be best described as inescapable. Thus, universities and colleges alike no longer can sit by and speculate whether or not this is a trend that will eventually disappear (as other educational trends have done so in the past). Rather, institutions need to understand that online education is more like …

Goal Focused Reviews For State Assessments In Mathematics, Clarence Davis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Full text article unavailable.

How To Recruit And Retain Bilingual/Esl Teacher Candidates?, Zulmaris Diaz, Lakshmi Mahadevan

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The student population in the United States is rapidly changing; in 2004-2005, approximately 5.1 million or 10.5 percent of the U.S. student population were English-language learners (Pearson, 2006). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2003) revealed that 47 states provide English language services to English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in public schools. California alone educates 1.6 million ELLs, one-third of all the nation’s ELLs, while in Texas more than half a million students received ELL services, one in seven students (NCES). The problem is that a great number of these students are being served by teachers new to the …

Improving The Practical Aspect Of Pre-Service Teacher Education In Sub-Saharan Africa: Issues Of Conceptualization, Planning And Management, Cosmas Cobbold

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Teaching practicum, variously called teaching practice, professional practice, professional experience, practical experience, school experience, has always been part of teacher education regardless of the approach taken. The Standard Council of the Teaching Profession (1998, p.10) defines teaching practicum as: a period of time spent in schools where the prime focus for the trainee teacher is to practice teaching under the supervision of a mentor who should be trained for this job, to spend time with teachers and classes, observing, teaching small groups and whole classes, and undertaking the range of tasks that make up the teacher’s role including planning, assessing …

Institutional Variations And Management Problems Of Postgraduate Studies In Nigerian Universities That Delay Graduation., Chinelo Duze

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Since Nigeria’s Independence in 1960, the social demand for education at the secondary level has been so great that the rapid expansions at this level yawned for corresponding expansions at the tertiary level. To cater for the teaming products of the secondary level academically, the Nigerian government began to expand places at the tertiary level so much that by today, Nigeria has about ninety-four accredited universities owned by the Federal government, State governments, and Private people.