Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Using Inquiry-Based Teaching And Kids Inquiry Conferences To Strengthen Elementary Science Instruction And To Encourage More Students To Pursue Science Careers, Paula A. Magee, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

For the past 20 years, there has been a push to improve the teaching and learning of science in elementary schools. One strong reason for this was the release of the National Science Education Standards (NRC 1996). The Standards articulated not only what K-12 students should know (science content standards), but also how science teachers needed to teach (teaching standards) and be continuously supported (professional development standards). The Standards also considered ways to support inquiry-based and meaningful science learning for K-12 students (program and system standards). According to the NRC, one ot:·the four reasons underpinning all of this is because …

Understanding Community Voices As A Force In Teacher Education, Ryan Flessner, Paula A. Magee

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Ryan Flessner and Paula Magee's contribution to "Flessner, R., Miller, G. R., Patrizio, K. M., & Horwitz, J. R. (Eds.). (2012). Agency through teacher education: Reflection, community, and learning. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Education."

Addressing The Research/Practice Divide In Teacher Education, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Educational scholars often describe a research/practice divide. Similarly, students in teacher education programs often struggle to navigate the differences between university coursework and expectations they face in field-based placements. This self-study analyzes one researcher's attempt to address the research/practice divide from the position of a teacher educator. Teaching in a university-based mathematics methods course during the academic year and an elementary classroom during the summer recess provided opportunities to make connections between research and practice. This article examines the effects this study had on the researcher's instruction at the university level. Specifically, the article suggests ways for teacher educators to …

School Shootings: Is My School Safe?, Tony Durr

School of Education, Counseling and Human Development

In the part of rural Midwestern America there was recently a shooting at a school that ended in the death of an assistant principal and the suicide of a student. In short, a student who had recently transferred to Millard South High School in the State of Nebraska had troubles adjusting to his new school. The article reports, the student was suspended after he was caught driving his car on the school’s football field. Later in the day after his suspension, the student returned to the school and fatally shot an assistant principal and also wounded the principal. The student …

Say It Loud: An Action Research Project Examining The Afrivisual And Africology, Looking For Alternative African American Community College Teaching Strategies, Daniel E. Mitchell

CGU Theses & Dissertations

For this study, the researcher sought to implement a visual arts-based Afrivisual to help inspire, motivate and empower African American students in gaining a culturally relevant education in Euro-American-centered schools. Using the Afrivisual in this work as an action-oriented tool the researcher sought to expose African American students to an African historical context.

This research project utilized three African-centered theoretical frameworks: (1) Afrocentricity, (2) Africana Philosophy, and (3) Africana Critical Theory. The problem this work addresses is found in four areas, (1) American history is Eurocentric, (2) African history has been distorted, (3) Africa’s contribution to world civilization has been …

Technology Use In Higher Education Instruction, Sammy Elzarka

CGU Theses & Dissertations

The significance of integrating technology use in higher education instruction is undeniable. The benefits include those related to access to instruction by underserved populations, adequately preparing students for future careers, capitalizing on best instructional practices, developing higher order thinking activities, and engaging students whose relationships with technology are increasingly native, among others. The significance of the current study is based on the fact that few prior studies focused on the factors that support, or inhibit, the use of educational technology by faculty in schools of education. The data collection instrument was a survey designed by the principal investigator based on …

Developing Teachers' Capacities To Create Caring Relationships With Students: A Case Study Of A Gandhi-Inspired Private School In India, Victoria S. Zakrzewski

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Research indicates that many factors may impede teachers' ability to develop caring relationships with students such as the school environment (Schaps, 2009), lack of cultural understanding (Thompson, 1998), the teacher's beliefs and attitudes about care (Goldstein, 2002), and personal experience of being cared for (Noddings, 1984). Yet, little research exists on how schools can address these and other potential limiting factors in order to help teachers cultivate caring relationships with students. The purpose of this study was to examine how one school in India, which claims to emphasize the importance of the teacher-student relationship, develops and supports teachers' capacities to …

Don Duine Is Lú, Léitheoireacht Abú, Geraldine French

Reports

Tá sé mar aidhm ag Rannán Leabharlann Chomhairle Contae Fhine Gall feasacht a spreagadh maidir leis an tábhacht a bhaineann le luathlitearthacht agus conas is fearr luathlitearthacht a leasú i gcomhpháirtíocht le gníomhaireachtaí breisoideachais áitiúla, eagraíochtaí a bhfuil leas acu sna blianta luathfhorbartha, suíomhanna luath-óige, scoileanna agus coláistí. Tá Leabharlanna Fhine Gall, dá bharr, ag forbairt gníomhaíochtaí áirithe chun an pobal a chur ar an eolas d’fhonn tacú leis an leanbh liteartha. Sonraíonn an doiciméad seo Straitéis Litearthachta Luathbhlianta Leabharlanna Fhine Gall (dá dtagraítear Straitéis anseo amach anseo). Tosaíonn sé le creat de Chontae Fhine Gall go ginearálta agus Leabharlanna …

The Relationship Between Faculty's Pedagogical Content Knowledge And Students' Knowledge About Diversity In Online Courses, Mitali Chaudhery

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this proposed study will be to examine the relationship between faculty's pedagogical content knowledge and the design of online curriculum to teach students about diversity in a higher education environment. One hundred twenty-seven faculty teaching online courses at a Midwestern state will be selected on non-random sampling to participate in this study. Two main measures will be used to collected data: (1) Faculty Demographic and Background Survey, and (2) Diversity Teaching survey. The Diversity Teaching Survey was broken into 3 subscales that will examine the following: (1) Faculty's Pedagogical Knowledge and Skills, (2) Online Curriculum Design, and …

Libraries And General Education: New Strategies To Enhance Freshman Orientation, Faculty Collaboration, And Curriculum Development, Carl R. Andrews

Publications and Research

My research will attempt to re-evaluate the academic library's role in supporting a general education program. The emphasis will focus on student centeredness, faculty collaboration, outreach and curriculum support. In the short time that I have worked in academic libraries I have learned that quality customer service and reference desk work is far from the list of priorities in some settings. Coming from the public library I found this to be unacceptable. We are service providers and the way in which we communicate with students and faculty is important. As professionals we should do more in the way of making …

Relationship Between Assessment And Students’ Learning, Babar Khan

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

Assessment is a critical aspect of teaching and learning process which aim at collecting, interpreting and analyzing the regarding students’ performance. The quality of learning is determined by the quality of assessment practices in the classroom. There are many purposes of assessment that focus on the different dimensions of educational development, however, the most dominant purposes of assessment are improving students’ learning and develop accountability measures for learning at classroom and school levels. For effective assessment, using appropriate assessment strategies is significant. There are number of that can be employed to enhance students’ learning outcome but teacher rely on only …

A Secondary Science Teacher’S Beliefs About Environmental Education And Its Relationship With The Classroom Practices, Salima Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

Global environmental issues are increasing due to the rapid developments in science and technology. To address these environmental issues there is a need to create awareness about environmental education among the masses. This can only be possible through teachers and teacher educators. It is assumed that science teachers are teaching environmental concepts as scientific facts, without creating awareness about environmental education. The ultimate purpose of this study was to explore the beliefs of a secondary science teacher about environmental education and how his stated beliefs matched with his classroom practices. The study was conducted in one of the co-operative schools …

Portfolio: A Professional Development And Learning Tool For Teachers, Babar Khan, Salima Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

Professional development of teachers is considered a source to enhance teachers’ content knowledge and pedagogical knowledge. To meet this purpose teacher education institutions use a variety of ways for teachers’ development programs. Mostly these ways and strategies are used in short and long programs where teachers are provided opportunities to learn knowledge and skills outside classroom and schools. The purpose of these courses is to enhance the teachers’ capacity and improve students’ learning outcomes. However, most of these learning and strategies are limited to the training centers and teachers face challenges while implementing the learning in their respective schools. Teachers …

The Moral Dimension Of Teaching, Affectionate Schools And The Student Drop Out: The Case Study Of A Mountainous Community In Pakistan, Zeenat Shah, Sultan Alam, Sharifullah Baig

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

This study explored the perceptions, perspectives and viewpoints of the students about the reasons for turning the schools into uninteresting and unaffectionate places for the students eventually leading to the increased drop out ratio. This qualitative study was conducted in four secondary schools, which provide education to the children in four different educational systems of Gilgit- Baltistan, Pakistan. A number of six students from each school and altogether twenty four students were selected as the primary participants of this research. Semi structured interviews were the main tools of data collection. The findings highlighted the ethical, moral and behavioral aspect of …

Two Approaches To Teaching Young Children Science Concepts, Vocabulary, And Scientific Problem-Solving Skills, Soo-Young Hong, Karen E. Diamond

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

The present study examined the efficacy of two different approaches to teaching designed to facilitate children’s learning about science concepts and vocabulary related to objects’ floating and sinking and scientific problem-solving skills: responsive teaching (RT) and the combination of responsive teaching and explicit instruction (RT + EI). Participants included 104 children (51 boys) aged four to five years.Small groups of children were randomly assigned to one of the two intervention groups (RT, RT + EI) or to a control group. Responsive teaching (RT) reflects a common approach to teaching young children, and the combination approach (RT + EI) includes explicit …

Transition From Lecture Based To Activity Based Teaching Through Whole School Improvement In Gilgit-Baltistan Pakistan, Salima Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

The study sets out to answer the question, “How and to what extent has Whole School Improvement Program influenced the teachers to shift from lecture to activity based teaching and learning processes in the project schools in Gilgit-Baltistan of Pakistan? The study was conducted in two Whole School Improvement Programme (WSIP) project schools in district Gilgit from public and private education sector of Pakistan. A case study approach was used in qualitative paradigm and Context, Input, Process and Product model was used in data collection and analysis to evaluate the input given by Professional Development Teachers (PDTs) and outcomes of …

Make Your Library Instruction Interactive With Poll Everywhere, Sarah Gewirtz

Libraries Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

A Longitudinal Study Of Teaching Practice And Early Career Decisions: A Cautionary Tale, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Patrick Mcquillan, Kara Mitchell Viesca, Dianna Gahlsdorf Terrell, Joan Barnatt, Lisa D’Souza, Cindy Jong, Karen Shakman, Karen Lam, Ann Marie Gleeson

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

Although the turnover rate among beginning teachers has been a major concern for some time, most studies do not link teacher retention with teaching practice. In contrast, this study looks specifically at career decisions coupled with practice. Guided by a view of teaching as social and cultural practice, the study used multiple qualitative data sources, including extensive observations, interviews, and samples of teachers’ and students’ work. Based on within and cross-case analysis of 15 cases at four distinct time points within a 5-year period, the authors identified multiple patterns of teaching practice linked to early career decisions, which reflect considerable …

Rural Latino High School Students Considering Identity And Belonging Through Comparative Study Of Newcomer Youth In South Africa, Edmund T. Hamann, Saloshna Vandeyar, Janet M. Eckerson

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

Precipitated by an arranged but unusual classroom activity — eight Latina immigrant high school students in the rural u.s. Midwest interviewing a visiting South African scholar of immigration and transnationalism — this study captures their deliberations as the consideration of youth immigration to South Africa compels their own autobiographic reflections on who they are, where they are 'of', and with what ethnic groups or nationalities they feel affiliation or welcome. For purposes of bracketing, it also juxtaposes the students' voices with those of the three coauthors: their classroom teacher of Spanish as a heritage language, the visiting scholar from South …

Goal Setting And Student Achievement: A Longitudinal Study, Aleidine Kramer Moeller, Janine M. Theiler, Chaorong Wu

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

The connection between goals and student motivation has been widely investigated in the research literature, but the relationship of goal setting and student achievement at the classroom level has remained largely unexplored. This article reports the findings of a 5-year quasi-experimental study examining goal setting and student achievement in the high school Spanish language classroom. The implementation of LinguaFolio, a portfolio that focuses on student self-assessment, goal setting, and collection of evidence of language achievement, was introduced into 23 high schools with a total of 1,273 students. By using a hierarchical linear model, researchers were able to analyze the relationship …

Series Editors' Foreword: Placing Practitioner Knowledge At The Center Of Teacher Education., Edmund T. Hamann, Rodney Hopson

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

The starting point for this book is a new phase—the Carnegie Program for the Education Doctorate (CPED)—of the longstanding dilemma of whether and how to to distinguish advanced graduate education for the Doctorate of Philosophy (PhD) in education from the Doctorate of Education (EdD). EdD graduates should have gained not just in knowledge, but also in capability—to not only know new things, but to be able to do new practices and/or engage previous skills and practices more effectively.

From Remediation To Acceleration: Recruiting, Retaining, And Graduating Future Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (Cld) Educators, Socorro Herrera, Amanda Morales, Melissa Holmes, Dawn Herrera Terry

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

This ethnographic case study explores one mid-western state university’s response to the challenge of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), especially Latino/a, student recruitment and retention. BESITOS (Bilingual/ Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) is an integrated teacher preparation program implemented at a predominantly White university that seeks to both increase Latino/a students’ initial access to higher education and provide institutional support to facilitate a high rate of graduation. The researchers consider key elements of the BESITOS program model as they relate to and support the sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive dimensions of the CLD student biography. For each dimension, …

The Fear Of Art And The Art Of Fear, Stephanie A Baer

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

Prospective teachers often walk into my course, Arts in the Elementary Classroom, carrying a guarded consciousness that constrains unencumbered artistic exploration. My responsibility as their instructor is to question mantras that reflect insecurity in process and make pedagogical use of their fears. Through studying the nature of these fears throughout the course, I find growing awareness of how students’ fears can lead to more embodied understandings of what it means to learn and teach with the arts, recovering a more complex process of reflection and a holistic understanding of what it means to be an artist and teacher.

Missing And Shrinking Voices: A Critical Analysis Of Florida's Textbook Adoption Policy, Randria Williams, Vonzell Agosto

Educational and Psychological Studies Faculty Publications

This chapter is a critical analysis of the Florida textbook adoption policy and its recent changes. A critical multicultural and critical race theory lens is taken in the analysis of documents for how the representation of ethnic and racial minority groups is reduced and might be enlarged through alternative policy making processes.

The Experience Of Progressing From Community Education To Third Level Education From A Learner’S Perspective, Alan Farrell

Students Learning with Communities

This study explored the experiences of community learners as they progressed from community education to third level education. It also examined the reflections of those who had completed their studies and the impact that education had on their lives. It focused on former students, students currently participating in certificate courses, and also students studying on college access programmes. It was hoped to give a broad view of perspectives on the contrast between community learning and third level education.The study attempts to focus on the positive aspects of the experience rather than the barriers which each student faced. Data collection was …

Conceptual Change And Science Achievement Related To A Lesson Sequence On Acids And Bases Among African American Alternative High School Students': Ateacher's Practical Arguments And The Voice Of The "Other", Lynda Charese Wood

Wayne State University Dissertations

The study of teaching and learning during the period of translating ideals of reform into classroom practice enables us to understand student-teacher-researcher symbiotic learning. In line with this assumption, the purpose of this study is threefold:(1) observe effects of the Common Knowledge Construction Model (CKCM), a conceptual change inquiry model of teaching and learning, on African American students' conceptual change and achievement; (2) observe the shift in teacher's practical arguments; and (3) narrate the voice of "the Other" about teacher professional learning.

This study uses retrospective data from a mixed-method approach consisting of Phenomenography, practical arguments and story-telling. Data sources …

An Examination Of The Perceptions And Motivations Of African American High School Students Regarding Performance Character Qualities For Future Success, Robin W. Stewart

Wayne State University Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to understand student perceptions and motivations regarding performance character qualities (i.e., assertiveness, perseverance, resilience, and self-control) at an urban high school. In examining these relationships, students' perceptions and motivations towards performance character qualities were identified. The study is important because students' poor academic performance, low test scores, low high school graduation rates, and employers reporting that high school graduates do not possess the necessary performance qualities needed to excel on the job indicate that urban high school students may lack the proper orientation toward performance qualities. Research is needed to understand types of skills …

Cardiovascular Fitness Moderates The Relations Between Estimates Of Obesity And Physical Self-Perceptions In Rural Elementary School Students, Nathanael G. Mitchell, Justin B. Moore, Wendy S. Bibeau, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill

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

Background: Levels of physical activity decline throughout childhood. Children’s physical self-perceptions have been found to relate to their physical activity. Understanding the relationships among physical selfperceptions, obesity, and physical activity could have important implications for interventions in children. Methods: The current study investigated the moderating effect of cardiovascular fitness (CVF, heart rate recovery from a 3-minute step test) on the relationship between obesity (BMI, waist circumference) and physical self-perceptions (athletic competence, physical appearance) in 104 fourth- and fifth-grade children from a small rural community. Results: Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that CVF moderated the relations between BMI and waist circumference on …

The Effects Of A Videoconferencing Implementation Project On Educators' Level Of Concern In Southwest Michigan Schools, Dennis David Lundgren

Dissertations

Problem. Two-way, interactive videoconferencing is emerging as an important technology tool for K-12 educators. The challenge is to identify and describe successful implementation. Educator concerns related to implementation may inhibit success. The focus of this study of a federally funded videoconferencing project is to address the factors that influence educators' level of concern.

Method. The Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) Stages of Concern (SoC) instrument was administered to measure the level of concern of two cohorts of participants. Data related to project, including number of connections, district and building technical support, professional development, and equipment reliability were also collected. One-way …

A Multiple-Case Study Describing Collaborative Relations Between Adventist Pastors And Teachers In The Eastern United States, Pamela Consuegra

Dissertations

Introduction. Adventist schools and churches are embedded within a system that provides them with rich opportunities to achieve their missional goals. However, this is possible only through collaboration and the use of available social networks. The purpose of this study was to identify situations where the church and school work together collaboratively and then to describe the collaborative practices between those selected Adventist pastors and teachers. In the context of Adventist elementary schools, the school principal also fulfills a teaching role. Therefore, inthis study, the term "teacher" also refers to the principal. The broad research question was, How do Adventist …