Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

A Phenomenological Study Of Professional And Practical Changes Experienced By Teachers Involved With Action Research In A Learning Community Master’S Program, Jay Dean Meiners

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the United States, the majority of teachers have a master’s degree or higher. However, there exist concerns in the literature that having an advanced degree does not make teachers better. There thus needs to be a way to improve the outcome of a master’s degree in education so that teachers do advance their practice and bring change to their classrooms as a direct result of their experience in a master’s degree program. By focusing on the use of action research in a learning community, the intent of the present phenomenological study was to discover changes that occurred in teachers …

Effective Teaching Practices In Online Higher Education, Kim Mcmurtry

CCAC Theses and Dissertations

In the context of continuing growth in online higher education in the United States, students are struggling to succeed, as evidenced by lower course outcomes and lower retention rates in online courses in comparison with face-to-face courses. The problem identified for investigation is how university instructors can ensure that effective teaching and learning is happening in their online courses. The research questions were:

1. What are the best practices of effective online teaching in higher education according to current research?
2. How do exemplary online instructors enact teaching presence in higher education?
3. What are the best practices of effective online teaching in …

Teacher Educators' Use Of Research-Based Literature In Their Pedagogical Practice, Leigh Yannuzzi

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Teacher education programs are situated at a critical point of intersection between the worlds of P-12 education, higher education, and educational policy. However, description and analysis of teacher educator programs, and specifically teacher educator practice, has yet to consider the role research literature plays in faculty work with pre-service teachers. This study provides an exploratory examination of knowledge dissemination in teacher education and analyzes mechanisms for, challenges to, and influences on the use of research literature with pre-service teachers. It contributes to scholarship by providing new knowledge about how teacher education faculty use the dissemination mechanism of course syllabi to …

The Social And Emotional Learning And Character Education Of K-12 Online Students : Teacher Perspectives, Anna Warwick Nolan

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

ABSTRACT

No Stones: Women Redeemed From Sexual Addiction, Sara Hall

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

A Cord Of Three Strands Is Not Quickly Broken: Strengths Of A Team, David M. Johnstone

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The idea of “strengths” is a shift for the western world in how it looks at talents, skills, and weaknesses. The strengths paradigm is an assessment that universities are using to assist students in identifying their talents and strengths. Many have written about strengths and the individual; few have written about or researched the impact of the paradigm on team development. Discussing how disparate strengths can work in relationship to one another is important. Moreover, understanding that improper use of strengths can lead to the “shadow” side of strengths creating dissonance and conflict in a team is also important. This …

The First-Year Experience Movement: History, Practice, And Implications For Student Development Professionals, Shawnda Freer

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

This article explores the First-Year Experience movement’s origins and influence on curricular and co-curricular practice in higher education. The First-Year Experience movement is historically based in the civil rights era of the 1960s and early 1970s. In response to the social unrest on college campuses, administrators at the University of South Carolina sought to humanize the college experience, particularly for first-year students. The resulting first-year seminar course led to the development of a national resource center which has provided models of practice for excellence in teaching, assessment, and training for many universities in the United States, as well as internationally. …

Growth No. 15 (2016) - Full Issue

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The full issue of the fifteenth edition of Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development.

Mixed Signals: The Effects Of Cell Phones On College Student Involvement, David M. Chizum

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

American college students lead the United States of America in cell phone use. This study utilized a phenomenological qualitative methodology to learn the lived experience of college student cell phone users and the effects of cell phones on co-curricular learning, per Alexander Astin’s (1986) theory of involvement. The rapid rise and evolution of the cell phone impacts student behavior and learning. The results of the study indicated that cell phones promote student participation with peers and on-campus programs, but are unlikely to affect involvement with faculty or staff. Experientially, participants were critical of their peers’ cell phone behavior, feared missing …

Beyond Measure: Rescuing An Overscheduled, Overtested, Underestimated Generation, Ryan G. Hawkins

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

The Purposeful Graduate: Why Colleges Must Talk To Students About Vocation, Aaron Morrison

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

Most Likely To Succeed: Preparing Our Kids For The Innovation Era, Chris Riley

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

Emotionally Intelligent Leadership: A Guide For Students (Second Ed.), Morgan K. Morris

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving The Growing Epidemic Of Unmotivated Boys And Underachieving Young Men, Jenni Williams

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

No abstract provided.

The Intersection Of Christianity And Racial Justice Advocacy, Sharia Brock, Angelica Hambrick, Alexander Jun

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

Those working toward institutional social change and supporting students from diverse background are considered social justice allies (Edwards, 2006). Patton et al. (2007) describe these individuals as knowledgeable and aware of how their own racial identities influence their interactions with others, understanding of racism, as well as their decisions, policies, and interactions with students of diverse backgrounds. There are several studies that have examined the development of White college students as social justice allies, but the development of White administrators as social justice allies is under-studied (Broido, 2000; Eichstedt, 2001; Reason, Roosa Millar, & Scales, 2005). Additionally, there is limited …

Relationships With God, Relationships With Others, And Health: Associations Among First-Year College Students, Sean Wang, Kathleen Eldridge, Hannah Parmelee

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

When students transition away from their homes and into higher education, they enter a social environment where they are free, if not encouraged, to question and explore their values and beliefs, including their beliefs of God. Practicing Christians often report having a relationship with God, a conception that implies a dynamic and social process at work. This longitudinal study had two goals: (a) examine collegians’ relationship with God in terms of their God image, His involvement in their lives, and the importance of their faith, at two time points in their first year of college; (b) examine how these God …

Leveraging Our Trust: Taking Action In Support Of Our Democracy, Lori Bowen Ayre

Collaborative Librarianship

Librarians need to build on their trusted status to be more actively engaged in activities that support our democratic system whose success relies on having an informed citizenry. These activities including teaching media literacy skills to patrons in the library as well as in the schools in partnership with teachers. In addition, libraries should be facilitating community conversations and promoting a wide variety of community collaborations that get people engaged and out of their isolated bubbles.

Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative Program [2016], Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative

Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative (2011-2025)

Not available.

Agro/Hort 403/803: Scientific Writing And Communication—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Brian M. Waters

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Scientific writing is a skill that is useful for science students, since many of them will write about their research in a thesis, dissertation, or in journal articles. The goal of my course is to provide students with practice and training in scientific writing so that after they take the course they are confident and ready to write drafts independently. The class uses many learning activities, such as reading, writing, peer reviewing, revising, and class discussions. However, the first two iterations of the course did not have built-in ways to practice sentence and paragraph editing, or to gauge quality of …

Thea 401: Advanced Acting—Acting For Camera—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portoflio, Wesley Broulik

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In the pursuit of teaching the art of acting, and specifically acting for the camera, how do we measure growth? Additionally is there a correlation between high academic achievement and talent? In this portfolio we will examine how to evaluate acting, student growth, and examine test and paper results to see if the most “talented” performers are also the highest academic achievers.

What Does Motivated Mean? Re-Presenting Learning, Technology, And Motivation In Middle Schools Via New Ethnographic Writing, Justin Olmanson

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

This article offers a critique of the way middle schoolers are often positioned as generalizable objects that can be acted upon to produce measurable increases in motivation and learning. The critique invites a reconsideration and cultural analysis of some of the dominant discourses and perceptions of technology, young adolescence, and the study of motivation. The use of New Ethnographic Writing—a method that performs a cultural critique via extended scenes—connects to the roles and status of motivation, technology, and educational research methods deployed within public schools. Coupled with weak theory, this approach offers a way to understand young adolescents as navigating …

“When Do I Cross The Street?” Roberta’S Guilty Reflection, Irene A. Lietz

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Following a student’s evolving attitudes on race issues through her undergraduate years, a researcher concludes that a critical pedagogy can have long-term effects on student and instructor alike.

What If I Can't Plc?, Lindsay Lee, Audrey Moore, Angela Szakasits, Cynthia Wortham

Instructional Modules for Professional learning Responding to Opportunities and Valuing Educators (IMPROVE)

The purpose of this learning module is to provide information for teachers and administrators to learn ways to overcome barriers to participate in PLCs. The goal of this learning module is to provide teachers and administrators with resources to employ facilitation skills, create trust among colleagues, develop collective wisdom, build ownership, and take action to support student learning.

Visit professional learning module.

Active Learning Online, Natalie Bishop, Emily Robertson

Instructional Modules for Professional learning Responding to Opportunities and Valuing Educators (IMPROVE)

This module is designed to support instructors in engaging students by incorporating active learning strategies in the online learning environment.

Instructors will be presented with a series of online activities ranging from beginner to advanced in their implementation. Aligned with course content, each learning activity provides students an opportunity to apply higher order thinking and 21st century skills.

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Integrating Reading Into Mathematics Instruction, Meredith Eby

Honors College Theses

Reading is not often thought of as a topic that affects mathematics, but it is a reality for low-level reader students. The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how teachers describe the relationship between mathematics and literacy skills, and to explore specific methods mathematics teachers used to accommodate low-level readers in their mathematics instruction. Participants were six teachers from a rural elementary school. Data was collected through recorded interviews and supplemental email questions that were coded. The data gathered showed that teachers use literacy in mathematics classrooms through word problems and mathematics stories. The most common accommodation was …

Classroom Management With Voice-Movement-Task, Victoria Lentfer

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Sometimes it's the simple things that are the solution to classroom management problems.

Consider the simple task of giving directions. As basic as they may be, directions are the infrastructure of a well-managed classroom. Clear directions give students a better understanding of behavior and academic expectations.

Transforming Teacher-Family Relationships: Shifting Roles And Perceptions Of Home Visits Through The Funds Of Knowledge Approach, Kristin Whyte, Anne E. Karabon

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

Education has embraced the idea of an ‘asset approach’ to working with families and children, creating a focus on developing collaborative relationships with families by building on what they bring to the table. In this paper we explore what happened when early childhood teachers entered homes to learn from families and identify their Funds of Knowledge. The findings show how issues of power and perception surfaced when teachers attempted to shift their role from that of teacher to learner. In analyzing teachers’ experience before, during, and after ethnographic home visits we saw their general desire to adopt an asset-based mentality. …

Learning To Teach In An Urban Teacher Residency, Lauren Gatti

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

In this article, I employ sociocultural theory to analyze the learning to teach process of two novice teachers enrolled in one Urban Teacher Residency (UTR). Findings show that Genesis and Jackie were differentially drawing on programmatic, disciplinary, relational, experiential, and dispositional resources as they learned to teach in an urban context. I show that programmatic resources of supervision and classroom management requirements (i.e., Doug Lemov’s Teach Like a Champion) not only differentially influenced teachers’ learning and development but also differentially impacted the development of trust with students.

Students We Share Are Also In Puebla, Mexico: Preliminary Findings From A 2009–2010 Survey, Víctor Zúñiga, Edmund T. Hamann, Juan Sánchez García

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

Increasingly, emigrants from Mexico to the United States are taking their children with them when they migrate. Additionally, children born to Mexican parents living in the United States may have dual US and Mexican citizenship. Later their parents may return to Mexico with their children who have now learned English and adapted to the US way of life. The US Supreme Court decision Plyler v. Doe allows undocumented children living in the United States to attend US public schools through grade twelve, which means that when their immigrant parents return to Mexico or send their children back to Mexico to …

Understanding Energy: Primary Students Investigate The Effects Of Energy, Deepika Menon, Blake Shelby, Christine Mattingly

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

Energy is a term often used in everyday language. Even young children associate energy with the food they eat, feeling tired after playing soccer, or when asked to turn the lights off to save light energy. However, they may not have the scientific conceptual understanding of energy at this age. Teaching energy and matter could be challenging at the K–2 level because they are abstract concepts. Nevertheless, developing a concrete understanding of energy at an early age is important for children in order to rationalize why we need energy from food or why wearing gloves helps keep our hands warmer. …