Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Male Teachers And The Ethic Of Care: How Male Primary Teachers Demonstrate Caring, Terry L. Morris

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

ABSTRACT In this study I investigated the relationships between male primary teachers who have adopted the ethic of care as an organizing principle in their work with children, and the ways in which caring reveals itself through their behaviors, words, and general relationships with their students. Case study methodology was used with two veteran teachers working in primary grade classrooms. Case study theory was used to analyze interviews, classroom observations, and student verbal and behavioral interactions with their teacher and each other. Case study analysis revealed six significant findings.

Examining How Video-Elicited Reflection Mediates Teacher Candidates’ Beliefs About English Language Learners: A Multiple Case Study, Monica M. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

English Language Learners (ELLs) are students who speak a language other than English; they are the fastest growing student population in United States’ (US) public schools and will include over 17 million students by the year 2020 (NCES,2015). The dramatic increase in the ELL student population means that all mainstream classroom teachers will teach at least one ELL within their first year of graduating from a teacher preparation program. However, most US teachers hold misconceptions about ELLs and feel unprepared for ELL instruction (Coady, Harper, & de Jong, 2011). More empirical research is needed to inform teacher preparation programs on …

How Do Former Undergraduate Mentors Evaluate Their Mentoring Experience 3-Years Post-Mentoring: A Phenomenological Study, Kari L. Nelson, Christine E. Cutucache

The Qualitative Report

This phenomenological study involves a unique, longitudinal assessment of the lived experiences of former undergraduate mentors (n=7) in light of their current experiences (i.e., career or advanced schooling). The objective of a phenomenological study is to engage in in-depth probing of a representative number of participants. Specifically, we followed up with graduates of the Nebraska STEM 4U (NE STEM 4U) intervention 3 years post-program, with the overall goal of describing the mentors’ experiences using the lens of their current experiences. This type of longitudinal perspective of mentoring is greatly lacking in the current literature. At the time of the interviews, …

A Qualitative Study Of The Positive Transformation Of Public High School Cultures As Perceived By Administrators, Teachers, And Classified Staff Members, Amy L. Besler

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to discover the factors which contribute to the positive transformation of a comprehensive public high school’s culture as perceived by the school’s administrators, teachers, and classified staff. An additional purpose of the study is to determine what similarities and differences exist between the perceptions of administrators, teachers, and classified staff.

Methodology: The researcher identified comprehensive public high schools within the state of California where measurable growth in positive perceptions of school culture had been achieved within the preceding two to four years. Of this target population, six schools were identified, through …

Supporting Novice Teachers: Peer Coaching And Collaborative Inquiry As Support, Rotonya Rhodes

Doctor of Education in Teacher Leadership Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine what happens when a peer coaching with collaborative inquiry model is implemented with novice teachers. The goals of the study include examining the peer coaching process as described by teachers, and understanding the relationships between novice teachers and their peer coaches based on the novice teachers’ perspectives. This study employs a qualitative case study methodology, in which the group of novice teachers represents the case bounded by the peer coaching process. The study uses individual interviews, a focus group interview, and teachers’ written reflections with 11 participants to address the research …

American Education Through A Chinese Lens, Chloe Ruff, Christopher R. Fee

Education Faculty Publications

This June, a group of faculty members from Gettysburg College and K-12 teachers from York and Adams Counties travelled to China for four weeks of intensive cultural and educational exchange. This Gettysburg Fulbright Group Project Abroad in China studied the cultural and historical foundations of the Chinese educational system, as well as how this system is changing. Participants studied the larger policy context of the Chinese system and how those policies play out in the classroom. (excerpt)

Experience Of The Neophyte Science Teachers: Through Their Eyes, David Thornton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A variety of lenses were used to examine the world of the novice science teacher. A degree of agency was provided by looking through the eyes of the beginning teacher. Previous studies focused on researcher or program’s orientation, the successes of various educator preparation programs, or were limited in scope to elementary teachers of science. This study was conducted to better understand and appreciate the high school novice science teacher’s view of science, teaching, and teaching science in the today’s contextual setting. Experiences encountered during the initial year of teaching high school science and as perceived by teachers without previous …

An Action Research Study Of Barriers To Paraprofessional/Teaching Assistant Licensure In New York Community Colleges, Tonya L. Johnson

Publications and Research

The majority of New York State teachers remain disproportionately White, while their student populations grow increasingly diverse, and New York has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of diverse students, often referred to as students of color, including a large number of immigrant groups, in nearly all regions of the state. Recently published research has underscored that in order for multilingual, multiethnic, and multiracial teacher candidates to successfully enter the teaching profession, teacher preparation programs may need to alter some of their practices. In particular, the bulk of the research highlighted a need to expand recruiting for more diverse …

What Complicates Or Enables Teachers’ Enactment Of Leadership, Jill Bradley-Levine 8881892

The Qualitative Report

This article presents findings from a case study that describes the ways that four teachers pursuing their master’s degree in teacher leadership engaged in leadership activities in their schools. In order to explore this purpose, this study examines two research questions: (1) How do teachers enact leadership in their schools and (2) What complicates or enables teachers’ leadership activity? Findings indicate that the norms of the teaching profession including equality and privacy affect teachers’ enactment of leadership in their schools. Teacher leaders limit their work based on their knowledge of these norms, their past experiences engaging in leadership, and the …

Teachers’ Perceptions Of Educational Games That Keep Score Of Cooperative Performances, Theodore Alden Wohlfarth

Dissertations

The scoring systems used in traditional sports and games are founded on the zero-sum premise that players are on opposite sides and one side can win only if the other side loses. These scoring systems may be effective at nurturing zero-sum mindsets and providing data for assessing performance in win-lose relationships. If so, games that use different scoring systems can be used to facilitate the development of collaborative mindsets, nurture win-win skills between diverse groups, and enable objective self-assessment of performances in non-zero-sum events when engaging with those on “other sides.” Although economic game theory has rich reservoirs of research …

Learning To Assess Student Understanding Through Formative And Summative Assessment, Sheryl Mcglamery, Saundra Shillingstad

Journal of Curriculum, Teaching, Learning and Leadership in Education

Abstract: Following extensive discourse and observation (2015-2016) of pre-service teacher candidates’ engagement in academic field experiences in math, science, and social studies methods courses, two undergraduate methods professors noted that many of the teacher candidates struggled in the area of assessing student learning. We noted that pre-service teacher candidates struggled to differentiate between formative and summative assessment practices, struggled with knowing when and how to assess students during instruction, and lastly how to identify if student learning had occurred. This action research study reports the impact that modeling, teaching experience, and demonstrations of formative and summative assessment measures had on …

2016-2017 Cetl Annual Report, Cetl

CETL Reports

The Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning description of events, attendance at events, teaching workshops

Multilingual Literacies: Invisible Representation Of Literacy In A Rural Classroom, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba

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

In many countries, educational policies typically mandate school activities that promote a homogeneous and narrow range of academic literacies for all learners despite the diverse nature of human learning. This ethnographic case study examines how a 12-year-old Kenyan fourth-grade student performing below average on all standardized tests used multiple invisible literacies while documenting his knowledge and life experiences in a rural context. Invisible literacies are covert meaning- making literacy practices that are not privileged in the classroom. Examination of these practices shows a convergence between school and home literacies, suggesting a need for education stakeholders to identify literacies that are …

Critical Media Literacies In The Twenty-First Century: Writing Autoethnographies, Making Connections, And Creating Virtual Identities, Ah-Young Song

Journal of Media Literacy Education

Critical media literacies can help nurture students’ creative agencies and engender positive, sustained change in local communities. Kellner and Share (2005) have noted that students do need to develop faculties with digital technologies but that they must also participate in critical readings of cultural artifacts and discriminate between various multimedia sources. It is important for youth to conceptualize language as perpetuating different kinds of ideologies, for viewpoints are “connected to negotiable, changeable, and sometimes contested stories, histories, knowledge, beliefs, and values encapsulated into cultural models (theories) about the world” (Gee, 2008, p. 29). Semiotic meanings are in constant flux due …

Incorporating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, And Transgender (Lgbt) Health Concepts Into Nursing Curricula: What Nursing Faculty Should Know, Paul Smith, Julie Fitzwater

Faculty Presentations

The objective of this presentation is to help faculty learn how to effectively teach students about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) health, health promotion, and health care disparities. Learning outcomes for this session include how to utilize specific tools, strategies, and resources for incorporating essential LGBT content into undergraduate and graduate nursing programs.

• LEARNING OUTCOME 1: Describe ways to incorporate LGBT content into nursing curricula and discuss the importance of this inclusion;
• LEARNING OUTCOME 2: Identify resources appropriate for nursing students that may be integrated into nursing curricula;
• LEARNING OUTCOME 3: Identify specific health disparities that are applicable to …

A Portrait In Black And White: An Analysis Of Race In The Adult Education Classroom, Tealia N. Deberry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adult education is a reciprocal relationship between adult learners and adult education practitioners. As such, it is essential to understand the experiences of adult educators and adult education practitioners as they teach adults. This study focuses on how ideas about race and racism are examined in the graduate-level classroom and the adult learners’ experience as they focus on subject matter that challenges their assumptions and forces them to create new understandings about race. This study examines, through the portraiture methodology, the experiences of a White researcher and the adult learners engaging in dialogues about race in a CRT course.

The …

Engaged Learning: Impact Of Pbl And Pjbl With Elementary And Middle Grade Students, Sharon Dole, Lisa Bloom, Kristy K. Doss

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

This study used structured online interviews with teachers to examine the impact that inquiry-based teaching methods had on their students. The research question was the following: What are the effects on student learning and motivation as a result of teachers using problem-based and project-based learning? Interviews were conducted with 36 teachers, followed up by telephone interviews with four teachers. Participants had taken a hybrid course consisting of four weeks online followed by a one-week intensive field experience facilitating problem-based and project-based learning with children in grades 1–9. Student-related themes that resulted from the data analysis are grouped under the main …

A Pedagogy Of Care For Adolescent English Learners: A Formative Experiment, Mary Amanda Stewart, Alexandra Babino, Katie Walker

TAPESTRY

In the case of educators of adolescents in the dynamic process of English acquisition, it is our goal to increase the fulfillment and success of the students we are privileged to serve through nurturing their academic, emotional, personal, social, and civic development. It is, therefore, essential that educators understand the implementation and impact of teaching through a framework of care.

Quantitative Reasoning For Teachers: Explorations In Foundational Ideas And Pedagogy, Sheryl Stump

Numeracy

This note describes a course designed to prepare community college instructors and K-12 teachers for teaching foundational aspects of quantitative reasoning. A body of literature on quantitative reasoning and quantitative literacy informed the course design. The note describes the course content, which includes engaging in case studies, reading and discussion, writing assignments, group problem solving, and news-of-the-day presentations. Details of these assignments are provided. The capstone assignment for the course is for participants to design a set of case studies for their own students. Details of this assignment are also provided as well as specific examples of participants’ learning.

Ten Years, Twenty Issues, And Two Hundred Papers Of Numeracy: Toward International Reach And Transdisciplinary Utility, H. L. Vacher

Numeracy

This issue completes the first ten years of Numeracy. The purpose of this introductory editorial is to review what has happened to the journal in those ten years. In the twenty issues, Numeracy’s output has been 201 papers counting the one or two editorials per issue. More than 50% of the papers are full, peer-reviewed articles, including 13 papers in two theme collections. The others are peer-reviewed notes and perspectives, editor-reviewed book reviews (15% of the total), and a column by contributing co-editor, Dorothy Wallace. The current issue marks an upswing in the number of notes, and our …

Meeting Yourself Without Rose Colored Glasses: An Urban Public School, Shenelle Dubose, Apryll Mendez

Dissertations

The impact of a culturally relevant professional development series on classroom teacher’s cultural lens was determined. Fifty teachers from two different school districts participated in 16 hours of professional development in an attempt to impact their understanding of how culture and instruction are connected.

During the professional development, participants took part in activities, dialogues and reflections designed to impact their cultural competency. The content of the four professional development sessions included (a) videos on culturally relevant teaching; (b) discussion of cultural identity of participants and how it surfaces in the classroom; (c) discussion of the culture, values, and beliefs of …

Faculty Perceptions Towards The Transitioning Process From Face-To-Face To Online Instruction, Heba Abuzayyad-Nuseibeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate faculty perceptions towards the transitioning process from face-to-face to online instruction. This study investigated the overall perceptions towards the transitioning process, the perceived changes in the teaching methods, technical and instructional design skills needed for the process, the change in preference towards face-to-face or online instruction after the transition, in addition to the challenges faculty members faced during the transition process. It also tested to determine if there were differences in responses based on gender, faculty position, years teaching in higher education institutions, and total number of courses taught whether fully online …

Analysis Of A Stem Education Professional Development Conference For Pre-Service Educators, Keeta Holmes, Pamela Atkinson-Hamilton, Tiffanni Durham, Gloria Hardrict-Ewing, Deborah Heisler, Christina Hughes, Rosalinda Williams, Lane Walker, Christopher Young-El, Amy Dooley

Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines are attracting increased attention in education. The iSTEM 2017 conference was a professional development program designed to acquaint pre-service teachers with interdisciplinary, research-based STEM instructional strategies that can transform traditional classroom instruction into dynamic learning environments.

The STEM Education Scholars (STEMES) is a Learning Community of Practice, housed in the College of Education, at a midsized mid-western public research university. The program of study focused on designing a professional development program for future Pre-K12 teachers. The iSTEM 2017 conference presented by the STEMES Community of Practice sought to inform pre-service teachers of STEM …

A Program Evaluation Of A Worksite Wellness Initiative For Weight Loss, Nicholas Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to conduct a program evaluation of ACME’s worksite weight loss initiative and collect evidence relative to the efficacy of the program. An anonymous online survey was administered to participants of the weight loss initiative. The survey was designed to gather information relative to the research questions, which explored the initiative’s barriers to participation, alignment of initiative with the goals of participants, utilization of initiative resources, overall strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement for the weight loss initiative, as well as the respondents’ general profile for the six dimensions of wellness. Reporting of data included …

Latino Mothers’ Responsiveness And Bilingual Language Development In Young Children From 24 Months To 36 Months, Rica Ramirez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This longitudinal study examined the role maternal responsiveness had on shaping Spanish and English language development in bilingual two year-old children. Because children who are bilingual language learners are oftentimes coming from low socioeconomic families it is essential that we investigate the ways in which they develop language in order to better serve this population. Maternal responsiveness is one source in which we can examine early language development of young bilingual children. Eight Latino mother-child dyads were observed and assessed at three time points. Each observation was coded for maternal responsive behaviors. Regression and multilevel modeling was used in order …

Learning Style Patterns Among Special Needs Adult Students At King Saud University, Abdulrahman Alshuaibi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few studies of learning styles among adults with special needs exist worldwide. Even though there are large numbers of adults with special needs, this population in university education has been largely ignored in educational research. Therefore, this study aimed to gather and analyze learning styles of adult special needs students and to provide data for researchers interested in the fields of learning styles, adult education, and special education. This study examined the learning style patterns among special needs adult students at King Saud University as measured by the dimensions of the Index of Learning Styles, which include active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceptions About The Effectiveness Of The Toon Comic Books In Their Guided Reading Instruction, Ewa Mcgrail, Alicja Rieger, Gina M. Doepker

Georgia Educational Researcher

Recently, education and literacy researchers have acknowledged educational merit in guided reading that incorporates interactive and authentic reading texts, such as graphic novels, which meet the needs of today’s predominantly multimodal learners (Jennings, Rule, & Zanden, 2014; Kist & Pytash, 2015). This qualitative study explores through interviews and a questionnaire the perceptions of pre-service teachers about the effectiveness of the comic book series known as TOON comics in guided reading with struggling readers and writers, from kindergarten through fifth grade. Pre-service teachers have expressed positive views concerning the use of these comic books in guided reading instruction with their struggling …

Using Discourse Analysis To Understand The Relationships And Practices Of Pre-Service Co-Teachers, Toni Strieker, Megan Adams, Woong Lim, Marcia Wright

Georgia Educational Researcher

Early in 2016, the Council on Accreditation of Educator Providers (CAEP) (caepnet.org, 2016) published a new set of standards that called for increased collaboration of university-school partners by means of co-construction clinical experiences. In designing the new models, pre-service co-teaching, conducted by the teacher candidate and collaborating teacher, emerged as a promising practice in teacher education (Arshavskaya, 2014; Perry, 2016). However, even with the current enthusiasm for the establishing the new practices, a working definition of pre-service co-teaching remains elusive. Thus, the study of the voices of educators who are involved in co-teaching is essential as universities make the transition …

Teacher Attitudes On Assessing Student Effort, Catherine A. Egan

EDL Sixth Year Theses

Research indicates that there are classroom practices teachers can implement to help students develop non-cognitive skills such as the ability to persevere and tackle challenging work. After consulting the literature, there is a clear lack of research measuring teacher attitudes and beliefs about pedagogical practices that promotes resilience and perseverance. Research suggests that teachers’ beliefs and attitudes shape the learning environment and impact student outcomes (Brackett et al., p. 232). Therefore, it is critical to understand teacher comfort and commitment to initiatives, as well as their perceptions on how school culture supports such practices. Understanding teacher attitudes and beliefs can …

Evaluation And Student Learning Objectives In Connecticut Schools, Vittoria Fielosh

EDL Sixth Year Theses

Over the past several years, states across the country have been restructuring their teacher evaluation models due to changes in federal education policies. The focus of many of these models has become student achievement, and there are many ways states are measuring a teacher’s impact on student achievement. Connecticut, along with more than 20 other states, uses student learning objectives to measure a teacher’s impact on student learning. Unlike other states, Connecticut has not specified what assessment be used to measure student growth. This case study, of one school district in Connecticut, examines the type of assessments used as a …