Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Motivation To Teach: The Differences Between Faculty In Schools Of Education And K-12 Teachers, Nancy L. Leech, Kara Mitchell Viesca, Carolyn A. Haug

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

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate higher education faculty’s motivation to teach and to validate the Factors Influencing Teaching Choice (FIT-Choice) survey with this population.

Design/methodology/approach – Confirmatory factor analysis and t-tests on data from 101 higher education faculty and data from K-12 teachers show that the two samples fit the model similarly.

Findings – Results show that the similarities between the two groups are important to note as it suggests both the value of the FIT-Choice instrument as a research tool in higher education as well as the similarities in motivating factors between higher …

Engaging Preservice Secondary Science Teachers In An Ngss-Based Energy Lesson: A Nanoscience Context, Deepika Menon, Mary Sajini Devadas

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

The new approach to teaching science presented by the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) warrants training high-quality science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers to prepare the future STEM workforce. We share the implementation of an energy lesson using a nanoscience approach, well-aligned with the NGSS vision, in a secondary- STEM-education course for preservice science teachers. First, we engaged preservice teachers in discussions related to alternate sources of energy; this was followed by a case-study approach to illustrate a real-world problem of energy deficiency and solar energy (solar cells using nanoparticles) as one potential solution because it is cost-efficient, clean, …

Youth Researchers Wrestling With Gender And Sexuality, Tiffany A. Dejaynes

Publications and Research

Working in research teams, public school students in New York approaches questions about gender identities and sexualities and then, based on their findings, advocated for institutional reforms.

International Students' Identities And Thier Educational And Learning Trajectories, Suha Hamdan

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study explores international students’ identities and identity formation within social, educational, and imagined futures, and their study abroad journeys. I look into past, present and future contexts of international students. Qualitative analytic autoethnography and semi-structured interviews are the methodologies utilized. I explore my own experiences around identity and education as an international graduate student, as well as other participants’ experiences. Date were collected from six participants from six countries: China, India, Iran, Indonesia, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia. Thematic analysis was utilized. The findings revealed that these international students go through an identity journey, where they reflect on their past …

Exploring Professional Development: Examining Availability And Access To Professional Development For Educators Of Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students, Karen Grace Clark

The Graduate Review

No abstract provided.

Preparing Pre-Service Teachers To Present At A State Conference, Heidi Eisenreich

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

As mathematics teacher educators, we have a responsibility to prepare as many people as we can, to teach mathematics in ways that foster a deeper understanding of the content. We do this by teaching current and future teachers in college programs and providing professional development to in-service teachers. A less explored way is to prepare these “students” to present ideas they have learned to colleagues at their school, other schools in their district, and conferences. In this paper, I share my experience of helping students go through the process of preparing to present over the last two years at our …

School Principal's Leadership Style And Teacher's Self-Efficacy In High And Low Achieving Schools In Chikankata, Zambia, Pardon Mwansa

Dissertations

Problem and Purpose

Much research has been done in past years on the topic of student achievement, with most of those studies focusing on factors that contribute to student achievement. Little, or no research has been done, especially in the country of Zambia, that has focused on the relationship between leadership style, teacher self-efficacy, and the extent to which these constructs impact student achievement. This study explored the school principals' leadership style, teacher self-efficacy, and the extent to which these factors contribute to student achievement in Chikankata District, Zambia. The Ministry of Education in Zambia and other educators, especially those …

A Framework For The Strategic Leveraging Of Outside Resources To Enhance Ctl Effectiveness, Thomas M. Brinthaupt, Laura Cruz, Sheila Otto, Mike Pinter

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Many centers for teaching and learning (CTL) are challenged with developing new programs and services that are constrained by limited staff and resources. Tapping into on- and off-campus expertise is one way for CTL to expand their range of options for faculty development. In this paper, we present a framework that describes how CTL can assess the likely impact, value, and range of prospective leveraging opportunities when deciding whether to pursue on- and off- campus partnerships. We then discuss applying the framework as an analytical tool, developing leveraging strategies, and creating a strategic leveraging plan. Throughout this discussion, we provide …

The Sotl Scaffold: Supporting Evidence-Based Teaching Practice In Educational Development, Laura Cruz, Kathryn Cunningham, Brian Smentkowski, Hillary Steiner

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article presents a scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) scaffold, a conceptual model designed for educational developers (and others) who support the values, practices, and production of the SoTL, both on their campuses and beyond. The SoTL scaffold explicates distinct support levels, ranging from spark to lead, each of which call for differentiated strategies and programs to be used by Centers for Teaching and Learning (CTLs) and similar units.

The Fearless Teaching Framework: A Model To Synthesize Foundational Education Research For University Instructors, Alice E. Donlan, Sandra M. Loughlin, Virginia L. Byrne

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

There is often a disconnect between the unit of analysis in rigorous education research, and the types of recommendations that instructors find the most useful to improve their teaching. Research often focuses on narrow slices of the student experience, and university instructors often require broad recommendations. We present the Fearless Teaching Framework to address this gap between research and practice. In this framework, we define four pieces of effective teaching: classroom climate, course content, teaching practices, and assessment strategies. We argue that these are appropriate areas of focus for instructor growth, based on their relations to student engagement.

Finding A Fulcrum: Positioning Ourselves To Leverage Change, Laurie L. Grupp, Deandra Little

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Educational developers are called to serve as thought leaders, change agents, and advocates while also working to fulfill the teaching and learning mission of their centers. Research on change leadership informs our understanding of the work, yet may not go far enough to describe the complex roles, responsibilities, and positions of educational developers. In this study, we analyze survey and interview data to explore the meta-competencies that guide the work of developers as they navigate a shifting landscape and serve as “levers” for change.

Impostor Phenomenon In Educational Developers, Kristin J. Rudenga, Emily O. Gravett

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

While impostor syndrome or impostor phenomenon (“IP”) is prevalent in higher education, with known negative effects, no study has yet investigated the experiences of IP among educational developers. After first reviewing prior research on the phenomenon, we use survey data to describe its frequency and manifestations within educational development. We identify factors and experiences that contribute to IP among educational developers, focusing on those that are distinct to the field. We conclude with suggestions for future research and broad recommendations for educational development as a field to tackle this problem.

Broaching Threshold Concepts: The Trouble With “Skills” Language In Defining Student Learning Goals, Angela J. Zito

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This essay argues that description of student learning goals as various “skills” presents a conceptual threshold lying between and connecting routinely dichotomized characterizations of student learning—most notably, “concrete” versus “abstract.” Qualitative analysis of instructor interviews shows that “skills” language tends to conceal abstract (that is, affective) learning goals behind more concrete (that is, cognitive) ones. Ultimately, this essay proposes that cognitive and affective student learning goals might be more clearly articulated using threshold concepts within and across disciplines, and that the recognition of “skills” as both affective and cognitive is itself a threshold concept in educational development.

Wiser Together: Sustaining Teaching Excellence With A Self-Study/Critical Friend, Tracy W. Smith, Leslie U. Bradbury

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article examines the development of a self-study/critical friend (SSCF) model of educational development. The SSCF model provides benefits for the self-study teacher in the form of personalized, sustained support. The critical friend in the pairing described here also serves as an educational development fellow, so this study provided an experiential development opportunity for her to try a potential model of response, documentation, feedback, and support for a single faculty member. This article describes the rationale, process, and outcomes of a SSCF investigation, a promising model for providing support that is significant, sustained, and individualized to higher education teaching faculty.

Exploring Higher Order Thinking Strategies In Georgia's Top Performing Middle Schools, Karen Kister

Ed.D. Dissertations

Developmental psychologists defined adolescent cognitive development as a period of time when individuals learn to mentally separate from adults and establish a self‑sufficient identity capable of the autonomous thought necessary to apply higher-order thinking. In contrast, college professors of the millennial generation stated that students demonstrate increased immaturity levels inconsistent with those of prior generations. Hence, the focus of this study was to examine the higher-order thinking strategies that teachers of adolescents have implemented within the five top performing middle schools in the state of Georgia. The findings offered a potential coexistence of higher-order thinking abilities and autonomous behavior and …

Training Teachers In Inclusive Preschool Classrooms To Monitor Child Progress And Make Data-Based Decisions Through Direct Behavioral Observation, Collin Niles Shepley

Theses and Dissertations--Early Childhood, Special Education, and Counselor Education

Progress monitoring and data analysis are essential skills needed by classroom teachers within the implementation of multi-tiered systems of support for making data-based decisions about student progress and instruction. Within the early childhood MTSS research, consideration of teacher-collected progress monitoring data followed by data-based decision-making is rare. To provide teachers with a robust progress monitoring strategy, I trained preschool teachers of inclusive classrooms to use direct behavioral observations to collect data and inform their instruction.

The project experimentally evaluated teachers’ generalization of acquired behaviors within the context of a single-case research design. The project’s independent variable, teacher training, consisted of …

The Shared Workspace Model, Daniel Carpenter

CUP Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Teacher Preparation Program Coherence In An Emerging Pds: Lessons For All Stakeholders, Alisa Bates, Stephanie Murphy, Angela Vossenkuhl

CUP Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Field Experiences In School Climate, Angela Vossenkuhl, Alisa Bates, Stephanie Murphy

CUP Faculty Research

No abstract provided.

Creating Connection Through Intercultural Dialogue Partners, Tasha Souza

CTL Teaching Gallery

The Intercultural Dialogue Partner (IDP) program has been a part of my Intercultural Communication course at two institutions across the last 8 years. While the program has evolved over time, the current version at a college campus in the western United States will be described. The IDP program is the service-learning component of an undergraduate course for about 30 mostly Communication majors. The primary goal of the course is for students to gain an appreciation of intercultural communication and to be able to engage in mindful dialogue across difference. My hope is that the class gives students the skills, knowledge, …

What Moves You? How Sbae Teachers Navigate Program Migration, Becky Haddad, Johnathan Velez, Josh Stewart

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

Little data exists to examine the stigmatized phenomenon of program mobility within agricultural education. Our research starts the conversation through interviews with eight School-Based Agricultural Education (SBAE) teachers across the United States, using qualitative phenomenology, to provide a unique perspective of retention through migration. We define teacher migration as a program move while choosing to remain in SBAE. Utilizing the theoretical lens of expansive learning through activity systems (Engeström, 2009), we present teacher migration as a means to learn and grow in the craft of teaching within SBAE, particularly among teachers with more than eight years of experience. Although additional …

Risk Factors For Depression Among Early Childhood Teachers, Amy Roberts, Kathleen C. Gallagher, Alexandra Daro, Iheoma U. Iruka, Susan Sarver

Buffet Early Childhood Institute Reports and Publications

This study examined possible risk factors associated with teachers’ depression in a variety of early childhood settings. Teachers with lower pay, no health insurance, multiple jobs, greater job stress, and more adult-centered beliefs reported more symptoms of depression. To reduce these symptoms, efforts should be made to support teachers’ mental health at multiple levels, including individual, environmental, and policy.

Researchers used data collected in 2015-16 from a large survey of early childhood educators in Nebraska. Four early childhood settings were sampled: licensed family child care homes (home-based), licensed child care centers (center-based), state-funded PreK programs, and elementary schools serving children …

“But How Could We Sing A Song Of The Lord In A Foreign Land?” An Esl/Esp Class For Catholic Immigrants, Mary C. Tillotson

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The U.S. Catholic population has a larger proportion of immigrants than the U.S. population at large. The majority of Catholic immigrants come from Latin America and are not native speakers of English. In this qualitative study, I interviewed nine Catholic immigrants from Latin America to better understand their experiences of navigating their Catholic faith in the United States and the role an English-as-a-second-language (ESL) class could play in helping them successfully adjust to United States Catholicism. Findings suggest that, beyond a general ESL class, an English-for-specific-purposes class, capitalizing on the universality of Catholicism and specialized for Catholic prayer, liturgy, sacraments, …

Examining The Interaction Of Academic Optimism, Enabling School Structures, Middle Level Practices, And Academic Achievement, Vikki Wandmacher

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This study focused on young adolescent development, middle grades education, and the underlying supporting structures that assist students in achieving academically. Results were examined through the lens of Bandura’s social cognitive theory, and a big picture view of the interplay of beliefs, behavior, and environmental influences emerged. The study examined three ideas: (a) the level of academic optimism (AO), enabled school structure (ESS), middle level strategy implementation, and academic achievement; (b) how the implementation of middle level strategies and School to Watch (STW) status affected the level of AO, and ESS; and (c) how the factors of AO, ESS, STW …

Complexity Leadership: The Role Of Teaching And Learning Center Leaders In Online Learning At Small, Private Colleges, Tyler D. Watts

Theses and Dissertations--Education Sciences

As online learning continues to grow and became an integral component of many higher education institutions (Allen & Seaman, 2017), the role of leadership in guiding those online learning initiatives differs from institution to institution. At small, private colleges and universities, where online learning is seeing greater enrollment and growth (Clinefelter & Magda, 2013), teaching and learning centers (TLC) often have involvement in guiding and shaping online learning initiatives. This study investigated the role of TLC leaders in leading online learning initiatives. The value of this study is an examination of leadership during a period of transformation and change that …

Metr 100: Weather And Climate–Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Dawn M. Kopacz

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The target course for this benchmark portfolio is METR 100: Weather and Climate, an introductory-level course about Earth’s weather and climate. Students enrolled span all undergraduate class levels and during the spring semester most students are non-science majors. Through the Peer Review of Teaching Project, this course was re-designed to better align the course objectives with the University of Nebraska – Lincoln’s Achievement Centered Education (ACE) program. The number of topics covered during the semester was reduced and time spent practicing skills was increased in an effort to improve student attainment of course goals.

This portfolio outlines course objectives, pedagogical …

Nres/Bsen 468/868: Wetlands, Tiffany L. Messer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Wetlands (468/868) is a multidisciplinary 4 hr fourth year/graduate level course that includes two 90 min lectures and a weekly 3 hr laboratory. The course is crosslisted in the School of Natural Resources and Biological Systems Engineering Department. The course is typically comprised of 20-30 students with approximately 30% engineering students and 70% natural resources students in the majors of biological systems engineering, water science, fisheries and wildlife, and environmental restoration science. Majority of the students that participate in this course intend to have careers in consulting, government, and/or the nonprofit conservation sectors. Each of these sectors require knowledge of …

Nutr455: Advanced Nutrition And Human Metabolism- A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Sathish Kumar Natarajan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

NUTR455, Advanced Nutrition and Human Metabolism is a capstone, ACE 10 course for undergraduate seniors in nutrition and health sciences that I teach in spring semesters since 2017. Among the 3 classes that I taught, spring 2019 class did awesome job in their overall performance, in-class participation, and in-class exams and in their final poster assignment. We analyzed three questions to as part of this teaching benchmark portfolio. 1) The role of in-class iClicker questions in improving student students understanding the key concepts and test whether it motivates the students to study course materials; 2) Tested whether review session impacted/improve …

Peer Review Of Teaching Portfolio: Psychology Of Social Behavior (Psyc 288), Ashley M. Votruba

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio assesses student learning in the Psychology of Social Behavior course, PSYC 288. This course introduces students to the field of social psychology—the scientific study of the way in which people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the real or imagined presence of other people. This course covers the fundamental principles, theories, methods, experiments, and people of social psychology. Student enrollment for this course consists of 200 to 250 undergraduates from a variety of majors with diverse educational backgrounds and familiarity with social psychology. The course portfolio outlines the goals, learning outcomes, and assessments for this course. …

Emotional Intelligence Instruction For Millennials In Undergraduate Education, Jason M. Pollett

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the improvement, if any, of emotional intelligence scores of students who participated in and completed the specified professional development seminar. In addition, this study aimed to examine the relationship between emotional intelligence subscales of students enrolled in a professional development seminar that focuses on enhancing the emotional intelligence. The research design for this study was an ex post facto, quasi-experimental correlational quantitative research design. Data from the 371 students who enrolled in the Professional Development Seminar course during academic years 2015-2017 served as the sample for this study.

This study focused on …