Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Slpa 985: A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Judy Harvey

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My target course for the Peer Review of Teaching (PRT) Project was SLPA 985 Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). It is offered each spring in the Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. This course is intended for graduate level speech language pathology (SLP) students. I have over twenty years of experience as a practicing speech language pathologist in a rehabilitation hospital. Now, as an assistant Professor of Practice, my role is to integrate academic learning with practical experience. I am confident in my skills as a practitioner and motivated to share my knowledge, …

Edad 983 Qualitative Research Methods In Educational Administration, Sarah J. Zuckerman

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents my process of understanding why a handful of students struggle each semester in a doctoral research methods course, EDAD983 Qualitative Research Methods in Educational Administration. The assignments in this online course build across the semester. Data analysis primarily examined students grades and rubric comments on major assignments. Overall, it was observed that the students with consistently low grades do not appear to take specific feedback to heart in subsequent assignments. Additionally, data analysis includes student surveys, as well as university course evaluations, to better understand how students interact with the material in this online course. As a …

Peer-Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio For Edad 845: Human Resource Management In Higher Education, Katherine Wesley

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark portfolio is the final product of a Peer Review of Teaching Project in which a required course in the Department of Educational Administration’s online Master of Arts degree was the focus. A single learning objective was focused upon and achieved through the thoughtful and purposeful “backward design” of the course, a cornerstone of the university’s peer review model. Students demonstrated the benefit of understanding and working within their unique talents via StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment, through multiple assignments and relative in-depth conversation with me, the instructor of the course and certified Gallup Strengths Coach. Ultimately, the “benefit” was further …

Sped 861: Infants With Disabilities And Home Visiting, Johanna P. Taylor

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio documents the process I used to redesign and assess students learning in SPED 861 Infants with Disabilities and Home Visiting. This is a course students in the Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Program at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) take while pursuing a master’s degree or graduate certificate in ECSE. This portfolio documents how I aligned the course objectives, content, and activities to Division for Early Childhood (DEC) recommended practices and DEC EI (Early Intervention)/ECSE professional standards (still in draft form as of June 2019). Then, I share the results of two methods used to assess student learning …

Course Portfolio For Math 872: Topology Ii, Alex Zupan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this course portfolio, I explore tactics for engaging a group of beginning mathematics graduate students taking the second semester of the first-year sequence in topology. Course objectives include computing algebraic invariants of topological spaces, understanding the Galois correspondence between covering spaces and fundamental groups, and using a range of invariants to distinguish spaces. My main instructional tools include a series of three "Activities" tailored to each student, a project involving computing invariants with the program SnapPy and using homology of covering spaces to distinguish 3-dimensional knots, and individual student board work during class periods. The activities served as benchmarks …

Fdst 396 – Preventive Controls For Animal Food, Andreia Bianchini

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio is a benchmark for the course Preventive Controls for Animal Food, which was offered for the first time in Spring 2019. The objectives of this course were (1) to provide students with the ability to distinguish between Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMPs), other prerequisite programs, preventive controls, and where they fit into the regulatory framework of the Food Safety Modernization Act – Preventive Controls for Animal Food; (2) to help students understand the hazard analysis process and resources to help conduct such analysis; and (3) to teach students the needed concepts to build a food safety plan. This …

Agro 204: Resource Efficient Crop Management, Andrea Basche

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Resource Efficient Crop Management (Agro 204) is a high enrollment course taken by a diverse range of student majors across the College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Learning outcomes focus on teaching crop management principles and processes, systems-thinking, data analysis, synthesizing current information, and evidence-based decision-making. This benchmark portfolio critically assesses student learning toward these outcomes, with an emphasis on a particular assignment that required students to work with the farming simulation platform, APSIM. The Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM) is a freely available computer program that is an internationally recognized simulator of …

Hrtm 374 Guest Services Management – A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Ajai Ammachathram

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The purpose of this portfolio was to purposefully introduce and evaluate activities that are aimed at improving student learning and performance in HRTM 374 – Guest Services Management, a lecture-based 300-level course. Activities were designed to improve class preparation and ascertain student learning beyond exams. Objective 1: to assist students to identify the many ways that hospitality and tourism organizations can inspire positive guest service interactions, objective 2: To explain the various types of management principles that can encourage positive guest service interaction by employees and help understand brand loyalty that could also lead to positive guest experiences, objective 3: …

Tmfd 144-Intro To Design Theory And Criticism: A Peer Review Of Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Mary Alice Casto

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this benchmark teaching portfolio, I examine TMFD 144: Intro to Design Theory and Criticism. It is offered every semester. The course focuses on visual literacy in the art and design fields. The overarching course goal is to teach students to actively “see” and interpret the visual world. Students should also learn to communicate clearly and effectively about the visual aspects of art and design as well as their interpretation. This course is a required foundation course for all TMFD majors and minors. It is also an ACE 2 course that enrolls students from across the university. The course is …

Math 314: Linear Algebra-A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Xavier Pérez-Giménez

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My intention with this portfolio is to present my approach to teaching Math 314. This is a linear algebra course for senior-year undergraduate students in different STEM programs. The course serves as a transition from computational courses, such as calculus, to more theoretical ones, and exposes students, possibly for the first time, to abstract mathematical objects (such as general vector spaces) and simple proofs. Several lecture-based strategies are discussed and evaluated in connection with student learning outcomes. I also present samples of course materials and student work.

Emgt 901: Total Quality Management Using Six Sigma Techniques, Jena Shafai Asgarpoor

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Total Quality Management Using Six Sigma Techniques (EMGT 901) is an elective course in the Master of Engineering Management (MEM) Program at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln and serves as my Peer Review of Teaching Project (PRTP). This is an elective course in a fully online program. Students in this program have an earned undergraduate degree in engineering and are practicing engineers with at least two years of work experience. In this PRTP I will examine the development and delivery of the course based on pedagogical and backward design considerations and the framework proposed by Quality Matters ®. I …

Math/Stat 380: Statistics And Applications, Yuzhen Zhou

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The portfolio is created for the course STAT/Math380: Statistics and Applications using backward design. It is a service course on introduction statistics for undergraduate students who are not majored in statistics at University of Nebraska-Lincoln. In this portfolio, I’ll provide the detail plans on what I will teach, how it will be taught, and what is my expectation on students learning. Besides, I’ll collect data from students to analyze whether students have achieved the course expectations, from where I’ll adjust and improve the way I deliver the knowledge in the future. This portfolio will be used to help document my …

Legal Research And Writing Lrw (Law 513), Chesi K. Hayden

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio explores and documents student learning in a required first-year law course, Legal Analysis, Research and Writing. This portfolio focuses on two specific course learning objectives: (1) organizing a legal argument (CRAC or a variation) and (2) explaining legal rules. I evaluated student work on the two writing assignments with the most weight—Research Memo 1 and Research Memo 2 to analyze whether students improved their understanding of and ability to perform the selected learning goals. I was specifically interested in student improvement from Research Memo 1 to Research Memo 2 because they represent a formative and a summative assessment …

Digging Economics--Econ 200: Economics Essentials And Issues, Tammie Fischer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio examines student engagement in Econ 200: Essentials of Economics course. Econ 200, a large lecture format, serves as a requirement for completing a minor in Business and fulfills the ACE 6 or 8 categories. Much discussion and research exist around the importance of student engagement in large lecture sections which can often be a challenge. Engagement is important in the process of increasing knowledge with added peer effects. At the same time, activities designed to increase engagement often come at a cost, both in terms of precious class time and to faculty in the form of additional grading. …

Middle School Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions Of Opportunities And Challenges, Shelby Eversole

Masters Theses

This study investigates the perspectives of opportunities and challenges of middle school mathematics’ teachers. To gain these perspectives, an ethnographic study was conducted by interviewing four middle school mathematics teachers in central Illinois. The results of this study imply that teachers of different backgrounds and teaching environments have varying perspectives about challenges and opportunities in the classroom. Limitations of this study include but are not limited to, the researcher having one year to conduct the research, only four teachers from two schools being interviewed, interviewees teaching different grade levels, no rural setting involvement, one educator having little teaching experience, teachers’ …

Gifted Education In Elementary Schools, Danielle Wilkinson

Masters Theses

Gifted students have enormous potential, yet there are few consistent opportunities for gifted students to receive challenging instruction. Drawing upon literature detailing the history of gifted education nationally and in Illinois, this study sought to find what services were currently offered to Illinois students, and if the opportunities for gifted students were related to a district’s state funding tier. Findings indicated that the elementary gifted services being offered and the ways in which eligibility is determined were inconsistent among districts. In addition, many districts who offer gifted services are using local/community funds in order to provide services regardless of their …

“I Didn’T Want To Make Them Feel Wrong In Any Way”: Preservice Teachers Craft Digital Feedback On Sociopolitical Perspectives In Student Texts, Alison Heron-Hruby, James S. Chisholm, Andrea R. Olinger

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

This qualitative multicase analysis investigated the role of “educational niceness” and “neutrality” (e.g., Baptiste, 2008; Bissonnette, 2016) in preservice English teacher feedback on sociopolitical issues in student writing. As part of the field experiences for several ELA methods courses at two universities, one urban and one rural, the teacher-researchers used Google Docs and other technologies (e.g., screencasts and Google Community) to connect preservice teachers (PSTs) with high school writers at a geographical distance so that urban-situated PSTs could mentor rural-situated writers and vice versa. Five methods courses over two semesters served as cases, and 12 PSTs from those courses participated …

Staying The Course, Mrk T. Blankenbuehler

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

The student chapter of the American Chemical Society (ACS) at Morehead State University (MSU) has been recognized with awards from the ACS almost every year since 1995. The focus of the club changes from year to year depending on the areas the officers would like to emphasize. While tradition is essential to the long-term health of the club, variation and creativity are highly valued. The organization has been involved with a myriad of activities in the areas of outreach, service, fundraising, professional development, philanthropy, and fun (i.e., social activities). Activities over the years have included giving the president of the …

The First Swift Intensive Agn Accretion Disk Reverberation Mapping Survey, Dirk Grupe

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Swift intensive accretion disk reverberation mapping of four AGN yielded light curves sampled ∼200–350 times in 0.3–10 keV X-ray and six UV/optical bands. Uniform reduction and cross-correlation analysis of these data sets yields three main results: (1) The X-ray/UV correlations are much weaker than those within the UV/optical, posing severe problems for the lamp-post reprocessing model in which variations in a central X-ray corona drive and power those in the surrounding accretion disk. (2) The UV/optical interband lags are generally consistent with t μ l4 3 as predicted by the centrally illuminated thin accretion disk model. While the average interband …

Teacher Awareness And Perceptions Of Social Media Use And Cyberbullying In Belize, Abbey Linderholm

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Intro: Cyberbullying and other problems related to social media are growing concerns across the world with increased access to technology at home and in schools. Several studies have suggested that although instances of cyberbullying have increased in schools, teachers and other school staff members lack awareness of and training in identifying and preventing instances of it from occurring. The current study investigates school staff member awareness and perceptions of social media use and cyberbullying across two districts in Belize. Methods: A written 47-question survey regarding social media use and awareness and perceptions of cyberbullying was given to voluntary participants across …

Employee Resistance To Disruptive Technological Change In Higher Education, Barbara Ann Miller

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Employees can be resistant to work-based change, specifically when the change is due to disruptive or new technology. The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of 20 Swiss-based educational employees adapting to online technologies introduced in their workplaces. Disruptive innovation theory provided the conceptual framework for the study. Data were collected using semistructured interviews with 20 purposely selected participants from 3 Swiss-based higher education campuses. The modified Van Kaam method was used to organize and analyze the data. Four themes from participants' responses were identified: educational employees are not resistant to technology-based change, educational …

Work-Life Balance Of Tenured And Tenure-Track Women Engineering Professors, Lily Giang-Tien Gossage

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Balancing the needs of family with career ambitions is often challenging for women who pursue science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) careers, particularly in academia. In these male-dominated workplaces, few incentives exist for women who decide to manage both work and family. In this basic qualitative research study, a modified approach combining in-depth interviewing with life-history interviewing was used to examine the work-life balance experiences of 12 tenured and tenure-track women engineering faculty who have children. The research question addressed participants' perceptions of engineering academia and experiences regarding family formation, child-raising, and the tenure process. Data were analyzed using the …

Does Waldorf Education Offer A Well-Rounded And Integrated Experience That Prepares Students For Higher Grades And Life In General?, Jacqueline A. Stratton

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

This thesis research focuses on the study of Waldorf education and how it benefits the whole child. It begins by looking at Rudolf Steiner’s Waldorf educational program and its foundational history and then takes an in depth look at the key elements of its rich philosophy and pedagogy. The literature review focuses on the key question, ‘Does this 100 year-old teaching philosophy encourage a more well-rounded and integrated educational experience than traditional public schools?’ The review highlights four broad topics in relationship to Waldorf education. These include: Educating the Whole Child; Education for the Three Stages of Childhood; Early Childhood …

Jamaican Kindergarten And First Grade Teachers’ Expectations For Readiness Skills, Sadie Henrietta Harris-Mortley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Children’s readiness to meet demands in Grade 1 is a common concern in most primary schools in Jamaica. Teachers have voiced their expectations that students should display a level of mastery in readiness skills so that they can be engaged in academic tasks when they transition from the kindergarten to Grade 1. The purpose of this qualitative case study, guided by social constructivism, was to explore kindergarten students’ readiness for Grade 1 based on the perceptions of kindergarten teachers compared to Grade 1 teachers on readiness skills, instructional practices, and expectations of students’ competency. The research questions were designed to …

Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs In Relation To Perceived English Proficiency And Teaching Practices: An Investigation Of Chinese Primary English As A Foreign Language (Efl) Teachers, Yun Zhang

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Research on self-efficacy has been a productive field and abundant research has shown that teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs influence teachers’ actions and performances and thus affect students’ learning outcomes. However, there is a lack of literature on EFL teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs and even less research was set in Chinese EFL contexts. On the one hand, this study was conducted to provide a general picture of the current status of EFL teachers’ perceived English proficiency, self-rated self-efficacy beliefs and self-reported teaching practices in terms of some demographic perspectives; On the other hand, it aimed to explore the correlations among Chinese primary EFL …

Conceptualizing And Interpreting Mean And Median With Future Teachers, Eryn M. Stehr, Ha Nguyen, Gregory Chamblee, Sharon Taylor

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

Mathematical Education of Teachers II (METII), echoed by the American Statistical Association publication, Statistical Education of Teachers, recommended teacher preparation programs support future teachers in developing deep understandings of mean and median, such that middle grades teachers may use them to “summarize, describe, and compare distributions” (Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, 2012, p. 44; Franklin et al., 2015). Georgia Standards of Excellence require statistical reasoning from students beginning as early as 6-7 years old, including interpretation of measures of center and statistical reasoning about best measures of center (Georgia Department of Education, 2015). This level of understanding and interpretation of …

Implementation Of The Instructional Practices Inventory – Technology Process With Fidelity: The Impact On Technology Use And Student Cognitive Engagement, Mekca Rae Wallace-Spurgin

Theses and Dissertations

This applied dissertation was designed to determine if students were using the recently purchased Chromebooks as well as if they were cognitively engaged when using the technology. Data collected using the IPI-T process suggested teachers were typically the users of the technology, students were often disengaged, and teachers were asking students to participate in lower-order surface activities. Missing from the process was the implementation of the faculty collaborative sessions.

The writer scheduled dates to collect data three times during the 2018-19 school year. In addition, faculty collaborative sessions were planned and facilitated within one week of collection data. Participating in …

Teaching With Technology: Using A Virtual Learning Community And Peer Mentoring To Create An Interdisciplinary Intervention, Rebecca Mazumdar, Nadia Benakli, Pamela Brown

Publications and Research

This paper describes the development and implementation of engaging and supportive experiences to promote student engagement, persistence and success at a commuter, open enrollment, public, minority serving institution. Project components included faculty development at the SENCER Summer Institute (SSI) 2016, attended by a team comprised of an academic administrator, full-time faculty from English and math, and part-time faculty in chemistry; creation of a virtual learning community of freshmen enrolled in chemistry, English, and math linked by the specific theme of the environmental impacts of deicing roads with salt and the overarching theme of the impacts of human activities on the …

Student Perceptions And Grade Comparisons After Exposure To Instructor-Made Skills Videos In A Kinesiology Course, Pamela Karp, Robert G. Gallagher

Journal of Occupational Therapy Education

The purpose of this mixed method, descriptive case study was to determine whether the use of pre-recorded instructor-made videos (PRIMVs) in a kinesiology course, along with curricular design changes, facilitated increased conceptual and practical student learning. The study examined three student cohorts in one occupational therapy program. Two of the student cohorts had unrestricted access to the PRIMVs designed to support student learning of bone and muscle palpation and joint actions. Students from the two cohorts completed a survey about their experience of having access to the videos. Exam data from the student cohorts who had access to the videos …

Graduate Students’ Perspectives Of The Benefits And Barriers To Mentoring Preservice Teachers, Melissa Omeechevarria

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring is an effective tool for the professional development of novice teachers (Eby & Lockwood 2005; Kram, 1985; Stanulis & Ames, 2009). Mentors to preservice teachers have conveyed that they receive benefits and face barriers when mentoring (Ambrosetti, 2014; Burk & Eby, 2010; Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson, 2009; Iancu-Haddad & Oplatka, 2009). Graduate students who serve as mentors to undergraduates have also reported advantages and drawbacks to being a mentor (Conway, Eros, Pellegrino, Kras, Gale, & Campbell, 2009; Reddick, Griffin, & Cherwitz, 2011). This study examined the perceived benefits and barriers for graduate students serving as mentors to undergraduate, …