Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Assessing Vocabulary Of Children: Investigating The Evaluation And Instruction Of Basic Concepts, Rebecca Elizabeth Smith

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Vocabulary knowledge of preschool children is a key factor in predicting literacy success in elementary school (Hammer, Farkas, & Maczuga, 2010). However, few deliberate attempts to teach basic concept vocabulary have been studied (Bowers & Schwarz, 2013; Wilson, 2004). The purpose of this research is to determine if large group explicit instruction with interactive activities of specific basic concept vocabulary will increase preschool children's understanding of basic concept terms when measured by a standardized basic concept assessment. This research will also assess the validity of a basic concept-curriculum based measure (BC-CBM) as an efficient tool to monitor a child's understanding …

Rubrics For Easily And Accurately Assessing Speaking And Listening Proficiency From Novice Through Distinguished, Catherine T. Johnson

South East Coastal Conference on Languages & Literatures (SECCLL)

Accurately assessing student performance helps instructors develop more effective classroom materials to increase proficiency in the target language. In order to facilitate this process in my classroom, I have developed rubrics for Speaking and Listening that are based on ACTFL guidelines, and that can be easily modified to suit the specific needs of any language at all levels from Novice through Distinguished. Thus, these rubrics can be very useful not only for the individual instructor, but also for language departments that wish to use a common rubric for assessing student performance.

At the end of the session, participants will be …

Plunging Beneath The Surface: Uncovering Internal Dispositions, Lori Piowlski, Karen Colum

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Teacher preparation programs face the challenge of measuring candidates’ competencies that can be considered internal dispositions; which impact the quality of their instruction. This study delves into candidate edTPA scores in correlation with their IDI mindsets to support program development.

Raising The Standard: An Assessment Of Peer Collaboration As An Enhancer Of Speech Evaluation Fidelity, Terrell Kody Frey

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the state of speech evaluation training in the basic communication course at Illinois State University. Specifically, a new type of pedagogy known as the "peer workshop" is integrated into the course as a potential supplement to the speech evaluation training procedures. Quantitative and qualitative methods reveal how the course has become engrained into the academic expectations of the student body and identify written peer feedback as a necessary focus of future training in the classroom. Specific theoretical and pedagogical implications, as well as limitations and future directions, are discussed in detail.

Teacher Capacity And Attitude Toward Data: An Examination Of The Association Between Teacher Beliefs And Student Performance On The Measures Of Academic Progress Assessment, Elizabeth C. Mitcham

Education Dissertations and Projects

Since the onset of No Child Left Behind legislation and federal funding for schools tied to summative assessment performance, educational leaders have sought to identify factors that are most influential on student learning outcomes. Research continues to link the use of formative data practices and teacher efficacy to improved student performance. The intent of this study was to explore associations between teacher capacity and attitude and student performance. In this embedded mixed-methods study, qualitative data from focus groups comprised of survey participants were collected within a larger quantitative study that examined associations between teacher beliefs and student performance. The study …

Measuring Teachers' Knowledge And Use Of Data And Assessments: Creating A Measure As A First Step Toward Effective Professional Development, Courtney Vidacovich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Current teaching standards and practices are dictated, at least in part, by state- and district-mandated standardized tests. Yet, despite being surrounded by data, teachers receive only basic trainings on how to use assessments. In reality, teachers use data and assessments daily--even minute by minute--through the assessment process, which uses multiple data sources to make informed decisions on student learning and teaching practices. A measure was needed to understand how the policies and expectations from schools, districts, and states compare with actual classroom practices. The teachers Knowledge and Use of Data and Assessment (tKUDA) measure was designed to do just that. …

Authentic Assessment, Sinead Freeman, James Fox, Vanessa Murphy, Nicola Hughes

Practitioner Research Projects

No abstract provided.

Understanding Cognition Across Modalities For The Assessment Of Digital Resources, Valeriana Colon

Teaching and Learning Publications

Drawing from the theories of the cognitive process, this paper explores the transmission, retention and transformation of information across oral, written, and digital modes of communication and how these concepts can be used to examine the assessment of digital resource tools. The exploration of interactions across modes of communication is used to gain an understanding of the interaction between the student, digital resource and teacher. Cognitive theory is considered as a basis for the assessment of digital resource tools. Lastly, principles for the assessment of digital resource tools are presented along with how assessment can be incorporated in the educational …

Comparing Basic Computer Literacy Self-Assessment Test And Actual Skills Test In Hospital Employees, Jolly Peter Isaac

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A new hospital in United Arab Emirates (UAE) plans to adopt health information technology (HIT) and become fully digitalized once operational. The hospital has identified a need to assess basic computer literacy of new employees prior to offering them training on various HIT applications. Lack of research in identifying an accurate assessment method for basic computer literacy among health care professionals led to this explanatory correlational research study, which compared self-assessment scores and a simulated actual computer skills test to find an appropriate tool for assessing computer literacy. The theoretical framework of the study was based on constructivist learning theory …

Nursing Students' And Novice Clinical Instructors' Experiences With Clinical Instruction And Assessment, Bridgett Alveta Jackson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adjunct faculty members make up a growing proportion of nursing school clinical faculty in the United States due to a nurse educator shortage in higher education. Many of the nurses hired as clinical faculty members have years of experience providing patient care, but they lack experience in clinical instruction and assessment. At a state community college in the southeastern United States, nursing students have expressed dissatisfaction in their course evaluations with inexperienced faculty in clinical programs. The experiences of both nursing students under the guidance of novice clinical instructors and clinical faculty were examined in this case study. The National …

Msym 109: Physical Principles In Agriculture And Life Sciences—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, David Mabie

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This benchmark course portfolio was developed for MSYM 109 - Physical Principles in Agriculture and Life Sciences. The class is a general service course taken by majors as a prerequisite for future coursework along with several other CASNR majors to fulfill their physics course requirement. MSYM 109 is a high enrollment course, with 115 students in lecture, along with four separate 30 person recitation sections. This portfolio was developed to assess the following objectives: 1. Identify, evaluate, and justify the course objectives 2. Assess and evaluate the course pedagogy and assessment methodology 3. Analyze the historical students assessment results against …

Feedback, Iterative Processing And Academic Trust - Teacher Education Students' Perceptions Of Assessment Feedback, Susan E. Davis, Joanne M. Dargusch

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Abstract: Feedback and reflective processes play an important role in learning with both teachers and students required to play active roles. The importance of feedback processes and practices takes on an added dimension in the field of teacher education as the assessment and feedback processes are also professional practices that students themselves will be enacting in their professional roles. To this end, feedback provides opportunities for students to develop their own professional assessment literacy but also draws attention to the role of the teacher-education lecturer or assessor and the roles and relationships involved. This article reports on a research study …

Tech Edge Student Rubric Grades 2-3, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades 2-3.

Tech Edge Student Rubric K-1, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades K-1.

Tech Edge Student Rubric Grades 4-5, Laurie A. Friedrich, Guy Trainin

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

This rubric can be used to evaluate formative and summative assessments of technology integrated products across the curriculum for grades 4-5.

Providing The Fuel Needed To Blast Teacher Candidates Into Employment, Lori Piowlski, Peggy Ballard

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

The 21st century learner has many facets that a teacher must be able to gleam and respond to, as identified in the increasing number of teaching standards that require teachers to meet the needs of all diverse learners through instruction and assessment that engage and encourage all students. The increasing diverse composition of students brings new challenges that teacher preparation programs must address to prepare effective teachers ready to embrace these students in a classroom that is responsive to the needs of all students. This study focuses on the program development of teacher candidates learning in block three courses (the …

Self-Assessment Inspires Learning, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Self-reflection is self-assessment, and one of the most significant learning tools we can model for our students. Ultimately, we want our children and adolescents to be the self-assessors of their work, dispositions, and goals. Research repeatedly reports that the difference between good teachers and superior teachers is that superior teachers self-reflect.

The Relationship Between Word Consciousness And Vocabulary Growth And Achievement In Fourth And Fifth Graders, Margaret M. Walsh

Dissertations

This study examined the relationship between word consciousness and vocabulary growth by analyzing the results from a local assessment, the Word Consciousness Assessment (WCA), as well as a standardized assessment, the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests. These data came from portions of a larger study, the Multifaceted Comprehensive Vocabulary Instructional Program for the Upper Elementary Grades, which relied on a formative design with no control group. The 142 fourth and fifth grade participants came from an elementary school located in the Midwest. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted to determine whether an increase in word consciousness occurred, a relationship between outcomes on …

Children, Mathematics, And Videotape: Using Multimodal Analysis To Bring Bodies Into Early Childhood Assessment Interviews, Amy Noelle Parks, Mardi Schmeichel

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

Despite the increased use of video for data collection, most research using assessment interviews in early childhood education relies solely upon the analysis of linguistic data, ignoring children’s bodies. This trend is particularly troubling in studies of marginalized children because transcripts limited to language can make it difficult to analyze embodied power relations between majority researchers and minority children. This article responds to this problem by outlining a theoretical position on power and bodies, describing multimodal analysis strategies, and using these strategies to analyze the subject positions available during a mathematical assessment interview for three African American preschool child-participants and …

Elementary School Teachers’ Use Of Curricular Resources For Lesson Design And Enactment, Napthalin Achubang Atanga

Dissertations

This study investigated how teachers used curricular resources to teach mathematics with two different curriculum programs, a commercially developed program (Scott Foresman Addison Wesley-Mathematics) and an NSF-funded reform program (Investigations in Number, Data, and Space). This research examines the kinds of curricular resources available to six teachers (three per program), those resources they planned to use, those actually used, ways teachers used curricular resources in association with each other, and types of adaptations made. As a result, I developed insights into capacities teachers need to use curricular resources in a connected way toward the mathematical points …

The Trouble With Beginning, Middle & End, Julie Patterson

Articles

I recently helped judge a story writing contest, and one of the criteria on the assessment form I was provided was: Does the story have a beginning, middle and end? As I began reading the entries, I quickly discovered that this was not useful assessment criteria.

The Effect Of Academic Coaches On Teachers' Effective Use Of Data For Instructional Decisions, Barbara Quillen Shoemaker

Online Theses and Dissertations

One of the common themes in education reform is the use of data-driven decision making. The data provides the information we use to improve our knowledge of classroom instruction. Teachers need professional development to improve their ability to enable data driven decision-making. What data are available? What information can be gleaned from the data? What instructional changes based on data occur? Professional development, the nature of coaching, and their effect on teacher use of data have not been adequately treated in educational literature. This study will be based on an evaluation of an academic coaching project in a large urban …

Equitable Written Assessments For English Language Learners: How Scaffolding Helps, Marcelle A. Siegel, Deepika Menon, Somnath Sinha, Nattida Promyod, Cathy Wissehr, Kristy L. Halvorson

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

This study investigated the effects of the use of scaffolds in written classroom assessments through the voices of both native English speakers and English language learners from two middle schools. Students responded to assessment tasks in writing, by speaking aloud using think aloud protocols, and by reflecting in a post-assessment interview. The classroom assessment tasks were designed to engage students in scientific sense making and multifaceted language use, as recommended by the Next Generation Science Standards. Data analyses showed that both groups benefited from the use of scaffolds. The findings revealed specific ways that modifications were supportive in helping students …

Measuring The Promise: A Learning Focused Syllabus Rubric, Michael Palmer, Dorothe Bach, Adriana Streifer

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To enrich the resources for measuring the impact of educational development work, we have created a rubric to assess the degree to which a syllabus achieves a learning orientation. The rubric provides qualitative descriptions of components that distinguish learning focused syllabi and uses a quantitative scoring system that places syllabi on a spectrum from content focused to learning focused. It is flexible enough to accommodate a diverse range of levels, disciplines, institutions, and learning environments, yet nuanced enough to provide summative information to developers using the tool for assessment purposes and formative feedback to instructors interested in gauging the focus …

Learning To Retell Stories Through Comparative Teaching: Writing And Drawing, Rachel L. Lindle

Theses and Dissertations--Art and Visual Studies

Students who are emergent readers and writers are often difficult to assess, as they are unable to communicate understanding in writing. From my observations, these students communicate ideas best through concrete forms of expression, rather than the abstract formation of letters and writing that is unfamiliar to them. Drawing provides an alternate form of expression from writing. Based on information found in literature review and personal experiences from working with students who are emergent readers and writers, pictures and drawings are a bridge to communicate ideas with these students. This form of expression and communication may be a useful assessment …

Teac 452v/852v: Curriculum Principles And Practices—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Elizabeth B. Lewis

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Objective: My goal for this teacher action research project was to better understand how to improve students' learning of how to teach science through active and inquiry-based learning experiences.

Abstract: I framed the course under study around an essential question which was: How does a scientific classroom discourse community support student learning? Inquiry-based instruction is a cornerstone of science teaching, thus I investigated preservice science teachers' learning about how to teach science through inquiry-based instruction. By the end of the course all of the students had improved their understanding of inquiry-based instruction and were able to generate better science lessons …

Title: How Do Preservice Teacher Education Students Move From Novice To Expert Assessors?, Peter R. Grainger, Lenore Adie

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Despite the acknowledged importance of assessment in education, there has been minimal research into the preparation of preservice teachers for the important role of involving preservice teachers in marking, grading, moderating and providing feedback on student work. This article reports on a pilot project in which preservice teachers participated in an ongoing peer assessment and social moderation process in a dedicated course on assessment. The purpose of the project was to investigate specific ways in which key assessment processes can be effectively taught to preservice teachers. The research involved 96 preservice teachers who completed a Likert scale survey and free …

Investigating The Literacy, Numeracy And Ict Demands Of Primary Teacher Education, Helen De Silva Joyce, Susan Feez, Eveline Chan, Stephen Tobias

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The pre-service programs delivered in Australian teacher education institutions are expected to graduate students who meet externally determined standards, including standards in literacy, numeracy and information and communication technology. These programs are also expected to educate future teachers in professional knowledge and practice, as well as prepare them to engage in professional learning continuously throughout their careers. This paper reports on the first phase of a project that investigated the literacy, numeracy and ICT demands of assessment tasks across the four years of the Bachelor of Education (Primary) program at a regional university.

Everything In Moderation: A Quality Improvement Initiative, Rowena H. Scott, Bev Ewens, Lesley Andrew

eCULTURE

This discussion paper describes the review and development of a standardised moderation of assessment process in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. This initiative was the result of collaboration between two nursing course coordinators and a Centre for Learning and Development academic who provided the scholarship of moderation of assessments. A review of the current moderation processes revealed the potential for variation amongst markers especially due to the large number of new and sessional academic staff. A recommendation from the review was the need for a moderation process that provides evidence for reporting and is not difficult for academic staff …

Teacher, Researcher, And Accountability Discourses: Creating Space For Democratic Science Teaching Practices In Middle Schools, Cory A. Buxton, Shakhnoza Kayumova, Martha Allexsaht-Snider

Democracy & Education

This study explores the role of competing discourses that shape current practices in U.S. schools and how professional development efforts can support teachers and researchers in finding ways to reinsert more democratic processes into their collaborative work. We examine the case of one research and professional development project with the goal of supporting middle school science and ESOL teachers in fostering more meaningful science learning for all their students but especially their English language learners. Using Gee’s notion of big-D discourses and Fairclough’s notion of interdiscursivity, we trace how the Discourse of accountability, the Discourse of science teaching, and the …