Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Grounding Theory In Practice: A Reflection On Designing And Delivering A Workshop On Intercultural Sensitivity For Korean Public School English Teachers, Kevin Giddens

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I will use a process of rigorous reflection to explore the design and implementation of a cross-cultural simulation workshop as a means of developing intercultural sensitivity among Korean public school English teachers in Daegu, South Korea. After introducing the workshop design I will describe in detail my experience of delivering the workshop. I will overlay Milton J. Bennett’s model for developing intercultural sensitivity (1993) with participant reflections as a means of grounding theory to practice and exploring whether or not participants were able to demonstrate observable movement within Bennett’s model. I will then highlight some possible modifications …

Teacher Education For Social Justice: What’S Pupil Learning Got To Do With It?, Marilyn Cochran-Smith, Ann Marie Gleeson, Kara Mitchell

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

There are many controversies related to the increasingly widespread theme of “social justice” in teacher education, including debates about whether and/or how promoting pupils’ learning is part of this theme. This article briefly discusses the concept of teacher education for social justice in terms of pupils’ learning and then considers this notion in terms of the current press to hold teacher education accountable for learning. The article then presents the results of the “Teacher Assessment/Pupil Learning” (TAPL) study, an analysis nested inside a larger qualitative study about learning to teach over time in a preparation program with a stated social …

Creating A Culture Of Inquiry: Student Teachers' Stories From The World Of The Glass Box, Judith J. Ruskamp

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

CREATING A CULTURE OF INQUIRY: STUDENT TEACHERS’ STORIES FROM THE WORLD OF THE GLASS BOX Judith J. Ruskamp University of Nebraska, 2009 Advisor: Margaret Macintyre Latta This study explores critical reflective practice as a way to study and systematically improve teaching and learning, instilling in teacher candidates a culture of inquiry where they purposefully negotiate the complexities of teaching and learning experiences. Understanding the work of teaching as such, entailing ongoing analysis of the challenges and opportunities teachers face in their classrooms and schools, requires time and space for a deliberate approach to this complex work. The task for teacher …

Cultural Competence: Developing And Assessing Multicultural Proficiency For Teachers And School Personnel In Hawaii, Caryl H. Hitchcock, Mary Anne Prater, Chuan Chang

Faculty Publications

Teachers were recruited from the mainland of the United States to work in rural areas in the State of Hawaii to meet the high demand for personnel. But often there is a mismatch between the culture of the island residents and that of the new teachers. To alleviate this mismatch, a workshop was developed to promote multicultural proficiency of school personnel focusing on Asian/Pacific cultures. One hundred teachers, administrators and staff (including custodians and cafeteria workers) from four rural elementary schools participated in a three hour workshop. The workshop consisted of three activities: (a) self-awareness, (b) awareness of Asian/Pacific Island …

Becoming A Teacher Educator: A Self-Study Of Learning And Discovery As A Mentor Teacher, Julie Anne Castro

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine what I encountered as I moved from the role of a classroom teacher into the role of a mentor teacher of student teachers. As I traveled down the path of becoming a mentor, I learned about mentoring roles, discovered my vulnerabilities, and found a community of support. The improvements and understanding I gained through engaging in this study demonstrate that self-study can be beneficial for both mentor teachers and teacher educators to inform and increase knowledge in the field of mentoring.

National Board Certification: A Scholarly Endeavor, Kathryn Loveless

All Graduate Projects

If today's students are going to succeed they need quality teachers. To atiract and retain those teachers, we need to have a system to recognize and reward those teachers. The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was created to fill that need. This study presents the historical development of the Natio1ial Board Teacher Certification program, research on its effects on student learning, and the personal certification experience of a teacher practitioner. The high standards set by the NBPTS are commendable and worthy of being replicated in teacher training programs. These standards set the ground work for what teachers should …

Preservice Literacy Teachers In Transition: Identity As Subjectivity, Mindy Legard Larson

Faculty Publications

This research addresses the complexities of identity development of elementary and middle school preservice literacy teachers during their teacher education program using a poststructural feminist theoretical lens. This research investigated two questions: 1) How do preservice teachers develop their identity as teachers of literacy in the midst of authoritative discourses? 2) What kinds of strategies and discourses do preservice literacy teachers use to negotiate the competing discourses of literacy during student teaching? The results indicated that the identities of the preservice literacy teachers were in transition during their teacher education program and authoritative discourses were at work constituting their subjectivities …

Teacher Capacity And Social Justice In Teacher Education, Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

In this chapter we discuss social justice and teacher capacity, an amalgam of teachers’ knowledge, skills and dispositions, by posing and answering three questions. How should education professionals define the concept of social justice? What is the relationship between teacher capacity and social justice? What are teacher educators doing in scholarship and practice to bring about social justice? Our purpose is to provide teacher educators with an overview of the concepts of social justice and teacher capacity, so they may understand the relationship between the two and consider how well they are contributing to Horace Mann’s vision of education as …

Exploring Current Practices Of Supervisors In Government Primary Schools In Karachi, Pakistan, Nilofar Vazir, Noor Hussain

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

This paper explores the current practices of supervisors in Government Primary Schools in Karachi, Pakistan. Research participants included two supervisors, two head teachers and four primary school teachers. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews, informal discussions, documents analysis. Findings suggest that since, the supervisors are not provided with the TORs by Education department their practices are influenced by the way they are appointed and the ways they learn about their roles and responsibilities in the schools. Since supervisory practices are mostly hanging between supervision and monitoring, these neither fulfill the criteria of Supervision nor of Monitoring and Evaluation. Their routine …

Homework: A Nightly Ritual Beginning In The Elementary Grades, Ann-Marie N. Skaggs

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Homework has become an accepted staple within education in the United States. However, little is acknowledged regarding the influences homework has on students. The purpose of this extended literature review is to look at the influences of homework on students in the elementary grades. The following research on homework was found through books, peer-reviewed journal articles, government reports, magazine articles, and interviews. Within the research, educational, socioeconomic, and parental factors show the largest influence, both positive and negative toward homework. The author discusses future implications to better improve homework's influence on students in the elementary grades. These implications include a …

Gen Ms 21 Edith Meserve Rice Papers Finding Aid, Daniel Draper

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Description:

Edith Meserve Rice was a student at Gorham Normal School 1942-1946, and was active in the Alumni Association from the 1970s through the 1990s. The Papers include photographs and other material documenting Rice's life as a student at Gorham Normal School in the early 1940s, as well as alumni news, songs of Gorham Normal School and the State of Maine, and information about Gorham State Teachers College and the University of Southern Maine.

Date Range:

1940s-2002

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Gen Ms 19 Fitts Family Collection Finding Aid, Daniel Draper

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Description:

Bertha Rice Fitts was born in 1870, in Waterford, Maine. After graduating from Gorham Normal School in 1894, she became Master’s Assistant and eighth-grade teacher in Westbrook, Maine, before accepting a similar position at a grammar school in Quincy, MA. While in Quincy, she boarded with Mrs. Calvin Fitts, and in 1899 married her son, Arthur Fitts. She was involved in the Southern Branch of the Gorham Alumni Association for many years. The Collection consists of primarily late 19th c. commercial photographs of teachers and students of Gorham Normal School, plus photos of Gorham Normal School buildings, Bertha Fitts …

Gen Ms 23 Esther Wood Papers Finding Aid, Daniel Draper, Megan Turner

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Description:

Esther Wood taught Social Sciences and History at Gorham Normal School from 1930 to 1972. She regularly wrote columns for the Christian Science Monitor and received many awards, including “Woman of the Year” from the Blue Hill Chamber of Commerce and a Doctorate of Humane Letters honoris causa from Colby College. In 1973, the University named a dormitory building on the Gorham campus in her honor. The Papers consist of her lecture notes on the history of New England from the 16th century through the colonial period and the Revolutionary War to the founding of the State of Maine …

Choosing The Right Path: My Personal Evolution As A Teacher Developing And Maintaining Reflective Practice, Nancy Leland Rivera

MA TESOL Collection

After using self-reflection to learn more about herself as a learner and then as an educator during her first summer of study in the SIT Master of Arts in Teaching program, Nancy Rivera used this knowledge to further look at her teaching. She also used the same reflective process to examine her work during her IYTP (Interim Year Teaching Practicum) experience. In an effort to maintain this reflective practice after finishing her course work, the author examines the meaning of reflective practice, how she came to be a reflective practitioner, and methods she has used to maintain it.

The Socio-Economic Implications Of Teachers Supply Patterns On The Teaching Profession In Nigeria, S. V. Kobiowu

Essays in Education

Various scholars and researches have identified a number of traditions guiding the development of teacher education programmes. These include “the academic” tradition, “the social efficiency” tradition, “the developmentalist” tradition, otherwise referred to as the “personalist” or “humanist” tradition, and “the social reconstructionist” tradition. Education is the pivot of development in all countries, (Nigeria is no exception), and the availability of well-trained and highly qualified teachers is central to the supply of human capital needed to promote qualitative education. The training of teachers in Nigeria, which started in 1859 with the establishment of “The Training Institute”, at Abeokuta, has metamorphosed into …

Technology Professional Development: Long-Term Effects On Teacher Self-Efficacy, George R. Watson

Educational Foundations and Technology

The West Virginia K-12 RuralNet Project was an NSF funded program to train inservice teachers on integrating the Internet into science and mathematics curriculum. The program involved training inservice teachers through an intensive summer workshop and supplemental online courses. This study examines the effects of the project on the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers and their use of the Internet in the classroom. The specific research questions addressed are: Do professional development programs affect the long-term self-efficacy of inservice teachers? Did the addition of online courses and follow-up to the program affect self-efficacy levels? Finally, do certain external factors, specifically …

What Are We Tripping On?: Transgressing The Fault Lines In Research On The Preparation Of Multicultural Educators, Carl A. Grant, Vonzell Agosto

Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Faculty Publications

How do we prepare multicultural educators? The purpose of the chapter is to discuss some of the research in multicultural teacher education that speaks to, and in doing so, participates in the life of this enduring problem. In what direction might other rationales and lines of inquiry lead the research in multicultural teacher education.

A Series Of Teacher Inservice Workshops: Teaching Comprehension Using Informational Text With Intermediate Students, Tracy Lynn Denney

All Graduate Projects

Best practices for teaching comprehension using informational text with intermediate students were researched. Using information and knowledge gained from this research, a series of teacher in-service workshops was created. Subjects addressed in the workshops include differences between narrative and expository text, expository text structures, reading as a metacognitive process, strategies for activating and or building background knowledge, strategies for building vocabulary, and effective use of graphic organizers. The workshops will be presented to the intermediate teaching staff at Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Yakima Washington.

Serving Students With Asperger Syndrome In The General Education Classroom, Jennifer Dawn Hendricks

All Graduate Projects

The identification and prevalence of students with Asperger Syndrome (AS) in schools throughout the U.S. appears to be rapidly increasing (Barnhill, 2001a). Lamarine (2001 ), states that, "Epidemiological evidence suggests that AS may affect approximately 7 out of every 1,000 people" (p. 152). Many students identified as having AS are served in both special and general education classrooms. The purpose of this project was to emphasize the necessity of early identification and interventions, to review the characteristics of AS, and delineate best practice strategies for serving these students in the gen\:ral education classroom. The literature concerning teaching and learning for …

Create A Successful Homework Partnership Program: A Professional Development Workshop For Teachers To Maximize Benefits Of Homework Assignments, Terri M. Anderson

All Graduate Projects

Decades of research have indicated the importance of family participation as a contributing factor toward the academic success of children. Most significantly, a child's family can play a role in his or her scholastic achievement by helping with homework assignments. The teacher's task in this endeavor is to explain assignments clearly and thoroughly both to students and to their families. This task is twofold. First, the teacher must construct assignments that are purposeful, clear and appropriate to meet individual student needs; second, the teacher must offer assignments in a variety of presentation modes to accommodate needs of diverse populations that …

Being And Living In Research: A Discussion On Cultural Experience And Cultural Identity As Referents In Knowledge Production, Theodorea Berry

Faculty Publications

Discusses the utilization of cultural identity and cultural experience of students as central referents in knowledge production by teacher-educators in the U.S. Role of autobiographies in knowledge construction; Information on engaged pedagogy; Reasons behind a few number of women of color who choose teaching as a profession; Advantages of knowing the cultural identity and experiences of students.

A Manual For The Training Of Short Term English Teachers As Required By Small-Scale Schools In Japan, Peter Warwick Raymond Gabites

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the business conditions facing small-scale English conversation schools in the increasingly competitive Japanese market. It looks at their staffing requirements and current training methods and then endeavors to develop and effective training programme that can be operated within the limited resources available to these schools. The intention is to provide new staff coming from non-teaching backgrounds a practical introduction to the realities of teaching through a two-week period of observation, team teaching, and supervised solo teaching followed by two months of directed study on classroom management and methodology. This allows for gradual assumption of responsibility for classes, …

A Journey Into Cooperative Learning With Teacher Education Students, Mary Ransdell, Deborah A. Moberly

Essays in Education

The focus of this article is the journey two professors took during their implementation of cooperative learning with their teacher education students. It is the opinion of the authors that cooperative learning is a viable, yet underused, teaching and learning tool. Prospective teachers best internalize this methodology when they themselves are active participants in the techniques. The authors offer personal experience to assist in the readers’ understanding.

Missing In Action: Research On The Accountability Of Multicultural, Inclusive Teacher Education, Sheryl V. Taylor, Donna M. Sobel

Essays in Education

While a substantial amount of research has been conducted on the effects of various teacher education programs to prepare teachers for multicultural, multilingual, inclusive classrooms, very little of it examines the impact of multicultural, inclusive teacher education on how pre- and inservice teachers actually teach children in the classroom. Few researchers have followed teachers into the classroom to find out if or what “carry over” exists from multicultural teacher education (Sleeter, 2001). Even if teachers show growth through their course work and learning experiences in multicultural education, what evidence is there that they are or are becoming strong teachers in …

Gen Ms 08 Walter E. Russell Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton

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Description:

Dr. Walter E. Russell Papers span the period 1874-1945, the bulk of them 1870s-1880s, consisting of writings on education and allied topics as well as his sermons. There are a small number of printed items and a photograph of the1928 School Summer Session. Russell often used printed material as scrap paper, so forms usually found in the office of an education administrator of the time occur in these Papers.

Date Range:

1874-1945

Size of Collection:

2 ft.

Gen Ms 10 Harriet Sweetser Letters Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton

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Description:

Harriet Sweester attended Gorham Normal School in the 1890s. She became a teacher and the first Administrator of Home Economics for the Maine State Department of Education. The collection contains letters Sweetser wrote home describing her daily life as a student.

Date Range:

1890s

Size of Collection:

0.5 ft.

Mentoring The New Teacher, Lynda Jeanne Huson, Neil Thomas Zobel

All Graduate Projects

The effectiveness of the Teacher Assistance Program was evaluated from the perspective of the first year teacher in the Wenatchee School District, the Cashmere School District and the Cascade School District. New teachers were given a questionnaire, interviewed by the researchers, and asked to complete a survey describing the impact that the mentoring experience had on acclimating them into their profession. Recommendations for improving the continued efficacy of the program include careful selection of the mentor, early matching of the mentees to their mentor, and specific responsibilities clearly outlined for all persons involved.

A Model, Secondary-Level, Curriculum For A Teaching Academy Program For High School Juniors And Seniors, Michelle M. Bryant

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to develop and design a model, secondary-level curriculum for a Teaching Academy program. To accomplish this purpose, a review of current literature related to Teaching Academies was conducted. Related information from selected schools, school districts, and private organizations was obtained and analyzed. Additionally the investigator, Michelle M. Bryant, attended training sessions and conferences hosted by the Teachers Recruiting Future Teachers.

An Evaluation Of The Central Washington University "Merge" Teacher Preparation Program, Sara K. Black

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project was to assess pre-service teachers perceptions of their training in the Merge Program. Merge is a pilot teacher preparation program at Central Washington University characterized by enhanced early field experience, integration of coursework, and integration of special education and regular education. To accomplish the purpose stated above, participants in the Merge Program were surveyed and data was analyzed. Current research on field experience, integration of coursework, and integration of special and regular education was reviewed.

A Follow-Up Study Of Graduate Students Admitted To The Central Washington University Special Education Administrator Program, Richard P. Lynch

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to determine characteristics of those candidates who had been admitted into the Central Washington University Special Education Administrator Program in order to draw conclusions concerning identifying profiles; ascertain the extent to which the respondents perceived the required courses of instruction as relevant to subsequent educational functions; and finally to determine specific reason(s) for non completion of program leading to Washington State Program Administrator Certification.