Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Expect The Unexpected When Teaching Probability, Karen Koellner, Mary Pittman, Jonathan L. Brendefur

Curriculum, Instruction, and Foundational Studies Faculty Publications and Presentations

Probability has recently made its way into many textbook series and standards documents (NCTM, 2000; NGA, 2010). When students engage in probability problem solving many unexpected situations can arise due to the counterintuitive nature of probability concepts. These situations can be difficult for students and challenging for teachers to analyse during teaching. Recently, as facilitators of a Mathematics Science Partnership grant workshop on probability, we had the opportunity to engage middle school teachers in professional development workshops as well as in their classrooms. In this article, we discuss a rich probability task used with these teachers along with two scenarios …

The Threads They Follow: Bank Street Teachers In A Changing World, Linda Darling-Hammond, Ira Lit

Books

This report focuses on graduates of Bank Street College Graduate School of Education teacher certification programs, by examining the quality of their preparation, their teaching practices upon graduation, and the influence they have on their students’ learning. It also looks at the cumulative effects of school-wide practices at schools supportive of the Bank Street approach. The results conveyed here are based on the combined analyses of extensive surveys of graduates and employers; large-scale administrative data related to the impact of program graduates on pupil learning in New York City public schools; in-depth classroom and school observations; and interviews of graduates, …

The Preparation, Professional Pathways, And Effectiveness Of Bank Street Graduates, Eileen Horng, Xinhua Zheng, Ira Lit, Linda Darling-Hammond

Books

Documents the influence of Bank Street teacher preparation programs based upon surveys of graduates, surveys of comparison teachers, surveys of employers, and an analysis of pupil achievement gains. This report is part of a larger study that examines the preparation, practices, and effectiveness of graduates of Bank Street College teacher certification programs over the last decade.

Don’T Let Me Down: An Autoethnography Of An Urban Teacher, Jacqueline R. Arriaga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students in urban schools who are negatively impacted need stability and continuity the most. However, at least half of new teachers leave their profession within five years. In order for this situation to change, support is needed for new teachers and encouragement is needed for experienced teachers.

The purpose of the study is to offer a first-hand description of factors that affect the profession of teaching and especially teachers who may be wondering how to stay in teaching for more than five years. Veteran teachers gain the opportunity to reflect, validate, and (probably) celebrate their own journey through this profession. …

Teaching Information Literacy Skills To Sophomore-Level Biology Majors, Leigh Thompson, Lisa Ann Blankenship

Collier Library and Information Services

Many undergraduate students lack a sound understanding of information literacy. The skills that comprise information literacy are particularly important when combined with scientific writing for biology majors as they are the foundation skills necessary to complete upper-division biology course assignments, better train students for research projects, and prepare students for graduate and professional education. To help undergraduate biology students develop and practice information literacy and scientific writing skills, a series of three one-hour hands-on library sessions, discussions, and homework assignments were developed for Biological Literature, a one-credit, one-hour-per-week, required sophomore-level course. The embedded course librarian developed a learning exercise that …

The Parlous State Of Academia: When Politics, Prestige And Proxies Overtake Higher Education's Teaching Mission, Viviane Callier, Richard H. Singiser, Nathan L. Vanderford

Toxicology and Cancer Biology Faculty Publications

Original and significant research benefits the careers of those running universities and brings prestige to their institution. World class teaching, by and large, does not, and this has important consequences for higher education's tripartite mission. Most notably, emphasis on the research mission of major higher education institutions dwarfs that of the teaching mission and this is to the detriment of teachers and students. Policy interventions are needed to address this discrepancy.

Teaching Renewal For Midcareer Faculty: Attending To The Whole Person, Catherine Ross

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In light of the research on the distinct needs of mid-career faculty and the pressures faced by this group in the academy, we offer here an example of an educational development effort that looks at the renewal of teaching through the lens of renewing the whole person in his/her academic roles.Opportunities for mid-career faculty to focus on renewal in a holistic way are few, so this model, The Graylyn Teaching Renewal Retreat, was designed and developed as an annual opportunity for faculty from diverse institutions and disciplines.

White Privilege In Teacher Education : A Critical Analysis Of Discourse, Kenneth P. Sider

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This inquiry seeks to understand how preservice teachers interact with White privilege during a teacher education course dedicated to diversity and teaching. By pairing grounded theory with phenomenology, insights into participants’ pre-existing beliefs around race and Whiteness are examined. Given the cultural mismatch between an increasingly diverse public school student population and the historically stable White preservice teacher population, a closer look at persistent and resistant linguistic phenomena undergirding White dominance in the educational setting is useful. Participants’ pre- and post-term papers are used to anchor the research, and an asynchronous, online, peer-mediated discussion of bell hooks’ autoethnographic essay “Learning …

What Is Equity? Ways Of Seeing, Christa Jackson, Cynthia Taylor, Kelley Buchheister

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Prospective teachers must be prepared for their role in providing equitable access for learning high quality mathematics. Therefore, it is imperative that mathematics teacher educators provide opportunities to develop an equity-centered orientation in teacher preparation courses. In this study, we begin to address this issue by identifying what prospective teachers attend to in a classroom vignette of an African American male student who is above grade level in mathematics and exhibits disruptive behavior during instruction. The results of the study indicate that while participants are beginning to attend to cultural influences, most responses are focused on classroom management strategies

Agro/Hort403/803: Scientific Writing And Communication—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Brian M. Waters

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Scientific writing is a skill that is useful for science students, since many of them will write about their research in theses, dissertations or journal articles. However, many students have not been trained in scientific writing, and the task seems insurmountable to some, who can develop a “fear of writing” that prevents them from finishing their program or manuscript. To effectively teach scientific writing, the instructor should devote the most effort to the most effective learning activities. Thus, this inquiry portfolio addresses two Research Questions: 1) “What is the most effective activity in my course for student learning?”, and 2) …

Hist 208: History Of World War Ii—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Thomas Berg

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This Inquiry Portfolio explores the efficacy of the “flipped classroom” format for university-level history courses for students, the professor, and the history department. While creating a clear outline of expectations, readings, examination and quiz requirements will allow the student to better organize their study time, I wanted to know if the “flipped format” would help my students master the knowledge, develop good discussion skills, and practice critical thinking skills learned during classroom discussions. Also, not having taught any flipped courses, I needed the experience to discuss cogently with my peers the desirability and practicality of offering flipped history courses.

Fors 401: Forensic Biochemistry—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Ashley Hall

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Students who participate in active and experiential learning activities develop a better understanding of basic scientific principles and are also more likely to be retained in a STEM discipline. Developing such activities, however, can be difficult. In the present study, we sought to develop classroom activities to engage university students and increase understanding of the theory and practice of forensic science. One common accessory amongst the target audience was the ever-present media, both social and popular (entertainment). In fact, a majority of students report watching at least one of the many popular forensic science shows on TV. Therefore, we hypothesized …

Arab 102: First-Year Arabic Language—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Abla Hasan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Goals of the class are derived from goals nationally recognized and agreed upon for low intermediate Arabic learners .This systematic consistency with the nationally recognized standards -albeit can be more challenging- insures students' ability to pursue national major programs in Arabic or their ability to compete for national grants, scholarships and study abroad programs. The standers adopted by ACTFL and STARTALK equally consider the linguistic as well as the cultural content of teaching Arabic. These standers known as the five C's are: Communication, Cultures, Connections, Comparisons, and Community. The cultural content of learning Arabic is part of the international and …

Adpr 450/850: Public Relations Theory And Strategy—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Ming Wang

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I decided to join the Peer Review of Teaching program to achieve the following three objectives: to better align course objectives with course content, to improve ways of documenting and assessing student learning, and to fit the course into the broader curriculum.

Participation in the Peer Review of Teaching program has been most illuminating and beneficial. I got to focus on tackling three tangible objectives for my ADPR 450/850 Public Relations Theory and Strategy class. Then I got to apply many ideas introduced in this program, such as backward design principle and assessment methods, in my teaching. I had the …

Teac 315: Teaching Science In The Elementary School—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Krista Adams

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Teaching Science in the Elementary School (TEAC 315) is an upper-division course taken by elementary education majors as a requirement for the Bachelor of Science (BS) in Education. The peer review of teaching project had me identify concerns for teaching the elementary methods course. The concerns I wanted to address focused on eliciting teacher candidate’s views and experiences with teaching science as well as my ability to identify evidence of growth. The first area focuses on my needing to understand if I need to develop more instructional strategies to support teacher candidate growth. This involves both in terms of specific …

Teac 451p: Learning And Teaching Principles And Practices (Secondary Mathematics)—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Lorraine Males

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The goal of my peer review portfolio was to better understand how to improve students' learning of how to teach secondary mathematics in reform-oriented ways. Most students that pursue admission into the Secondary Mathematics Teacher Education Program have little to no experience learning mathematics in reform-oriented ways. These preservice teachers (PSTs) were “successful” in mathematics courses in middle and high school, most of them taking honors or accelerated courses. However, many of these PSTs did not have opportunities to engage as active participants in their own learning and develop complex cognitive skills and processes, the focus of reform-oriented instruction. This …

Role Tension In The Academy: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Faculty Teaching And Research, Nicolas Michaud

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the conjunction of faculty roles as teachers and as researchers. This understanding is pursued through philosophical analysis. Discourse ethics, in particular, is used as a framework by which to best understand the roles played by faculty and if the roles of teacher and researcher are, in fact, commensurable. The purpose of the work is two-fold: 1) to develop a construct that may be used by future researchers to better understand the roles played by faculty, and 2) to suggest a best-construct that enables future researchers to propose how actual lived roles should be instantiated in …

At The Heart Of The Classroom: Teachers' Experience Of The Suffering And Success Of Students For Whom They Care, Randall Kenyon Bartlett Jr.

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The core of teaching is the relationship of care between the student and the teacher. A community can be created in the classroom that honors and respects the inherent worth of each individual and through such mutual respect students and teachers can experience success. The suffering and the successes that teachers experience are central to the way they care for their students. There is currently a great deal of focus on education and schooling in the United States and generally this focus ignores the necessity and vitality of the relationship of care. Teachers must daily support and care for students …

Ethnodrama As A Path To Teacher Euphoria: How Might Ethnodrama Influence Teachers' Perceptions Of Themselves And Promote Teacher Euphoria?, Rodney W. Grist

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This study is intended as a mini-pilot program, exploring the potential of ethnodrama to positively impact the burnout experiences of urban public secondary teachers. The current study holds small sample sizes and limited development time, yet an informant panel of nine teachers met in three sessions to discuss and reveal their personal stories, and to plan an ethnodramatic performance to be shared with the entire school faculty and administration (Mienczakowski, Handbook 468; Saldaña, Anthology 2). Informant panelists’ dispositions toward burnout was measured pre and post experience via the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and a small, non- participant group was also measured …

Teaching, Learning, And Leading With Schools And Communities: One Urban University Re-Envisions Teacher Preparation For The Next Generation, Ann Marie Ryan, David Ensminger, Amy J. Heineke, Adam Kennedy, David P. Prasse, Lara K. Smetana

Education: School of Education Faculty Publications and Other Works

Colleagues in the TLLSC program at Loyola University Chicago analyze the trajectory of teacher education and how it can be improved.

Teacher Preperation For The Global Stage: International Student Teaching, Jacob B. Chacko

Theses and Dissertations

As globalization lessens the distance between peoples and diversifies the common classroom, Teacher Education (TE) programs lag behind in producing globally-minded educators. One approach used by some TE programs to remedy this issue is to offer International Student Teaching (IST) experiences. While the literature related to these programs is rather positive, information related to why students choose to participate in IST experiences and the challenges they encounter while abroad is limited. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature. Drawing on interview data from current (n=3) and former (n=2) participants, as well as two program administrators, this multiple …

Boston Writing Project, Glenn Mitchell, Peter Golden

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Boston Writing Project focuses on the core mission of improving the teaching of writing and improving the use of writing across the disciplines by offering high-quality professional development programs for educators, at all grade levels, K–16 and across the curriculum.

Planning And Enacting Mathematical Tasks Of High Cognitive Demand In The Primary Classroom, Kelly Georgius

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This study offers an examination of two primary-grades teachers as they learn to transfer knowledge from professional development into their classrooms. I engaged in planning sessions with each teacher to help plan tasks of high cognitive demand, including anticipating and planning for classroom discourse that would occur around the task. A detailed description of the planning and teaching that took place during the study provides information about how a teacher can learn and what a teacher learns to consider in order to plan and implement meaningful mathematical lessons. This design experiment describes the work of two teachers who participated in …

Educators' Perceptions Regarding Common Core State Standards And Professional Development, Christine Hipsher

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the impact of the implementation of the Common Core State Standards in Georgia K-12 on the professional development needs of educators. Across the United States the enactment of a Common Core State Standards went into effect. The primary goal of the Common Core State Standards movement was to clarify standards. Accordingly, this study reviewed Social Learning Theory and Constructivism. The research questions in this study examined the types of support educators requested. The research conducted in this multiple case study analyzed teachers' perceptions about the implementation of the CCSS and …

The Impact Of Common Core Professional Development On Teaching Practices, Elisabeth S. Kannenberg

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Mathematics represents a challenge for public educators due to the broad scope of required instructional change. This case study investigated the implementation of a professional development (PD) series across 11 elementary schools, designed to address the problem of insufficient teacher preparation in CCSS pedagogical shifts. Grounded in Vygotsky's social learning theory and constructivism, the training was intended to enhance teacher skills through collaborative, inquiry-based learning. The research questions included in the study examined math teaching practices before and after the implementation of the district training. Through questionnaires and interviews, perceptions …

Entr/Mgnt 421: Initiating And Managing Entrepreneurial Growth—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Varkey K. Titus Jr.

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

My primary goal for this portfolio is to codify the processes and goals of this course in a manner that can be transferred to other instructors. Students consistently comment on how much they enjoy the participatory and interactive nature of the course; I would like to formally document methods to create an interactive classroom that aligns with the expectations we have of senior-level entrepreneurship students regarding critical thinking and communication skills.

Aecn 399: Commodity Market Analysis—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Benchmark Portfolio, Fabio Mattos

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

I have been teaching for a few years, in different universities and different courses. I have taught large classes (over 100 students) and small classes (approximately 10 students), introductory courses and advanced courses, and in 4-year programs as well as 2-year programs. Although I believe that principles of good teaching can be applied to any course, I feel that teaching methods may need to be adjusted to different courses, different student population and distinct class size. So I welcomed the opportunity to participate in the “2013-2014 Peer Review of Teaching Program” because it gave me a chance to join a …

Mued 403: Student Teaching Seminar—A Peer Review Of Teaching Project Inquiry Portfolio, Dale Bazan

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course is taken during music education undergraduate students' student teaching semester, which occurs after completion of all coursework in the Bachelor of Music Education degree. While students work full-time in elementary and secondary schools, they participate in on-campus seminars and workshops. These meetings include presentations and discussion sessions led by the instructor, area school district administrators, and UNL Career Services counselors. Sessions explore online and print resources for professional advancement in the field of music teaching. There are several assumptions made about college students, and more specifically undergraduate music education students. It is assumed, in general, that adolescents and …

Teaching Undergraduates How To Analyze, Ryan Andrew Nivens, Rosalind Raymond Gann

ETSU Faculty Works

Analysis is typically listed in taxonomies of higher order thinking. Academics consider these taxonomies worthwhile, but they are hard to teach and we are apt to ignore them. Today higher education is criticized for “dumbing down” curriculum or lowering standards. To rectify this, many policies at the state or national level are requiring higher education institutions to change. In K-12 education, Race to the Top and Common Core requirements are placing new demands on K-12 teacher preparation, which include evaluation of the analysis skills of pre-service teachers. But professors do not always view their disciplines as the proper place for …

Physician As Teacher: Promoting Health And Wellness Among Elementary School Students, Jill E. Stefaniak, Victoria C. Lucia

STEMPS Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Every day, physicians engage in teaching during their patient encounters. It may be that medical students who are introduced to the principles of teaching and learning are more likely to become good communicators and learners. Service-learning may be an effective way for medical students to practice skills in teaching and communication in a real-world setting, while also filling a need within the community. The purpose of this study was to identify common themes within medical students' reflections on what they learned through participating in a teaching exercise with local elementary school children.

METHODS: As a required component of a …