Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Exploring Supports Provided For Student Eportfolio Development In A Professional Development Context, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

This small scale study aimed to explore and establish if support strategies implemented to enhance student ePortfolios were helpful to students and to identify useful ways of supporting ePortfolio development with future cohorts of students. This action research study was informed through focus group discussion and individual interviews with students.

The importance of reflection for the development professional practice and of creative abilities is discussed. The substantial benefits of creativity within education are investigated and characteristics of creativity that might be developed with students’ ePortfolios are revealed. Specifically this paper seeks to foster Crafts (2011) four characteristics of creativity, pluralities, …

Supporting Professionalism In Educational Development In Irish Higher Education, Muireann Okeeffe

Articles

Higher education, in Ireland and globally, is undergoing profound change influenced by a variety of factors. In conjunction with these changes many initiatives to improve teaching and learning and the quality of graduates in higher education have been introduced in recent years. The changes and expansions in the sector has enabled growth of new roles in higher education described as ‘third space’ professionals by Whitchurch (2008).

This paper describes the struggle of those in third space professions, such as academic development, to establish a professional identity in higher education. The benefits of these contemporary roles to higher education are …

The Concept And Perception Of Peace Education In Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan: A Comparative Case Study, Abida Begum

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

In the geographically remote culture and context of Gilgit Baltistan Pakistan, this study explores the perceptions and practices of peace education by two secondary school head teachers (one in a relatively urban area and another in a rural area), as well as three additional teachers from each school. A qualitative, interview-based research approach is employed. The concept of peace education is related by the interviewed teachers to the inculcation and development of positive thinking and positive attitude among students. This positivity is seen as instrumental for the holistic development of the children, and ultimately, for the cultivation of a peaceful …

“I’M Teaching What?!”: Preparing University Faculty For Online Instruction, Susan Ohara, Robert Pritchard

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The percentage of higher education students enrolled in online courses has increased from 9.6 percent in fall 2002 to 33 percent in fall 2010. Due to the increased importance of online courses and programs on university campuses there is a need to better prepare novice technology faculty for the delivery of these courses. This article provides a description of the process through which a group of faculty with low to high technology skills prepared to deliver an online masters program. Minutes of meetings, documents produced, online discussion transcripts, and informal conversations were all used as data to analyze outcomes of …

What Pre-Service Teachers Need To Know To Be Effective At Values-Based Education, Amanda G. Mergler, Rebecca Spooner-Lane

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Evidence is mounting that values education is providing positive outcomes for students, teachers and schools (Benninga, Berkowitz, Kuehn, & Smith, 2006; DEST, 2008; Hattie, 2003; Lovat, Clement, Dally, & Toomey, 2010). Despite this, Australian pre-service teacher education does not appear to be changing in ways necessary to support skilling teachers to teach with a values focus (Lovat, Dally, Clement, and Toomey, 2011). This article presents findings from a case study that explored current teachers’ perceptions of the skills pre-service teachers need to teach values education effectively. Teachers who currently teach with a values focus highlighted that pre-service teacher education degrees …

Alternate Pedagogy For Developing Transformational Leadership, Zubeda Bana

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

As the growing concern for educational reforms worldwide is on developing transformational leadership that is responsive to the needs of the local as well as the global contexts, teacher educators are still searching for pedagogies, which could help them to develop transformational leaders. This paper offers some scope to teacher educators to critically analyze current teaching learning pedagogies while preparing transformational leaders for the 21st Century. Utilizing the allegoric approach as an alternate pedagogy for developing transformational leadership, this paper deliberates upon the relevance and efficacy of the role of aesthetic tradition of learning in leadership development programmes. The paper …

Perceived Efficacy Of Beginning Teachers To Differentiate Instruction, Michelle K. Casey, Robert K. Gable

Teacher Education

A two-phase, sequential mixed-methods design was used to assess perceptions of teacher efficacy (10 item survey, alpha = .90) to differentiate instruction for N = 36 graduates from one MAT teacher preparation program. Research questions addressed levels of self-efficacy, perceptions of preparedness, teaching tenure, and number of certifications held. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, one-way ANOVA and t-test procedures. A focus group with N = 10 purposively selected 2010 graduates and interviews with N = 2 graduates each from the 2008 and 2009 classes, and N = 2 faculty were conducted. No significant relationships were found for tenure and …

The Mathematics Portfolio: An Alternative Tool To Evaluate Students’ Progress, Marla A. Sole

Publications and Research

This article describes the need for more thorough and varied forms of assessment to evaluate students’ level of understanding in mathematics. Portfolios are one type of assessment tool that, when added to a teacher’s repertoire can improve students’ comprehension and retention and enable students to monitor their own progress and to take more responsibility for their own learning. Portfolio assignments can also help students and teachers to detect and remedy weaknesses and misunderstandings and can increase students’ self-confidence in mathematics. This article discusses what a portfolio is, gives an example of a unit portfolio used in an undergraduate Finite Mathematics …

The Use Of The Epostl To Foster Teacher Autonomy: Elt Student Teachers’ And Teacher Trainers’ Views, Abdulvahit Cakir, Cem Balcikanli

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

It was the aim of this pilot study to investigate ELT (English Language Teaching) student teachers’ and teacher trainers’ views on the use of the EPOSTL (The European Portfolio for Student Teachers of Languages) in pre-service language teacher education of a Turkish state university. Upon the implementation of the EPOSTL as a reflection tool for the second semester of 2010, 25 student teachers and 4 teacher trainers were interviewed through the questions prepared and piloted. The findings indicated that both student teachers and teacher trainers found the use of the EPOSTL beneficial in terms of reflection, self-assessment and awareness. …

Moving Beyond Seeing With Our Eyes Wide Shut. A Response To “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here”, Kenneth J. Fasching-Varner, Vanessa Dodo Seriki

Democracy & Education

A struggle exists to engage in culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) that authentically represents the voices and interests of all across the K–20 spectrum, from higher education institutions, to teacher preparation programs, and into U.S. classrooms. This article responds to Hayes and Juárez's piece “There Is No Culturally Responsive Teaching Spoken Here” by extending the conversation with the suggestion that one of the major problems in speaking CRP has to do with a disconnect between articulated commitments and actual practices. This response article takes a critical look at the landscape in which educators work to reveal the nature of overrepresentation of …

Computational Insight With Monte Carlo Simulations, Boyan Kostadinov

Publications and Research

We introduce Monte Carlo simulations for estimating areas by playing a game of "darts". We also introduce simulations of random walks. We use compact, vectorized programming, based on the R language, for all computer simulations and visualizations, aimed at high school students. This presentation is based on the Invited, prime time lecture given at the summer camp for gifted high school students at City College of New York, July 13, 2011.

A Century Of Innovation: Lesley University, Cynthia Farr Brown, Ed, Michele Forinash, Ed

Faculty Scholarship

The Lesley University faculty offer an historic perspective, not just about Lesley but about American higher education over these past one-hundred years, in this collection of essays. The core of these essays emphasized student engagement--a pedagogy that places each student at the center of the learning experience. This focus on student learning began with Edith Lesley's concern about a five-year-old using her imagination, playing, pretending, making art, hearing and telling stories, and learning to interact with other five-year-olds. This tradition continues through programs that address the needs of young adults with disabilities, undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students offered in Lesley's …

Does A Co-Learner Delivery Model In A Mathematics Methods Course Affect Pre-Service Teacher Candidates’ Self-Efficacy In Teaching Mathematics?,, John J. Ribeiro, Denise Demagistris

Teacher Education

This study is related to a previous study (Ribeiro, 2009) that examined teachers’ perceptions of teaching self-efficacy. In the first study the sample consisted of two groups of teachers that took the same professional development course in mathematics. The comparison group took the course in their school district with other teachers and the experimental group took the course with pre-service teachers in a university classroom. After completing the course, both groups were measured in three dimensions of teaching self-efficacy: student engagement, instructional strategies, and classroom climate. Findings indicated that although both groups had significant gains in self-efficacy toward teaching mathematics …

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

Ua41 University College Connection, Dennis K. George, Dean, Wendi Kelley

UC Publications

No abstract provided.

A Mixed Methods Study Of How The Transition Process Impacts The Autonomy Of Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers, Linda Kasal Fusco

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed methods study sought to identify the impact that transition into the practice of teaching had on the autonomy of pre-service secondary teachers of Mathematics.  It was based on the belief that a Mathematics teacher’s autonomy depended on: beliefs about Mathematics and how it was learned, reflections on the teaching practice, and social constraints of a secondary school culture. Data was collected between January 2009 and March 2010.  In Phase I (Quantitative) the participants (N = 30), selected from ten State University of New York teacher preparation colleges and universities, completed five instruments to quantify the three factors of …

The Relationship Of Personality Traits To Satisfaction With The Team: A Study Of Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams In Rhode Island Middle Schools, Michele D. Humbyrd, Robert K. Gable

Teacher Education

Shared practice in schools has emerged; teachers are moving from isolation to team collaboration where personality traits could be related to quality interactions. Team personality traits and team satisfaction were examined. A survey and interview approach was used for N = 244 full-time teachers from N = 49 interdisciplinary teams at N = 7 middle schools. Descriptive, correlational, multiple regression analyses and coded themes about team members’ personalities and interactions were employed. No significant relationships were found between the BFI traits and Satisfaction with the Team. Team-level analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between Satisfaction with theTeam and Extraversion and …

How Do Doctoral Research Academics Perceive Their Research Activities To Be Of Benefit To Undergraduate Students, James Mccauley

Theses

The principal aim of my research is to investigate the perceptions of Doctoral research academics regarding the benefit of their research activities to undergraduate students. Through in-depth interviews, the research aims to establish the level of communication that Doctoral researchers initiate with their undergraduate students about their research activities as well as the extent to which they know if these students perceive these activities as positive or negative. The extent to which students proactively queried such academics about their research activities is also examined. Two main types of activities were identified as having a positive impact: topic specific ‘cutting-edge’ knowledge …

Is It Really Sink Or Swim For Tenure Tracks?, Crystal Goldman, Valeria Molteni, Yuhfen Diana H. Wu

Faculty and Staff Publications

A panel consisting of a mentor and two mentees will share their experiences and tell their stories. They seek to exchange ideas on surviving a fast-changing environment with librarians from other academic libraries where librarians have faculty status. The San Jose State University (SJSU) experience is easy to duplicate and aims to help junior librarians achieve her/his full potential, to design/develop personal goals that fit into personal career expectations, to take one step at a time to reach those goals, to better support organizational goals and objectives, to develop leadership within the organization, to boost morale and productivity, and finally …

Peer Review Of Teaching Project - Castl: Expanding The Sotl Commons Cluster Final Report, Jennifer Meta Robinson, Paul Savory, Gary Poole, Tom Carey, Dan Bernstein

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Reports

In 2006, the Peer Review of Teaching Project at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln was selected to join the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) Institutional Leadership Program. Our participation in this national leadership program (“Expanding the Teaching Commons: A social and technical infrastructure to promote and support effective learning & student success, through teacher community collaborations to develop, adapt, share and mobilize pedagogical content knowledge, exemplary practices, and shared resources.”) allowed us to engage a broad audience to help define, develop, refine, and share the models and approaches of our project. The combined group effort for …

Developing Processes And Criteria For External Reviews Of Scholarly Teaching, Paul Savory, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This workshop explores theoretical questions and practical strategies for how to develop peer reviewers for faculty required to document their scholarly teaching. After reading two mini case-studies of how faculty have documented the intellectual work of their teaching, participants will engage in guided discussion about reviewing and assessing such work and about developing faculty communities equipped to do such work. Presenter(s) also will seek feedback on guidelines that they have developed for external reviewers of SOTL work.

Getting Boys To Read: A Look At The Research And The Books They Love, Carrie Lynn Cooper, Kathy Cox Watson

Library Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

This session focuses on what the research says about males as readers and introduces the audience to great boy books and other types of text that appeals to male readers. The presenters have chosen titles from the Kentucky Bluegrass Awards program that are of interest to young male readers. Presenters also introduce and promote Kentucky’s children’s choice reading program, the Kentucky Bluegrass Awards. To misquote George Ella Lyon, the presenters would like to get boys to "shake hands with a book."

Does A Co-Learner Delivery Model In Professional Development Affect Teachers’ Self-Efficacy In Teaching Mathematics, John J. Ribeiro, Denise Demagistris

Teacher Education

A mixed method study is reported examining teacher efficacy regarding professional development in mathematics instruction for two groups of teachers: in building with peers (N=17) and MAT student co-learners in the classroom (N=14). An end-of-course survey, focus group interviews and pre-post data for the Teacher Self Efficacy Scale were used to investigate:1. What is the difference in teachers’ efficacy regarding mathematics instruction based on the professional development delivery system they experienced? 2. What are teachers’ perceptions of their professional development with peers conducted onsite in district compared with professional development with peers and preservice teachers at a university setting? Descriptive …

Expectations For Career And Social Support By Mentors And Mentees Participating In Formal Elementary And Secondary School Mentoring Programs, Monique Jacob, Robert K. Gable

Teacher Education

Teacher shortages are a nationwide concern, attributable primarily to high attrition rates among new teachers (Ingersoll, 2003; Ingersoll & Kralik, 2004; Ingersol & Smith, 2004). Ingersoll and Kralik (2004) claimed that an estimated 50% of new teachers left the profession within their first 5 years. Reasons for leaving include: isolating and non-supportive teaching environments, poor working conditions and overwhelming teaching assignments (Alliance for Excellent Education, 2005). To support beginning teachers, Rhode Island passed legislation requiring districts to develop a mentoring process (Law 16-7.1-2 Accountability for Student Performance). One variable measuring mentoring success is how closely participants’ expectations for the relationship …

Navigating From The Local To The Cosmopolitan: Expanding The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning Commons, Paul Savory, Amy M. Goodburn

Department of Industrial and Management Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

This collaborative poster highlights how "Expanding‐the‐SOTL‐Commons" is composed of nine collaborating institutions from the US and Canada. Situated within the Carnegie Academy for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning’s Intuitional Leadership Program, our initiative seeks innovative ways to sustain and advance the teaching commons both on our own campuses and across the broader ISSOTL community. Our diverse group of institutions of higher education acknowledges the multiple dimensions of work that communities and individuals contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning and recognizes that common interest reside in how individuals and institutions enter into this area of scholarship, and how they …

Relationship Among Essential Leadership Preparation Practices And Leader, School, And Student Outcomes In K-8 Schools, Donna Braun, Robert K. Gable, Stacey L. Kite

K-12 Education

A questionnaire was administered to school principals (N=88). The questionnaire data, along with student data, were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression to investigate the relationships among leadership preparation practices, self rated leader behavior, the school learning environment, and student achievement. After controlling for demographic variables, the amount of variance explained was incremented a statistically significant degree between: preparation practices and leader behaviors ( R2 = 5%); preparation practices and student achievement ( R2 = 5%); preparation practices and leaders’ instructional knowledge ( R2 = 6%); and leaders’ instructional knowledge and instructional practices in schools ( R2 = 5%).

Relationship Among Essential Leadership Preparation Practices And Leader, School, And Student Outcomes In K-8 Schools, Donna Braun, Robert K. Gable, Stacey L. Kite

Teacher Education

A questionnaire was administered to school principals (N=88). The questionnaire data, along with student data, were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression to investigate the relationships among leadership preparation practices, self rated leader behavior, the school learning environment, and student achievement. After controlling for demographic variables, the amount of variance explained was incremented a statistically significant degree between: preparation practices and leader behaviors (R2 = 5%); preparation practices and student achievement (R2 = 5%); preparation practices and leaders’ instructional knowledge (R2 = 6%); and leaders’ instructional knowledge and instructional practices in schools (R2 = 5%).

The Impact Of Mentoring On Retention, Quality, Commitment Of Graduates From One School-University Partnership, Brenda Kraber

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the impact of mentoring on retention, quality and commitment of graduates from one school-university partnership. This project explored this issue through a review of relevant literature on effective teaching, components of quality teacher preparation programs, beginning teachers, mentoring and Professional Development Schools. How to best prepare teachers for the multi-faceted, challenging job that needs to be done has been a question that has faced universities and school districts for many years. With the growing numbers of veteran teachers now ready to retire and the increasing need for more teachers, the proportion between experienced and inexperienced teachers is …

What Helps Law Professors Develop As Teachers? -- An Empirical Study, Gerald F. Hess, Sophie M. Sparrow

Law Faculty Scholarship

The overall goal of this article is to provide concrete suggestions for how law schools can improve teaching and enrich law student learning. In doing so, it reviews and analyzes the data collected from two national surveys about the kinds of faculty development activities that are most effective in improving law professors’ teaching. One survey was designed to quantify how many law teachers engaged in twenty-two types of teaching development activities over the previous five years and to assess the effectiveness of each of those activities. The other survey focused on the effectiveness of a national conference on teaching and …

Inside Unlv, Grace Russell, Diane Russell

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.