Other Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

The Impact Of Content Courses On Pre-Service Elementary Teachers’ Mathematical Content Knowledge, Michael Matthews, Janice Rech, Neal Grandgenett

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

In response to research documenting the mathematical deficiencies of pre-service elementary teachers, many teacher preparation programs are requiring mathematical content courses specifically focusing on the mathematics taught at the elementary level. This study considers what impact two such courses (one course focusing on Arithmetic, and the other course focusing on Geometry and Measurement) had on the mathematical content knowledge and attitude towards mathematics by comparing a group of pre-service elementary teachers who took these courses to a group of pre-service elementary teachers who took only a more general mathematics course (such as College Algebra). Results indicated that those teachers who …

A Pilot Study Examining High School Physical Education Teachers' Understanding And Use Of Mosston's Style(S) Of Teaching, Greg L. Pierce

Master's Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a questionnaire that could lend insight to physical educations teachers’ perceptions and use of Mosston's Teaching Styles. The researcher designed a pilot study in which he distributed the questionnaire to six teachers from three Santa Barbara District High Schools. Results show that the six teachers were familiar with all Mosston’s Styles. However, citing circumstances such as class time and class sizes, the participants in this study did not use all of Mosston’s Styles. These results may be useful for physical education teacher educators to help them understand teachers’ knowledge of Mosston’s Styles, …

A Case Study Of The Mathematical Learning Of Two Teachers Acquiring Mathematical Knowledge For Teaching, David R. Hartman

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

This study offers an analysis of the learning of practicing teachers as they acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics. While some professional developers have shifted part of their focus to helping practicing teachers acquire a deeper knowledge of mathematics (e.g., Stein & Silver, 1996), the results from studies often describe what translates from the professional development experience into classroom practice and measureable gains in student achievement (e.g., Desimone et al., 2002). Studies showing improvements in pedagogy and student learning are important. However, studying what teachers are learning and how they learn is important in developing understanding of the content and …

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

7th–12th Grade English/Language Arts Teachers And Their Classroom Grading Practices: Investigating The Use Of Standards-Based Grading In Nebraska’S Rural Classrooms, Summer E. Stephens

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

A problem exists in grading practices accurately measuring student achievement. Both students’ academic achievements and nonacademic factors, such as effort, homework completion, and behaviors continue to factor into grades. This combination can lead to inaccurate representation of true academic ability, rendering a grade useless. While assessment and grading practices continue to be a conversation in most education circles, the implementation of standards-based grading practices in high school English/Language Arts classrooms varies widely. Past studies have shown that grades have provided feedback and been used to motivate and rank students. Future research was needed to address the following research question: How …

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 …

Teacher Collaboration As Professional Development In A Large, Suburban High School, Marlie L. Williams

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

This qualitative study explored the impact of teacher collaboration in a professional learning communities (PLC) school on teacher self-efficacy. Through the collection and analysis of personal interview data from 20 teachers in a large, suburban Midwestern high school, the impact of structured teacher collaboration was evaluated for its impact on changes in teachers’ instructional practices, their feelings of responsibility for student learning, positive adult interdependence, and changes in teacher self-efficacy. Experts in educational professional development identify the importance of sustained, collegial learning. This study explored the structure of one high school’s professional collaboration model, the measures in place for goal-setting, …

Educating Children About Global Issues, Ali Nawab

Professional Development Centre, Chitral

No abstract provided.

Why Is Child Labour Detrimental For Children?, Cassandra Fernandes Faria

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Eradicating Child Labour In Pakistan, Nilofar Vazir, Yasmeen Mehboob Meghani

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Relationship Between Student Involvement And Academic Performance In Higher Education, Azurdee M. Garland

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study examined the relationship between the degree of involvement in co-curricular activities and academic performance, as measured by Grade Point Average (GPA) among college students enrolled at Western Kentucky University (WKU). Three hundred thirty-six sophomores were surveyed via TOPNET, an electronic registration management system, regarding their level of involvement in campus organizations and other factors, including employment status and gender. The cumulative GPAs and the number of credit hours in which the survey participants were enrolled during Fall Semester 2005 were obtained through a survey using TOPNET. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed statistically significant relationships between GPA and the number …

Criterion-Referenced Assessment Literacy Of Educators, James David King

Dissertations

This study investigated the assessment literacy of educators in regard to criterion-referenced tests. For the purpose of this study, administrators included principals and assistant principals within a school. First, the study determined the degree of training in measurement, assessment, and statistics that educators have received. Second, the study investigated the assessment knowledge of educators based on their performance on the Criterion-Referenced Questionnaire. Third, the study investigated if years experience, type of certification, or highest degree held had a significant difference on their performance on the Criterion-Referenced Questionnaire. Fourth, the study investigated educators’ attitudes toward the use of measurement, assessment, and …

Parental Involvement In Education, Darvesh Karim

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

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 …

Environmental Science, Its Importance And Integration, Sultan Alam

Professional Development Centre, Gilgit

No abstract provided.

An Assessment Of Postgraduate Education Needs For Construction Managers, Garrett Keenaghan

Theses

Postgraduate education can take on different meanings for individuals. It can be interpreted according to an individual or group of individuals’ ontological and epistemological position. The meaning of education and its purpose is not standardised. Education and its purpose is varied and shaped by an individual’s experience. This research is an assessment of the postgraduate education requirements of construction managers. It explores the type of knowledge that is considered as essential to the role of a construction manager. It asks industry representatives, academic and professional representatives to rate the importance and relevance of the identified knowledge. The need for this …

Building Leadership: The Knowledge Of Principals In Creating Collaborative Communities Of Professional Learning, Chad M. Dumas

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

Research literature is replete with the importance of collaboration in schools, the lack of its implementation, the centrality of the role of the principal, and the existence of a gap between knowledge and practice--or a "Knowing-Doing Gap." In other words, there is a set of knowledge that principals must know in order to create a collaborative workplace environment for teachers. This study sought to describe what high school principals know about creating such a culture of collaboration.

The researcher combed journal articles, studies and professional literature in order to identify what principals must know in order to create a culture …

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 …

Learning Spaces In A Second Life, Eric Kisling, Elizabeth Hodge, Sharon Kibbe

International Journal for Business Education

Pedagogy in virtual worlds is a new phenomenon that is evolving into something very different from the traditional classroom. Learning spaces are currently considered physical spaces, but with virtual worlds, learning spaces can now be designed in multiple ways for any given course. No longer is one constrained to location. A teacher can take their class to see international sites without the costs associated with a physical visit to the same location. As teachers begin to think about their methods of instruction and how best to enable their students to learn fully and completely, the pedagogy that is employed in …

2010 Ijbe Front Matter, Tamra Connor

International Journal for Business Education

1. Editorial Board
2. President's Letter
3. SIEC-ISBE International

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 …

Being Left-Handed In A Right-Handed World, Melaine D'Cruze

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Nature Of Learning Disorders In Pakistani Classooms, Kausar Waqar, Nilofar Vazir

Institute for Educational Development, Karachi

No abstract provided.

Teaching Pronunciation As A Core Skill Using The Silent Way Approach, Jordan Cael

MA TESOL Collection

These materials were developed as part of an exploration of how to interweave the study of pronunciation together with the study of the meaning and structure of the language in a way that makes pronunciation practice a central, present, and prominent part of every lesson. Within the framework of teaching pronunciation with the materials, techniques, and principles of the Silent Way Approach, the focus was placed on creating activities that would (1) help students to notice and practice the essential pronunciation elements of the language, known in the Silent Way as the ‘melody’ (i.e., intonation, stress, phrasing, rhythm, etc.), (2) …

Acting For Transformation: An Esl Teacher And Her Adult Immigrant Students Dramatize The Students’ Life Stories, Dana Horstein

MA TESOL Collection

This paper documents the implementation of a year-long drama project that was conducted with adult immigrant English as a Second Language (ESL) students at Asian Human Services, a community-based organization in Chicago. Throughout the year, during the fall, winter, and spring terms, three classes of students dramatized their life stories. This paper provides background for the project by explaining the history and role of drama in language education. It also considers the teacher’s motivations for the project and its design; its ultimate challenges and successes; as well as the insights that it provides about what it means to be a …

For Better Or Verse – Poetry In The Esl Classroom, Fredrick Schroeder

MA TESOL Collection

This Independent Personal Project considers the use of poetry with regard to reading, writing, listening, and speaking in the English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom. The first part of the paper deals with the author’s background in poetry and journey to using it in class. The next part is concerned with the reasons for using poetry in the ESL classroom. Then the paper focuses on general concerns using poetry in class, which segues into a more specific discussion of assessment and correction. The final part of the paper presents twenty activities that can be used in the classroom. The …

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 …

Dance Your Way Into Culture: A Teacher’S Experience Using Dance In The Foreign Language Classroom, Jannely Almonte Ortiz

MA TESOL Collection

Although dance is an expression of culture, it has seldom been used in the foreign language classroom as a teaching tool. Using Patrick Moran’s Cultural Knowings Framework as an organizational foundation throughout the paper, the author shares why this topic became of great interest to her. She also addresses research and perceptions on movement and dance in an educational environment, and attempts to describe benefits and ways of including movement and dance in any foreign language classroom. Though this paper focuses on the author’s experience using merengue music and dance in the teaching of Spanish, it is intended for any …

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos' classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

Extensive Reading In The Classroom, Petulla Domenica

MA TESOL Collection

In this paper I explore the advantages and benefits of extensive reading in an ESL classroom. The purpose of my paper is to further my understanding of reading in a second language and to start the process of implementing an extensive reading program for my particular teaching context. In the first half of the paper there is an overview of reading in a second language, the benefits of extensive reading and Louis M. Rosenblatt's aesthetic and efferent reading stances. The last two chapters focus on particular challenges, issues and questions I must resolve before I am able to implement extensive …