An analysis of zoo and aquarium provided teacher professional development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kubarek-Sandor, Joy

Informal science institutions are a significant provider of science teacher professional development. As pressure continues to critically analyze the work of teachers and their effectiveness in the classroom, it is important to understand how informal science institutions contribute to effective change in teacher science content knowledge and pedagogy. This research study analyzed zoo and aquarium provided teacher professional development to respond to the research questions: How do zoos and aquaria determine and assess their goals for teacher professional development? How do these goals align with effective teacher change for science content knowledge and pedagogy? Theoretical frameworks for high quality teacher professional development, effective evaluation of teacher professional development, and learning in informal science settings guided the research. The sample for the study was AZA accredited zoos and aquariums providing teacher professional development (N=107). Data collection consisted of an online questionnaire, follow-up interviews, and content analysis of teacher professional development artifacts. Analysis revealed that by and large zoos and aquariums are lacking in their provision of science teacher professional development. Most professional development focuses on content or resources, neglecting pedagogy. Assessments mismatch the goals and rely heavily on self-report and satisfaction measures. The results demonstrate a marked difference between those zoos and aquariums that are larger in capacity versus those that are medium to small in size. This may be an area of research for the future, as well as analyzing the education resources produced by zoos and aquariums as these were emphasized heavily as a way they serve teachers.

The Role of Relevance in Future Teachers' Utility Value and Interest toward Technology

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kale, Ugur; Akcaoglu, Mete

2018-01-01

Seeing the relevance of tasks for future use is important for developing value and interest in them. We employed a pre- and post-test quasi-experimental design using a mixed-methods approach to examine if reflecting on the relevance of technology to future teaching practices influences elementary and secondary preservice teachers' utility value…

Providing undergraduate science partners for elementary teachers: benefits and challenges.

PubMed

Goebel, Camille A; Umoja, Aminata; DeHaan, Robert L

2009-01-01

Undergraduate college "science partners" provided content knowledge and a supportive atmosphere for K-5 teachers in a university-school professional development partnership program in science instruction. The Elementary Science Education Partners program, a Local Systemic Change initiative supported by the National Science Foundation, was composed of four major elements: 1) a cadre of mentor teachers trained to provide district-wide teacher professional development; 2) a recruitment and training effort to place college students in classrooms as science partners in semester-long partnerships with teachers; 3) a teacher empowerment effort termed "participatory reform"; and 4) an inquiry-based curriculum with a kit distribution and refurbishment center. The main goals of the program were to provide college science students with an intensive teaching experience and to enhance teachers' skills in inquiry-based science instruction. Here, we describe some of the program's successes and challenges, focusing primarily on the impact on the classroom teachers and their science partners. Qualitative analyses of data collected from participants indicate that 1) teachers expressed greater self-confidence about teaching science than before the program and they spent more class time on the subject; and 2) the college students modified deficit-model negative assumptions about the children's science learning abilities to express more mature, positive views.

Providing Undergraduate Science Partners for Elementary Teachers: Benefits and Challenges

PubMed Central

Goebel, Camille A.; Umoja, Aminata

2009-01-01

Undergraduate college “science partners” provided content knowledge and a supportive atmosphere for K–5 teachers in a university–school professional development partnership program in science instruction. The Elementary Science Education Partners program, a Local Systemic Change initiative supported by the National Science Foundation, was composed of four major elements: 1) a cadre of mentor teachers trained to provide district-wide teacher professional development; 2) a recruitment and training effort to place college students in classrooms as science partners in semester-long partnerships with teachers; 3) a teacher empowerment effort termed “participatory reform”; and 4) an inquiry-based curriculum with a kit distribution and refurbishment center. The main goals of the program were to provide college science students with an intensive teaching experience and to enhance teachers' skills in inquiry-based science instruction. Here, we describe some of the program's successes and challenges, focusing primarily on the impact on the classroom teachers and their science partners. Qualitative analyses of data collected from participants indicate that 1) teachers expressed greater self-confidence about teaching science than before the program and they spent more class time on the subject; and 2) the college students modified deficit-model negative assumptions about the children's science learning abilities to express more mature, positive views. PMID:19723818

Relevance: Cornerstone for Constructing Meaning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cardell, Melanie

2005-01-01

Relevance has been called the "What's In It For Me" (WIIFM) issue. If there is not something in the content that the learner really needs, then they normally do not want to be bothered with it. Relevance is learner driven, but must be teacher provided for optimal learning. Relevance is so important to the making of meaning that Eric Jensen (1996,…

Understanding Teacher Effectiveness: Providing Feedback to Teacher Preparation Programs. Data for Action 2013

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Data Quality Campaign, 2014

2014-01-01

Teachers need longitudinal student-level data, such as attendance history, course-taking patterns, grades, and test scores, to tailor instruction to individual students' strengths and weaknesses.This factsheet uses the findings from the Data for Action 2013 analysis to discuss how states can provide teachers with student-level longitudinal data,…

They Have "Verve": Preservice Teachers' Perceptions about Culturally Relevant/Responsive Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nash, Kindel

2018-01-01

Based on concerns about the permanence of racism in our society and its impact on opportunities for children's equitable education, this empirical study used narrative inquiry to explore four preservice teachers' developing dispositions as they studied and implemented culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy (CR/RP) in an early literacy education…

Making Science Relevant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eick, Charles; Deutsch, Bill; Fuller, Jennifer; Scott, Fletcher

2008-01-01

Science teachers are always looking for ways to demonstrate the relevance of science to students. By connecting science learning to important societal issues, teachers can motivate students to both enjoy and engage in relevant science (Bennet, Lubben, and Hogarth 2007). To develop that connection, teachers can help students take an active role in…

Providence Sponsors Diocesan Teacher Recruiting Campaign.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dygert, William

2001-01-01

Addresses the issue of teacher recruitment in Providence, Rhode Island. Explains that the Catholic education staff designed a campaign that involved creating marketing materials, advertising in daily newspapers, and holding job fairs and open houses. Stresses the importance of promoting teaching at Catholic schools as both rewarding and…

Relevance of a Knowledge Base for a Teacher as a Professional.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kudva, Pramila

Education provides the opportunity to face social change, and a teacher's role in this process is significant. Until recently, teacher expertise was defined only in terms of knowledge of the subject taught, and teaching itself was not considered a professional activity. This paper describes the entailment of a teacher's profession, examining the…

The Relationship Between Teachers' Mathematical Content and Pedagogical Knowledge, Teachers' Perceptions, and Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campbell, Patricia F.; Nishio, Masako; Smith, Toni M.; Clark, Lawrence M.; Conant, Darcy L.; Rust, Amber H.; DePiper, Jill Neumayer; Frank, Toya Jones; Griffin, Matthew J.; Choi, Youyoung

2014-01-01

This study of early-career teachers identified a significant relationship between upper-elementary teachers' mathematical content knowledge and their students' mathematics achievement, after controlling for student- and teacher-level characteristics. Findings provide evidence of the relevance of teacher knowledge and perceptions for teacher…

Making Earth Science Relevant in the K-8 Classroom. The Development of an Instructional Soils Module for Pre-Service Elementary Teachers Using the Next Generation Science Standards

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Baldwin, K. A.; Hauge, R.; Dechaine, J. M.; Varrella, G.; Egger, A. E.

2013-12-01

's STEP Center in the geosciences. The module goals are: 1) Pre-service teachers will apply classification methods, testing procedures and interdisciplinary systems thinking to analyze and evaluate a relevant societal issue in the context of soils, 2) Pre-service teachers will design, develop, and facilitate a standards-based K-8 soils unit, incorporating a relevant broader societal issue that applies authentic geoscientific data, and incorporates geoscientific habits of mind. In addition, pre-service teachers will look toward the NGSS and align activities with content standards, systems thinking, and science and engineering practices. This poster will provide an overview of module development to date as well as a summary of pre-semester survey results indicating pre-service elementary teachers' ideas (beliefs, attitudes, preconceptions, and content knowledge) about teaching soils, and making science relevant in a K-8 classroom.

eTeacher: Providing Personalized Assistance to E-Learning Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schiaffino, Silvia; Garcia, Patricio; Amandi, Analia

2008-01-01

In this paper we present eTeacher, an intelligent agent that provides personalized assistance to e-learning students. eTeacher observes a student's behavior while he/she is taking online courses and automatically builds the student's profile. This profile comprises the student's learning style and information about the student's performance, such…

Teachers' Perceptions of Parent-Teacher Alliance and Student-Teacher Relational Conflict: Examining the Role of Ethnic Differences and "Disruptive" Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thijs, Jochem; Eilbracht, Lizzy

2012-01-01

Although parents' relationships with teachers are considered to be an important aspect of parental school involvement, few studies have examined their implications for students' school adjustment. The present study provided further insight into the relevance of teachers' perceptions of the parent-teacher relationship by examining their link to…

Measuring Teacher Quality: Continuing the Search for Policy-Relevant Predictors of Student Achievement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knoeppel, Robert C.; Logan, Joyce P.; Keiser, Clare M.

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential viability of the variable certification by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) as a policy-relevant predictor of student achievement. Because research has identified the teacher as the most important school-related predictor of student achievement, more research…

Race "Still" Matters: Preparing Culturally Relevant Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Durden, Tonia; Dooley, Caitlin McMunn; Truscott, Diane

2016-01-01

This qualitative study explores racial identity development of teacher candidates during a teacher preparation program dedicated to preparing teachers for diverse classrooms. Two black teacher candidates in the US demonstrate their racial identity development through critical reflections offered throughout the program. Findings suggest that…

Visualizing Culturally Relevant Science Pedagogy Through Photonarratives of Black Middle School Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Goldston, M. Jenice; Nichols, Sharon

2009-04-01

This study situated in a Southern resegregated Black middle school involved four Black teachers and two White science educators’ use of photonarratives to envision culturally relevant science pedagogy. Two questions guided the study: (1) What community referents are important for conceptualizing culturally relevant practices in Black science classrooms? and (2) How do teachers’ photonarratives serve to open conversations and notions of culturally relevant science practices? The research methodologically drew upon memory-work, Black feminism, critical theory, visual methodology, and narrative inquiry as “portraiture.” Issues of positionality and identity proved to be central to this work, as three luminaries portray Black teachers’ insights about supports and barriers to teaching and learning science. The community referents identified were associated with church and its oral traditions, inequities of the market place in meeting their basic human needs, and community spaces.

The Teacher as Communicator: An Aspect of Teacher Effectiveness.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olson, David R.; And Others

Experiments were devised to determine teacher effectiveness on the basis of ability to communicate, on the assumption that no relevant learning will occur if communication is faulty. A series of communication games involved an encoder (teacher) and decoder (student) to provide tentative answers to the questions: 1) Are there individual differences…

Exploring the Theory-Practice Gap in Initial Teacher Education: Moving beyond Questions of Relevance to Issues of Power and Authority

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McGarr, Oliver; O'Grady, Emmanuel; Guilfoyle, Liam

2017-01-01

The "theory-practice divide" in teacher education can be viewed not simply as an acceptance of a body of knowledge but instead an acceptance of the teacher educator's authority to determine what is relevant educational theory. This research aimed to explore student teachers' views of "educational theory" and how it was…

Providing Inservice Teachers with a "TICKET" to Digital Delivery Systems.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kochery, Timothy S.

2000-01-01

In July 1998, Pennsylvania State University, Mont Alto, began its version of the "TICKET" (Technology Integration Certification for K-12 Educators and Teachers) program that provides classroom teachers in remote regional school districts with access to educational opportunities to develop technology competencies that can enhance their instruction.…

Taking Culturally Relevant Teaching to the Big House: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boutte, Gloria S.

2018-01-01

This article discusses the conceptualization of a foundational course on culturally relevant pedagogy for early childhood education majors at a predominantly white university in the U.S. Southeast. The course has been taught for 7 years to approximately 1,000 preservice teachers. A discussion of the complexities involved in teaching equity-focused…

The Complexities of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: A Case Study of Two Secondary Mathematics Teachers and Their ESOL Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Jacqueline; Napp, Carolina; Adeleke, Shade

2009-01-01

Culturally relevant pedagogy is not well understood as an instructional strategy in the mathematics classroom. This study reveals the challenges two teachers faced when they implemented a pilot project with ninth and tenth grade ESOL students. The task they envisioned as culturally relevant did not capture their ESOL student's interests; rather,…

Teachers' Perceptions of Their Working Conditions: How Predictive of Policy-Relevant Outcomes? Working Paper 33

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ladd, Helen F.

2009-01-01

This quantitative study uses data from North Carolina to examine the extent to which survey based perceptions of working conditions are predictive of policy-relevant outcomes, independent of other school characteristics such as the demographic mix of the school's students. Working conditions emerge as highly predictive of teachers' stated…

Teacher beliefs about the aetiology of individual differences in cognitive ability, and the relevance of behavioural genetics to education.

PubMed

Crosswaite, Madeline; Asbury, Kathryn

2018-04-26

Despite a large body of research that has explored the influence of genetic and environmental factors on educationally relevant traits, few studies have explored teachers' beliefs about, or knowledge of, developments in behavioural genetics related to education. This study aimed to describe the beliefs and knowledge of UK teachers about behavioural genetics and its relevance to education, and to test for differences between groups of teachers based on factors including years of experience and age of children taught. Data were gathered from n = 402 teachers from a representative sample of UK schools. Teachers from primary and secondary schools, and from across the state and independent sectors, were recruited. An online questionnaire was used to gather demographic data (gender, age, years of experience, age of children taught, and state vs. independent) and also data on beliefs about the relative influence of nature and nurture on cognitive ability; knowledge of behavioural genetics; openness to genetic research in education; and mindset. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, ANOVA, correlations, and multiple regression. Teachers perceived genetic and environmental factors as equally important influences on cognitive ability and tended towards a growth mindset. Knowledge about behavioural genetics was low, but openness to learning more about genetics was high. Statistically significant differences were observed between groups based on age of children taught (openness higher among primary teachers) and state versus independent (more growth-minded in state sector). Although teachers have a limited knowledge of behavioural genetics, they are keen to learn more. © 2018 The British Psychological Society.

We Look More, Listen More, Notice More: Impact of Sustained Professional Development on Head Start Teachers' Inquiry-Based and Culturally-Relevant Science Teaching Practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roehrig, Gillian H.; Dubosarsky, Mia; Mason, Annie; Carlson, Stephan; Murphy, Barbara

2011-10-01

Despite many scholars' recommendations, science is often avoided during early childhood education. Among the reasons provided by early childhood teachers for the exclusion of science from their daily routines included science anxiety, low self-efficacy with respect to teaching science, lack of experience participating in science activities as students, or the notion that literacy and language are more important during the early years. In minority populations the problem is even greater due to identification of science with the `culture of. This article presents results from Ah Neen Dush, a sustained and transformative professional development program for Head Start teachers on an American Indian Reservation. The goal of the program is to support early childhood teachers in developing inquiry-based and culturally-relevant teaching practices. Through analysis of teachers' classroom practices, surveys and interviews, we explore changes in teachers' attitudes toward science and inquiry-based practices. Classroom observations were conducted using CLASS (Classroom assessment Scoring System), a tool used to evaluate the quality of classroom interactions. After 1 year of professional development teachers' attitudes were found to improve and after 2 years teachers classroom practices were more inquiry-based with statistically significant increases in CLASS observation scores.

A phenomenological case study concerning science teacher educators' beliefs and teaching practices about culturally relevant pedagogy and preparing K-12 science teachers to engage African American students in K-12 science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Underwood, Janice Bell

Due to the rising diversity in today's schools, science teacher educators (STEs) suggest that K-12 teachers must be uniquely prepared to engage these students in science classrooms. Yet, in light of the increasing white-black science achievement gap, it is unclear how STEs prepare preservice teachers to engage diverse students, and African Americans in particular. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to find out how STEs prepare preservice teachers to engage African American students in K-12 science. Thus, using the culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework, this phenomenological case study explored beliefs about culturally relevant science teaching and the influence of reported beliefs and experiences related to race on STEs' teaching practices. In the first phase, STE's in a mid-Atlantic state were invited to participate in an electronic survey. In the second phase, four participants, who were identified as exemplars, were selected from the survey to participate in three semi-structured interviews. The data revealed that STEs were more familiar with culturally responsive pedagogy (CResP) in the context of their post-secondary classrooms as opposed to CRP. Further, most of the participants in part one and two described modeling conventional ways they prepare their preservice teachers to engage K-12 students, who represent all types of diversity, without singling out any specific race. Lastly, many of the STEs' in this study reported formative experiences related to race and beliefs in various manifestations of racism have impacted their teaching beliefs and practices. The findings of this study suggest STEs do not have a genuine understanding of the differences between CRP and CResP and by in large embrace CResP principles. Secondly, in regards to preparing preservice teachers to engage African American students in science, the participants in this study seemed to articulate the need for ideological change, but were unable to demonstrate pedagogical changes

Teachers' Experiences Providing One-on-One Instruction to Struggling Readers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liebfreund, Meghan D.; Amendum, Steven J.

2017-01-01

This study examined the experiences of 12 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade classroom teachers who provided one-on-one intervention instruction for struggling readers within the general classroom context. Teachers were interviewed at the end of the project. Interview statements clustered into four themes: Managing One-on-One Intervention,…

Dealing with Disengagement through Diversity: An Electronic Curriculum for Cultural Relevance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gabbard, David A.; L'Esperance, Mark; Perez, Theresa; Atkinson, Terry

2002-01-01

Examines specific features of the online Blackboard distance learning platform that enhance the advantages of alternative teacher certification programs, especially with regard to helping teachers develop a culturally relevant pedagogy. Focuses on North Carolina's NCTeach program, which provides an accelerated certification process for people…

Intercomprehension: A Portal to Teachers' Intercultural Sensitivity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pinho, Ana Sofia

2015-01-01

The development of opportunities for teachers' professional development in plurilingual and intercultural education is a key issue in language teacher education and "intercomprehension" (IC) can provide a potential portal for the development of teachers' intercultural sensitivity. Particularly relevant to this is the creation of powerful…

Formative research on a teacher accompaniment model to promote youth mental health in Haiti: Relevance to mental health task-sharing in low-resource school settings.

PubMed

Eustache, Eddy; Gerbasi, Margaret E; Severe, Jennifer; Fils-Aimé, J Reginald; Smith Fawzi, Mary C; Raviola, Giuseppe J; Darghouth, Sarah; Boyd, Kate; Thérosmé, Tatiana; Legha, Rupinder; Pierre, Ermaze L; Affricot, Emmeline; Alcindor, Yoldie; Grelotti, David J; Becker, Anne E

2017-06-01

Task-sharing with teachers to promote youth mental health is a promising but underdeveloped strategy in improving care access in low-income countries. To assess feasibility, acceptability and utility of the teacher accompaniment phase of a school-based Teacher- Accompagnateur Pilot Study (TAPS) in Haiti. We assigned student participants, aged 18-22 years ( n = 120), to teacher participants ( n = 22) within four Haitian schools; we instructed participants to arrange meetings with their assigned counterparts to discuss mental health treatment, academic skills, and/or well-being. We measured student and teacher perceived feasibility, acceptability and utility of meetings with self-report Likert-style questions. We examined overall program feasibility by the percentage of students with a documented meeting, acceptability by a composite measure of student satisfaction and utility by the percentage with identified mental health need who discussed treatment with a teacher. Favorable ratings support feasibility, acceptability and utility of teacher- accompagnateur meetings with students. The majority of students (54%) met with a teacher. Among students with an identified mental disorder, 43.2% discussed treatment during a meeting. This accompaniment approach to mental health task-sharing with teachers provided a school-based opportunity for students with mental health need to discuss treatment and has potential relevance to other low-income settings.

Challenge: Reframing, communicating, and finding relevance. Solution: Teachers on the research team

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bartholow, S.; Warburton, J.

2013-12-01

PolarTREC (Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating) is a program in which K-12 teachers spend 2-6 weeks participating in hands-on field research experiences in the polar regions. The goal of PolarTREC is to invigorate polar science education and understanding by bringing K-12 educators and polar researchers together. Program data has illuminated a crucial dynamic that increases the potential for a successful climate change science campaign. We contend that the inclusion of a teacher into the field research campaign can tackle challenges such as reframing climate change science to better address the need for a particular campaign, as well as garnering the science project the necessary support through effective, authentic, and tangible communication efforts to policymakers, funders, students, and the public. The program evaluation queried researchers on a.) the teachers' primary roles in the field b.) the impact teachers on the team's field research, and c.) the teachers' role conducting outreach. Additionally, researchers identified the importance of the facilitator, the Arctic Research Consortium of the United States (ARCUS), as an integral component to the challenge of providing a meaningful broader impact statement to the science proposal. Researchers reported the value of explaining their science, in-situ, allowed them to reframe and rework the objectives of the science project to attain meaningful outcomes. More than half of the researchers specifically noted that one of the strengths of the PolarTREC project is its benefit to the scientific process. The researchers also viewed PolarTREC as an essential outreach activity for their research project. Other researchers said that the outreach provided by their teacher also improved the research project's public image and articulated complex ideas to the public at large. This presentation will speak to the practices within the PolarTREC program and how researchers can meet outreach expectations, impact

[An analysis of kindergarden teachers' preparation to provide first aid].

PubMed

Woźniak, Jadwiga; Nowicki, Grzegorz; Goniewicz, Mariusz; Zielonka, Katarzyna; Górecki, Marek; Dzirba, Alina; Chemperek, Ewa

2011-01-01

The major causes of deaths among preschool children are injuries and poisoning. Among the injuries, the most frequent are road accidents and accidents on farms. We may also find health and life risks to preschoolers in homes and education centres. Everybody should know first-aid rules and how to apply them in life-threatening situations. This duty particularly concerns kindergarten teachers. The purpose of the work was an analysis of kindergarten teachers' preparation to provide first aid. The research was performed on a sample of 100 kindergarten teachers from the Lubelskie Province. The research took place in January and February 2011 with the use of questionnaires prepared in-house The analysis of the results indicated that most teachers (84% of respondents) had participated in the first-aid training courses. The teachers with job seniority below 10 years and those between 11 and 20 years' seniority took part more often in the first-aid training courses than the respondents with seniority above 20 years (p=0,02). Respondents, in most cases, assessed their knowledge of first aid at grade 3 (in a continuum from 1 to 5) (42% of respondents)--the average grade was 2.98 +/- 0.97.

Preparing Future Teachers through Distance Learning: An Empirical Study on Students' Perception of Teacher Education Program Provided by AIOU Pakistan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nadeem, Mohammed; Ali, Akhtar; Maqbool, Saira

2013-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to analyse the pre service teachers training programs for the distance learners of Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) Islamabad, Pakistan. This kind of training is provided to the future teachers enrolled to acquire pre service training to become a teacher in a Government educational institution in Pakistan.…

African American Teachers and Culturally Relevant Pedagogy.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Foster, Michele

An overview is presented of research on African American teachers, addressing the large body of literature written by policy analysts, first-person narratives, and the sociological and anthropological literature. Policy research has identified the small number of African American teachers and has studied some reasons for this shortage and some of…

Teachers' perspectives on providing support to children after trauma: a qualitative study.

PubMed

Alisic, Eva

2012-03-01

A considerable number of children are exposed to extreme stressors such as the sudden loss of a loved one, serious traffic accidents, violence, and disaster. In order to facilitate school psychologists' assistance of teachers working with traumatized children, this study aimed to explore elementary school teachers' perspectives. Using a qualitative design, the study explored the perspectives of a purposively varied sample of 21 elementary school teachers (ages 22-55 years; with 0.5-30 years of teaching experience; 5 men). The teachers participated in semistructured interviews, which were transcribed and analyzed in line with the method of "summative analysis" by F. Rapport. Even though some teachers expressed confidence in working with children after traumatic exposure and many referred to a supportive atmosphere within the school, the most prominent themes in the participants' narratives reflected uncertainty about, or a struggle with, providing optimal support to children. They searched for a clear role definition as well as a good balance in answering conflicting needs of the exposed children and classmates, wished for better knowledge and skills, and experienced difficulties related to the emotional burden of their work. The findings suggest a need for further research into this understudied topic. In addition, the identified themes can be used by school psychologists to systematically explore individual teachers' strengths and difficulties and to provide them with tailored advice and training. (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved.

Providing Effective Feedback to EFL Student Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ali, Holi Ibrahim Holi; Al-Adawi, Hamed Ahmed

2013-01-01

Feedback on school practicum is of utmost importance for student teachers to help them to develop their pedagogical and teaching skills. This paper attempts to collect data from both student teachers and their mentors in an ELT teacher training programme in Oman to answer the questions which are raised by this study: 1) What kind of feedback do…

Child Teacher Relationship Training (CTRT) with Children Exhibiting Disruptive Behavior: Effects on Teachers' Ability to Provide Emotional and Relational Support to Students and on Student-Teachers Relationship Stress

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pronchenko-Jain, Yulia

2012-01-01

This study investigated the impact of child teacher relationship training (CTRT) on teachers' ability to provide emotional support in the classroom, teachers' use of relationship-building skills, and teachers' level of stress related to the student-child relationship. Teachers and aides from one Head Start school were randomly…

Formative research on a teacher accompaniment model to promote youth mental health in Haiti: Relevance to mental health task-sharing in low-resource school settings

PubMed Central

Eustache, Eddy; Gerbasi, Margaret E.; Severe, Jennifer; Fils-Aimé, J. Reginald; Smith Fawzi, Mary C.; Raviola, Giuseppe J.; Darghouth, Sarah; Boyd, Kate; Thérosmé, Tatiana; Legha, Rupinder; Pierre, Ermaze L.; Affricot, Emmeline; Alcindor, Yoldie; Grelotti, David J.; Becker, Anne E.

2017-01-01

Background Task-sharing with teachers to promote youth mental health is a promising but underdeveloped strategy in improving care access in low-income countries. Aims To assess feasibility, acceptability, and utility of the teacher accompaniment phase of a school-based teacher accompagnateur pilot study (TAPS) in Haiti. Methods We assigned student participants, ages 18–22 (n=120) to a teacher participant (n=22) within four Haitian schools; we instructed participants to arrange meetings with their assigned counterparts to discuss mental health treatment, academic skills, and/or well-being. We measured student and teacher perceived feasibility, acceptability, and utility of meetings with self-report Likert-style questions. We examined overall program feasibility by the percentage of students with a documented meeting, acceptability by a composite measure of student satisfaction, and utility by the percentage with identified mental health need who discussed treatment with a teacher. Results Favorable ratings support feasibility, acceptability, and utility of teacher-accompagnateur meetings with students. The majority of students (54%) met with a teacher. Among students with an identified mental disorder, 43.2% discussed treatment during a meeting. Conclusions This accompaniment approach to mental health task-sharing with teachers provided a school-based opportunity for students with mental health need to discuss treatment and has potential relevance to other low-income settings. PMID:28367718

The perceptions of teachers and principals toward providing additional compensation to teachers in high-need subject areas

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Longing, Jeffrey Lucian

The purpose of this study was to determine possible differences in the perceptions of teachers teaching in high-need areas (i.e., math, science, special education, etc.) and teachers not teaching in high-need areas, (i.e., business education, physical education, etc.) as defined by the states of Arkansas and Louisiana, regarding higher compensation for high-need teachers. In addition, possible perception differences among principals and teachers were determined. The independent variables consisted of gender, position held, years of certified experience, and certification areas. The dependent variable was the perceptions of the participants on providing higher compensation for high-need teachers in order to attract and retain them. The data for all variables were collected using the Teacher Compensation Survey. The sample for this study was limited to teachers, grades 9 through 12, and principals of public high schools in south Arkansas and north Louisiana. Forty-four school districts in south Arkansas (Arkansas Department of Education, 2008a) and north Louisiana (Louisiana Department of Education, 2008a) met the criteria for this study. Twenty-two superintendents gave permission for their districts to participate in the research. A sample of 849 teachers and 38 principals were identified in these districts. Surveys were returned from 350 teachers, creating a 41% response rate. When the 31 principals that returned surveys were added to the total population, the response rate increased to 43% with 381 of the 887 surveyed responding. However, 42 of the teachers and two of the principals skipped some of the questions on the survey and were not included in the study. The researcher used a One-Way ANOVA and independent t-tests to determine the presence of statistical differences at the .05 level. The data showed that most math and science teachers agreed that high-need teachers should be compensated at a higher rate than teachers not teaching in high-need areas. The data

Predictors of Teachers' Use of ICT in School--The Relevance of School Characteristics, Teachers' Attitudes and Teacher Collaboration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Drossel, Kerstin; Eickelmann, Birgit; Gerick, Julia

2017-01-01

This paper is based on the research question of what predictors (school characteristics, teachers' attitudes, teacher collaboration and background characteristics) determine secondary school teachers' frequency of computer use in class. The use of new technologies by secondary school teachers for educational purposes is an important factor…

Understanding Teacher Effectiveness: Providing Feedback to Teacher Preparation Programs. Data for Action 2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Data Quality Campaign, 2014

2014-01-01

State leaders are increasingly focused on improving college and university programs that prepare teachers as a route to a high-quality teacher workforce. This work requires significant data capacity to reliably and securely link teachers with their students' achievement and growth data with the state's teacher preparation programs. This fact sheet…

Harnessing OER to Develop Teachers: The Guyana Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Butcher, Neil; Moore, Andrew; Hoosen, Sarah

2014-01-01

The Ministry of Education in Guyana has prioritised increasing the number of qualified teachers by providing opportunities to both pre- and in-service teachers to gain relevant qualifications. This paper describes the process used to redesign the teacher training curriculum in Guyana to achieve the goals of a newly-developed ICT Professional…

Teachers' Discoursal Strategies in Providing Positive Feedback to Student Responses: A Study of Four English Immersion Teachers in People's Republic of China

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pei, Miao

2012-01-01

This paper investigates the discoursal strategies of four teachers in providing feedback to student responses in English classrooms in Xi'an, People's Republic of China. The findings indicate that the teachers provide positive feedback for students English learning in various ways, including using the most common strategies such as accepting,…

Social Studies: Application Units. Course II, Teachers. Computer-Oriented Curriculum. REACT (Relevant Educational Applications of Computer Technology).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tecnica Education Corp., San Carlos, CA.

This book is one of a series in Course II of the Relevant Educational Applications of Computer Technology (REACT) Project. It is designed to point out to teachers two of the major applications of computers in the social sciences: simulation and data analysis. The first section contains a variety of simulation units organized under the following…

A Program Evaluation of the Experiences Provided to Novice Teachers through M School District's Teacher-Mentor Training Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Puryear, Pamela Ann

2012-01-01

Novice teachers often lack effective teaching strategies and exhibit poor classroom management, which creates disruptions in the classroom that lessen the quality of instructional time for students. The purpose of this program evaluation was to examine a teacher-mentor training program and the experiences provided to participants to gain a deeper…

The Effect of Performance Feedback Provided to Student-Teachers Working with Multiple Disabilities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Safak, Pinar; Yilmaz, Hatice Cansu; Demiryurek, Pinar; Dogus, Mustafa

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to investigate the effect of performance feedback (PF) provided to student teachers working with students with multiple disabilities and visual impairment (MDVI) on their teaching skills. The study group of the research was composed of 11 student teachers attending to the final year of the Teaching Students with Visual…

Chinese Teachers' Perceptions of the Roles and Functions of School Psychological Service Providers in Beijing

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Cixin; Ni, Hong; Ding, Yi; Yi, Chunli

2015-01-01

This study used a semi-structured interview with 94 teachers from 92 elementary and secondary schools in Beijing, China, to explore their perceptions of the roles, training, and challenges of school psychological service providers (SPs) as well as teachers' satisfaction with the services provided by SPs. Results indicated that the SP to student…

Providing Written Feedback on Students' Mathematical Arguments: Proof Validations of Prospective Secondary Mathematics Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bleiler, Sarah K.; Thompson, Denisse R.; Krajcevski, Milé

2014-01-01

Mathematics teachers play a unique role as experts who provide opportunities for students to engage in the practices of the mathematics community. Proof is a tool essential to the practice of mathematics, and therefore, if teachers are to provide adequate opportunities for students to engage with this tool, they must be able to validate student…

Providing Effective Professional Development for Teachers through the Lunar Workshops for Educators

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Canipe, Marti; Buxner, Sanlyn; Jones, Andrea; Hsu, Brooke; Shaner, Andy; Bleacher, Lora

2014-11-01

In order to integrate current scientific discoveries in the classroom, K-12 teachers benefit from professional development and support. The Lunar Workshops for Educators is a series of weeklong workshops for grade 6-9 science teachers focused on lunar science and exploration, sponsored by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) and conducted by the LRO Education and Public Outreach (E/PO) Team. The Lunar Workshops for Educators, have provided this professional development for teachers for the last five years. Program evaluation includes pre- and post- content tests and surveys related to classroom practice, daily surveys, and follow-up surveys conducted during the academic year following the summer workshops to assess how the knowledge and skills learned at the workshop are being used in the classroom. The evaluation of the workshop shows that the participants increased their overall knowledge of lunar science and exploration. Additionally, they gained knowledge about student misconceptions related to the Moon and ways to address those misconceptions. The workshops impacted the ways teachers taught about the Moon by providing them with resources to teach about the Moon and increased confidence in teaching about these topics. Participants reported ways that the workshop impacted their teaching practices beyond teaching about the Moon, encouraging them to include more inquiry and other teaching techniques demonstrated in the workshops in their science classes. Overall, the program evaluation has shown the Lunar Workshops for Educators are effective at increasing teachers’ knowledge about the Moon and use of inquiry-based teaching into their classrooms. Additionally, the program supports participant teachers in integrating current scientific discoveries into their classrooms.

Teachers' voices: A comparison of two secondary science teacher preparation programs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohlhaas Labuda, Kathryn

This dissertation, using cross-case qualitative methodology, investigates the salient and latent features of two philosophically different university-based secondary science teacher preparation programs. Written documents from the two programs and from the Salish I Research project provided the salient data. New teachers' interview transcripts provided the latent data. This study provides the opportunity to hear teachers voice their perceptions of preparation programs. Three questions were investigated in this research study. First, What are the salient features of two different secondary science teacher preparation programs? Second, What are the latent features of two different secondary science teacher programs as perceived by new teachers? Third, How do new secondary science teachers from different programs perceive their preservice programs? The last question incorporates teachers' perceptions of gaps and coherence in the programs and teachers' recommendations to improve their preservice programs. Salient features of the programs revealed differences in the types of certification, and the amounts and types of required course work. Both programs certified teachers at the secondary science level, but only M program certified their teachers as elementary science specialists. Program M required more semester hours of education and science course work than Program S. Although teachers from both programs perceived little coherence between their science and education courses, S-teachers presented a more fragmented picture of their education program and perceived fewer benefits from the program. Lack of relevance and courses that focused on elementary teaching were perceived as part of the problem. M-teachers perceived some cohesion through the use of cohorts in three consecutive semesters of science methods courses that provided multiple field experiences prior to student teaching. S-teachers did not perceive an organized philosophy of their program. M-teachers

Suicide and Homosexual Teens: What Can Biology Teachers Do to Help?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Mike U.; Drake, Mary Ann

2001-01-01

Discusses the teacher's role in helping students deal with homosexuality and suicide. Teachers can provide unbiased information about personal relevant biological issues; be good listeners and confidantes; and value each student without regard to race, gender, class, or sexual orientation. Provides useful information on addressing homosexuality in…

Outsourcing Physical Education in Primary Schools: Evaluating the Impact of Externally Provided Programmes on Generalist Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Whipp, Peter R.; Hutton, Heidi; Grove, J. Robert; Jackson, Ben

2011-01-01

In place of generalist delivery, externally provided physical activity programmes (EPPAPs) are potentially an effective method for offering primary school students specialist physical education (PE) instruction, as well as providing training for generalist classroom teachers. In the present study, a group of generalist teachers were interviewed…

The Road to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Expatriate Teachers' Pedagogical Practices in the Cultural Context of Saudi Arabian Higher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hamdan, Amani K.

2014-01-01

This case study explored the need for culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) in Saudi Arabian higher education, especially when students have a cultural background that differs from that of their instructor. The study documented how expatriate teachers structured their pedagogical practices in the Saudi Arabian context. It examined how these…

Exploring a Professional Development Model for Teaching Culturally Relevant Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Campeau, Rebecca K.

2013-01-01

An area of concern for school district administrators is the lack of training that teachers have using culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). A lack of training may reduce a teacher's effectiveness in meeting the needs of non-White students. Obstacles to attending trainings include the beliefs and attitudes of teachers and the relevance of training…

MTFeedback: Providing Notifications to Enhance Teacher Awareness of Small Group Work in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez-Maldonado, Roberto; Clayphan, Andrew; Yacef, Kalina; Kay, Judy

2015-01-01

The teacher has very important roles in the classroom, particularly as manager of most resources for learning activities and in providing timely feedback that can enhance learning. But teachers need to be aware of students' achievements and weaknesses to decide how to time feedback. We present MTFeedback, a system that harnesses the new…

Teacher Empowerment and Institutional Effectiveness in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jha, Avdhesh S.

2011-01-01

Teacher Empowerment means to equip a teacher for conceptual and practical teaching which focuses on the relevant syllabus topics. It means the power of the teacher to exercise his judgement of what, why, how, when and why to teach. It also insists on developing a harmonious relationship with the environment along with the right of the teacher to…

The Effectiveness of a Brief Asthma Education Intervention for Child Care Providers and Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Neuharth-Pritchett, Stacey; Getch, Yvette Q.

2016-01-01

Limited information exists about management of asthma in child care settings and primary school classrooms. The goal of this study was to evaluate a brief asthma management intervention for child care providers and primary school teachers. Child care providers and primary school teachers were recruited to participate in two 3-h workshops on asthma…

Providing for Student Voice in Classroom Management: Teachers' Views

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lewis, Ramon; Burman, Eva

2008-01-01

Recent research indicates that teachers would prefer to allow for more student voice in classroom discipline decision-making than is currently the case. This paper identifies factors that teachers suggest inhibit them from implementing their ideas of best disciplinary practice. It also examines which classroom discipline issues teachers are…

Mapping Culturally Relevant Pedagogy into Teacher Education Programs: A Critical Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Allen, Ayana; Hancock, Stephen D.; W. Lewis, Chance; Starker-Glass, Tehia

2017-01-01

Background/Context: Teacher education programs are charged with the daunting task of preparing the next generation of teachers. However, the extant literature has documented that teacher education programs have struggled to effectively arm teacher candidates with effective pedagogies to meet the needs of our increasingly diverse student…

Cognitive Processing about Classroom-Relevant Contexts: Teachers' Attention to and Utilization of Girls' Body Size, Ethnicity, Attractiveness, and Facial Affect

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wang, Shirley S.; Treat, Teresa A.; Brownell, Kelly D.

2008-01-01

This study examines 2 aspects of cognitive processing in person perception--attention and decision making--in classroom-relevant contexts. Teachers completed 2 implicit, performance-based tasks that characterized attention to and utilization of 4 student characteristics of interest: ethnicity, facial affect, body size, and attractiveness. Stimuli…

Providing Affordable, Community-Based Tutorial Services for K-8 Students Utilizing Master Teachers as Mentors to Preservice Education Majors.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lopez, Mary Kathryn

The preservice teacher education practicum described in this practicum paper sought to provide affordable, convenient reading tutorial services for K-8 children. Participants were mentor teachers, preservice teachers, and students from the community. A twilight school was established that provided professional development opportunites for teachers…

The Universe Adventure - Teachers

Science.gov Websites

Go Teachers The Universe Adventure provides a variety of supplementary resources to bring cosmology Bangs Activity .doc .rtf List of Relevant California Science Standards .doc .rtf Class Discussion Calendar" Activity .doc .rtf Practice with Orders of Magnitude Activity .doc .rtf Ordering the Events

Improving the Science and Mathematic Achievement of Mexican American Students Through Culturally Relevant Science. ERIC Digest.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marinez, Diana I.; Ortiz de Montellano, Bernardo R.

There are many ways in which science can be made culturally relevant: archeoastronomy, mathematics, geology, ethnobotany, chemistry, and art can all be taught from a perspective celebrating the accomplishments of Mexican American and American Indian science and encouraging exploration. A culturally relevant curriculum provides teachers with…

An Information and Technical Manual for the Computer-Assisted Teacher Training System (CATTS).

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Semmel, Melvyn I.; And Others

The manual presents technical information on the computer assisted teacher training system (CATTS) which aims at developing a versatile and economical computer based teacher training system with the capability of providing immediate analysis and feedback of data relevant to teacher pupil transactions in a classroom setting. The physical…

Supporting Teachers in Integrating Digital Technology into Language Arts Instruction to Promote Literacy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colwell, Jamie; Hutchison, Amy C.

2015-01-01

A systematic review of relevant literature was conducted to provide a source of information and practical guidelines for teachers and teacher educators to consider instructional methods for using digital tools in elementary language arts classrooms to promote literacy. Focal studies are highlighted to provide rich descriptions of practical uses…

Increasing the Rate of Presentation and Use of Signals in Elementary Classroom Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carnine, Douglas W.; Fink, William T.

1978-01-01

Two issues relevant to competency-based teacher training were investigated with 13 elementary teachers--the specification of acceptable implementation levels for validated techniques and the necessity and feasibility of providing training on those techniques. (Author)

Learning to Collaborate: General and Special Educators in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Pellegrino, Anthony; Weiss, Margaret; Regan, Kelley

2015-01-01

One of the foremost challenges for K-12 teachers is to provide relevant learning experiences in an environment of increasing accountability and student diversity. This balance is particularly consequential for students with disabilities who rely on special and general education teachers to ensure access to and success within the general…

Influence of Teacher Support and Personal Relevance on Academic Self-Efficacy and Enjoyment of Mathematics Lessons: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aldridge, Jill M.; Afari, Ernest; Fraser, Barry J.

2012-01-01

The purpose of our study was to examine the effects of two psychosocial features of the classroom environment (teacher support and personal relevance) on college students' academic self-efficacy and enjoyment of mathematics lessons. Data collected from 352 mathematics students attending three higher education institutions in the United Arab…

Do quantitative decadal forecasts from GCMs provide decision relevant skill?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suckling, E. B.; Smith, L. A.

2012-04-01

It is widely held that only physics-based simulation models can capture the dynamics required to provide decision-relevant probabilistic climate predictions. This fact in itself provides no evidence that predictions from today's GCMs are fit for purpose. Empirical (data-based) models are employed to make probability forecasts on decadal timescales, where it is argued that these 'physics free' forecasts provide a quantitative 'zero skill' target for the evaluation of forecasts based on more complicated models. It is demonstrated that these zero skill models are competitive with GCMs on decadal scales for probability forecasts evaluated over the last 50 years. Complications of statistical interpretation due to the 'hindcast' nature of this experiment, and the likely relevance of arguments that the lack of hindcast skill is irrelevant as the signal will soon 'come out of the noise' are discussed. A lack of decision relevant quantiative skill does not bring the science-based insights of anthropogenic warming into doubt, but it does call for a clear quantification of limits, as a function of lead time, for spatial and temporal scales on which decisions based on such model output are expected to prove maladaptive. Failing to do so may risk the credibility of science in support of policy in the long term. The performance amongst a collection of simulation models is evaluated, having transformed ensembles of point forecasts into probability distributions through the kernel dressing procedure [1], according to a selection of proper skill scores [2] and contrasted with purely data-based empirical models. Data-based models are unlikely to yield realistic forecasts for future climate change if the Earth system moves away from the conditions observed in the past, upon which the models are constructed; in this sense the empirical model defines zero skill. When should a decision relevant simulation model be expected to significantly outperform such empirical models? Probability

Relevant ESL for the Teenager.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wheatley, Iris Alicia Velez

This guide was prepared for the ESL teacher to help bilingual students learn the English reading and writing skills necessary to acquire a summer job. These lessons are relevant to students' needs, an important factor in generating interest and motivation. General objectives are: to design a relevant ESL program for teenagers; to help monolingual…

The Invisible Minority: Preparing Teachers to Meet the Needs of Gay and Lesbian Youth.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mathison, Carla

1998-01-01

Teacher educators can help prepare future educators to teach homosexual students by creating safe environments for homosexual students, providing positive role models, selecting relevant curriculum and activities, providing information and training for faculty, securing relevant library holdings, and conducting research on homosexual students.…

Personality, Resilience, Self-Regulation and Cognitive Ability Relevant to Teacher Selection

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sautelle, Eleanor; Bowles, Terry; Hattie, John; Arifin, Daniel N.

2015-01-01

The current study uses social judgment theory to inform the design of processes to be used in selecting teachers for training programs. Developing a comprehensive selection process to identify individuals who are likely to succeed as teachers is a mechanism for improving teacher quality and raising the profile of the profession. The design of such…

Emergency Health Preparedness: Expectations for Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Winkelman, Jack L.

Specific issues relevant to the emergency health preparedness of schools and the key roles and expectations applicable to teachers are outlined. It is noted that, while issues of legal liability relevant to teachers are complex, teachers are expected to: (1) anticipate possible risk or harm involved in activities; (2) give adequate warning of…

The Implementation of a Behavioural Support Programme: Teachers' Perceptions of the Programme and Themselves as Providers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ingemarson, Maria; Bodin, Maria; Rubenson, Birgitta; Guldbrandsson, Karin

2016-01-01

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how teachers received and perceived the school programme Prevention in School (PS), a positive behavioural support programme; how did the teachers perceive the programme characteristics and themselves as providers; and how did this affect programme implementation? Design/methodology/approach:…

Teachers Providing Social and Emotional Support: A Study of Advisor Role Enactment in Small High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Phillippo, Kate L.

2010-01-01

Background/Context: This study investigates the teacher's role in the student advisory process, which to date has generated limited research literature. Teachers who serve as student advisors assume a role that extends beyond the more traditional instructional role, and includes implied or explicit expectations to provide student advisees with…

Tutor-led teaching of procedural skills in the skills lab: Complexity, relevance and teaching competence from the medical teacher, tutor and student perspective.

PubMed

Lauter, Jan; Branchereau, Sylvie; Herzog, Wolfgang; Bugaj, Till Johannes; Nikendei, Christoph

2017-05-01

In current medical curricula, the transfer of procedural skills has received increasing attention. Skills lab learning and tutor-led teaching have become an inherent part of all medical curricula at German medical faculties. In 2011, the initial basis for the classification of clinical skills in medical school was created by the German Association for Medical Education (GMA) Committee's consensus statement on procedural skills. As a recommendation for medical curricula, the National Competency-based Catalogue of Learning Objectives (NKLM, 2015) lists procedural skills according to their curriculum integration and competency level. However, classification in regard to the perceived complexity, relevance, or teaching competency is still lacking. The present study aimed to investigate procedural skills taught at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg in regard to their complexity, relevance, and required teaching skills. To achieve this aim (1) the specific procedural skills in terms of complexity, that is, the degree of difficulty, and (2) the perceived relevance of taught procedural skills for studying and subsequent medical profession as well as (3) the personal preparation and required teaching skills were assessed in medical teachers, tutors and students. During the winter semester 2014/2015, the evaluations of all medical teachers, student tutors, and medical students in the skills lab teaching departments of internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynecology, and otorhinolaryngology at the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg were assessed via a quantitative cross-sectional questionnaire survey using 7-point Likert scales. The questionnaire comprised four item sets concerning 1) demographic details, 2) procedural skill complexity, 3) practical relevance, and 4) required preparation and teaching skills. Descriptive, quantitative analysis was used for questionnaire data. The survey included the data from 17 of 20 physicians (return rate: 85 %), 10 of 10 student tutors

Combined Student Ratings and Self-Assessment Provide Useful Feedback for Clinical Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stalmeijer, Renee E.; Dolmans, Diana H. J. M.; Wolfhagen, Ineke H. A. P.; Peters, Wim G.; van Coppenolle, Lieve; Scherpbier, Albert J. J. A.

2010-01-01

Many evaluation instruments have been developed to provide feedback to physicians on their clinical teaching but written feedback alone is not always effective. We explored whether feedback effectiveness improved when teachers' self-assessment was added to written feedback based on student ratings. 37 physicians (10 residents, 27 attending…

Teacher and student supports for implementation of the NGSS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Severance, Samuel

Through three articles, this dissertation examines the use of supports for implementing the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) within a large urban school district. Article one, titled Organizing for Teacher Agency in Curricular Co-design, examines the need for coherent curriculum materials that teachers' had a meaningful role in shaping and how the use of a co-design approach and specific tools and routines can help to address this need. Article two, titled Relevant Learning and Student Agency within a Citizen Science Design Challenge, examines the need for curriculum materials that provide students with learning experiences they find relevant and that expands their sense of agency and how a curriculum centered around a community-based citizen science design challenge can help achieve such an aim. Article three, titled Implementation of a Novel Professional Development Program to Support Teachers' Understanding of Modeling, examines the need for professional development that builds teachers' understanding of and skill in engaging their students in the practice of developing and using models and how a novel professional development program, the Next Generation Science Exemplar, can aid teachers in this regard by providing them with carefully sequenced professional development activities and specific modeling tools for use in the classroom.

Exploring Pre-Service School Counselling Teachers' Learning Needs: Perceptions of Teacher Educators and Student-Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yuan, Rui

2017-01-01

Drawing on the dual perspectives of teacher educators and student-teachers, this research explores the complex learning needs of pre-service school counselling teachers (SCTs) in China. Relying on data from in-depth interviews and relevant curriculum documents, the findings of the study demonstrate four critical needs of SCTs, namely, developing a…

Culturally relevant science: An approach to math science education for hispanics. Final technical report

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Montellano, B.O. de

1996-11-14

This progress report summarizes results of a teacher workshop. A letter sent to 17 teachers who had participated in the workshop requested a report of any activities undertaken and copies of lesson plans and materials developed. Only nine responses were received, and not all of them demonstrated a satisfactory level of activity. Teachers who submitted materials showing the most promise were invited to participate in the Summer Writing Workshop. A partial first draft of a companion volume for the teacher`s manual was written which provides a rationale for culturally relevant science and presents the cultural and scientific background needed. Themore » outline of the book is presented in Appendix 1. Appendix 2 is a sample chapter from the book.« less

Flipped ESL Teacher Professional Development: Embracing Change to Remain Relevant

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Razak, Rafiza Abdul; Kaur, Dalwinder; Halili, Siti Hajar; Ramlan, Zahri

2016-01-01

Many traditional professional development programs that are initiated to equip ESL teachers with knowledge and skills have been futile for numerous reasons. This paper addresses a gap in the recent research of ESL teachers' professional development. Literature has revealed many shortcomings of the traditional and online professional development…

Where's the Race in Culturally Relevant Pedagogy?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milner, H. Richard, IV

2017-01-01

Background/Context: When Ladson-Billings described the pedagogical practices of successful teachers of African American children and consequently conceptualized culturally relevant pedagogy as an analytic resource to describe and make sense of pedagogical practices of teachers, her discussion was situated in a frame that examined instructional…

You Asked, We Answered! A Podcasting Series by Scientists for K-12 Teachers Through the Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association (PAESTA)

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guertin, L. A.; Tait, K.

2015-12-01

The Pennsylvania Earth Science Teachers Association (PAESTA) recently initiated a podcasting series "You Asked, We Answered!" for K-12 teachers to increase their science content knowledge through short audio podcasts, supplemented with relevant resources. The 2015-2016 PAESTA President Kathy Tait generated the idea of tapping in to the content expertise of higher education faculty, post-doctoral researchers, and graduate students to assist K-12 teachers with increasing their own Earth and space content knowledge. As time and resources for professional development are decreasing for K-12 teachers, PAESTA is committed to not only providing curricular resources through our online database of inquiry-based exercises in the PAESTA Classroom, but providing an opportunity to learn science content from professionals in an audio format.Our goal at PAESTA has been to release at least one new podcast per month that answers the questions asked by PAESTA members. Each podcast is recorded by an Earth/space science professional with content expertise and placed online with supporting images, links, and relevant exercises found in the PAESTA Classroom. Each podcast is available through the PAESTA website (http://www.paesta.psu.edu/podcasts) and PAESTA iTunes channel (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/paesta-podcasts/id1017828453). For ADA compliance, the PAESTA website has a transcript for each audio file. In order to provide these podcasts, we need the participation of both K-12 teachers and science professionals. On the PAESTA Podcast website, K-12 teachers can submit discipline questions for us to pass along to our content experts, questions relating to the "what" and "how" of the Earth and space sciences, as well as questions about Earth and space science careers. We ask science professionals for help in answering the questions posed by teachers. We include online instructions and tips to help scientists generate their podcast and supporting materials.

In Support of Teachers' Learning: Specifying and Contextualising Teacher Inquiry as Professional Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hardy, Ian

2016-01-01

Drawing upon research into a case study of teacher inquiry in one school in Queensland, Australia, recent theorising into professional practice, and relevant literature on teachers' learning, this article reveals the complexity and particularity of teacher inquiry processes in support of teachers' learning. Specifically, the research reveals how…

Village Science: A Resource Handbook for Rural Alaskan Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dick, Alan

A resource handbook for rural Alaskan teachers covers village science, to make basic science concepts relevant to the physical environment in villages. Material is intended for use as filler for weeks that come up short on science materials, to provide stimulation for students who cannot see the relevance of science in their lives, and to help…

Concept Maps Provide a Window onto Preservice Elementary Teachers' Knowledge in the Teaching and Learning of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chichekian, Tanya; Shore, Bruce M.

2013-01-01

This collaborative concept-mapping exercise was conducted in a second-year mathematics methods course. Teachers' visual representations of their mathematical content and pedagogical knowledge provided insight into their understanding of how students learn mathematics. We collected 28 preservice student teachers' concept maps and analyzed them by…

Provide for Student Safety. Second Edition. Module E-5 of Category E--Instructional Management. Professional Teacher Education Module Series

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ohio State Univ., Columbus. National Center for Research in Vocational Education.

One in a series of 127 performance-based teacher education learning packages focusing on specific professional competencies of vocational teachers, this learning module deals with providing for student safety. It consists of four learning experiences. Covered in the individual learning experiences are the following topics: providing for student…

Researching the Real: Transforming the Science Fair through Relevant and Authentic Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davidson, Rosemary McBryan

This teacher research study documents the processes used to help students in an all-female, religious-based high school create science fair projects that are personally meaningful, scientifically sophisticated and up-to date in terms of science content. One-hundred sixteen young women in an honors chemistry class were introduced by their teacher to the methods used by science journalists when researching and crafting articles. The students then integrated these strategies into their science fair research through collaborative classroom activities designed by their teacher. Data collected during the process included audio and video tapes of classroom activities, student interviews, process work, finished projects, email conversations and the reflective journaling, annotated lesson plans, and memories of the lived experience by the teacher. The pedagogical changes which resulted from this project included the use of Read Aloud-Think Alouds (RATA) to introduce content and provide relevance, a discussion based topic selection process, the encouragement of relevant topic choices, the increased use of technology for learning activities and for sharing research, and an experimental design process driven by the student's personally relevant, topic choice. Built in feedback loops, provided by the teacher, peer editors and an outside editor, resulted in multiple revisions and expanded opportunities for communicating results to the community-at-large. Greater student engagement in science fair projects was evident: questioning for understanding, active involvement in decision making, collaboration within the classroom community, experience and expertise with reading, writing and the use of technology, sense of agency and interest in science related activities and careers all increased. Students communicated their evolving practices within the school community and became leaders who promoted the increased use of technology in all of their classes. Integrating journalistic

Reduction in Force. [and] Teacher Burnout.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dialogue: A Review of Labor-Management Cooperation in Public Education, 1984

1984-01-01

"Dialogue" is a review of labor-management cooperation in public education, whose goal is to provide teachers, administrators, school boards, and labor relations practitioners with analyses of critical issues, information about current projects, reviews of relevant literature, and a variety of special features. Each issue is generally devoted to a…

Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools: What Iterative Research Designs Can Teach Us

PubMed Central

Shernoff, Elisa S.; Maríñez-Lora, Ane M.; Frazier, Stacy L.; Jakobsons, Lara J.; Atkins, Marc S.; Bonner, Deborah

2012-01-01

Despite alarming rates and negative consequences associated with urban teacher attrition, mentoring programs often fail to target the strongest predictors of attrition: effectiveness around classroom management and engaging learners; and connectedness to colleagues. Using a mixed-method iterative development framework, we highlight the process of developing and evaluating the feasibility of a multi-component professional development model for urban early career teachers. The model includes linking novices with peer-nominated key opinion leader teachers and an external coach who work together to (1) provide intensive support in evidence-based practices for classroom management and engaging learners, and (2) connect new teachers with their larger network of colleagues. Fidelity measures and focus group data illustrated varying attendance rates throughout the school year and that although seminars and professional learning communities were delivered as intended, adaptations to enhance the relevance, authenticity, level, and type of instrumental support were needed. Implications for science and practice are discussed. PMID:23275682

Teachers Supporting Teachers in Urban Schools: What Iterative Research Designs Can Teach Us.

PubMed

Shernoff, Elisa S; Maríñez-Lora, Ane M; Frazier, Stacy L; Jakobsons, Lara J; Atkins, Marc S; Bonner, Deborah

2011-12-01

Despite alarming rates and negative consequences associated with urban teacher attrition, mentoring programs often fail to target the strongest predictors of attrition: effectiveness around classroom management and engaging learners; and connectedness to colleagues. Using a mixed-method iterative development framework, we highlight the process of developing and evaluating the feasibility of a multi-component professional development model for urban early career teachers. The model includes linking novices with peer-nominated key opinion leader teachers and an external coach who work together to (1) provide intensive support in evidence-based practices for classroom management and engaging learners, and (2) connect new teachers with their larger network of colleagues. Fidelity measures and focus group data illustrated varying attendance rates throughout the school year and that although seminars and professional learning communities were delivered as intended, adaptations to enhance the relevance, authenticity, level, and type of instrumental support were needed. Implications for science and practice are discussed.

Providing Early Childhood Teachers with Opportunities to Understand Diversity and the Achievement Gap

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Meece, Darrell; Wingate, Kimberly O'Kelley

2010-01-01

High quality teaching--providing children with support, feedback, and positive communication--is associated with closing the achievement gap between minority and majority children. It is important for students in teacher preparation programs to understand changes in curricular approaches to diversity--from the color-blind approach, to…

Teachers' Accounts of Their Perceptions and Practices of Providing Written Feedback to Nursing Students on Their Assignments

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Iqbal, Sajid; Gul, Raisa; Lakhani, Arusa; Rizvi, Nusrat Fatima

2014-01-01

Written feedback can facilitate students' learning in several ways. However, the teachers' practices of written feedback may be affected by various factors. This study aimed to explore the nurse teachers' accounts of their perceptions and practices of providing written feedback. A descriptive exploratory design was employed in the study. A…

The Role of Social Foundations in Preparing Teachers for Culturally Relevant Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ryan, Ann Marie

2006-01-01

Addressing the issue of teachers' low expectations of students of color and those in poverty poses significant challenges to teacher education. The growing body of research focused on this issue documents ways teachers can make a real difference in the educational lives of children. Ladson-Billings' (1992; 1994; 1995) and others demonstrate that…

An Investigation of Factors Related to Teachers' Organizational Commitment in Rural High Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Walker, Victoria LaShawn

2013-01-01

Relevant literature indicates that teachers who are not committed to their organization do not perform, do not provide a quality education for their students, and do not remain members of the organization; thus, making staffing, retaining, and maintaining highly qualified teachers problematic for rural schools. Limited research has been conducted…

Singapore Math: Challenging and Relevant Curriculum for the Gifted Learner

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hazelton, Melody; Brearley, Donna

2008-01-01

Teachers know their students must struggle and grapple with authentic tasks in order to grow stronger. Classroom teachers of the gifted know that their students cannot advance cognitively without facing relevant and challenging material that demands higher level thinking and reasoning. Therefore, the teacher of gifted mathematics students must…

Barriers to Providing the Sexuality Education That Teachers Believe Students Need

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eisenberg, Marla E.; Madsen, Nikki; Oliphant, Jennifer A.; Sieving, Renee E.

2013-01-01

Background: Sexuality education teachers' perspectives are important to gain a full understanding of the issues surrounding teaching this subject. This study uses a statewide sample of public school teachers to examine what sexuality education content is taught, what barriers teachers face, and which barriers are associated with teaching specific…

Teachers' Source Evaluation Self-Efficacy Predicts Their Use of Relevant Source Features When Evaluating the Trustworthiness of Web Sources on Special Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Andreassen, Rune; Bråten, Ivar

2013-01-01

Building on prior research and theory concerning source evaluation and the role of self-efficacy in the context of online learning, this study investigated the relationship between teachers' beliefs about their capability to evaluate the trustworthiness of sources and their reliance on relevant source features when judging the trustworthiness…

CESAME: Providing High Quality Professional Development in Science and Mathematics for K-12 Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hickman, Paul

2002-04-01

It is appropriate that after almost half a century of Science and Mathematics education reform we take a look back and a peek forward to understand the present state of this wonderfully complex system. Each of the components of this system including teaching, professional development, assessment, content and the district K-12 curriculum all need to work together if we hope to provide quality science, mathematics and technology education for ALL students. How do the state and national standards drive the system? How do state policies on student testing and teacher licensure come into play? How do we improve the preparation, retention and job satisfaction of our K-12 teachers? What initiatives have made or are making a difference? What else needs to be done? What can the physics community do to support local efforts? This job is too big for any single organization or individual but we each can contribute to the effort. Our Center at Northeastern University, with support from the National Science Foundation, has a sharply defined focus: to get high quality, research-based instructional materials into the hands of K-12 classroom teachers and provide the support they need to use the materials effectively in their classrooms.

Providing Elementary Teachers in South Texas with Professional Development to Improve Earth Science Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Borrego, H.; Ellins, K. K.

2011-12-01

Through three years of participation in the TeXas Earth and Space Science (TXESS) Revolution, an NSF-sponsored teacher professional development program, my knowledge of earth science, new pedagogical approaches, and confidence has improved dramatically. I have also received instructional materials and learned how to access high quality online resources and use a variety of web-based tools. In this session, I will share my experiences and report on how I used my own learning to help both teachers and students to become more earth science literate individuals. Earth Science test scores at the elementary level throughout South Texas are consistently low in comparison to other regions in the state. The majority of the teachers lack the content-knowledge, confidence, or experience to teach Earth Sciences. My TXESS Revolution experience helped me to understand the needs of these teachers and to identify teaching resources that would be useful to them. Particularly noteworthy are TERC's EarthLabs: Earth System Science and GLOBE activities. Although these Earthlab investigations are designed for high schools students, I demonstrated how they could be adapted for elementary students. As a result, I have provided professional development in the Earth Sciences to about 300 South Texas elementary teachers. TXESS Revolution has also equipped me to empower the students I teach. My students this past year presented their challenge Legacy Cycle Project to the community. The TXESS Revolution teamed up with the Texas Water Development Board to deliver training on the implementation of a new online challenged-based curriculum called the Water Exploration Legacy Cycles. This training gave me the tools to guide my students learning through authentic scientific research. To carry out their challenge, students researched an area of interest, read literature, consulted with experts in the field, consider different prospective, and presented their final products via PowerPoint, poster

Providing Authentic Research Experiences for Pre-Service Teachers through UNH's Transforming Earth System Science Education (TESSE) Program

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varner, R. K.; Furman, T.; Porter, W.; Darwish, A.; Graham, K.; Bryce, J.; Brown, D.; Finkel, L.; Froburg, E.; Guertin, L.; Hale, S. R.; Johnson, J.; von Damm, K.

2007-12-01

The University of New Hampshire's Transforming Earth System Science Education (UNH TESSE) project is designed to enrich the education and professional development of in-service and pre-service teachers, who teach or will teach Earth science curricula. As part of this program, pre-service teachers participated in an eight- week summer Research Immersion Experience (RIE). The main goal of the RIE is to provide authentic research experiences in Earth system science for teachers early in their careers in an effort to increase future teachers` comfort and confidence in bringing research endeavors to their students. Moreover, authentic research experiences for teachers will complement teachers` efforts to enhance inquiry-based instruction in their own classrooms. Eighteen pre-service teachers associated with our four participating institutions - Dillard University (4), Elizabeth City State University (4), Pennsylvania State University (5), and University of New Hampshire (UNH) (5) participated in the research immersion experience. Pre-service teachers were matched with a faculty mentor who advised their independent research activities. Each pre-service teacher was expected to collect and analyze his or her own data to address their research question. Some example topics researched by participants included: processes governing barrier island formation, comparison of formation and track of hurricanes Hugo and Katrina, environmental consequences of Katrina, numerical models of meander formation, climatic impacts on the growth of wetland plants, and the visual estimation of hydrothermal vent properties. Participants culminated their research experience with a public presentation to an audience of scientists and inservice teachers.

Providing a Full Circle of Support to Teachers in an Inclusive Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waldron, Nancy L.; Redd, Lacy

2011-01-01

Providing a full circle of support to teachers in an inclusive elementary school, the Newberry Elementary School (NES) principal and staff have worked for 5 years to ensure the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education classrooms. The authors would like to share their perceptions of how this full circle (the multiple systems) of…

Music Technology Partnerships: A Context for Music Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Greher, Gena R.

2011-01-01

The intersection of the arts with technology can provide educators with a focus that is more in tune with students' lived experiences, providing a relevant context for the making of meaning. Yet the technological advances of the last few decades have done little to alter the pedagogical practice of most music teachers. Teaching with technology…

Training and Resource Needs of Teachers Who Provide HIV Education to Special Population Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sawyer, Richard J.; Blake, Susan; Ledsky, Rebecca; Goodenow, Carol; Evans, Doug

2004-01-01

This study identified substantial training and resource needs for special education (SPED), transitional bilingual education/ English as a Second Language (TBE/ESL), and general education (GENED) HIV education teachers relative to providing appropriate, effective HIV education to students with disabilities (SWD) and language minority/Limited…

Perceived Support Provided by Teachers and Classmates and Students' Self-Reported Academic Initiative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danielsen, Anne G.; Wiium, Nora; Wilhelmsen, Britt U.; Wold, Bente

2010-01-01

The aim of this study was to examine how perceived support provided by teachers and classmates in the school class environment related to students' academic initiative. Data were from a stratified sample of 13-year-old students (n = 1591) from the Norwegian part of the World Health Organization's survey of Health Behaviour in School-aged Children…

The relationship of science teachers' beliefs and practices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Varrella, Gary Frank

1997-10-01

The relationships between constructivist and Science-Technology-Society (STS) teaching practices and teachers beliefs are the focus of this dissertation. This study is founded on the premise that individual teacher's beliefs are strong indicators of their instructional choices and teaching habits. The basic research premise is: the more complete and complex the individuals' belief structure about constructivist and STS teaching, the more expert and consistent the teacher is in the complementary constructivist teaching practices. This triangulation study used quantitative and qualitative methods. Three instruments were used: the Science Classroom Observation Rubric and Teaching Practices Assessment Inventory, from the Expert Science Teacher Educational Evaluation Model (ESTEEM), and the Science Teacher Beliefs About the Learning Environment Rubric (developed by the author). The results yielded significant multiple regression analysis regarding the relationships between beliefs and practices in constructivist/STS science teaching not documented elsewhere. Statistically significant factors contributing to expertise included the value teachers placed on their students as individuals whose ideas and contributions to the class are important, teachers' commitment to work as partners with students in the learning environment, and the importance of context, i.e., instruction which is personally relevant and meaningful. No differences were found related to gender or total years of teaching experience. A cross-case methodology was used to explore data from open-ended interviews and for examination of teachers' written comments regarding their interactions with students in the learning environment. Expertise was also shown to be linked to teachers with a commitment to life-long learning and to years of participation/leadership by teachers in state and national reform movements. Qualitative data corroborated these findings, providing a rich and authentic background to the

9/11: Maintaining Relevance for the Classroom Student

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Waterson, Robert A.; Rickey, Matt

2011-01-01

The experience of 9/11 prompted a transformation in one secondary teacher's approach to teaching controversial subjects based on the relevance to today's students. Soon after that fateful day, this teacher found a purpose and rationale for developing a very demanding curriculum on 9/11, and relates how his teaching unit has evolved by expanding…

Analysis of the Dynamics of the Sharing Knowledge between Cooperating Teacher and Teacher-in-Training: The Partners' Respective Roles

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Liliane, Portelance; Colette, Gervais

2009-01-01

Collaboration is becoming increasingly important in the realm of education (Novoa, 2004). For instance, as soon as training is undertaken, the future teacher must develop an ability to cooperate in a pedagogical context. However, in order to learn to make a relevant contribution to a teaching team's undertakings and to provide innovative…

Creating a Model of Acceptance: Preservice Teachers Interact with Non-English-Speaking Latino Parents Using Culturally Relevant Mathematics and Science Activities at Family Learning Events

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ramirez, Olga; McCollough, Cherie A.; Diaz, Zulmaris

2016-01-01

The following describes a culturally relevant mathematics and science content program implemented by preservice teachers (PSTs) at Family Math/Science Learning Events (FM/SLEs) conducted through two different university programs in south Texas. These experiences are required course activities designed to inform PSTs of the importance of…

Predictors of Culturally Relevant Attitudes and Expectations of Urban Music Teachers in the USA

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Doyle, Jennifer

2014-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of student/teacher demographic differences, teacher quality indicators (TQIs), teacher preparation and school/community support on urban music teacher attitudes toward and the expectations of their students. The study aimed to verify the psychometric appropriateness of the researcher-created…

Preparing Global-Ready Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Larson, Lotta; Brown, Jennifer S.

2017-01-01

To produce global-ready students who can thrive and compete in an interconnected world, we must prepare global-ready teachers. This article shares how one teacher preparation program focuses on literacy, technology, and globalization, while offering relevant K-12 applications.

Perspectives on Same-Sex Sexualities and Self-Harm amongst Service Providers and Teachers in Hong Kong

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tang, Denise

2014-01-01

This study investigates the perspectives of service providers working with Chinese lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) young people in Hong Kong secondary schools and maps the relationships between same-sex sexualities, religion, education and self-harm. Sixteen service providers, including secondary school teachers, social workers based on and off…

Advancing Climate Literacy through Investment in Science Education Faculty, and Future and Current Science Teachers: Providing Professional Learning, Instructional Materials, and a Model for Locally-Relevant and Culturally-Responsive Content

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halversen, C.; Apple, J. K.; McDonnell, J. D.; Weiss, E.

2014-12-01

The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) call for 5th grade students to "obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect Earth's resources and environment". Achieving this, and other objectives in NGSS, will require changes in the educational system for both students and teachers. Teachers need access to high quality instructional materials and continuous professional learning opportunities starting in pre-service education. Students need highly engaging and authentic learning experiences focused on content that is strategically interwoven with science practices. Pre-service and early career teachers, even at the secondary level, often have relatively weak understandings of the complex Earth systems science required for understanding climate change and hold alternative ideas and naïve beliefs about the nature of science. These naïve understandings cause difficulties in portraying and teaching science, especially considering what is being called for in NGSS. The ACLIPSE program focuses on middle school pre-service science teachers and education faculty because: (1) the concepts that underlie climate change align well with the disciplinary core ideas and practices in NGSS for middle grades; and (2) middle school is a critical time for capturing students interest in science as student engagement by eighth grade is the most effective predictor of student pursuit of science in high school and college. Capturing student attention at this age is critical for recruitment to STEM careers and lifelong climate literacy. THE ACLIPSE program uses cutting edge research and technology in ocean observing systems to provide educators with new tools to engage students that will lead to deeper understanding of the interactions between the ocean and climate systems. Establishing authentic, meaningful connections between indigenous and place-based, and technological climate observations will help generate a more holistic perspective

Motivating teachers in the developing world: Insights from research with English language teachers in Oman

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wyatt, Mark

2013-07-01

According to some commentators, targets set by the international community for bringing education to all children in developing countries are threatened by a teacher motivation crisis. For this crisis to be addressed, challenges to the motivation of teachers in such contexts need to be understood from perspectives both theoretical and comparative. Thus an analysis is required of the changes that have taken place particularly in countries whose education systems have developed rapidly in recent decades. Case studies of motivated teacher behaviour in such national contexts might be of relevance to educational reformers. Drawing upon the tenets of self-determination theory (SDT), this article begins by discussing the nature of the reported teacher motivation crisis in the developing world more generally. It then focuses on the Sultanate of Oman, highlighting recent historical developments there. Having thus set the scene, the author considers the extent to which negative environmental influences on teacher motivation in Oman have been addressed and then looks for evidence of intrinsic motivation in case studies of Omani English teachers. Returning to the developing world more generally, conclusions focus on how teachers' psychological needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness can be met through educational policies that reduce negative influences on teacher motivation and provide both inspiring professional development opportunities and work environments characterised by respect.

The Use of Discourse Analysis To Enhance ESP Teacher Knowledge: An Example Using Aviation English.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sullivan, Patricia; Girginer, Handan

2002-01-01

Provides an example of one process used by a teacher-researcher to increase and expand the use of relevant materials, knowledgeable teachers, and teamwork with subject matter professionals in English for academic purposes' (EAP) programs. The study was conducted for an EAP program in a civil aviation school in Turkey. (Author/VWL)

The Critical Aspects of No Child Left Behind for an Urban Teacher Education Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Irene; Paige, Susan; Bhattacharjee, Maria

2004-01-01

The faculty in the Department of Urban Education (DUE) at the University of Houston Downtown (UHD) have developed critical awareness of issues related to the responsibility of both teachers and teacher educators for addressing the mandates of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. The purpose of this article is to provide relevant information on…

Teacher Evaluation: Current Practices in OECD Countries and a Literature Review. OECD Education Working Papers, No. 23

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Isore, Marlene

2009-01-01

This paper discusses the most relevant issues concerning teacher evaluation in primary and secondary education by reviewing the recent literature and analysing current practices within the OECD countries. First, it provides a conceptual framework highlighting key features of teacher evaluation schemes. In particular, it emphasises the importance…

Television as a Teacher. A Research Monograph.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Coelho, George V., Ed.

In this collection of papers, 10 social researchers and mental health specialists review and assess the state of the art in relevant areas of their expertise to provide an up-to-date and comprehensive account of the role of television as a teacher. An overview of issues, findings, and recommendations by Elizabeth J. Roberts is followed by nine…

Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Into the Science Learning Progression Framework

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bernardo, Cyntra

This study integrated elements of culturally relevant pedagogy into a science learning progression framework, with the goal of enhancing teachers' cultural knowledge and thereby creating better teaching practices in an urban public high school science classroom. The study was conducted using teachers, an administrator, a science coach, and students involved in science courses in public high school. Through a qualitative intrinsic case study, data were collected and analyzed using traditional methods. Data from primary participants (educators) were analyzed through identification of big ideas, open coding, and themes. Through this process, patterns and emergent ideas were reported. Outcomes of this study demonstrated that educators lack knowledge about research-based academic frameworks and multicultural education strategies, but benefit through institutionally-based professional development. Students from diverse cultures responded positively to culturally-based instruction. Their progress was further manifested in better communication and discourse with their teacher and peers, and increased academic outcomes. This study has postulated and provided an exemplar for science teachers to expand and improve multicultural knowledge, ultimately transferring these skills to their pedagogical practice.

Responding to a Relevance Imperative in School Science and Mathematics: Humanising the Curriculum Through Story

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Darby-Hobbs, Linda

2013-02-01

There has been a recent push to reframe curriculum and pedagogy in ways that make school more meaningful and relevant to students' lives and perceived needs. This `relevance imperative' is evident in contemporary rhetoric surrounding quality education, and particularly in relation to the junior secondary years where student disengagement with schooling continues to abate. This paper explores how teachers translate this imperative into their mathematics and science teaching. Interview data and critical incidents from classroom practice are used to explore how six teachers attempted to make the subject matter meaningful for their students. Four `Categories of Meaning Making' emerged, highlighting key differences in how the nature of science and mathematics content constrained or enabled linkages between content and students' lifeworlds. While the teachers demonstrated a commitment to humanising the subject at some level, this analysis has shown that expecting teachers to make the curriculum relevant is not unproblematic because the meaning of relevance as a construct is complex, subject-specific, and embedded in understanding the human dimensions of learning, using, and identifying with, content. Through an examination of the construct of relevance and a humanistic turn in mathematics and science literature I argue for an expanded notion of relevance.

The Impact of Parents, Child Care Providers, Teachers, and Peers on Early Externalizing Trajectories

PubMed Central

Silver, Rebecca B.; Measelle, Jeffrey R.; Armstrong, Jeffrey M.; Essex, Marilyn J.

2010-01-01

This study utilized growth mixture modeling to examine the impact of parents, child care providers, teachers, and peers on the prediction of distinct developmental patterns of classroom externalizing behavior in elementary school. Among 241 children, three groups were identified. 84.6% of children exhibited consistently low externalizing behavior. The externalizing behavior of the Chronic High group (5.8%) remained elevated throughout elementary school; it increased over time in the Low Increasing group (9.5%). Negative relationships with teachers and peers in the kindergarten classroom increased the odds of having chronically high externalizing behavior. Teacher–child conflict increased the likelihood of a developmental pattern of escalating externalizing behavior. Boys were overrepresented in the behaviorally risky groups, and no sex differences in trajectory types were found. PMID:21094398

What's Relevant in Classical Literature?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hickman, Sara

1970-01-01

Argues the relevance of various aspects of the Thebian trilogy, "The Iliad," The Odyssey," Great Expectations," and Hamlet" to the concerns of today's high school students; a paper presented at annual convention of National Council of Teachers of English (59th, Washington, D.C., November 29, 1969). (RD)

A Blended Professional Development Program to Help a Teacher Learn to Provide One-to-One Scaffolding

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Belland, Brian R.; Burdo, Ryan; Gu, Jiangyue

2015-04-01

Argumentation is central to instruction centered on socio-scientific issues (Sadler & Donnelly in International Journal of Science Education, 28(12), 1463-1488, 2006. doi: 10.1080/09500690600708717). Teachers can play a big role in helping students engage in argumentation and solve authentic scientific problems. To do so, they need to learn one-to-one scaffolding—dynamic support to help students accomplish tasks that they could not complete unaided. This study explores a middle school science teacher's provision of one-to-one scaffolding during a problem-based learning unit, in which students argued about how to optimize the water quality of their local river. The blended professional development program incorporated three 1.5-h seminars, one 8-h workshop, and 4 weeks of online education activities. Data sources were video of three small groups per period, and what students typed in response to prompts from computer-based argumentation scaffolds. Results indicated that the teacher provided one-to-one scaffolding on a par with inquiry-oriented teachers described in the literature.

Remedial Drama: A Handbook for Teachers and Therapists.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jennings, Sue

The primary purpose of this book is to provide a practical working handbook for teachers and therapists. Chapter one is a general discussion of drama, with emphasis on its relevance to therapeutic work. Chapter two offers practical suggestions for starting a therapeutic session and for creating and extending specific environments. Chapter three…

Teacher Activity Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Delaware Univ., Newark. School of Education.

The purpose of this survey is to determine what teachers think are (a) the relevant teaching activities, skills, or procedures and (b) the appropriate time and place to develop competence in an activity. Multiple choice responses are given for each of the following teacher activities: (a) utilize more than one approach to controlling and…

The Role of Teachers' Future Self Guides in Creating L2 Development Opportunities in Teacher-Led Classroom Discourse: Reclaiming the Relevance of Language Teacher Cognition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kubanyiova, Magdalena

2015-01-01

Understanding the relationship between teachers' use of language in teacher-led discourse (TLD; Toth, 2008) and opportunities for L2 development is a well-established area of SLA research. This study examines one teacher's role in creating such opportunities in TLD in her EFL classes in a state secondary school by examining the inner resources…

The Perceptions of Principals and Teachers Regarding Mental Health Providers' Impact on Student Achievement in High Poverty Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perry, Teresa

2012-01-01

This study examined the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding mental health provider's impact on student achievement and behavior in high poverty schools using descriptive statistics, t-test, and two-way ANOVA. Respondents in this study shared similar views concerning principal and teacher satisfaction and levels of support for the…

Creating Supportive and Subversive Spaces as Professional Dyads Enact Culturally Relevant Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Glover, Crystal P.; Harris, Chinyere N.; Polson, Bilal; Boardman, Alicia

2017-01-01

In 2013, several leaders of the Early Childhood Education Assembly (ECEA) of the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) developed a multi-year project called Professional Dyads and Culturally Relevant Teaching (PDCRT). Funded by NCTE, early childhood teacher/teacher-educator dyads from various locations across the United States work…

The transition from learner to provider/teacher: the learning needs of new orthopaedic consultants.

PubMed

McKinstry, Brian; Macnicol, Malcolm; Elliot, Katy; Macpherson, Stuart

2005-05-17

Given the relatively sudden change from learner to teacher-provider that new consultants experience and the likely clinical and managerial challenges this may pose, there is a relative dearth of research into the problems they may have in relation to their new roles, or how supported they feel by senior colleagues acting in a mentoring role. This research sought to determine new consultants views on the quality and relevance of their training, its relationship to their confidence in clinical and managerial skills and their views on mentorship by senior colleagues. Detailed postal questionnaire to new consultants using open and closed questions. Open questionnaire to established consultants to validate new consultant responses. Respondents felt their clinical training was good and were generally confident in most clinical skills although some perceived deficiencies in more complex procedures and specialist areas. Most lacked confidence in many managerial skills. These perceptions were verified by established consultants. Although no relationship was found between total training time or quality of training with confidence, extra training in specific sub-specialities improved confidence in these areas. While most established consultants thought that mentorship would be useful for new consultants, only 52% of them shared this view. Training and experience in management should be given greater emphasis. There may be a need for specific, targeted training in complex procedures for doctors who experience lack of confidence in these areas. Mentorship should be offered to new consultants and recognised in the job-plan of the new consultant contract.

Perceptions of Head Start Teachers about Culturally Relevant Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gichuru, Margaret; Riley, Jeanetta G.; Robertson, Jo; Park, Mi-Hwa

2015-01-01

Children bring a variety of cultural, linguistic, and social backgrounds into the preschool classroom. When teachers consider these backgrounds, they are better able to create environments that reflect children's cultures and to design learning experiences that build on children's prior experiences. This qualitative study examined how children's…

Forming Artistic-Design Competency of Vocational Design Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Falco, Vera P.; Fedorov, Vladimir A.; Dorozhkin, Evgenij M.; Merkushova, Nina I.; Bakanach, Olga V.

2016-01-01

The relevance of the problem under study is based on the necessity to achieve effectiveness of the learning process aimed at forming a competent specialist and ensuring the quality of training of vocational teacher of a certain subject (design). The aim of the article is to provide theoretical substantiation, to elaborate and to test the…

Field-Based Teacher Education in Literacy: Preparing Teachers in Real Classroom Contexts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DeGraff, Tricia L.; Schmidt, Cynthia M.; Waddell, Jennifer H.

2015-01-01

For the past two decades, scholars have advocated for reforms in teacher education that emphasize relevant connections between theory and practice in university coursework and focus on clinical experiences. This paper is based on our experiences in designing and implementing an integrated literacy methods course in a field-based teacher education…

Is Teacher Knowledge Associated with Performance? On the Relationship between Teachers' General Pedagogical Knowledge and Instructional Quality

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

König, Johannes; Pflanzl, Barbara

2016-01-01

Researchers have identified general pedagogical knowledge (GPK) as a relevant category of teacher knowledge. However, hardly any study has examined the relationship between GPK of teachers and the instructional quality delivered to their students. This article therefore investigates the relationship between teachers' GPK assessed via a…

Teacher-to-Teacher Mentoring. For Tech Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gora, Kathleen; Hinson, Janice

2004-01-01

Many principals want to provide effective professional development to assist teachers with technology integration, but they don't know where to begin. Sometimes teachers participate in professional development opportunities offered by local school districts, but these one-size-fits-all experiences seldom address teachers' specific needs or skill…

Live Webcam Coaching to Help Early Elementary Classroom Teachers Provide Effective Literacy Instruction for Struggling Readers: The Targeted Reading Intervention

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Vernon-Feagans, Lynne; Kainz, Kirsten; Hedrick, Amy; Ginsberg, Marnie; Amendum, Steve

2013-01-01

This study evaluated whether the Targeted Reading Intervention (TRI), a classroom teacher professional development program delivered through webcam technology literacy coaching, could provide rural classroom teachers with the instructional skills to help struggling readers progress rapidly in early reading. Fifteen rural schools were randomly…

Community Mapping as a Tool for Developing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Tambra O.; Bryson, Brandy S.

2018-01-01

Despite more than two decades of research supporting the use of culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) to increase academic outcomes for culturally and linguistically diverse students, teacher education programs continue to struggle with helping preservice teachers to develop this pedagogical stance. This article explores the process and outcomes of a…

IPY STEM Polar Connections Links Teachers with the Global Relevance of the High Latitudes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brigham-Grette, J.; Sternheim, M.; Bradley, R.; Caissie, B.; Snyder, R.; Devlin, K.; Silver, M.; Hargraves, H.

2008-12-01

IPY STEM Polar Connections is a curriculum development and professional development program involving a summer residential institute at UMass-Amherst and academic year, on-line communication for teachers involved in the professional development of colleagues. The project produces and disseminates a range of curriculum modules related to the Polar regions and climate change. The purpose of the summer institutes (2008 and 2009) is to test the modules and prepare teachers to disseminate selected materials in workshops in their districts, in their states and nationally. The institute agenda balanced content presentations with hands-on activities for use by teachers with diverse backgrounds and classroom settings. Power point presentations and accompanying flash videos are all posted on our website along with teacher guides and student handouts. Most of the materials were designed to be adaptable to a range of inquiry-based levels. The teachers shared their own experiences with dissemination in rounds of focus groups. Pre institute and post institute surveys confirmed our success in increasing the personal knowledge base of the teachers despite the fact that most were veteran teachers. The main outcomes of participation were the development of relationships with other teachers, enhanced knowledge of earth system science and inspiration for introducing the materials to their students. Many did see funding, time and state frameworks as potential barriers to including materials in their classrooms.

How pre-service teachers' personality traits, self-efficacy, and discipline strategies contribute to the teacher-student relationship.

PubMed

de Jong, Romi; Mainhard, Tim; van Tartwijk, Jan; Veldman, Ietje; Verloop, Nico; Wubbels, Theo

2014-06-01

Although the teacher-student relationship is a well-documented phenomenon, few attempts have been made to identify its predictors. Research has mainly focused on in-service teachers, less is known about characteristics of pre-service teachers in relation to the teacher-student relationship. The purpose of this study was to identify the predictors of pre-service secondary teachers' relationships with their students. It was hypothesized that friendliness and extraversion, self-efficacy in classroom management and in student engagement, and various discipline strategies would contribute to the teacher-student relationship in terms of influence and affiliation. A total of 120 pre-service teachers in teacher education programmes participated. Data on pre-service teachers' background (e.g., gender and age), personality traits, and self-efficacy were gathered with teacher questionnaires; data on teachers' discipline strategies and the teacher-student relationship with student questionnaires. The two personality traits and self-efficacy appeared not to be related to the teacher-student relationship in terms of affiliation or influence. However, significant relationships were found between the different discipline strategies and the teacher-student relationship in terms of influence and affiliation. There were differential effects for gender on the relationship between discipline strategies on the one hand and influence and affiliation on the other. This study provides relevant new insights into the research fields of classroom management and interpersonal relationships in education. It contributes to our understanding of discipline strategies by fine tuning an existing instrument and revealing interesting connections with the teacher-student relationship. Specific gender effects on this connection are discussed, as are implications for practice. © 2013 The British Psychological Society.

Perspective Consciousness and Cultural Relevancy: Partnership Considerations for the Re-Conceptualization of Music Teacher Preparation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Burton, Suzanne L.

2011-01-01

Strong school-university partnerships yield effective music teachers. However, music teacher preparation curriculum has undergone little reform over the years, resulting in a homogeneous P-12 curriculum. Encouraging preservice music teachers to consider cultural and pedagogical differences holds promise for changing music teacher preparation and…

Teacher Thinking: The Development of Skill in Using Two Models of Teaching and Model-Relevant Thinking.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dalton, Michael; Dodd, Jennifer

The purpose of this study was to learn about teachers' thinking processes as they attempted to implement in their classrooms two recently acquired models of teaching. The first, the concept attainment strategy, focused on having students categorize people, places, or events into classes according to certain cues provided by positive or negative…

Barriers to providing the sexuality education that teachers believe students need.

PubMed

Eisenberg, Marla E; Madsen, Nikki; Oliphant, Jennifer A; Sieving, Renee E

2013-05-01

Sexuality education teachers' perspectives are important to gain a full understanding of the issues surrounding teaching this subject. This study uses a statewide sample of public school teachers to examine what sexuality education content is taught, what barriers teachers face, and which barriers are associated with teaching specific topics. Participants included 368 middle and high school teachers with sexuality education assignments in Minnesota. Survey data included topics they teach, what they think they should teach, and barriers they face. Logistic regression was used to examine associations between barriers and teaching each of 9 sexual health topics, among those who believed the topic should be taught. Almost two thirds of participants faced structural barriers; 45% were concerned about parent, student, or administrator response; and one quarter reported restrictive policies. Structural barriers were inversely associated with teaching about communication (OR = 0.20), teen parenting (OR = 0.34), and abortion (OR = 0.32); concerns about responses were associated only with teaching about sexual violence (OR = 0.42); and restrictive policies were inversely associated with teaching about abortion (OR = 0.23) and sexual orientation (OR = 0.47). Addressing teachers' barriers requires a multipronged approach, including curriculum development and evaluation, training, and reframing the policy debate to support a wider range of sexuality education topics. © 2013, American School Health Association.

When Are Children Ready for Kindergarten? Views of Families, Kindergarten Teachers, and Child Care Providers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Harradine, Christine C.; Clifford, Richard M.

This study compared the beliefs of parents of preschoolers, kindergarten teachers, and child care providers in North Carolina about the characteristics children should have upon entry to public school kindergarten. Surveys were administered statewide through in-person or telephone interviews to 757 parents (half receiving public assistance), 575…

Supporting Secondary Readers: When Teachers Provide the "What," Not the "How"

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ness, Molly K.

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore and understand the instructional strategies that middle and high school teachers used to support struggling readers. Data from 2,400 minutes of direct classroom observation and interviews of secondary content-area teachers revealed that explicit reading comprehension instruction was not a significant way in…

Engaging Teachers as Learners: Modeling Professional Development for Adult Literacy Providers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hanna, Mary Barbara; Salzman, James A.; Reynolds, Sharon L.; Fergus, Katherine B.

2010-01-01

As professional developers for the Adult Basic Literacy Education (ABLE) system in Ohio, the authors have focused their efforts over the last several years on more actively engaging adult basic education teachers as learners in the professional development they offer. By creating activities that engage teachers in active learning with their adult…

Dispatches from the front: emergency medicine teachers' perceptions of competency-based education.

PubMed

Bandiera, Glen; Lendrum, David

2011-05-01

Controversy exists regarding the applicability of competency-based education during clinical rotations in emergency medicine (EM). Little has been written about the perceptions of front-line teachers regarding one such competency-based education paradigm, the CanMEDS framework. We undertook to determine 1) what perceptions exist among front-line teachers at two academic health science emergency departments (EDs) regarding the use of the CanMEDS roles to frame what residents should learn on ED rotations and 2) how those same teachers envision practically incorporating the CanMEDS roles into feedback provided to residents. Teachers at two sites volunteered for a semistructured focus group study. Focus groups were moderated by an experienced qualitative researcher, and verbatim transcriptions were coded by two independent reviewers. The codes were merged into final themes. The final focus group was used to further explore issues raised and test assumptions made in the preceding groups. In five focus groups involving 21 participants, the Medical Expert and Professional roles were seen as most relevant to an EM rotation, whereas the Health Advocate, Manager, Scholar, and Collaborator roles were least relevant. On further exploration, however, faculty identified highly relevant components of each role that they could envision teaching in an ED. Participants also felt that the framework helped highlight the breadth of physician competencies and provided structure for teaching and feedback. EM faculty find the CanMEDS framework helpful for structuring teaching and learning and that many elements of the roles, when defined, are feasible to integrate into a clinical rotation.

An Analysis of Social Skills Instruction Provided in Teacher Education and In-Service Training Programs for General and Special Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dobbins, Nicole; Higgins, Kyle; Pierce, Tom; Tandy, Richard D.; Tincani, Matt

2010-01-01

An adapted version of the "Teacher/Staff Skillstreaming Checklist" was used to determine the level, type, and area of social skills instruction provided to general and special education teachers. Nine universities participated in the study in which facilitators advertised the adapted questionnaire to licensed general and special education teachers…

Promoting Field Trip Confidence: Teachers Providing Insights for Pre-Service Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ateskan, Armagan; Lane, Jennie F.

2016-01-01

Pre-service teachers need experiences in practical matters as a part of field trip preparations programmes. For 14 years, a private, non-profit university in Turkey has involved pre-service teachers in field trip planning, implementation and evaluation. A programme assessment was conducted through a case study to examine the long-term effects of…

Teacher-Provided Positive Attending to Improve Student Behavior

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Perle, Jonathan G.

2016-01-01

A teacher serves many important roles within a classroom, including an educator and a manager of child behavior. Inattention, overactivity, and noncompliance have long been cited as some of the most common areas of reported difficulty for schools (Axelrod & Zank, 2012; Goldstein, 1995). The evidence-based practice of positive attending (i.e.,…

Creating Highly Qualified Teachers: Maximizing University Resources to Provide Professional Development in Rural Areas

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mollenkopf, Dawn L.

2009-01-01

The "highly qualified teacher" requirement of No Child Left Behind has put pressure on rural school districts to recruit and retain highly qualified regular and special education teachers. If necessary, they may utilize uncertified, rural teachers with provisional certification; however, these teachers may find completing the necessary…

An Evaluation of a Media Literacy Program Training Workshop for Late Elementary School Teachers

PubMed Central

Scull, Tracy Marie; Kupersmidt, Janis Beth

2012-01-01

The present study examined the efficacy of a media literacy education, substance abuse prevention training workshop for late elementary school teachers. Analyses revealed that the randomly assigned intervention (n = 18) and control (n = 23) teachers were similar in demographic characteristics and pre-training beliefs and knowledge. Teachers who participated in the workshop reported stronger beliefs in the importance of and familiarity with media literacy education and scored higher on a direct assessment of media deconstruction skills than teachers in the control group. Teachers reported positive program assessment ratings. This randomized controlled trial provides evidence that a one-day teacher training workshop on media literacy education is effective at improving teachers’ beliefs and knowledge about media literacy that are relevant for successful student outcomes. PMID:23275894

Teacher Pay and Teacher Aptitude

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leigh, Andrew

2012-01-01

Can changes in teacher pay encourage more able individuals to enter the teaching profession? So far, studies of the impact of pay on the aptitude distribution of teachers have provided mixed evidence on the extent to which altering teacher salaries represents a feasible solution to the teacher quality problem. One possible reason is that these…

Teachers' Self Efficacy: Is Reporting Non-Significant Results Essential?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Moalosi, Smitta Waitshega Tefo

2013-01-01

Self-efficacious teachers are viewed as having the ability to organize relevant activities, patient with students who are struggling in learning, and spending more time designing relevant teaching activities. The teachers exhibit good performance and probably remain committed to their work. And they are committed to organizing appropriate teaching…

Using partnerships with scientists to enhance teacher capacity to address the NGSS

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pavelsky, T.; Haine, D. B.; Drostin, M.

2013-12-01

Increasingly, scientists are seeking outreach experts to assist with the education and outreach components of their research grants. These experts have the skills and expertise to assist with translating scientific research into lessons and activities that are aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as well as state standards, are STEM-focused and that address the realities of the K-12 science classroom. Since 2007, the Institute for the Environment (IE) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been conducting teacher professional development and high school student science enrichment programs to promote climate literacy. Partnering with scientists to deepen content knowledge and promote engagement with technology and real data has been a successful strategy for cultivating increased climate literacy among teachers and students. In this session, we will share strategies for effectively engaging scientists in K-12 educational activities by providing specific examples of the various ways in which scientists can be integrated into programming and their research translated into relevant classroom activities. Engaging scientists and translating their research into classroom activities is an approach that becomes even more relevant with the advent of the NGSS. The NGSS's Disciplinary Core Ideas (DCIs) that encompass climate literacy can be addressed by partnering with scientists to provide teachers with current content knowledge and technological tools needed to promote integration of relevant science and engineering practices and cross-cutting themes. Here we highlight a successful partnership in which IE science educators collaborated with with a faculty member to develop a lesson for North Carolina teachers introducing them to new research on satellite remote sensing of the water cycle, while also promoting student engagement with local data. The resulting lesson was featured during a two-day, IE-led teacher workshop for 21 North Carolina

Developing Teacher Leadership in Iowa: Saydel and Central Decatur Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, 2014

2014-01-01

Iowa is working to provide teachers with more effective and relevant professional development that measurably increases their instructional skills and their students' learning growth. This is particularly important as new Iowa Core Standards with higher expectations for student learning are put in place. While the Iowa Core focuses on what…

Supporting students' scientific explanations: A case study investigating the synergy focusing on a teacher's practices when providing instruction and using mobile devices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Delen, Ibrahim

Engage students in constructing scientific practices is a critical component of science instruction. Therefore a number of researchers have developed software programs to help students and teachers in this hard task. The Zydeco group, designed a mobile application called Zydeco, which enables students to collect data inside and outside the classroom, and then use the data to create scientific explanations by using claim-evidence-reasoning framework. Previous technologies designed to support scientific explanations focused on how these programs improve students' scientific explanations, but these programs ignored how scientific explanation technologies can support teacher practices. Thus, to increase our knowledge how different scaffolds can work together, this study aimed to portray the synergy between a teacher's instructional practices (part 1) and using supports within a mobile devices (part 2) to support students in constructing explanations. Synergy can be thought of as generic and content-specific scaffolds working together to enable students to accomplish challenging tasks, such as creating explanations that they would not normally be able to do without the scaffolds working together. Providing instruction (part 1) focused on understanding how the teacher scaffolds students' initial understanding of the claim-evidence-reasoning (CER) framework. The second component of examining synergy (part 2: using mobile devices) investigated how this teacher used mobile devices to provide feedback when students created explanations. The synergy between providing instruction and using mobile devices was investigated by analyzing a middle school teacher's practices in two different units (plants and water quality). Next, this study focused on describing how the level of synergy influenced the quality of students' scientific explanations. Finally, I investigated the role of focused teaching intervention sessions to inform teacher in relation to students' performance. In

Meeting the Challenges of Diversity and Relevance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schwan-Smith, Margaret; Silver, Edward A.

1995-01-01

Discusses the QUASAR Project, which has worked with middle school teachers in disadvantaged communities in order to help increase the relevance of mathematics by making connections between the mathematics taught in school and the lives of students. (16 references) (MKR)

Positive Behavior Supports in Classrooms and Schools: Effective and Practical Strategies for Teachers and Other Service Providers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Storey, Keith; Post, Michal

2012-01-01

This unique book will provide teachers and other service providers the knowledge and skills for positive behavior supports in school settings, thereby improving the academic and social skills of their students. The text is generic across age levels K-12, and focuses on the positive behavior supports in school settings. Each chapter begins with Key…

Factors in Instructional Decision-Making, Ratings of Evidence and Intended Instructional Practices of Australian Final Year Teacher Education Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Carter, Mark; Stephenson, Jennifer; Hopper, Toni

2015-01-01

There has been increasing interest in an evidence-based approach to education in Australia, but relatively little research has provided relevant data on knowledge of the evidence base for instructional practices among teachers preparing to enter the profession. Final year teacher education students (N = 290) in 15 Australian tertiary institutions…

Integration of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy into the Science Learning Progression Framework

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bernardo, Cyntra

2017-01-01

This study integrated elements of culturally relevant pedagogy into a science learning progression framework, with the goal of enhancing teachers' cultural knowledge and thereby creating better teaching practices in an urban public high school science classroom. The study was conducted using teachers, an administrator, a science coach, and…

Supporting Immersion Teachers: An Autoethnography

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Speece, Lauren

2017-01-01

Immersion programs face a variety of challenges that are common to the field, such as lack of materials appropriate for students' language abilities, assessment, teacher recruitment and retention, balancing content and language, and relevant, high quality professional development for teachers. However, within specific micro-contexts, other issues…

Friendship with Old Order Mennonite Teachers Develops Cultural Responsiveness in Preservice Special Education Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knotts, J. Dusteen; Keesey, Susan

2016-01-01

Developing preservice teachers with a strong understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy should be a priority for all teacher education programs. Although much focus is placed on diversity in urban areas, diverse classrooms are found in all education settings. This paper demonstrates how a rural opportunity expanded the cultural awareness and…

Professional Development That Promotes Powerful Interactions: Using Teacher Book Clubs to Reflect on Quality in Teacher-Child Relationships

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

White, Kelley Mayer

2016-01-01

For a majority of teachers, traditional professional development workshops lack relevancy and leave teachers on their own to implement what was learned. Workshops are frequently structured in ways in which teachers are seen simply as recipients of information handed down by trainers (a more passive role) versus those who reflect on and construct…

Developing Preservice Teachers' Knowledge of Science Teaching Through Video Clubs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Johnson, Heather J.; Cotterman, Michelle E.

2015-06-01

Though an adequate understanding of content is a natural prerequisite of teaching (Carlsen in Journal of Research in Science Teaching 30:471-481, 1993), teachers also need to be able to interpret content in ways that facilitate student learning. How to best support novice teachers in developing and refining their content knowledge for teaching is a crucial and ongoing question for preservice teacher educators. Recently, video clubs are being explored as potential contexts for teacher learning (Barnhart & van Es in Teaching and Teacher Education 45:83-93, 2015; Sherin & Han in Teaching and Teacher Education 20:163-183, 2004). We hypothesized that pairing video clubs with student teaching experiences would provide a forum for preservice teachers to discuss issues relevant to their professional trajectory through exposure to models of peer teaching and opportunities to reflect on practice. In this study, we explored how secondary science preservice teachers used video club to restructure their overall science knowledge into science knowledge for teaching. Our findings suggest that video clubs allowed preservice teachers to access and leverage student thinking and instructional resources to deepen their understanding of science content and trajectories for science learning.

[Effort-Reward Imbalance and psychophysical health of teachers].

PubMed

Zurlo, Maria Clelia; Pes, Daniela

2012-01-01

The present study referred to the Effort-Reward Imbalance Model applied to the evaluation of teacher stress and, by means of the italian version of the ERI test, explored the connections between the dimensions of the model and the specific effects of occupational stress on teacher's psychophysical diseases and leaving intentions. METHODS. The: subjects were 476 teachers working in Campania (region in southern Italy), belonging to all levels of teaching, who completed a questionnaire containing measures of Effort-Reward Imbalance, psychophysical health and intention to leave the teaching profession. RESULTS. Results showed the relevant: perception, among teachers, of Effort-reward Imbalance and of different physical and psychological diseases. All the dimensions of the ERI model emerged to be significantly related, in the direction stated by the model, to the different forms of psychological and physical disease considered, highlighting specific influences on them. The ERI-test and model provide a useful measure and a significative interpretative frame to explore the dimensions of teacher's stress and to arrange interventions for the prevention of psychophysical diseases.

Preparing Science Teachers for the future

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stein, Fredrick

2002-04-01

What will teachers need in the future to be successful? What will "successful" mean in the future? Are the teaching approaches learned 40 years ago still relevant for tomorrow's classrooms? Will technology really change the way physics is taught (K-16)? Will we close the performance gap between students of differing ethnicity? Are schools of education rising to the challenge to answer these questions? Can college and university physics departments rise to the challenge of presenting physics to all students in an engaging manner? What can the APS, in partnership with AAPT and AIP, do to find the answers and provide strategies to improve the science preparation of future teachers? PhysTEC aims to help physics and education faculty work together to provide an education for future teachers that emphasizes a student-centered, hands-on, inquiry-based approach to learning science. The compelling evidence produced from Physics Education Research warrants this approach. A National Science Foundation grant of 5.76 million and a 498 thousand grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education support PhysTEC, its partners and activities. http://www.phystec.org/

The development of an instrument for evaluating clinical teachers: involving stakeholders to determine content validity.

PubMed

Stalmeijer, Renée E; Dolmans, Diana H J M; Wolfhagen, Ineke H A P; Muijtjens, Arno M M; Scherpbier, Albert J J A

2008-01-01

Research indicates that the quality of supervision strongly influences the learning of medical students in clinical practice. Clinical teachers need feedback to improve their supervisory skills. The available instruments either lack a clear theoretical framework or are not suitable for providing feedback to individual teachers. We developed an evaluation instrument based on the 'cognitive apprenticeship model'. The aim was to estimate the content validity of the developed instrument. Item relevance was rated on a five-point scale (1 = highly irrelevant, 5 = highly relevant) by three groups of stakeholders in undergraduate clinical teaching: educationalists (N = 12), doctors (N = 16) and students (N = 12). Additionally, stakeholders commented on content, wording and omission of items. The items were generally rated as very relevant (Mean = 4.3, SD = 0.38, response = 95%) and any differences between the stakeholder groups were small. The results led to elimination of 4 items, rewording of 13 items and addition of 1 item. The cognitive apprenticeship model appears to offer a useful framework for the development of an evaluation instrument aimed at providing feedback to individual clinical teachers on the quality of student supervision. Further studies in larger populations will have to establish the instrument's statistical validity and generalizability.

Teachers' Perceptions of the Relevance and Usefulness of Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shoemaker, Susan F.

2013-01-01

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to investigate, through interviews, secondary teachers' perceptions of the level of the value, applicability, and implementation of skills learned within professional development offerings in the targeted school district. Non-probability, stratified, purposeful sampling was utilized to…

Prospective Teachers' Learning to Provide Instructional Explanations: How Does It Look and What Might It Take?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Charalambous, Charalambos Y.; Hill, Heather C.; Ball, Deborah L.

2011-01-01

Several studies have documented prospective teachers' (PSTs) difficulties in offering instructional explanations. However, less is known about PSTs' learning to provide explanations. To address this gap, we trace changes in the explanations offered by a purposeful sample of PSTs before and after a mathematics content/methods course sequence.…

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy: Clashes and Confrontations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scherff, Lisa, Ed.; Spector, Karen, Ed.

2010-01-01

The authors in this edited volume reflect on their experiences with culturally relevant pedagogy--as students, as teachers, as researchers--and how these experiences were often at odds with their backgrounds and/or expectations. Each of the authors speaks to the complexity and difficulty in attempting to address students' cultures, create learning…

Teachers' Voices on Integrating Metacognition into Science Education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ben-David, Adi; Orion, Nir

2013-12-01

This study is an attempt to gain new insight, on behalf of science teachers, into the integration of metacognition (MC) into science education. Participants were 44 elementary school science teachers attending an in-service teacher-training (INST) program. Data collection was carried out by several data sources: recordings of all verbal discussions that took place during the program, teachers' written reflections, and semi-structured individual interviews. Our study provides a qualitative analysis of the 44 teachers' voices as a group, as well as a detailed case-study narrative analysis of three teachers' stories The findings show that the teachers' intuitive (pre-instructional) thinking was incomplete and unsatisfactory and their voices were skeptical and against the integration of MC. After teachers had mastered the notion of MC in the INST program, the following outcomes have been identified: (a) teachers expressed amazement at how such an important and relevant issue had been almost invisible to them; (b) teachers identified the affective character of metacognitive experiences as the most significant facet of MC, which acts as a mediator between teaching and learning; (c) the complete lack of learning materials addressing MC and the absence of supportive in-classroom guidance were identified as the major obstacles for its implementation; (d) teachers expressed a willingness to continue their professional development toward expanding their abilities to integrate MC as an inseparable component of the science curriculum. The implications of the findings for professional development courses in the field of MC are discussed.

Supporting Teachers Learning Through the Collaborative Design of Technology-Enhanced Science Lessons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kafyulilo, Ayoub C.; Fisser, Petra; Voogt, Joke

2015-12-01

This study used the Interconnected Model of Professional Growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth in Teaching and Teacher Education, 18, 947-967, 2002) to unravel how science teachers' technology integration knowledge and skills developed in a professional development arrangement. The professional development arrangement used Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge as a conceptual framework and included collaborative design of technology-enhanced science lessons, implementation of the lessons and reflection on outcomes. Support to facilitate the process was offered in the form of collaboration guidelines, online learning materials, exemplary lessons and the availability of an expert. Twenty teachers participated in the intervention. Pre- and post-intervention results showed improvements in teachers' perceived and demonstrated knowledge and skills in integrating technology in science teaching. Collaboration guidelines helped the teams to understand the design process, while exemplary materials provided a picture of the product they had to design. The availability of relevant online materials simplified the design process. The expert was important in providing technological and pedagogical support during design and implementation, and reflected with teachers on how to cope with problems met during implementation.

Teachers' Perspectives on Providing Support to Children after Trauma: A Qualitative Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alisic, Eva

2012-01-01

A considerable number of children are exposed to extreme stressors such as the sudden loss of a loved one, serious traffic accidents, violence, and disaster. In order to facilitate school psychologists' assistance of teachers working with traumatized children, this study aimed to explore elementary school teachers' perspectives. Using a…

Perceptions and Practices of Culturally Relevant Science Teaching in American Indian Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nam, Younkyeong; Roehrig, Gillian; Kern, Anne; Reynolds, Bree

2013-01-01

This study explores the perceptions of culturally relevant science teaching of 35 teachers of American Indian students. These teachers participated in professional development designed to help them better understand climate change science content and teaching climate change using both Western science and traditional and cultural knowledge. Teacher…

An International Perspective on Classroom Management: What Should Prospective Teachers Learn?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wubbels, Theo

2011-01-01

Drawing upon a review of relevant literature, this paper provides an overview of the treatment of classroom management in teacher education and teaching around the world. Six approaches to classroom management are distinguished: classroom management approaches that focus on external control of behaviour, on internal control, on classroom ecology,…

Male Teacher Shortage: Black Teachers' Perspectives

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martino, Wayne; Rezai-Rashti, Goli M.

2010-01-01

In this paper the authors draw on the perspectives of black teachers to provide a more nuanced analysis of male teacher shortage. Interviews with two Caribbean teachers in Toronto, Canada, are employed to illuminate the limits of an explanatory framework that foregrounds the singularity of gender as a basis for advocating male teachers as role…

What Motivates Students to Provide Feedback to Teachers about Teaching and Learning? An Expectancy Theory Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caulfield, Jay

2007-01-01

The purpose of this empirical research study was to investigate what motivates students to provide formative anonymous feedback to teachers regarding their perceptions of the teaching and learning experience in order to improve student learning. Expectancy theory, specifically Vroom's Model, was used as the conceptual framework for the study.…

Health education and the teacher's role.

PubMed

Charlton, A

1981-01-01

Health education is receiving increased attention in English schools. A currently favoured method of incorporating it into the curriculum is to include relevant parts of it in all subjects. Some teachers however are unwilling to include a health education topic in their teaching. This paper looks at the possibility that this unwillingness could be associated with the way in which teachers view their role and what they think is the main aim of Health Education. Questions were put to 672 future teachers in training and 160 of their tutors. The teacher's role most frequently selected by both group was "to help all pupils make the most of their talents". Students intending to teach in primary schools provided a striking exception: 53.6% of them chose "to give pupils basic skills" as their first choice. The most popular first choice for the aims o health education was "to give information". Again primary teachers differed, however, the largest percentage selecting "to influence pupils' attitudes" (38.7%) as their first choice. The future teachers who saw their main role to be giving information in their own subject favoured the teaching of health education as a separate course, whereas those who chose "contributing to a total curriculum" as their essential role mainly opted for the inclusion of health education in all subjects. Not only view on the role of a teacher, but also specialist subject and type of school appeared to be related to views on health education.

A Deeper Look at How Teachers Say What They Say: A Quantitative Modality Analysis of Teacher-to-Teacher Talk

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kosko, Karl W.; Herbst, Patricio

2012-01-01

Analysis of teacher-to-teacher talk provides researchers with useful information regarding the teaching profession and teachers' perspectives. This article provides a description of a method, with accompanying example, examining teacher-to-teacher talk by incorporating semantic modality and examining trends of its usage in a quantitative manner.…

Comparison between exclusively school teacher-based and mixed school teacher and healthcare provider-based programme on basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation for secondary schools.

PubMed

Jiménez-Fábrega, X; Escalada-Roig, X; Miró, O; Sanclemente, G; Díaz, N; Gómez, X; Villena, O; Rodríguez, E; Gaspar, A; Molina, J E; Salvador, J; Sánchez, M

2009-09-01

To compare two teaching methodologies for PROCES (a basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation (b-CPR) programme for secondary school students): one exclusively performed by school teachers (study group) and another by a mixed team of school teachers and healthcare providers (control group). According to their preferences, teachers chose either method and students were consequently assigned to the control or study group. All participants took a 10 multiple-choice question exam regarding b-CPR skills twice: immediately after PROCES and one year later. Eight or more correct answers was considered satisfactory learning. Results between groups were compared. Associations between satisfactory learning and some student characteristics were analysed. Immediately after PROCES, 442 students (219 in the study group and 223 in the control group) took the exam. The percentage of satisfactory learning was not different: 67.1% in the study group and 64.6% in the control group. Immediate satisfactory learning was related to the absence of pending subjects in the control (odds ratio (OR) 2.31, 95% CI 1.16 to 4.64) and study (OR 5.87, 95% CI 1.22 to 28.20) groups. One year later, a greater percentage of retention of b-CRP skills was detected in the study group (57.1% vs 40.6%; p = 0.01). The absence of any pending subject (OR 6.86, 95% CI 1.83 to 25.66) was independently associated with better retention in the study group, but not the control group. Secondary school teachers, previously trained in b-CPR, can teach these skills effectively to 14-16-year-old students using PROCES. The retention of b-CPR skills is greater with this methodology compared with a more standardised programme.

Collaborative Practitioner Inquiry: Providing Leadership and Action Research for Teacher Professional Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

von Gnechten, Mitchell P.

2011-01-01

Professional development is best when embedded in one's practice and linked directly to the classroom. Opportunities for teachers to identify specific areas of concern in their classroom and problem solve solutions via action research promotes a culture of inquiry. This culture of inquiry is enhanced when teams of teachers collaborate and share…

Turkish Student Teachers' Perceptions of a Model Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sahin, Ismail; Perkmen, Serkan; Toy, Serkan

2004-01-01

This study intends to provide some insights regarding Turkish student teachers' perception of a "Model Teacher" in terms of teaching methods, teacher personality, and teacher-student interaction in the classroom. These students are 26 graduate students who are doing their master's degree in Teacher Education at Bilkent University in…

Types of Meaningfulness of Life and Values of Future Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Salikhova, Nailia R.

2016-01-01

The leading role of meaning of life in regulation of human's activity of all types provides the relevance of the research. The goal of the paper is to identify and describe types of meaningfulness of life in future teachers, and to reveal the specificity of values hierarchy indicative of each type. The leading approach applied in the research was…

Community-Based Collaboration for Early Childhood Teacher Education: Partner Experiences and Perspectives as Co-Teacher Educators

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lees, Anna; Kennedy, Adam S.

2017-01-01

The relevance and effectiveness of traditional, course- and clinical-experience-based models of teacher preparation have been called into question, and institutions of teacher education must respond to the changing landscape of educational policy, which increasingly emphasizes that candidates must be prepared for challenges faced in complex,…

Teacher Efficacy of High School Mathematics Co-Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rimpola, Raquel C.

2011-01-01

High school mathematics inclusion classes help provide all students the access to rigorous curriculum. This study provides information about the teacher efficacy of high school mathematics co-teachers. It considers the influence of the amount of collaborative planning time on the efficacy of co-teachers. A quantitative research design was used,…

Capitalizing on Teacher Expertise: Motivations for Contemplating Transfer from Professional Development to the Classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

van Duzor, Andrea Gay

2011-08-01

Of primary concern in professional development (PD) are the ways in which teachers transfer knowledge from PD to the classroom. This qualitative case study of a chemistry PD course for elementary teachers investigates the first step in the transfer process by examining why and how K-8 teachers consider transfer to the classroom. Motivations for considering transfer were the same whether teachers only proposed how they could use PD content or teachers actively utilized PD experiments and concepts in their own classrooms. Teacher learning of chemistry concepts, activities, and pedagogical strategies were motivating factors for considering transfer. Teachers appropriated and adapted PD materials based on the specific learning needs of their own students, the constraints of their teaching contexts, and their desired outcomes, including making science learning relevant for students. Understanding teachers' motivations and means of adaptations in considering PD can inform PD provider programs how to be more effective and responsive to teacher needs. Furthermore, teachers' active consideration of appropriations and adaptations highlights how teachers leverage their expertise in shaping their PD experiences.

Who Needs Parent-Teacher Meetings in the Technological Era?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nitza, Davidivitch; Roman, Yavich

2017-01-01

In this study we shall examine parent-teacher meetings in the technological era, i.e., whether parent-teacher meetings are still relevant, how they should be conducted, whether it is necessary to change the structure of the parent-teacher meeting or its conception by parents, students, and teachers. For this purpose, identical questionnaires were…

Teachers' Knowledge About Informal Line of Best Fit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Casey, Stephanie A.; Wasserman, Nicholas H.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' subject matter knowledge relevant to the teaching of informal line of best fit. Task-based interviews were conducted with nineteen pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers. The results include descriptions and categorizations of teachers' conceptions, criteria for placement, accuracy of…

Reel Teachers: References for Reflection for Real Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shaw, Carla Cooper; Nederhouser, Deborah Dobbin

2005-01-01

Movies with teachers as main characters provide a powerful medium of instruction in the teacher-education classroom. The authors describe a graduate course for practicing teachers, "The Portrayal of Teachers in Film," in which such movies stimulate the examination of trends in the portrayal of teachers and serve as springboards for the exploration…

Translating a "Relevance Imperative" into Junior Secondary Mathematics and Science Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Darby, Linda

2009-01-01

Inquiries into the state of mathematics and science education in Australia express the need to make curriculum and teaching practices more relevant and meaningful to students' lives. This vision requires that teachers understand how relevance can enter the classroom in meaningful, appropriate, and subject-specific ways. In this paper I use…

An Exploration of Teachers' Efforts to Understand Identity Work and its Relevance to Science Instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Smith, M. Cecil; Darfler, Anne

2012-06-01

US educators express concern that students are turning away from the study of science and have little interest in pursuing science careers. Nationally, science achievement scores for 8th graders are unchanged since 1996, but 12th graders' scores have significantly decreased. A shortcoming of education reform efforts is lack of attention to students' developmental needs. Science study should enable students to learn about themselves—to develop and refine their skills, define their values, explore personal interests, and understand the importance of science to themselves and others. Effective secondary science instruction requires attention to students' identity development—the key developmental task of adolescence. Secondary science teachers participated in an 8-week course focused on understanding adolescent identity development and methods for addressing identity. Transcripts of the teachers' online discussions of salient issues were analyzed to determine their perceptions regarding classroom identity work. Teachers identified several assets and obstacles to identity work that were organized into two broad categories: teacher knowledge, training opportunities, and administrative support, or lack of these; and, presence of inflexible curricula, standardized testing regimes, and increased teacher accountability. Implications for student growth and science teacher professional development are discussed.

Students discussing their mathematical ideas: the role of the teacher

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pijls, Monique; Dekker, Rijkje

2011-12-01

This article adds to current research on enhancing student discourse in mathematics teaching specifically in secondary schools but with equal relevance to elementary schools. Three mathematics teachers in secondary education were confronted with the question of how to encourage students to discuss their work with each other in the daily practice of their mathematical lessons. In response to this question the teachers devised three different approaches to encourage student discourse. One of the teachers chose to experiment with another setting to perform mathematical tasks that involved students working together on a group test. The second teacher experimented with a new kind of help when students were working on their maths tasks and asked for assistance. The third created a new setting in which the teacher (temporarily) did not provide mathematical hints and the students had to solve their own problems. The three teachers were very motivated, but they all had difficulties in not giving explanations themselves when supporting their students in their collaborative mathematical learning. They found that temporarily diminishing their product help stimulated discussion between students. It also became clear that the process of teacher reflection and follow-up discussions with the researcher/observers promoted changes of practice.

Culturally Relevant Pedagogy Twenty-Plus Years Later: How an Arts Approach to Teaching and Learning Can Keep the Dream Alive

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCarther, Shirley Marie; Davis, Donna M.

2017-01-01

Gloria Ladson-Billings' (1995) ground-breaking work around the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy has shaped the discourse in schools and education programs for over twenty years. Her belief that schools should be places where students and teachers come together to have meaningful educational experiences has provided a foundation for…

MAESTRO: Mathematics and Earth Science Teachers' Resource Organization

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Courtier, A. M.; Pyle, E. J.; Fichter, L.; Lucas, S.; Jackson, A.

2013-12-01

, developed in collaboration between teachers and JMU faculty members, provide a tangible, relevant setting in which students can apply and understand mathematical applications and scientific processes related to evolving Earth systems. Initial results from student questionnaires and teacher focus groups suggest that the anticipated impacts of MAESTRO on students are being realized, including increased valuing of mathematics and Earth science in society and transfer between mathematics and science courses. As a high percentage of students in the MAESTRO schools are of low socio-economic status, they also face the prospect of becoming first-generation college students, hopefully considering STEM academic pathways. MAESTRO will drive the development of challenging and engaging instruction designed to draw a larger pool of students into STEM career pathways.

Reflective Thinking among Preservice Teachers: A Malaysian Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Choy, S. Chee; Yim, Joanne Sau-Ching; Tan, Poh Leong

2017-01-01

"The notion of reflection nowadays is considered crucial in the field of teaching and teacher education" (Clara, 2015) and relevant literature reviewed in this study has indicated support for this. We propose and test a model of reflective thinking among teachers using a sample of 1,070 preservice teachers in Malaysia. Data were…

Discourses of Cultural Relevance in Nunavut Schooling

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aylward, M. Lynn

2007-01-01

Academic discourse relating to the cultural relevance of indigenous education is ever expanding both nationally in Canada and internationally. Reflecting upon recent research data as well as lived experience as a teacher educator in Nunavut, I offer a critique of some well-established beliefs connected to considerations of culturally appropriate…

Predictors of mental health in female teachers.

PubMed

Seibt, Reingard; Spitzer, Silvia; Druschke, Diana; Scheuch, Klaus; Hinz, Andreas

2013-12-01

Teaching profession is characterised by an above-average rate of psychosomatic and mental health impairment due to work-related stress. The aim of the study was to identify predictors of mental health in female teachers. A sample of 630 female teachers (average age 47 ± 7 years) participated in a screening diagnostic inventory. Mental health was surveyed with the General Health Questionnaire GHQ-12. The following parameters were measured: specific work conditions (teacher-specific occupational history), scales of the Effort-Reward-Imbalance (ERI) Questionnaire as well as cardiovascular risk factors, physical complaints (BFB) and personal factors such as inability to recover (FABA), sense of coherence (SOC) and health behaviour. First, mentally fit (MH(+)) and mentally impaired teachers (MH(-)) were differentiated based on the GHQ-12 sum score (MH(+): < 5; MH(-): ≥ 5); 18% of the teachers showed evidence of mental impairment. There were no differences concerning work-related and cardiovascular risk factors as well as health behaviour between MH(+) and MH(-). Binary logistic regressions identified 4 predictors that showed a significant effect on mental health. The effort-reward-ratio proved to be the most relevant predictor, while physical complaints as well as inability to recover and sense of coherence were identified as advanced predictors (explanation of variance: 23%). Contrary to the expectations, classic work-related factors can hardly contribute to the explanation of mental health. Additionally, cardiovascular risk factors and health behaviour have no relevant influence. However, effort-reward-ratio, physical complaints and personal factors are of considerable influence on mental health in teachers. These relevant predictors should become a part of preventive arrangements for the conservation of teachers' health in the future.

Special school teachers require more goal-oriented collaboration with psychiatric professionals in Northern Finland.

PubMed

Pönkkö, Maija-Leena; Taanila, Anja; Ebeling, Hanna

2003-03-01

The problems of children and adolescents have increased in number and severity during the last years. The purpose of this study was to elicit the views of special school teachers in the Oulu Province in Finland concerning their pupils' problems and the need, use and adequacy of relevant psychiatric services. The information was collected from the Northern Ostrobothnia Hospital District in 1998 in Finland and responses were obtained from the 37 (97.4%) special schools. The data were analysed using the content analysis method. Special-needs pupils had various behavioural and emotional problems that made it difficult for them to learn and for the teachers to teach. According to the teachers, the major obstacles in the process of helping special-needs pupils were the delayed admission for treatment and the lack of information necessary for the pupils' school work and goal-oriented aftercare, although there were also favourable experiences of functional co-operation and availability of useful information. Some schools lacked a reliable network for helping pupilsand supporting teachers. The Finnish legislation on basic education obliges the providers of education to provide rehabilitation in connection with special education and to arrange relevant development, counselling and support services. The rehabilitation of special-need pupils and the collaboration between school and mental health authorities is not optimally realised in spite of the legislation.

Teaching Students with Disabilities: A Web-Based Examination of Preparation of Preservice Primary School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephenson, Jennifer; O'Neill, Sue; Carter, Mark

2012-01-01

With increasing expectations that preservice teachers will be prepared to teach students with special needs in regular classrooms, it is timely to review relevant units in teacher education courses. Units relevant to special education/inclusion in primary undergraduate teacher preparation courses in Australian tertiary institutions, delivered in…

Pre-Service Teachers' Attitudes toward Education for Sustainability and Its Relevance to Their Learning: Implications for Pedagogical Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tomas, Louisa; Girgenti, Sarah; Jackson, Cliff

2017-01-01

The education for sustainability (EfS) literature espouses participatory, praxis-orientated, place-based and holistic approaches to teaching and learning. The introduction of a first-year EfS unit for pre-service teachers at James Cook University provided an opportunity to explore their attitudes toward EfS and their perceptions of the relevant…

Community Inquiry and Curriculum Development: A Relevant Education for Teachers about the Vietnam War

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dentith, Audrey M.; McCarry, David S.

2003-01-01

In this article, the authors describe an innovative university-based project that connected graduate-level, preservice, and beginning teachers enrolled in a curriculum class for secondary and elementary teaching certification with a community-based war museum memorial and educational center. The course required these teachers to construct units on…

Gender Competence of the Modern Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Auhadeeva, Ludmila A.; Yarmakeev, Iskander E.; Aukhadeev, Aver E.

2015-01-01

This article discusses improvements in education and modern teacher's gender training in terms of a competence-based approach as a basic strategy of general and vocational education development in Russia. The article substantiates the relevance of teachers' gender training and the necessity to use the gender approach in their professional…

Teachers Envisioning Future Geography Education at Their Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Béneker, Tine; Palings, Hans; Krause, Uwe

2015-01-01

One of the challenges of a geography teacher education program is preparing teachers for their leading roles in keeping geography education relevant for the young people of today. It is important to allow teachers to think about geography education and the future and to foster their curriculum-making competences. In a master course at Fontys…

Reading and Reflecting: Elementary Preservice Teachers' Conceptions about Teaching Mathematics for Equity

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jackson, Christa; Jong, Cindy

2017-01-01

Teaching mathematics for equity is critical because it provides opportunities for all students, especially those who have been traditionally marginalised, to learn mathematics that is rigorous and relevant to their lives. This article reports on our work, as mathematics teacher educators, on exposing and engaging 60 elementary preservice teachers…

Constructing Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in Chinese Heritage Language Classrooms: A Multiple-Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wu, Hsu-Pai

2011-01-01

Culturally relevant pedagogy uses cultural references to develop students' knowledge and identities thereby empowering them academically, socially and politically. This article examined how four Chinese heritage languages teachers constructed culturally relevant pedagogy in their language instructions. Qualitative cross-case analysis indicated…

Pragmatics in Teacher Education for Nonnative-Speaking Teachers: A Consciousness-Raising Approach.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rose, Kenneth R.

1997-01-01

Reviews some of the problems relevant to the teaching of language use and discusses pragmatic consciousness raising (PCR) as one alternative in teacher education for dealing with pragmatics in the classroom. (Author/JL)

A Study of Teacher Candidates' Experiences Investigating Global Climate Change Within an Elementary Science Methods Course

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hestness, Emily; Randy McGinnis, J.; Riedinger, Kelly; Marbach-Ad, Gili

2011-06-01

We investigated the inclusion of a curricular module on global climate change in an Elementary Science Methods course. Using complementary research methods, we analyzed findings from 63 teacher candidates' drawings, questionnaires, and journal entries collected throughout their participation in the module. We highlighted three focal cases to illustrate the diversity of participants' experiences. Findings suggest potential positive impacts on teacher candidates' content understanding related to global climate change, confidence to teach, and awareness of resources to support their future science instruction. Recommendations for science teacher education underscore the importance of providing opportunities for teacher candidates to increase their relevant content understanding, helping teacher candidates become familiar with appropriate curricular resources, and engaging in ongoing conversation and evaluation of developing views and understandings related to global climate change.

Tech Talk for Social Studies Teachers. Writing about Nazi Germany and Leni Riefenstahl:-Using Technology to Access Information

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Street, Chris; Stang, Kristin

2008-01-01

Asking students to explore teacher-selected Web sites is an effective way to provide students with appropriate links to credible online resources. This article provides several links to relevant sites that cover the Holocaust and Nazi Germany in general. It also provides several sites that focus on one particularly controversial and significant…

How Do Primary Education Trainee Teachers Perceive Educational Psychology?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Alvarez, Ibis M.; Weise, Crista; Vall, Berta; González, Montserrat; Morodo, Andy

2018-01-01

Educational Psychology makes a significant contribution to the development of skills to research the effectivity of teacher practices in class. However, there is little agreement on what educational psychology concepts are most relevant for teacher training. This paper reports on trainee teachers' self-perceived mastery of, and attributed…

A Study of Teacher Opinions Concerning Selected Free Filmstrips Provided by the American Iron and Steel Institute to Schools Throughout the United States.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

DuVall, Charles R.; And Others

This study analyzed teacher assessment of several factors related to selected filmstrips provided to teachers by the American Iron and Steel Institute. Main concerns of the study related to applicability of the filmstrip to instructional programs, assessment of accuracy of information contained, effectiveness of content, effectiveness of…

Immigration and Students' Relationship with Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Peguero, Anthony A.; Bondy, Jennifer M.

2011-01-01

Students' relationship with teachers is a building block toward student progress and success. Little is known, however, about the relationships the children of immigrants have with their teachers, which is particularly relevant today in the midst of the current social, political, and economic debate over the influence of immigration in U.S.…

Discussing Teacher Induction in China and Relevant Debates in the United States with a Chinese Teacher: A Conversation with Yu Yi. Craft Paper 92-2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ma, Liping

This paper introduces a Chinese teacher induction program. In China it is believed that formal teacher education constitutes only half of teacher preparation; the other half has to be accomplished on the job with the active support and involvement of the teaching community. The voice of teachers is introduced to the field of educational research…

Assessing NETS.T Performance in Teacher Candidates: Exploring the Wayfind Teacher Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Banister, Savilla; Vannatta Reinhart, Rachel

2013-01-01

To effectively integrate digital technologies in K-12 schools, teachers must be provided with undergraduate experiences that strongly support these integration resources and strategies. The National Educational Technology Standards for Teachers (NETS.T) provide a framework for teacher candidates and inservice teachers to identify their…

Providing for the Needs of New Teachers: A Study of New Teacher Induction in a Rural School District in Central North Carolina

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Powell, Lori T.

2016-01-01

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a new teacher induction program as implemented in a rural school district in central North Carolina. All beginning teachers with 3 or less years of experience, all school-based administrators, and all mentoring teachers were the target participants. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the…

A Culturally Relevant Teacher Professional Development for Teaching Climate Change to Native American Students

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kern, Anne Liu; Honwad, Sameer; McLain, Ed

2017-01-01

The science of climate change is a complex subject to teach. Teachers find climate change a challenging topic to teach due to a myriad of reasons. Gayford, 2010 describes some of the challenges teachers face while teaching climate change science as "first, the controversial nature of the topic; second, it does not relate well to the normal…

Providing Montessori: Identity and Dilemmas in a Montessori Teacher's Lived Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Christensen, Olivia

2016-01-01

This phenomenological case study was conducted to better understand the experience of a Montessori teacher in a leadership role. A veteran Montessori teacher, newly hired by an established Montessori preschool, was interviewed over the course of her first year in the position. A critical discourse analysis revealed multiple social identities that…

Teaching High School Chemistry in the Context of Pharmacology Helps Both Teachers and Students Learn

PubMed Central

Schwartz-Bloom, Rochelle D.; Halpin, Myra J.; Reiter, Jerome P.

2014-01-01

Few studies demonstrate the impact of teaching chemistry embedded in a context that has relevance to high school students. We build upon our prior work showing that pharmacology topics (i.e., drugs), which are inherently interesting to high school students, provide a useful context for teaching chemistry and biology. In those studies, teachers were provided professional development for the Pharmacology Education Partnership (PEP) in an onsite venue (either five-day or one-day workshop). Given financial difficulties to travel, teachers have asked for alternatives for professional development. Thus, we developed the same PEP training workshop using a distance learning (DL) (two-way live video) approach. In this way, 121 chemistry and biology teachers participated in the DL workshops to learn how to incorporate the PEP modules into their teaching. They field-tested the modules over the year in high school chemistry and biology classes. Teacher knowledge of chemistry and biology increased significantly after the workshop and was maintained for at least a year. Their students (N = 2309) demonstrated a significant increase in knowledge of chemistry and biology concepts, with higher scores as the number of modules used increased. The increase in both teacher and student knowledge in these subjects was similar to that found previously when teachers were provided with onsite professional development. PMID:24882881

Business Teachers Go to Work and Students Get the Dividends

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stephens, Geralyn E.

2010-01-01

Teacher internships give business education teachers the opportunity to increase their industry skill proficiency levels. Such experiences can help business education teachers focus on developing relevant technical knowledge and skills to better prepare students for technically enhanced work environments and demonstrate competency on technical…

Learning to Become a Teacher in the 21st Century: ICT Integration in Initial Teacher Education in Chile

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brun, Mario; Hinostroza, J. Enrique

2014-01-01

This paper presents the most relevant results from a national study about the availability and use of ICT in 46 Initial Teacher Education institutions in Chile, implemented during 2009 as part of the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) international project "ICT in Initial Teacher Training." Main findings show an…

Formation of the Professional and Didactic Culture of the Future Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mirzagitova, Alsu L.; Akhmetov, Linar G.

2016-01-01

Relevance: The relevance of the problem under investigation is caused by the fact that the problem of the formation of the professional and didactic culture of future teachers has not been sufficiently elaborated. The purpose of the article: The article aims to the solution of the problem of improving the content of future teachers' training with…

Principals Supporting Teachers in Providing Language Instruction to English Learners in Elementary School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Munguia, Celia

2017-01-01

The purpose of the study was to examine the systems of support that principals establish at their school sites to support teachers with the academic achievement of the English learner population. Two schools from a single district were selected. Specific strategies, structures, and processes that support teachers and principals of English learners…

Providing Support to Inner-city Students and Teachers Through the Physics Van Inservice Institute

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sabella, Mel S.

2007-02-01

There are many programs for the professional development of high school physics teachers that have proven to be effective in preparing these teachers to conduct inquiry-based activities in the classroom. In this paper, we describe a small-scale professional development program called the Physics Van Inservice Institute. During the program, teachers are engaged in inquiry-based physics modules and are then able to borrow the equipment so that they can conduct the activities in their own classes.

Creating Zines in Preservice Art Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Klein, Sheri

2010-01-01

Preservice art teachers often reflect about their classroom observations and art teaching experiences through papers, journaling, and blogging. Zines, or "Do It Yourself" (DIY) magazines offer preservice teachers a unique and unconventional format to reflect on issues relevant to teaching art. This article discusses the definition of zines, their…

A Review of the Medical Education Literature for Graduate Medical Education Teachers

PubMed Central

Locke, Kenneth A.; Bates, Carol K.; Karani, Reena; Chheda, Shobhina G.

2013-01-01

Background A rapidly evolving body of literature in medical education can impact the practice of clinical educators in graduate medical education. Objective To aggregate studies published in the medical education literature in 2011 to provide teachers in general internal medicine with an overview of the current, relevant medical education literature. Review We systematically searched major medical education journals and the general clinical literature for medical education studies with sound design and relevance to the educational practice of graduate medical education teachers. We chose 12 studies, grouped into themes, using a consensus method, and critiqued these studies. Results Four themes emerged. They encompass (1) learner assessment, (2) duty hour limits and teaching in the inpatient setting, (3) innovations in teaching, and (4) learner distress. With each article we also present recommendations for how readers may use them as resources to update their clinical teaching. While we sought to identify the studies with the highest quality and greatest relevance to educators, limitation of the studies selected include their single-site and small sample nature, and the frequent lack of objective measures of outcomes. These limitations are shared with the larger body of medical education literature. Conclusions The themes and the recommendations for how to incorporate this information into clinical teaching have the potential to inform the educational practice of general internist educators as well as that of teachers in other specialties. PMID:24404262

Graduate Student Teacher Training: Still Relevant (And Missing?) 20 Years Later

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Blouin, David D.; Moss, Alison R.

2015-01-01

Twenty years ago, Pescosolido and Milkie (1995) reported that 50 percent of U.S. and Canadian sociology graduate programs offered formal teacher training. Despite pronouncements that offerings have increased substantially, no similarly thorough and direct investigation has been published since. In this time of dramatic change and increasing…

Adult Health in Child Care: Health Status, Behaviors, and Concerns of Teachers, Directors, and Family Child Care Providers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Gratz, Rene R.; Claffey, Anne

1996-01-01

A statewide survey examined health status, behaviors, and concerns of 446 randomly selected early childhood professionals--directors, teachers, and family day care providers. Found dramatic changes in perceived frequency of various symptoms and becoming ill since working with children. Found significant differences between groups for number of…

Developing a Teacher Evaluation Instrument to Provide Formative Feedback Using Student Ratings of Teaching Acts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

van der Lans, Rikkert M.; van de Grift, Wim J. C. M.; van Veen, Klaas

2015-01-01

This study reports on the development of a teacher evaluation instrument, based on students' observations, which exhibits cumulative ordering in terms of the complexity of teaching acts. The study integrates theory on teacher development with theory on teacher effectiveness and applies a cross-validation procedure to verify whether teaching acts…

What Is the Problem? The Challenge of Providing Effective Teachers for All Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murnane, Richard J.; Steele, Jennifer L.

2007-01-01

Richard Murnane and Jennifer Steele argue that if the United States is to equip its young people with the skills essential in the new economy, high-quality teachers are more important than ever. In recent years, the demand for effective teachers has increased as enrollments have risen, class sizes have fallen, and a large share of the teacher…

How Five Master Teachers Teach about Climate Chang

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bloch, L.

2015-12-01

The AGU Position Statement, "Human-Induced Climate Change Requires Urgent Action," calls on scientists to "[work] with stakeholders to identify relevant information, and [to convey] understanding clearly and accurately, both to decision makers and to the general public". Everyday, K-12 teachers communicate with an important segment of the general public, and they represent important stakeholders with unique needs. The terms 'global warming', 'greenhouse effect', and 'climate change' appear nowhere in the 1996 National Science Education Standards, but under the Next Generation Science Standards, millions of teachers- most of whom have little to no experience teaching about climate change- will be required to cover the topic. This presentation discusses research conducted with five veteran public school teachers, each of whom has been teaching about climate change for many years. The group comprises three high school teachers, a middle school teacher, and an elementary school teacher. The study examined: 1) What these teachers teach about climate change; 2) How they teach about climate change; 3) What resources they use in teaching and learning about climate change; and 4) How they think the scientific community can support teachers in their efforts to teach about climate change. The teachers varied in their teaching practices and in their conceptions of 'climate change', but they all said that the academic community can support climate change education by developing locally relevant educational resources. Scientists working with K-12 teachers can build on the work of these master teachers, and attendees can access detailed descriptions of all of the lessons and the associated learning materials.

Providing teachers with education on epilepsy increased their willingness to handle acute seizures in children from one to 10 years of age.

PubMed

Dumeier, Henriette Karoline; Neininger, Martina Patrizia; Bernhard, Matthias Karl; Merkenschlager, Andreas; Kiess, Wieland; Bertsche, Thilo; Bertsche, Astrid

2017-11-01

In Germany, preschool teachers supervise children up to six years of age and are also responsible for supervising older pupils after school. This study explored the impact of a teaching session on epilepsy for teachers in charge of children from 1 to 10 years of age. We evaluated the benefit of a teaching session offered to all preschool teachers in Leipzig, Germany, in 2014-2015, by asking them to complete the same questionnaire 12-24 months pre-intervention, and 12 months postintervention. Both questionnaires were completed by 123 teachers. The number of teachers who felt they were prepared to handle an acute seizure rose from 36 (29%) pre-intervention to 65 (53%) post-intervention (p < 0.001) and their willingness to administer a prescribed rescue medication rose from 66 (54%) to 93 (76%, p < 0.001). The session also increased the number of teachers who were prepared to take children with epilepsy on excursions under any circumstance from 38 (31%) to 52 (42%, p < 0.05). In addition, the number of teachers who would place a solid object in the child's mouth during an attack fell from 16 (13%) to seven (6%) (p < 0.05). Providing a teaching session on epilepsy increased the teachers' knowledge and willingness to act and reduced obsolete, counterproductive measures. ©2017 Foundation Acta Paediatrica. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Holding health providers in developing countries accountable to consumers: a synthesis of relevant scholarship.

PubMed

Berlan, David; Shiffman, Jeremy

2012-07-01

Health care providers in low-income countries often treat consumers poorly. Many providers do not consider it their responsibility to listen carefully to consumer preferences, to facilitate access to care, to offer detailed information, or to treat patients with respect. A lack of provider accountability to health consumers may have adverse effects on the quality of health care they provide, and ultimately on health outcomes. This paper synthesizes relevant research on health provision in low-, middle- and high-income countries with the aim of identifying factors that shape health provider accountability to consumers, and discerning promising interventions to enhance responsiveness. Drawing on this scholarship, we develop a framework that classifies factors into two categories: those concerning the health system and those that pertain to social influences. Among the health systems factors that may shape provider accountability are oversight mechanisms, revenue sources, and the nature of competition in the health sector-all influences that may lead providers to be accountable to entities other than consumers, such as governments and donors. Among the social factors we explore are consumer power, especially information levels, and provider beliefs surrounding accountability. Evidence on factors and interventions shaping health provider accountability is thin. For this reason, it is not possible to draw firm conclusions on what works to enhance accountability. This being said, research does suggest four mechanisms that may improve provider responsiveness: 1. Creating official community participation mechanisms in the context of health service decentralization; 2. Enhancing the quality of health information that consumers receive; 3. Establishing community groups that empower consumers to take action; 4. Including non-governmental organizations in efforts to expand access to care. This synthesis reviews evidence on these and other interventions, and points to future

Enhancing the Popularity and the Relevance of Science Teaching in Portuguese Science Classes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Galvão, Cecília; Reis, Pedro; Freire, Sofia; Almeida, Paulo

2011-11-01

PARSEL Project emerged from the urgent need to overcome the problem of lack of scientific literacy in the population, which should be a priority in a society where science occupies a central place. Indeed, nowadays for any citizen to participate in a responsible and informed way in society he has to be scientifically acknowledgeable. Nevertheless, not only are scientific levels low in the general population, but also there is an increasing number of students who avoid science and technology courses and related professions. Within this context, PARSEL aims at raising science and scientific courses' popularity and relevancy as well as at enacting teachers' professional development. In order to achieve these goals, the PARSEL group developed 54 pan-European modules, which were tested and evaluated by several teachers in several European countries and Israel. Teachers maintained a close relationship with the university, were highly encouraged to appropriate the modules and to adapt them to their local conditions and, also to discuss and share their experiences. In Portugal, modules were tested by a group of eight teachers, and their students. This paper presents data concerning teachers' evaluation. Data was collected by means of interviews, observation and written documents and reveals that teachers positively evaluated PARSEL's impact on their own professional development. Furthermore, they considered modules as well as the teaching-learning approach essential for making science learning relevant and popular for their students.

Teachers' Epistemic Cognition in Classroom Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fives, Helenrose; Barnes, Nicole; Buehl, Michelle M.; Mascadri, Julia; Ziegler, Nathan

2017-01-01

Epistemic cognition represents aspects of teachers' thinking focused on issues related to knowledge, which may have particular relevance for classroom assessment practices given that teachers must discern what their students know and then use this information to inform instruction. We present a model of epistemic cognition in teaching with a focus…

Valuing Teacher Perceptions Related to the Principalship

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Williams, Jermaine

2016-01-01

This dissertation served to answer the over-arching research question: How do stakeholders describe effective leadership? In addition, two sub-questions were answered: 1) what dimensions do teachers use to describe effective principal leadership, and 2) why do teachers identify those dimensions as relevant? This study was conducted in a Northern…

Respectability and Relevance: Reflections on Richard Peters and Analytic Philosophy of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snook, Ivan

2013-01-01

I argue that, after Dewey, Peters was the first modern philosopher of education to write material (in English) that was both philosophically respectable and relevant to the day-to-day concerns of teachers. Since then, some philosophers of education have remained (more or less) relevant but not really respectable while others have "taken off into…

Teachers' Reports of Outreach to School-Based Providers of Mental Health Services Following the 2013 Boston Marathon Attack

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Green, Jennifer Greif; Xuan, Ziming; Kwong, Lana; Holt, Melissa K.; Comer, Jonathan S.

2016-01-01

After mass crises, trauma-exposed children report increased psychological distress, yet most receive no mental health (MH) services and supports. This study identifies factors associated with teachers' reports of outreach to school-based MH providers (such as social workers, psychologists, and counselors) as well as provision of informal supports…

Curriculum Integration in Singapore: Teachers' Perspectives and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lam, Chi Chung; Alviar-Martin, Theresa; Adler, Susan A.; Sim, Jasmine B.-Y.

2013-01-01

In this qualitative study, we examined eleven Singapore teachers' conceptions of teaching and learning as related to their experiences implementing integrated curriculum. Interviews revealed that the teachers' conceptions of integration spanned the spectrum of ideas found in relevant literature. Further, although participants saw benefits to…

Preservice and Inservice Teachers' Knowledge of Language Constructs in Finland

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aro, Mikko; Björn, Piia Maria

2016-01-01

The aim of the study was to explore the Finnish preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of language constructs relevant for literacy acquisition. A total of 150 preservice teachers and 74 inservice teachers participated in the study by filling out a questionnaire that assessed self-perceived expertise in reading instruction, knowledge of…

Critical Thinking in Secondary Language Arts: Teacher Perceptions and Relevant Strategies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Enabulele, Augustine

2011-01-01

The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of the dialectical journal as a tool for teaching critical thinking skills, and to assess middle school teachers' perception of critical thinking. Two groups of middle school students were split into one control and one experimental group. Both groups took a critical thinking test…

Social and Cognitive Factors in Making Teacher-Led Classroom Discourse Relevant for Second Language Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Toth, Paul D.

2011-01-01

This study compares descriptive quantitative and qualitative data from 2 beginning, university-level second-language (L2) Spanish classes to demonstrate the benefits of teacher-led discourse organized as collaborative, whole-class tasks. In class, the teacher solicited target L2 forms through conversational questions to individuals with recasted…

Teacher Academy Induction Learning Community: Guiding Teachers through Their Zone of Proximal Development

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flores, Belinda Bustos; Hernandez, Arcelia; Garcia, Claudia Trevino; Claeys, Lorena

2011-01-01

This is a preliminary analysis of The Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE) induction support provided through the Teacher Academy Induction Learning Community (TAILC). In response to current US teacher attrition rates, ATE-TAILC's primary objective is to retain teachers in the classroom and provide support to ensure they are fully prepared to meet…

Encouraging Family Involvement through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goodman, Kela; Hooks, Laura

2016-01-01

The purpose of this article is to describe one teacher education program's experience using an integrated approach to provide preservice teachers with both knowledge of and experience with diverse cultures. Included are three important components within this program that strive to assist preservice teachers as they develop an understanding of…

Making It Relevant: How a Black Male Teacher Sustained Professional Relationships through Culturally Responsive Discourse

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomas, Ebony Elizabeth; Warren, Chezare A.

2017-01-01

What we know about the experiences of black teachers is limited, especially considering the vast amount of research conducted on and about black boys and young men. This article describes and analyzes how a black teacher at a suburban high school in the Midwestern United States negotiated professional relationships through culturally relevant…

Finding Common Ground: Teacher Leaders and Principals Speak out about Teacher Leadership

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Weiner, Jennie Miles

2011-01-01

This study investigates how a small group of teacher leaders and their principals, participating in a teacher leadership program called the teacher connector (TC), understand teacher leadership and its impact on their practice. TCs' responsibilities were typical of teacher leaders; thus, their experiences can provide insights into teacher leaders'…

Literacy Coaching: A Case Study of How a Literacy Coach Provides Support for a Kindergarten Teacher and a Second Grade Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hung, Carrie

2012-01-01

Coaching is a professional development approach that is utilized to support classroom teachers' implementation of research-based teaching strategies and methods. Studies have shown that coaching supports classroom teachers' implementation of teaching strategies and methods; however, there is little research on what coaches do to support…

A Rural Education Teacher Preparation Program: Course Design, Student Support and Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Eaton, Sarah Elaine; Gereluk, Dianne; Dressler, Roswita; Becker, Sandra

2017-01-01

Attracting and retaining teachers for rural and remote areas is a pervasive global problem. Currently, teacher education in Canada is primarily delivered in face-to-face formats located in urban centres or satellite campuses. There is a need for relevant and responsive teacher education programs for rural pre-service teachers. Recognizing this…

The Science Semester: Cross-Disciplinary Inquiry for Prospective Elementary Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ford, Danielle J.; Fifield, Steve; Madsen, John; Qian, Xiaoyu

2013-10-01

We describe the Science Semester, a semester-long course block that integrates three science courses and a science education methods course for elementary teacher education majors, and examine prospective elementary teachers’ developing conceptions about inquiry, science teaching efficacy, and reflections on learning through inquiry. The Science Semester was designed to provide inquiry-oriented and problem-based learning experiences, opportunities to examine socially relevant issues through cross-disciplinary perspectives, and align with content found in elementary curricula and standards. By the end of the semester, prospective elementary teachers moved from naïve to intermediate understandings of inquiry and significantly increased self-efficacy for science teaching as measured on one subscore of the STEBI-B. Reflecting on the semester, prospective teachers understood and appreciated the goals of the course and the PBL format, but struggled with the open-ended and student-directed elements of the course.

Teacher Leadership and Teacher Preparation: A Personal Narrative

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Jon

2015-01-01

This personal narrative describes the efforts of a teacher education institution to understand and introduce teacher leadership into the preparation of teachers. The author provides the history and context of the institution as well as the structures and processes the institution used to achieve these goals. The article concludes with lessons…

The Effectiveness of a Program Based on the Combination of Relevance and Confidence Motivational Strategies in Developing EFL Argumentative Writing Skills and Overcoming Writing Apprehension among Students Teachers at Faculty of Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ahmed Helwa, Hasnaa Sabry Abdel-Hamid

2014-01-01

The aim of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of a program based on the combination of relevance and confidence motivational strategies in developing EFL argumentative writing skills and overcoming writing apprehension among students teachers at Faculty of Education. The design of the research is a mixed research methodology. It…

Opening Our Eyes, Changing Our Practices: Learning through the Transnational Lifeworlds of Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Knight, Michelle G.; Oesterreich, Heather A.

2011-01-01

This article examines the inclusion of a culturally relevant curricular practice of social identity papers within teacher education in the USA that incorporates the transnational lifeworlds of teachers. Using tenets of feminist interdisciplinary frameworks, we highlight how this curricular practice allows teachers and teacher candidates in urban…

An exploration of elementary science teachers' expertise, creativity skills, and motivation in relation to the use of an innovation and the delivery of high-quality science instruction

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Falkenberg, Karen L.

This two-year study sought to uncover characteristic differences among a purposive sample of 23 elementary teachers who were using an elementary science innovation with various levels of proficiency. Two theoretical frameworks supported the development of the research, the Concerns Based Adoption Model Level of Use (LoU) (Hord, Rutherford, Huling-Austin & Hall, 1987) and Amabile's (1996) Componential Model of Creativity. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were employed to gather data on participants' science content knowledge, pedagogical skill, creativity relevant process skills, motivation orientation, self-efficacy, outcome expectancy and workplace environment. Results dispute the common conception among educators that "mechanical use" teachers do not provide high quality lessons. A new method for categorizing teachers' proficiency with an innovation is suggested by this study that incorporates both qualitative data from the LoU interview and classroom observation. Additionally, results show that the quality of the observed science lessons was associated with a teacher's creativity. The data suggest that a teacher's creativity relevant process skills and expertise are indicators of lesson quality. There were important differences among teachers' conceptions of creativity, how they involved students in the reported lessons and in the type of adaptations they made to the innovation. The more creative teachers tended to provide lessons that were more complex, of longer duration, had ties to student home life, and used multiple resources. Following an analysis of these results is a set of suggested professional development strategies and workplace changes to support less proficient teachers in their ability to provide higher quality elementary science lessons.

Role of Teacher Educational Institutions in Developing Personality of Student Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prakash, Srinivasan; Xavier S. J., S. Amaladoss

2014-01-01

Teacher Education is an integral part of any educational system. It should provide a platform in developing the holistic personality of a student teacher. This paper reports on personality of student teachers and the role of Teacher Educational institutions in developing it. The sample consists of 1,080 student teachers of Madurai revenue…

Teacher Development Program: A Vehicle for Assisting Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wood, Frances B.

2010-01-01

In 1990 the Teacher Development Program was created by the Office of Professional Field Experiences at Southeastern Louisiana University to better the quality and improve the success rate of teacher candidates and student teachers. The fundamental principle behind the program was to provide assistance for pre-service teachers who need immediate…

Preparing America's Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cruickshank, Donald R.

This book provides an overview of the modal curriculum in teacher education, summarizing 29 teacher education reform proposals and examining six instructional approaches to teacher education. Chapter 1 describes the modal teacher preparation curriculum (general studies, content studies, professional education, integrative studies, and guidelines…

Navigating in a Sea of Ideas: Teacher and Students Negotiate a Course Toward Mutual Relevance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flick, Lawrence B.

The distinction between the participant and spectator functions of language are used to describe the teaching skills of a fourth grade teacher during a unit of instruction. This study documented the science instruction of a teacher who 20 years ago majored in teaching reading. In recent years she has taken steps to develop skill and knowledge in…

Role of Teacher Educational Institutions in Developing Personality of Student Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prakash, S.; Xavier, S. Amaladoss

2014-01-01

Teacher Education is an integral part of any educational system. It should provide a platform in developing the holistic personality of a student teacher. This paper reports on personality of student teachers and the role of Teacher Educational institutions in developing it. The sample consists of 1080 student teachers of Madurai revenue district.…

Teachers' Perceptions of and Responses to Student Evaluation of Teaching: Purposes and Uses in Clinical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wong, Wai Yee; Moni, Karen

2014-01-01

Student evaluation of teaching (SET) only becomes an effective tool for improving teaching and learning when the relevant stakeholders seriously consider and plan appropriate actions according to student feedback. It is common practice in medical education to provide clinical teachers with student feedback. However, there is limited evidence about…

Teacher Efficacy of Secondary Special Education Science Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bonton, Celeste

Students with disabilities are a specific group of the student population that are guaranteed rights that allow them to receive a free and unbiased education in an environment with their non-disabled peers. The importance of this study relates to providing students with disabilities with the opportunity to receive instruction from the most efficient and prepared educators. The purpose of this study is to determine how specific factors influence special education belief systems. In particular, educators who provide science instruction in whole group or small group classrooms in a large metropolitan area in Georgia possess specific beliefs about their ability to provide meaningful instruction. Data was collected through a correlational study completed by educators through an online survey website. The SEBEST quantitative survey instrument was used on a medium sample size (approximately 120 teachers) in a large metropolitan school district. The selected statistical analysis was the Shapiro-Wilk and Mann-Whitney in order to determine if any correlation exists among preservice training and perceived self-efficacy of secondary special education teachers in the content area of science. The results of this study showed that special education teachers in the content area of science have a higher perceived self-efficacy if they have completed an alternative certification program. Other variables tested did not show any statistical significance. Further research can be centered on the analysis of actual teacher efficacy, year end teacher efficacy measurements, teacher stipends, increased recruitment, and special education teachers of multiple content areas.

[Teacher Training.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palmatier, Robert A., Ed.

1977-01-01

This issue collects three articles concerning reading-teacher training. "Language, Failure, and Panda Bears" by Patricia M. Cunningham calls attention to dialect difficulties in the classroom and provides ideas for teacher training programs and for public schools to solve this problem. William H. Rupley, in "Improving Teacher Effectiveness in…

Pre-Service Music Teachers Perceptions of Teaching and Teacher Training

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Legette, Roy M.; McCord, Dawn H.

2015-01-01

The purpose of this study was to examine perceptions of pre-service music teachers (n = 104) regarding school music teaching and the quality of their teacher training. Research questions were: 1) What are the perceptions of pre-service music teachers regarding skills and knowledge provided by their teacher training programs? 2) What aspects of the…

Teachers' Identities and Creative Teaching in Language Immersion Classrooms

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kong, Kaishan

2015-01-01

The connection between teachers' identities and their influence on creative teaching can be found in literature on identity negotiation theory (Norton) and relationship between teachers' understanding of themselves, knowledge, and teaching practice (Johnson and Golombek). Informed by the relevant literature, this qualitative inquiry explores two…

Teachers' Perceptions of the Curricula of the Soviet and Post-Soviet Eras: A Case Study of Estonian Pre-School Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tuul, Maire; Ugaste, Aino; Mikser, Rain

2011-01-01

Broadening the role of teachers in curriculum development was among the fundamental objectives of educational reforms in the formerly communist Eastern Europe in the 1990s. The research done so far, however, calls into question the degree to which teachers perceive the relevant changes in curriculum and their new role. This article first describes…

Culturally Relevant Physical Education in Urban Schools: Reflecting Cultural Knowledge

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flory, Sara B.; McCaughtry, Nate

2011-01-01

Using a three-part theoretical framework, the cultural relevance cycle--which consists of (a) knowing community dynamics, (b) knowing how community dynamics influence educational processes, and (c) implementing strategies that reflect cultural knowledge of the community--we examined teachers' and students' perspectives on culturally relevant…

A teacher-centered exploration of the relevance of social factors to theory of mind development.

PubMed

Wright, Barlow C; Mahfoud, Janina

2014-02-01

Many accounts of children's Theory of Mind (ToM) development favor a cognitive explanation, for example, in terms of mental representational improvements at or before 4 years. Here, we investigated whether social factors as rated by a child's teacher, are related to ToM development. We tested 82 children of 3-6 years on each of four ToM tasks, and their class teacher completed a social questionnaire about each child's playing behavior, sharing, talkativeness, confidence, aggressiveness and outgoingness. A measure of task memory and the child's gender were also recorded. Here, children generally passed ToM tasks after 5 years-old, but no one gender performed reliably better than the other. Teacher-rated confidence and playing behavior were correlated to ToM. But in a regression analysis, these were replaced by teacher-rated talkativeness; with age and memory given primacy in both sets of analyses. It is concluded that maturation and cognitive factors may well have primacy but social factors, facilitated during early primary education, must also be given a role in ToM development. © 2013 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

ISSUES IN THE PREPARATION OF TEACHERS OF ENGLISH.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

CRISP, RAYMOND E., ED.

TEXTS OF SELECTED ADDRESSES PRESENTED BY REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ILLINOIS STATE-WIDE CURRICULUM STUDY CENTER IN THE PREPARATION OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ENGLISH TEACHERS (ISCPET) AT THE 1967 CONFERENCE ON ENGLISH EDUCATION AND TWO PAPERS RELEVANT TO ISSUES IN THE PREPARATION OF ENGLISH TEACHERS ARE REPRINTED IN THIS COLLECTION. THE CONFERENCE ADDRESSES,…

Teacher Quality Toolkit

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauer, Patricia A.; Dean, Ceri B.

2004-01-01

This Teacher Quality Toolkit aims to support the continuum of teacher learning by providing tools that institutions of higher education, districts, and schools can use to improve both preservice and inservice teacher education. The toolkit incorporates McREL?s accumulated knowledge and experience related to teacher quality and standards-based…

Riding on a Speeding Train? How Teacher Educators Perceive Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mevorach, Miriam; Ezer, Hanna

2010-01-01

This study investigates through structured questionnaires how teacher educators perceive current teacher education practices in Israel and at their colleges. An open-ended question provides their metaphorical viewpoint. The findings indicate that teacher educators believe teacher education in the country is at a high level. They perceive teacher…

Developing Music Teacher Identities: An International Multi-Site Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ballantyne, Julie; Kerchner, Jody L.; Arostegui, Jose Luis

2012-01-01

This study investigates pre-service music teacher's (PSMT) perceptions of their professional identities. University-level education students in the United States America (USA), Spain and Australia were all asked interview questions based on general themes relevant to teacher identity development, and their responses were subjected to content…

Refining an intervention for students with emotional disturbance using qualitative parent and teacher data

PubMed Central

Nese, Rhonda N.T.; Palinkas, Lawrence A.; Ruppert, Traci

2017-01-01

Intensive supports are needed for students with emotional disturbance during high-risk transitions. Such interventions are most likely to be successful if they address stakeholder perspectives during the development process. This paper discusses qualitative findings from an iterative intervention development project designed to incorporate parent and teacher feedback early in the development process with applications relevant to the adoption of new programs. Using maximum variation purposive sampling, we solicited feedback from five foster/kinship parents, four biological parents and seven teachers to evaluate the feasibility and utility of the Students With Involved Families and Teachers (SWIFT) intervention in home and school settings. SWIFT provides youth and parent skills coaching in the home and school informed by weekly student behavioral progress monitoring. Participants completed semi-structured interviews that were transcribed and coded via an independent co-coding strategy. The findings provide support for school-based interventions involving family participation and lessons to ensure intervention success. PMID:28966422

When to trust our learners? Clinical teachers' perceptions of decision variables in the entrustment process.

PubMed

Duijn, Chantal C M A; Welink, Lisanne S; Bok, Harold G J; Ten Cate, Olle T J

2018-06-01

Clinical training programs increasingly use entrustable professional activities (EPAs) as focus of assessment. However, questions remain about which information should ground decisions to trust learners. This qualitative study aimed to identify decision variables in the workplace that clinical teachers find relevant in the elaboration of the entrustment decision processes. The findings can substantiate entrustment decision-making in the clinical workplace. Focus groups were conducted with medical and veterinary clinical teachers, using the structured consensus method of the Nominal Group Technique to generate decision variables. A ranking was made based on a relevance score assigned by the clinical teachers to the different decision variables. Field notes, audio recordings and flip chart lists were analyzed and subsequently translated and, as a form of axial coding, merged into one list, combining the decision variables that were similar in their meaning. A list of 11 and 17 decision variables were acknowledged as relevant by the medical and veterinary teacher groups, respectively. The focus groups yielded 21 unique decision variables that were considered relevant to inform readiness to perform a clinical task on a designated level of supervision. The decision variables consisted of skills, generic qualities, characteristics, previous performance or other information. We were able to group the decision variables into five categories: ability, humility, integrity, reliability and adequate exposure. To entrust a learner to perform a task at a specific level of supervision, a supervisor needs information to support such a judgement. This trust cannot be credited on a single case at a single moment of assessment, but requires different variables and multiple sources of information. This study provides an overview of decision variables giving evidence to justify the multifactorial process of making an entrustment decision.

Teachers' Perspectives on the Impact of Cleft Lip and/or Palate During the School Years.

PubMed

Stock, Nicola Marie; Ridley, Matthew; Guest, Ella

2018-01-01

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) poses many challenges for those affected throughout the school years, with recent studies pointing to a trend in poor educational outcomes. Previous research has highlighted the important role that teachers play in supporting young people with chronic health conditions yet studies in the field of CL/P suggest that teachers may lack knowledge of the condition, and underestimate pupils' academic ability. Qualitative investigation of the impact of CL/P from the teacher's perspective may provide additional insight as well as potential suggestions for improving the school experience for affected pupils. Twenty UK preschool, primary, and secondary school teachers with experience of teaching pupils with CL/P completed an open-ended survey, eliciting qualitative data. Qualitative content analysis was performed. Data were presented under 5 key headings: Knowledge of CL/P and its effects, perceived impact of CL/P on education, teachers' training needs, delivery of training, and impact of CL/P on teachers. Teachers were able to identify a number of potential social, emotional, and treatment-related challenges within the school setting, yet did not believe that CL/P would have a long-term impact on pupils' educational achievement. Participating teachers reported that cleft-specific training and access to relevant resources would be highly beneficial. Acting as a platform for future research, this exploratory study provides insight into the challenges faced by teachers and offers suggestions for how to improve teachers' understanding of CL/P, and their confidence in dealing with cleft-related issues.

The Teacher Aide...An Answer to the Teacher Shortage.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Axford, Roger W.

The Maine State Department of Education and the Continuing Education Division of Maine State University provided a series of summer institutes in 1968 at selected university locations throughout the state for presently employed or prospective teacher aides. Courses were offered to 116 teacher aides in education and the teacher aide, classroom…

University-Based Teacher Preparation and Middle Grades Teacher Effectiveness

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Preston, Courtney

2017-01-01

For over two decades, there have been calls to assess the relationship of the features of teacher preparation programs to teacher effectiveness, to provide guidance for program improvement. At the middle grades level, theory suggests that coursework in educational psychology is particularly important for teacher effectiveness. Using 4 years of…

How Do District Management and Implementation Strategies Relate to the Quality of the Professional Development That Districts Provide to Teachers?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Desimone, Laura; Porter, Andrew C.; Birman, Beatrice F.; Garet, Michael S.; Yoon, Kwang Suk

2002-01-01

Examined policy mechanisms and processes that districts used to provide high quality inservice professional development to teachers. Data from a national probability sample of professional development coordinators in districts that received federal funding for professional development highlighted specific management and implementation strategies…

The perceptions of pre-service and in-service teachers regarding a project-based STEM approach to teaching science.

PubMed

Siew, Nyet Moi; Amir, Nazir; Chong, Chin Lu

2015-01-01

Whilst much attention has focused on project-based approaches to teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects, little has been reported on the views of South-East Asian science teachers on project-based STEM approaches. Such knowledge could provide relevant information for education training institutions on how to influence innovative teaching of STEM subjects in schools. This article reports on a study that investigated the perceptions of 25 pre-service and 21 in-service Malaysian science teachers in adopting an interdisciplinary project-based STEM approach to teaching science. The teachers undertook an eight hour workshop which exposed them to different science-based STEM projects suitable for presenting science content in the Malaysian high school science syllabus. Data on teachers' perceptions were captured through surveys, interviews, open-ended questions and classroom discussion before and at the end of the workshop. Study findings showed that STEM professional development workshops can provide insights into the support required for teachers to adopt innovative, effective, project-based STEM approaches to teaching science in their schools.

Journey to Becoming a Thai English Teacher: New Perspective on Investigating Teacher Attrition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prabjandee, Denchai

2014-01-01

In this study, the author provides a unique perspective on teacher shortage by focusing on teacher retention, in terms of why teachers stay in the teaching profession, rather than focusing on teacher attrition, or why teachers leave the teaching profession. The change in perspective created an opportunity to study the journey of how teachers chose…

Language Teacher Cognition in Applied Linguistics Research: Revisiting the Territory, Redrawing the Boundaries, Reclaiming the Relevance

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kubanyiova, Magdalena; Feryok, Anne

2015-01-01

Understanding language teachers' "mental lives" (Walberg, 1972), and how these shape and are shaped by the activity of language teaching in diverse sociocultural contexts, has been at the forefront of the sub discipline of applied linguistics that has become known as "language teacher cognition." Although the collective…

Digital Libraries in the Classroom: Secondary School Teachers' Conception

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abrizah, A.; Zainab, A. N.

2011-01-01

This paper presents findings from a case study investigating secondary school teachers' understanding of the term digital libraries and their relationship with learning. The study addresses two research questions: (1) How do teachers conceptualize digital libraries, their relevance and issues relating to their integration into the curriculum? and…

Culturally Relevant Science Instruction of K-8 Teachers of American Indian Children

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cloud, Karen L.

2017-01-01

American Indian/Alaska Native students are at the bottom of educational achievement, particularly in science where few American Indians enter into science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers. To meet the needs of American Indian students, teachers must understand the sociocultural nature of learning as it relates to students'…

The Relevance of a Migration Background to the Professional Identity of Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bressler, Christoph; Rotter, Carolin

2017-01-01

Immigrant teachers face several specific expectations from policy makers, colleagues, as well as the media. Often new hopes are pinned on them for teaching (ethnically) diverse learners. Their professional identity is inevitably linked to these expectations. In this regard, this paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study exploring the…

Recognising and Developing Urban Teachers: Chartered London Teacher Status

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Bubb, Sara; Porritt, Vivienne

2008-01-01

Chartered London Teacher (CLT) status is a unique scheme designed by London Challenge to recognise and reward teachers' achievements and provide a framework for professional development. As well as having the prestige of being a Chartered London Teacher for life, educators receive a one-time payment of 1,000 British pounds from the school budget…

Socioscientific Argumentation of Pre-Service Teachers about Genetically Modified Organisms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Herawati, D.; Ardianto, D.

2017-09-01

This study aims to investigate socioscientific argumentation of pre-service teachers of science and non-science major regarding Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) issue. We used descriptive study and involved second-year pre-service teachers from two major, 28 pre-service science teachers (PSTs) and 28 pre-service non-science teachers (PNSTs) as participants. Paper and pencil test was administered in order to obtain the data of PSTs’ and PNSTs’ argument about GMOs. All of the data were analyzed by descriptive analysis. We applied Toulmin Argumentation Pattern (TAP) as a basic framework to identify the argumentation component. The result showed that both PSTs and PNSTs were able to propose an argument with a claim, data, and/or warrant.. Most of their argument contain data which provided in the text, without any further reasoning or relevant scientific knowledge. So, the coherency between argumentation component in both PSTs and PNSTs was limited. However, PSTs are more able to propose coherent arguments than PNSTs. These findings indicated that educational background and learning experiences may influence to pre-service teacher argumentation in the context of GMOs. Beside that, teaching and learning process which focused on the socioscientific issues is necessary to develop pre-service teachers’ argumentation

Participation in an experiential education professional development course: An analysis of the teacher experience

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

McNamee, Dana Crosby

Experiential education opportunities are recommended in science classrooms but due to budget and time constraints (Cowart, 2010; Dallimore, et al., 2010; Johnson, 2007) schools often resort to simple science inquiry (Chinn, 2002). While many programs exist with the intention of providing teachers with experiential education opportunities, often these are short-term day trips that do not provide the same learning benefits that an extended program would (Gulamhussein, 2013). To help address these issues in their own classrooms, middle and high school teachers from New England voluntarily chose to participate in an experiential education professional development course. This study examined how the individuals' teaching had or had not changed as a result of their participation in this course. The question that guided this research was: * How do teachers benefit, and how do teachers perceive their students benefit, after their participation in an experiential education professional development course? . Research focused on teachers from middle and high schools across New England who completed a three-day program. Their participation in the course was entirely voluntary. The course goal was to provide teachers with the skills to be able to understand and apply experiential education pedagogy and principles in their classrooms. This interpretative phenomenological analysis found that all participating teachers had made changes to their curriculum and teaching methodologies as a result of their participation in the professional development course. While the experiential learning model (Kolb, 1984) played a significant role how the professional development was implemented during the professional development course for teachers, only portions of the experiential learning model were present when teachers implemented those lessons into their own classes. Regardless, teachers found that students had been impacted through the engagement they felt and the connections they made to

In Pursuit of Being Canadian: Examining the Challenges of Culturally Relevant Education in Teacher Education Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dlamini, S. Nombuso; Martinovic, Dragana

2007-01-01

This article is about an ongoing initiative that addresses the challenges confronted by teacher candidates to whom English is an additional language and whose cultures are considered different from those of the Canadian mainstream. The initiative is a seminar, Language and Cultural Engagement, in which teacher candidates are prepared for practice…

Depth of Teachers' Knowledge: Frameworks for Teachers' Knowledge of Mathematics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Holmes, Vicki-Lynn

2012-01-01

This article describes seven teacher knowledge frameworks and relates these frameworks to the teaching and assessment of elementary teacher's mathematics knowledge. The frameworks classify teachers' knowledge and provide a vocabulary and common language through which knowledge can be discussed and assessed. These frameworks are categorized into…

Teachers' Psychological Functioning in the Workplace: Exploring the Roles of Contextual Beliefs, Need Satisfaction, and Personal Characteristics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collie, Rebecca J.; Shapka, Jennifer D.; Perry, Nancy E.; Martin, Andrew J.

2016-01-01

The purpose of the current study was to provide a greater depth of knowledge about teachers' psychological functioning at work-including the contextual, basic psychological need satisfaction and personal factors relevant to this. We examined the extent to which perceived autonomy support predicts basic psychological need satisfaction and, in turn,…

Identifying Mentors' Observations for Providing Feedback

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hudson, Peter

2016-01-01

Mentors' feedback can assist preservice teachers' development; yet feedback tends to be variable from one mentor to the next. What do mentors observe for providing feedback? In this study, 24 mentors observed a final-year preservice teacher through a professionally video-recorded lesson and provided written notes for feedback. They observed the…

Teachers Learning to Research Climate: Development of hybrid teacher professional development to support climate inquiry and research in the classroom

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Odell, M. R.; Charlevoix, D. J.; Kennedy, T.

2011-12-01

The GLOBE Program is an international science and education focused on connecting scientists, teachers and students around relevant, local environmental issues. GLOBE's focus during the next two years in on climate, global change and understanding climate from a scientific perspective. The GLOBE Student Climate Research Campaign (SCRFC) will engage youth from around the world in understanding and researching climate through investigations of local climate challenges. GLOBE teachers are trained in implementation of inquiry in the classroom and the use of scientific data collection protocols to develop inquiry and research projects of the Earth System. In preparation for the SCRC, GLOBE teachers will need additional training in climate science, global change and communicating climate science in the classroom. GLOBE's reach to 111 countries around the world requires development of scalable models for training teachers. In June GLOBE held the first teacher professional development workshop (Learning to Research Summer Institute) in a hybrid format with two-thirds of the teachers participating face-to-face and the remaining teachers participating virtually using Adobe Connect. The week long workshop prepared teachers to integrate climate science inquiry and research projects in the classrooms in the 2011-12 academic year. GLOBE scientists and other climate science experts will work with teachers and their students throughout the year in designing and executing a climate science research project. Final projects and research results will be presented in May 2012 through a virtual conference. This presentation will provide the framework for hybrid teacher professional development in climate science research and inquiry projects as well as summarize the findings from this inaugural session. The GLOBE Program office, headquartered in Boulder, is funded through cooperative agreements with NASA and NOAA with additional support from NSF and the U.S. Department of State. GLOBE

Teacher Certification Types and Teacher Effectiveness and Preparedness in Oklahoma

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karch, Christopher G.

2015-01-01

Like a majority of other states, Oklahoma has provided for alternative methods to teacher certification. This study examines the perceptions of principals and teachers regarding the level of preparedness and ability to develop effectiveness qualities of novice teachers from the Alternative Placement Program and Oklahoma colleges of education. The…

Problem-Based Learning in a Local Church: A Grounded Theory Study of the Korean Sunday School Teachers' Perception of the Effects of Problem-Based Learning in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lee, Sooin Tim

2012-01-01

There is a hunger for effective teacher equipping programs for adult volunteer teachers in the educational ministry of today's churches. In addition, these programs for volunteer teachers need to be well-suited for adult learners and relevant to their real-life situations. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the effects of…

The Black Teacher Shortage: A Literature Review of Historical and Contemporary Trends

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Madkins, Tia C.

2011-01-01

Desegregation marked the beginning of a long period of loss of Black teachers within the profession. First, Black teachers were not hired in desegregated schools, and then as other professional opportunities opened up in society, fewer Blacks entered the teacher pipeline. The purpose of this literature review is to synthesize research relevant to…

Teacher Center Leaders: In the Vanguard of Third Wave People. Final Report.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hockman, Elaine; And Others

A summary is presented of the findings from a survey conducted by the American Federation of Teachers-Teacher Center Resource Exchange (AFT-TCRE) to obtain information on the importance and relevance of its publications. Questionnaires were sent to 72 federal teacher center directors and achieved a return rate of 81 percent. The questionnaire…

The Factors that Affect Science Teachers' Participation in Professional Development

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roux, Judi Ann

Scientific literacy for our students and the possibilities for careers available in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) areas are important topics for economic growth as well as global competitiveness. The achievement of students in science learning is dependent upon the science teachers' effectiveness and experienced science teachers depend upon relevant professional development experiences to support their learning. In order to understand how to improve student learning in science, the learning of science teachers must also be understood. Previous research studies on teacher professional development have been conducted in other states, but Minnesota science teachers comprised a new and different population from those previously studied. The purpose of this two-phase mixed methods study was to identify the current types of professional development in which experienced, Minnesota secondary science teachers participated and the factors that affect their participation in professional development activities. The mixed-methods approach s utilized an initial online survey followed by qualitative interviews with five survey respondents. The results of the quantitative survey and the qualitative interviews indicated the quality of professional development experiences and the factors which affected the science teachers' participation in professional development activities. The supporting and inhibiting factors involved the availability of resources such as time and money, external relationships with school administrators, teacher colleagues, and family members, and personal intrinsic attributes such as desires to learn and help students. This study also describes implications for science teachers, school administrators, policymakers, and professional development providers. Recommendations for future research include the following areas: relationships between and among intrinsic and extrinsic factors, science-related professional development activities

The CAST Initiative in Guam: A Model of Effective Teachers Teaching Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Zuercher, Deborah K.; Kessler, Cristy; Yoshioka, Jon

2011-01-01

The CAST (content area specialized training) model of professional development enables sustainable teacher leadership and is responsive to the need for culturally relevant educational practices. The purpose of this paper is to share the background, methods, findings and recommendations of a case study on the CAST initiative in Guam. The case study…

Real Science for Real Science Teachers: Providing Astrobiology Science Content and Contemporary Pedagogy for Today's Educators Online

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Offerdahl, E. G.; Prather, E. E.; Slater, T. F.

2003-12-01

As teachers strive to improve the way science is taught in the classroom, many are turning to the interdisciplinary science of astrobiology as a way integrate inquiry effectively in the science classroom. However, it is generally recognized that teachers do not often have easy access to understandable and usable cutting-edge science to enrich their science lessons. Through the generous support of the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI), middle and high school teachers have the opportunity to learn current and provocative scientific results within the context of astrobiology as well as receive training in pedagogically sound methods of incorporating astrobiology appropriately in the classroom. In Astrobiology for Teachers, a 15-week on-line distance learning course co-sponsored by NAI, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Professional Development Institute, National Teachers Enhancement Network (NTEN), Montana State University, and the Department of Astronomy at University of Arizona, teachers engage in a virtual classroom facilitated by an integrated teaching team of educators and scientists using a standards-based, inquiry curriculum. The collaborative nature of the course encourages, demonstrates, and enhances a professional exchange among scientists and educators which, in turn, fosters implementation of innovative science teaching in today's classroom.

Teaching about Race in a Multicultural Setting: Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and the U.S. History Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martell, Christopher C.

2014-01-01

In this interpretative case study, the researcher examined the beliefs and practices of three social studies teachers related to their teaching of race in U.S. history at a racially and ethnically diverse urban high school. Using the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy as a lens, this study employed mixed methods, analyzing teacher interviews,…

Perceptions of Pennsylvania School Librarians Regarding Their Role in Providing Copyright Advice to Students, Teacher, and Administrators in Their School

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kell, Susan E.

2014-01-01

This qualitative study examined the perceptions of Pennsylvania school librarians about the role they play in providing copyright guidance to the students, teachers, and administrators in their school during the 2011-2012 school year. Using two electronic mailing lists for Pennsylvania school librarians, the researcher posted an email asking…

Providing Leadership for Teacher Motivation. The Practitioner, Vol. V, No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quinn, Timothy G.

The most prominent component of successful schools is a motivated teaching staff, with the principal as the key. Motivation is an intrinsic drive toward the fulfillment of personal needs and the improvement of one's perceived status. Teachers who are aware of Abraham Maslow's "Hierarchy of Human Needs" are better able to set personal…

Secondary School Teachers' Knowledge and Attitudes Towards Renewable Energy Sources

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Liarakou, Georgia; Gavrilakis, Costas; Flouri, Eleni

2009-04-01

Investigating knowledge, perceptions as well as attitudes of public that concern various aspects of environmental issues is of high importance for Environmental Education. An integrated understanding of these parameters can properly support the planning of Environmental Education curriculum and relevant educational materials. In this survey we investigated knowledge and attitudes of secondary school teachers in Greece towards renewable energy sources, particularly wind and solar energy systems. A questionnaire with both open and close questions was used as the main methodological instrument. Findings revealed that although teachers were informed about renewable energy sources and well disposed towards these sources, they hardly expressed clear positions regarding several issues about wind and solar energy technologies and farms. Moreover such themes are limited integrated in teaching either as extra curricular educational programs or through the curriculum. These findings cannot confirm that teachers could influence students' opinion towards renewable energy systems. Thus, authorities should invest more in Environmental Education and relevant Teachers' Education.

The Relationship between Preservice Teachers Health-Related Fitness and Movement Competency in Gymnastics

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Webster, Collin Andrew; Webster, Liana; Cribbs, Jason; Wellborn, Benjamin; Lineberger, Matthew Blake; Doan, Rob

2014-01-01

The current National Initial Standards for Physical Education Teacher Education state that preservice teachers should achieve and maintain a level of health-related fitness consistent with that expected of K12 learners. However, little research has addressed the relevance of teacher fitness to effective physical education teaching. This study…

Teaching science to English Language Learners: Instructional approaches of high school teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Frank, Betty-Vinca N.

Students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) form the fastest growing segment of the American school population. Prompted by the call for scientific literacy for all citizens, science educators too have investigated the intersection of language and science instruction of ELLs. However these studies have typically been conducted with elementary students. Few studies have explored how high school science teachers, particularly those who have not received any special training, approach science instruction of ELLs and what supports them in this endeavor. This was a qualitative case study conducted with five science teachers in one small urban high school that predominantly served ELLs. The purpose of this study was to examine instructional approaches used by teachers to make science accessible to ELLs and the factors that supported or inhibited them in developing their instructional approaches. This goal encompassed the following questions: (a) how teachers viewed science instruction of ELLs, (b) how teachers designed a responsive program to teach science to ELLs, (c) what approaches teachers used for curriculum development and instruction, (d) how teachers developed classroom learning communities to meet the needs of ELLs. Seven instructional strategies and five perceived sources of support emerged as findings of this research. In summary, teachers believed that they needed to make science more accessible for their ELL students while promoting their literacy skills. Teachers provided individualized attention to students to provide relevant support. Teachers engaged their students in various types of active learning lessons in social contexts, where students worked on both hands-on and meaning-making activities and interacted with their peers and teachers. Teachers also created classroom communities and learning spaces where students felt comfortable to seek and give help. Finally, teachers identified several sources of support that influenced their instructional

Voices of successful science teachers in an urban diverse single gender girls' school

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Malhan, Jyoti

This research study was conducted as a qualitative case study of four successful science teachers of female students in a diverse, title 1, urban, public girls' school. The study was designed to hear the 'muted' voices of successful science teachers concerning their beliefs and practices when they effectively provide learning opportunities for female students of color in their classrooms. Ethic of Care, equity pedagogy and culturally responsive pedagogy, created the theoretical framework for interpretation of the powerful narratives and storytelling that influenced this group of successful teachers. Data were collected by conducting in-depth, semi-structured interviews. Constant comparative method and narrative analysis were used to code and categorize the data. Analysis was conducted after each interview to discover emergent themes. Teachers conducted member checks throughout the process. The findings from the study yielded the following: (1) teachers had a passion for science and incorporated ongoing scientific developments and real-life examples and applications in their teaching, (2) teachers adopted a caring, concerned, and student-centered approach to teaching, (3) teachers acknowledged certain benefits to a single-sex girls education which included fewer distractions, increased confidence and comfort level of students, (5) teachers built relationships with students that encouraged students to engage with rigorous course content and meet higher expectations for performance. Themes that emerged included: care, culturally responsive pedagogy and culturally relevant curriculum.

Micropolitical and Identity Challenges Influencing New Faculty Participation in Teacher Education Reform: When Will We Learn?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Yendol-Hoppey, Diane; Hoppey, David; Morewood, Aimee; Hayes, Sharon B.; Graham, Meadow Sherrill

2013-01-01

Background/Context: Teacher education faculty face increasing pressure to simultaneously strengthen and reform teacher education programs while maintaining research productivity. The demands placed on teacher education programs to increase relevancy by strengthening clinical components of teacher preparation has once again reached the fore. The…

Valid and Reliable Science Content Assessments for Science Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tretter, Thomas R.; Brown, Sherri L.; Bush, William S.; Saderholm, Jon C.; Holmes, Vicki-Lynn

2013-03-01

Science teachers' content knowledge is an important influence on student learning, highlighting an ongoing need for programs, and assessments of those programs, designed to support teacher learning of science. Valid and reliable assessments of teacher science knowledge are needed for direct measurement of this crucial variable. This paper describes multiple sources of validity and reliability (Cronbach's alpha greater than 0.8) evidence for physical, life, and earth/space science assessments—part of the Diagnostic Teacher Assessments of Mathematics and Science (DTAMS) project. Validity was strengthened by systematic synthesis of relevant documents, extensive use of external reviewers, and field tests with 900 teachers during assessment development process. Subsequent results from 4,400 teachers, analyzed with Rasch IRT modeling techniques, offer construct and concurrent validity evidence.

Meeting the Expectations of the Social Studies Teacher at a Teacher Center.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Schober, Helen

1984-01-01

Teacher centers respond to a teacher's own defined needs by offering assistance, instruction, and materials to help enrich classroom learning experiences. Services provided social studies educators by the Teacher Center in Humboldt County, California, are described. (RM)

Teacher Quality Toolkit. 2nd Edition

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lauer, Patricia A.; Dean, Ceri B.; Martin-Glenn, Mya L.; Asensio, Margaret L.

2005-01-01

The Teacher Quality Toolkit addresses the continuum of teacher learning by providing tools that can be used to improve both preservice, and inservice teacher education. Each chapter provides self assessment tools that can guide progress toward improved teacher quality and describes resources for designing exemplary programs and practices. Chapters…

Teacher Enhancement and Preparation Programs

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

1995-01-01

These two programs provide opportunities for K-12 teachers of mathematics, science, and technology to spend two weeks at a NASA center learning about aeronautics and space. Participants are selected by peer review from a contracting agent that assists NASA in administering the program. Each teacher receives a stipend that covers the cost of travel, housing, meals, and graduate credit. NEWMAST provides for approximately 100 secondary teachers, and NEWTEST is a program designed to meet the needs of approximately 125 elementary teachers each summer. Teachers are provided with a wide variety of experiences including research laboratory observations, presentations, and 'shadowships'. Individual and team projects are used to enhance the participants knowledge of space and aeronautics and to motivate the teachers to incorporate the summer workshop activities into their classrooms.

The Irrational Numbers. A Source-Work Collection for In-Service and Pre-Service Teacher Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arcavi, A.; Bruckheimer, M.

These materials on irrational numbers are designed for use in workshops for pre- and in-service teacher training, especially for teachers in junior high schools. The general aims are: to improve teachers' mathematical knowledge of topics, to enrich teachers' mathematical background, to allow opportunity to discuss relevant didactics, and to create…

Teacher Mindset and the Nature of Feedback Provided to Students in the Pennsylvania Keystone Courses

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prevost, Kimberly Ann Jones

2017-01-01

This study explored the nature of feedback strategies that teachers of Pennsylvania's Keystone courses (Algebra I, biology, and literature) used to prepare their students to meet the minimum proficiency standard on the corresponding Keystone exam, taken at the end of the course. Teachers reported highest usage of the following feedback types:…

Examining Science Teachers' Argumentation in a Teacher Workshop on Earthquake Engineering

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cavlazoglu, Baki; Stuessy, Carol

2018-02-01

The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the quality of science teachers' argumentation as a result of their engagement in a teacher workshop on earthquake engineering emphasizing distributed learning approaches, which included concept mapping, collaborative game playing, and group lesson planning. The participants were ten high school science teachers from US high schools who elected to attend the workshop. To begin and end the teacher workshop, teachers in small groups engaged in concept mapping exercises with other teachers. Researchers audio-recorded individual teachers' argumentative statements about the inclusion of earthquake engineering concepts in their concept maps, which were then analyzed to reveal the quality of teachers' argumentation. Toulmin's argumentation model formed the framework for designing a classification schema to analyze the quality of participants' argumentative statements. While the analysis of differences in pre- and post-workshop concept mapping exercises revealed that the number of argumentative statements did not change significantly, the quality of participants' argumentation did increase significantly. As these differences occurred concurrently with distributed learning approaches used throughout the workshop, these results provide evidence to support distributed learning approaches in professional development workshop activities to increase the quality of science teachers' argumentation. Additionally, these results support the use of concept mapping as a cognitive scaffold to organize participants' knowledge, facilitate the presentation of argumentation, and as a research tool for providing evidence of teachers' argumentation skills.

TESOL in Context: Authentic Workplace Learning for Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Thomsett, Janeen; Leggett, Bridget; Ainsworth, Sharon

2011-01-01

The action research project entitled "Engaging pre-service TESOL teachers in authentic workplace learning" aimed to enhance the TESOL practicum experience of pre-service teachers in the Graduate Diploma of Education at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia. Integrated into the relevant TESOL curriculum unit was the…

Preparing Novice Teacher Educators in the Pedagogy of Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Conklin, Hilary G.

2015-01-01

In this article, the author provides a conceptual framework to guide the design of coursework to prepare teacher educators. Given the absence of a stronger research base to inform the preparation of novice teacher educators, the author argues that theoretical perspectives focused on K-12 preservice teacher learning can be a useful heuristic for…

Powerful Pedagogies: Evaluating Effective Culturally Relevant English Instruction for High Achieving African American Males in Advanced Placement English

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Johnson, Stanley Louis, Jr.

2011-01-01

Helping teachers to effectively use culturally relevant instructional practices can help the educational community close the literacy gap for African American males. This study examines effective secondary English teachers and their high achieving African American male students. Using critical race and sociocultural theories as a conceptual…

Preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of language constructs in Finland.

PubMed

Aro, Mikko; Björn, Piia Maria

2016-04-01

The aim of the study was to explore the Finnish preservice and inservice teachers' knowledge of language constructs relevant for literacy acquisition. A total of 150 preservice teachers and 74 inservice teachers participated in the study by filling out a questionnaire that assessed self-perceived expertise in reading instruction, knowledge of phonology and phonics, and knowledge of morphology. The inservice teachers outperformed the preservice teachers in knowledge of phonology and phonics, as well as morphology. Both groups' knowledge of morphology was markedly lower than their knowledge of phonology and phonics. Because early reading instruction does not focus on the morphological level of language but is phonics-based, this result was expected. However, the findings also revealed a lack of explicit knowledge of basic phonological constructs and less-than-optimal phonemic awareness skills in both groups. Problems in phonemic skills manifested mostly as responding to the phonological tasks based on orthographic knowledge, which reflects an overreliance on the one-to-one correspondence between graphemes and phonemes. The preservice teachers' perceptions of expertise were weakly related to their knowledge and skills. Among the inservice teachers, perceived expertise and knowledge of language constructs were completely unrelated. Although the study was exploratory, these findings suggest that within the Finnish teacher education there is a need to focus more on explicit content studies for language structures and the concepts relevant for literacy instruction, as well as phonological and phonemic skills.

Introducing curriculum innovations in science: Identifying teachers' transformations and the design of related teacher education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Pint, Roser

2005-01-01

This paper introduces the four research papers in this paper set, which all derive from a European research project, STTIS (Science Teacher Training in an Information Society). The central concern of the project was to study curriculum innovations in science, and to investigate ways in which teachers transform these innovations when putting them into practice. This work led to the construction of appropriate teacher training materials for use when an innovation is being introduced. The paper describes the mutual research strategy agreed upon by the STTIS partners. Both to avoid repetition and to underline the understanding that the partners share about the issues involved in curriculum innovation and related teacher education, the main theoretical background and the review of literature relevant to all four papers is to be found here. Themes and conclusions common to all the papers are highlighted. The paper also outlines the common features of the approach the STTIS partners took toward the construction of teacher training materials. These materials build in concrete results from the research, in forms that provoke discussion and reflection aimed at making teachers more aware of their ideas and behavior, with a view to effecting lasting change.

Research on U.S. physics teacher education

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Meltzer, David E.

2014-03-01

College and university physics departments have long been the primary source of physics-specific education received by the nation's high school physics teachers, who now number nearly 30,000. Since the 1880s, U.S. physicists have set out specific expectations and recommendations for the education of physics teachers, and various methods and programs have been utilized to prepare these teachers. However, relatively little research has been done regarding the effectiveness of the various instructional methods. Only rarely have there been investigations of links between physics teacher education programs, and the learning outcomes of students taught by teachers who were educated in those programs. The available evidence suggests that physics teacher education programs that utilize materials and methods developed and validated through physics education research (PER) have been particularly effective in preparing well-qualified teachers. I will give an up-to-date review of the research in this area, and discuss relevant details of the investigation recently reported by the APS/AAPT/AIP Task Force on Teacher Education in Physics (T-TEP) [D. Meltzer, M. Plisch, and S. Vokos, editors, Transforming the Preparation of Physics Teachers: A Call to Action (APS, College Park, 2012)].

A Qualitative Exploration of Implementation Factors in a School-Based Mindfulness and Yoga Program: Lessons Learned from Students and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dariotis, Jacinda K.; Mirabal-Beltran, Roxanne; Cluxton-Keller, Fallon; Feagans Gould, Laura; Greenberg, Mark T.; Mendelson, Tamar

2017-01-01

Identifying factors relevant for successful implementation of school-based interventions is essential to ensure that programs are provided in an effective and engaging manner. The perspectives of two key stakeholders critical for identifying implementation barriers and facilitators--students and their classroom teachers-merit attention in this…

Teach the Earth: On-line Resources for Teachers and Teachers of Teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Manduca, C. A.

2007-12-01

Effective Earth science education depends on excellent teachers: teachers who not only possess a strong grasp of geoscience but are also well-versed in the pedagogic methods they need to connect with their audience. Preparing Earth science teachers is a task no less challenging that also requires strengths in both areas. The Teach the Earth website provides a variety of resources to support preparation of Earth science teachers. Here you can find collections of teaching activities addressing all aspects of the Earth system; discussions of teaching methods linked to examples of their use in geoscience courses; and the Earth Exploration Toolbook, a resource specifically designed for teachers who would like to incorporate data rich activities in their teaching. These resources are suitable for use by teachers, students in courses addressing the methodology of teaching Earth science and science, and faculty designing courses. Faculty working with current and future teachers will find a section on Preparing Teachers to Teach Earth Science with a collection of courses designed specifically to benefit future Earth Science teachers, examples of key activities in these courses, and descriptions of programs for pre-service and in-service teachers. The materials housed in this web-resource demonstrate a wide range of fruitful approaches and exciting opportunities. On the order of 25,000 individuals use the site repeatedly during the year. We estimate that 27 percent of these users are geoscience faculty and 12 percent are teachers. We invite teachers, faculty, researchers, and educators to enhance this resource by contributing descriptions of activities, courses, or programs as a mechanism for sharing their experience with others engaged in similar work.

Teaching and Learning Science Through Song: Exploring the experiences of students and teachers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Governor, Donna; Hall, Jori; Jackson, David

2013-12-01

This qualitative, multi-case study explored the use of science-content music for teaching and learning in six middle school science classrooms. The researcher sought to understand how teachers made use of content-rich songs for teaching science, how they impacted student engagement and learning, and what the experiences of these teachers and students suggested about using songs for middle school classroom science instruction. Data gathered included three teacher interviews, one classroom observation and a student focus-group discussion from each of six cases. The data from each unit of analysis were examined independently and then synthesized in a multi-case analysis, resulting in a number of merged findings, or assertions, about the experience. The results of this study indicated that teachers used content-rich music to enhance student understanding of concepts in science by developing content-based vocabulary, providing students with alternative examples and explanations of concepts, and as a sense-making experience to help build conceptual understanding. The use of science-content songs engaged students by providing both situational and personal interest, and provided a mnemonic device for remembering key concepts in science. The use of songs has relevance from a constructivist approach as they were used to help students build meaning; from a socio-cultural perspective in terms of student engagement; and from a cognitive viewpoint in that in these cases they helped students make connections in learning. The results of this research have implications for science teachers and the science education community in developing new instructional strategies for the middle school science classroom.

Teachers' experiences of teaching in a blended learning environment.

PubMed

Jokinen, Pirkko; Mikkonen, Irma

2013-11-01

This paper considers teachers' experiences of teaching undergraduate nursing students in a blended learning environment. The basic idea of the study programme was to support students to reflect on theory and practice, and provide with access to expert and professional knowledge in real-life problem-solving and decision making. Learning was organised to support learning in and about work: students worked full-time and this provided excellent opportunities for learning both in practice, online and face-to-face sessions. The aim of the study was to describe teachers' experiences of planning and implementing teaching and learning in a blended-learning-based adult nursing programme. The research method was qualitative, and the data were collected by three focus group interviews, each with four to six participants. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The results show that the blended learning environment constructed by the combination of face-to-face learning and learning in practice with technology-mediated learning creates challenges that must be taken into consideration when planning and implementing blended teaching and learning. However, it provides good opportunities to enhance students' learning in and about work. This is because such programmes support student motivation through the presence of "real-life" and their relevance to the students' own places of work. Nevertheless, teachers require knowledge of different pedagogical approaches; they need professional development support in redesigning teaching and learning. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Negative Numbers. A Source-Work Collection for In-Service and Pre-Service Teacher Courses.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Arcavi, A.; Bruckheimer, M.

These materials on negative numbers are designed for use in workshops for pre- and in-service teacher training, especially for teachers in junior high schools. The general aims are: to improve teachers' mathematical knowledge of topics, to enrich teachers' mathematical background, to allow opportunity to discuss relevant didactics, and to create a…

A Cultural Immersion Field Experience: Examining Pre-Service Music Teachers' Beliefs about Cultural Differences

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

VanDeusen, Andrea J.

2017-01-01

With the intent of informing music teacher education practices and developing more culturally responsive and relevant teachers, the purpose of this research was to explore pre-service music teachers' understandings of culture and diversity, and to examine the impact of a short-term cultural immersion field experience on pre-service music teachers'…

Second-Wave White Teacher Identity Studies: A Review of White Teacher Identity Literatures From 2004 through 2014

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jupp, James C.; Berry, Theodorea Regina; Lensmire, Timothy J.

2016-01-01

In this study of White teacher identity literatures, we historicize, define, and advance second-wave White teacher identity studies in education research and teacher education. First, we provide a discussion of methodology used to conduct this study called the synoptic text. Second, we provide an historical account of White teacher identity…

Teacher Professional Development by Selected Teacher and School Characteristics: 2011-12. Stats in Brief. NCES 2017-200

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rotermund, Susan; DeRoche, John; Ottem, Randolph

2017-01-01

This Statistics in Brief provides a snapshot of the state of teacher professional development activities among U.S. public school teachers using data collected through the 2011-12 Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) Public School Teacher Questionnaire. This report relies on data provided by public school teachers about their professional…

SCIS Teacher's Handbook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Karplus, Robert, Comp.; Lawson, Chester A., Comp.

This teacher's handbook provides information about the philosophy, rationale, and teaching strategies of the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) program, as well as information about the SCIS physical and life science sequences to provide teachers with an understanding of the program's overall content and structure. Much of the material in…

The Development and Validation of a Scale Measuring Teacher Autonomous Behaviour

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Evers, Arnoud T.; Verboon, Peter; Klaeijsen, Andrea

2017-01-01

In the current study a multi-dimensional scale that measures teacher autonomous behaviour is presented. The scale is applicable across the following educational sectors: primary education, secondary education and vocational education. Based on an elaborate literature study, four theoretically relevant dimensions of teacher autonomous behaviour…

Value Added: Do New Teacher Evaluation Methods Make the Grade?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garrett, Kristi

2011-01-01

Measuring a teacher's effectiveness in quantifiable ways is a logical step in a society driven by the SMART goals (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely objectives) that pervade modern management. The idea of using student performance on standardized tests to judge a teacher's effectiveness picked up steam after the Obama…

Infusing School-Wide Culturally Responsive Teaching to Increase the Cultural Proficiency of Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nunez, Roberto

2011-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine if Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) training of teachers can have a significant effect on closing the achievement gap for Latino students by collecting data to answer the following questions: (1) How can teachers develop and maintain their own cultural competence? Specifically, how can teachers become…

Induction Programs for the Support and Development of Beginning Teachers of Science. National Science Teachers Association Position Statement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

National Science Teachers Association (NJ1), 2007

2007-01-01

The National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) recommends that schools and teacher preparation programs provide new teachers of science with comprehensive induction programs. Research suggests these programs should address specifics for teachers of science, involve trained mentors, provide adequate time to support continual learning of new…

Art Teacher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Grauer, Kit, Ed.

1994-01-01

This journal issue provides a cogent look at general issues in art teacher education, specific teacher education programs and particular agendas as they are played out in a number of different countries. The topic is introduced in the Editorial, "The Education of Educators: Art Teacher Education around the World" (Kit Grauer). Articles…

Mentoring New Teachers: Promise and Problems in Times of Teacher Shortage

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martinez, Kay

2004-01-01

Currently enthusiasm for mentoring of new teachers has re-emerged among teacher employing authorities in Australia and the United States. The literature on mentoring provides strong support for the importance of mentoring in retaining good teachers and in invigorating the teaching workforce; it also abounds in practical strategies and processes…

Urban Educators' Perceptions of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy and School Reform Mandates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Esposito, Jennifer; Davis, Corrie L.; Swain, Ayanna N.

2012-01-01

In this article, we examine urban teachers' perceptions of school reform models (SRMs) and culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP). In particular, we examined how urban educators altered mandated reform models in the best interests of their culturally and linguistically diverse students. We discuss data from a phenomenological study, which included…

[Providing successful education and further training: 10 tips].

PubMed

Brand, Paul L P; Boendermaker, Peter M; Venekamp, Ruud M

2014-01-01

Almost all physicians teach or provide postgraduate medical education from time to time. Although many people assume that there are 'born teachers' and 'those who will never learn to teach', teaching is an ability. The knowledge and skills required to teach well can be learned and practised. In this review article, we present 10 tips that will help the busy clinician to teach effectively. The 10 tips, which are based on the principles of adult learning, are: prepare your teaching session, involve the learners actively, connect to the learners' level of competence, define learning objectives, make the subject of your teaching relevant to the learners, use questions, be a good role model, vary your teaching methods, practise your teaching, and limit the amount of material you are teaching in each session.

A Case Study of Dilemmas Encountered When Connecting Middle School Mathematics Instruction to Relevant Real World Examples

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sugimoto, Amanda T.; Turner, Erin E.; Stoehr, Kathleen J.

2017-01-01

The pedagogical practice of connecting mathematical content to real world contexts, particularly contexts relevant to students' knowledge and experiences, can positively impact student motivation as well as promote conceptual understanding. However, little is known about how middle school teachers actually make relevant world connections, and more…

Multicultural Children's Literature as a Context for Teaching Mathematics for Cultural Relevance in Urban Schools

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Leonard, Jacqueline; Moore, Cara M.; Brooks, Wanda

2014-01-01

This article reports on a teacher-research study that used multicultural texts as a context for teaching mathematics for cultural relevance during an elementary mathematics methods course. The results of the study reveal that 28% (5 out of 18) of the teacher candidates (TCs) chose books that were culturally contextual or culturally amenable.…

Setting up Uncertified Teachers to Succeed

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sterling, Donna R.; Frazier, Wendy M.

2011-01-01

A study of new teachers with science degrees but little or no training in education found that coaches who spent time in their classrooms provided the most effective support for new teachers. Science methods courses provided by a university also were very helpful for the new teacher. But academic mentors for science content and teacher mentors who…

The Tundra Is the Text: Using Alaska Native Contexts To Promote Cultural Relevancy in Teacher Professional Development.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fickel, Letitia Hochstrasser; Jones, Ken

In summer 2000, the University of Alaska Anchorage and cooperating professional development schools organized four summer institutes to enhance teachers' cultural and subject matter knowledge. This dual focus was prompted by the new Alaska Content Standards and by guidelines for preparing culturally responsive teachers, developed by Alaska Native…

An AHP-based evaluation method for teacher training workshop on information and communication technology.

PubMed

Lucas, Rochelle Irene; Promentilla, Michael Angelo; Ubando, Aristotle; Tan, Raymond Girard; Aviso, Kathleen; Yu, Krista Danielle

2017-08-01

The emergence of information and communication technology (ICT) has created opportunities for enhancing the learning process at different educational levels. However, its potential benefits can only be fully realized if teachers are properly trained to utilize such tools. The rapid evolution of ICT also necessitates rigorous assessment of training programs by participants. Thus, this study proposes an evaluation framework based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to systematically evaluate such workshops designed for teachers. The evaluation model is decomposed hierarchically into four main criteria namely: (1) workshop design, (2) quality of content of the workshop, (3) quality of delivery of the content of the workshop, and the (4) relevance of the workshop. These criteria are further disaggregated into 24 sub-indicators to measure the effectiveness of the workshop as perceived by the participants based on their own expectations. This framework is applied to a case study of ICT workshops done in the Philippines. In this case, relevance of the workshop is found to be the most important main criterion identified by the participants, particularly on the new ICT knowledge that promotes teachers' professional growth and development. The workshop evaluation index (WEI) is also proposed as a metric to support decision-making by providing a mechanism for benchmarking performance, tracking improvement over time, and developing strategies for the design and improvement of training programs or workshops on ICT for teachers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Diagnostic Competence of Primary School Mathematics Teachers during Classroom Situations

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hoth, Jessica; Döhrmann, Martina; Kaiser, Gabriele; Busse, Andreas; König, Johannes; Blömeke, Sigrid

2016-01-01

One of the main challenges for teachers during teaching in class is the diagnosis of students' learning and thinking processes. For this purpose, teachers must perceive relevant information, they need to interpret this information and finally, they need to respond and select suitable opportunities to learn. In this paper, diagnostic processes in…

Link Schools: An Evaluation of an Innovatory Scheme in Teacher Education.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Boydell, Deanne

1990-01-01

The first year of an innovative British partnership between elementary schools, the school district, the teacher training institution, and teacher trainees is evaluated. The program integrates the needs of institutions, students, and professionals. Guiding principles relevant to the development of such partnerships and evaluation issues are…

PBS TeacherLine National Survey of Teacher Professional Development, 2005-2006

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hezel Associates (NJ1), 2007

2007-01-01

PBS TeacherLine, an initiative funded under the U.S. Department of Education's Ready To Teach program, is designed to provide high-quality online professional development for K-12 teachers. Through the first five-year grant cycle, ending in 2005, PBS TeacherLine produced approximately 100 online facilitated courses in reading, mathematics,…

Responding to the Challenge of Providing Stronger Research Base for Teacher Education: Research Discourses in the Norwegian National Research School for Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Østern, Anna-Lena

2016-01-01

Background and purpose: The purpose of this article is to shed light on how the research projects of 140 PhD candidates in the National Research School for Teacher Education in Norway (NAFOL) respond to the challenges faced by Norwegian teacher education regarding the demand for higher competence and a stronger research base. The concept of NAFOL…

Learner to Teacher: EFL Student Teachers' Perceptions on Internet-Assisted Language Learning and Teaching

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kuo, Ming-Mu

2008-01-01

To meet the challenges of fast-paced globalization and a more demanding high-tech environment of the future, it is imperative to train students for equipping with relevant abilities and competencies, especially in online literacy and communication skills, and assist them to build correct technology attitude and belief. Student teachers'…

Teacher Knowledge: A Complex Tapestry

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Adoniou, Misty

2015-01-01

Teachers need to know a great deal, in many areas and in multiple ways. Teacher knowledge is a complex tapestry, and teachers must successfully weave the multiple threads. In this article, I present a conceptualisation of teacher knowledge that provides a framework for describing the complexity of teacher knowledge. The framework describes three…

Student, teacher, and classroom predictors of between-teacher variance of students' teacher-rated behavior.

PubMed

Splett, Joni W; Smith-Millman, Marissa; Raborn, Anthony; Brann, Kristy L; Flaspohler, Paul D; Maras, Melissa A

2018-03-08

The current study examined between-teacher variance in teacher ratings of student behavioral and emotional risk to identify student, teacher and classroom characteristics that predict such differences and can be considered in future research and practice. Data were taken from seven elementary schools in one school district implementing universal screening, including 1,241 students rated by 68 teachers. Students were mostly African America (68.5%) with equal gender (female 50.1%) and grade-level distributions. Teachers, mostly White (76.5%) and female (89.7%), completed both a background survey regarding their professional experiences and demographic characteristics and the Behavior Assessment System for Children (Second Edition) Behavioral and Emotional Screening System-Teacher Form for all students in their class, rating an average of 17.69 students each. Extant student data were provided by the district. Analyses followed multilevel linear model stepwise model-building procedures. We detected a significant amount of variance in teachers' ratings of students' behavioral and emotional risk at both student and teacher/classroom levels with student predictors explaining about 39% of student-level variance and teacher/classroom predictors explaining about 20% of between-teacher differences. The final model fit the data (Akaike information criterion = 8,687.709; pseudo-R2 = 0.544) significantly better than the null model (Akaike information criterion = 9,457.160). Significant predictors included student gender, race ethnicity, academic performance and disciplinary incidents, teacher gender, student-teacher gender interaction, teacher professional development in behavior screening, and classroom academic performance. Future research and practice should interpret teacher-rated universal screening of students' behavioral and emotional risk with consideration of the between-teacher variance unrelated to student behavior detected. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all

Developing a Learning Classroom: Moving beyond Management through Relationships, Relevance, and Rigor

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Cooper, Nic; Garner, Betty K.

2012-01-01

All too often, managing a classroom means gaining control, dictating guidelines, and implementing rules. Designed for any teacher struggling with student behavior, motivation, and engagement, "Developing a Learning Classroom" explores how to create a thriving, learning-centered classroom through three critical concepts: relationships, relevance,…

Teacher as Public Art

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wright, Sheila

2006-01-01

In this article "teacher as public art" is used as a metaphor to describe and explain the all-too-common perceptions and experiences of professors of color, especially women, within the academy. Highlighted throughout this discussion are: (1) the relevance of locating self within the context of people and place; and (2) the importance of bringing…

The Role of Computer-Aided Instruction in Science Courses and the Relevant Misconceptions of Pre-Service Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Aksakalli, Ayhan; Turgut, Umit; Salar, Riza

2016-01-01

This research aims to investigate the ways in which pre-service physics teachers interact with computers, which, as an indispensable means of today's technology, are of major value in education and training, and to identify any misconceptions said teachers may have about computer-aided instruction. As part of the study, computer-based physics…

Is It Safe? Injury Prevention for Young Children. Suggestions for Teachers, Parents and Other Care Providers of Children to Age 10.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smith, Becky J.

The United States has a higher child mortality rate than most other industrialized countries, but most childhood injuries, although called "accidents," are the result of predictable and preventable behavior. This book demonstrates how teachers, parents, and caregivers can provide and maintain safe environments while teaching children how to avoid…

Do Perceived Academic Competence and School Satisfaction Mediate the Relationships between Perceived Support Provided by Teachers and Classmates, and Academic Initiative?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Danielsen, Anne G.; Breivik, Kyrre; Wold, Bente

2011-01-01

The aim of the study was twofold: (1) to examine how psychosocial support provided by teachers and classmates related to students' self-regulated learning as expressed through self-reported academic initiative, and (2) whether academic competence and school satisfaction mediated these relationships. The data were from a nationally representative…

The teacher-disciple tradition and secret teaching in Chinese medicine.

PubMed

Solos, Ioannis; Liang, Yuan; Yue, Guang-xin

2014-01-01

The ancient teacher-disciple tradition is regarded as one of the most celebrated practices within the Chinese medicine world. Such traditions of secrecy, private wisdom and honor are deeply rooted in the theories of Confucianism. This paper only explores the surface of this ancient culture, by investigating relevant popular ancient texts and common Chinese proverbs, as well as utilizing personal experiences, in order to reflect on how the ancient Chinese perceived such practices within their own society and how secret teaching was passed on from teacher to student, including the revelation of secret formulas and their importance and how that tradition differs from our modern-day perspectives. Various rare manuscripts from the author's personal library are employed in order to provide relative examples of the importance of secret knowledge, and how these secrets applied in the traditional healing.

CAP4K Teacher Tour: Aligning State-Level Support with Classroom-Level Needs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Colorado Department of Education, 2009

2009-01-01

In January 2009, the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) and the Colorado Education Association (CEA) initiated a 13-city teacher tour to engage teachers in a statewide discussion about CAP4K, its relevance to practice, its impact on teaching and learning and the kind of help that teachers would find useful for classroom implementation. Between…

Teacher to Teacher: What Text Have You Found Most Successful with Your Students?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Rallo, Curt; Roessing, Lesley J.

2006-01-01

"Teacher to Teacher" provides a forum for teachers to share ideas, materials, and activities. In this article, the first teacher describes the effects the well-known novel "Bleachers" (John Grisham, New York: Doubleday, 2003) had on a ninth-grade english class. The novel bought to life the high school culture that the students found challenging.…

Teacher Supply and Demand in Kansas Public Schools. Twentieth Annual Survey.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Tompkins, Loren; Mehring, Teresa A.; Hedstrom, Cora Z.; Switzer, Maggie

This annual report investigates Kansas' current teacher job market. Data came from surveys of superintendents from all 304 unified school districts, special education directors, directors of teacher education programs, and college placement directors. The nine sections are (1) Historical Perspective, (2) Sources of Data, (3) Relevance of Each Data…

Comparing Teachers' Literacy-Related Knowledge to Their State's Standards for Reading

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McCombes-Tolis, Jule; Feinn, Richard

2008-01-01

This study compared elementary and special education teachers' knowledge of when K-3 students develop key reading competencies, their knowledge of who is responsible for teaching K-3 students key reading competencies, and teachers' perceptions of their own instructionally relevant competencies to those standards articulated within their state's…

Building Bridges: How to Increase the Efficacy of Teacher Mentors and Student-Teacher Programs

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Nesheim, Nicole E.; Moran, Clarice M.; Pendleton, Melissa

2014-01-01

The cases presented describe two levels of struggle. One level identifies two student teachers (ST) and their mentors failing to meet one another's expectations. Another level presents school administration as it seeks to find ways of meeting STs' needs while maintaining a positive and productive school climate. Relevant research is presented to…

Rules for Summarizing Texts: Is Classroom Instruction Being Provided?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garner, Ruth

1984-01-01

An "ideal lesson" method was used to observe how teachers were providing instruction in text summarization. Teachers prepared a lesson and audiotaped the presentation. Although teachers were prompted to assist students in improving text summaries, only two teachers actually discussed more than one summarization rule. Staff development…

Increasing Mentoring Skills of Cooperating Teachers to Enhance Support for Pre-Service Teacher Candidates

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Borden, Ryen

2014-01-01

Mentor teachers have a significant impact on pre-service teachers. Unfortunately, mentors are often underprepared for their role, and thus, the potential learning from a student teaching experience is not maximized. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University provides training to mentors who host pre-service teachers during their…

A Walk in Our Shoes: A Discussion of Relevance and Communication in Teacher Prep

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldman, Karen L.; Cardell, Melanie

2013-01-01

Relevance is discussed in light of 21st c. communication skills and relevance. How do these areas impact both the face-to-face and online candidates in the MAT and MAED programs to positively impact P-12 students? Relevance theory and communication in 21st c. is clarified for working in both face-to-face and online learning environments leading…

Leading for Democracy in Urban Schools: Toward a Culturally Relevant Progressivism

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seher, Rachel

2013-01-01

The article examines the enactment of culturally relevant progressivism on the part of the principal of the Social Justice School, a small urban public high school explicitly committed to democratic education. Drawing upon extensive interviews and field observations conducted over the course of an academic year by a teacher-researcher within the…

Resistance to Change among Veteran Teachers: Providing Voice for More Effective Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Snyder, Richard R.

2017-01-01

Effective implementation of change remains a crucial concern for educational leaders in the 21st Century. One of the factors affecting effective implementation of reform is resistance to change. Veteran teachers in particular present unique challenges, and stereotypically the greatest resistance, for effective implementation of change. This study…

Parity in Designing, Conducting, and Evaluating Teacher Education Programs: A Conceptual Definition.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caruso, Joseph J.

Individuals, agencies, and institutions involved in the education and employment of teachers conceptually defined parity relevant to the decision-making process in planning, conducting, and evaluating teacher education programs and translated the conceptual definition into an instrument for describing parity in consortium-centered teacher…

The Use of E-Learning in Pre-Service Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Li, Baomin

2009-01-01

Purpose: E-learning has been applied in pre-service teacher training for many years. The purpose of this paper is to present the use of e-learning in a pre-service teacher training course and discuss the relevant issues involved. Design/methodology/approach: The article reviews literature related to instruction design, and e-learning concepts and…

Teaching Economics in American History. A Teacher's Manual for Secondary Schools.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dawson, George G.; Prehn, Edward C.

Designed for secondary teachers to use in conjunction with a textbook, the teaching guide assists the teacher in incorporating economic facts, concepts, and principles in a United States history course. The primary purpose is to identify historical events which can be enriched by consideration of relevant economic topics in an interdisciplinary…

Review and Analysis of the EU Teacher-Related Policies and Activities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stéger, Csilla

2014-01-01

This article aims at raising awareness of the key role the EU already plays in matters of teacher policy. It takes stock of European teacher policy related documents and activities, such as relevant strategies, presidency priorities, Council Conclusions, Commission working documents, the activities of thematic working groups, of networks, of data…

Investigation of Primary Mathematics Student Teachers' Concept Images: Cylinder and Cone

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ertekin, Erhan; Yazici, Ersen; Delice, Ali

2014-01-01

The aim of the present study is to determine the influence of concept definitions of cylinder and cone on primary mathematics student teachers' construction of relevant concept images. The study had a relational survey design and the participants were 238 primary mathematics student teachers. Statistical analyses implied the following: mathematics…

QR-STEM: Energy and Environment as a Context for Improving QR and STEM Understandings of 6-12 Grade Teachers I. The Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lyford, M. E.; Myers, J. D.; Mayes, R. L.

2009-12-01

Numerous educational studies have documented serious shortcomings in student's quantitative reasoning (QR), understanding of science and ability to connect these to their daily lives. These have driven many reform efforts in teacher professional development. Historically, most of these efforts have focused on science or math and rarely on the science-society connection. For the past two years, a Wyoming Department of Education funded Math-Science Partnership (MSP) professional development program has created a collaboration of university and community college faculty and middle and high school teachers to address QR, science and social relevance in the context of energy and the environment. This professional development project is designed to: 1) improve teacher content knowledge (both in the sciences and math); 2) demonstrate the many social contexts in which science and QR are relevant and can be taught; 3) model effective science and QR classroom activities for teachers; 4) provide teachers with the opportunity to develop and test their own classroom materials; 5) foster the development of professional learning communities across the state; and 6) initiate discussions about curriculum across disciplinary boundaries. Over the course of four summer meetings, participants investigate a series of issues centered on energy and the environment, including transportation, electricity, biogeochemical cycles, Peak Oil, carbon sequestration and climate change. Each issue is approached in an interdisciplinary manner, where relevant aspects from the life sciences, earth sciences, chemistry and physics are addressed. An introductory presentation on the general theme kicks off each meeting to introduce the problem. Subsequent sessions are lead by faculty from the various scientific disciplines as well as math. During their sessions, university and community college faculty model active learning exercises for each issue. These activities weave together the relevant disciplinary

TPACK Development in Science Teacher Preparation: A Case Study in Queensland, Australia

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sickel, Jamie L.

This study sought to identify key experiences that impact the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) of preservice secondary sciences teachers at a medium-sized university in Queensland, Australia. TPACK is a conceptual framework of a body of knowledge that teachers draw upon to influence practice; it is a dynamic and emergent form of knowledge that informs the employment of technology for teaching specific subject matter. This study employed an embedded case study approach, including delivery of a TPACK survey instrument and analysis of participant interviews, to identify the context-specific experiences that promote the development of TPACK among twelve preservice secondary science teachers. The research addresses a specific need cited in the literature, identifying TPACK impact factors, and provides a novel way to visualize TPACK development through contextual experiences. A novel approach to visually representing context-specific experiences and their influence on teacher knowledge, self-efficacy, values and beliefs was employed. Three major findings are presented below: 1) the majority of preservice secondary science teachers were unable to define the constructs of learning and science; 2) a focus on motivation and interest paired with a disconnect between expressed and enacted pedagogical orientation lead to teacher-centered instruction augmented with superficial tactics aimed at generating interest; and 3) difficulty in integrating knowledge bases yielded lower TPACK self-efficacy, which has detrimental impacts on the instruction planned by pre-service teachers for their students. Findings are directly aligned with participants' prior experience, compared to the relevant literature, and utilized to identify implications for teacher preparation as well as recommendations for future research.

What Assessment Knowledge and Skills Do Initial Teacher Education Programs Address? A Western Canadian Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Poth, Cheryl-Anne

2012-01-01

Teacher education programs play a crucial role in preparing teachers for their future assessment roles and responsibilities, yet many beginning teachers feel unprepared to assess their students' performances (Mertler, 2009). To address concerns related to the relevancy of pre-service assessment education, this study examined 57 syllabi from…

Communication and Diversity: Innovations in Teacher Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Simonds, Brent K.; Lippert, Lance R.; Hunt, Stephen K.; Angell, Maureen E.; Moore, Marilyn K.

2008-01-01

Teacher education programs have increasingly come under fire for not providing pre-service teachers communication skills training. Given that such training is essential to address diversity in the classroom and to meet the day-to-day functioning of teachers, higher education must provide communication skills training for teacher certification.…

Training Lay Interventionists to Support Tobacco Cessation among Teachers in India.

PubMed

Aghi, Mira; Nagler, Eve; Lando, Harry; Pednekar, Mangesh; Gupta, Prakash; Sorensen, Glorian

2016-01-01

Despite the rapidly increasing burden of tobacco-related morbidity and mortality in low- and middle-income countries, tobacco control initiatives - especially cessation - receive little emphasis. This is true despite low-cost methods that have potential for widespread dissemination. The purpose of this paper is to provide a case study example of how lay interventionists may be trained and supported to facilitate tobacco use cessation, based on the successful Tobacco Free Teachers-Tobacco Free Society program (TFT-TFS) implemented in Bihar, India. This school-based program included multiple components, with lay interventionists having a crucial role. The lay interventionists included health educators and lead teachers, both of whom were selected based on formative research, underwent extensive training and received continuing support. We emphasized encouraging and supporting teachers to quit tobacco use and engaging both tobacco users and nonusers to create a supportive environment for cessation. We also stressed that neither the health educators nor lead teachers were being trained as counselors or as cessation experts. We focused on the importance of respecting teachers as individuals and identifying locally relevant methods of cessation. Although we cannot isolate the precise contribution of the lay interventionists to the successful TFT-TFS intervention, the abstinence findings in favor of the intervention at follow up are highly encouraging. Teachers have been neglected as lay interventionists for tobacco cessation despite the fact that they tend to be highly respected and credible. The approach used for TFT-TFS could be disseminable in multiple low- and middle-income country contexts through train-the-trainer programs targeted to teachers.

"Experience Is the Best Tool for Teachers": Blogging to Provide Preservice Educators with Authentic Teaching Opportunities

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stover, Katie; Yearta, Lindsay Sheronick; Sease, Rachel

2014-01-01

Considering the digital landscape of the 21st century classroom, it is paramount that teacher education programs prepare preservice teachers to incorporate technology into their classrooms to engage in communicative and collaborative acts as readers and writers. This collective case study was conducted to explore what happened when nine preservice…

As an Infused or a Separated Theme? Chinese Science Teacher Educators' Conceptions of Incorporating Nature of Science Instruction in the Courses of Training Pre-Service Science Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Wan, Zhi Hong; Wong, Siu Ling

2013-01-01

Teaching nature of science (NOS) is beginning to find its place in science education in China. This exploratory study interviewed twenty-four Chinese science teacher educators about their conceptions of teaching NOS to pre-service science teachers. Although five dimensions emerged, this paper mainly focuses on reporting the findings relevant to…

Better Teachers.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization, Hamburg (West Germany). Inst. for Education.

This publication examines an in-service teacher training program in Beirut, Lebanon sponsored by the Unesco Institute of Education and set up by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The program provides professional training for unqualified Palestine refugee teachers working in schools…

On negotiating White science: a call for cultural relevance and critical reflexivity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bettez, Silvia Cristina; Aguilar-Valdez, Jean Rockford; Carlone, Heidi B.; Cooper, Jewell E.

2011-12-01

This article is a response to Randy Yerrick and Joseph Johnson's article "Negotiating White Science in Rural Black America: A Case for Navigating the Landscape of Teacher Knowledge Domains". They write about research conducted by Yerrick in which videos of his teaching practice as a White educator in a predominately Black rural classroom were examined. Their analysis is framed through Shulman's (1986) work on "domains of teacher knowledge" and Ladson-Billings' (1999) critical race theory (CRT). Although we appreciate a framework that attends to issues of power, such as CRT, we see a heavier emphasis on Shulman's work in their analysis. We argue that a culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) framework has the potential to provide a more nuanced analysis of what occurred in Yerrick's classroom from a critical lens. Thus we examine Yerrick and Johnson's work through the five main CRP components (as defined by Brown-Jeffy and Cooper 2011) and ultimately argue that science educators who want to promote equity in their classrooms should engage in continuous critical reflexivity, aid students in claiming voice, and encourage students to become not only producers of scientific knowledge but also users and critics of such knowledge.

Training of Classroom Relevant Behaviors with the "Staats Box." Technical Report #9.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Sueoka, Sarah; And Others

This case study of a kindergarten boy in the Kamehameha Early Education Program (KEEP) suggests that specific operant training in school-relevant behaviors can facilitate classroom adjustment if the training is coordinated with the regular classroom teacher. The subject, considered unmanageable, hyperactive, and aggressive by the staff at his…

Effective Special Teacher Characteristics: Perceptions of Preschool Special Educators in Greece

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Soulis, Spiridon-Georgios

2009-01-01

The aim of the present study was to evaluate six characteristics of effective special pre-school teachers, similar to those used in the relevant literature. The study participants were all special teachers (n = 226), serving in Greek state and community pre-primary educational institutions (i.e. kindergartens and day nurseries) for children with…

The Teacher Trainer: A Practical Journal Mainly for Modern Language Teacher Trainers, 1992.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Woodward, Tessa, Ed.

1992-01-01

This document consists of the three issues of the serial "The Teacher Trainer" issued during 1992. Articles include: "Resistance to Change in Teacher Training Courses"; "Teacher Training Games Series: Game 6: Language Bridge"; "How Trainees Can Provide a Resource for Staff Development"; "Do Unto Them As…

Lift Every Voice and Sing: Constructing Community through Culturally Relevant Pedagogy in the University of Illinois Black Chorus

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chadwick, Sheelagh

2011-01-01

For Gloria Ladson-Billings, culturally relevant pedagogy is characterized by three criteria: academic success, cultural competence and critical consciousness. Those engaged in culturally relevant pedagogy are connected by how they see themselves as teachers and how they see their students, how they view knowledge and how they structure social…

The Mentor Teacher Casebook.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Shulman, Judith H., Ed.; Colbert, Joel A., Ed.

This casebook, developed in collaboration with 22 mentor teachers in the Los Angeles (California) Unified School District, provides illustrative vignettes, written by the mentor teachers themselves, of their work with first-year teachers. The vignettes describe the circumstances of each event, its consequences, and the ongoing thoughts and…

Empirical Inquiry Into Teacher Centers. Teacher Education Forum; Volume 3, Number 13.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ruchkin, Judith P.

This report represents a summary of a larger, on-going investigation in teacher education committed to providing a detailed description of the differences found in teacher center and noncenter programs. Part one describes the design, and then summarizes the findings, of the initial phase of the center study by providing the answers to the six…

Using Facebook to Support Novice Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Staudt, Denise; St. Clair, Norman; Martinez, Elda E.

2013-01-01

Providing quality support for novice teachers as they enter the profession has been an ongoing concern of educator preparation programs. This article describes the efforts of one teacher preparation program in addressing this matter by utilizing Facebook[R] to provide sustained support and professional development for its beginning teachers. We…

Across the Arctic Teachers Experience Field Research

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Warnick, W. K.; Warburton, J.; Wiggins, H. V.; Marshall, S. A.; Darby, D. A.

2005-12-01

From studying snow geese on the North Slope of Alaska to sediment coring aboard the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy in the Arctic Ocean, K-12 teachers embark on scientific expeditions as part of a program that strives to make science in the Arctic a "virtual" reality. In the past two years, seventeen K-12 teachers have participated in Teachers and Researchers Exploring and Collaborating (TREC), a program that pairs teachers with researchers to improve science education through arctic field experiences. TREC builds on the scientific and cultural opportunities of the Arctic, linking research and education through topics that naturally engage students and the wider public. TREC includes expeditions as diverse as studying plants at Toolik Field Station, a research facility located 150 miles above the Arctic Circle; climate change studies in Norway's Svalbard archipelago; studying rivers in Siberia; or a trans-arctic expedition aboard the USCGC Healy collecting an integrated geophysical data set. Funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs, TREC offers educators experiences in scientific inquiry while encouraging the public and students to become active participants in the scientific inquiry by engaging them virtually in arctic research. TREC uses online outreach elements to convey the research experience to a broad audience. While in remote field locations, teachers and researchers interact with students and the public through online seminars and live calls from the field, online journals with accompanying photos, and online bulletin boards. Since the program's inception in 2004, numerous visitors have posted questions or interacted with teachers, researchers, and students through the TREC website (http://www.arcus.org/trec). TREC teachers are required to transfer their experience of research and current science into their classroom through the development of relevant activities and resources. Teachers and researchers are encouraged to participate

Race, Gender, and Teacher Testing: How Informative a Tool Is Teacher Licensure Testing?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Goldhaber, Dan; Hansen, Michael

2010-01-01

Virtually all states require teachers to undergo licensure testing before participation in the public school labor market. This article analyzes the information these tests provide about teacher effectiveness. The authors find that licensure tests have different predicative validity for student achievement by teacher race. They also find that…

Providing Exemplar-Based "Feedforward" before an Assessment: The Role of Teacher Explanation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hendry, Graham D.; White, Peter; Herbert, Catherine

2016-01-01

We know from research across all levels of education that feedback and interactive teaching have the greatest positive effect on students' achievement. However, in higher education, teachers' constructive feedback often logistically cannot be delivered in time for all students to apply to future tasks. In this article, we report on a study of an…

Navigating a Sea of Ideas: Teacher and Students Negotiate a Course toward Mutual Relevance.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Flick, Lawrence B.

1995-01-01

Uses theories of social cognition and verbal communication to analyze how an experienced fourth-grade teacher blends teaching skills in language arts and reading with hands-on science to stimulate classroom inquiry. Discusses implications for elementary science instruction. Contains 41 references. (Author/JRH)

A Case Study on Pre-Service Teachers Students' Interaction with Graphical Artefacts

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Olande, Oduor

2014-01-01

This study reports from a pre-service teacher's online learning and assessment activity on determining variability of two graphical artefacts. Using a critical-analytical perspective to data, the present study indicates that the prospective teachers surveyed showed awareness of relevant subject specific operators and methods; however, these seem…

Teacher Competence Frameworks in Europe: Policy-as-Discourse and Policy-as-Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caena, Francesca

2014-01-01

This article analyses the growing focus on teacher competences in European policy discourse against the backdrop of global convergences in education reforms. It traces key ideas, policy recommendations, peer learning and documents which underscore the relevance of teacher quality for education improvement, as recently stressed in the European…

A Qualitative Exploration of Implementation Factors in a School-Based Mindfulness and Yoga Program: Lessons Learned from Students and Teachers

PubMed Central

Dariotis, Jacinda K.; Mirabal-Beltran, Roxanne; Cluxton-Keller, Fallon; Gould, Laura Feagans; Greenberg, Mark T.; Mendelson, Tamar

2016-01-01

Identifying factors relevant for successful implementation of school-based interventions is essential to ensure that programs are provided in an effective and engaging manner. The perspectives of two key stakeholders critical for identifying implementation barriers and facilitators – students and their classroom teachers – merit attention in this context and have rarely been explored using qualitative methods. This study reports qualitative perspectives of fifth and sixth grade participants and their teachers of a 16-week school-based mindfulness and yoga program in three public schools serving low-income urban communities. Four themes related to program implementation barriers and facilitators emerged: program delivery factors, program buy-in, implementer communication with teachers, and instructor qualities. Feedback from students and teachers is discussed in the context of informing implementation, adaptation, and future development of school-based mindfulness and yoga programming in urban settings. PMID:28670007

A Qualitative Exploration of Implementation Factors in a School-Based Mindfulness and Yoga Program: Lessons Learned from Students and Teachers.

PubMed

Dariotis, Jacinda K; Mirabal-Beltran, Roxanne; Cluxton-Keller, Fallon; Gould, Laura Feagans; Greenberg, Mark T; Mendelson, Tamar

2017-01-01

Identifying factors relevant for successful implementation of school-based interventions is essential to ensure that programs are provided in an effective and engaging manner. The perspectives of two key stakeholders critical for identifying implementation barriers and facilitators - students and their classroom teachers - merit attention in this context and have rarely been explored using qualitative methods. This study reports qualitative perspectives of fifth and sixth grade participants and their teachers of a 16-week school-based mindfulness and yoga program in three public schools serving low-income urban communities. Four themes related to program implementation barriers and facilitators emerged: program delivery factors, program buy-in, implementer communication with teachers, and instructor qualities. Feedback from students and teachers is discussed in the context of informing implementation, adaptation, and future development of school-based mindfulness and yoga programming in urban settings.

Effects of Teacher Preparation Courses: Do Graduates Use What They Learned to Plan Mathematics Lessons?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Morris, Anne K.; Hiebert, James

2017-01-01

We investigated whether the content pre-service teachers studied in elementary teacher preparation mathematics courses was related to their performance on a mathematics lesson planning task 2 and 3 years after graduation. The relevant mathematics knowledge was studied when the teachers were freshmen, 5 to 6 years earlier. Results showed that when…

An Evaluation of Teachers' Perceptions of a State Developed Educational Portal

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Caraccio, Beth Katz

2009-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' perceptions use of a state developed educational portal. The research evaluated the differences in the quality, usefulness, and relevance of learning objects found on the website based on teachers' gender and grade level they taught. Grade level taught referred to those grades that are the…

Teachers in School Sports: Between the Fields of Education and Sport?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ferry, Magnus

2016-01-01

According to the cultural sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, gaining access to a social space or a position within a social space requires a specific capital. For teachers, this is normally indicated by a valid teaching certificate with relevant subject knowledge. However, when no qualified teachers are available, which is the case for the subject of…

Science Teachers' Analogical Reasoning

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mozzer, Nilmara Braga; Justi, Rosária

2013-01-01

Analogies can play a relevant role in students' learning. However, for the effective use of analogies, teachers should not only have a well-prepared repertoire of validated analogies, which could serve as bridges between the students' prior knowledge and the scientific knowledge they desire them to understand, but also know how to…

On Being a "Scholarly" Teacher

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prenkert, Jamie Darin

2013-01-01

In this article, the author shares his thoughts on being a "scholarly" teacher. He points out that engaging in scholarly activity, which includes publishing as well as other ways to engage with relevant research, like reviewing and editing for journals, can lead to better teaching. This sort of scholarly commitment allows an instructor to maintain…

Science as experience, exploration, and experiments: elementary teachers' notions of `doing science'

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murphy, Ashley N.; Luna, Melissa J.; Bernstein, Malayna B.

2017-11-01

Much of the literature on science teaching suggests that elementary teachers lack relevant prior experiences with science. This study begins to reframe the deficit approach to research in science teaching by privileging the experiences elementary teachers have had with science - both in and out of schools - throughout their lives. Our work uses identity as a lens to examine the complexities of elementary teachers' narrative accounts of their experiences with science over the course of their lives. Our findings identify components of teachers' science-related experiences in order to lay the groundwork for making connections between teachers' personal experiences and professional practice. This work demonstrates that teachers' storied lives are important for educational researchers and teacher educators, as they reveal elements of teaching knowledge that may be productive and resourceful for refining teachers' science practice.

Energy literacy of Indiana high school practical arts and vocational teachers

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Emshousen, F.W. Jr.

The purpose of the study was to develop an energy knowledge examination, investigate the extent high school teachers of home economics, agriculture, and industrial arts differ in their knowledge of energy, and to ascertain the extent their knowledge of energy differs with personal, educational, and geographic characteristics. Based upon literature review, a subject model was structured according to Bloom's (1956) taxonomy category of Knowledge and Hauenstein's (1972) procedure for classifying knowledges. Energy experts critically evaluated this model, which after refinement, was used to develop an Energy Knowledge Examination. The model consisted of six primary elements: sources, uses, costs, conservation, conversion,more » and policy issues. Energy experts reviewed items for accuracy, relevance, reading level, and clarity. The final instrument (65 multiple choice questions), was administered to a stratified random sample of Indiana public high school (IPHS) teachers from selected disciplines. Findings revealed significant biases among energy experts regarding relevance of specific subject content to the needs of teachers and students. Significant differences in the energy knowledge of IPHS teachers existed only in specific areas of the subject.« less

Teaching Culturally Relevant Science.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Marinez, Diana; Ortiz de Montellano, Bernard

For teachers concerned about the underrepresentation of Hispanics and Native Americans in science fields, this paper provides resource materials and instructional approaches. First, the role of ethnocentrism in determining what is included in science courses is discussed; the non-Western impact of science has been systematically ignored, it is…

Informal teacher communities enhancing the professional development of medical teachers: a qualitative study.

PubMed

van Lankveld, Thea; Schoonenboom, Judith; Kusurkar, Rashmi; Beishuizen, Jos; Croiset, Gerda; Volman, Monique

2016-04-14

Informal peer learning is a particularly powerful form of learning for medical teachers, although it does not always occur automatically in the departments of medical schools. In this article, the authors explore the role of teacher communities in enhancing informal peer learning among undergraduate medical teachers. Teacher communities are groups of teachers who voluntarily gather on a regular basis to develop and share knowledge. Outside of medical education, these informal teacher communities have proved to be an effective means of enhancing peer learning of academic teachers. The processes underlying this outcome are, however, not known. This study therefore aims to explore the processes that make informal teacher communities effective in supporting peer learning of teachers. A qualitative study was performed at a Dutch medical school, where a student-centred undergraduate curriculum had recently been introduced. As part of this curriculum, tutors are segregated into separate specialty areas and thus have only limited opportunities for informal learning with other tutors. The authors followed two informal teacher communities aimed at supporting these tutors. They observed the interactions within the teacher communities and held semi-structured interviews with ten of the participants. The observation notes and interview data were analysed using thematic analysis. The informal teacher communities allowed the tutors to engage in a dialogue with colleagues and share questions, solutions, and interpretations. The teacher communities also provided opportunities to explicate tacit expertise, which helped the tutors to develop an idea of their role and form a frame of reference for their own experiences. Furthermore, the communities enhanced the tutors' sense of belonging. The tutors felt more secure in their role and they felt valued by the organisation due to the teacher communities. This study shows that informal teacher communities not only support the professional

Assessing Teachers' Comprehension of What Matters in Earth Science

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Penuel, W. R.; Kreikemeier, P.; Venezky, D.; Blank, J. G.; Davatzes, A.; Davatzes, N.

2006-12-01

. Teachers with higher levels of agreement also had a higher percentage of standards identified that were "off-grade," meaning that they saw connections to standards that they were not themselves required to teach but that nonetheless were relevant to developing student understanding of a particular concept. This result is consistent with the premise that to make good decisions about what to teach, teachers need to be able to identify relevant standards from other grade levels that are connected to the big ideas of a discipline (Shulman, 1986, Educ. Res. 15:4-14).

What Does Vygotsky Provide for the 21st-Century Language Arts Teacher?

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Smagorinsky, Peter

2013-01-01

L. S. Vygotsky, the psychologist and teacher from Byelorussia who became a central figure in Soviet psychological and educational circles in the 1920s and 1930s, has become a frequent citation in 21st-century scholarship. He is most-often invoked to support some form of instructional scaffolding, based on his idea of the zone of proximal…

Exploring Evolving Role(s) of Literacy in Secondary Preservice Teachers' Work: A Comparative Case Study

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hsieh, Betina

2017-01-01

While literacy courses are common in preservice teacher education programs, many secondary teacher candidates struggle to the see the relevance of literacy to their professional work. By exploring literacy in relation to personal, professional, and disciplinary identities, teacher candidates may better be able to embrace literacy integration as an…

Providing Support for Rural Teachers of Students with Low Incidence Disabilities Who Are Completing the Kentucky Teacher Internship Program

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Abell, Michael; Collins, Belva C.; Kleinert, Harold; Pennington, Robert

2014-01-01

The Education and Professional Standards Board (EPSB) is the governing organization for teacher certification in Kentucky. According to the EPSB (2013a), only three institutions of higher education in the state (i.e., Morehead State University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville) offer an approved alternate certificate program in…

Preparing Teachers to Promote Culturally Relevant Teaching: Helping English Language Learners in the Classroom

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Islam, Chhanda; Park, Mi-Hwa

2015-01-01

Graduate students who know strategies for second language acquisition are more prepared to advocate for appropriate instructional accommodations to facilitate engagement of English language learners (ELLs; Daniel, 2008). Obstacles to comprehension for ELLs are decreased when teachers use purposeful tasks that use language productively and…

A Study of West Virginia Elementary Special Education Teachers' Roles, Responsibilities, and Practices within a Multi-Tiered Instructional System: Implications for Policy and Practice

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Palenchar, Linda M.

2012-01-01

The purpose of the study was to provide a data-based description of West Virginia special education teachers' roles, responsibilities, and practices relevant to their participation in selected components of the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. Special educators' practices related to assessment, tiered instruction, decision making, and…

Teacher Education: Challenge for the Future.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Quisenberry, Nancy L.

1987-01-01

Examines recent criticisms of teacher preparation and considers changes in teacher education over the past 10 years. Provides suggestions concerning future directions for teacher education programs. (PCB)

Resisting Punitive School Discipline: Perspectives and Practices of Exemplary Urban Elementary Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hambacher, Elyse

2018-01-01

Drawing on the literature related to classroom management, and culturally relevant critical teacher care, and effective teaching for students of color, this paper uses interview and observation data to explore the perspectives and practices of two exemplary fifth-grade teachers who refuse to rely on punitive discipline with their students of…

English Teachers' Journal (Israel), No. 26.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ministry of Education and Culture, Jerusalem (Israel). English Inspectorate.

The following articles on teaching English as a second language appear in this issue: (1) "Information for English Teachers" (on testing, literature, teaching reading skills, English in the weakest streams, and new publications); (2) "Relevant Issues in Contemporary Humanism--R.I.C.H.," by O. Zohar; (3) "Matriculation…

Teacher, parent, and peer reports of early aggression as screening measures for long-term maladaptive outcomes: Who provides the most useful information?

PubMed Central

Clemans, Katherine H.; Musci, Rashelle J.; Leoutsakos, Jeannie-Marie S.; Ialongo, Nicholas S.

2014-01-01

Objective This study compared the ability of teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggressive behavior in early childhood to accurately classify cases of maladaptive outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthood. Method Weighted kappa analyses determined optimal cut points and relative classification accuracy among teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggression assessed for 691 students (54% male; 84% African American, 13% White) in the fall of first grade. Outcomes included antisocial personality, substance use, incarceration history, risky sexual behavior, and failure to graduate from high school on time. Results Peer reports were the most accurate classifier of all outcomes in the full sample. For most outcomes, the addition of teacher or parent reports did not improve overall classification accuracy once peer reports were accounted for. Additional gender-specific and adjusted kappa analyses supported the superior classification utility of the peer report measure. Conclusion The results suggest that peer reports provided the most useful classification information of the three aggression measures. Implications for targeted intervention efforts which use screening measures to identify at-risk children are discussed. PMID:24512126

Teacher, parent, and peer reports of early aggression as screening measures for long-term maladaptive outcomes: who provides the most useful information?

PubMed

Clemans, Katherine H; Musci, Rashelle J; Leoutsakos, Jeannie-Marie S; Ialongo, Nicholas S

2014-04-01

This study compared the ability of teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggressive behavior in early childhood to accurately classify cases of maladaptive outcomes in late adolescence and early adulthood. Weighted kappa analyses determined optimal cut points and relative classification accuracy among teacher, parent, and peer reports of aggression assessed for 691 students (54% male; 84% African American and 13% White) in the fall of first grade. Outcomes included antisocial personality, substance use, incarceration history, risky sexual behavior, and failure to graduate from high school on time. Peer reports were the most accurate classifier of all outcomes in the full sample. For most outcomes, the addition of teacher or parent reports did not improve overall classification accuracy once peer reports were accounted for. Additional gender-specific and adjusted kappa analyses supported the superior classification utility of the peer report measure. The results suggest that peer reports provided the most useful classification information of the 3 aggression measures. Implications for targeted intervention efforts in which screening measures are used to identify at-risk children are discussed.

Parent/Teacher Talk.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education, Urbana, IL.

This document summarizes the practical advice for improving parent/teacher communication through written messages and telephone conversations provided in two documents written by Michael L. Henniger of Central Washington University: (1) "Building Parent/Teacher Relations through Written Communication" (ED 211 216); (2) "The…

Profile Of A Rural Teachers' Center. Teachers' Center Exchange. Occasional Paper No. 2.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Martin, Peter H.

Project RISE (Regional In-Service Education) is an inservice center serving teachers, administrators, support staff and parents in central Connecticut. It began in 1976 with state funding, and serves 500 teachers in nine rural and small town districts. An initial needs assessment provided a basis for planning and responding to individual teachers'…

Teachers' Views on Performance-Based Assessments.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

King, Bruce

1991-01-01

Provides personal perspectives from teachers about the prospects and problems illuminated by Stanford University's Teacher Assessment Project. Teacher remarks address the portfolio development process, assessment centers, implications for national board certification for teachers, personal thoughts and perspectives on teaching, and the future of…

Issues in Teacher Education. Volume II: Background Papers from the National Commission for Excellence in Teacher Education. Teacher Education Monograph No. 6.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Lasley, Thomas J., Ed.

The articles in this monograph provide a framework for reflecting on a variety of educational issues. In section one the historical roots of teacher education are examined. The second section deals more directly with what a teacher is and how the definitional properties of "the teacher" begin to dictate a curriculum for teacher…

Preservice Elementary Teachers' Understanding of Logical Inference

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hauk, Shandy; Judd, April Brown; Tsay, Jenq Jong; Barzilai, Harel; Austin, Homer

2009-01-01

This article reports on the logical reasoning efforts of five prospective elementary school teachers as they responded to interview prompts involving nonsense, natural, and mathematical representations of conditional statements. The interview participants evinced various levels of reliance on personal relevance, linguistic contextualization, and…

We Look More, Listen More, Notice More: Impact of Sustained Professional Development on Head Start Teachers' Inquiry-Based and Culturally-Relevant Science Teaching Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Roehrig, Gillian H.; Dubosarsky, Mia; Mason, Annie; Carlson, Stephan; Murphy, Barbara

2011-01-01

Despite many scholars' recommendations, science is often avoided during early childhood education. Among the reasons provided by early childhood teachers for the exclusion of science from their daily routines included science anxiety, low self-efficacy with respect to teaching science, lack of experience participating in science activities as…

Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers: The Field Experience. Teacher Education Yearbook IV.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

McIntyre, D. John, Ed.; Byrd, David M., Ed.

This yearbook provides educators with current research and practical guidelines for improving the education of teacher candidates and beginning teachers. The book has four sections, each on a particular topic and containing an overview and a response (reflections and implications). The first section focuses on contexts for effective field…

A pedagogical framework for developing innovative science teachers with ICT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rogers, Laurence; Twidle, John

2013-11-01

Background: The authors have conducted a number of research projects into the use of ICT in science teaching and most recently have collaborated with five European partners in teacher education to develop resources to assist teacher trainers in delivering courses for the professional development of science teachers. Purpose: 1. To describe the main aspects of pedagogy which are relevant to the use of ICT tools which serve practical science teaching. 2. To discuss approaches to teacher education which aim to emphasise the pedagogical aspects of using those ICT tools. Sources of evidence: 1. A review of the research literature on the effectiveness of using ICT in education with a particular focus on pedagogical knowledge and its interaction with associated technical knowledge. 2. Authors' experience as teacher trainers and as researchers in methods of employing ICT in science education. 3. Studies conducted by partners in the ICT for Innovative Science Teachers Project and training materials developed by the project. Main argument: Starting from the premise that it is the pedagogical actions of the teacher which determine successful learning outcomes of using ICT in science lessons, the paper describes the main components of pedagogical knowledge and understanding required by teachers. It examines the role of an understanding of affordances in helping teachers to deploy software tools appropriately and defines some of the skills for exploiting them to benefit learning. Innovation is successful when ICT activities are incorporated in ways that complement non-ICT activities and serve science learning objectives. When teachers are alert to adapt their pedagogical skills, they evolve new ways of working and interacting with students. Training courses need to provide means of helping teachers to examine the professional beliefs which underpin their pedagogical approaches. This is most effectively achieved when a course blends personal hands-on experience with discourse

Information Literacy Follow-Through: Enhancing Preservice Teachers' Information Evaluation Skills through Formative Assessment

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Seely, Sara Robertson; Fry, Sara Winstead; Ruppel, Margie

2011-01-01

An investigation into preservice teachers' information evaluation skills at a large university suggests that formative assessment can improve student achievement. Preservice teachers were asked to apply information evaluation skills in the areas of currency, relevancy, authority, accuracy, and purpose. The study used quantitative methods to assess…

Preparing Science Teachers for Culturally Diverse Students: Developing Cultural Literacy Through Cultural Immersion, Cultural Translators and Communities of Practice

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chinn, Pauline W. U.

2006-09-01

This three year study of P-12 professional development is grounded in sociocultural theories that hold that building knowledge and relationships among individuals from different cultural backgrounds entails joint activity toward common goals and cultural dialogues mediated by cultural translators. Sixty P-12 pre and in-service teachers in a year long interdisciplinary science curriculum course shared the goal of developing culturally relevant, standards-based science curricula for Native Hawai'ian students. Teachers and Native Hawai'ian instructors lived and worked together during a five day culture-science immersion in rural school and community sites and met several times at school, university, and community sites to build knowledge and share programs. Teachers were deeply moved by immersion experiences, learned to connect cultural understandings, e.g., a Hawai'ian sense of place and curriculum development, and highly valued collaborating with peers on curriculum development and implementation. The study finds that long term professional development providing situated learning through cultural immersion, cultural translators, and interdisciplinary instruction supports the establishment of communities of practice in which participants develop the cross-cultural knowledge and literacy needed for the development of locally relevant, place and standards-based curricula and pedagogy.

Features and Strategies of Supervisor Professional Community as a Means of Improving the Supervision of Preservice Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Levine, Thomas H.

2011-01-01

This article explores whether features associated with effective professional communities among K-12 teachers are relevant and sufficient for improving the practice of supervisors in teacher education programs. Interview and observational data from nineteen supervisors in one teacher education program illuminate what supervisors want in order to…

Co-teaching Perspectives from Secondary Science Co-teachers and Their Students with Disabilities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

King-Sears, Margaret E.; Brawand, Anne Eichorn; Jenkins, Melissa C.; Preston-Smith, Shantha

2014-10-01

An in-depth case study of one team of co-teachers' practice from multiple perspectives is described. A high school science co-teaching team and their students with disabilities completed surveys about their perceptions of co-teaching. Additionally, observations of the two co-teachers occurred to determine roles and types of interactions for each co-teacher during science instruction. Observational data revealed effective teaching behaviors demonstrated by each co-teacher. Detailed descriptions of the co-teachers' instruction are provided. The science educator was observed interacting with the large group twice as often as the special educator. The science educator also presented new content nearly three times as often as the special educator. The co-teacher surveys were consistent with the observational data. Both educators disagreed that the special educator was primarily the lead for instruction. Both educators strongly agreed they had an effective co-teaching relationship, although the science educator indicated stronger agreement for parity in roles and responsibilities than the special educator noted. Forty-three percent of the students identified the science educator as in charge of lessons, while 43% identified both educators. Most students thought teaching was divided in half, and all students enjoyed having two teachers in science. Eighty-six percent of the students indicated team teaching was the most frequently used co-teaching model, and 14% indicated one teach, one drift. Implications for co-teachers' reflections on their collaboration, including the relevance of student perceptions (i.e., Who is the "real" teacher?), and the extent to which educators are prepared at preservice and inservice levels for co-teaching are discussed.

Rewarding Teachers without Pay Increases.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hayden, Gary

1993-01-01

Today's educational institutions should establish a system of intrinsic rewards for teachers and other staff. This article reviews research on intrinsic motivators, including Deming's total quality concepts, and recommends providing teachers with more individualized instruction, reorganizing faculty supervision practices, giving teachers greater…

Coping with Teacher Stress: A Research Synthesis for Pacific Educators. Research Series.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Brown, Zoe Ann; Uehara, Denise L.

This research synthesis reviews the negative effects of teacher stress, focusing on teachers in the U.S.-affiliated Pacific. It describes teaching techniques for reducing these detrimental effects and discusses the relevance of such techniques within the cultures of the Pacific region. Section 1 describes what stress is. Section 2 examines the…

The relationship between teacher burnout and student motivation.

PubMed

Shen, Bo; McCaughtry, Nate; Martin, Jeffrey; Garn, Alex; Kulik, Noel; Fahlman, Mariane

2015-12-01

Teacher burnout is regarded as a serious problem in school settings. To date, studies on teachers' stress and burnout have largely centred on teachers' own characteristics, socialization, and behaviours, but few have explored the connection between teachers' burnout and students' motivation via their own perceptions of teachers' behaviour and emotional well-being. This study adopted Maslach et al.'s (2001, Annu. Rev. Psychol., 52, 397) job burnout construct and self-determination theory to investigate the relationships between teachers' burnout and students' autonomous motivation over one-semester physical education classes. A total of 1,302 high school students and their 33 physical education teachers in 20 high schools from two school districts in a major Midwest metropolitan area in the United States. The two school districts were demographically similar. Students and physical education teachers completed questionnaires assessing relevant psychological constructs. There were two time points for collecting students' data. One was at the beginning of a fall semester, and the other was at the end of that semester. Hierarchical linear modelling analyses were conducted. It was revealed that teachers' emotional exhaustion was negatively related to students' perceived teacher autonomy support (TAS); in turn, there was a negative relationship between teachers' feeling of depersonalization and students' autonomous motivation development even when controlling for inadequate TAS. The dimensions of teachers' burnout might play different roles in the transmission from teachers to students. Teachers' status of burnout is an important environmental factor associated with students' quality of motivation. © 2015 The British Psychological Society.

Teacher knowledge, instructional expertise, and the development of reading proficiency.

PubMed

Reid Lyon, G; Weiser, Beverly

2009-01-01

Teacher knowledge and instructional expertise have been found in correlational and pre- and posttest studies to be related to student reading achievement. This article summarizes data presented in this special issue and additional research to address four questions: (a) What do expert reading teachers know? (b) Why do teachers need to acquire this knowledge? (c) Do teachers believe they have this knowledge? and (d) Are teachers being adequately prepared to teach reading? Well-designed studies relevant to this topic have been sparse with a noticeable lack of attention given to identifying specific causal links between teacher knowledge, teaching expertise, and student reading achievement. Until the appropriate research designs and methodologies are applied to address the question of causal effects, conclusions about the specific content that teachers must know and the instructional practices that are most beneficial in presenting this content are preliminary at best. Future studies of the effect of essential reading content knowledge must be extended beyond word-level skills to vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing.

Teachers' Emotions and Test Feedback.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Stough, Laura M.; Emmer, Edmund T.

1998-01-01

Investigates teachers thoughts about test-feedback sessions and their resulting emotions and strategies when delivering feedback to students. Explains that past experiences with feedback sessions, problem students, teachers beliefs about feedback processes, and their goals for providing feedback influence the teachers level of emotion; the…

Technology Integration Experiences of Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Çoklar, Ahmet Naci; Yurdakul, Isil Kabakçi

2017-01-01

Teachers are important providers of educational sustainability. Teachers' ability to adapt themselves to rapidly developing technologies applicable to learning environments is connected with technology integration. The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers' technology integration experiences in the course of learning and teaching…

The Relevance of Historically Black Colleges and Universities in Preparing Black Educators and Teachers

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Collins, Edward; Davis, Cheron Hunter; Hilton, Adriel A.

2013-01-01

This study examines the teacher readiness of Black graduates of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) relative to non-HBCUs. To accomplish this objective, this paper identifies several components of preparation available from the Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study 2008/2009 (B&B: 08/09). Of the K-12 teaching preparation…

Spanish Teacher Education Programs and Community Engagement

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Jovanovi, Ana; Filipovi, Jelena

2013-01-01

Theories of situated knowledge support that knowledge involves experience of practices rather than just accumulated information. While an important segment of foreign language teacher education programs focuses on the theoretical component of second/foreign language acquisition theories and relevant methodological concerns, it is mainly through…

Culturally Relevant Teaching: Hip-Hop Pedagogy in Urban Schools. Counterpoints: Studies in the Postmodern Theory of Education. Volume 396

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Prier, Darius D.

2012-01-01

"Culturally Relevant Teaching" centers hip-hop culture as a culturally relevant form of critical pedagogy in urban pre-service teacher education programs. In this important book, Darius D. Prier explores how hip-hop artists construct a sense of democratic education and pedagogy with transformative possibilities in their schools and communities. In…

What Does Teacher Education Have to Do with Teaching? Implications for Diversity Studies

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Milner, H. Richard, IV

2010-01-01

Several concepts that are important for inclusion in any teacher education curriculum regarding diversity studies are elucidated in this article. The framing question of the discussion is: What are some relevant conceptions regarding issues of diversity that every teacher education program should consider including in its curriculum? The author…

Teachers' Professional Learning in a European Learning Society: The Case of Physical Education

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Makopoulou, Kyriaki; Armour, Kathleen

2011-01-01

Background: In the contemporary "knowledge-driven" European society, the quality and relevance of Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for teachers and Physical Education teachers (PE-CPD) has come under scrutiny. National contexts within Europe vary considerably, however, so there is a need to gain analytical insights into PE-CPD…

Dawning of Hope: Practice of and Reflections on Indigenous Teacher Education in Taiwan

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Chen, Shanhua

2016-01-01

Teachers more familiar with students' culture tend to use culturally relevant teaching methods to smooth students' learning. Most pre-service teachers in Taiwan lack sufficient training for multicultural competence to enable them to embrace indigenous students' culture and appropriate teaching approaches. In 2013, the Education Act for Indigenous…

Identifying Discriminating Variables between Teachers Who Fully Integrate Computers and Teachers with Limited Integration

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Mueller, Julie; Wood, Eileen; Willoughby, Teena; Ross, Craig; Specht, Jacqueline

2008-01-01

Given the prevalence of computers in education today, it is critical to understand teachers' perspectives regarding computer integration in their classrooms. The current study surveyed a random sample of a heterogeneous group of 185 elementary and 204 secondary teachers in order to provide a comprehensive summary of teacher characteristics and…

Child Behavior Problems, Teacher Executive Functions, and Teacher Stress in Head Start Classrooms.

PubMed

Friedman-Krauss, Allison H; Raver, C Cybele; Neuspiel, Juliana M; Kinsel, John

2014-01-01

The current article explores the relationship between teachers' perceptions of child behavior problems and preschool teacher job stress, as well as the possibility that teachers' executive functions moderate this relationship. Data came from 69 preschool teachers in 31 early childhood classrooms in 4 Head Start centers and were collected using Web-based surveys and Web-based direct assessment tasks. Multilevel models revealed that higher levels of teachers' perceptions of child behavior problems were associated with higher levels of teacher job stress and that higher teacher executive function skills were related to lower job stress. However, findings did not yield evidence for teacher executive functions as a statistical moderator. Many early childhood teachers do not receive sufficient training for handling children's challenging behaviors. Child behavior problems increase a teacher's workload and consequently may contribute to feelings of stress. However, teachers' executive function abilities may enable them to use effective, cognitive-based behavior management and instructional strategies during interactions with students, which may reduce stress. Providing teachers with training on managing challenging behaviors and enhancing executive functions may reduce their stress and facilitate their use of effective classroom practices, which is important for children's school readiness skills and teachers' health.

Providing English Foreign Language Teachers with Content Knowledge to Facilitate Decoding and Spelling Acquisition: A Longitudinal Perspective

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina

2016-01-01

This quasi-experimental study adds to the small existing literature on orthographic-related teacher knowledge in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The study examined the impact of a course on English orthography on predominantly non-native-speaking EFL preservice and inservice teachers' orthographic content knowledge, and the extent…

What Teachers Want: Supporting Primary School Teachers in Teaching Science

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Fitzgerald, Angela; Schneider, Katrin

2013-01-01

Impending change can provide us with the opportunity to rethink and renew the things that we do. The first phase of the Australian Curriculum implementation offers primary school teachers the chance to examine their approaches to science learning and teaching. This paper focuses on the perceptions of three primary school teachers regarding what…

The Impact of Providing Performance Feedback to Teachers and Principals. NCEE 2018-4001

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Garet, Michael S.; Wayne, Andrew J.; Brown, Seth; Rickles, Jordan; Song, Mengli; Manzeske, David

2017-01-01

Educator performance evaluation systems are a potential tool for improving student achievement by increasing the effectiveness of the educator workforce. For example, recent research suggests that giving more frequent, specific feedback on classroom practice may lead to improvements in teacher performance and student achievement. This report is…

Are You Being Served? The Relationship between School Climate for Service and Teachers' Engagement, Satisfaction, and Intention to Leave: A Moderated Mediation Model.

PubMed

Eldor, Liat; Shoshani, Anat

2017-05-19

The notion of service has been receiving increasing attention in organizational psychology literature in recent years, due to the client-oriented managerial movement. Yet, little to no attention has been paid to the service notion in educational psychology despite its high relevance to educational settings, given the pressure to be more service-oriented and possess a client-focused state of mind. The present study explores the notion of service in school domains by examining the joint effects of climate for service and the internal service in schools on teachers' work attitudes: work engagement, job satisfaction, and intention to leave their work. The notion of climate for service emphasizes the school's attitude of teachers as service providers to its clients (students and their parents); internal climate emphasizes the school's attitude of providing service to its teaching staff. The study was conducted via a sample of 423 teachers from 30 different schools in Israel. We hypothesized that the indirect relationship between the climate for service and teachers' job satisfaction and intention to leave work would be mediated by teacher work engagement. Our findings supported this hypothesis. Moreover, this indirect relationship via teacher work engagement was demonstrated most strongly when the internal service quality received was high, providing teachers with the capability to deliver what the service climate motivates them to do. Therefore, service-oriented resources-both climate for service and internal service-may be crucial in affecting teachers work attitudes and should be specifically targeted by principals and other educational decision makers.

An Analysis of Preservice Teacher Perceptions of Instrumentality through the Lens of Epistemological Theory.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Crowson, H. Michael

This paper examines the relationship between preservice teachers' epistemological beliefs and their perceptions of their college preparatory work as being instrumental to their futures, arguing that preservice teachers often find little relevance in the theoretical, philosophical, and historical content presented in their preparatory classes. Nor…

Providing English foreign language teachers with content knowledge to facilitate decoding and spelling acquisition: a longitudinal perspective.

PubMed

Kahn-Horwitz, Janina

2016-04-01

This quasi-experimental study adds to the small existing literature on orthographic-related teacher knowledge in an English as a foreign language (EFL) context. The study examined the impact of a course on English orthography on predominantly non-native-speaking EFL preservice and inservice teachers' orthographic content knowledge, and the extent to which these teachers retained orthographic-related content knowledge four months after participating in a semester course on the topic. In addition, the study examined the relationship between participants' acquired orthographic-related content knowledge and EFL spelling. Both groups of teachers that studied in the course improved on overall orthographic-related content knowledge, both immediately following the course and longitudinally. Preservice and inservice participants showed similar levels of orthographic knowledge prior to course participation and both showed significant improvements compared to controls following course participation. Participants also retained knowledge four months after course completion. Overall, the inservice teachers scored higher on orthographic-related knowledge, possibly as a result of the immediate application of their newly acquired knowledge. An unexpected finding was a lack of interaction between acquired orthographic-related content knowledge and pseudo word spelling scores. Possible methodological limitations, such as number of participants as well as the length and scope of the course, may explain this outcome. This paper also discusses practical implications of this study for EFL decoding and spelling instruction.

Evidence, explanations, and recommendations for teachers' field trip strategies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rebar, Bryan

Field trips are well recognized by researchers as an educational approach with the potential to complement and enhance classroom science teaching by exposing students to unique activities, resources, and content in informal settings. The following investigation addresses teachers' field trip practices in three related manuscripts: (1) A study examining the details of teachers' pedagogical strategies intended to facilitate connections between students' experiences and the school curricula while visiting an aquarium; (2) A study documenting and describing sources of knowledge that teachers draw from when leading field trips to an aquarium; (3) A position paper that reviews and summarizes research on effective pedagogical strategies for field trips. Together these three pieces address key questions regarding teachers' practices on field trips: (1) What strategies are teachers employing (and not employing) during self-guided field trips to facilitate learning tied to the class curriculum? (2) What sources of knowledge do teachers utilize when leading field trips? (3) How can teachers be better prepared to lead trips that promote learning? The Oregon Coast Aquarium served as the field trip site for teachers included in this study. The setting suited these questions because the aquarium serves tens of thousands of students on field trips each year but provides no targeted programming for these students as they explore the exhibits. In other words, the teachers who lead field trips assume much of the responsibility for facilitating students' experience. In order to describe and characterize teachers' strategies to link students' experiences to the curriculum, a number of teachers (26) were observed as they led their students' visit to the public spaces of the aquarium. Artifacts, such as worksheets, used during the visit were collected for analysis as well. Subsequently, all teachers were surveyed regarding their use of the field trip and their sources of knowledge for

Yes, We Are Still Talking about Diversity: Diversity Education as a Catalyst for Transformative, Culturally Relevant, and Reflective Preservice Teacher Practices

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Miller Dyce, Cherrel; Owusu-Ansah, Angela

2016-01-01

Using data from preservice teachers enrolled in a diversity course in a predominantly White teacher education program, researchers uncovered that diversity education was indeed a catalyst for preservice teachers to increase knowledge of diversity and their understanding of the process of critically reflecting on their teaching and learning…