ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Pushing Back against High Stakes for Students with Disabilities
Author: Tanis, Bianca
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: High Stakes Tests,Disabilities,Testing Accommodations,Accessibility (for Disabled),Individualized Education Programs,Special Education,Special Needs Students,Educational Policy,Educational Practices,Advocacy,Teacher Role,Teacher Leadership,Policy Analysis,Accountability,Program Effectiveness,Barriers,Elementary Secondary Education,Teacher Attitudes

The author is a special education teacher in New York and a mother of two children on the autism spectrum. The author&apos;s intimate involvement in the education system has made navigating the world of special education for her children easier in some ways, but also infinitely more difficult and heartbreaking in others. Since the passage of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) in 2002, the practice of compelling all students, to take one-size-fits-all, high-stakes tests has become policy. These tests were originally touted as a way to shine a bright light on educational inequalities based on race, class, and disability. While these tests can have negative effects for many students without special needs, they actually prevent many disabled students in particular from receiving an individualized education that meets their needs. The author and many special education teachers, have questioned why the practice of administering one-size-fits-all tests to special education students persists when it flies in the face of logic and sound pedagogy. Fortunately, many are no longer willing to remain silent about the flaws in this system. The author shares her opinion and views in this article.
Enabling Inquiry Learning in Fixed-Schedule Libraries: An Evidence-Based Approach
Author: Stubeck, Carole J.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Evidence,Inquiry,School Libraries,Scheduling,Librarian Teacher Cooperation,Information Literacy,Information Skills,Library Instruction,Library Services,Action Research,Educational Practices,Educational Change,Educational Strategies,Library Development,Elementary Secondary Education

Fixed scheduling is well-researched in the school library literature. We know from this research that information skills taught in isolation from curriculum content are not as relevant to students as skills taught in the context of what they already know (McGregor 2006). Constructivism is an approach to learning that posits individuals construct their own meaning as they link new knowledge to prior knowledge (Bruner 1960). In addition, school library research has produced a model for Guided Inquiry (Kuhlthau, Maniotes, and Caspari 2007), the Information Search Process (ISP), which is a staged, predictable model of how students will feel, think, and act as they go through Task Initiation, Exploration, Topic Selection, Focus Formulation, Information Collection, and Presentation (Kuhlthau 1983). Each of these stages presents opportunities for interventions that can be prescribed for an entire class or for individual learners to help students through each ISP stage. Carole Stubeck describes how these stages informed the design of an inquiry unit as the school library and the classroom became equally important venues for helping students and became a spiraling model of collaboration.
For Grown-Ups Too: The Surprising Depth and Complexity of Children&apos;s Literature
Author: Lerer, Seth
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Childrens Literature,Childhood Interests,Childhood Needs,Readability,Story Grammar,Reader Text Relationship,Reading Writing Relationship,Relevance (Education)

Children&apos;s literature charts the makings of the literate imagination. It shows children finding worlds within the book and books in the world. It addresses the changing environments of family life and human growth, schooling and scholarship, publishing and publicity in which children--at times suddenly, at times subtly--found themselves changed by literature. But what is childhood? It is a shifting category that has meaning in relationship to other stages of personal development and family life. Greeks and Romans, Byzantines and Anglo-Saxons, Renaissance and Revolutionary cultures all had clearly defined concepts of the child and, in turn, canons of children&apos;s literature. Children are or become, in the words of the 20th-century philosopher Marx Wartofsky, &quot;what they are taken to be by others, and what they come to take themselves to be, in the course of their social communication and interaction with others.&quot; So, too, is children&apos;s literature: books that are taken into childhood, that foster social communication, and that, in their interaction with their readers, owners, sellers, and collectors, teach and please. In this article, Seth Lerer explores what children have heard and read. Their stories, poems, plays, or treatises may well have been composed with children in mind; or they may have been adapted for readers of different ages. Lerer distinguishes, therefore, between claims that children&apos;s literature consists of books written for children and that it consists of those read, regardless of original authorial intention, by children. He concludes that if there is a future to children&apos;s literature, it must lie in the artifacts of writing and the place of reading in the home and in the school. To understand the history of children&apos;s literature is to understand the history of all forms of literary experience.
Restoring Shanker&apos;s Vision for Charter Schools
Author: Kahlenberg, Richard D.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Charter Schools,Educational Finance,Financial Support,Educational Administration,Teacher Persistence,Unions,Educational History,Teacher Empowerment

In 1988, education reformer and American Federation of Teachers president Albert Shanker proposed a new kind of public school--&quot;charter schools&quot;--which would allow teachers to experiment with innovative approaches to educating students. Publicly funded but independently managed, these schools would be given a charter to try their fresh approaches for a set period of time and be renewed only if they succeeded. In the past two decades, charter schools have grown by leaps and bounds. But somewhere along the way, charter schools went in a very different direction from the one Shanker originally envisioned. Many charter school founders empowered management, not teachers, and adopted antiunion sentiments. Today, just 12 percent of charter schools are unionized, and teacher retention rates--one possible measure of professional satisfaction--are much lower than in traditional public schools. This article discusses Shanker&apos;s original idea for charter schools and what can be done to put charter schools back on track to meet that vision.
Want to Close the Achievement Gap? Close the Teaching Gap
Author: Darling-Hammond, Linda
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Achievement Gap,Educational Legislation,Federal Legislation,Educational Testing,Teaching Conditions,Feedback (Response),Educational Finance,Financial Support,Teacher Collaboration,Teacher Evaluation,Economically Disadvantaged,Teachers

For years now, educators have looked to international tests as a yardstick to measure how well students from the United States are learning compared with their peers. The answer has been: not so well. The United States has been falling further behind other nations and has struggled with a large achievement gap. Federal policy under No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the U.S. Department of Education's &quot;flexibility&quot; waivers has sought to address this problem by beefing up testing policies--requiring more tests and upping the consequences for poor results, including denying diplomas to students, firing teachers, and closing schools. Unfortunately, this strategy has not worked. This article discusses ideas on how to progress in closing the teaching gap. Major headway in raising student performance and closing the achievement gap cannot be made until there is progress in closing the teaching gap. That means supporting children equitably outside as well as inside the classroom, creating a profession that is rewarding and well-supported, and designing schools that offer the conditions for both the student and the teacher learning that will move American education forward.
Evolving with Evidence: Leveraging New Tools for EBP
Author: Valenza, Joyce Kasman
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Evidence,School Libraries,Library Services,Interviews,Focus Groups,Feedback (Response),Surveys,Internet,Computer Oriented Programs,Photography

Focusing on evidence-based practice (EBP) aligns with the school librarian's leadership role acknowledged by the American Association of School Librarians (AASL) in &quot;Empowering Learners: Guidelines for School Library Programs&quot; (2009) and in AASL's newly adopted mission statement. &quot;The American Association of School Librarians empowers leaders to transform teaching and learning&quot; (AASL 2014). Leadership through EBP is also a focus in the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS). Ross J. Todd explained that EBP &quot;is fundamentally about professional practice being informed and guided by the best available evidence of what works&quot; (2008, 17). Facilitating the availability of evidence are new technology tools and platforms that make student work more transparent and the collection, organization, and analysis of evidence richer and easier. One measure is the story of a library's impact on its school's learning culture. This article examines a variety of strategies for rethinking available local data and new schools that facilitate gathering, analysis, triangulation, and application in improving teaching and enhancing learning.
Can Curriculum-Embedded Measures Predict the Later Reading Achievement of Kindergarteners at Risk of Reading Disability?
Author: Oslund, Eric L.
Date: 2015-02-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Predictor Variables,Curriculum,Reading Achievement,Kindergarten,At Risk Students,Reading Difficulties,Progress Monitoring,Intervention,Grade 1,Grade 2,Predictive Validity,Reading Skills,Phonemes,Alphabets,Structural Equation Models,Measurement,Student Characteristics,Pretests Posttests,Factor Analysis,Response to Intervention

This study examined the changing role and longitudinal predictive validity of curriculum-embedded progress-monitoring measures (CEMs ) for kindergarten students receiving Tier 2 intervention and identified as at risk of developing reading difficulties. Multiple measures were examined to determine whether they could predict comprehensive latent first- and second-grade reading outcomes and whether their predictive validity changed concurrent with reading development. CEMs of phonemic, alphabetic, and integrated tasks were given 3 times during the kindergarten year to 299 students. Structural equation modeling indicates that CEMs explained a significant amount of variance on first- (54%-63%) and second-grade (34%-41%) outcomes. The predictive validity of specific measures varied over the kindergarten year with sound and letter identification measures being predictive early and segmenting and word reading becoming important as reading abilities progressed. Findings suggest that CEMs may be viable and helpful tools for making data-driven instructional decisions in a response to intervention framework.
Student Teachers' Implementation and Understanding of Repeated Picture-Book Reading in Preschools
Author: Tal, Clodie
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teachers,Picture Books,Preschool Children,Questionnaires,Reading Aloud to Others,Student Teacher Attitudes,Teaching Methods,Teacher Education Programs,Inclusion,Disabilities,Content Analysis,Language Skills,Emergent Literacy,Cognitive Development,Emotional Development,Social Development,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis,Foreign Countries

Research conducted among student teachers during three academic years (2010-2011; 2011-2012; 2012-2013) at Israel's Levinsky College of Education sought to ascertain (a) the extent of implementation of repeated picture-book reading (RPBR) with preschool groups each academic year; (b) how does the implementation of RPBR progress throughout the years of the study? (c) students' understanding of the value of RPBR; and (d) the perceived benefits and difficulties of RPBR by student-teachers. Of approximately 250 students who completed questionnaires each semester, most reported that they regularly performed RPBR--implementation in 2013; 96% for students in the four-year academic program and 100% for those in the two-year, teacher certification program. Inclusion of children experiencing language, social, behavioural or other difficulties in these groups was high (around 77%) from the second year of studies. Content analysis of responses to the open questions led to defining reflective categories that reveal the students' conceptual understanding of RPBR. Overall, 40% of the responses in 2013 were defined as showing either a &quot;narrow&quot; or &quot;extended&quot; understanding compared with 37% in 2012 and 20% in 2011.
How Does Pre-Service Teacher Preparedness to Use ICTs for Learning and Teaching Develop through Their Degree Program?
Author: Gill, Lincoln
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Preservice Teachers,Teacher Educators,Information Technology,Technology Integration,Elementary Education,Technology Uses in Education,Teacher Education,Elementary School Teachers,Student Attitudes,Semi Structured Interviews,Academic Achievement

It is now well accepted that graduating teachers need the capacity to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in ways which harness their learning affordances and develop students' digital literacies. However, effective ICT integration in the classroom is challenging because it requires complex application of technological, pedagogical and content knowledge. A key challenge for teacher educators is the provision of learning experiences at university and on professional placement that will allow pre-service teachers to develop these capacities. Understanding the learning process of pre-service teachers in relation to ICT integration is essential if this teacher education challenge is to be addressed. This article reports on a study in which a group of 11 pre-service Primary school teachers were interviewed at stages through their program with a focus on their preparedness to use ICTs in their teaching. The study used a model developed by Taylor (2004), which defines three stages of teacher ICT capacity development (uncritical and accepting, beginning to problematise, and reflection and theorisation), as an analytic lens. Using this model, preservice teachers were positioned against the stages in the model at six points during their four year program, and factors contributing to their movement through the phases were identified.
The Lesson Observation On-Line (Evidence Portfolio) Platform
Author: Cooper, David G.
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Student Teachers,Video Technology,Observation,Mathematics Instruction,Student Teaching,Lesson Plans,Self Evaluation (Individuals),Portfolio Assessment,Feedback (Response),Teacher Competencies,Secondary School Mathematics,Student Teacher Supervisors,Mentors

At a time when teacher training is being moved to school-based programmes it is important to engage in a research-informed dialogue about creating more distinctive, and cost-effective 21st century models of teacher training. Three years ago I began feasibility field testing the Lesson Observation On-line (Evidence Portfolio) Platform [LOOP] concept (Cooper, 2012). Student-teachers from a university in the Midlands of England were video recorded, with their schools' permissions, teaching mathematics' lessons during their second period of teaching experience. The video recorded lessons together with the trainees' lesson plans, accompanying lesson resources, lesson self-evaluations and snapshots of tangible, written pupil outputs captured from three representative pupils were subsequently collated in each individual teacher's evidence portfolio. The trainees' lesson observation feedback reports by their university tutors and school-based mentors were also included in the lesson evidence portfolios. These provided trainees with better, and richer, sources of detailed evidence about their teaching performances during their second periods of teaching experience than had previously been available. Since this paper was initially drafted a Lesson Observation On-line Platform [LOOP Australia] project has been developed and Seed funded by the Australian Office for Learning and Teaching in 2014/5.
Using Qualitative Research Methods to Assess the Degree of Fit between Teachers' Reported Self-Efficacy Beliefs and Their Practical Knowledge during Teacher Education
Author: Wyatt, Mark
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Qualitative Research,Research Methodology,Teacher Attitudes,Self Efficacy,Beliefs,Teacher Education,Foreign Countries,Cognitive Processes,English Language Learners,Case Studies,Theory Practice Relationship,Constructivism (Learning),Discourse Analysis

There is a need for qualitative research into teachers' self-efficacy beliefs so that the relationship between these beliefs and other cognitions possessed by teachers, including their practical knowledge, can be better understood by teacher educators. Teachers' self-efficacy beliefs may need supporting if they seem too low or challenging if they seem too high. However, clear criteria are needed to facilitate assessment, together with the use of rigorous qualitative methods. This article explores these issues while reporting on research conducted in Oman into the cognitions of two in-service English language teachers. There is a focus on how qualitative case study research methodology was used to assess the degree of fit between teachers' reported self-efficacy beliefs and their practical knowledge, aiding subsequent intervention to support professional development. Implications for teacher educators and researchers are discussed.
Language Teachers' Conceptions of Intelligence and Their Roles in Teacher Care and Teacher Feedback
Author: Pishghadam, Reza
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Language Teachers,Teacher Attitudes,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Institutes (Training Programs),Feedback (Response),Correlation,Second Language Instruction,Intelligence,Measurement Techniques,Factor Analysis,Student Evaluation,Teacher Student Relationship,Foreign Countries

The purpose of this study was to find the relationships among teachers' conceptions of intelligence, teacher care, and teacher feedback in the realm of English Language Teaching (ELT). To this aim, three scales were developed to measure the aforementioned constructs. The participants consisted of 81 English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teachers and their 426 students who were learning English in private language institutes. The scales were validated by Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and the correlations among their subscales were investigated. The findings suggested that modularity, increasability, and applied ELT are associated with the nature and amount of teacher feedback and care as perceived by the students. Moreover, the results revealed that teachers' conceptions of intelligence significantly affect how they evaluate their students (p &lt; 0.05). In the end, implications were provided in the context of teaching.
An Investigation of Teachers' Awareness and Willingness to Engage with a Self-Directed Professional Development Package on Gifted and Talented Education
Author: Fraser-Seeto, Kylie T.
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Faculty Development,Academically Gifted,Statistical Analysis,Elementary School Teachers,Teacher Surveys,Questionnaires,Measures (Individuals),Teacher Attitudes

Despite recognising the importance of educators in meeting the needs of gifted and talented students, research indicates that teachers often lack the essential knowledge, skills and confidence to identify and meet the needs of gifted and talented students. Evidence suggests this lack of preparation may be related to teachers' professional development. This quantitative study of 96 primary school teachers aimed to provide an initial insight into the knowledge and uptake of the 2005 DEST/GERRIC Gifted and Talented Education Professional Development Package for Teachers. It further aimed to give some insight into teachers' opinions and behaviours as it pertains to this mode of professional development. Results suggest a lack of knowledge and uptake of this professional development package, despite an overwhelming willingness to undertake this mode of professional learning in gifted and talented education. Implications and recommendations conclude the paper.
Early Childhood Pre-Service Students' Transitioning into Discourses of Professional Practice
Author: Quinones, Gloria
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Early Childhood Education,Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Teacher Attitudes,Discourse Analysis,Play,Educational Practices,Assignments,Teacher Role,Teacher Student Relationship,Educational Change,Theory Practice Relationship,Preschool Curriculum

The focus of this study is to investigate early childhood students' discourses of play-based curriculum. In this paper we focus on how students made implicit and explicit links to the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF). Twenty-six early childhood students had volunteered their de-identified play and pedagogy assignments. We analysed their assignments and selected quotes that focused on their role as educators and related to the VEYLDF. We theorized the concept of conceptual reciprocity as students' understanding of their role in being sensitive and reciprocal with children and families. Our findings indicated that early childhood pre-service students shared a common language as they transitioned to professional practice. This concept links strongly to students and VEYLDF perspectives of pedagogical educators being effective and affectively relating to children. The study shows how pre-service students understand discourses that are in line with the VEYLDF and the National Quality (NQ) reform agenda where professionals must know how to communicate and interact with other cultures and show responsive engagement with children, families and wider society.
Learning to Become Teacher Educators: Testimonies of Three PHD Students in China
Author: Yuan, Rui
Date: 2015-01-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Teacher Educators,Teacher Educator Education,Graduate Students,Doctoral Degrees,Interviews,Journal Writing,Reflection,Communities of Practice,Social Theories,Qualitative Research,Preservice Teachers,College School Cooperation,Partnerships in Education,Educational Research

While there has been an increasing number of graduate students who enter teacher education after obtaining a higher research degree (e.g., PhD or EdD), scant attention has been paid to their professional learning as prospective teacher educators in higher education. To fill this gap, this study, informed by the social theory of learning, investigates how three PhD students learned to become teacher educators in a university in China. Drawing on the data from interviews and the participants' personal reflections, the study shows that the participants engaged in professional learning by interacting with different others (e.g., teachers and teacher educators), negotiating and tuning their enterprise, and developing a repertoire of knowledge and skills in their communities of practice. The study generates some implications for both teacher education and higher education in preparing and developing future teacher educators.