ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Inquiry into Teaching: Using Reflective Teaching to Improve My Practice
Author: Pennington, Sarah E.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Reflective Teaching,Preservice Teachers,College Faculty,Inquiry,Feedback (Response),Student Attitudes,Undergraduate Students,Elementary Education,Journal Writing,Tests,Scores,Learner Engagement,Video Technology,Learning Activities,Questioning Techniques,Beginning Teachers

How effective is reflective teaching in increasing the engagement and achievement of pre-service teachers when utilized by a first-year college instructor? This article documents a practitioner inquiry project in which I reflected both on my own observations and student feedback regarding what teaching methods were most beneficial in an undergraduate elementary education class. Data included student feedback, personal researcher journal entries, student quiz scores, and format for presenting material in class. Pre-service teacher engagement and learning were both enhanced by integration of videos, activities, and higher level questions into class sessions. The results of this research affirm the power of reflective teaching while also reflecting the need to more actively engage pre-service teachers in this practice.
Uncovering and Informing Preservice Teachers&apos; Prior Knowledge about Poverty
Author: Mundy, Charlotte Anne
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Preservice Teachers,Student Attitudes,Poverty,Knowledge Level,Questionnaires,Teacher Role,At Risk Students,Correlation,Teacher Education Programs,Consciousness Raising,Student Characteristics,Minority Group Students,Academic Achievement

This study explored 30 preservice teachers' knowledge on issues related to poverty. In an open-ended questionnaire, preservice teachers' perceptions of poverty and how teachers should respond to students from poverty were explored. Results indicated that preservice teachers' knowledge was nonspecific and lacked focus on the relationship among poverty, schools, and students. These results indicate a need for us as teacher educators to provide preservice teachers with (a) specific details about realities of poverty, (b) opportunities to discuss and observe the relationship among poverty, teachers, and schools, and (c) examples of children and families from poverty who have positive attributes.
Making the Leap to Teacher: Pre-Service Residents, Faculty, and School Mentors Taking on Action Research Together in an Urban Teacher Residency Program
Author: Klein, Emily J.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teachers,Teacher Educators,Cooperating Teachers,Action Research,Urban Teaching,Urban Programs,Research Projects,Student Research

This article explores what happens when school mentors and university faculty co-facilitate a cycle of action research with pre-service science teacher residents in an urban teacher residency. The voices of all three constituents describe the process of doing action research together in community and its impact on their practice. The pre-service teacher residents narrate their questions, how they explore them, and highlight their findings. They discuss how the use of action research as a methodology deepened and extended their development as critically reflective practitioners. Finally we discuss the implications of the inquiry stance of action research for both the individuals and the schools and districts of which they are a part.
Multimedia Teacher Research
Author: Leaman, Heather
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Qualitative Research,Teacher Researchers,Teacher Educators,College Faculty,Masters Programs,Beginning Teachers,Action Research,Web Sites,Questionnaires,Observation,Student Projects,Technology Uses in Education,Educational Technology,Multimedia Materials,Interviews,Focus Groups,Educational Research

In this qualitative study, two teacher educators and course instructors in a Masters of Education (M.Ed.) program explored beginning teacher researchers' use of multimedia to support action research. Fifty-eight teachers (36 in spring 2010 and 22 in spring 2011) completed teacher research as the capstone in their M.Ed. program. Teachers utilized the MERLOT website (Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) to develop and submit their research as an alternative to traditional paper submission. As teachers conducted their research, course instructors investigated how the teachers' use of multimedia strengthened or limited their teacher research work. Data from teacher researchers (questionnaires, observations and reviews of final projects) were analyzed for emergent themes. All teacher participants were able to use multimedia successfully in their teacher research projects. Technology difficulties were few, and findings suggest that multimedia options encouraged the use and development of technological skills, increased time teachers spend editing and revising work, and facilitated organization of the research process. The authors conclude that traditional paper submissions may be replaced by a multimedia format without detracting from the teacher research project and may serve to enhance the action research process.
Empowerment for Whom? Empowerment for What? Lessons from a Participatory Action Research Project
Author: Call-Cummings, Meagan
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Hispanic American Students,High School Students,Student Empowerment,Participatory Research,Action Research,Teacher Student Relationship,Photography,Theater Arts,Interviews,Racial Bias

This article sets forth the process through which I, an educator of over 20 years, my research mentor, and my 52 Latino/a students answered questions that were important to us through participatory action research. I start the process by asking if and how I am empowering my students, and they start their own parallel process by asking about their relationships with their White teachers. By engaging in various data collection approaches, including Boal's (1985) Theatre of the Oppressed and Photovoice, we are all able to answer these questions. I learn that as a teacher I do not empower students; they empower themselves. As we conduct the research together I watch them and see the processes of empowerment the students go through for myself. I learn how as an educator I can create empowering situations and opportunities my students can take advantage of in the future. In parallel experiences, the students learn that they have always had a voice, but this project helps them discover--and use--the voices they have always had. Overall, our group finds that empowerment takes place in spaces and moments of mutual, active inquiry, where individual voices can be raised to re-imagine what can and should be taking place within our schools.
Teacher Candidates&apos; Learning Gains: The Tale of Two Co-Teachers
Author: Merk, Hillary
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Student Teachers,Team Teaching,Student Teaching,Qualitative Research,Cooperating Teachers,Case Studies,Interviews,Learning,Achievement Gains,Observation

Co-teaching during the student teaching experience has been given increased attention among researchers and teacher educators. Co-teaching facilitates an apprenticeship arrangement that encourages modeling of classroom practice for the candidate and provides a chance to implement directly what is being learned. This qualitative study explored teacher candidates' learning gains using the co-teaching model for student teaching. Teacher candidates were able to see more clearly the dynamics of how a classroom works and the process by which teachers plan lessons, implement curriculum, and manage the many duties of a classroom teacher.
Improving Urban Teachers&apos; Assessment Literacy through Synergistic Individualized Tutoring and Self-Reflection
Author: Murphy Odo, Dennis
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Formative Evaluation,Summative Evaluation,Student Evaluation,Psychometrics,Measurement,Testing,Preservice Teachers,Masters Programs,Tutoring,Elementary School Students,Reflection,Literacy Education

Assessment literacy entails understanding and proper use of assessments based on knowledge of theoretical and philosophical foundations of the measurement of students' learning (Volante &amp; Fazio, 2007). It includes knowledge of formative and summative assessment, classroom and large-scale assessment, key psychometric concepts (Deluca &amp; Klinger, 2010). Assessment literacy is crucial so that educators can support and measure teaching and learning. In this reflective piece, the author provides an account of one method he is developing for fostering the assessment literacy of pre-service teachers' in an Master of Arts in Teaching program through individualized tutoring of K-6 learners that also incorporated collaborative reflection. This method was developed for a pre-service teacher education course on individualized literacy assessment and instruction.
Increasing Confidence and English Use outside the ESL/IEP Classroom for Lower-Level Learners
Author: Gaines, Isaac
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English Language Learners,Language Proficiency,Language Usage,Self Esteem,Scaffolding (Teaching Technique),Interaction,Native Speakers,Pronunciation,Role Playing,Simulation,Tutoring,Field Trips,Reflection,Student Surveys,Adult Learning,Foreign Students,Higher Education,Elective Courses,Online Surveys,Multiple Choice Tests,Student Attitudes

Previous research has shown that ESL students' poor integration into their immersion environments can affect their academic success negatively, which called for structured support for such students. The current study investigated the efficacy of an IEP elective course that was designed to a) promote lower-level students' English use outside the classroom and b) improve students' overall confidence toward the target transactional tasks, as well as more open-ended interactions with native speakers in the local community. The specific scaffolding activities mainly involved presentation of new language points, pronunciation practice, role-plays, simulations with in-class tutors, field trips to perform the practiced tasks with native speakers, and reflective activities. The results from diagnostic and exit course surveys showed increases in students' confidence levels and increases in the overall quantity of English use outside the classroom. Considering the results, approaches to promoting ESL students' integration into local communities are discussed.
Introducing Verbpathy in the English Language Classroom: Encouraging Students to Feel the Essence and Emotion of Words
Author: Randolph, Patrick T.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Emotional Response,Vocabulary Development,Memory,Teaching Methods,Worksheets,Definitions,Sentences,Nouns,Verbs,Form Classes (Languages),Student Surveys,Student Attitudes,Program Effectiveness,College Students

A key element in vocabulary instruction is to get the students to &quot;feel&quot; the vocabulary and make it a part of their new language identity; that is, helping the students to &quot;own&quot; the terms is a top priority of language instructors. Using verbpathy as a tool meets this goal. The idea of using verbpathy in vocabulary instruction is to encourage the students to develop a feel for how terms can and should be used in both spoken and written work. By asking the students if a term has a &quot;positive feel,&quot; a &quot;negative feel,&quot; or a &quot;neutral feel,&quot; the students start to develop an intuitive command of the vocabulary. Moreover, while working on the verbpathy of words, students make their own unique associations and connections with the terms and relate them to their own lives. Research in neuroscience tells us that the more associations students make, the better they learn (Jensen, 2008; Medina, 2009; Willis, 2006).
Reading Level Placement and Assessment for ESL/EFL Learners: The Reading Level Measurement Method
Author: Mermelstein, Aaron David
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),English Language Learners,Reading Skills,Student Placement,Teaching Methods,Student Evaluation,Program Effectiveness,Reading Achievement

For many ESL/EFL learners, reading is their main learning goal and may be the most important of the four language skills in the second language. For many ESL/EFL teachers, the issue of promoting proficient reading is important, and they look for additional or alternative methods to achieve this goal. However, when discussing reading as a primary goal of a curriculum, assessment becomes a critical element necessary for successful instruction. This article suggests that extensive reading (ER) should be used to achieve this goal and discusses a new method of reading assessment, the Reading Level Measurement Method (RLMM), as a practical means of assessing learners reading levels and accurately placing learners at their optimal reading levels to maximize their learning potential. Further, this article describes the step-by-step process of creating the RLMM, how to implement it in the classroom, and how to use it as a practical and economical assessment and placement tool. It also describes a successful quantitative study which adopted the RLMM and supports its effectiveness.
Re-Evaluating the Speaking and Listening Demands of University Classes for Novice International Students
Author: Sheppard, Beth
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Intensive Language Courses,English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,Second Language Instruction,Qualitative Research,Listening Comprehension,Foreign Students,College Faculty,Teaching Methods,Classroom Observation Techniques,Lecture Method,Oral Language,Undergraduate Students,Group Discussion

Instructors from an Intensive English Program (IEP) conducted classroom observations in university courses commonly attended by international students to answer two questions: 1) What listening and speaking demands do international students face in courses at our university? 2) How can instructors in our IEP better prepare our students for these listening and speaking demands? A qualitative instrument was used to record classroom events, and common themes were identified from the results through group discussion. Results showed that international students at the researchers' university likely need more practice in listening to informal lectures and quick announcements, following descriptions of visually presented data, and asking and answering questions. Implications for instructional practice in the IEP are discussed, and this methodology is recommended for other IEPs seeking to update curriculum based on the skills most essential for students in their own local context.
The Call to Collaborate: Key Considerations as ELD and Classroom Teachers Begin to Align New Standards
Author: Avila, Kena
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Learning,English Language Learners,Specialists,Standards,Language Proficiency,Teacher Collaboration,Literacy,Course Content,Academic Achievement,Time Management,Qualitative Research,Interviews,Teacher Attitudes,Audio Equipment,Teacher Isolation,Elementary School Students

Classroom teachers and English Language Learner (ELL) specialists are being called upon to collaborate in new ways in order to align new English Language Proficiency standards with new content standards. Instead of viewing language as a bridge to cross before accessing content, now language and content are being promoted as a partnership between teachers of ELLs. Currently, teachers of ELLs are isolated from one other, resulting in a lack of continuity among language, literacy, and content. Teachers of ELLs require time to collaborate, but time alone will not address the complexity of collaboration; teachers must also be aware of the dominance of an idealistic perception of collaboration. For ELL students to be successful in academics, literacy, and linguistic proficiency, teachers of ELLs must consider how issues of time and collaboration in their own schools can be resolved and how schools can become more effective in connecting language, literacy, and content.
State of the Art Student Support Services in an IEP Learning Center
Author: Hanson, Jessica
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: English (Second Language),Second Language Instruction,Foreign Students,Language Proficiency,Academic Support Services,Learning Resources Centers,Observation,Student Surveys,Teacher Surveys,Interviews,Educational Technology,Computer Uses in Education,Educational Resources,Interpersonal Communication,Student Motivation,School Space,Communities of Practice,College Students,Access to Education

Intensive English language programs (IEPs) at American universities have the task of recruiting, retaining, and preparing international students for mainstream classes. In order to achieve these tasks, many programs have explored using supplemental instruction (SI) in the form of learning centers (LCs) to support their students. In this study, we investigate how and why students make use of an LC and its resources at Portland State University's Intensive English Language Program (IELP). Multiple strands of data were used, including observations of the LC in use, surveys of students and staff, and interviews with students to investigate student use of resources and their reasons for using those resources. While a majority of the students use computer resources, many of the students noted they use a variety of the resources offered each time they visit. We also examined student motivations for using the resources and noted five themes in the responses: the variety of resources, the LC's accessibility, the physical space, personal contact, and community. We conclude our research with recommendations for promoting, maintaining, and building community in an IEP LC.
The Prevalence of the Use of Music as a Teaching Tool among Selected American Classroom Educators: A Preliminary Examination
Author: Killian, Janice L.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music Education,Elementary School Teachers,Preservice Teacher Education,Music Activities,Teaching Methods,Interdisciplinary Approach,Teacher Surveys,Interviews,Singing,Qualitative Research

The importance of music education in American schools is well established, with 93% of Americans agreeing that music should be a part of a well-rounded education (Harris, 2005). Students preparing to teach in the elementary classroom (elementary education majors) in American colleges and universities typically take a music class (sometimes two) as part of their preparation. The content of these preservice classes for non-music majors often includes personal musical skill development, music literacy, ways to teach music, and occasionally strategies to use music as a tool to teach other subjects. Despite the pervasiveness of university music courses for preservice classroom teachers, relatively few researchers, with the exception of Giles and Frego (2004), Hash (2010), and Kelly (1998), have examined how music is actually used in the general classroom after teachers leave the university. The current study was designed to explore the use of music by elementary classroom teachers who presumably did not teach music as a subject because their schools had a music specialist. The authors asked to what extent classroom teachers used music in their classrooms and found that only two (2.5%) never used music and 42 of the 79 respondents (53.2%) used music daily. Such responses are even higher than the National Center for Education Statistics (2011) data that indicated that 92% of classroom teachers reported incorporating music in other subjects. Perhaps the most important question addressed in this study concerned exactly how the teachers used music. The strategies and methods used varied considerably, but some consensus was apparent. Teachers indicated that they used music as background (70%), memorization (61%), cue for attention (52%), energy release (52%), transitions (46%), and classroom management (44%). The authors intend for results of this study to generate methodology for a larger, more comprehensive examination of this issue. They anticipate that recommendations for instructors of university classes for non-music majors, as well as implications for further research, will be products of this research.
Emerging Research Leaders&apos; Preparation and Practices
Author: Rohwer, Debbie
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Music,Music Education,College Faculty,Leaders,Research Methodology,Graduate Students,Graduate Study,Research,Interviews

There is a need for a study to provide in-depth information about emerging researcher leaders in terms of how they prepared for their career and how they utilize time and resources in their current positions in order to have continued research success. The purpose of the current study was to describe emerging research leaders' graduate school preparation and current research practices. The participants in the current study were 13 purposefully sampled assistant and associate professors who had been cited extensively in research articles (Google Scholar Citations exceeding 100) and had served on the &quot;Journal of Research in Music Education,&quot; &quot;Bulletin of the Council for Research in Music Education,&quot; or &quot;Contributions to Music Education&quot; editorial review boards. The 20 open-ended interview prompts addressed graduate preparation and current research practices. In addition to the interview questions that provided results for the study, participants were also asked five demographic questions. Participants in the study tended to have taken multiple research methodology/analysis courses in addition to content area courses that used research reading source material. In terms of class content, past researchers have documented interdisciplinary work as valuable (Eisenhart &amp; DeHaan, 2005; Pallas, 2001), however participants in the current study described contrasting perspectives about interdisciplinary research depending on when in a career it might be undertaken, with later in the career possibly being preferable to earlier. As found by past researchers (Campbell, 2002; Duerksen, 1992; Duke, 2010; Flowers, 2012; Geringer, 2000; Humphreys, 2006; Jellison, 2004; LeBlanc, 1992; Madsen, 1988; Radocy, 1998; Yarbrough, 1996) mentors were perceived to be important to students' research identity development. The participants described research-nurturing experiences as being pivotal, including working with a group of motivated, intelligent people and having research modeled and experienced regularly during their studies. The participants in the current study did not document grants as a common research practice, so in weighing doctoral experiences, grant writing may be lower on the list of important activities. As in past research (LeBlanc &amp; McCrary, 1990), participants in the current study documented similar intrinsic motivations of curiosity, enjoyment, and love of learning; as an extrinsic factor some participants addressed meeting the demands of getting tenure. While curricular changes are sometimes difficult to implement, faculty could approach many of the issues addressed in the current study in discussions with students during preexisting seminars or independent study classes or even informally over lunches.