ethanporcaro/eric-fulltext-meta huggingface dataset:
Changes in Teachers' Beliefs and Classroom Practices Concerning Inquiry-Based Instruction Following a Year-Long RET-PLC Program
Author: Miranda, Rommel J.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Mixed Methods Research,Teacher Attitudes,Science Teachers,Faculty Development,Summer Programs,Teacher Researchers,Communities of Practice,Inquiry,Teaching Methods,High Schools,Secondary School Teachers,Learner Controlled Instruction,Educational Change,Secondary School Science,Essays,Computer Mediated Communication,Group Discussion,Observation,Pretests Posttests,Questionnaires,Teacher Characteristics

This mixed-methods study examines how engaging science teachers in a summer Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) followed by an academic-year Professional Learning Community (PLC) focused on translating teacher research experiences to inquiry-based classroom lessons might facilitate changes in their beliefs and classroom practices regarding inquiry-based instruction. Supported with NASA funding, fourteen high school science teachers participated in a large mid-Atlantic university's year-long RET-PLC professional development program. The findings of this empirically-based study suggest that a summer RET program augmented by an academic-year PLC component can help teachers to shift their beliefs from a teacher-centered to a more student-centered approach. However, changes in classroom practices which demonstrate that teachers had transitioned from the use of teacher-centered to reform-centered practices were limited. Moreover, the study's findings have several implications for developers of professional development programs for in-service science teachers and science education researchers.
Pre-Service Science Teachers' Interpretations of Graphs: A Cross-Sectional Study
Author: Çil, Emine
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Graphs,Science Teachers,Preservice Teachers,Science Instruction,College Freshmen,College Seniors,Teacher Education Programs,Concept Formation,Questionnaires,Science Process Skills,Program Content,Foreign Countries

This study focuses on pre-service science teachers' interpretations of graphs. First, the paper presents data about the freshman and senior pre-service teachers' interpretations of graphs. Then it discusses the effects of pre-service science teacher training program on student teachers' interpretations of graphs. The participants in the study were 117 preservice science teachers. Fifty-six of the participants were freshman. The data of the study were gathered with a questionnaire adapted from Aoyama (2007). The questionnaire includes two graphs each based on a different context, and having four questions about the interpretation of the graphs. The participants' interpretations of graphs were analysed in five levels. The levels were listed from low to high level: Idiosyncratic, Basic Graph Reading, Rational/Literal, Critical, and Hypothesising and Modelling. The results of this study reveal that preservice science teacher can read values and trends in graphs, but they are not successful at the higher levels within the interpretations of graphs hierarchy. Moreover, the Turkish pre-service science teacher training program does not promote student teachers' interpretations of graphs. These findings suggest that teaching modules should be designed to promote pre-service science teachers' interpretations of graphs and challenge them to go beyond basic graph reading. Furthermore, the factors that affect the pre-service science teachers' interpretations of graphs, such as the type of graphs and the context of the graphs, can be useful as the findings of the study can be used to aid in designing graphs teaching modules.
In-Service Teachers' Attitudes, Knowledge and Classroom Teaching of Global Climate Change
Author: Liu, Shiyu
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Science Teachers,Knowledge Level,Knowledge Base for Teaching,Climate,Environment,American Indians,Faculty Development,Scientific Concepts,Surveys,Interviews,Concept Formation,Workshops,Teacher Attitudes,Misconceptions,Secondary School Teachers,Pretests Posttests,Journal Writing,Pictorial Stimuli,Natural Resources

This study explores in-service teachers' attitudes and knowledge about a pressing environmental issue, &quot;global climate change&quot; (GCC), and how these may relate to their classroom teaching. In this work, nineteen teachers from Native American communities attended a professional development workshop that focused on enhancing their scientific understanding and classroom teaching of GCC. Teachers' responses to surveys and interviews revealed that the majority of them considered GCC as mainly human-induced and shared similar concerns about potential consequences of GCC, but their specific ecological beliefs varied to different degrees. Throughout the workshop, teachers became more aware of the urgency of GCC and the importance of incorporating climate issues into their science teaching. However, teachers' attitudes and beliefs about GCC were not strong indicators of their level of knowledge, as misconceptions were sometimes found among teachers who were very concerned about climate issues. This work opens up further discussions on the relationship between individuals' attitudes and knowledge about environmental issues. More importantly, it provides important implications for future professional development programs on climate change education and proposes effective tools to evaluate teachers' perspectives about GCC.
A Basic Writing Course Design to Promote Writer Identity: Three Analyses of Student Papers
Author: Bird, Barbara
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Basic Writing,Writing Instruction,Self Concept,Comparative Analysis,Course Descriptions,Instructional Effectiveness,Academic Discourse,Teaching Methods,Qualitative Research,Outcomes of Education,Essays,Coding,College Students,Autobiographies,Statistical Significance

This article presents the results of three comparative analyses on forty-seven student papers in order to examine the effectiveness of a basic writing course in developing students' academic writer identity. The course curriculum, grounded in social identity theory, focuses on the core writing concepts and dispositions that promote writer identity. Since the curricular focus is writing, this course fits within the broad category of a Writing-About-Writing (WAW) course and specifically draws on David Bartholomae's &quot;Inventing a University&quot; article and Roz Ivanic's research on writer identity.These two scholars present pedagogy that draws on social identity either implicitly (Bartholomae) or explicitly (Ivanic). My comparative analyses demonstrate students' significant development and short-term transfer of textual writer identity, and the analyses reveal advanced textual writer identity compared with students who tested out of basic writing. This research contributes to writer identity theory and demonstrates the efficacy of writer identity content specifically and a WAW-type course generally for basic writing.
Defining and Measuring Teaching Excellence in Higher Education in the 21st Century
Author: De Courcy, Eileen
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Higher Education,Educational Change,Teacher Effectiveness,Instructional Effectiveness,Literature Reviews,Definitions,Measurement Techniques,Investigations,Outcome Measures,Evaluation Methods,Teacher Evaluation,College Faculty,Influence of Technology,College Administration,Foreign Countries

Higher Education is in a time of immense change. Colleges and Universities are under greater pressure to demonstrate their value while experiencing increasing levels of economic constraints, changing accountability structures, and pressure to demonstrate excellence in teaching and learning/student outcomes. Technology, elearning and massification have fundamentally changed how faculty teach and interact with students. For administrators, defining and measuring teaching excellence in the new era will be progressively complex and elusive. The purpose of this paper is to examine higher education literature to explore frameworks/definitions and methods to define and measure teaching excellence and to investigate the usefulness of these performance measurement tools.
Guidelines for Using Case Studies in the Teaching-Learning Process
Author: McFarlane, Donovan A.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Case Studies,Case Method (Teaching Technique),Guidelines,Higher Education,Colleges,Student Centered Curriculum,Active Learning,Relevance (Education),Questioning Techniques,Teaching Methods

In this paper, the author expresses concerns regarding the extensive use of case studies in the college classroom and advises college and university faculties to be more careful in their selection and use of case studies as an effective­-based method of teaching. The author communicates the important role that case studies play in teaching and learning, viewing the case study method as adding innovation and reinforcing concepts and ideas learned, and creating simulation for real world practical application. Several challenges in using case studies are identified and the author recommends several principles and characteristics of effective case studies as a guide for college and university faculty. A student­-centered approach to selecting and using case studies is encouraged. This, according to the author, will help to create active learners who are motivated. The author encourages focusing on factors or characteristics such as relevance, content­-specificity, concurrency, and practicality when deciding to use case studies in the classroom or instruction. Finally, the author discusses several considerations, guidelines, and recommendations in using case studies, and summarizes the overall implication for instructional philosophy.
Noticing the Way: Translingual Possibility and Basic Writers
Author: Stanley, Sarah
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Basic Writing,Multilingualism,Error Patterns,Error Correction,Error Analysis (Language),Rhetoric,Attention Control,Second Language Learning,Language Acquisition,Grammar,Writing Instruction,Student Centered Curriculum,Writing Workshops

This article presents a pedagogical practice for noticing and negotiating error in a multilingual classroom. Two examples from a classroom are compared to demonstrate the importance of &quot;noticing&quot; in the context of translingual pedagogy. The author's first example offers an attempt to negotiate an error with a multilingual writer without such noticing, compared with a more successful negotiation where noticing plays a part in developing a writer's rhetorical attunement. The concept of noticing derives from second language acquisition (SLA) scholarship in which to notice invites attention to a linguistic feature which may belie a writer's expressed purpose. Without noticing error with their students, teachers dismiss errors' relevance to the impact of writing, and also miss opportunities for an entire class to notice and negotiate sentence-level writing.
Remediation Strategies for Learners at Risk of Failure: A Course Based Retention Model
Author: Gajewski, Agnes
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Remedial Programs,Postsecondary Education,College Students,At Risk Students,Academic Failure,School Holding Power,Models,Program Effectiveness,Best Practices,Pilot Projects,Summative Evaluation,Formative Evaluation,Academic Persistence,Foreign Countries,Teacher Student Relationship,Student Attrition,Semi Structured Interviews,Student Surveys

This paper presents an overview and discussion of a course based remediation model developed to enhance student learning and increased retention based on literature. This model focuses on course structure and course delivery in a compressed semester format. A comparative analysis was applied to a pilot study of students enrolled in a course utilizing the remediation model to evaluate its effectiveness. &quot;Retention is probably the single most important issue facing education professionals at the post­-secondary level, regardless of the type of school they are in… And it is not just an issue for individual schools--it is an issue for society as a whole as well&quot; (Isaac, 2008, p.2).
Beyond Assimilation: Tribal Colleges, Basic Writing, and the Exigencies of Settler Colonialism
Author: Toth, Christie
Date: 2013-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Tribally Controlled Education,Writing (Composition),Two Year Colleges,Socioeconomic Influences,Disadvantaged Schools,Developmental Studies Programs,Remedial Instruction,Writing Instruction,Teaching Methods,Political Issues,United States History,American Indian History,Racial Bias,Language Skills,American Indian Education,Access to Education,Equal Education,Navajo (Nation),Bilingual Students,Navajo,Student Attitudes,English Instruction,Land Settlement,North American English,Dialects,Self Determination,Indigenous Populations,Writing Assignments

This article discusses basic writing pedagogy at a two-year tribal college, an institution type that has not been visible in the basic writing literature to date. In many tribal college contexts, socioeconomic challenges, under-resourced K-12 schools, and linguistic diversity all contribute to high student placement rates into &quot;developmental&quot; writing courses. Operating from the understanding that tribal college writing curricula are assertions of rhetorical sovereignty, I present a narrative of the pedagogical reasoning that led me to structure my basic writing course around the exigencies of U.S. settler colonialism--that is, the settler state's ongoing political, social, and economic project of controlling Indigenous peoples, lands, and resources. This approach encourages NativeAmerican students to develop critical language awareness and invites them to consider the importance of writing for furthering the interests of their communities and nations while meeting the tribal college's self-determined learning outcomes.
Comparing the Experiences and Needs of Postsecondary International Students from China and South Korea
Author: Deters, Ping
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Foreign Students,Asians,Postsecondary Education,Qualitative Research,Student Experience,Comparative Analysis,Expectation,Student Adjustment,Satisfaction,Student Attitudes,Student Needs

International students from China and South Korea are an increasingly important part of the international student body in many English-medium postsecondary institutions. The purpose of this qualitative study was to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences and needs of these two groups of students at a Canadian postsecondary institution. Data were gathered through written narratives from 22 students from China and 14 students from South Korea. In addition, interviews were conducted with 7 staff members. The data identified some similarities and differences between these two groups of students. Both groups faced challenges with language and culture, academics, finances and making local friends. South Korean students differed from Chinese students in terms of their expectations and previous experiences, which may have contributed to lower satisfaction ratings. The article concludes by proposing three areas in which postsecondary institutions can develop programs to improve the experiences and satisfaction of international students.
Building Community through Online Learning in Colleges
Author: Hunter, Bill
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Community Development,Elementary Secondary Education,Electronic Learning,Educational Technology,Group Unity,Conflict Resolution,Intergroup Relations,Adult Education,Ethnic Diversity,Electronic Mail,Videoconferencing,Violence,Telecommunications

In this paper the authors will review research on international projects which have used communications technologies, primarily email and web-based video conferencing, to bring learners together across geographic, political, religious and cultural boundaries in the interest of building more cohesive communities in places frequently characterised by conflict and sometimes by violence. The body of research draws mainly on examples based on elementary and secondary schools, primarily in Europe and Israel, so the data do not bear directly on postsecondary education. In presenting this information here, the authors hope to do two things: (1) to make a case that a focus on technology-supported community cohesion has a place in postsecondary education; and (2) to raise questions about how such a focus might be structured and what it might achieve. That is, they hope to focus attention on the lessons that postsecondary educators may learn from the way K-12 schools are using online technologies to promote community cohesion.
&quot;You Are Asking Me to Do More than Just Read a Book&quot;: Student Reading in a General Literature Course
Author: Amicucci, Ann N.
Date: 2015-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: College Students,Literature,Literature Appreciation,Reading Habits,Recreational Reading,Preferences,Reading Attitudes,Relevance (Education),Reading Material Selection,Liberal Arts,Educational Benefits

In this article, the authors discuss the results of a study of student reading in a general literature course at a mid-sized state university. Data collection and analysis included 216 samples of student writing from four sections of the course and interviews with six teachers of the course. Results indicate that when students chooses texts to read outside of a course, they choose texts that will entertain them or help them acquire knowledge on a topic of interest. Most students who discuss what they prefer to read say they prefer reading texts to which they can relate. Some students identify themselves as disliking reading, which many attribute to their experiences of having had no choice in what to read in past literature courses. Teachers recognize the need for making literature relevant to students' lives and wish to give students autonomy in choosing some or all of the texts they read in the course. Drawing on students' and teachers' perspectives, the authors argue that a general literature course has value within a liberal arts curriculum because it gives non-English majors the opportunity to develop reading habits that will benefit them beyond the course itself.
The Evolution of Iranian French Learners' Spoken Interlanguage from a Cognitive Point of View
Author: Mehrabi, Marzieh
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,French,Second Language Learning,Oral Language,Interlanguage,Interviews,Syntax,Error Analysis (Language),Error Patterns,Cognitive Development,Longitudinal Studies,Adult Students,Mixed Methods Research

This paper analyzes the spoken corpus of thirty Iranian learners of French at four levels (A1, A2, B1 and B2). The data were collected in a pseudo-longitudinal manner in semi-directed interviews with half closed and open questions to analyze the learners' syntactic errors (omission, addition, substitution and displacement). The most frequent errors from A1 to B2 levels were determined and categorized, which allowed further analysis. The results show although some persistent errors are problematic at all levels, their form changes from one level to another. At A1 and A2 levels, the definite articles were missed before nouns, at B1 and B2, they were set aside in the second word of noun groups. In addition, at A1 and A2 levels errors are more of an interlingual nature while at B1 and B2 levels they are mostly intralingual. At elementary levels, learners deal with proactive transfers whereas in more advanced levels retroactive transfers and overextensions come into play.
What Makes Reform Work?--School-Based Conditions as Predictors of Teachers' Changing Practice after a National Curriculum Reform
Author: Ramberg, Magnus R.
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Foreign Countries,Educational Change,National Curriculum,Teaching Conditions,Predictor Variables,Elementary School Teachers,Secondary School Teachers,Correlation,Structural Equation Models,Teacher Attitudes,Teacher Surveys,Semi Structured Interviews,Qualitative Research,Statistical Analysis

Educational change initiatives, whether they involve the implementation of new policies or curriculum reforms, often fail to reach the level of teachers' classroom practices. In the search for explanations, numerous studies have either characterized teachers as resistant to change or focused on how schools' workplace conditions have failed to influence teacher change. This study draws attention to these issues by investigating teachers' perceptions of the degree to which a national curriculum reform has brought about changes in their teaching. The study also proposes a model of how teachers' perceptions of school-based conditions (i.e., school leadership, teacher collaboration, and development of school-based curricula) are related to teachers' general orientations towards change and teachers' perceptions of change as a result of the reform. The participants were 738 Norwegian teachers in public primary and lower secondary schools, and the data were analyzed using descriptive data, correlation analysis and structural equation modeling (SEM).The results indicate that the overall influence of the reform on teachers' teaching was moderate. The results also revealed positive relationships between teachers' perceptions of school-based conditions, teachers' general orientations towards change and the degree of perceived reform changes in teachers' teaching. However, a surprising finding is that school leadership and teacher collaboration were only indirectly related to teachers' perceptions of reform changes, mediated through teachers' general orientations towards change. The article highlights important relationships between educational reform, school-based conditions and teachers. It also contributes knowledge that is relevant to consider for successful reform of schools and education.
The Method of Tadabur Qur'an: What Are the Student Views?
Author: Asyafah, Abas
Date: 2014-00-00
Type: Journal Articles
Subjects: Islam,Religious Education,Student Attitudes,Teaching Methods,Instructional Innovation,Foreign Countries,Instructional Improvement,College Students,Pretests Posttests

The underlying problem facing the teaching of Islamic education across Indonesia is the inadequacy and ineffective teaching and learning methods. The teaching of Islam in the institutions of higher education is still limited to conceptualization and memorization. However, the biggest challenge the country faces is the limited research about teaching and learning of Islamic education. Though the Qur'an and hadith are the main sources of Islamic education, there is no method which has been developed in regard to these two sources. In an effort to develop a method based on the Qur'an, this paper seeks to answer the question: (1) what and how is the method of Tadabbur Qur'an in the teaching of Islamic education? (2) what are the students' views about the method of Tadabbur Qur'an?&quot; Tadabbur Qur'an is regarded as an innovative teaching and learning method whose aim is to improve the condition of the teaching of Islamic education across Indonesia.