scholarly journals Course placement : its impact in a Midwestern region school district on achievement, curriculum, instructional strategies, expectations, and perceptions of the program

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Jodi Ann Glidewell
Keyword(s):  
School District ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Role Models ◽  
Tracking System ◽  
College Preparatory ◽  
Interest Convergence ◽  
Course Placement

A school district in the Midwestern region uses a tracking system for sorting students into a grade-level or college preparatory track at the junior high and high school levels. This system has been in place for over sixty years. This is an ineffective method of educating students, particularly for those students in lower track classes. Critical pedagogy, the study of helping people to become free of oppression, and interest-convergence, which advocates that change is implemented when it benefits both groups, were used to study this practice. Focus groups, interviews, and observations of teachers occurred to help answer the following research questions: What impact do various instructional strategies and approaches have on achievement? How does course placement affect instructional behavior and course approaches? What types of instructional practices are being utilized in classroom instruction for both grade-level and college preparatory classes; do they differ and are they equitable? The findings supported the literature review. Students in grade-level classes are not challenged as much as their college preparatory peers, nor do they receive an equitable education in terms of the instructional practices utilized in the classes. Furthermore, all teachers expressed a desire to blend the classes to help improve discipline, provide role models for students, and to increase academic achievement. It is the recommendation of the researcher that the school district consider doing away with the tracking system as it is an ineffective means of educating the district's students.

Elementary Teachers' Math Instructional Practices, Receptivity to Change, Instructional Leadership, and Academic Optimism

2018 ◽  
pp. 197-228
Author(s):  
Dennis D. Sullivan
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Teachers ◽  
Instructional Leadership ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Teaching Experience ◽  
Academic Optimism ◽  
Receptivity To Change ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Learning Standards ◽  
High Need Schools

This study sought to identify the relationships among elementary teachers' instructional practices in mathematics pre- and post-Common Core Learning Standards (CCLS) implementation in relation to technological and pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK), formative assessment, reflective practice, receptivity to change, academic optimism, and instructional leadership across age, years of experience, grade level taught, and college math credits taken in high and low needs schools. Teacher responses from low and high need schools across age, years of teaching experience, grade level taught, and college math credits taken were examined with the dimensions of mathematics instructional practices to see if any relationships exist among the variables. The implementation of CCLS mathematics had an influence on elementary-school teachers' instructional practices and attitudes in both high and low needs schools. Teacher academic optimism was reported as overall higher in high needs districts, whereas teachers in low needs districts reported an increase in instructional motivation practices after the implementation of CCLS mathematics.

Innovative Instructional Strategies for an Online Community of Learners

2018 ◽  
pp. 542-569
Author(s):  
Margaret L. Niess ◽  
Henry Gillow-Wiles
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Online Community ◽  
Learning Trajectory ◽  
Community Of Learners ◽  
Learning Tools ◽  
Pedagogical Content ◽  
Content Development ◽  
Teacher Professional

This qualitative, design-based research identifies innovative instructional practices for teacher professional development that support an online community of learners in reconstructing their technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) for teaching mathematics. This analysis describes instructional practices that guide inservice teacher participants in inquiring and reflecting to confront their knowledge-of-practice conceptions for integrating multiple technologies as learning tools. The research program describes an online learning trajectory and instructional strategies supporting the tools and processes in steering the content development in a social metacognitive constructivist instructional framework towards moving from “informal ideas, through successive refinements of representation, articulation, and reflection towards increasingly complex concepts over time” (Confrey & Maloney, 2012). The results provide recommendations for online professional development learning environments that engage the participants as a community of learners.

The impact of opportunities to learn with grade-level classmates without disabilities on self-actualization and autonomy for students with extensive and pervasive support needs

2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-52
Author(s):  
Diane L. (https://orcid.org/); Ryndak ◽  
Deborah J. Taub ◽  
Christie Cavanaugh ◽  
Kari Alberque
Keyword(s):  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Support Needs ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Opportunities To Learn ◽  
Evidence Based Practices ◽  
Self Actualization ◽  
Essential Skills ◽  
The Impact

Inclusive education encompasses both theoretical constructs (e.g., least dangerous assumption, presumed competence) and implementation variables (e.g., curriculum, settings, instructional practices). When these variables are addressed collectively, the complex and multilayered process of developing equitable schools and implementing evidence-based practices that facilitate inclusive education results in students with extensive and pervasive support needs demonstrating unpredicted progress in the acquisition and use of both academic and embedded essential skills across situations that are meaningful in their lives, as well as progress related to self-actualization and autonomy. These variables are discussed, and examples of how opportunities to learn with grade-level peers without disabilities impacted self-actualization and autonomy for one individual with extensive and pervasive support needs, following 15 years of educational segregation followed by 7 years of inclusion at school and in the community.

Focal Points—What's Next for You?

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Francis Fennell
Keyword(s):  
Mathematics Education ◽  
School District ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Curricular Reform ◽  
Focal Points ◽  
Local School District ◽  
Local School ◽  
Grade Levels ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Grade 8

NCTM's Curriculum Focal Points for Prekindergarten through Grade 8 Mathematics: A Quest for Coherence was published in 2006. Change, or reform, has been something we in mathematics education have been involved with for decades—some would say since Sputnik, or for half a century. The intent of Curriculum Focal Points is to begin a dialogue relative to curricular reform at the pre-K–8 level, paying particular attention to state and local school district curricular frameworks. Some state frameworks contain over 100 outcomes at each grade level. What's a teacher to do? What's really important at these grade levels?

Critical Pedagogy and Teacher Education

1987 ◽  
Vol 169 (3) ◽  
pp. 117-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel R Liston ◽  
Kenneth M. Zeichner
Keyword(s):  
Teacher Education ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Teacher Educators ◽  
The Public ◽  
External Conditions ◽  
Normative Basis ◽  
The U.S

The authors offer their view of a normative basis for an approach to teacher education that contributes to the establishment of more critical and emancipatory practices in the public schools of the U.S. These ideas are then linked to the broader tradition of radicalism in teacher education. A variety of conceptual lenses and instructional strategies utilized by radically oriented teacher educators are discussed together with the possibilities for the realization of a radical agenda for teacher education. It is argued that teacher educators need to become much more politically involved in confronting the external conditions that limit the possibilities for reform in teacher education.

scholarly journals Investigating Preservice Teachers’ Efficacy Level and Factors Influencing It

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deby Farhadiba ◽  
Anik Nunuk Wulyani
Keyword(s):  
Preservice Teachers ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
School Environment ◽  
Role Models ◽  
English Language ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
Factors Influencing

This study investigated preservice teachers’ efficacy level and factors influencing it. The participants were English Language Teaching students of cohort 2015, Universitas Negeri Malang. The data were taken from 41 preservice teachers by using an online questionnaire and a face-to-face interview. The online questionnaire provided the data about the participants’ efficacy level and factors influencing it. The Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) was adapted to measure the participants’ efficacy level. An in-depth interview with six respondents who agreed to participate was conducted to follow-up the questionnaire data. The interview was aimed to get profound data about factors influencing the participants’ efficacy level. The preservice teachers reported that four significant factors influenced their self-efficacy of teaching. They are the participants’ experience in a formal and informal teaching practice, feedback and support from the school environment, observing other teachers’ performance, and English proficiency as factors influencing their efficacy. The average result also shows that the preservice teachers’ efficacy level was 3.31 (5-scale rating for highly effective). The participants perceived that they were highly efficacious in instructional strategies (3.41) and a little efficacious in student engagement (3.16). By knowing their efficacy level, preservice teachers are suggested to start joining teacher professional development (TPD) to develop and maintain their English and teaching skill. In-service teachers are also suggested to join TPD to maintain their skills because preservice teachers look up to them as role models. Preservice teachers should also be given support from in-service teachers and Department of English.   Keywords: preservice teacher, teacher-efficacy, student engagement, instructional strategies

scholarly journals English Language Learner Instruction in Middle School Mainstream Classrooms

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. p1
Author(s):  
Lakisha M. Nelson ◽  
Michelle M. McCraney ◽  
Ruby Burgess ◽  
Sunddip Panesar-Aguilar ◽  
Chris Cale
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Middle School ◽  
English Language Learners ◽  
School District ◽  
General Education ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
English Language ◽  
General Education Teachers ◽  
Language Learner ◽  
Individual Instruction

In a southeastern state, Grade 7 and 8 middle school general education teachers were not implementing cultural and individual instructional strategies consistently to support the academic achievement of the growing population of English Language Learners (ELLs). The purpose and key research questions of this qualitative study were designed to (a) identify what cultural relevant instructional strategies Grades 7 and 8 middle school general education teachers implement, (b) identify what individual relevant instructional strategies, and (c) understand what perceptions teachers have regarding strategies to facilitate consistent implementation of cultural and individual instruction to support ELLs. The nine participants were middle school (i.e., Grade 7 and 8) general education teachers from a school district in a southeastern state. Data were gathered through semistructured interviews and the themes included teachers’ beliefs in their abilities to provide consistent instruction to support ELLs, use of varied individual instructional strategies to support ELLs, use of varied cultural instructional strategies to support the needs of ELLs, and their want of preparation and relevant professional development to instruct ELLs. The findings have implications for positive social change, including identifying areas where professional development and focused instruction on the cultural and individual needs of ELLs increase teachers’ knowledge, skills, consistency, and perceived ability to support ELLs in the local school district.

scholarly journals An investigation of accessible and inclusive instructional field practices in US geoscience departments

2020 ◽  
Vol 53 ◽  
pp. 53-63
Author(s):  
Ivan G. Carabajal ◽  
Christopher L. Atchison
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Data Analysis ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
The United States ◽  
Disability Theory ◽  
Instructional Context ◽  
Support Students ◽  
Study Offer

Abstract. This study examines current accessible field-based instructional strategies across geoscience departments in the United States that support students with visual, hearing, and mobility disabilities. A qualitative questionnaire was administered to geoscience instructors from over 160 US geology departments. Outcomes from the data analysis were used to categorize accessible instructional practices into three distinct pedagogical methods: modifications, accommodations, and options for accessible instructional design. Utilizing the lens of critical disability theory, we then investigated how the identified teaching practices varied in inclusion, as some strategies can often be more exclusionary towards individual students with disabilities. Although from a US perspective, the outcomes of this study offer practical suggestions for providing accessible and inclusive field experiences that may inform a global geoscience instructional context.

Problem Solution Project

2011 ◽  
Vol 46 (6) ◽  
pp. 1461-1495 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga S. Jarrett ◽  
Vera Stenhouse
Keyword(s):  
Service Learning ◽  
Critical Pedagogy ◽  
Grade Level ◽  
Curriculum Integration ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Student Empowerment ◽  
Problem Solution ◽  
Master's Program ◽  
Learning Problem ◽  
Empowering Teachers

This article presents findings of 6 years of implementing a Problem Solution Project, an assignment influenced by service learning, problem-based learning, critical theory, and critical pedagogy whereby teachers help children tackle real problems. Projects of 135 teachers in an urban certification/master’s program were summarized by cohort year and grade-level taught. A subset of 22 projects was analyzed qualitatively to determine the decision-making process, degree of implementation, evidence of teacher and student empowerment, and extent of curriculum integration. Results confirm the Problem Solution Project as a powerful way to meet curriculum standards while empowering teachers and children.

scholarly journals Teaching toward contextual instruction in the classroom

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 26
Author(s):  
Mary Jo Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Practice ◽  
Student Learning ◽  
Instructional Strategies ◽  
Instructional Practices ◽  
Learning Outcomes ◽  
Teaching Strategy ◽  
Student Learning Outcomes ◽  
Clinical Experiences ◽  
Classroom Context ◽  
Pedagogical Approach

Background and purpose: As instructors look for ways to incorporate necessary nursing concepts that address a myriad of student learning outcomes, educational practices must shift from decontextualized instruction to teaching toward salience. The purpose of this teaching strategy was to provide context to classroom instruction and integrate clinical practice with theory. As such, a pedagogical approach for contextual instruction in the classroom is presented.Methods: Contextual instructional strategies that bring clinical experiences into the classroom was presented showing the possibilities for classroom context in education allowing for students to have a deeper understanding of course concepts and topics where context to action was applied.Results: Using contextual teaching in the classroom allows students to be engaged in active inquiry where actions and decisions regarding care become “the lecture”.Conclusions: Contextual pedagogical instruction through the use of clinical experiences encourages instructional practices that motivate students and provide relevance for what they are learning.

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