Current Issues in Education (E-Journal, Arizona State University)
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Reflective Practitioner Preparation: In the Wake of 21st Century Terrorism
Get PDFThis paper presents an example of reflective educational practice as the authors address the impact of trauma on the educational process. Multiple aspects of the educational process will be discussed: education at the national and local level as well as teacher preparation and K-12 classroom practice. The authors ground the theoretical piece in educational theory while also drawing on personal practical knowledge of experience from classroom practice. This reflective-reflexive, theory-practice inquiry method illuminated the ways that students and teachers must deal with trauma in the educational setting on a daily basis
The Effects of Instructional Rubrics on Learning to Write
Get PDFThis study examines the impact of instructional rubrics on eighth grade students' writing and on their knowledge of the qualities of effective writing. Students in the treatment group were given instructional rubrics that articulated the criteria and gradations of quality for three assigned essays. Students in the control group wrote the same three essays but did not receive the rubric. Students in the treatment group received, on average, higher scores on one of the three essays. Questionnaires administered at the end of the study revealed that students in the treatment group tended to identify more of the criteria by which their writing was evaluated
An Examination of In-Service Teacher Attitudes Toward Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Professional Practice
Get PDFTeacher attitudes can influence the successful instruction and interventions within the classroom. The present study examined in-service teachers attitudes toward students with and without autism spectrum disorder in the United States. A total of 234 teachers (pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12) from public and charter schools in a metropolitan city participated in a survey. Participants read two scenarios, one featuring a student displaying autistic symptoms and another featuring a typical student. They then indicated their attitudes toward each student. Results revealed that in-service teachers perceive the student with ASD as more different from typical students and the teachers are more likely to dislike and avoid the student with ASD. Standard regression analysis demonstrated that being female, teaching at the elementary level, and holding special education certification are predictors of a teachers positive perception of a student with autism spectrum disorder. The implications of these findings for professional practice are discussed
Taking on the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards: Alignment, Recognition and Representation
Get PDFThe National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) was established in 1987 to develop and operate a system of advanced certification; including a set of high and rigorous standards of accomplished teaching and an assessment system designed to measure these standards. Utilizing a qualitative, case study framework, this research project was designed to investigate the meaning perspectives associated with the NBPTS certification process from the point of view of a National Board candidate interacting with the procedures, assessments and requirements necessary to achieve certification. The study asserts the candidate focused on the alignment of her teaching to the vision of accomplished practice set forth in the NBPTS standards, the possible recognition of being NBPTS certified, and the challenges with representing teaching practices through the assessment vehicles provided in the certification process
Taking (A)Part: Poetic Counternarratives for Troubled Times
Get PDFHow do we "read the world" after September 11th? As the event was mediatized into abstraction, this article provides a framework from which poetry as counternarrative may be used to challenge the media monologue on what emerged as standardized September 11th discourse. In the aftermath of the event, the media constructed an acceptable, sensible-sounding lexicon that may also have foreclosed on social critique in the form of vernacular expressions. And if the media set the terms of acceptable language, what happened to the non-mediatized experience of September 11th? Does such an experience even exist? What is the role of schools in fostering student critique? Based on a narrative approach that includes examples of the author's own experience and writing, this piece takes a poetic look at a different kind of literate meaning: the sense of empowerment rooted in the language of everyday experience
Teacher Action Research in Foreign Language Classrooms: Four Teachers Tell Their Stories
Get PDFAs a profession language educators are paying more attention to teacher-driven research to help clarify and explain those phenomena occurring in our classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the following question: What happens when teachers apply a teacher action research (TAR) strategy for improving their classroom practice? I will start with a definition and then outline a set of steps for conducting this type of research. Next, the four teachers tell their own stories and share reflections on growth and development. Finally, I posit the importance of this kind of research in making contributions to language teaching and learning inquiry
The Effects of High Stakes Testing in an Inner-City Elementary School: The Curriculum, the Teachers, and the English Language Learners
Get PDFDrawing on interviews with teachers, this study examines the effects of a high-stakes standardized test (the SAT-9), on a large inner-city elementary school in southern California with a high English Language Learner (ELL) student population. Specifically, the study addresses the following questions: (a) How much of an emphasis is there on the SAT-9? (b) Do teachers believe the SAT-9 is a fair and valid measure of teaching and student learning? (c) How has the SAT-9 affected the curriculum taught to students, especially ELL students? (d) How has the SAT-9 affected the teachers and students? And, (e) has the SAT-9 improved teaching and learning at the school under study? The findings reveal that standardized testing has not resulted in higher quality teaching and learning in this school; rather, it has resulted in a narrowed curriculum and harmful effects on both teachers and students
Academic Instrumental Knowledge: Deconstructing Cultural Capital Theory for Strategic Intervention Approaches
Get PDFThis paper explores the issue of social and cultural capital with immigrant students and their families. Drawing on a cultural-historical theoretical framework, the article focuses on that subset related to schooling that we term academic instrumental knowledge (AIK). This article draws from two related projects involving ethnographic work at home and at school with Latino immigrant families to examine the nature of specific examples of how this knowledge is constructed and how it operates in the daily lives of these families. The article argues all families possess cultural and social capital, but it does not always map easily on to that valued by schools. Moreover, that while such knowledge appears to be critical to school success, intervention based on simple transmission of important school-related facts and knowledge, without reference to the specific sociocultural contexts in which these families live, will not be effectiv
Texas Voices Speak out about High-Stakes Testing: Preservice Teachers, Teachers, and Students
Get PDFAlthough teachers and students are directly impacted by high-stakes testing policy mandates, their opinion is often left out during the decision-making process. As future educators, preservice teachers are also affected by these mandates; thus far, their perspectives have also been ignored. Providing these stakeholders a forum in which they can speak about accountability testing allows others to hear their voices in this controversial issue. To achieve this goal, we employed a qualitative design. Data gathered consisted of observational journals and threaded e-journals. Data were critically analyzed and triangulated. Trustworthiness was further established using peer-review and member checking. Emerging patterns revealed that, across grade levels, preservice and inservice teachers see the overemphasis on high-stakes testing as being intrusive on their curricular and instructional decision-making. They note that instructional decisions are not being made in the students' best interests. Across grade levels, students' perceptions and their approach to tests differ. These voices challenge notions of whether high-stakes tests are valid measures of students' learning, ability, or potential, and whether test results should be used as an accountability measure
Experiences of Learning to Teach Physical Education: Navigating Tensions
Get PDFThis narrative inquiry explored two pre-service teachers experiences of learning to teach Physical Education during a 16-week internship. The inquiry emerged from my experiences as a student, pre-service teacher, teacher, cooperating teacher, supervising faculty, and teacher educator. A research puzzle was named: how learning to teach is experienced by pre-service teachers and how they dwell in spaces of tension between curriculum-as-plan and curriculum-as-lived while learning to teach Physical Education. Two pre-service teachers in secondary urban school settings met with me over a six month period before, during, and after the 16-week internship. Field texts included audio recorded and transcribed group and one-on-one conversations, field notes from school visits and teaching observations, journal writing and reflections, artifacts from the participants internship, and text message conversations. Narrative accounts that inquired into their experiences were co-composed with each participant. Three threads of narrative connection reverberated, moving toward new wonderings related to the research puzzle: shifting identity, teaching their way, and working alongside teachers. Questions arose about how we might be able to use this inquiry to reflect on our own experiences and practices and how narrative inquiry may be a valuable methodological approach for Physical Education teacher education. Key words: teacher education, Physical Education, field experience, identity, teaching, narrative inquiry, curriculu