Book Review of Preparing Educators to Engage Families: Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework

Preparing Educators to Engage Families: Case Studies Using an Ecological Systems Framework is in its second edition. The first edition was entitled Preparing Educators to Involve Families: Theory to Practice. Notable in the second edition’s title is the word change from involving families to engaging families. The change in wording is important, as involvement often implies one-way communication from the school toward the family, and engagement denotes a much richer concept in which a reciprocal and dynamic relationship exists between schools and families. Specifically, the book presents family engagement as a shared responsibility of parents, educators, and community entities. Such shared responsibility is co-constructed over time (birth to adulthood) and across a variety of contexts. These contexts go beyond the home and school to include a broader group including community centers, libraries, after-school programs, faith-based institutions, and so on

Creating Win-Win Partnerships And Adding Relevance To Educator Preparation

The authors describe a partnership between two departments, in a school of education that involves educational leadership and curriculum and instruction graduate students sharing their expertise of teaching and learning with student teachers and alternatively certified teacher interns. This project provides graduate students with active participation in delivering workshops to adult learners. The beginning teachers are the participants. Beginning teachers benefit from gaining hands-on experience and research-based instructional strategies to use in their classrooms. Researchers found this activity increased the graduate students’ sensitivity to the needs of beginning teachers. Over 1300 student teachers and alternative certification interns and approximately 530 graduate students have participated in the Teaching, Learning, and Service Conference. The conference is organized twice a year, on a Saturday in the fall and on a Saturday in the spring

Elementary Principalas Technology Leadership Dispositions

This qualitative study examined the reported technology dispositions that a group of elementary principals in a South Texas public school district possess as technology leaders as aligned to the 2009 National Technology Standards for Administrators NETS-A An online questionnaire and open-ended audio recorded interviews were utilized to determine technology dispositions of the participants Findings included the following five dispositions 1 Technology s usefulness 2 Risk taking 3 Self-reliance 4 Encouragement and 5 Role mode

Using the Jigsaw Method for Meaningful Learning to Enhance Learning and Rentention in an Educational Leadership Graduate School Course

This qualitative case study examined factors that were both successful and unsuccessful along with the attitudes and preferences of educational leadership graduate students towards working in an online cooperative jigsaw blog project in which each student had an active role for each topic addressed throughout the semester The theoretical framework for this study was based on the work of Novak 2011 and Ausubel 1960 Their theories explore how the learner processes large amounts of meaningful material from verbal and textual formats in classroom settings Analysis of the online questionnaire and face-to-face interview data indicated that the graduate students enrolled in the course effectively learn when they are learning collaboratively in smaller chunks of information at a time as subject matter experts and have an ease of access to the learning materials Students also preferred non-traditional methods over traditional lectures and become more involved when they participate in the evaluation of their peers Results also revealed that students disliked learning using the jigsaw method when there were missing pieces to the blog postings a lack of quality in the postings a lack of accuracy a repetition of information in the blog and a lack of peer and instructor feedbac

PK-12 Virtual Schools: The Challenges and Roles of School Leaders

According to Jacobsen, Clifford and Friesen (2002), the expansion of instructional technology is due in part to an increase in demand by local communities to make sure that local schools are effectively preparing students for the technological challenges of the 21st century

The Principal’s Role in Retaining Para Educator Turned Teacher: Hope for Increasing Latinas in the Teaching Force

This article reports the results of a qualitative study done on a group of Latina para educators turned teachers along the Texas-México border. The study focuses on the para educators turned teachers’ perceptions regarding administrative support provided their first year of teaching. School administrators’ perceptions of support provided to para educator turned teachers was also measured. Findings indicated a correlation among three factors: 1.) the amount of experience the para educator turned teacher brings to the classroom, 2.) the relationship with the campus principal and 3.) the relationship with campus colleagues. Para educators turned teachers have different needs than those of traditional first year teachers due to their previous experience in classrooms and schools. As a result school administrators must provide support designed to meet their unique needs and not generalize their needs to be the same as other beginning teachers

Technologies Frequently Used by Elementary Principals

Technology continues to be a driving force for change in instructional practices. Principals have transitioned from managers to instructional leaders that support innovative technology practices. This study sampled 30 elementary school principals’ technology usage from two school districts and focused on discovering the hardware and software used directly by the elementary principals and how they learned to use those technologies. Data analysis from the online questionnaire and the interviews revealed that the elementary principals used technology predominately for administrative purposes. All the elementary principals surveyed reported that the type of software applications used by them on a daily basis consisted primarily of : web based data analysis tools such as Euphoria Aware, Workshop, Forethought, web based Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS), and productivity tools in the form of word processing, spreadsheets and presentation applications. The amount of time on a daily and weekly basis outweighed time and effort they put in to technology for instructional purposes. Results from the interviews indicated that these elementary principals all had smart phones, which enabled them to view the Internet, use social media and send and receive e-mail messages. In addition, 75 % elementary principals surveyed reported learning the technologies on their own with some support from their district’s technology support staff

Using the Jigsaw Method for Meaningful Learning to Enhance Learning and Retention in an Educational Leadership Graduate School Course

This qualitative case study examined factors that were both successful and unsuccessful along with the attitudes and preferences of educational leadership graduate students towards working in an online cooperative jigsaw blog project in which each student had an active role for each topic addressed throughout the semester The theoretical framework for this study was based on the work of Novak 2011 and Ausubel 1960 Their theories explore how the learner processes large amounts of meaningful material from verbal and textual formats in classroom settings Analysis of the online questionnaire and face-to-face interview data indicated that the graduate students enrolled in the course effectively learn when they are learning collaboratively in smaller chunks of information at a time as subject matter experts and have an ease of access to the learning materials Students also preferred non-traditional methods over traditional lectures and become more involved when they participate in the evaluation of their peers Results also revealed that students disliked learning using the jigsaw method when there were missing pieces to the blog postings a lack of quality in the postings a lack of accuracy a repetition of information in the blog and a lack of peer and instructor feedbac

A Study of Hybrid Instructional Delivery for Graduate Students in an Educational Leadership Course

This paper describes a qualitative study in which ways to improve instructional delivery for graduate students in an Educational Leadership course in Master of Education program in a predominantly Hispanic university located in South Texas were examined. Questions explored perceptions, attitudes, and reasons for choosing a hybrid instructional delivery model. Five themes emerged from the data: flexibility, assumption of responsibility in learning, emphasis on active learning, building peer relationships, and deepened learning