Co-Teaching: Idea to Implementation

From a university perspective, it can be challenging finding field experience placements with quality mentor teachers. The field experiences we provide help shape (positively or negatively) the development of pre-service teacher candidates (PTCs). Our university is fortunate to have, as one of our field experience sites, a K-5 university Charter school in which faculty work closely with K-5 teachers. Together, faculty and teachers are able to provided meaningful experiences. As one of our field experiences, we require all EC-6 PTCs to experience a semester in the university Charter school. A benefit of this university and Charter school relationship is that the university is able to control the mentor teachers in which we work with and the experiences we provide our PTCs

Teaching the Nature of Science Through Inquiry: The Results of a Three-year Professional Development Program

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching in Dallas, TX in April 2005.This study assessed the components of a three year professional development program on participants' views nature of science (NOS), instructional practice to promote students' appropriate NOS views, and the influence of participants' instruction on elementary student NOS views. Using the VNOS-B and associated interviews the researchers tracked the changes in NOS views of teacher participants throughout the professional development program. The teachers participated in an explicit-reflective activities, embedded in a program that emphasized scientific inquiry, along with training in pedagogy, to help them improve their own elementary students' views of NOS. Elementary students were interviewed using a modified VNOS-B to track changes in their NOS views, using classroom observations to note teacher influences on student ideas. Analysis of the VNOS-B and modified VNOS-B showed that teachers and most grades of elementary students improved their views of NOS. The teachers also improved in their science pedagogy, as evidenced by analysis of their teaching. Implications for teacher professional development programs are made

Elementary Teachers' Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Teaching the Nature of Science: An examination of Teachers Who are Effective in Improving their Students' Views

This conference paper was presented at the annual meeting of the National Association for Research on Science Teaching in Baltimore, MD in April 2008.This study explored components of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) of three teachers who were found successful at improving elementary students' views of NOS. Assuming PCK for NOS to be similar to PCK for other science topics, we drew from the model of PCK developed by Magnusson, Krajcik, and Borko (1999). Our efforts reflect a critical re-examination of data from a previous study, or what Heaton (1998) refers to as secondary analysis, and relied on the following data sources (1) field notes and transcripts from professional development sessions, (2) videos, lesson plans, and field notes from observations of teachers' classroom teaching of NOS (3) video stimulated-recall interviews conducted with teachers following classroom observations (4) videos and transcripts from teachers' presentations of their teaching experiences and professional conferences, (5) teachers' written contributions to professional publications, and (6) a focus-group session held with teachers at the conclusion of the project. We found teachers held strong intentions to teach NOS, used strategies modeled for them in workshops with their students, adapted their curricula to emphasize NOS, supported student discourse about NOS using “kidfriendly” language, and used a variety of instructional strategies. Though the teachers informally assessed NOS views, they were less effective in formally assessing students' understandings

A Positive View of the Trajectory of the Human Rights Movement

In 1988, during the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, I was a young American lawyer working for South African Lawyers for Human Rights in Pretoria. On one occasion, I accompanied some of my African colleagues to a conference, the purpose of which was to begin visualizing post-apartheid South Africa. While the apartheid regime was still in power, it was clearly in hasty retreat, and it was equally clear that its days were numbered. The African majority would soon be taking over the reigns of power, and they were excited to begin visualizing what freedom and human rights might and should look like in post-apartheid South Africa

Do Drones Have a Silver Lining?

Michael Abramowitz and Lawrence Woocher’s article, “How Genocide Became a National Security Threat,” flags an important milestone in American foreign policy, namely that mass atrocities might now be appropriately viewed as the national security threats that they are. The problem with translating this policy development into action is the next and not insignificant challenge. Aerial drones may be key to overcoming it

Perpetrators in Their Midst

The two articles, “Another Human-Rights Irony at the U.N.” by Anne Applebaum and “UN Elects Rights Violators to Human Rights Council” by Edith Lederer, both set forth the problems encountered by the UN Human Rights Council and its predecessor, the Human Rights Commission. Namely, that member states with notorious human rights records will exploit the Council to their political advantage. As Applebaum points out in her article, “authoritarian regimes have long battled to join the council...the better to prevent any outsiders from investigating their own governments.

Investigating Personal Fitness Trainers\u27 Qualifications

A threefold approach was utilized to analyze the problem of defining personal fitness trainers’ qualifications. First, the problem was explored nationally, internationally and locally. Within the local context, the history of the exercise science program, stakeholders and culture at the University of Central Florida and in the central Florida marketplace was examined. Next, a systematic literature review examined possible causes within the knowledge context, learning/motivational context and organizational/cultural context. Then, an original research study investigated the qualifications for Central Florida, Personal Fitness Trainers (PFTs) by examining the relationship(s) and/or differences between variables such as education, certification, years of experience and income as well as attitudes, opinions and beliefs (AOBs) regarding those variables. An online questionnaire was emailed to 196 PFTs in the central Florida area and utilized to assess qualifications as they relate to income. The 48 PFT participants were compared based on education (ED), certification (CE), and experience (EX) and their effect on income. There were no statistically significant differences in 2012 income based on (ED) level, F(4,26) = 2.283, p=.086. The National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM), and National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM) were the preferred (CE) companies (ranked 1st or 2nd, 65% and 45% of the time respectively). From the 48 PFTs that answered the survey, 54% of PFTs agreed (A) or strongly agreed (SA) that a degree should be required in order to practice, 73% (A) or (SA) that (CE) is helpful in gaining employment, and 66% (A) or (SA) that a national board exam or license should be required to practice. The least number of (ED) courses was taken in biomechanics and business marketing. In conclusion, PFT level of education and certification iii type does not significantly affect income given the current system. PFTs agree that more stringent guidelines are needed to limit entrance into the profession to those who are more qualified. The author presents a new model for undergraduate curriculum and instruction requiring hands on coursework, certification and internship or service learning project

Preservice Teachers’ Perceptions of Mathematics through Drawings--RESEARCH

Research indicates that mathematics anxiety is particularly high in pre-service teachers (Bekdemir, 2010; Gresham, 2007; Hembree, 1990). These future teachers will soon be entering classrooms of their own, responsible for teaching mathematics to young children, who need strong teachers. A 2013 report from The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), found that 42% fourth-graders performed at or above the proficient level in math (NCES, 2013. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary pre-service teacher candidates (PSTCs) perceptions of mathematics, through drawings. Drawings were analyzed before and after a semester-long field experience in a constructivist mathematics environment. The participants included 56 PSTCs with a field placement in K-5 settings. The researcher used open-coding to evaluate the pre- and post-field experience drawings. Three overarching themes emerged from the data: (1) emotions related to mathematics, (2) the mathematics environment, and (3) experiences within the mathematics environment. Over the course of the field experience semester, the number of negative and isolated perceptions of mathematics decreased. The results of the study hold implications for teacher preparation programs in planning field experience placements for their teacher candidates. Purposeful field placements can allow PSTCs to evaluate and inform their own understanding of mathematics, and learn pedagogical strategies to benefit their future students

What Students Say Versus What They Do Regarding Scientific Inquiry

Science Education, Vol. 98, No. 1, pp. 1–35We teach a course for elementary education undergraduates that gives students an opportunity to conduct open-ended scientific inquiry and pursue their own scientific questions in much the sameway that practicing research scientists do. In this study,we compared what our students say declaratively about the nature of science (NOS) in surveys and interviews with what they do procedurally when engaged in authentic scientific practice. Initially, we were surprised when our students showed very little change on two different validated NOS questionnaires, adhering to seemingly memorized definitions of key NOS vocabulary such as “science” and “experiment.” In contrast, on procedural measures of NOS understanding, students developed a decidedly sophisticated approach to answering scientific questions. Our data suggest that students’ declarative understandings about the NOS are not a reliable measure of students’ ability to engage productively in scientific practices and vice versa. We discuss why this might be and consider the implications of this disconnect on identifying the best approach to NOS instruction and on future science education research

Comparing the Low- and High-Performing Schools based on the TIMSS in the United States

Publisher's, offprint versionBecause school difference has been shown to be one of the determinants of students’ science performances, this study was carried out to investigate the differences between low- and high-performing schools in the United States based on TIMSS 2007. Discriminant analysis was conducted to explore the differences between low- and high-performing schools. The results revealed that the classified schools were significantly discriminated based on the six composite variables. Whereas using of inquiry-oriented activities were found to be encouraged in high-performing schools, teacher-centered activities were more often implemented in low-performing schools. As expected, socioeconomic status (SES) of the students was found to be one of the critical factors that explain the extent of variation of students’ science performances should be considered intensively by school administrations