Enriching Teaching and Learning in a Teacher Education Course through a Field Experience Choice Assignment in Service-Learning

With a purpose of enriching teaching and learning in her classroom, an early childhood education professor implements a service learning option into an introductory curriculum course with 25 students (preservice teachers) enrolled. The study, using both qualitative and quantitative means, measures the attainment of course objectives in students; and compares their ratings statements and coded narrative reflections. Results indicate that the eight students engaged in service learning in their field experience did as well as the 17 students not engaged in service learning on their pre- and post-test analysis, and in their final grades. The student reflections revealed that students participating in service-learning experienced richer learning experiences than those participating in the traditional assignment. Additionally, the service-learning participants indicate a greater sense of civic responsibility, and ability to lead their P-5 students to a greater awareness of their civic responsibility. Recommendations include implementing service-learning with all preservice teachers enrolled in this course, developing appropriate strategies for assessment of effects of service-learning, and conducting further studies on servicelearning in teacher education programs

Service-Learning with Young Students: Validating the Introduction of Service-Learning In Pre-Service Teacher Education

Founded on experience as a practitioner and teacher action-researcher in an elementary school setting, the author shares this study as a validation for introducing the methodology of service-learning in teacher preparation programs. Multiple methods were used in this action research to analyze the effects of participating in a service-learning experience on the self-effi cacy for self-regulated learning of a class of third-grade music students as they participated in an intergenerational project—sharing music and writing with residents in a local nursing home. The quantitative data included the results from the Children’s Self-Effi cacy Scale (Bandura, 2006) and progress rating scales administered by the teacher-researcher. These data were analyzed using independent samples t-tests and regression analyses. The qualitative data included observation and fi eld notes, students’ refl ective journals, student and teacher interviews, classroom artifacts, and informal discussions with the homeroom teacher. Emergent coding of these qualitative data revealed recurring themes, and the results supported the fi ndings of the quantitative analyses. The analyses revealed that the students who participated in the service-learning experience improved their self-effi cacy ratings for self-regulated learning signifi cantly more than the students who did not participate in the project. These fi ndings provide support for teacher education programs to introduce their pre-service teachers to service-learning in order that they will be prepared to implement meaningful experiences in their future classrooms

Preservice Teachers’ Impact on Student Learning

The purpose of this study was to systematically investigate preservice teachers’ impact on P-5 student learning. This quantitative study included 1,640 P-5 students taught by 68 preservice teachers in three practicum tiers who responded to our request and submitted P-5 students’ pre- and post- assessment results. A t test was used to examine differences in the normalized gain scores and a set of regression tests to investigate the differences in the student learning outcomes among variables. The results indicate significant difference in P-5 student learning outcomes after the unit instruction by preservice teachers and no difference among variables, which suggests that P-5 students perform equally well taught by pre-service teachers in all tiers. Discussions were included

The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning: Who, what, when, where, why, and how?

Panel symposium presented at the 2014 Georgia Educational Research Association Conference, Savannah, GA. This session will present a panel discussion of the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning [SoTL]. Panelists include: scholars new to SoTL and those with over a decade’s experience with it, the editor of a pre-eminent international SoTL journal, the chair of a pre-eminent international SoTL conference, and a University System of Georgia SoTL Award winner. The panel will discuss what SoTL is (and is not), the value of SoTL, how to get started with SoTL research projects, how to contextualize and theoretically ground SoTL research, how SoTL both informs and dovetails with teaching, and will provide examples of SoTL projects at both the undergraduate and graduate level

Impact of Pre-Service Teachers on P-5 Student Learning: Results of Unit Instructions

This quantitative study utilized 1,640 P-5 students’ learning outcomes as a result of unit instructions that pre-service teachers gave to P-5 students in the field. The study investigated the difference in P-5 student learning outcomes after a unit instruction by three practicum course tiers, considering socioeconomic statuses, student grade levels, and subject areas of the content taught by the pre-service teacher. Using normalized gain scores, we used a t test and regression tests to analyze the data. Based on the findings, recommendations for pre-service teacher education include three items: a) to provide differentiated supervision based on pre-service teachers’ experiences and needs, b) to require a proportionate and incremental assignment responding to the amount of pre-service teachers’ experiences and hours in the classroom, and c) to incorporate co-teaching opportunities to facilitate peer learning and support in early field experiences.

Enhancing Scholarship of Teaching and Learning through Micro-Level Collaboration across Two Disciplines

Two professors from two disciplines—education and sociology—analyzed the commonalities, differences, successes, and challenges of conducting cross-disciplinary Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) research at the course level (micro-level). This case study of their collaboration resulted in a series of lessons learned which add to the literature base on the process of SoTL collaboration. The results of their professional collaboration at this level provide a validation for increased communication and alignment during the development and implementation of the projects developed to enhance teaching and learning in their respective courses. This erudition illuminates the potential of increased SoTL collaborations across disciplines at the micro-level

Examining Pre-Service Teachers’ Self-Efficacy for Enhancing Literacy of Diverse Learners through Music: A Creative Arts SoTL Project

This presentation highlights a SoTL research project developed from a desire to enrich Early Childhood Education pre-service teachers’ experience by a) equipping them with skills gained from a creative arts class to apply within their practicum experience, b) providing them opportunity for a richer and more meaningful field experience through arts integration, c) eliciting a more critical level of reflection, and d) stimulating a higher sense of efficaciousness for teaching diverse learners. This project is reflective of Hutchings and Cambridge’s (1999) definition of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL): “…problem posing about an issue of teaching or learning, study of the problem through methods appropriate to disciplinary epistemologies, applications of results to practice, communication of results, self-reflection, and peer review” (p.7). Results from both quantitative and qualitative data will be shared, including Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (Bandura, 2006), an attitude survey, written reflections, interviews, open-ended responses, and pre-service teachers’ lesson plans and artifacts from their music literacy project. Participants will engage in a sample music/literacy activity, and will be provided opportunity for discourse of application of the SoTL components in this project

A Journey of Service-Learning: Three Different Professional Lenses

With the most recent educational reform through the implementation of the Common Core Standards, Praxeological Learning: Service- Learning in Teacher Education can provide a fresh look at educational transformation through the lens of service-learning in teacher preparation. As Butin (2003) referenced over a decade ago, “service-learning rejects the banking model of education, where the transferences of information from knowledgeable teachers to passive students is conducted in 45-min increments. It subverts the notion of classroom as graveyard – rows and rows of silent bodies – for an active pedagogy committed to connecting theory and practice, schools and community, the cognitive and the ethical.” The pedagogy of service-learning has significant implications for teacher education. Its transformative aspects have far reaching potential to address teacher candidate dispositions and provide deeper understanding of social justice. Knowledge of the pedagogy and how to implement it in candidates’ future classrooms and in the community could modify education to a more powerful experience of democracy in action and enhance the civic mission of schools. The current and ongoing research found within this textbook is meant to continue supporting the notion of educational reform. (Imprint: Nova

A Journey of Service-Learning: Three Different Professional Lenses [Praxeological Learning: Social Justice and Social Capital]

This autobiographical case study chronicles how I, a former elementary music specialist, was propelled by the methodology of service-learning into a journey of rewarding experiences--from practitioner to researcher to professor. Previous research includes: (a) Through my practitioner\u27s lens, I reveal my initial project birthed with third grade music students to help meet the needs of ten young special education students with profound intellectual and physical disabilities (Arrington, 2008). Outcomes included increased socialization with the students with disabilities, and increased responsibility with third graders. (b) With my researcher\u27s lens, my account demonstrates my interest in \u27so what?\u27 as I conducted action research to measure self-efficacy for selfregulated learning in third graders in an intergenerational service-learning project (Arrington, 2015), and (c) Via my professor\u27s lens, I reveal how a service-learning option with pre-service teachers increased their self-efficacy for teaching young children. (Arrington, 2014, Arrington & Cohen, 2015). Effects of participating in servicelearning experiences on self-efficacy (Bandura, 1994). This is an autobiographical case study highlighting results of several service-learning experiences. IRB approval was obtained, participant/parental forms were collected and saved in locked files, and pseudonyms were used in publication. Positive results from implementing servicelearning experiences in elementary classrooms lead one to conclude that introducing service-learning in teacher education courses will provide a foundation for implementing this methodology in the candidates\u27 future classrooms. As I impart these stories through three different lenses ‘Practitioner, Researcher, and Professor’ I share challenges faced, and include directions to assist others embarking on similar journeys, including e-service learning in online courses