Influences of Intensive Professional Development in Writing Instruction on Teachers\u27 Dispositions and Self-Efficacy: It\u27s a Matter of Practice

After 20 years of nation-wide literacy reforms only one third of America\u27s students perform at or above grade level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) writing assessment. Policies such as NCLB (2002) that focused on reading achievement have done little to raise scores on this national assessment of students writing progress (National Center for Educational Statistics, 1999, 2011). With 90% of American jobs now requiring higher level literacy skills (Darling-Hammond, Barron, Pearson, & Schoenfeld, 2008), most states have adopted new standards that are designed to ratchet up rigor in order to put American students on a trajectory to meet the demands of a college educated work force. The level of writing called for in the Common Core State Standards (2010) is so ambitious that it calls into question whether teachers are confident and able to lead students toward meeting these new demands

It’s a Matter of Practice: Influences of a Writing Methods Course on Inservice Teachers’ Dispositions and Self-Efficacy

This mixed-methods study examined the influences of a graduate writing methods course on the dispositions and instructional practice of twelve elementary classroom teachers, six who participated in the course and six who did not, during their post-graduate education. Data from interviews, classroom observation notes, and protocols have been analyzed, compared, and integrated. Outcomes of this study link participation in this course with increased confidence and readiness to teach the complexities of writing, as well as enhanced instructional practice and student learning opportunities. Findings suggest implications for teacher professional development, literacy teacher educators, and teacher education researchers

What about Writing?: A National Study of Writing Instruction in Teacher Preparation Programs

This study explores how writing instruction is taught to pre-service teachers across the US. Despite growing writing demands in K-12 classrooms, our national survey of literacy teacher educators revealed that colleges and universities rarely offer stand-alone writing instruction courses. Instead instructors are responsible for embedding writing instruction into their reading courses. Equally concerning, our data revealed a lack of confidence among many teacher educators regarding teaching writing. This study highlights the need for greater attention to writing in teacher education and adds to the conversation of why these issues continue to plague higher education

Engaging Teachers in Digital Products and Processes: Interview Feature Articles

Students sit in pairs interviewing each other--talking, laughing, taking notes with pen and paper. Computers begin to appear on tables, as students segue into drafting feature articles-- those splash-of-color pieces that go beyond straight news in magazines and news source. Conversation diminishes to a soft hum, as focus shifts to the interplay of thinking, written notes, and the emerging text on the computer screen. Words continue to waft over the room as comments and questions pertaining to content and processes are directed to others. Computer screens are filling up with these words… Thus begins, the first day of writing workshop in our teacher education courses

Gaps in Teacher Education: Defining, Developing and Diverting on the Path to an Equity Stance

Heeding the call for equity and transformative praxis in teacher education, teacher education programs often focus on equity and justice in mission statements and program design. This bounded case study explores how the construct of equity stance is framed by one teacher education program and then how the enactment of an equity stance is actualized in clinical field experiences. Feedback from clinical supervisors during observation cycles along with focus group interviews, surveys, and the examination of addressing an equity stance in teacher education are the focus of this article. Findings documented a continuum of equity enacted practices building from inclusive pedagogy to a heightened awareness of inequities, and the development of more equitable teaching practices. We recognize that both teacher candidates and teacher educators need to continue development of an equity stance moving from awareness to action within educational contexts

Finding our Place in the Third Space: The Authority of Not Knowing \u3ci\u3eas Becoming\u3c/i\u3e in School-University Partnership Work

School-university partnerships have been a space for simultaneous renewal and teacher development for decades (Darling-Hammond, 1994; Goodlad, 1994; Teitel, 2003). As a case in point, this article takes a deeper look at how school- and university-based teacher educators experience professional growth and negotiation of partnership contexts, roles, and responsibilities. Recognizing the complexity of teacher development across the professional lifespan, and the tensions of school-university partnership work, we explore the diverse roles and positions from which we come to the work of clinical supervision and school partnership work. To highlight the varied levels of development and professional growth in these hybrid teacher education spaces, we highlight two liaison cases – Hannah, a new tenure-track faculty liaison and Sara, a veteran school-based teacher educator, who is now a district instructional coach and university liaison. As liaisons, Hannah and Sara experience self-doubt, struggle to negotiate power, and strive to sustain relationships. Grappling with finding their place in school-university partnership work, the two liaisons accept the unknown and perceive their work as a process of becoming in teacher education

“We Do More Than Discuss Good Ideas”: A Close Look at the Development of Professional Capital in an Elementary Education Liaison Group

In an era when many news media, policy makers, and professionals in the field may consider teacher education under attack, teacher education programs are being held accountable for increased rigor (Council of Chief of State School Officers, 2012). Teacher educators are in a unique position to examine more closely specific practices and teacher education as a profession to enhance program quality and candidate outcomes. Toward that end, we focused on work within a community of practice (Wenger, 1998) for this inquiry. Faculty who work in elementary school settings at least one day per week, serving as liaisons to partner schools and supervising teacher candidates, made up this community

It’s a Balancing Act: A Self-Study of Teacher Educators’ Feedback Practices and the Underlying Tensions

While there are documented benefits of full-time faculty participating in clinical supervision, challenges, such as conflicting time demands, personal bias, adherence to common evaluation forms, and power differentials, can create impediments to effective practicum supervision (Ciuffetelli Parker & Volante, 2009). We, as teacher educators, turned to reflection through self-study to investigate our professional practice with the aim of better understanding and overcoming those challenges. Like Bullock (2017), we utilized teacher candidates’ perspectives to disrupt, confirm, and extend our narratives. We focused on the practice of giving teacher candidates feedback on their developing teaching during their clinical placement in elementary schools. Feedback is central to our work as liaisons (i.e., university-based supervisors) with teacher candidates in the field and critical to their learning and improvement (Hattie & Timperley, 2007). Through this self-study, we sought to answer the following research question: What underlying tensions constrain our feedback, as liaisons, to our teacher candidates in clinical placements? How can we better negotiate those tensions to make this work sustainable for full-time faculty

Interventions to Improve Teacher Self-Efficacy Beliefs about Writing and Writing Instruction: Lessons Learned and Areas for Exploration

The present study explores the findings of a systematic literature review of research about teachers’ self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction to demystify what is known and what remains unknown. We analyzed the pool of research on self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction from January 1992 to August 2020. Our final inclusion of articles resulted in 22 articles that examine teacher self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction while meeting our standards of examining changes in self-efficacy. We examined how shifts in self-efficacy are measured, specific interventions that increase teachers’ self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction as well as interventions that have not shown impacts, and how teacher self-efficacy for writing and writing instruction influences student writing achievement. Features of successful interventions and recommendations for improving methodological and theoretical decisions within this topic are explored

The Ethical Literacy Leader: Advocating for a Model of Equity

A few years ago, our roles as first-grade teachers were expanded as we took on the added responsibilities of coordinating our school\u27s implementation of a response to intervention (RTI) model. We discovered the best way to meet all students\u27 and teachers\u27 needs and expectations have been to adopt a collaborative, problem-solving model that upholds the ethical values in which our district believes. We have found RTI to be an inclusive and equitable way to meet the needs of learners