Simulating Collaboration in a Blended Course for Preservice Middle Grades Teachers: Attending to Team, Task, and Time

Collaboration and teamwork are essential aspects of the work of a professional middle level teacher and an integral part of AMLE Standard 5. Preservice teachers typically experience collaborative practices firsthand during field experiences, but the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many schools to shift instruction online thereby limiting the opportunities for teacher candidates to experience daily life in schools. Teacher educators can provide simulated opportunities for candidates to collaborate and engage in teamwork in virtual classroom settings. The author describes ways to simulate teacher collaboration in virtual settings by providing an example of engagements with teacher educators in a middle grades course with an emphasis on three aspects of planning: team, task, and time. The author reflects on the implementation of the simulation and offers recommendation for improvement

Three Rs for Middle Level Education: The 2022 NCPOMLE John VanHoose Lecture

The author contends the most prominent challenges and conditions facing middle level education now and in the near future point to three imperatives for the field: middle level education must be relevant, resilient, and robust. After conceptualizing the field of middle level education as an interdisciplinary, applied field of study concerned with the formal education of young adolescent learners in school settings, the author discusses each of the three imperatives and provides recommendations for scholars to move forward alongside professionals in middle level schools and classrooms to achieve a bright educational future for young adolescents

It’s Time to Unite: A Collaborative Approach to Addressing the Needs of Graduate Students of Colour

Higher education administrators often speak of the value of collaboration between student and academic affairs yet there is little empirical evidence of such collaboration. As such, graduate school services and programmes traditionally receive less attention and support than undergraduate programmes. Arguably, deficiencies in those services and programmes expose a need for collaboration, specifically for students of colour. This article explores the experiences of graduate students of colour while examining the barriers in place that tend to hinder their success in graduate school. By addressing these barriers, we present a justification for the need for collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs within graduate education

Preparing Middle Grades Candidates for edTPA in Uncertain Times

Teacher candidates in North Carolina must earn a passing score on the edTPA assessment to get certified. The middle grades education program at Western Carolina University integrates aspects of the edTPA assessment throughout pre-student teaching coursework and field experiences to prepare candidates for this high-stakes assessment. Some of the edTPA practice assignments serve as key assessments that help the middle grades program faculty evaluate the program and make decisions about curriculum. The pivot to remote and blended learning formats on campus and in partner middle level schools affected the implementation of the edTPA-related assignments. The authors share some of the challenges of implementing edTPA practice portfolios during the pandemic as well as insights gleaned from their assessment of the data

View of the Capitol at Washington

The the hand-colored steel engraving features an outdoor scene in front of the United States Capitol. In the foreground, carriages and groups of people are shown along a road leading to the Capitol. Various trees and buildings line the road. At the center of the background, the Capitol building is depicted. The engraving originally appeared in a publication by N.P. Willis\u27s American Scenery. This particular copy was enclosed in a wooden frame sealed with masking tape but was removed for preservation.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-prints/1064/thumbnail.jp

Hemispheric Processing in Conventional Metaphor Comprehension: The Role of General Knowledge

This study explored the relation between general knowledge and the hemispheric processing of metaphoric expressions in college age students. We hypothesized that prior knowledge influences how the hemispheres process metaphors in these individuals. In this study, 97 young (college-aged) adults completed a general knowledge and vocabulary test, and were then divided into high-knowledge/high-vocabulary and low-knowledge/low-vocabulary groups. Next, participants viewed word pairs consisting of conventional metaphors, novel metaphors, word pairs with a literal meaning, and unrelated word pairs. The first word in each pair was presented centrally, and the second was presented to the right visual field-left hemisphere (rvf-LH) or the left visual field-right hemisphere (lvf-RH), and participants indicated whether each pair was a meaningful expression. Accuracy results showed an interaction between general knowledge and visual-field hemisphere. Low-knowledge participants were more accurate for metaphors presented to the rvf-LH than the lvf-RH, whereas high-knowledge participants showed no accuracy differences between the hemispheres. We also found an interaction between vocabulary and visual field-hemisphere for conventional metaphors. Specifically, low-vocabulary participants showed a left-hemisphere accuracy advantage, but high-vocabulary participants showed similar accuracy patterns in both hemispheres. These results suggest that young adult readers who have more general knowledge process conventional metaphors similarly in both hemispheres, whereas young adult readers who have less general knowledge may rely more heavily on left-hemisphere processes during conventional metaphor comprehension

A Review of Trends in the Scope of International Scholarship in Middle Level Education, 1989–2019

Middle level education as a field of study has expanded during the last thirty years to include a growing, international knowledge base. The primary purpose of this review essay is to highlight trends in the extent to which refereed scholarship in the field of middle level education has reflected international content and perspectives during the last thirty years. To accomplish this task, the authors conducted a chronological review of the major refereed publications of the Association for Middle Level Education, Adolescent Success, and the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Middle Level Education Research (MLER) SIG as well as Middle Grades Research Journal and Middle Grades Review. The authors also examined AERA conference programs between 2010 and 2019 for international content and perspectives in MLER SIG sessions. While the authors’ primary aim was to understand trends in the geographic scope of scholarship in the field, they also gleaned tentative insights about research approaches, theoretical frameworks, and editorial bias that informed a set of recommendations they offered to advance future international work in middle level education. The recommendations include (a) expanding and strengthening worldwide networks of middle grades scholars; (b) building consensus around a middle grades research agenda that has an international dimension; and (c) promoting and engaging in more international scholarship that is theory-driven; uses rigorous, appropriate comparative methodologies; and draws on perspectives from cultures and countries not well represented in the literature

An International Study of Programs That Prepare Teachers of Young Adolescents

This article highlights an upcoming multi-phase, international comparative research study on higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents. The purpose of this investigation is multifaceted. The investigators aim to (a) document the programmatic and pedagogical features of higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents in diverse national, regional, cultural, and institutional contexts; (b) identify and describe relationships between higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents and the socio-cultural, historical, and institutional contexts in which they are embedded; (c) identify and describe patterns of philosophy, programming, and practice evident across higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents; (d) assess the extent to which higher education institution-based programs that prepare teachers of young adolescents operating in diverse contexts are aligned with the AMLE’s Middle Level Teacher Preparation Standards, and (e) investigate relationships among higher education institution-based programs’ design elements, contexts, implementation processes, and outcomes that prepare teachers of young adolescents

A. Lincoln

The engraving features a portrait of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a decorative oval border. At the top of the border sits a stack of papers, which include the Constitution. Beneath the portrait is a smaller image of Lincoln\u27s cabinet council. The work features hues of yellow, green, blue, black, white, and brown. The engraving possibly is a reversed variant of C.S. German photo.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-artifacts/1203/thumbnail.jp

A. Lincoln

The engraving features a portrait of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by a decorative oval border. At the top of the border sits a stack of papers, which include the Constitution. Beneath the portrait is a smaller image of Lincoln\u27s cabinet council. The work features hues of yellow, green, blue, black, white, and brown. The engraving possibly is a reversed variant of C.S. German photo.https://scholarsjunction.msstate.edu/fvw-prints/1125/thumbnail.jp