A Reading Apprenticeship Model for Improving Literacy: A Pre-service Teacher Case Study

A major challenge of today\u27s standards-based assessment movement targets the need to address and improve the achievement of struggling readers. As teacher education programs must prepare content teachers to address the challenges of teaching students who lack reading skills, we need to prepare out pre-service teachers to help students make meaning while reading any text. To accomplish such a goal, comprehension instruction must be explicit, direct, and effective. As VanDeWeghe (2004b) notes, even though students may still need development as readers at the secondary level, there may be confusion surrounding where reading instruction is addressed in the secondary curriculum. After talking with our cooperating teachers and tracking student teaching performances of our secondary English candidates, we believed that our pre-service teachers needed more effective preparation. To present important content conceptualizations, we realized our pre-service teachers must explicitly teach and use comprehension strategies with multiple texts at varying levels of difficulty. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the pilot of Gettysburg College\u27s redesign and implementation of a reading apprenticeship model developed in collaboration with two practicing secondary English teachers. After field testing at the secondary level, the model was transported to the college level for preparing secondary English pre-service teachers. [excerpt

Piloting a Digitized Evidence-Based Assessment System

One of the most difficult challenges facing university-based teacher education programs is to document program effectiveness. Demands for supporting data come from a number of different constituencies including state legislators, hiring officials and parents, and state officials. The American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) survey (Wineburg, 2006) identified that institutions are besieged by the demands for data and frustrated by the time and energy required to collect and retrieve evidence. A primary recommendation emerging from the AASCU findings focused on the proactive development of institutional data systems that guide program progress and demonstrate the achievement of educational outcomes for both teacher quality and student learning. The purpose of our paper is to report on the development of a pilot effort in Pennsylvania to digitize practice-based evidence for documenting teacher candidate and program quality. [excerpt

A Multiple Measures Model for Documenting Teacher and Program Effectiveness

One of the most difficult challenges facing teacher educators is evaluating the knowledge, skills, and attributes necessary for professional growth and responsibility for teaching. Currently two viewpoints for preparing highly qualified teachers seem to be influencing policy. One view represented by Darling-Hammond’s research (1999), suggests that regulation of teacher education, state licensing, professional accountability, and compensation are important factors for strengthening teacher quality. A second view, offered by Chester Finn from research completed by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation (cited in Berry, Hoke, and Hirsch, 2004), emphasizes less prescriptive paths such as alternative certification practices and aptitude testing to attract more qualified candidates to the profession. What seems to be established is that competent teachers are essential to the learning process. Sanders and Rivers (1998) found that effective teachers directly and positively impact the quality of teaching and, more importantly, student learning in classrooms. As a result, the stakes are high for students; their learning may be directly enhanced or damaged by the quality and effectiveness of their teachers’ practices. [excerpt

Thermodynamic analysis of dilute ternary systems. 1. The Ag-Au-Sn system

Heats of solution of silver and gold in dilute silver-gold-tin alloys as function of alloy compositio

Revisiting On-Line Discussion as Practice for Reflective Thinking in Three Sequential Classes

In a previous study, the authors questioned the potential of an on-line environment for increasing productive reflection in three sequential education classes. Of their findings, the issue of consistency stood out as particularly perplexing, namely, why did students exhibit high level reflections sometimes, but not all the time, in an on-line environment? In this follow-up study, the authors question whether in-class reflections coupled with on-line prompts could yield consistently high level pre-service teacher reflections, as measured by individual and class progress over time. This study also examines perceived relationships between the length of a student\u27s reflection and its productivity, as well as a student\u27s depth of focus and productivity. Using the same scoring approach as our previous study, our discussion of the results examines the usefulness of on-line environments for promoting consistently high level pre-service teacher reflection

New Zealand regions, 1986 – 2001: Hospitalisation and some related health facts

Once age and gender composition is controlled for, regional health differentials are a function of problems of health service delivery, of socio-economic variance, and overall Māori Pakeha health differences. They indicate relative levels of exclusion and of inequality. This paper shows that these differentials follow in general the patterns seen in other papers in this series

Using Technology to Develop Preservice Teachers\u27 Reflective Thinking

Developing high-level reflection skills proves troublesome for some preservice teachers. To examine the potential of an online environment for increasing productive reflection, students in three sequential undergraduate education classes responded to regular online prompts. We coded student comments for productive and unproductive reflection, knowledge integration, and analysis of the four aspects of teaching (learners and learning, subject matter knowledge, assessment and instruction ) as described by Davis, Bain, & Harrington (2001). We adapted a scoring approach recommended by Davis & Linn, (2000); Davis (2003) to analyze what aspects of teaching preservice teachers included, emphasized, and integrated when they reflected on their own beliefs about teaching. Discussion examines the utility of online environments for producing productive preservice teacher reflection

GaP betavoltaic cells as a power source

Maximum power output for the GaP cells of this study was found to be on the order of 1 microW. This resulted from exposure to 200 and 40 KeV electrons at a flux of 2 x 10(exp 9) electrons/sq cm/s, equivalent to a 54 mCurie source. The efficiencies of the cells ranged from 5 to 9 percent for 200 and 40 KeV electrons respectively. The lower efficiency at higher energy is due to a substantial fraction of energy deposition in the substrate, further than a diffusion length from the depletion region of the cell. Radiation damage was clearly observed in GaP after exposure to 200 KeV electrons at a fluence of 2 x 10(exp 12) electrons/sq cm. No discernable damage was observed after exposure to 40 KeV electrons at the same fluence. Analysis indicates that a GaP betavoltaic system would not be practical if limited to low energy beta sources. The power available would be too low even in the ideal case. By utilizing high activity beta sources, such as Sr-90/Y-90, it may be possible to achieve performance that could be suitable for some space power applications. However, to utilize such a source the problem of radiation damage in the beta cell material must be overcome

Supervision Experiences of School Counselors-in-Training: An Interpretive Phenomenological Study

Students pursuing a master’s degree in CACREP-accredited school counseling programs are required to complete supervised field experiences as a part of their course requirements. During their practicum and internships experiences, they receive university supervision by a faculty member or doctoral student supervisor, as well as site supervision at the placement site, typically from a school counselor. University supervisors may lack experience in school counseling and knowledge of the unique roles and supervision needs of school counselors. In addition, site supervisors may lack training or knowledge of clinical supervision. Furthermore, the multiple systems in which SCITs function may have differing goals and expectations for supervisees. The various factors influencing supervision may result in confusion and frustration for SCITs. The purpose of this interpretive phenomenological study was to understand the supervision experiences of SCITs enrolled in CACREP-accredited counselor education programs in Southern Louisiana universities who recently completed internship. Specifically, I sought to understand SCITs experiences with regard to university individual and group supervision, site supervision, and what influence, if any, the ASCA National Model had on their supervision experiences. After receiving IRB approval, participants were invited to participate via an email solicitation. The eight participants chosen were master’s students from CACREP-accredited counselor education programs who recently completed internship. Data were collected through individual, face-to-face, audio-recorded interviews utilizing a semi-structured interview protocol. After the interviews were transcribed, the data were analyzed using IPA data analysis procedures. The final analysis resulted in four super-ordinate themes. The findings describe the meaning of the lived experiences of SCITs with supervision. According to the results, supervision experiences, whether being reported as positive or negative, could be attributed to: impact of counselor education program, aspects related to supervisors, significance of feedback, and influence of self. The results could help inform the design of counselor education programs to more adequately prepare SCITs for school counseling as it is today. Furthermore, the results could help improve site supervision practices