(2013). Use of Social Media as a School Principal. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Indiana State University. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the use of social media among principals in the state of Indiana. Data from the national 2009 report, "A Survey of K-12 Educators on Social Networking and other Content Sharing Tools," were used to compare national results and data collected from Indiana. A survey was also created to analyze the use of social media among principals in the state of Indiana. The survey collected data from principals, indicating age, gender, locality, educational experience, social media use, and social media preferences. Lastly, the data were used to determine if there is a comparison between the state of Indiana results and the 2009 national results. The survey provided data to determine if social media use has increased since the 2009 national report. The research design involved a population of 1,931 Indiana school principals. Use of social media as a school principal was collected in a 16-item survey. Statistical analysis of the data… [Direct]
(2014). The Elephants in the Fire Hoses. TESL-EJ, v17 n4 Feb. In this article, Vance Stevens describes how access to what he calls "star performer educators" as either up- ≠and ≠-coming in their field, or experienced and polished practitioners, have changed with access to the internet. They are clearly passionate about what they do, and what they do has become second nature. They touch hearts and minds, and enable change in the young and old. Stevens remembers when teachers once had to attend conferences in order to have encounters with "star performer" educators. Things are different today. Time with star performer educators is abundant, not scarce. Online access has made the "stars" more like guides on the side, encouraging voices from throughout the mix of those present. It is easy for people sharing passions to connect and hear each other, and to continue interacting through their learning networks after an online event. Due to ever more access to online resource sites, these events became part of what is… [PDF]
(2014). Writing a School Constitution: Representative Democracy in Action. Social Studies and the Young Learner, v27 n1 p5-7 Sep-Oct. At the beginning of every school year at Park Forest Elementary School (PFE), it is customary for teachers to invite their students to participate in establishing guidelines for behavior and citizenship in their respective classrooms. Teacher Lorraine McGarry and principal Donnan Stoicovy began the 2012-13 school year, however, by taking this process a step further: all students attended a series of eight all-school gatherings, or "Town Hall Meetings," throughout the first two weeks of school, during which classes shared their visions for an ideal school/learning community with one another. Prior to the Town Hall Meetings, teachers facilitated classroom discussions to elicit their students' ideas about their wishes, hopes, and dreams for the school year; visions of an "ideal school"; shared values; and expectations for themselves and others within their learning community. Students from each grade then shared their ideas over the course of eight all-school Town… [Direct]
(2017). A Tale of Two Experiences: Teacher Learning in Self-Directed Teams and Other-Designed Professional Development. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Michigan State University. The main purpose of this research study was to fill gaps in existing research on the comparative forms and qualities of learning that emerge from formal professional development and from more self-directed teacher teams. This research study also described the extent to which both align to recommendations for professional learning and the extent self-directed teams align with recommendations for detailed sharing and presentation of practice. Specifically, this research also shed light on the alignment of both professional learning and self-directed teacher teams activities to the challenges and needs described by teachers in relationship to meeting the increased challenges of the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics while using new curriculum resources. This research study used a qualitative methodology to understand the experiences of a sample of 4th grade teachers over a period of 7 months that were engaged in formal PD and also worked in collaborative self-directed teams. Two… [Direct]
(2010). Vocabulary Acquisition in Young Children: The Role of the Story. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, v10 n2 p159-182. Sharing storybooks with babies increases their future achievements in literacy, especially in reading (Hall, 2001; Moore and Wade, 1997, 2003; Scarborough et al., 1991; Wade and Moore, 1998; Wells, 1985). This study, focusing on case studies of two 20-month-old children, attempts to identify the role the storybook plays in children's vocabulary acquisition. Their mothers adopted a regime of daily reading of specific picture books over a six-week period, and recorded the children's acquisition of new vocabulary, in order to explore what specific contribution these texts made to the children's speech. The findings demonstrate that storybooks form one source of children's newly-acquired vocabulary. Factors that might account for this were more difficult to determine through a study of this scale. (Contains 17 figures.)… [Direct]
(2012). The Use of Digital Storytelling for ESP in a Technical English Course for Aerospace Engineers. The EUROCALL Review, v20 n2 p68-79 Sep. Digital Storytelling is a powerful pedagogical tool for both students and educators, which started to be used for teaching and learning purposes a few years ago, becoming more and more popular over time. The use of digital storytelling in non-specific language learning contexts has been widely explored, as shown in the literature. However, its use in technical-scientific contexts of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has not been so widely studied. This paper explores a project of digital storytelling for ESP carried out at the Universitat Polit√®cnica de Val√®ncia, in Spain. The methodology was divided into several stages: completing a pre- and a post-survey, learning about digital storytelling by doing a WebQuest, making decisions about their digital stories (topic, plot, software and media), sharing their stories with their classmates through the PoliformaT LMS, watching their classmates' digital stories, using the forum to write their comments about their digital stories and their… [PDF]
(2013). Implementing the Common Core State Standards: State Spotlights. Council of Chief State School Officers As of the 2012-2013 school year, over 20 states have formally moved to the Common Core State Standards being used as the learning expectations for all students across the state, and the remainder will be doing so in the 2014-2015 school year. This document highlights state initiatives that are supporting Common Core implementation in the following areas: (1) Communication and Engagement; (2) System alignment and systems change; and (3) Educator supports. The Common Core State Standards will impact student learning through improvements in instruction and clarity of purpose between educators, students, and parents. Once implemented, the standards will result in more students having the powerful, engaging, and challenging learning experiences that prepare them for success in college and career. The next year of Common Core implementation is critical not only because of the ongoing process of enactment but also because of the release of the next generation assessments. Additionally,… [PDF]
(2013). Implementation of a Non-Collaborative School Improvement Plan: Pre- and Post-Perceptions of the Instructional Staff. ProQuest LLC, D.Ed. Dissertation, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The purpose of this case study is as follows: (1) to identify change within a single school, (2) to record and to categorize this change, and (3) to analyze this change within the targeted school, over a year, after implementation of a non-collaborative SIP through the perceptions of the instructional staff. This study explained how the Louisiana Needs Assessment (LANA), mined information related to school climate within the six sub-domains: (1) Physical Presence; (2) Contextual; (3) Leadership; (4) Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment; (5) Coordinated Resources; and (6) System Issues. The data from the LANA surveys (2010 and 2011) answered research questions and associated hypotheses. It explained how the students' percent proficiency in Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) and the integrated Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (iLEAP) were used to determine the SIP goals (2010). The scores of the tests were used for comparing year to year changes in student… [Direct]
(2015). Imagining Technology-Enhanced Learning with Heritage Artefacts: Teacher-Perceived Potential of 2D and 3D Heritage Site Visualisations. Educational Research, v57 n3 p331-351. Background: There is much to be realised in the educational potential of national and world heritage sites. Such sites need to be supported in sharing their resources with a wide and international public, especially within formal education. Two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) heritage site visualisations could serve this need. Our study focuses on the teacher-perceived possibilities and benefits for education around such visualisations. Purpose: We describe how a group of UK teachers perceive the potential of cross-curricular learning that could arise from an Italian world heritage site. The teachers commented on 2D visualisations of artefacts from this site, as well as the design of a 3D immersive environment to serve educational purposes. We consider as follows: (1) how the cross-curricular teaching potential of such resources is perceived, and (2) what design features of a 3D immersive environment teachers suggest are needed for educational explorations. Sample: We… [Direct]
(2011). Alcohol Use Trajectories and Problem Drinking over the Course of Adolescence: A Study of North American Indigenous Youth and Their Caretakers. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, v52 n2 p228-245 Jun. This study investigated the links between alcohol use trajectories and problem drinking ("Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition" abuse/dependence) using five waves of data from 727 North American Indigenous adolescents between 10 and 17 years from eight reservations sharing a common language and culture. Growth mixture models linking fundamental causes, social stressors, support, and psychosocial pathways to problem drinking via alcohol use trajectories over the early life course were estimated. Results indicated that 20 percent of the adolescents began drinking at 11 to 12 years of age and that another 20 percent began drinking shortly thereafter. These early drinkers were at greatly elevated risk for problem drinking, as were those who began drinking at age 13. The etiological analysis revealed that stressors (e.g., perceived discrimination) directly and indirectly influenced early and problem alcohol use by decreasing positive school… [Direct]
(2011). The Use of a Visual Learning Design Representation to Support the Design Process of Teaching in Higher Education. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, v27 n6 p961-978. Over the last decade there has been considerable research and development work exploring how university teachers can document their teaching practice in such a way as to enable the sharing of ideas. The premise of this research work, referred to in the literature as learning designs, is if pedagogical practice can be documented in some readily understandable form, it can then be easily shared and thus there is the potential for greater uptake of innovative teaching practice. This paper presents findings from a research project that examined how educational designers and teaching academics used a visual learning design representation to document their teaching practice and how this representation supported their design process. Six educational designers, three university teachers, and two PhD students (whose doctorates were focused on learning design) were interviewed and the main finding was that the visual representation served as an aid to design because it provided a summary of… [PDF]
(2011). Return of the Hacker as Hero: Fictions and Realities of Teenage Technological Experts. Children's Literature in Education, v42 n3 p184-195 Sep. When critics consider young people's practices within cyberspace, the focus is often on negative aspects, namely cyber-bullying, obsessive behaviour, and the lack of a balanced life. Such analyses, however, may miss the agency and empowerment young people experience not only to make decisions but to have some degree of control over their lives through their engagement with and use of technology, which often includes sharing it with others in cyberspace. This was a finding of research conducted by Nicola Johnson, which also informs the two novels considered in this article, Cory Doctorow's \Little Brother\ and Brian Falkner's \Brainjack\. The article draws on Pierre Bourdieu's theory of \acts of resistance\ (\Acts of Resistance: Against the New Myths of our Time,\ 1998) to demonstrate how these fictional representations of hacker heroes make a direct address to their readers to use their technological expertise to achieve social justice. Rather than hacking primarily to \see if they… [Direct]
(2012). Sustainable Professional Development. District Administration, v48 n10 p36-41 Nov. Although best practices in student instruction and learning have evolved dramatically over the past couple of decades, new approaches to educator professional development have lagged behind considerably. The traditional whole group, one-size-fits-all strategy universally recognized as ineffective for teaching students, has too-long remained the status quo for many school and districts leaders. Recent reports such as the 2009 \Professional Learning in the Learning Profession,\ by the National Staff Development Council and the School Redesign Network at Stanford University affirm a direct link between highly effective, sustained professional development and differentiated approaches to teacher training, collegial collaboration, and risk taking. Risk-taking includes embracing new teaching methods like the integration of online Khan Academy tutorials into a math class, and requesting feedback from students and parents on how it is working. Risk-taking also includes a higher level of… [Direct]
(2012). The Value of Applied Research: Retrieval Practice Improves Classroom Learning and Recommendations from a Teacher, a Principal, and a Scientist. Educational Psychology Review, v24 n3 p437-448 Sep. Over the course of a 5-year applied research project with more than 1,400 middle school students, evidence from a number of studies revealed that retrieval practice in authentic classroom settings improves long-term learning (Agarwal et al. 2009; McDaniel et al., "Journal of Educational Psychology" 103:399-414, 2011; McDaniel et al. 2012; Roediger et al., "Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied" 17:382-395, 2011a). Retrieval practice, or the use of quizzes and exams to engage and enhance retrieval processes, has been widely established as an effective strategy for facilitating learning in laboratory settings (e.g., Roediger et al. 2011c). In this article, we review recent findings from applied research that demonstrate that retrieval practice enhances long-term classroom learning, delayed quizzes are particularly potent for retention, quizzes benefit students' transfer to novel quiz items, and quizzes with feedback improve students' learning and metacognitive… [Direct] [Direct] [Direct]
(2009). New Rules Will Push Colleges to Rethink Tactics against Student Pirates. Chronicle of Higher Education, v55 n23 pA19 Feb. Colleges have deployed various tactics over the years to deter illegal file sharing, usually of commercial music and movies, by their students. This month, the U.S. Department of Education will begin crafting regulations that specify strategies, a prospect that is making some campus officials wonder if plans they have already invested in will pass muster. The new rules on anti-piracy policies will push colleges to rethink tactics against student pirates. The regulations will interpret three anti piracy provisions in the Higher Education Act renewed by Congress last year. The law requires colleges to: (1) inform students of institutional and criminal penalties for unauthorized file sharing; (2) \effectively combat\ copyright violations with \a variety of technology-based deterrents;\ and (3) offer alternatives to illegal downloading. The Recording Industry Association of America's mass lawsuits against students accused of violating copyrights industry and lobbying helped to shape the… [Direct]