Browsing by Subject "Teacher professional development"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    CTE teachers’ perspectives on the process of CTE and science content integration: a grounded theory.
    (2011-10) Spindler, Matthew Kenneth
    The integration of career and technical education (CTE) and academic curricular content that capitalizes on natural and inherent connections represents a challenge for CTE professionals. The research question that was used to guide the current study was: What are CTE teachers' perspectives of and experiences with the process of CTE and science content integration? And more specifically, to generate a grounded theory which explicates the process of CTE and science content integration from the perspective of CTE teachers. The CTE teachers expressed that the process of CTE and science content integration was a process of evolutionizing. From the perspective of the CTE teachers involved integrating CTE and science content resulted in their programs of study being adapted into something different than they were before the process of integration was begun. The CTE teachers revealed that the evolutions in their programs of study and themselves were associated with three other categories within the grounded theory: (a) connecting; (b) enacting; and (c) futuring. The process of CTE and science content integration represents a deep and complex episode for CTE teachers. The process of CTE and science content integration requires connecting to others, putting ideas into action, and an orienting towards the future.
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    Feedback in professional learning communities: exploring teachers’ and administrators’ experiences and implications for building systemic and sustained learning
    (2012-10) Roloff, David Jonathon
    American educators are provided with far less time to improve their professional practice than their international counterparts, often experience professional development in short and disjointed ways, and work in systems whose structures too frequently isolate them from the practice of their colleagues. Professional learning communities (PLCs), however, recognize that improved teacher learning is essential to improved student learning and thus create structures which engage educators in regular, job-embedded, collaborative action research directly tied to their individual teaching contexts. However little is known about the specific feedback which educators in PLCs provide and the ways in which various feedback loops in educational systems assist in improving teacher practice. How does feedback made available through a PLC model impact the practice of teachers and administrators? This phenomenological study utilized a pre/post design to explore the role of feedback in the lives of two administrators and eight high school English educators at a central Wisconsin high school. The findings discuss the ways in which participants gave and received feedback prior to their involvement in PLCs and how feedback changed as their school and district adopted a PLC model. The study identified five major themes: 1) the need to build trust to encourage an open sharing of practice; 2) reduced isolation, improved collaboration and increases in the amount of and teachers' desire for additional feedback; 3) a shift from covering content to assessing student learning through instructionally-sensitive data sources; 4) the need to consider feedback and power implications when mandating structures, increasing transparency and enhancing accountability so as to improve feedback and reduce frustration; and 5) critical considerations in systemic structures including fostering collaboration, making feedback meaningful, and addressing the key issue of time. The study concludes with recommendations for teachers, administrators, district policy makers and researchers, pointing to ways in which those working in educational systems can develop feedback structures which heighten teacher learning.
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    Teachers' views regarding ways in which the intercultural competence of students is developed at an International school in Southeast Asia: a mixed methods study
    (2013-08) Hornbuckle, Gavin Christopher
    This study is a mixed methods investigation of teachers' views regarding the ways in which the intercultural competence (ICC) of students is developed at an international school in Southeast Asia. To gather data for the study a survey was administered to approximately 90 teachers in the high school section of an international school in Asia to which forty-six teachers responded. The statistical software SPSS was used to analyze the survey data. In addition, nine teachers were interviewed and administered the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI). Demographic data were also gathered. The results of the study indicate that, in the view of teachers, there are four primary ways that the intercultural competence of students is developed at an international school in Southeast Asia: 1) By spending time with students of other nationalities, 2) The way in which the curriculum is taught in the classroom, 3) By a school environment that is supportive of cultural diversity and 4) By being proficient in English. Results of the IDI show that the nine teachers to whom it was administered had a group Developmental Score that fell within the range of low Minimization, indicating a more ethnocentric world-view, which is consistent with other studies investigating the intercultural competence of teachers in K-12 settings. Teachers whose Developmental Scores fell within Polarization focused on student nationality, culture and difference to a greater extent than those whose Developmental Scores fell within Minimization. These finding indicate that teachers believe immersion in cultural difference is sufficient for the intercultural competence of students to develop, however a growing body of literature points out that this is not the case. The IDI results indicate that teachers may not be prepared to be cultural mentors. There is a need for increased focus on intercultural competence in leadership and professional development programs in K-12 settings, as well as further research into the outcomes of curricular and co-curricular programs in international schools.