Teaching

This mixed-methods phenomenological bounded case study sought to uncover how who teachers are as people impacts what they do in their classrooms. The study examined how teachers’ personal lives (e.g., backgrounds and prior knowledge), their experiences with intersectionality (e.g., race, class, gender, and sexual orientation), and professional lives (e.g., pedagogical beliefs and curricular choices) influence one another. The sample for this student consisted of seven high school female English Language Arts teachers who were teaching the required text, To Kill a Mockingbird, by Lee (1960). Through the use of survey questionnaires, interviews, document analysis of unit lesson
plans, and a focus group, a portrait of the relationship between teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and curriculum design choices emerged. Four key themes emerged in relation to the research questions for this study: (a) whether teachers are teaching with the students in mind, (b) uncovering the power structure of the teaching experience, (c) the role of teaching versus facilitating, and (d) curriculum design focusing on the process of learning versus end products.

This poster presentation will illustrate how digital collections add value to the scholarly communication chain by supporting research, teaching, and scholarship in several ways: 1) increase access to primary materials, 2) increase access to special collections and archives 3) increase access to local materials of historical, cultural, and artistic significance 4) expand open access 5) foster collaboration with faculty and students 6) increase the reputation and visibility of your university and library. I will use specific examples from the Florida Atlantic University Digital Collections to “show and tell” and include the importance of creating metadata to enhance discovery and access to your digital collections. In addition, this poster will very briefly touch upon digital sustainability; mainly that of ensuring ongoing access to digital collections and ensuring long term preservation of these same materials.

The purpose of this study was to compare the teaching styles of full-time and part-time community college faculty. The Principles of Adult Learning Scale (PALS) and a modification of the PALS for students were used to measure teaching style. The PALS identifies the extent to which an instructor prefers a learner-centered or a teacher-centered style. The sample was comprised of 31 full-time and 42 part-time randomly selected faculty from seven Florida community colleges and 925 students. Six hypotheses were tested. The findings are summarized here: (1) There was a significant difference between full-time and part-time faculty in teaching style as measured by faculty self-report. Full-time faculty have a more teacher-centered preference than part-time faculty. (2) There was a significant difference between full-time and part-time faculty in teaching style as measured by student perception. Students perceived full-time faculty as more teacher-centered than part-time faculty. (3) There was a significant difference between faculty and student perceptions of teaching style. Students perceived faculty as more teacher-centered than faculty perceived themselves. (4) Faculty characteristics accounted for 17.4% of the variance in mean faculty PALS scores. (5) Student characteristics accounted for 4.2% of the variance in mean faculty PALS scores. (6) Course variables accounted for 47.7% of the variance in mean faculty PALS scores. Additional findings included: (1) Both full-time and part-time community college faculty prefer a teacher-centered style. (2) Students are more satisfied with the overall teaching style of part-time faculty than the teaching style of full-time faculty. (3) In regard to teaching style, part-time faculty are less influenced by the expectations of colleagues than full-time faculty. (4) As the number and percentage of faculty employed part time at community colleges have increased, the reasons adjunct faculty accept part-time employment have changed.

A semester-long study examined the effect of tutoring strategies on nontraditional students' reading comprehension scores. Specifically, the study investigated the interaction among two tutoring strategies--computer-aided and traditional teacher-directed instruction--and three noninstructional variables--gender, age, and computer comfort. One hundred and forty-nine students, 57 percent of the original group, completed the study. The subjects, 25+ years old, represented a cross section of nontraditional students likely to be found in freshmen reading classes at a community college. All the students were enrolled in a college credit reading course designed for those who need assistance in improving their reading comprehension. Data were collected from responses on questionnaires completed by the students and from two reading tests taken by the students. A pretest was administered at the beginning of the study; a posttest was administered at the end of the study. The students received the same classroom instruction. The instructor was the same for all the students in the study. In addition to the regular classroom instruction, each student participated in 15 hours of tutoring. The control group was tutored 15 hours in a teacher-directed setting; the experimental group completed 15 hours using the Quantum Educational Developmental Lab. Analyses of variance were conducted to test six hypotheses related to strategies, age, gender, and computer comfort. The findings suggest the students' scores improved with the application of each tutoring strategy. The noninstructional variables of gender and computer comfort did not appear to have a significant effect on the reading comprehension of individuals in this study. However, a significant difference was noted in relationship to age groups and computer-aided tutoring.

Introduction. Students and faculty agree that there is a great need to improve teaching at the community college. Although students learn in a variety of styles, many teachers rely on just a few teaching methods. This over-reliance on too few methods is a serious problem. Purpose of the Study. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between an instructor's educational preparation and experience and the choice of instructional methods employed in the classroom. Procedures. The data were collected by direct observation, and the instrument was administered by one observer. Both format and procedure were identical for all observations. The population observed was the entire teacing staff at Florida Institute of Technology, Jensen Beach Campus. Factors considered for correlation with method use included vocational or academic teaching area, part-time or full-time status, exposure to professional education courses, and exposure to methodology workshops. Findings of the Study. The research data indicated that the mean number of methods employed by vocational instructors was higher than the number employed by academic instructors, and part-time instructors had a higher mean number of methods than full-time, although neither gain was statistically significant. Exposure to professional education courses seemed to have no effect on the number of methods employed as both those with and those without such courses employed the same number of methods. The only factor which did yield a statistically significant difference in means was exposure to methodology workshops. The research data indicated that teachers believed training in method and student learning style had little influence on method choice. Factors which were found to be important were course content, preferred teaching style, and class size. Recommendations. It was recommended that further studies should be undertaken to clarify the importance of training in methodology as a determining factor in method choice; to establish what instructors know about student learning styles; to provide a knowledge base on actual behavior of part-time instructors; and to determine the precise nature of those workshops which have proven, by direct independent observation, to have a positive correlation with the number of methods employed.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the development of preservice teachers' beliefs in regard to diversity concepts and issues. The current study finds a positive development in preservice teacher candidates' professional beliefs about diversity as shown through observations, interviews, and document analysis at the beginning and end of upper division coursework in an elementary education degree program that infuses diversity throughout the program. Reflection is at the core of the goals of the college of education in which this program resides. Findings from this study revealed that through reflection and discourse, a majority of the senior students did show development in their professional beliefs about diversity concepts and issues. These findings may add to literature on program evaluation in the study of diversity concepts and infusion throughout upper division coursework. This study was limited due to an extremely low response rate and other spurious factors.

This study investigates the dominant discourse of the failure of public education and the 'reform du jour' response ; and seeks ways school leaders could disrupt and transform to create possible alternate discourses for schools. This critical autoethnography included interviews, a focus group, document analysis and a research journal permitting participant research at the heart of a high school reading department. The data were synthesized in ways that made sense of power, practices, and culture allowing the personal to become valid data. ... This narrative illustrated the complexity of the emotional context and illustrated how school leadership discourse could turn the dialogue away from an economic and back to a teaching and learning relationship. The narrative aimed to give rise to a counter narrative, but found that the site of the high school reading department was currently too confused, too complex and too contradictory to establish any meaningful conclusions for its future that are not underpinned by extensive reforms designed to end its isolation.

The purpose of this proposed research study was to identify actual teaching practices/instructional strategies for online science courses. The identification of these teaching practices/instructional strategies could be used to compile a set of teaching practices/instructional strategies for virtual high school and online academy science instructors. This study could assist online science instructors by determining which teaching practices/instructional strategies were preferred for the online teaching environment. The literature reviewed the role of online and face-to-face instructional strategies, then discussed and elaborated on the science instructional strategies used by teachers, specifically at the secondary level. The current literature did not reflect an integration of these areas of study. Therefore, the connectedness of these two types of instructional strategies and the creation of a set of preferred instructional practices for online science instruction was deemed necessary. For the purpose of this study, the researcher designed a survey for face-to-face and online teachers to identify preferred teaching practices, instructional strategies, and types of technology used when teaching high school science students. The survey also requested demographic data information from the faculty members, including years of experience, subject(s) taught, and whether the teacher taught in a traditional classroom or online, to determine if any of those elements affect differences in faculty perceptions with regard to the questions under investigation. The findings from the current study added to the literature by demonstrating the differences and the similarities that exist between online and face-to-face instruction. Both forms of instruction tend to rely on student-centered approaches to teaching.

The purpose of this research was to identify if 1) there is a difference in student achievement between students who use the GeoLeg manipulative tool and students who use a traditional compass, protractor, and ruler on the same geometry unit; 2) there is a difference in student achievement between the genders between those who use the GeoLeg manipulative tool and those students who do not; and 3) there is a relationship between identified learning styles and student achievement on a geometry unit posttest after using the GeoLeg manipulative tool. There were 317 students in the study. The research found that students using the GeoLeg manipulative tool produced significantly better student performance on a posttest in this particular school setting. Although these results cannot be generalized to other school sites, it is plausible that these results could generalize to school sites whose demographics are similar. The research findings revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female students within the treatment group. The significant finding is that the GeoLeg manipulative tool appears to work equally well with both genders. None of the learning styles, as identified by the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire, were correlated with student posttest score achievement on the tested geometry unit. In addition, there was no evidence to suggest that a student's learning style moderates the effectiveness of the use of the GeoLeg manipulative tool. There is no evidence to suggest that the effectiveness of the GeoLeg manipulative tool is any different depending upon the student's gender or learning style. The results of this research provide strong support for the use of the GeoLeg manipulative tool for improving student performance. Further research is needed to confirm these results in similar and different populations.