Development of a formative peer observation protocol for STEM faculty reflection

Abstract

Faculty peer observation has seen increasing uptake in recent years, in some cases as an alternative or supplement to student teaching evaluations. While many universities encourage faculty peer observation, it is not widely used in a formal way for formative assessment. This article outlines the development of a new faculty peer observation protocol designed for formative assessment of evidence-based educational practices. The goal of the protocol is to foster reflective teaching practices. The peer observation protocol has been designed to mitigate common faculty fears of classroom observation, with detailed assessment methods for specific topic areas. Preliminary testing of the protocol at one university indicated positive faculty outcomes with regard to personal reflection: all the faculty who tested the protocol reported that the observation process had been helpful for them to reflect on their teaching.     

Gendered childhoods: a cross disciplinary overview

The last three decades have seen the emergence of a new discipline of childhood studies, made up of contributions from sociology, anthropology and cultural studies, challenging previous studies of children based on paradigms from psychology and education. This new discipline has revolutionized the study of children and demanded that they be looked as important subjects in their own right. Tensions remain, however, between studies of gender and those of generation, and the importance of the latter has sometimes been overlooked as researchers concentrate on childhood as an age related experience and not a gendered one. This article looks at how this has come about and the ways in which the study of these two aspects of children’s lives needs to be better integrated.

Children are pygmies among giants, ignorant among the knowledgeable, wordless among the articulate. … And to the adults, children everywhere represent something weak and helpless, in need of protection, supervision, training, models, skills, beliefs, education. (Mead & Wolfenstein, 1955 Mead, M. and Wolfenstein, M. 1955. Childhood in contemporary cultures, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.  [Google Scholar], p. 7)     

Records management practices in ecumenical tertiary institutions: the Trinity Theological Seminary in focus

The study aimed at examining the records management practices at the Trinity Theological Seminary in Ghana and was underpinned by the life cycle concept. The researchers drew qualitative inferences from interviews, complementing personal observations, with 25 purposively sampled staff. The study revealed the creation, maintenance and use of records to support administrative and decision-making processes. Problems hampering effective records management included non-existent records management policy, inadequate staff training and erratic power supply. Among the recommendations proposed to overcome these setbacks were: formulating a written policy statement for managing records, providing staff with formal training and installing a standby generator.     

Childbirth education for multiple pregnancy: part 2: intrapartum and postpartum considerations

Women with a multiple pregnancy can expect a different labor and birth course than those with a singleton pregnancy. While the postpartum period is similar to that of families with a singleton, it is likely to be more hectic in families with multiple infants. In addition, a multiple pregnancy increases both maternal and neonatal risks; therefore, women with a multiple pregnancy may experience slight differences in care due to these potential risks, including additional monitoring and treatment. This article discusses the intrapartum and postpartum considerations families with a multiple pregnancy/birth may experience. This information is provided so that the childbirth educator can incorporate this content into courses, as appropriate, and assist families with a multiple pregnancy to anticipate a realistic birth and postpartum experience.     

Teachers’ uptake of problematic assumptions of climate change in the NGSS

Abstract

This case study presents the efforts of three high school teachers to design and implement climate change lessons in alignment with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). Using three conceptual frameworks that organize the assumptions of the environment in the NGSS we examine how those assumptions influence teacher practice when teachers strive to align with the standards. Video recorded instruction of eight climate change-anchored lessons spanning three consecutive years were thematically coded. Results indicate that the problematic aspects of the NGSS’s characterization of climate change can help explain the framing of environmental issues and the compartmentalization of humans relative to the climate science in teachers’ lesson plans and instruction. The NGSS promulgate disconnected agency which appears in teacher and student talk in classrooms. Our analysis reveals opportunities to use standards to design interventions for classroom practice to support diverse students in countering the assumptions about the human-environment relationship embodied in the NGSS.     

Introducing the Creative Learning Principles: Instructional Tasks Used to Promote Rhizomatic Learning Through Creativity

ABSTRACT

Proving a child has been adequately educated is manifest through assessments evaluating the recall of facts or the deciphering of codes. How this information is taught and learned is the issue. Webb's depth of knowledge (DOK) and Bloom's taxonomy are cognitive models that drive instruction in today's classrooms. According to these models, creativity is a higher-order learning process. Although creativity has gained a renewed prominence in theoretic academic arenas, on the battleground of the typical classroom, creativity takes a back seat to instructional strategies with the goal of successful standardization of knowledge. Creativity, however, is the cornerstone of arts instruction. Creative learning principles (CLPs) is a system of instructional tasks developed in the arts and used to facilitate the metacognitive act of learning through creativity to solve problems. This article discusses how the CLPs create rhizomatic learning by facilitating connections between art and other disciplines and how they are used in planning.     

The effects of cooperative learning on peer relations,academic support,and engagement in learning among students of color

Abstract

Despite Brown vs. Board of Education, prejudice still exists in the American school system. These attitudes can give rise to negative social experiences for students of color (i.e., discrimination), negatively impacting their mental and physical health and creating disparities in educational outcomes. Rather than seeking to ameliorate these negative experiences, our approach attempts to address the underlying prejudices and, in so doing, reduce these disparities. Using 4 waves of data from a cluster randomized trial (N?=?15 middle schools, 1,890 students, 47.1% female, 75.2% White), we hypothesized that cooperative learning, which has been shown to reduce prejudice in previous research, would create positive gains in peer relatedness, perceptions of academic support, and engagement in learning, and that gains would be larger for students of color; our results confirmed these hypotheses. Our findings highlight the potential role of cooperative learning in reducing disparities and creating greater equity in education.     

Designing a Deeply Digital Science Curriculum: Supporting Teacher Learning and Implementation with Organizing Technologies

This paper examines the impacts of technology (e.g., Chromebooks, Google Drive) on teacher learning and student activity in the development and implementation of a deeply digital high school biology unit. Using design-based implementation research, teachers co-designed with researchers and curriculum specialists a student-centered unit aligned to the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) that utilizes classroom technology. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected to understand the barriers that inhibit the implementation of a digital curriculum as well as the extent that teachers engage in the design process and begin to make shifts in their practice. We found that through the co-design process teachers began to shift their knowledge of NGSS, technology implementation, and adapted to tensions and barriers inherent in the process.     

Effectiveness of computerised spelling training in children with language impairments: a comparison of modified and unmodified speech input

This study evaluated a computerised program for training spelling in 8‐ to 13‐year‐olds with receptive language impairments. The training program involved children typing words corresponding to pictured items whose names were spoken. If the child made an error or requested help, the program gave phonological and orthographic cues to build up the word's spelling. Eleven children received this training with ordinary speech, and eleven had the same program but with speech modified to lengthen and amplify dynamic portions of the signal. Nine children were in an untrained control group. Trained children completed between 6 and 29 training sessions each of 15 minutes, at a rate of 3 to 5 sessions per week, with an average of over 1000 trials. Children were assessed before and after training. Trained children learned an average of 1.4 novel spellings per session. The trend was for children presented with modified speech to do less well than those trained with ordinary speech, regardless of whether they had auditory temporal processing impairments. Trained groups did not differ from the untrained control group in terms of gains made on standardised tests of spelling or word and nonword reading. This study confirms the difficulty of training literacy skills in children with severe language impairments. Individual words may be learned, but more general knowledge of rule‐based phonological skills is harder to acquire.     

A comparison of pregnant women presenting for alcohol and other drug treatment by CPS status

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to describe the demographic, substance use, and treatment variables of alcohol and other drug (AOD) treatment seeking pregnant women. This study also compared women on these variables based on Child Protective Service (CPS) status. METHOD: Secondary data of all pregnant women with at least one child entering all publicly funded AOD treatment programs (N=678), in a southwest county, over a 3-year period were analyzed to examine the differences between pregnant women also involved with CPS and those not involved with CPS. RESULTS: Pregnant women reporting CPS involvement were similar to non-CPS women on demographic variables but differed on drug use and treatment variables. CPS women were more likely to report marijuana use as their primary problem drug, be mandated to treatment, attend day treatment and be released from treatment unsatisfactorily compared to the non-CPS pregnant women. Those without CPS involvement were more likely to report cocaine or crack as their primary drug, attend outpatient treatment and be found to have a satisfactory release from treatment compared to those with CPS involvement. Results from the multiple logistic regression analysis found that the significant predictors of CPS involvement were mandated status and unsatisfactory treatment release. CONCLUSIONS: Differences in treatment outcomes may be based on AOD agencies' difficulty in working with mandated clients and/or with the multiple demands placed by CPS on clients as part of their treatment plans. Further research is needed to determine reasons for CPS clients' high failure rates in AOD treatment.