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    The Program Assessment and Improvement Cycle Today: A New and Simple Taxonomy of General Types and Levels of Program Evaluation
    (Creative Education, 2012-10-25) Carifio, James
    There has been strong pressure from just about every quarter in the last twenty years for higher education institutions to evaluate and improve their programs. This pressure is being exerted by several different stake holder groups simultaneously, and also represents the growing cumulative impact of four somewhat contradictory but powerful evaluation and improvement movements, models and advocacy groups. Consequently, the program assessment, evaluation and improvement cycle today is much different and far more complex than it was fifty years ago, or even two decades ago, and it is actually a highly diversified and confusing landscape from both the practitioner’s and consumer’s view of such evaluative and improvement information relative to seemingly different and competing advocacies, standards, foci, findings and asserted claims. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present and begin to elucidate a relatively simple general taxonomy that helps practitioners, consumers, and professionals to make better sense of competing evaluation and improvement models, methodologies and results today, which should help to improve communication and understanding and to have a broad, simple and useful framework or schema to help guide their more detailed learning.
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    Constructing a Metacognitive Knowledge Framework for Post-Secondary EFL Reading Teachers’ Summarizing Strategies Instruction with Expository Text: A Case Study, Phase I
    (Creative Education, 2012-10-24) Xu, Wei; Carifio, James; Dagostino, Lorraine
    This article reports on the first phase of a case study done by a Chinese post-secondary EFL reading teacher on her exploratory inquiry into the metacognitive teaching knowledge needed by EFL Reading teachers to teach summarizing strategies with expository text to EFL undergraduates. Guided by a for- malized model of instructional materials development, Phase I was an exploring process, starting from constructing a general metacognitive knowledge framework and proceeding to elaborate the detailed framework of the actual metacognitive knowledge needed by EFL reading teachers as to summarizing strategies instruction with expository text. The results of phase I were summarized in a monograph di- rected at teaching post-secondary EFL Reading teachers the framework and actual metacognitive know- ledge they needed to know. This monograph was positively reviewed by a cross-sectional panel of 12 ex- perts. This article concludes with a critical reflection on the methodology and value of this metacognitive knowledge exploration.
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    National Board Certification as Professional Development: What Are Teachers Learning?
    (Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2006-02-23) Lustick, David; Sykes, Gary
    This study investigated the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards’ (NBPTS) assessment process in order to identify, quantify, and substantiate learning outcomes from the participants. One hundred and twenty candidates for the Adolescent and Young Adult Science (AYA Science) Certificate were studied over a two-year period using the recurrent institutional cycle research design. This quasi-experimental methodology allowed for the collection of both cross-sectional and longitudinal data insuring a good measure of internal validity regarding observed changes between individual and across group means. Transcripts of structured interviews with each teacher were scored by multiple assessors according to the 13 standards of NBPTS’ framework for accomplished science teaching. These scores provided the quantitative evidence of teacher learning in this study. Significant pre-intervention to post-intervention changes to these individual and group means are reported as learning outcomes from the assessment process. Findings suggest that the intervention had significant impact upon candidates’ understanding of knowledge associated with science teaching with an overall effect size of 0.47. Standards associated with greatest gains include Scientific Inquiry and Assessment. The results support the claim that the certification process is an effective standards based professional learning opportunity comparable to other human improvement interventions from related domains. Drawing on qualitative data, we also explore three possible implications of teacher learning outcomes from certification upon classroom practice identified as Dynamic, Technical, and Deferred. These patterns suggest that more than one kind of learning may be taking place in relation to board certification. The discussion then considers the importance of this study for policy making and science teaching communities.
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    Strategies for Success for Online Co-Teaching
    (Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 2011-09) Scribner-MacLean, Michelle; Miller, Heather
    A co-teaching online environment has the potential to help more efficiently meet the needs of online learners and provide greater satisfaction for instructors. A well-trained pair of instructors can complement each other, meeting student needs in a timely manner, as well as providing students with the opportunity to view topics from different perspectives, and to gain more in-depth feedback about their work. Specific strategies for a successful online co-teaching experience, including: how to create a successful online learning community; achieve effective course management; provide systematic, in-depth assessment of student learning; and providing timely feedback will be addressed. Methods to improve upon one-another’s teaching strengths will be introduced as well as building community between your peer co-teacher and students.
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