EDIS 7991                                                                                                   3 Credit Hours            

Spring 2015

Pre-requisite: Curry Teacher Ed, completed student teaching in Fall, 2014

Instructor – Tuesday section                                               Instructor – Thursday section

Ruth M. Ferree, PhD                                                              Peter Youngs, PhD

Office: Bavaro 325                                                                  Office: Bavaro 324

rf2c@virginia.edu                                                                    pay2n@virginia.edu

4343-924-0853                                                                       434-924-1752

Description

This field-based course for pre-service teachers aims to help them refine and develop transferable skills in observation, analysis and reflection through inquiry processes. Readings help students cultivate an analytical lens through which to examine published research useful for their own evidence-based practice. Guidelines for preparing for the job search process are also featured in the course.

The work in this course should support students in preparation to meet these standards as described in the Virginia Standards of Professional Practice for Teachers.

Standard One: Professional Knowledge

The teacher candidate addresses appropriate curriculum standards; facilitates use of higher- level thinking skills; links present content with past and future learning; demonstrates accurate subject knowledge and skills; provides goal-based instruction on goals that reflect high expectations; knows developmental characteristics of students.

Standard Four: Assessment of and for Student Learning

Teachers systematically gather, analyze, and use all relevant data to measure student academic progress, guide instructional content and delivery methods, and provide timely feedback to both students and parents throughout the school year.

                Key Element 1: Teachers work independently and collaboratively to analyze and interpret multiple sources of data to identify student learning    

                needs, to guide planning and instruction, and to assess the effectiveness of instruction.

Standard Six: Professionalism

Teachers maintain a commitment to professional ethics, communicate effectively, and

take responsibility for and participate in professional growth that results in enhanced

student learning.

Key Element 3: Teachers model professional and ethical standards as well as personal

integrity in all interactions.

Key Element 4: Teachers respect the privacy of students, families, colleagues, and

administrators with whom they work, ensuring confidentiality of all sensitive information.

Key Element 5: Teachers continually reflect on, evaluate, and seek to improve their practice.

Moreover, research shows that successful teachers:

• develop their own knowledge of subject matter, content standards, and content-specific pedagogy (Carlisle, Kelcey, Rowan, & Phelps, 2011; Hill, Rowan, & Ball, 2005)
• analyze evidence of the impact of instruction on student learning (Black & Wiliam, 1998)
• examine research and theory about how students learn (Donovan & Bransford, 2005)
• develop and apply knowledge of students’ needs following principles of evidence-based practice (Hattie & Timperley, 2007)

The course assignments are designed to engage teaching candidates in demonstrating their understanding of teaching and student learning in authentic ways.

Learning Objectives

Students will understand that:

• Reflective teachers are guided in their practice by evidence, inquiry, and problem-solving processes.
• Inquiry is an iterative, cyclical process.
• Published information varies in quality.
• All information should be examined with an analytical eye.

Students will be able to:

• Demonstrate familiarity with course readings during small group interactions.
• Make field observations including running field notes, interval sampling, frequency sampling.
• Use interview strategies appropriately.
• Analyze student assessment data and draw reasonable inferences about the student’s performance.
• Distinguish between reports of empirical research and other kinds of articles on a given topic.
• Review and critically assess literature relevant to course topics, including independent case reports.
• Generate and present recommendations for actions to improve or enhance performance of an individual student based on evidence from a range of data sources and supported by evidence-based practices. 
• Prepare for job searches with practice interview sessions.

Students will know:

• Terms relevant to discussing research such as: evidence-based practice, empirical evidence, action research process, case study, quantitative research, qualitative research, transferability, validity, reliability, variables, statistical significance.
• Processes of data collection and analysis in educational research.
• Sources of published research.
• Steps in the evidence-based practice/problem-solving process.
• Basics of the job-search process including: resume and cover letter fundamentals, and interview strategies, including body language basics.

Summary of Major Tasks and Final Product:

Rubrics are attached at the end of this syllabus. There will also be developmental assignments throughout the semester.

Task 1 – Analysis of Student Learning Report

In this assignment, you will analyze student learning based on the collection of student work samples that you collected during your student teaching last fall. This will include analyzing learning across an entire class of students as well as examining the learning of three students whose assessment responses represent the major patterns of learning you identified for the entire class.

Your report will provide background information about the school and classroom setting, as well as information about the instructional unit: SOLs and learning objectives, nature of instructional approach used, and the nature of the assessment itself.

For the sake of confidentiality, all names (school, district, students) must be changed in the submitted evidence and the reports.

The report of this analysis will be submitted by class time on Feb. 24-26. (Expected length – 8-10 pages.)

 Task 2 – Case Report(s) and Presentation               

You will choose 1 or 2 students for whom you will collect in-depth, detailed, case study data. This work will be similar to that carried out by teachers on school intervention teams. You will draw on data from observing the students, work samples, data from interviewing your clinical instructor and others, and published research to develop recommendations for how to modify your instruction in the future based on the specific learning needs of these 1 or 2 students.

(For the sake of confidentiality, all names (school, district, students) must be changed in the submitted evidence and the reports.)

Depending on your circumstances, you may focus on one student and work with your clinical instructor to research, plan and implement an action to increase the likelihood that the student is academically successful.

If full implementation of an action plan is not possible, you will prepare case reports on two students, going as far as the recommendation phase.

The oral report of this work will be presented to a team of teachers (your peers) at the end of the semester.  The presentations will simulate support team meetings. (Apr. 21 -23).

The Case Report document is due Apr. 30 by 11:59 p.m. EDT. Expected length-10-15 pages.

Course Texts

Required  

Steele, C. (2010). Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York: W.W. Norton & Co.        

Instructor-Provided Through Collab and/or Handouts

Allday, R.A., & Pakurar, K. (2007). Effects of teacher greetings on student on-task behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(2), 317-320.

Anguiano, P. (2001). A first-year teacher’s plan to reduce misbehavior in the classroom. Teaching Exceptional Children, 33(3), 52-55.

Cook, B.G., Smith, G.J., & Tankersley, M. (2012). Evidence-based practices in education. In K.R. Harris, S. Graham, & T. Urdan (Eds.), APA Educational Psychology Handbook, Vol 1: Theories, constructs, and critical issues (pp.495-527). Washington, DC, US: American Psychological Association.

Cuddy, A. (2013) Your body language shapes who you are. TED Talk. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are

Dana, N.F., & Yendol-Hoppey, D. (2009). Finding your findings: Data analysis. In N.F. Dana & D. Yendol-Hoppey (Eds.), The reflective educator’s guide to classroom research (pp. 117-132).  Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Institute of Education Sciences (2009). Using student achievement data to support instructional decision-making. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Education.

Johnson, D., & Johnson, R. (1992). Creative controversy: Intellectual challenge in the classroom. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Company.

McMillan, J. H. & Wergin, J. F. (Eds) (2010).  Introduction to reading educational research. In Understanding and evaluating educational research (4^th Ed.) (pp.1-13). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.

O’Neill, R. E., Horner, R. H., Albin, R. W., Sprague, J. R., Storey, K., & Newton, J. S. (1997). Functional assessment and program development for problem behavior: A practical handbook. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

       Purdue Online Writing Lab  (OWL). Retrieved from https://owl.english.purdue.edu/

Saldaña, J. (2008). An introduction to codes and coding. In The coding manual for qualitative researchers (pp.1-20). New York: Sage.

Shepard, L.A. (2000). The role of assessment in a learning culture. Educational Researcher, 29(7), 4-14.

Treasure, J. (2013). Five ways to listen better. TED Talk. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/julian_treasure_5_ways_to_listen_better

Wolfinger, N.H. (2002). On writing field notes: Collection strategies and background expectancies. Qualitative Research, 2(1), 85-95.