Most Recent Articles

Mathematics Teachers’ Participatory Patterns Between Face-to-Face and Virtual Professional Learning Environments

by Robin Keturah Anderson & Martia Williams
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This article reports on how mathematics teachers connect face-to-face and virtual professional learning communities by expanding the notion of lurker and broker within both environments. Through an analysis of 18 interviews with K-12 mathematics teachers, categories of participation are presented to describe the nuances between the ways mathematics teachers connect learning experiences across learning environments. This article provides examples of the ways mathematics teachers leverage learning within one space to broker information in the other. Methodological and practical implications of this research are discussed. Methodologically, this article presents the usage of artifact-stimulated recall during interviews to promote reflection of virtual learning interactions. Practically, this article seeks to push the field of mathematics teacher’s professional learning beyond traditional forms of learning to see the value of informal learning in virtual spaces.

Inviting Critical Literacies Into an Online Literacy Clinic During the Dual Pandemics

by Rebecca Rogers & Meredith Labadie
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In 2021, the authors pivoted their university’s Literacy Clinic to online to continue providing literacy services to educators, K-12 students, and families during the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and continuing systemic racism. Alongside of the educators in the Literacy Clinic, they wondered how they would engage students in literacy lessons that would further their agency with literacies in a digital setting while also navigating connectivity, devices and platforms, and the concomitant grief of living in an era of ongoing racial injustices and COVID-19. This paper focuses on a case study of a teacher’s journey designing critical literacies online. Data sources include recorded literacy lessons, artifacts of student and teacher learning, and reflective documents. The extended case analysis attended to emergent and fluid meanings made across texts, interactions, and time. Over the course of 12 weeks, one educator’s pathways with teaching critical literacies online transformed as she built relationships with her student and his mother, centered inquiry, and scaffolded her student to design a public service announcement. In data-rich vignettes that capture the complexity of critical literacy episodes that cross media spaces, the authors illustrate the transformation of meanings across time, model, and space. This case provides a window into an online critical literacy teaching, an experience that has largely been out of focus.

Using Simulated Classrooms to Examine Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions About, Attention to, and Use of Formative Feedback to Improve Their Ability to Facilitate Science Discussions

by Jamie N. Mikeska, Jonathan Steinberg, Pamela S. Lottero-Perdue, Dante Cisterna, Devon Kinsey & Heather Howell
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The purpose of this research study was to examine in-service teachers’ perceptions about, attention to, and use of two different types of written formative feedback designed to support them in developing their ability to engage in one core teaching practice: facilitating discussions that engage students in scientific argumentation. This core teaching practice has been nominated as important for building students’ scientific literacy and has been perennially difficult for teachers to learn how to engage in successfully. This study used an online, simulated classroom made up of five upper elementary student avatars as the practice-based space where the participating in-service teachers facilitated two science discussions. Following the first discussion, each teacher received one of two types of written formative feedback (namely, specific feedback or scoring level feedback) based on their discussion. Findings indicated that the teachers perceived both types of feedback as useful and strongly attended to areas of improvement suggested in the written feedback, regardless of feedback condition. Study results suggest that the use of specific or scoring level feedback can serve as one valuable mechanism to support improvement when using online simulations with elementary science teachers.

Editorial: The Metaphor Is the Message: Limitations of the Media Literacy Metaphor for Social Studies

by Lance E. Mason, Daniel G. Krutka & Marie K. Heath
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In this editorial the authors drew upon metaphor studies to identify limitations of the literacy metaphor, which has become a master metaphor for competency in education, particularly through discussions of media literacy. It considers how the literacy metaphor ignores media forms within media literacy education. Building on the authors’ initial editorial as CITE—Social Studies Education editors and drawing on the work of media ecologists, the authors suggest different avenues for media and technology education that view media as environments.

Editorial: Design Pillars for Technology-Infused Teacher Preparation Programs

by Kevin J. Graziano, Teresa S. Foulger & Arlene C. Borthwick
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This introductory editorial is a brief explanation of the history that led to the special issue of Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education – General Section. It discusses the difference between technology infusion and technology integration. It then expands on Foulger’s (2000) four pillars to a technology-infused teacher preparation program, and the special issue includes four articles that individually examine each pillar. These pillars include the following: (a) technology integrated curriculum, (b) modeled experiences, (c) practice with reflection, and (d) technology self-efficacy. Written by 19 authors who are considered experts in the field of educational technology, this special issue offers practical guidance and recommendations to assist teacher educators with program development that supports technology infusion and prepares preservice teachers and in-service teachers to use technology effectively.

The Perceived Benefits of Coaching in Online Literacy Clinics

by Barbara Vokatis & Thor Gibbins
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Educating literacy educators in online teacher preparation programs is an area in need of research. As online literacy teacher programs become more prevalent, it will become increasingly important to study the benefits and challenges of various online literacy clinic designs. This study investigated the perceived interactions between tutors and external coaches in online practicum courses to identify what kind of learning impact the presence of coaches might have on future literacy educators. Grounded theory analysis of tutor and coach interviews and tutor course reflections, supplemented with field observations, highlights three distinctive features of perceived benefits of coaching involved: (a) improved reflection and achievement; (b) better collaboration; and (c) being present in the joint activity. The findings also call for more collaboration between online literacy educator preparation and instructional technology coaches and programs.

Learning Mathematics with Mathematical Objects: Cases of Teacher-Made Mathematical Manipulatives

by Steven Greenstein & Eileen Fernández
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Access to maker technologies has catalyzed and amplified the possibilities for creating physical materials that are responsive to the needs of students. Opportunities for design and fabrication of original mathematics manipulatives have been incorporated into the teacher education program at Montclair State University. Participating preservice elementary teachers design and make original mathematics manipulatives. Three case studies examine ways in which this process enhances students’ mathematical reasoning, sense-making, and understanding. The designs created are made available through links to the open source Educational CAD Model Repository, enabling others to replicate the objects described.

 

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