Transformational Shifts of Pedagogy Through Professional Development, Essential Questions, and Self-Directed Learning

This chapter describes transformational experiences of a faculty of teachers during a yearlong action-research case-study of professional development, infused with digital technologies intended to capitalize on self-directed learning strategies, in the use of essential questions specifically designed to target critical thinking in students. Teachers who began to adopt the essence of essential questioning into their teaching practice also began to seek ways to engage in personalized self-directed learning as they looked for avenues to continue development of successful practice. The ability to self-investigate and self-delineate pedagogy was critical for most of participant teachers. The faculty of teachers involved in the action-research case-study demonstrated statistically significant growth on the Measure of Questioning Skills, indicating the experience encouraged teacher growth in questioning abilities. Research data also reflected statistically significant student growth in STAR Reading and STAR Math scores, and an increase in student's Measure of Questioning Skills.

Transformational Shifts of Pedagogy Through Professional Development, Essential Questions, and Self-Directed Learning

This chapter describes transformational experiences of a faculty of teachers during a yearlong action-research case-study of professional development, infused with digital technologies intended to capitalize on self-directed learning strategies, in the use of essential questions specifically designed to target critical thinking in students. Teachers who began to adopt the essence of essential questioning into their teaching practice also began to seek ways to engage in personalized self-directed learning as they looked for avenues to continue development of successful practice. The ability to self-investigate and self-delineate pedagogy was critical for most of participant teachers. The faculty of teachers involved in the action-research case-study demonstrated statistically significant growth on the Measure of Questioning Skills, indicating the experience encouraged teacher growth in questioning abilities. Research data also reflected statistically significant student growth in STAR Reading and STAR Math scores, and an increase in student's Measure of Questioning Skills.

THE REPRESENTATION OF MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES IN NORTH STAR COURSEBOOK: A CONTENT ANALYSIS

This paper discusses Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences theory represented in North Star: “Reading and Writing” and “Listening and speaking” books for level one. From each of the books a chapter has been selected for analysis. For the Reading and Writing book, the chapter contains 36 activities and 31 activities for the Listening and Speaking book. Content analysis has been used along with a list of activities adopted from Botelho (2003) to investigate the occurrences in which different intelligences are enhanced throughout the activities. The results of the research proved an imbalance in the distribution of intelligences. It also showed that the most dominant intelligence was verbal/linguistic followed by intrapersonal, interpersonal, spatial/visual, logical/mathematical and bodily kinesthetic. As for the rest of the intelligences, they had no place in the activities which are suggested to be catered for with supplementary materials.

Incorporating IStation into Early Childhood Classrooms to Improve Reading Comprehension

Aim/Purpose: IStation is an adaptive computer-based reading program that adapts to the learner’s academic needs. This study investigates if the Istation computer-based reading program promotes reading improvement scores as shown on the STAR Reading test and the IStation test scaled scores for elementary school third-grade learners on different reading levels. Background: Prior literature provided a limited evidence base for incorporating computer-adaptive learning technologies to improve reading comprehension in the con-text of early childhood education. Methodology: Using a mixed-method case study research approach, this study purports to investigate the effects of IStation and examine the perspectives of teachers and students. Supported by survey and interview data, this case study employed a sample of 98 public school third-grade students in an urban elementary school in the southeastern United States as well as the three classroom teachers. Contribution: This study has provided a) additional data to show evidence for the effectiveness of a computer-based reading program, IStation, by using the students’ and teachers’ viewpoints as well as reading comprehension test scores data; and b) recommendations for practitioners and researchers regarding professional development for IStation implementation. Findings: The results of this study show a strong correlation between the usage of IStation and the rise of STAR reading scores during the time IStation was integrated. There were differing opinions regarding the effectiveness of IStation between students and teachers, as well as between low and high achieving students. Teachers recognized that intervening variables of teachers’ whole and small group lessons individualized for each class, as well as students’ practice sessions both at home and at school, could have also resulted in improved STAR reading scores. Recommendations for Practitioners: There is no one-size-fits-all solution when implementing such technology to a diverse array of learners on different reading levels, such as Tier 1 (high reader), Tier 2 (medium average benchmark reader), and Tier 3 (low reader). It is essential to provide professional development and training opportunities for teachers. Teachers can also train and elevate the higher achieving students with using IStation to monitor their own progress as well as set their own individual learning goals. Recommendation for Researchers: We recommend studies with a larger sample size that would likely yield more definitive and generalizable results, studies using a randomized control group that would have teased out extraneous factors and truly measuring the effects of IStation alone on STAR, as well as longitudinal studies examining the long-term effects of IStation.

The Effects of Reading Engagement on Literacy Achievement for Elementary Students

Since reading achievement is a determining factor for academic success, children who struggle with reading often continue to struggle throughout their school careers. The purpose of this study was to compare the reading gain scores of fourth and fifth grade students at an elementary school in northeast Alabama to the quantity of their extracurricular reading activities, controlling for gender, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status (SES). Over a 20-week period, the researcher utilized a daily reading log as the instrument to determine the amount of students’ outside-of-school reading time engagement. The results of a factorial ANOVA indicated that the amount of out-of-school reading times did not significantly increase their gain scores on the STAR reading benchmark tests. This was true for gender, socioeconomic status, and race. The results have implications for utilization of out-of-school reading requirements.