Jody Piro

A collaborative Data Chat: Teaching summative assessment data use in pre-service teacher education

Abstract As the quality of educational outputs has been problematized, accountability systems have driven reform based upon summative assessment data. These policies impact the ways that educators use data within schools and subsequently, how teacher education programs may adjust their curricula to teach data-driven decision-making to inform instruction. This study explores the outcomes of an instructional intervention that taught data understanding, comprehension, and data use with pre-service teacher candidates. The intervention was based on the premise that using data for professional purposes is becoming a necessary proficiency for teacher education graduates and that teacher education curricula must explicitly address that need. Pre-service teacher candidates participated in a Data Chat where they collaboratively analyzed standardized testing and end-of-course assessment data and structured instructional interventions based upon determined strengths and weakness areas in student learning. Data were collected from two academic years. The results from Year 1 suggest that pre-service teacher candidate participants perceived an expanded sense of comfort with the data literacy behaviors (DLBs) following the intervention. Year 2 results validated the earlier finding of perceptions of self-efficacy with using summative assessment data and also identified specific DLBs needing more attention. Implications of the intervention for teacher education are discussed.

Discussions in a Socrates Café: Implications for Critical Thinking in Teacher Education

The purpose of this study was to benchmark the types of Socratic questioning that were occurring in a Socrates Café, an online discussion forum, in a graduate-level diversity course in teacher education. The Universal Intellectual Standards were used to analyze Socratic questioning. Results suggested that the nine Universal Intellectual Standards provided an exceptional deductive framework for understanding the types and frequencies of Socratic questioning occurring in the Socrates Café. The benefits of using a Socrates Cafe discussion for instruction to scaffold critical thinking are discussed and implications for teacher education are considered.

Quality and Early Field Experiences: Partnering with Junior Achievement

This study explored the perceptions of preservice teacher candidates who participated in a pilot partnership between a public teacher education preparation program and Junior Achievement (JA). The partnership was grounded in the premise that providing early field experiences to preservice teacher candidates was a necessary requirement of quality teacher education. In an introductory pedagogy course, preservice teacher candidates in their junior year participated in a five-week field experience where they taught JA lessons in partnership schools. The results suggested that preservice teacher candidates perceived an expanded sense of comfort with teaching strategies, classroom management, and diversity during the actual teaching of the lessons in the field experience. Additionally, participants reported increased confidence levels with their own preparation to teach. The partnership with JA that provided a quality, early field experience may have enhanced the general pedagogical proficiencies needed for preservice teachers to succeed as practicing educators. Suggestions for creating a partnership with JA are provided.

Diving into data: Developing the capacity for data literacy in teacher education

Abstract Educators by definition are now required to utilize a variety of student data to shape the decisions they make and design the lessons they teach. As accountability standards become more stringent and as teachers face increasingly diverse student populations within their classrooms, they often struggle to adequately meet the needs of all learners. Using student data, rationales for instructional decisions become grounded in best practices. Unfortunately, some administrators and teachers lack the confidence and/or training needed to successfully engage with and interpret data results. This may be especially true for early career educators and those just entering the field. Indeed, for novice teachers to be successful in the current accountability culture, they must possess, understand, and effectively utilize data literacy skills, something quite difficult to accomplish without adequate training. The research in this article explored how pre-service educators determined what worked in a data literacy intervention and the potential impact this had on their instructional decision-making process. Implications for instructor professional development are offered for consideration.

The effects of a growth mindset on self-efficacy and motivation

Abstract The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a growth mindset intervention would improve adolescent special education students’ self-efficacy and motivation. The sample included sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students receiving learning disability services in the area of reading. The study was quasi-experimental in design which included both a comparison group and a treatment group. The treatment group received a growth mindset intervention called Brainology. The Reader Self-Perception Scale 2nd Edition and the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire were used to measure whether there were differences in the mean scores for self-efficacy and motivation in reading. Results suggested that a growth mindset intervention had a significant difference in the motivation, but not self-efficacy, of adolescent special education participants.

Journeying Towards the Profession: Exploring Liminal Learning within Mixed Reality Simulations

ABSTRACT Unlike the situated learning within traditional clinical placements, mixed-reality simulations support a laboratory learning environment where preservice teachers practice their instruction with low risk to the preservice teachers and human students. Simulation experiences can be used in teacher education programs to prepare candidates for the field within a carefully designed curriculum that measures threshold learning. This study explored liminal learning in a teacher education program that used mixed-reality simulations prior to and within clinical placements. A qualitative case study was used to understand the experiences of the participants who were bound by three levels of exposure to simulations. Findings indicated that learning within the mixed-reality simulations could be characterized by three spaces: preprofessional, liminal, and trending toward professional. The integration of mixed-reality simulations within initial teacher preparation core courses facilitated the journey of preservice teachers toward professional identities as they faced instructional and behavioral challenges over the course of three semesters.

Managing the paradoxes of discussion pedagogy

Abstract Discussion pedagogy is part of a larger curricular goal that intersects the two aspirations of diversity of perspectives and democratic inquiry in that it challenges stereotypes and assumptions through student discourse. Yet, teaching with discussion is a complex and sometimes ambiguous endeavor that leaves instructors feeling pulled between desirable, but seemingly contradictory, goals. This article discusses these paradoxes of instructional choices and student outcomes that instructors may negotiate through polarity management, a theoretical framework that focuses on values that are diametrically opposed, yet interdependent upon each other. Implications of polarity management for discussion pedagogy are highlighted.