Education Faculty Research
Review recent research from the education faculty at Merrimack College.
Dr. Stephanie Garrone-Shufran
In this qualitative study, mainstream teacher candidates in a secondary teacher education program were asked to incorporate academic English instruction into their lesson planning and implementation in fieldwork placement classrooms. Teacher candidates attended a training session in which one method for identifying academic English features was taught. Artifacts, classroom observations, and interviews from four teacher candidates were analyzed to determine what features of academic English were identified and how these were taught to high school students. While all four teacher candidates accurately identified features of academic English in their lessons, only two participants taught features of academic English to students. The experiences of the participants illustrated that teacher candidates need, in addition to the ability to identify features of academic English, knowledge about how to teach language, a commitment to teaching language in their lessons, and the support of university supervisors and supervising practitioners who possess the same knowledge and commitment.
Dr. Lisa O'Brien
This qualitative study examined the interplay between teacher facilitation, children’s uptake of vocabulary and reasoning strategies, and the roles children assumed as learners as they experienced instruction grounded in Connected Teaching and Learning ([CTL] an interdisciplinary instructional framework that leverages key practices from culturally responsive pedagogies and meaningful use of multimodal text sets. Analyses suggest (1) students assumed more active roles in their learning as they “enacted” the work of scientists and (2) varied teacher facilitation practices and children’s vocabulary and reasoning uptake were key factors in children’s shift to more active roles. Although findings suggest CTL is a promising instructional framework, findings also underscore the significance of how teachers act on the instructional framework.
Authors: Lisa M O’Brien, Jeanne R Paratore, and Sarah Blodgett.