Volume 15, Issue 1 October 2014
An Award-Winning ESOL Endorsement Program: A Case for Ethnographic Approaches in Teacher Education
GATEways to Teacher Education
GEORGIA ASSOCIATION OF TEACHER EDUCATORS
In October 2013 at the Georgia Association of Teacher Educators (GATE) Annual Conference, The English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) Endorsement Program in the Middle Secondary Education Department at Georgia State University was awarded as the Distinguished Program in
Teacher Education. Two graduates enrolled in the final course for the endorsement, Kimberly Carr and Patricia Limb, were involved in the preparation of this article under the leadership of the program coordinator, Gertrude Tinker Sachs, and contributions from ESOL program professors Jayoung
Choi and Dennis Odo. This paper is based on the submission that was made and describes the key characteristics of the program and its impact on graduates. The authors also make the case for greater use of ethnographic methods in teacher education.
Cooperative Learning: Are Teachers Practicing What We Preach? The purpose of this article is twofold: to advocate for cooperative learning and to describe a survey that was conducted with preservice teachers and teachers-of-
record regarding the application of cooperative learning in regional elementary schools. Survey data collected over a two-week period revealed
misconceptions and varying degrees of classroom application regarding this non-traditional pedagogical approach.
Does Differentiation Engage Gifted Students? The purpose of this study is to determine if differentiation helps engage gifted students in general education classes. This research involved 40 students and two units of sixth grade Earth Science. For the first unit, one group received differentiated instruction while the other group received teacher-led
instruction. For the second unit, the groups were switched. The teacher-led instruction consisted of students sitting and taking notes. The differentiation involved student choice. Results indicate that differentiated instruction engages gifted students in general education classrooms
better than teacher-led instruction. Therefore, it is beneficial for teachers to include differentiation as an instructional method when teaching gifted students in general education classrooms. The student benefits outweigh the time that it takes for teachers to prepare for differentiation.
A Multi-Faceted Paradigm for Teacher Leadership This article discusses multiple pathways into teacher leadership with teachers assuming the roles of collaborators, researchers, lifelong learners, effective instructors, assessors, community leaders, and advocates critical to serving
the needs of students, schools, the community, and the profession. The approach has been developed based on The Teacher Leader Model Standards (Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium, 2011), a theoretical model to guide
Inside this issue: Award-Winning ESOL Endorsement Program
the preparation of effective teacher leaders for the needs of the 21st Century. It is a response to the call for a dialogue about multiple pathways into teacher leadership issued by the Teacher Leadership Exploratory Consortium.
Don’t miss the back cover! 2
Cooperative Learning
13
Does Differentiation Engage Gifted Students?
19
Multi-Faceted Paradigm for Teacher Leadership
23
Special points of interest: GATEways article submission requests GATE 2014 Conference information