The Center for the Integrated Study of Teaching and Learning (CISTL) Fellows

The Center for the Integrated Study of Teaching and Learning

Becky Cox

The Pedagogical Knowledge of Community College Instructors

Becky’s research interests center around community college teaching, and
include the organizational contexts of faculty work and the dynamics of
classroom-level teaching and learning. Her project for the 2002-2003
academic year involves collecting data for her dissertation and conducting a
preliminary analysis of those data. Her study examines the kinds of
pedagogical knowledge community college instructors draw upon and add to as
they engage in specific teaching practices.

This intensive, qualitative study focuses on five Composition instructors at
a multi-campus, urban community college in Texas. Through interviews with
the instructors, classroom observations and interviews with students, she is
exploring (1) teaching conceptions and practices as they are enacted in
these five composition classrooms, (2) the ways in which the community
college instructors think about their students, the subject matter and their
roles as teachers, and (3) the key influences on their teaching conceptions
and practices.

Prior to entering the Graduate School of Education, Rebecca received a B.A.
from Princeton, an M.A. in Art History from the University of Texas at
Austin, and spent six years teaching in both secondary and post-secondary
classrooms.

Marnie Curry

Teachers Talking: A Case Study Investigation of a Teacher Learning Community

Marnie Curry, a doctoral candidate in U.C. Berkeley’s Policy, Organization, Measurement and Evaluation Program, pursues research on teachers’ work lives and focuses on issues related to teachers’ professional development, career engagement, and participation in educational reform. Previously a middle school and high school English teacher, Marnie brings to her research a strong commitment to teaching as a profession. Still holding a current teaching credential, her most recent teaching experiences have been in the Mills College Secondary English Preservice Program and UCB’s Principal Leadership Institute. She received a BA and teaching certificate from Dartmouth College, as well as an MA in curriculum and instruction from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

With her CISTL fellowship, Marnie is writing her dissertation, which investigates how teachers' professional communities at the high school level constitute a resource for school reform and professional development. Using qualitative methods and a case study design, her research examines the situated practices and emic perspectives of teachers who are members of school-based inquiry circles known as Critical Friends Groups. The 3 year study documents the complex cultural, organizational, and micropolitical dynamics at play within these teacher learning communities and explores how these social interactions lead teachers to co-construct learning opportunities related to classroom instruction and school improvement. In particular, her analysis examines three distinguishing features of these groups: 1) their cross-disciplinary membership structure, 2) their teacher driven origin/management, and 3) their reliance on protocols to structure conversation. Methodologically, the study contributes to researchers’ understandings of the possibilities and challenges residing in video-based inquiry.

Suzy Loper

Students' Scientific Discourse in Middle School Classrooms

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the process of completing my dissertation proposal. I am interested in understanding science teaching and learning as socialization into the discourse practices of science. Specifically, I am looking at how urban middle school students learn (or do not learn) to participate in scientific discourse. Some questions I hope to investigate in my dissertation are: What kinds of "science talk" or language practices take place in middle school science classrooms? What is the spectrum of linguistic resources which students bring to these practices? Where and how do students struggle in their participation in science talk? What features of science talk are found in other language practices in which students participate? How do students develop over time in their participation in science talk? What activity structures and tools support students' increasing participation in scientific discourse? As part of the groundwork for this research, I am currently observing in an 8th grade science classroom.

Jeeva Roche-Smith

Multiple Literacies, New Pedagogy: Investigating the Creative Journey of Middle-School Storytellers in a Digital Storytelling After-School Program

I was born and grew up in Mauritius. I obtained my B.Ed in England and started my teaching career in the late 1970's with secondary school students (11-18 yrs). In the 80's became interested in pre-school and Montessori education and established a school in an ethnically diverse area of South London. I also taught middle school students and adults as I studied about specific learning difficulties (dyslexia) and in the early 90's I was recruited to train Montessori teachers. This briefly describes my professional experiences in England prior to graduate school in Berkeley, CA.

My goal this academic year is to write my dissertation. My research interest is on adolescent literacy as society shifts from the culture of the printed word into one dominated by new technologies. I want to explore literacy practices that would enlighten teachers and educators in supporting the intellectual and social success of underprivileged student populations in these new times. Issues of 'at riskness, failure, deficit' still frame conversations about literacy development of adolescents in schools and finding methods for teaching students to 'crack the code' still preoccupy many of our teachers. I believe that there is a need for a philosophical and pedagogical shift toward new technologies in order to revitalize education for today's young adolescents.

My study took place in a digital storytelling after-school program for middle school students (Digital storytelling' is a computer-based approach to creating multi-media compositions that marries print with photographs, video, music and audio). The purpose of the project was to investigate what literacy practices develop and how are they shaped when students collaborate with their peers and engage after-school in a technologically-intensive setting. What spaces are created in which learning can take place? More specifically using a socio-cultural lens I focus on the adolescents' learning process through the creation of their stories over the two semesters spent in the program. In the larger context of digital divide discussion I want to argue that it is not a matter of providing hardware or software, treating computer technology as an autonomous technology and approaching literacy education by 'technologising' the classroom. It must be an examination of the social milieu where the computer is an extension of the environment in which we think and communicate.

Laura Rodriguez

Teachers' Knowledge of the Linguistic Relationships between English and Spanish

I am currently a 3rd year student in the School Psychology doctoral program in the Graduate School of Education. Prior to entering graduate school, I received my B.A. in Psychology from Harvard University and worked in the Psychiatry Department at Children's Hospital-Boston.

My primary research interests include English reading development, second language (L2) reading, teacher knowledge of reading subject matter and linkages to the reading instruction of Spanish speaking children, as well as teacher development in reading subject matter. My first attempt at integrating these interests developed into my first position paper, entitled “Relationships between Cognitive Development and Reading Development: Implications for the Reading Instruction of Young Spanish Children.” In this paper I utilized a Piagetian and Vygotskian theoretical framework to examine the developmental processes involved in learning to read, discussed how these processes may differ for Spanish speaking students, and investigated bilingual education as developmentally appropriate early reading instruction for Spanish speaking children (grades kindergarten – 2). In my second position paper, I focused my research on a review of cross-cultural studies on learning to read in a second language (L2). Specifically, I focused on phonological and orthographic processes in L2 word recognition research and on the linguistic factors that may affect the phonological and orthographic processes of English word recognition for nonnative speakers of English (with a focus on native Spanish speakers). I also explored the implications efficient L2 word recognition has on L2 (English) vocabulary development and reading comprehension. My hope is that examining the learning to read process, the cognitive and linguistic processes involved in learning to read, and the implications these processes might have for the reading instruction of young Spanish-speaking children will lead to a better understanding of how to facilitate English reading development and achievement in this population of students.

My current research project is designed to test the hypothesis that teacher knowledge of the linguistic relationship (differences and similarities) between English and Spanish has positive student outcomes for Spanish-speaking children learning to read in English. Student outcomes will be measured in reading achievement and perceived self-efficacy toward reading. This investigation will focus on teachers and students in bilingual, Spanish-English dual immersion, and SDAIE classrooms in grades K-3, since these earlier grades focus instruction on beginning reading. However, a sample of teachers in regular classrooms who have a significant number of native Spanish speakers in their classrooms will also be sampled as a comparison group.

Laura Vallejo

Language Socialization of Adult Learners and Instructors in a School Context

I am a fourth generation Chicana who was born in Cambridge, England. I possess a passionate curiosity for how diverse individuals contribute to and expand traditional definitions of knowledge and the learning process. Over the past twenty years I have worked in educational settings, primarily with language minority communities as a teacher, administrator, program developer and researcher with preschool, elementary and adult learners. I am pursuing a Ph.D. in Language, Literacy and Culture. My research interests include second language adult learners, multiple literacies and language socialization.

The co-construction of pedagogical practices in child development classes presents important questions about the novice / expert relationship among adults and relationships between adults and young children. The process of language socialization and its outcomes are complicated when local practice among second language learners is considered.

This research project will contribute to the understanding of a learner-centered model for linguistically diverse adult students through the examination of collaboration among community college instructors and adult English language learners. The students will be observed while they individually and collectively identify the comprehension strategies employed to access instruction in a second language and participate in child development classes. The extent to which instructors consider student input and modify learning activities and speech events will be observed and evaluated.

Methodology will concentrate on the shared learning experiences of two instructors and four students using qualitative methods including classroom participation, observation and videotaped key activities. The students' narrative retelling of particular learning activities and speech events will be audio recorded. Five questions that guide this inquiry are:

*What perceptions do students and instructors have of the same speech event or learning activity?

*What comprehension strategies are used and identified by the students?

*Does the shared information between students and instructors effect teaching/ learning?

*How does language socialization take place among the second language adult learners and child development instructors?

*How do the students recount learning events through narration?

Maika Watanabe

Instructional Opportunities under a High-Stakes Accountability System

My dissertation research compares the instruction of economically disadvantaged, minority students in the "regular" academic track and their more advantaged peers in "academically gifted" classes under a high-stakes, statewide accountability program in North Carolina. North Carolina's statewide accountability model financially rewards all teachers at a school site if students exceed or meet state expectations of growth on standardized achievement tests. I observed each of my focal teachers teaching two tracks, which allowed me to study how the same teacher implemented instruction across tracks without having to control for teacher background. I also designed the study to focus on a tested subject (language arts) and an untested subject (social studies). This study contributes empirical research on what students learn in their classrooms in the context of a high stakes accountability policy, an issue that is particularly pertinent as the "No Child Left Behind" Act now requires all states to develop such state policies.

Maika Watanabe is a doctoral candidate at U.C. Berkeley. Broadly speaking, her research interests include sociology of education, school reform with a focus on equity, and state-level teacher policy. She received her BA and teaching certificate from Swarthmore College and holds an MA in Education from UC Berkeley. Her experience teaching middle school social studies and high school history helps inform her work.