VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Stewart, Trevor Thomas"

Browsing by Author "Stewart, Trevor Thomas"

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Boys Who Love Books: Avid Adolescent Male Readers in the Secondary English Language Arts Classroom
Horst, Paige Hayes (Virginia Tech, 2016-07-22)
This study was designed to explore perceptions and lived experiences of avid adolescent male readers, in order to better understand their development as readers. This study explored: (1) how previous reading experiences influence the development of the avid adolescent male reader and (2) how the reading habits and preferences of avid adolescent male readers are socially constructed. Rosenblatt's (1978) Transactional Theory of Literary Work forms the theoretical framework of this study. Rosenblatt (1978) argued that as readers engage with texts, they bring an individual schema to these literary transactions. This prior knowledge and experience are the lens through which the individual reader understands the content of the text. Even when reading the same text, readers respond to the text in individual ways, based on their individual schema. Through the use of a naturalistic inquiry design, data was generated through a series of interviews with the participants. Data analysis was qualitative and iterative, triangulated with multiple interviews, interview mapping, thematic tables, dialogic memos, and researcher field notes. Data analysis led to a better understanding of the development of the avid adolescent male reader, including: (a) the role of family culture on reading identity, (b) peer group influence on reading habits of avid adolescent male readers, and (c) transactional responses of avid adolescent male readers both in and out of educational settings. Data generated during interviews illuminated the complex, individuated and interwoven nature of the elements present in the development of the avid adolescent male reader. Finally, this study gives insight into how understanding the development of these readers may provide teachers with instructional strategies and reading opportunities that support all developing readers.
A Case Study of One Teacher's Experience Using a Sociocultural View of Disability in the English Classroom
Biviano, Amanda C. (Virginia Tech, 2019-04-22)
Teachers' attitudes are shaped by the language, culture, and power constructs surrounding the disability in our society. This qualitative case study investigated how a sociocultural lens supported an English teacher's efforts to plan and implement lessons that use literature to examine disability critically. The theories of Bakhtin (1981), Rosenblatt (2005), as well as literature that highlights the use of disability studies, social justice, and dialogic pedagogy guided the methods of the study. The sample included the teacher and one ninth grade English Language Arts class of approximately 25 students in a rural high school. Methods involved three semi-structured workshops which served to guide the teacher in an examination of the social discourses surrounding disability, encouragement of aesthetic responses to reading, and the facilitation of a dialogic pedagogy. Participant interviews, lesson plans, observation field notes, and reflective journals were transcribed and triangulated with researcher field notes. Attention was paid to the participant's learning as a social act which leads to a teacher's "ideological becoming" and development of the self as a "process of selectively assimilating the words of others" (Bakhtin, 1981, p. 341). Therefore, the lenses of Transactional Analysis (Stewart, 2011) and content analysis (Schreier, 2014) was used to examine the context and process of planning and implementation for an ELA teacher in order to uncover the meaning-making processes that the teacher undergoes when using literature to examine disability critically. Findings give insight into the development of a teacher as he learns how to apply a sociocultural lens to literary study, as well as how he contextualized and situated his understanding of disability as connected to other forms of difference. While this study is not generalizable due to its qualitative nature, it can be transferable by providing insight into how a teacher guides students through texts that portray disability.
Confronting Challenges at the Intersection of Rurality, Place, and Teacher Preparation: Improving Efforts in Teacher Education to Staff Rural Schools
Azano, Amy Price; Stewart, Trevor Thomas (Mercy College, 2016)
Recruiting and retaining highly qualified teachers in rural schools is a persistent struggle in many countries, including the U.S. While rural education researchers have long lamented the struggle to recruit and retain teachers, there is relatively little known about intentional efforts to prepare teachers, specifically, for rural classrooms. Salient challenges related to poverty, geographic isolation, low teacher salaries, and a lack of community amenities seem to trump perks of living in rural communities. Recognizing this issue as a complex and hard to solve fixture in the composition of rural communities, we sought to understand how teacher preparation programs might better prepare preservice teachers for successful student teaching placements and, ideally, eventual careers in rural schools. In this study, we explore teacher candidates’ perceptions of rurality while examining how specific theory, pedagogy, and practice influence their feelings of preparedness for working in a rural school. Using pre- and post- questionnaire data, classroom observations, and reflections, we assess the effectiveness of deliberate efforts in our teacher preparation program to increase readiness for rural teaching. In our analysis and discussion, we draw on critical and sociocultural theories to understand the experiences of a cohort of teacher candidates as they explore personal histories, the importance of place, expectations, and teaching strategies for rural contexts. We conclude our article with recommendations for enhancing teacher preparation programs in ways that might result in significant progress toward the goal of staffing rural schools with the highly skilled teachers all students deserve.
Dialogic Pedagogy and Reading Comprehension: Examining the Effect of Dialogic Support on Reading Comprehension for Adolescents
Hill, James Carroll (Virginia Tech, 2020-04-17)
The reading comprehension scores of students in secondary education have been stagnant since the collection of national statistics on reading comprehension began (National Assessment on Educational Progress [NAEP], 2015, 2017, 2019). This study explored the effect of providing dialogic and thematic support on reading comprehension and intertextuality. The theories of dialogic pedagogy (Fecho, 2011; Stewart, 2019) and cognitive flexibility in reading (Spiro et al., 1987), along with the construction-integration model of reading comprehension (Kinstch, 2004) formed the foundation for this study. The study focused on the reading comprehension and ability to make connections across texts of 184 participants enrolled in 9th or 10th grade English classes in a high school in the Appalachian region of the southeastern United States. Methods included an experimental study which required participants to participate in two rounds of testing: the Nelson Denny Reading Test to provide reading levels and the Thematically Connected Dialogic Pedagogy (TCDP) testing which introduced dialogic and thematic support for reading comprehension and intertextuality. For the TCDP testing, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Thematically Connected Texts (TC), Thematically Connected Texts with Dialogic Support (TCDS), or a Control. Results from testing were analyzed to compare performance on outcome measures for reading comprehension and ability to make connections between texts. These comparisons suggest that the interventions do not affect either outcome measure significantly, though the data highlight the need for a nuanced approach to reading intervention and the development of adolescents' ability to use textual evidence. The findings drawn from the data point to implications for English educators, teacher educators, and administrators in the areas of assisting adolescents in making meaning from texts at a level that facilitates applying that knowledge in effective ways in order for them to fully participate in social, civic, and economic matters.
Dialogue Journals: Literacy Transactions of Fourth-Grade Students
Sigmon, Miranda Lee (Virginia Tech, 2016-05-05)
This study was designed to explore written responses of dialogue journals in a fourth-grade social studies classroom to better understand individuals' meaning-making responses during content-based lessons. The Transactional Theory of Literacy acknowledges that readers generate individualized experiences as they transact with literacy. Although Rosenblatt focused explicitly on the transactions readers make with text, this study expands the idea of these transactions to the more current, unbounded definition of text. Writing could be the tool used for students to record these transactions that lead to their continuously changing, individualized understandings. Through journals, students conversed with one another using written dialogue in the continued generation or restructuring of existing understandings in response to exposure of a content-specific text. The following research questions were addressed in the study: How do written responses of fourth-grade students made in dialogue journals express students' understandings of content-based lessons? 2) To what extent do dialogue journals motivate students in content-based lessons? Analysis of dialogue journals showed evidence of varying levels of understanding, the effective use of journals as a communication tool, and differences in statement types depending on journal audience and content materials used. The MUSIC Model Inventory (Jones, 2009) used to assess perceptions of motivational constructs related to use of dialogue journals in social studies lessons yielded positive results for all constructs measured. Therefore, the results of the study including word count findings, qualitative journal analysis, and observational files clearly showed evidence of dialogue journals being a motivating way of having students express their understandings of content-based texts.
The Effect of Whiteboarding on Student Self-Efficacy in the Computer Science Classroom
Chapin, John Andrew (Virginia Tech, 2022-02-25)
Computer Science (CS) is a critical subject for STEM students to learn. Yet, many students struggle in Introductory Computer Science (CS1) and fail or dropout of the class. A lack of CS self-efficacy - the belief that the individual can complete a task - is frequently the cause of this failure to succeed in CS1. Solutions have been proposed to improve student self-efficacy in CS1. Unfortunately, a lack of self-efficacy in CS1 classes is still a problem. This study examines a pedagogical tool, whiteboarding, and it's affect on student perception of self-efficacy during the programming problem-solving process for novice programmers. These findings indicate whiteboarding can be a vital tool that increases student self-efficacy by improving their success at programming activities, increasing collaboration and feedback, and providing an active learning environment that is positive and holds students accountable for their work. The goal of this multiple method study was to identify the effect on CS1 students' perception of self-efficacy. Focus group sessions and researcher notes and memos were used to collect qualitative data. A pre- and post-intervention self-efficacy questionnaire was used to quantify the change in self-efficacy. The whiteboarding intervention was conducted in two AP CS A classes during the first four weeks of the year. Seventeen 10th grade students participated in the focus groups and the questionnaire. Three focus groups of four students and one focus group of five students was conducted at the end of the intervention. The three themes that emerged from the focus group sessions answered the research question: Engagement with the Problem, Engagement with Others, and Engagement with the Environment. Teaching success in the CS1 classroom requires student self-efficacy. This study has implications for CS1 course instructors.
Emerging Dialogic Structures in Education Reform: An analysis of Urban Teachers’ Online Compositions
Stewart, Trevor Thomas; Boggs, George L. (2016-05-04)
This paper contextualizes contemporary urban teachers’ online dissent in public discussions of education reform inrelation to past educational crisis narratives to interpret recent shifts in the structure of education reform dialogue inthe United States. It does so by examining the form and content of compositions in which teachers respond toeducation reform. The analysis is intended to describe the digitally mediated roles teachers are asserting in acomplex public debate over the future of education in the United States. The structure and content of educationreform discourse has often cast teachers in static roles, which inhibits their active participation in discussions ofeducational policy. Using Mikhail Bakhtin’s position that language choices serve to stifle and/or reinvigorate dialogue,we examine contributions to online discussions and debate composed ostensibly by urban teachers in response todominant discourses. The data were analyzed with respect to discursive choices and grouped subsequently asthemed arguments and rhetorical moves. We argue that teachers’ strategic responses to education reform challengestifling truisms that seek to suspend discussion of all other factors besides teacher quality. Teachers’ critical digitalcompositions thus re-create critical, multi-voiced conversations in place of monologues about school improvement.The online, public compositions point to the dynamic structure of reform discourse that has the potential to benefitthose currently faulted for a variety of social problems. Nurturing and even exploiting the dynamic potential ofeducational reform discourse can create opportunities for teachers, policymakers, and educational researchers tomutually inform one another’s shared interest in educational improvement.Keywords:
Entering the Conversation: A Novice English Teacher's Approach to Exploring Difference Using Dialogic Pedagogy
Lindstrom, Pamela Neal (Virginia Tech, 2019-04-22)
This case study examined what happened when a novice teacher worked from a critical, dialogic stance to explore difference in his secondary English classroom. The study focused on a second-year teacher, employed at a suburban middle school, who had been trained in dialogic pedagogy during his teacher preparation program. Methods included lesson planning sessions, daily observations of the participant's classroom instruction, and participant interviews. Multiple data sources, including recordings of planning sessions, interview transcripts, classroom observation field notes, and analytical memos were generated and analyzed to establish new understandings about how dialogic practice affected his and his students' classroom experiences. These understandings suggested that the participant's efforts to enact a dialogic stance both benefited and complicated his practice. Insights generated by this study offer implications for teacher educators seeking to guide teacher candidates towards the translation of pedagogical theory into successful classroom practice in field placements and early-career classrooms.
Evaluating IEPs of Elementary School Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder
Watkins, Pamela Lawrence (Virginia Tech, 2018-04-27)
The prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) has increased 54.7% from 2000 to 2016 nationally (CDC, 2016), and comparably, 52.38% in the district where this program evaluation was conducted. This increase, paired with legislative requirements through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and recommendations from the National Research Council on educating students with ASD, has challenged school districts to develop programming targeting specific impairments characteristic of students with ASD. The purpose of this study was to evaluate programming through the evaluation of individualized education plans (IEPs) of students with ASD in kindergarten through third grade for the presence of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requirements and National Research Council recommendations. Additionally, 13 special education teachers providing services to one or more students in the category of ASD completed a 30 item self-report questionnaire on their confidence in developing IEPs and programming for students with ASD. Sixty-three IEPs were evaluated in the study for IDEA and NRC indicator proficiency levels and cross-referenced with teacher confidence levels on developing IEPs and programming for students with ASD. The study concluded data analysis of IEPs and special education teacher confidence levels resulted in the identification of programming strengths and weakness that can be used by the district in this study to develop a structured plan for improvements in the development of IEPs specific to the identified areas of impairments for students with ASD (behavior, communication, socialization). Specific to the district in this study is a recommended focus on the development of IEP goals based on individual student needs and NRC recommendations for students with ASD, descriptions of student motivational systems when appropriate, specially designed instruction, educational placement and the relationship of teacher knowledge and confidence about ASD to IEP and program development.
Examining a Place-Based Curriculum for High-Performing Learners: A Place-Based, Critical, Dialogic Curriculum for High-Performing Rural Writers
Bass, Erika Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2019-05-02)
Students' connections to place are important to bring into the classroom to help them make meaning. This multimethod study investigated the overarching research question: What is the influence of a place-based curriculum on high-performing, rural students as writers? This was broken into two sub-questions: (a) What is the effect of treatment condition on students writing ability, writing self-efficacy, and concepts of community and place and (b) In what ways do students reference place in their writing? In particular, this study examined students' writing ability, writing self-efficacy, connections to community/place, and references to place in students' writing. Working from a larger data set from the Promoting PLACE (Place, Literacy, Achievement, Community, and Engagement) in Rural Schools grant, students' pre- and post-test writing tasks, self-report writing self-efficacy, and community and place scales were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative approaches to explore the ways the curriculum supported students as writers. The sample included treatment and control students, randomly assigned at the district level. The treatment group access to the Promoting PLACE curriculum and the control group received the typical services their district provided. Quantitative analysis gave rise to more questions regarding sample size, gifted identification methods, and modes of instruction. Qualitative analysis gave insight into the importance of connecting to place in the classroom, so students can explore the richness of their rural places. Using a dialogic stance, with place-based pedagogy can provide students with opportunities to critically examine their places and the experiences they have in those places.
Exploring novice teacher responses to the challenges they encounter through guided reflective inquiry
May, Lauren Ashley (Virginia Tech, 2022-05-12)
Teachers encounter numerous challenges within their first years of teaching. More support needs to be provided to assist novice teachers with navigating challenges that have been persistent in the literature on novice teachers. This study considered how engaging in guided reflective inquiry could support novice teachers' abilities to notice and respond to the challenges they encounter. In particular, this study explored the different identities from which novice teachers can draw inspiration to understand how they may support or constrain the process of responding to challenges. Participating in guided reflective inquiry encouraged novice teachers to explore their responses to individual "wobble moments" (Fecho, 2011) and view those uncertainties as moments of growth. The theories of dialogism (Bakhtin, 1981) and dialogical self theory (Hermans and Hermans-Konopka, 2010) provided a lens through which meanings were created from the generated data. This study focused on six novice teachers within their first three years of full-time teaching and implemented elements of transactional analysis (Stewart, 2011) to analyze the narratives, memos, reflections, and interview discussions generated from the participant and researcher. The ways in which novice teachers noticed the challenges they encountered, used the concept of wobble to engage in dialogue with those challenges, and considered how the exploration of one's identity supported or constrained that process were examined in this study. Three generated understandings indexed the importance of enacting approaches to teacher induction that better support novice teachers: (1) challenges encountered by the participants aligned with persistent struggles that have been well-documented in the literature on teacher challenges, (2) participant responses to wobble moments involved a two-step process of an initial reaction and a decided-upon action, and (3) participant developing teacher identities were influenced by numerous aspects of their dialogical self. The implications of this study point to the need to enact approaches to teacher induction that use guided reflective inquiry as an adaptable structure to support novice teachers' abilities to bring their identities into dialogue with the tensions from challenges they experience in their individual teaching contexts.
Influence of Language, Culture, and Power on Teacher Instructional Decision-Making with High-Achieving African America Students in Advanced Secondary English Classrooms
Reed Marshall, Tanji Philicia (Virginia Tech, 2017-07-28)
This qualitative study was designed to examine the influences of language, culture, and power on teacher instructional decision-making with high-achieving African American students in advanced secondary English classrooms. The research questions were crafted to address how language, culture, and power influenced: (1) teachers' instructional planning when working with high-achieving African American students in the secondary English classrooms as they use literary and informational texts to support literacy development; (2) teachers' understanding of how language, culture, and power impact instructional decision-making when planning for literacy development with high-achieving African American students in advanced secondary English classrooms, and (3) teachers' understanding of how language, culture, and power influence learning and achievement for high-achieving African American students in advanced secondary English classrooms. The framework for this study was grounded in several intersectional theories related to; (a) schools as communities of practice (Wenger, 1998); (b) language as identity shaper and inseparable from culture (Delpit, 2002;Gee, 2005; Labov, 1972; Lee, 2007; Nieto, 2010; Smitherman, 1977; and Thornborrow, 1999); (c) culture as emergent due to human interaction (Carrithers, 1992); (d) power is a force in all relationships and interactions, which creates imbalances and determine the degree to which the language variations and cultures interact freely and equitably (Burbules, 1986; Freire, 1921/1970; Giroux, 1992; Nyberg, 1981; Shrigley, 1986); (e) race is a social construct and racism is normal infiltrating every aspect of US society including the education of marginalized groups (Delgado and Stefancic, 2012; Ford, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995); (f) secondary students acquire, develop, and engage with literacy differently from their elementary counterparts and require teachers to deepen their knowledge about the ways adolescents engage with texts (Alexander, 2003; Chall, 1983; Goldman and Snow, 2015; Idrisano and Chall, 1995; McConachie and Petrosky, 2009; Moje, 1996/2002; Piercy and Piercy, 2010; Schoenbach, Greenleaf, and Murphy, 2012; Shanahan and Shanahan, 2008). Participant interviews, lesson plans, and field notes generated data to address the research questions. Findings demonstrated language, culture, and power are intersectional and influence every aspect of the instructional decision-making process. This study provides insight into teacher's thinking about their planning and how the inquiry constructs influence that planning.
Novice teachers and embracing struggle: Dialogue and reflection in professional development
Stewart, Trevor Thomas; Jansky, Timothy A. (Elsevier, 2022-12)
This article explores the challenges shared by novice teachers in a year-long series of professional development workshops, which were designed to help novice teachers notice, unpack, and respond to the difficulties they were encountering in the first three years of teaching. The authors analyzed the data generated during the Oral Inquiry Process workshops to identify common challenges shared by the novice teachers who participated in this study and the nuances within them. Findings pointed to two common categories of struggle: reconciling theory and practice in standardized schools and managing relationships with veteran teachers. Nuances within these challenges included tension flowing from standardization, pacing constraints, and navigating complex relation- ships with veteran teachers. The authors argue that developing a nuanced understanding of the challenges novice teachers encounter is a vital first step in structuring teacher induction programs to respond to the needs of the teachers they serve. Working from the findings of the study, the authors offer recommendations for structuring professional development programs designed to help novice teachers embrace struggle through dialogue about and reflection upon the particular challenges created by their teaching contexts.
Reflections of an Academic Father: A Dialogic Approach to Balancing Identity
Stewart, Trevor Thomas (IGI Global, 2022-04-15)
This chapter discusses the complexity of balancing the professional and personal goals and identities that can often seem incongruent as teacher educators manage the demands of life in the academy. The author explores that complexity by discussing what he learned from reflecting upon his efforts to balance the tension between his professional and personal goals as an academic and as a father. He draws upon dialogical-self theory to discuss ways the facets of one's identity can be brought into dialogue with one another as people respond to the challenges they encounter. The chapter describes the reflective process of engaging in dialogue with philosophical mentors that supported the author's efforts to manage the tensions created by feeling like his senses-of-self as an academic and as a father were at odds. By sharing his struggles and his reflective process for responding to tension, the author aims to help readers find ways to see tension as a mechanism for growth and their own complex identities as sources of insight.
The "Simple View," Instructional Level, and the Plight of Struggling Fifth-Sixth Grade Readers
Morris, Darrell; Meyer, Carla; Trathen, Woodrow; McGee, Jennifer; Vines, Nora; Stewart, Trevor Thomas; Gill, Tom; Schlagal, Robert (2016-11-01)
This article discusses a study exploring the performance of struggling readers on reading assessments to determine what we might learn about connections between their print processing skills and possible instructional interventions.
Supporting Rural Adolescent Voices in the Secondary English Language Arts Classroom
Wright, Heather Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2021-07-30)
The purpose of this qualitative study was to employ a sociocultural, anti-deficit, and dialogic rural theoretical framework to examine the ways teachers seek to support the lived experiences of rural adolescent students in the secondary English language arts classroom as students make meaning with the content of the curriculum. This study worked with the social constructs of rurality (Azano, 2011; Azano and Biddle, 2019; Corbett, 2007; Gruenewald, 2008), critical literacy (Freire, 1990, 2018; Gee, 1990), and learning-centered pedagogy (Fecho et al., 2021) to develop insights into ways that teachers navigate opportunities and challenges in contemporary rural schools. The study focused on secondary English language arts teachers teaching in rural school districts. The participant selection criteria included being employed fulltime as an English language arts teacher at a secondary rural high school, having taught for at least three years, and identifying as teaching from a learning-centered pedagogical stance. All three participants taught at rural North Carolina high schools. The method used was adapted from the three-phase interview approach (Seidman, 1990), with an intake interview, a midpoint interview, and a final interview. The midpoint interview was adapted to consist of three separate post-classroom observation interviews. The post-classroom observation interviews were preceded each round by a co-planning lesson and a classroom observation. There were three stages of data generation, spanning from February 2021 to May 2021. To learn about participants' experiences supporting rural student voices, triangulation (Guba and Lincoln, 1981) was used through multiple data sources: teacher interviews, collaborative lesson planning, classroom observations, post-observation conferences, field notes, memos, and email correspondences. Thematic analysis (Maxwell, 2013) was used to analyze and code the data. From the data analysis, three understandings were generated about the ways in which rural English language arts teachers support students in the classroom. Participants were (1) supporting student voice through instructional design, (2) attending to biases and seeking to dialogue within the classroom, and (3) utilizing lived experiences and literacies. The implications of the study include that rural students can face stereotypes due to the deficit mindset of rurality (Azano et al., 2021a, 2021b, Azano and Biddle, 2019; Theobald and Wood, 2010) and that the utilization of bringing their lived experiences into the classroom can serve as a means to help them make meaning with the content of the classroom. The English language arts classroom can be a space for students to be supported through the use of a learning-centered stance that seeks to collapse traditional hierarchies in the classroom (Fecho et al., 2021).
Supporting teacher candidates’ development of critical thinking skills through dialogue and reflection
Stewart, Trevor Thomas (IGI Global, 2019-01-01)
This chapter employs a dialogic, sociocultural perspective to describe ways teacher educators can support teacher candidates as they develop the critical thinking skills needed to make the transition from student to teacher in contemporary classrooms in the United States. Data from a longitudinal qualitative study are used to examine the utility of problem-posing seminars and subsequent reflection as tools that can help English teacher candidates embrace the tension they encounter as competing ideologies both complicate and nurture their efforts to enact a student-centered framework for teaching. Specifically, participants’ reflections on their efforts to employ dialogic approaches to teaching are explored in the context of standardized curricula and classroom settings. Data suggest that making dialogue and reflection key facets of teacher education programs creates conditions for critical thinking and creativity to flourish.
Urban teachers’ online dissent produces cultural resources of relevance to teacher education
Stewart, Trevor Thomas; Boggs, George L. (2018-07)
This paper explores urban teachers’ published responses to education reform. These compositions published online are examined as sources of cultural knowledge that are relevant to teacher education. Using sociolinguistic theory and method, the compositions’ arguments and rhetorical moves are analyzed to interpret the use of digital compositions to respond to education reform initiatives in the United States. The patterned speech contained in these compositions demonstrates forms of agency important to the pursuit of professional autonomy. This finding has implications for teacher education and raises questions about whether and how cultural resources being developed by urban (and other) teachers through online composition may be ethically appropriated to benefit pre-service and in-service teachers.

Browsing by Author "Stewart, Trevor Thomas"

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