Nomination for Heather A. Davis
Name: Heather A. Davis
Personal home page: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~hadavis2/
Project: EDP 304: Educational Psychology
Brief Description and Purpose of project
The purpose of EDP 304 is to survey the theories and research on human learning and
motivation within the context of educational settings. This course was recently adopted as a 'Unit Wide' course for all teacher education candidates enrolling in accredited programs. Moreover, as the state 1-to-1 laptop initiate grows and more and more districts make laptop technology available for their k-12 students, we needed to respond to the need to model and prepare future teachers to teach in 1-to 1 settings.
This summer, with the support of the DELTA Summer institute, I redesigned EDP 304 to become a large (currently 80 students enrolled per term), 1-to-1 laptop course.
With regard to the content of Educational Psychology, it is my goal that by the end of the course students are be able to: 1) Identify the major theoretical perspectives in Educational Psychology, 2) Identify tensions both within theoretical perspectives as well as across, 3) Argue a position using sound theory (even if it is a position you do not espouse), 4) Analyze your own experiences as a learner in light of psychological theories. However, it is also my goal that students who enroll in my section of EDP 304 will observe a variety of 1-to-1 laptop pedagogies, become more confident with Learning Management Systems, and learn to participate in an on-line community of practice.
Throughout the term, students observe their instructor using a variety of tools to generate discussion, formatively and summatively assess students, provide feedback. These tools include:
1) Use of popular culture video and text to engage students and promote the application and transfer of learning theory.
2) Me Too! (to generate discussion)
3) Quick Writes submitted through CALS Survey Builder (formative assessment)
4) Audience Response (Turning Point)surveys and mini-quizzes (formative assessment and generate discussion)
5) Case Study Analysis (using MOODLE; including adaptive mode and automatic feedback)
6) Discussion Forums (Teacher generated topic large discussion; Student-generated topic in large discussion format; Student-generated topics in visible group mode; Student-generated topics in separate group mode)
7) Anonymous surveys (administered through Survey Builder CALS / Survey Monkey) that allow us to explore underlying belief structures.
Evidence of Project Impact at NC State
There are several ways to evaluate the impact of this course on the college. The first would be to evaluate student performance on the College Signature Artifact. For EDP 304 this is a case study assessment, designed by all the instructional faculty to assess minimum competency.
Another would be to look at the Student Evaluations of Instruction.
A third would be to examine the quality of work students complete. This course is writing intensive. Students write to learn (quick writes, discussion forums) as well as write to demonstrate mastery (case studies and final projects). They receive frequent feedback on the quality of their written assessments and the extent to which their reflection on course content are 1) scholarly and 2) productive according to Elizabeth Davis' (2006) criteria for productive reflection. For me, a significant impact of the course is on the extent to which students develop the kinds of reflection skills that are evidenced by effective teachers.
A final criteria has to do with the impact of the course on pre-service teachers' dispositions towards diversity. In this course, we pair anonymous survey data collected from the class with electronic quick writes where students sign in. The anonymous surveys are designed to reveal pre-service teachers naive conception of responsibility (or, in many cases lack of) for diverse populations of students. We involve students in interpreting data derived from the class and hold them accountable for interpreting it accurately. We then challenge students to make sense of their beliefs in light of reform efforts that hold teacher accountable for teaching diverse student populations. Tom (1996) argued that a critical step in changing non-adaptive pre-service teacher beliefs is 1) revealing them and 2) creating opportunities for students to evaluate the "fit" of their belief structures given policy and research.
I believe I had data that can demonstrate this course has had an impact on NC State Students based on these four criteria.
Evidence of Project Impact beyond NC State
I am active nationally in the discussion of how to improve the teaching of educational psychology. I believe my research should inform my teaching and my teaching should inform my research. As such, this project has been evolving for several years and I have presented different elements of the design at national conferences as a way to receive feedback and share findings. Each of the projects below informed the design of the course and, in turn, several elements or the design of the course have been (or are being) submitted for publication in professional journals.
Presentations include:
Davis, H. A., & Silverman, S. K. (August, 2009). Exploring the use of popular texts and media to contextualize the teaching of educational psychology: Revealing the systemic effects of teacher beliefs, stereotypes, and implicit associations through blink © and Crash ©. Paper presented at the Division 15 Pre-Conference on Teaching Educational Psychology; Annual conference of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.
Silverman, S. K., & Davis, H. A. (April 2009). Exploring pre-service teachers’ sense of responsibility for working with diverse students. Paper presented at the Symposium on “Looking and Listening in Classrooms” at the Annual Conference of the American Educational Research Association, San Diego, CA.
Straub, E. T., & Davis, H. A. (July, 2006). Students' and teachers perceptions of connectivity in distance education. Paper presented as part of the symposia on the Interpersonal Contexts of Teaching Selves: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going? at the Fourth Biennial International SELF Conference, Ann Arbor, MI.
Davis, H. A., Hartshorne, R., Hayes, S., & Ring, G. (August, 2003). Developing an “innovative” identity: Pre-service teachers’ beliefs about technology and innovation. Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the American Psychological Association, Toronto, Canada.
Davis, H. A., Ring, G., & Ferdig, R. E. (March, 2002). Integrating Technology into the Study of Teaching and Learning. In Willis, D.A., Price, J., & Davis, N.E. (Eds.) 2002 Information Technology and Teacher Education Annual: Proceedings of SITE2002 (p. 1306 - 1307). Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).
Ferdig, R. E., & Davis, H. A. (March, 2002). How and when do students become "invested" in on-line collaboration? In Willis, D.A., Price, J., & Davis, N.E. (Eds.) 2002 Information Technology and Teacher Education Annual: Proceedings of SITE2002 (p. 1319). Norfolk, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).