Papers by Carla Lynn Tanguay
By presenting this dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the advanced deg... more By presenting this dissertation as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the advanced degree from Georgia State University, I agree that the library of Georgia State University shall make it available for inspection and circulation in accordance with its regulations governing materials of this type. I agree that permission to quote, to copy from, or to publish this dissertation may be granted by the professor under whose direction it was written, by the College of Education and Human Development's Director of Graduate Studies, or by me. Such quoting, copying, or publishing must be solely for scholarly purposes and will not involve potential financial gain. It is understood that any copying from or publication of this dissertation which involves potential financial gain will not be allowed without my written permission.
International journal of technology in education, Oct 25, 2022
Due to the health pandemic of 2020, teachers have been forced to initiate online teaching deliver... more Due to the health pandemic of 2020, teachers have been forced to initiate online teaching delivery models with little preparation just as students and parents have had their routines abruptly altered from in-person schooling to hybrid and fully online instruction (Mecham, et al., 2021). The pandemic brought to light new opportunities for novice teachers to learn how to implement pedagogical strategies using digital tools to support student learning and development in remote settings. As part of a larger case study of 23 novice teachers who graduated from our urban institution, these results focus on new teachers’ perceptions of their own development and their impact on student learning while teaching online, during the pandemic. Semi-structured interviews focused on educators’ approaches to instruction across 12-18 months of the pandemic. Data were analyzed using NVivo through open coding. Findings help us understand these new teachers’ perceptions of their impact on student learning while developing knowledge and skills to teach fully online. Four themes are highlighted in this study as a glimpse into new teachers’ perceptions of themselves and their impact during this time. New teachers describe their impact on student learning as their ability to build relationships and trust with learners and their families, to use students’ funds of knowledge to engage them in meaningful tasks, to teach with digital tools, modeling and collaborating with learners, and to incorporate various digital tools to monitor progress, assess, and provide feedback online. Novices describe student engagement and motivation as resulting student outcomes due to their abilities to build relationships, tap into students’ multiple knowledge bases, and use digital tools to teach and assess student learning. They describe their new knowledge and skills teaching online as unintended outcomes related to their own development and learning.
School Science and Mathematics
This inquiry examined the pedagogical practices in mathematics of elementary teachers (N=27) who ... more This inquiry examined the pedagogical practices in mathematics of elementary teachers (N=27) who had been identified as experienced and successful and were working in an urban school district with underserved student populations. Also investigated were relationships between their instructional practices and other elements of proficient teaching of mathematics, including specialized content knowledge and beliefs. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected via a knowledge assessment, belief surveys, classroom observations, and individual interviews. The findings related to learner-centered, equitable mathematics instruction reveal a mixed picture of understanding and enactment by the participants, illuminating variability and complexity, especially within the context of a standardized model for instructional delivery. Participants expressed constraints in implementing learner-centered, equitable mathematics instruction, particularly: prescribed, scripted lesson plans; teaching roles that involved instruction of many students thus contributing to lack of familiarity; and a mix of learners who were in-class and remote due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results also demonstrate that pedagogical practices were shaped by participants’ specialized content knowledge and to a more limited extent their beliefs. These data further reveal mixed endorsement of the different belief constructs. Considerations for teacher development are discussed.
Investigations in Mathematics Learning
This 5-year mathematics professional development project involves 27 elementary teachers prepared... more This 5-year mathematics professional development project involves 27 elementary teachers prepared and supported as Elementary Mathematics Specialists (EMSs) in high-need, urban schools. The EMSs are a distinctive population as informal teacher leaders, with a primary responsibility of teaching students. Described here are data collected at the end of Year 1 via a survey of coaching practices, a teacher leader record, and individual and focus group interviews. The findings illuminate the variety of ways they were serving as a more knowledgeable other and practicing agency in this teacher leadership. They were agentic in their teacher leader efforts by navigating constraints through: focusing on incremental changes; developing collegial, trusting relationships with peers; and leaning into the network of teacher support in the project. The findings also provide insights into how their primary and concurrent role as teacher of students provided credibility and understanding with fellow teachers, contributing to affordances in their informal teacher leader capacity.
International Journal on Social and Education Sciences
In “Will Schools Change Forever,” Waite and Arnett contend our educational system, and our societ... more In “Will Schools Change Forever,” Waite and Arnett contend our educational system, and our society as a whole, have been confronted with two pandemics, COVID-19 and systemic racism (2020). Both of these pandemics have acerbated challenges schools must address and have exposed chronic inequities in educational systems. Our inquiry is case study of 23 novice teachers who graduated from our urban institution and their perception of how the pandemics impacted the development of their students, their own professional trajectory, and their future instruction. Semi-structured interviews focused on educators’ approaches to instruction across 12-18 months of the pandemic. Data were analyzed using NVivo through open coding. Results indicated novice teachers’ initial teaching experiences were disrupted by both Covid-19 and the social unrest during this time period. The challenges they faced reflected their focus as culturally responsive educators who were working to meet the needs of the learn...
Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue, 2018
American Journal of Educational Research, 2018
This study utilized the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) to understand faculty's responses to... more This study utilized the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) to understand faculty's responses to the implementation of edTPA as a requirement for initial teacher certification. Two instruments were used to examine faculty's behavioral and motivational response to the policy change. Faculty representing private and public institutions across the state (N = 56) responded to both instruments. Questionnaire items were analyzed by converting raw scores to percentiles, while open-ended responses were coded by stage of concern. Positive correlations between stages of concern and levels of integration indicated that engaging in a collaborative process of analyzing candidates' scores possibly leads to a deeper understanding of edTPA as a construct and may help faculty make informed decisions about their emphasis on different aspects of edTPA in their courses. Faculty who were unconcerned or focused on personal issues were less likely to be involved in activities such as analyzing and making informed decisions utilizing student data from local and national scores. Faculty who integrated edTPA-like content into their courses were more focused on finding ways to manage time and resources related to edTPA and were more involved in collaboration with other faculty members. Opportunities for collective data analysis within institutions may have played an important role in faculty's involvement in assessing personal strengths and areas of improvement in preparing candidates to pass edTPA in the consequential year.
Teacher Development, 2021
ABSTRACT In response to increased accountability demands placed on teacher preparation programs a... more ABSTRACT In response to increased accountability demands placed on teacher preparation programs across the US, some programs are using standardized teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA. A recent mandate for this study’s elementary teacher preparation program is teacher candidates’ successful completion of edTPA for teacher certification. A case study design explored the experiences and views of multiple stakeholders (instructors, supervisors, administrators, teacher candidates, and cooperating teachers, N = 60) as they engaged in edTPA. Data were collected via two surveys and individual interviews. The effects of edTPA were visible across the data in a variety of ways, as stakeholders found the assessment overwhelming, often taking precedence because of its high-stakes nature. Changes were questioned, as this program was already held in high regard and produced high-quality teachers prepared for urban school contexts. Analysis of the interview data revealed three themes: Assets of edTPA, edTPA-produced Changes, and Not a Fair Measure.
Education Sciences
This research focuses on understanding the effectiveness of a university-based induction support ... more This research focuses on understanding the effectiveness of a university-based induction support program (ISP) instituted to support the graduates of an urban university who completed their preparation during the COVID-19 pandemic. We framed the evaluation of our ISP as participatory action research (PAR) and chose a critical theoretical perspective of adult learning and development as our theoretical lens because of the close alignment with this perspective to our college’s conceptual framework on social justice and equity. Primary data sources consisted of individual interviews with 15 key informants identified by the ISP research team. Data analyses occurred through a recursive and generative process moving between open coding using Nvivo and reflection on the literature related to critical adult learning theory and research on effective induction and coaching models. Findings included (a) the ISP as a liberating space to engage with other educators, (b) the ISP’s role as a unive...
Proceedings of the 2021 AERA Annual Meeting
The cooperating teacher has long been referred to as the most significant person in the education... more The cooperating teacher has long been referred to as the most significant person in the education of teacher candidates (Guerrieri, 1976) and plays a crucial role in ensuring teacher candidates have an educative and gainful student teaching experience (Hynes-Dusel, 1999; Stark, 1994). We found however, that the voice of the cooperating teachers has been largely missing in teacher education evaluation research. Our study focused on obtaining feedback about the effectiveness of our teacher education programs based on the learning outcomes of our college’s conceptual framework from arguably the most significant stakeholder, the cooperating teacher.
Georgia Educational Researcher, 2021
Most teacher education assessments are criticized for lacking validity and reliability. This stud... more Most teacher education assessments are criticized for lacking validity and reliability. This study describes the process of developing the Observation of Field Performance rubric to assess initial teacher candidates' classroom performance and establishing the content validity as well as reliability of the rubric. A panel of content area experts determined that 10 out of 12 items of the rubric were essential and the CVR was above the acceptable range for all 12 items, indicating that the rubric had a strong content validity. Additionally, the analysis of instructors' ratings on the rubric showed that the rubric had good level of internal consistency and inter-rater reliability. Thus, this study determined that the OFP is a reliable and valid measure of candidate performance during field practice. Establishing validity and reliability not only enables teacher education programs to collect high quality assessment data, it is also crucial for program approval and accreditation decisions by national and state agencies.
Education Policy Analysis Archives, 2019
This study examined the implementation of high-stakes adoption of edTPA® in one state in the year... more This study examined the implementation of high-stakes adoption of edTPA® in one state in the year prior to consequential use of edTPA scores for teacher licensure. Using a mixed methods design, we investigated concerns of coordinators who were responsible for edTPA implementation in their institutions. We utilized the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) to understand edTPA coordinators’ Stages of Concern, the nature of the challenges they faced, and the professional development opportunities that alleviated their concerns. Based on the CBAM survey, the most common Stage of Concernfor edTPA coordinators was Management.Coordinators’ interviews revealed the nature of their concerns at different stages and how the size of their institution and supportive resources at particular times may have played a crucial role in shaping the edTPA roll-out in their institutions. The use of the CBAM framework enabled edTPA coordinators (a) to understand their own concerns about the high-stakes polic...
Action in Teacher Education, 2014
Professional development that scaffolds and supports supervisors is critical for quality field ex... more Professional development that scaffolds and supports supervisors is critical for quality field experiences and is our responsibility as teacher educators. The literature supports this statement and two ideas that conceptually frame our work: (1) quality field experiences are a critical component of preservice programs and (2) training and support for supervisors is necessary to ensure quality field experiences. With the overarching outcome of quality teacher candidates and strong partnerships with schools, the authors describe the context for their supervisors’ work, supervisors and their roles, a structure and resources for collaboration, then conclude with a practical and detailed framework to support professional development for supervisors. Based on four goals that guide the content and process of our professional development, the authors use a critical friends approach to (1) learn together; (2) develop a shared understanding of programs, teacher candidates, and school partners; (3) facilitate integration of coursework and field experiences; and (4) examine and extend the coaching process. Based on our experience, reflections, and the knowledge base in supervision, the authors make nine recommendations for establishing and sustaining professional development and support for supervisors.
education policy analysis archives, 2020
Policy makers have begun requiring teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA®, with establis... more Policy makers have begun requiring teacher performance assessments, such as edTPA®, with established validity and reliability in teacher education for certification, program approval, and/or accreditation (Darling-Hammond Hyler, 2013). Proponents of edTPA argue that the measure is an authentic yet standardized way to assess candidate readiness for teaching and may be beneficial for program renewal and professionalization of the teaching force (Darling-Hammond, 2010; Wei Pecheone, 2010). Others recognize unintended consequences of a single, standardized assessment which may narrow the curriculum (Kornfeld, Grady, Marker, Ruddell, 2007); create tensions for teacher candidates who are learning and developing; (Meuwissen Choppin, 2015); and overlook program values important for preparing candidates to teach in a global society (Sato, 2014). This case study uncovers teacher educators’ perceptions of edTPA and their subsequent actions in response to a state mandate resulting in educative ...
Performance-Based Assessment in 21st Century Teacher Education
Teacher educators share their experiences in response to the adoption of a high-stakes policy in ... more Teacher educators share their experiences in response to the adoption of a high-stakes policy in Georgia regarding the use of edTPA®. Their efforts followed an organic model characterized by the inclusion of three important concepts: (1) distributed leadership, (2) ongoing communication, and (3) a commitment to the evolution of responsibilities and support structures. Stories highlight the importance of collegiality, shared decision making, and clear and open communication within the institution to ensure the success of a policy imperative at the grass-roots level. Since the policy of edTPA for licensure in Georgia carried high stakes for teacher educators and teacher candidates alike, the transition period allowed faculty to engage in conversations and practices that paid attention to the policy imperative, simultaneously allowing them time to consider how to conserve the values and cultural assets of the institution.
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Papers by Carla Lynn Tanguay