Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak Recent documents in Bonnie Konopak en-us Tue, 23 Jun 2009 10:11:47 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/3 http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/3 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:50:11 PDT This study examined preservice and inservice secondary teachers' orientations toward content area reading and instruction. Instruments included two sets of belief statements and three sets of lesson plans; for comparison, each instrument incorporated three explanations of the reading process. Based on their selection of statements and plans, preservice teachers favored an interactive model of reading but a reader-based instructional approach, whereas inservice teachers held reader-based beliefs in both areas. In addition, both groups selected primarily reader-based vocabulary and comprehension lessons but varied in their choices of decoding lessons. Further, only teachers holding reader-based beliefs consistently chose corresponding vocabulary and comprehension plans. Bonnie C. Konopak Articles http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/2 http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/2 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:50:07 PDT This article reports a study of coauthor Laura Wright as she learned to teach secondary school grammar in four settings: university teacher education program, student teaching, her first job, and second job. Data for her university program came from Laura's journals and projects from her course work. Data from student teaching and her first job included interviews and field notes from observations and interviews and self-reports by Laura of teaching conducted on other occasions. Information from her second job came from self-reports by Laura. The data were analyzed using a system that identified the pedagogical tools Laura employed and the attributions she made for learning how to use them. The data suggest that Laura sought to teach in ways that students found engaging, meaningful, enjoyable, and relevant. How she was able to make grammar instruction fit this goal varied according to the setting in which her instruction took place. Peter Smagorinsky Articles http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/1 http://works.bepress.com/bkonopak/1 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 16:50:04 PDT This article reports a case study of an elementary school teacher moving from her university teacher education program into her first full-time job teaching a K/first-grade class. Using activity theory, we analyzed her conceptualization of teaching as she moved through the key settings of her university program, student teaching, and first job. This conceptualization began with the university's emphasis on constructivism, a notion that diffused as she moved from the formal environment of the university to the practical environment of the schools. Data for the study included preteaching interviews, classroom observations, pre- and postobservation interviews, group concept map activities, interviews with supervisors and administrators, and artifacts from schools and teaching. Data analysis sought to identify tools for teaching and the ways in which those tools were supported by the environments of teaching. Results center on 2 aspects of constructivist teaching: the teacher's use of integrations and the decentering of the classroom. The analysis showed that the teacher, rather than developing and sustaining a concept of constructivist teaching, instead developed what Vygotsky calls a complex, that is, a less unified understanding and application of the abstraction. Implications of the study concern ways of thinking about the common pedagogical problem teacher educators face when students of their programs abandon the theoretical principles stressed in university programs. Leslie Susan Cook Articles