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(1 - 3 of 3)
- Title
- EFFECTS ON TEACHERS' MATHEMATICS CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF A PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITY.
- Creator
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Price, Beverley, Kaplan, Jeffrey, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The purpose of this research was to study the implementation of a professional learning community comprised of one group of third-grade teachers in a Florida elementary school where the emphasis was on research-based practices in the teaching of mathematics. Investigated were the growth of teachers' content knowledge in mathematics, specifically in the areas of multiplication and division, and the effects of their professional learning within their classrooms. Specifically this study looked...
Show moreThe purpose of this research was to study the implementation of a professional learning community comprised of one group of third-grade teachers in a Florida elementary school where the emphasis was on research-based practices in the teaching of mathematics. Investigated were the growth of teachers' content knowledge in mathematics, specifically in the areas of multiplication and division, and the effects of their professional learning within their classrooms. Specifically this study looked at whether or not the participation of a group of third grade teachers in a professional learning community PLC improved the mathematical content knowledge of the participants of the study. This research design called for the research to be conducted in three phases. In Phase I, the researcher interviewed all participants using a researcher-designed interview guide. A researcher-adapted survey, based upon previously released items Ball (2008) was administered as a pre-test of mathematical content knowledge,. In Phase II of the study, the researcher documented the activities that occurred within a 10-week long professional learning community (PLC) of third-grade teachers. In Phase III of the research, a post-study interview was conducted with each of the participants by an independent observer to elicit participants' perceptions and observations based on their participation in the PLC. A post-test of content knowledge was also administered to the participants. Several themes were identified in the research study. These themes led to recommendations for practice and future research. Themes were related to the lack of mathematical understanding experienced by some teachers and the lack of professional development specifically related to mathematics, the value of the professional learning community, and the benefits of sharing current research and best practices. During this study, the participants were able to read and share examples of research-based best practices in mathematics, and participants then used this new information and additional mathematics content knowledge in their classrooms in teaching their students.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2011
- Identifier
- CFE0003619, ucf:48856
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0003619
- Title
- STRUCTURAL STUDY OF DISEASE RELATED PROTEINS.
- Creator
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Ozyurt, Ayse, Selby, Thomas, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The availability of complete sequences for the genomes of many organisms changes the researcher's attention from genome sequencing to finding the function of gene products, the proteins. The three dimensional (3D) structure of a protein is helpful to understand its function, because tertiary structure is more conserved in evolution than sequence. The 3D structures can be found quickly by using high-throughput (HT) methods for protein expression, purification, characterization and structure...
Show moreThe availability of complete sequences for the genomes of many organisms changes the researcher's attention from genome sequencing to finding the function of gene products, the proteins. The three dimensional (3D) structure of a protein is helpful to understand its function, because tertiary structure is more conserved in evolution than sequence. The 3D structures can be found quickly by using high-throughput (HT) methods for protein expression, purification, characterization and structure determination. This process is very challenging in every step. Therefore we selected nearly 200 cancer related proteins as targets to see the difficulties in trying to determine the web predicted structural properties that make the protein easy to produce and crystallize using current technologies. Selection of targets, gene carriers or vectors and the expression strains of Escherichia coli K12-MG1655 (EC) are very important to obtain soluble expression clones and pure protein for crystallization and structure determination. Identification of protein function based on 3D structural analysis comes after the structure determination. We described a new calculation method called frame method to characterize the proteins in the mu-crystallin fold family. Two functionally characterized proteins, ornithine cyclodeaminase (OCD) and alanine dehydrogenase (AlaDH), are used as frames in order to annotate the activity of OCD like 1 from thermophilic Sulfolobus solfataricus P2 (Ss) and the human mu-crystallin enzyme. OCD like 1 seems to have OCD activity, but the human enzyme does not, as described in the literature. In the meantime, OCD like 1 expression was tested and purified to test for OCD activity to validate our calculations. We were not able to purify OCD like 1; therefore the determination of catalytic activity of it will require future studies. Crystallization, structure determination and identification of protein function are dependent on each other; therefore we started crystallization studies of Phosphoinositide-specific phospholipase C (PI-PLC) from Streptomyces antibioticus (Sa) to better understand the mechanism of action of the PLC protein family. SaPLC is purified by affinity, gel filtration and ion exchange chromatographies. SaPLC crystals are obtained using the hanging drop crystallization technique at concentrations of 20-24 % polyethylene glycol (PEG) 17500 and 1.5-2 % 1,4- dioxane for 35-40 mg/mL protein. The main major barrier to success of structure determination is the preparation of well-diffracting crystals for X-ray diffraction studies, which we are currently optimizing.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2005
- Identifier
- CFE0000632, ucf:46541
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0000632
- Title
- A Study of the Relationship between Continuous Professional Learning Community Implementation and Student Achievement in a Large Urban School District.
- Creator
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Sutula, Erica, Taylor, Rosemarye, Baldwin, Lee, Doherty, Walter, Ellis, Amanda, University of Central Florida
- Abstract / Description
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The purpose of this causal comparative study was to understand the differences in comparative data across a large urban school district and to examine the continued effects of the PLC model on teacher and leader perception of the model and student achievement as measured by the 2012 and 2014 FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics. The population for this study included all instructional and leadership personnel in schools within the target school district, with a final convenience sample across the...
Show moreThe purpose of this causal comparative study was to understand the differences in comparative data across a large urban school district and to examine the continued effects of the PLC model on teacher and leader perception of the model and student achievement as measured by the 2012 and 2014 FCAT 2.0 Reading and Mathematics. The population for this study included all instructional and leadership personnel in schools within the target school district, with a final convenience sample across the two school years of N=5,954.The research questions for this study focused on (a) the change in teacher's perception of teachers from the 2012 to the 2014 school year, (b) the impact, if any, of teacher and leader perception on student performance for the FCAT, (c) the differences between the perceptions of teachers and leaders. This study added to the findings of Ellis (2010), expanding the understanding of the complexities of collaboration among teachers, administrators, collaboration, and students. Conclusions from the quantitative analysis found a statistically significant difference between how teachers perceived the implementation of collaborative time during both the 2012 and 2014 school years. Further analysis concluded that there was a statistically significant positive relationship between continual PLC implementation and student achievement for Grade 3 Reading and Mathematics. Other grade levels did show educationally significant findings for the impact of continual implementation on student achievement, but the results did not meet the criteria for statistical significance. There was not a statistically significant relationship between any other measure and any of the considered standardized test scores. Statistically significant differences were found between the 2012 and 2014 perceptions of teachers and leaders.Recommendations from the quantitative analysis include the importance of having collaborative time for teachers. Furthermore, leaders should focus on maximizing the effectiveness of collaborative time by curtailing the amount of required administrative tasks, thereby allowing teachers to focus on designing instructional interventions and analyzing student data through collaboration. This study is an addition to the current literature demonstrating the general perceptions, and impacts of long term implementation of the PLC model, when paired with Ellis' (2010) study it is clear that teachers need continual work within one collaborative model, modeling of collaborative practices by leadership, and support from school leaders for collaborative time to begin positively impacting student achievement.
Show less - Date Issued
- 2017
- Identifier
- CFE0006802, ucf:51812
- Format
- Document (PDF)
- PURL
- http://purl.flvc.org/ucf/fd/CFE0006802
