December 9, 2015
Drs. Howard and Guidry Present Research at CUFA and NCSS Annual Conferences
Two faculty members in the Department of Literacy Studies, English Education, and History Education, Dr. Christy Howard (Assistant professor in Reading Education) and Dr. Allen Guidry (Associate professor in History Education) recently presented research at the annual conferences of the College and University Faculty Assembly (CUFA) and the National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). At CUFA, Drs. Howard and Guidry presented a research paper entitled, Instructional Practices of Practicum Teacher Candidates in a Content Literacy and Social Studies Methods Co-teaching Environment.
This research arose from their collaborative project from spring 2015 where they co-taught a combined history teaching methods and content literacy course. Their qualitative research presented data that suggested that the co-taught course enhanced students’ recognition of the connection between history and literacy. Their research also suggested that both faculty and students found the co-taught university course to be an effective means for modeling and building collaboration among teacher candidates.
Dr. Howard commented, “While our purpose was to model the co-teaching process for our students, it was a tremendous benefit for me to collaborate with Dr. Guidry across disciplines.” At NCSS, Drs. Guidry and Howard teamed with a local high school teacher, Mrs. Jennifer Bryan at South Central HS, to present a new teaching strategy for analyzing and interpreting a variety of historical resources the team developed called SPACES. The presentation was entitled Civil Rights 360 – Viewing Complex Problems through Multiple Perspectives and presented an interactive website the team designed to guide high school students through an historical investigation.
Dr. Guidry noted of the reception of the presentation by NCSS attendees, “It was exciting to see so many teachers interested in this idea. The design team really wanted to create an engaging and academically rigorous approach to historical inquiry that all students could access. The feedback from the field trial of the method and from NCSS participants suggests that we are on the right track.”