College of Education News

Joan Armstrong inducted into the Marquis Who’s Who

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Joan Armstong, alumna and current staff member of Missouri State University, was recently inducted into the Marquis Who’s Who biographical registry.  

Armstong earned a Master of Science in school counseling from Missouri State in 1987. She is now the director of Project ACCESS, which offers training, resources and support services to school district personnel who serve students with autism and related developmental disabilities.  

The Marquis Who’s Who registry holds biographies of accomplished individuals and innovators from many significant fields including medicine, law and education.  

Read the full biography  

Congratulations, Ms. Armstrong!  

Giving teachers input on rural school policy

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The Rural Imperative Initiative aims to give a voice to rural schools across the nation. Missouri State University is partnering in this effort to bring the needs and concerns of rural schools to the attention of state, regional and national policymakers.  

The initiative is a collaborative effort between Rural Schools Collaborative (RSC), National Rural Education Association (NREA) and Community Foundation of the Ozarks (CFO). The initiative is funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The Rural Imperative Initiative will help teacher-leaders connect policy to place in five rural regions: Appalachia, Black Belt, Borderlands, Rust Belt and Northern California. 

The College of Education (COE) at Missouri State University is spearheading the rural school initiative program for the Rust Belt region.  

“We’ll be working with school partners to identify teachers to participate in this initiative,” COE Interim Dean Barri Tinkler said. “The COE is very excited to be a part of this work to engage teacher’s voices in contributing to policy formation.” 

Each of the five regions will create their own rural-teacher caucus. These groups will work together to create a “policy playbook” of local recommendations based on the specific challenges and opportunities in their area. 

Each partner organization receives $10,000 in funding to support their regional teacher caucus. 

Other regional partners include:  

“Advocating for rural education has been a long-standing priority for each of these organizations,” RSC Executive Director Taylor McCabe-Juhnke said. “We are honored to work with such high caliber partners to create a meaningful platform for teacher advocacy.” 

Over the coming school year, the policy playbook partnership will support these five partners in exploring the opportunities and challenges faced by teachers in their region. RSC, in partnership with the NREA, will then compile these recommendations and advocacy guidelines into a useful resource to benefit teachers and policymakers everywhere. 

Dr. Elizabeth King featured in Mind’s Eye magazine

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Dr. Elizabeth King studies social-emotional development in young children. Her recent research into how preschool teachers affirm or minimize children’s emotions – and how it varies between genders – is featured in the 2021 issue of Mind’s Eye.  

The full story is available on the site now. 

Here is an excerpt:   

King believes gender plays a major role in our social-emotional development. 

“The ways we talk about emotions with young children is affected by and affects our views of gender,” King said. 

“Our views of gender influence who we allow to experience and express various emotions. That changes how we talk about emotions with children.” 

Read the full story 

Congratulations, Dr. King!  

Filling in the gaps of technology education in our community

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With technology becoming a vital part of our day-to-day lives, it is easy to take basic tech skills for granted.  

Earlier this year, students in Missouri State University’s College of Business identified the need for basic technology skills and access for women who were recently out of situations of domestic abuse.  

Now, Annice McLean and Dr. Ching-wen Chang, faculty in Missouri State’s department of reading, foundations and technology (RFT) in the College of Education, are volunteering their time to help women gain the skills they need to get back on their feet.  

Acknowledging a need 

The project began as an assignment for MGT 440, leadership and development skills: identify a need in the community and offer a solution.  

The students focused their problem-solving skills on safe houses, or places women find shelter and support after leaving a domestic abuse situation.  

“What this project determined is that there was a gap in access to and use of technology,” McLean said. “This can be a hindrance to women finding gainful employment and pursuing further education.”  

Finding volunteers 

Van Oswald, one of the students on the project, reached out to the RFT department, hoping they could volunteer their time to provide technology education to women in need.   

McLean and Chang were some of the first faculty members who became aware of this project.  

As they met with the safe house coordinator, they realized the necessity to limit the number of people involved to maintain confidentiality for the women in the safe house.  

“We were excited about it and thought it was definitely a need. So, we volunteered to be part of the project,” McLean said.  

A unique curriculum 

The course that McLean and Chang are offering to the women is different from your typical introductory computer course.  

“The goal was to design a course that meets the needs and goals of individuals,” McLean said. 

The two teachers started with a list of basic information they thought would be relevant to anyone new to computers.  

As they began meeting, they gained a better understanding of the specific needs of each woman.  

“It could be anything from email, how to do a Zoom meeting, how to online shop or lessons on security,” McLean said. “It could even be about using online games to help reduce stress or accessing homework sites to help kids with online learning.”  

The best thing they could do was create a flexible plan that could help each woman reach her goals.  

“They just want something relevant to them – they need to find a job, finish school or manage their online banking,” Chang said. “So, we change the curriculum to help them do what they want to do.”  

Teaching and learning  

McLean and Chang use technology quite frequently in their work, but they could still relate with the struggle of learning new technology. “I think back to the first time I was going to have a Zoom meeting,” McLean said. “I was fearful it wasn’t going to work.”  

Having worked with the women several times throughout the semester, McLean and Chang felt everyone took something away from the lessons.  

“I felt like we helped the ladies. I also felt like I gained something from them as well – an appreciation of their attitudes and positivity,” McLean said.  

Inspiring awareness  

McLean and Chang hope that what they have started won’t end here.  

“I think our ultimate goal is to make it more seamless for the ladies – more convenient for them and their schedules,” McLean said. 

In the future, they hope to be able to provide more permanent access to computers and the internet. So far, they have been borrowing Chromebooks from the university for each session.  

“When we finish the class, we leave with the Chromebooks,” Chang said. “But hopefully, if this goes on, we may be able to work on a grant to buy some.” 

They also hope that their work will bring more awareness to others who may be struggling with access to technology or technological skills.  

“Maybe if other people hear about this, they will contact us, and we could set up some other opportunities for something similar,” McLean said. 

Contact Dr. Ching-wen Chang for more information.    

Contact Annice McLean for more information.   

Ungrading: shifting the classroom focus back to learning

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“If my curriculum and pedagogy aren’t sufficiently engaging, is that an argument to rely on grades to coerce students into doing what I want?” 

This is a quote from Alfie Kohn’s foreword to “UNgrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead).”  

The book inspired Dr. Chloe Bolyard, assistant professor in Missouri State University’s department of childhood education and family studies (CEFS).  

Now Bolyard is looking for ways to take the emphasis off grades in her classroom.  

She first heard about the topic of ungrading through interactions on Twitter between various education professionals.  

Ungrading is a classroom philosophy that emphasizes feedback rather than scores or letter grades.  

“We all define it differently, but I think the goal is the same,” Bolyard said. “It’s a focus on learning.” 

What ungrading looks like  

When Bolyard adopted this new philosophy, she had to decide what specific things she would need to change in her classroom to align with ungrading. 

“You can’t just get rid of letter grades and say that you’re ungrading,” Bolyard said. “It carries over into all of the decisions you make as a teacher.”  

This spring was Bolyard’s first semester implementing ungrading.  

Some noticeable changes in her methodology:  

  • Shifting from scores and rubrics to narrative feedback. 
  • Creating flexible deadlines or “best by” dates.  
  • Having students self-assess and reflect on their learning throughout the semester. 
  • Asking students to suggest their grade at the mid-point and end of the semester. 

“My whole goal with ungrading, aside from focusing on learning, is to make my work with students more humanizing,” Bolyard said. 

Rewards of ungrading  

A big part of ungrading for Bolyard has been considering what she can do to acknowledge her students’ humanity.  

“My students are humans. They’re not just students in my class. They have other classes, and they have life beyond Blackboard,” Bolyard said.  

“Humanizing is recognizing that these students are doing a whole lot. The semester is full of unknowns in terms of their health, their family members’ health, their schedule, their mental wellbeing.” 

Already, Bolyard has received feedback from her students about how functional ungrading has been for them.  

“Students have commented about appreciating the flexibility,” Bolyard said. “They don’t need to apologize to me for turning in things that they perceive as late.”   

“One student has been really vocal about how it has helped her to learn so much, and to push herself to take more creative risks,” Bolyard said.   

Challenges of ungrading  

Ungrading is not an easier version of traditional classroom grading. There are many challenges to face when adopting a philosophy that goes against the status quo.  

“Part of the ungrading conversation is figuring out how the teacher navigates institutional requirements to still submit a final grade,” Bolyard said. “Some folks who’ve adopted ungrading may still use grades but use fewer grades. Or assignments might be worth fewer points.”  

Another challenge is how to set clear expectations while giving students more creative freedom.  

“Students don’t like ambiguity when it comes to a teacher’s expectations,” Bolyard said.  

Self-assessment is one of the most important aspects of ungrading. In Bolyard’s classes this semester, students are using self-assessments and determining their own grade.  

“I had a student tell me that she doesn’t know how to grade herself or evaluate herself. That’s another reason why we need to do this,” Bolyard said. “If students can’t evaluate how they’re doing for themselves, I think that’s problematic.”   

Another challenge is the different workload that ungrading requires.  

“It’s way more work intensive for me. It takes longer to leave narrative feedback than to check boxes on a rubric,” Bolyard said.  

Getting started with ungrading 

Ungrading, as a classroom philosophy, is still an emerging conversation. Bolyard just wrapped up her first semester using it in her classroom, and she admits there is still a lot for her to discover. 

“I’m going to spend a lot of time this summer reflecting on what I think went well and looking at student feedback from the end of the semester,” Bolyard said.  

 She also acknowledges that she has a lot of freedom in her position to be able to try different approaches to student evaluation.  

“I have a lot of privilege in my position in higher ed to say yes to ungrading,” Bolyard said. “I recognize for other people, depending on a number of factors, that it might be something they need to more carefully consider.” 

The challenges for getting started with ungrading may look different depending on each person’s situation, so she offers some advice for educators who are interested in using ungrading in their classroom.  

“Read as much as you can, talk to other people who are doing it, and find a community who can support you,” Bolyard said. “Don’t feel like you have to completely toss grades out from every assignment. Maybe you just choose a couple of assignments, and you see what happens when you don’t use grades on those assignments.”   

Join the conversation. Read about #Ungrading on Twitter.