Teacher Leadership Project

The Teacher Leadership Project is a requirement for all teacher education students at Midway College. Through this project, the student will research an educational topic related to their content area of emphasis and present their findings.

All work is to be done in APA format (please see the current APA Handbook or visit:  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ for more details on APA formatting). All work should be double-spaced, completed in Arial or Times New Roman, 12-point font.

The timetable for the Teacher Leadership Project is as follows:

Step 1: The Proposal
The candidate will propose a topic to his/her advisor prior to Checkpoint I. This topic should be given considerable thought, as it will be the basis for a long-term project. The topic must relate to the student’s content area of emphasis (English/Communication, Mathematics, Social Science, Science, or Arts and Humanities) to show understanding of that content and the pedagogical application of this content in the classroom. The proposal should be 250 words in length and downloaded onto LiveText. The advisor must approve the topic chosen. Once approved, the candidate will develop and present a proposal at Checkpoint I. The Checkpoint 1 team may offer recommendations, changes and feedback on the proposal requiring the candidate to do further research into the chosen topic before finalizing the proposal.

Step II: Review of Literature/Research
After Checkpoint I, the candidate should begin collecting and reading relevant books, and professional journals on the proposed topic. The review of literature/research section should be no less than five pages long. This section is not a position paper; it should be written in third person. Include the References section in this submission (see below). The candidate will present the review of literature at Checkpoint II.

Step III: Reflection and Final Submission
If possible, the candidate should implement a strategy or idea found in the review of literature during student teaching. If it is not possible to implement a strategy or idea from the review of literature, the candidate should reflect on how this strategy COULD be implemented in his/her own classroom. The final Teacher Leadership Project will be presented orally at Checkpoint III.

The layout of the Teacher Leadership Project should be as follows:

Title Page
Table of Contents
Introduction
Review of Literature (to be completed at Checkpoint II)
Implementation
Reflection
References

The Title Page is one page and should be written as APA requires.

The Table of Contents should list all of the sections of the Teacher Leadership Project as APA requires.

The Introduction should be 1 to 2 pages in length, giving the reader an overview of the entire project. It should be written last.

The Review of Literature section should be no less than five pages in length. This section is not a position paper, and should be written in third person. There should be no “I” in this section. It is an overview of the current research on the topic chosen.

The Implementation section is an explanation of how the student teacher implemented the strategy or idea from the research in the classroom or how it will be implemented in his or her own classroom later. In addition, any data collected should be included in this section. This section should be 1-2 pages in length, not including charts or graphs. .

The Reflection section should be 2 to 3 pages in length, in which the candidate reflects upon the implementation (or anticipated implementation) of the strategy or idea. The candidate could consider what went well, what she/he would do differently next time, and how the students reacted and performed if the strategy is implemented.

The References section should include all cited sources from the Teacher Leadership Project, written in APA format. Only sources that have been cited in the paper should be included in this section. There should be at least two sources for each page in the Review of Literature section.

Rubric for Teacher Leadership Project