Barbara B. Levin

Professor Barbara B. Levin (Ph.D. University of California-Berkeley) began her career in higher education in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction (CUI) at UNCG in 1993. Prior to attending UC-Berkeley and earning a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology she was a teacher for 17 years. Her Masters degree in Curriculum and Instruction is from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Levin’s research focuses on teacher education, especially understanding how teachers’ beliefs and teachers’ pedagogical understanding develops across their careers. Other research interests include case-based pedagogy, problem-based learning, and teaching and learning with technology. Dr. Levin has published numerous articles in well-respected journals including the Journal of Teaching and Teacher Education, Journal of Teacher Education, Journal of Research on Computing in Education, Teaching Education, Teacher Education Quarterly, and Teacher Education Special Education. She has also published four books: Who Learns What from Cases And How? The Research Base on Teaching with Cases, Energizing Teacher Education and Professional Development with Problem-Based Learning, and Case Studies of Teacher Development: An In-Depth Look at How Thinking About Pedagogy Develops Over Time, which is based on a 15-years longitudinal study of how teachers’ thinking develops. Most recently she co-authored a best-selling book with Corwin Press titled Leading 21st Century Schools: Harnessing Technology for Engagement and Achievement. Dr. Levin was her department’s Director of Graduate Studies for eight years, and continues to serve as Assistant Chair for the Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education (formerly CUI). She is the senior PI on a 5-year, $1.4 million National Professional Development grant called TESOL for ALL , awarded in 2007 by the U.S. Department of Education, and she is completing her eighth year as Associate Editor for Teacher Education Quarterly. Dr. Levin was awarded the first Mentoring-Advising-Supervising (MAS) Award by the School of Education at UNCG in 2008.

There are 21 included publications by Barbara B. Levin :

TitleDateViewsBrief Description
Analysis of the Content and Purpose of Four Different Kinds of Electronic Communications Among Preservice Teachers 1999 2726 This study examines the content and purposes of four different types of electronic exchanges among a cohort of preservice elementary education majors across three semesters. Messages were exchanged (a) student to peer, (b) student to keypal, (c) stud...
Beyond Knowledge: Exploring Why Some Teachers Are More Thoughtfully Adaptive Than Others 2010 8171 As teacher educators, we have observed that knowledge alone does not lead to the kinds of thoughtful teaching we strive for. Puzzled by differences in the teaching practices of teacher candidates having similar professional knowledge, we explore what...
Children’s Views of Technology: The Role of Age, Gender, and School Setting 1997 3669 This study discusses the influence of age, gender, and the school/community context on elementary-age children's thinking about computer technology. Acting as teacher-researchers 23 undergraduate elementary education majors in the Professional Develo...
Collaborative action research projects: Enhancing preservice teacher development in professional development schools. 2002 4177 The Holmes Group (1990) report calls for Professional Development School (PDS) faculty to be engaged in thoughtful inquiry as they work together as partners with perspective teachers to encourage and promote reflection and research on practice. The r...
Collaborative Online Problem Solving with Preserves General Education Teachers and Special Education Teachers 2005 2335 This study examined the online collaboration and problem solving processes of preservice general education and special education teachers from two teacher education programs in different states as they designed instruction to provide access to the ge...
Comparative Analysis of Preservice Teachers' Reflective Thinking in Synchronous versus Asynchronous Online Case Discussions 2006 2944 This study was undertaken to better understand the nature of preservice teachers' reflective thinking during case discussions about classroom management in two online formats: synchronous versus asynchronous. Findings indicated that when participants...
Dilemma-based Cases Written by Preservice Elementary Teacher Candidates: an analysis of process and content 2002 3956 The present paper describes how preservice teachers constructed dilemma-based cases as part of a reflective and inquiry-oriented teacher education program. Twelve elementary education majors wrote dilemma-based cases based on critical incidents exper...
The Effect of Collaborative Action Research on Preservice and Experienced Teacher Partners in Professional Development Schools 2003 7108 This study describes the perspectives of five pairs of preservice teachers and their experienced mentor teachers who engaged collaboratively in planning, implementing, and evaluating action research projects during a semester-long internship experien...
Expertise in Teaching from a Developmental Perspective: The Developmental Teacher Education Program at Berkeley 1993 4962 Expertise in teaching is considered from a constructivist developmental perspective that has been applied both to the teaching of elementary school children and to the preparation of teachers in a two-year graduate program at the University of Califo...
How National Board Certified Teachers are Learning, Doing, and Sharing Action Research Online! 2009 2343 This article describes lessons learned from an online, professional development opportunity for teachers to learn and improve their practice by conducting action research projects in their classrooms or schools (Noffke & Somekh, 2009). We also shar...
Investigating the Content and Sources of Teacher Candidates’ Personal Practical Theories (PPTS) 2008 4986 Research on teachers’ (personal) theories and beliefs and their (practical) knowledge derived from experience, whether held implicitly or stated explicitly as their personal practical theories (PPTs), indicates that such beliefs can influence teacher...
Investigating the Content and Sources of Teacher Candidates’ Personal Practical Theories (PPTS) 2008 4674 Research on teachers’ (personal) theories and beliefs and their (practical) knowledge derived from experience, whether held implicitly or stated explicitly as their personal practical theories (PPTs), indicates that such beliefs can influence teacher...
Lives of Teachers: Update on a Longitudinal Case Study 2001 2976 The customary folklore in teacher education is that the effects of teacher preparation programs "wash out" as soon as beginning teachers graduate and enter the real world of the classroom (Lortie, 1975; Zeichner & Liston, 1987; Zeichner & Tabachnik,...
A Longitudinal Study of the Development of Teachers’ Pedagogical Conceptions: The Case of Ron 1996 2119 Several researchers have reported evidence that preservice teacher preparation “washes out” during the induction period (e.g., Lortie, 1975; Ryan, 1990; Zeichner & Tabachnik, 1981) or can be “miseducative” (Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1983). In fact, t...
Match or Mismatch? How congruent are the beliefs of teacher candidates, cooperating teachers, and university-based teacher educators? 2008 4277 As is recognized by many teacher educators, teacher candidates enter their teacher preparation programs with individual attitudes, views, beliefs, or personal theories of teaching (Lortie, 1975; Pajares, 1992; Richardson, 1996, 2003). These views may...
A Theme-Based, Cohort Approach to Professional Development Schools: An Analysis of the Benefits and Shortcomings for Teacher Education Faculty 2005 1786 One of the goals of Professional Development School (PDS) programs is to provide preservice teachers with opportunities for developing in-depth knowledge and experience as they learn to teach (National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education, ...
Using the case method in teacher education: The role of discussion and experience in teachers' thinking about cases. 1995 18205 The question of whether discussion is a crucial variable in teachers' learning from cases has not been tested empirically. This study investigated what teachers understood from just reading and writing about a case, compared to what they thoug...
Using Hypermedia to Educate Preservice Teachers About Gender-Equity Issues in Elementary School Classrooms 1997 2566 This study highlights what preservice teachers learned from interacting with a HyperStudio stack about gender-equity issues. Teachers gained background information from the stack and then used this knowledge to resolve inequities presented in vario...
Using Peer Coaching with Preservice Teachers to Develop Reflective Practice and Collegial Support 2000 7115 This research describes the impact of learning and practicing peer coaching techniques based on McAllister and Neubert’s (1995) model. The 27 undergraduate elementary education majors who participated in this study were found to have an increased und...
Using Portfolios to Fulfill ISTE/NCATE Technology Requirements for Preservice Teacher Candidates 1996 1311 The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed computer/technology guidelines for all teachers. These were approved by the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) as a part of the requirements f...
Using Problem-Based Learning as a Tool for Learning to Teach Students with Special Needs 2002 9654 This article describes how Problem-based learning (PBL) was used as a pedagogical tool to help prospective teachers (a) define various disabilities, (b) learn teaching strategies for inclusion settings, and (c) value collaboration with other professi...