jon becker annual evaluation 2009-2010_final

8/8/2019 Jon Becker Annual Evaluation 2009-2010_FINAL

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School of Education2009-2010 Annual Faculty Assessment

Dr. Jonathan BeckerAssistant Professor

Department of Educational Administration

Dr. Jonathan Becker presented his 2009-2010 Work Plan, 2009-2010 FinalActivity Report and Narrative, and his 2010-2011 Initial Work Plan. His materialsare complete and provide good evidence for reviewing his work and hiscontribution to the Department and School. Dr. Becker had allocated 35% toteaching, 30% to research and scholarly activity, and 35% to service.

TeachingDr. Beckers primary teaching during 2009-2010 was in the Ph.D. program. Infall 2009, Dr. Becker taught a doctoral course: The Politics of Education (ADMS

707). This is a new course in the program and the first time it has been taught.The course, developed by Dr. Becker, embraced networking technologies andconsidered our students as semi-independent nodes. Jonathan describes theway he is thinking about teaching as moving beyond connectivism intorhizomatic education, where knowledge is negotiated. For this course, Dr.Becker started with the contention that advances in technology render obsoleteany theory of learning that involves the individual construction of knowledge.His descriptions of his philosophy and approach have more depth and complexitythan I am including in this report and are worth reading. He has includedexamples of student and professor collaborative, documented, and openlearning. Reading these descriptions gave me ideas for my own teaching andprovoked me to reconsider how we learn.

In addition to this teaching, Dr. Becker chaired 12 dissertation committees,served on 11 more, and advised 20 doctoral and 15 masters students. Three ofhis doctoral students are scheduled to complete their dissertations by the end ofthe summer. At that time, Jon has agreed to accept two new students, keepinghis dissertation load high.

Dr. Beckers teaching is excellent. For the second year in a row, he waspresented the SOE Alumni/a Council award for Innovative Use of Technology inTeaching. Dissertation students regard his advisement highly. The studentevaluation forms for his Ph.D. class were not appropriate for the class. Onlythree questions could be interpreted by students as connected to the class.Students rated him as respectful, courteous, accessible, and well prepared.

ScholarshipJonathan writes that for me, academic year 2009-2010 was not my mostproductive year with respect to traditional scholarly activity. Nevertheless, hespent the year working on his grant research and presenting his scholarship atprofessional meetings.


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Dr. Becker has made a decision to focus his energies on conferences that aredynamic and connected to the field. He notes that he has come to find thescholar practitioner dichotomy in education to be a false one reinforced byconferences predominantly attended by either professors or P-12 educators.While he still attends and presents at AERA and UCEA, the premier conferences

in educational leadership research, he has expanded his reach to include 4 otherconferences that are more technology focused, but that are not technologyconferences. That distinction is important because too often we confuse thecontent and focus with the delivery. All five of his scholarly presentations atthese meetings have a technology component integrated with legal, policy,learning, or leadership issues.

Dr. Beckers scholarship is also evident in his grant writing activities during 2009-2010. He is co PI on an NSF funded grant and an evaluator for the Project Allproject. His NSF grant is examining the impact on student learning of usingcurricular units that incorporate the analysis of data from research on the

consequences of everyday life and that link this research to environmental issuesand ecological principles. This is a randomized control trial in 60 classrooms inNew York City. This study has the potential to help improve our understanding ofhow to frame scientific research to help students better understand the nature ofscientific activity.

Despite his claim that his scholarship was not traditional, Dr. Becker has 4articles and a book review essay scheduled for submission by the end of thesummer. Additionally, he has completed a book chapter for an edited book,What Administrators Need to Know about Technology Leadership to bepublished by the International Society for Technology in Education.

And then there is Jonathans digital scholarship. He regularly publishes in hisblog, Education Insanity, which had 1,453 unique visitors connecting 1,826 times,viewing 3,302 pages. Im sure thats more people than have read what Ivewritten in my entire 33 years of publishing. One of his blogs was a five partcritique of Robert Marzanos study of interactive white boards. This blog beginning in June 2009 has had tremendous viewing. He was named byaccreditedcolleges.com as one of the 50 top tweeters to follow in highereducation (across all disciplines in the world to watch

Finally, Dr. Becker is part of a podcast series with colleagues from otherinstitutions that is broadcast regularly. .

ServiceDr. Becker gave a lot to the department, the school, and the university this year.

Department and School: At the department level, he directed the Ph.D.educational leadership track, advising our more than 100 students, organizingqualifying and comprehensive exams, and developing and managing an onlinecommunity space Leadership Commons -- for our doctoral students. He wasalso advisor to our doctoral student organization and helped them with their


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events for the year. Dr. Becker developed a plan for our co-curricular activitiesfor our Ph.D. students which is comprehensive and rigorous.

At the University level, Dr. Becker served on the VCU Instructional TechnologyAdvisory group, a university committee tasked with addressing faculty instruction

technology and working with Dr. Joe Marolla. He is one of only 4 tenure eligiblefaculty members on this committee. This group meets monthly and Dr. Beckerhas taken a central role in the work of the group.

Dr. Becker also represents the School of Education at the University GraduateCouncil. In addition to being part of the larger group, he is on the Policy andProcedures sub-committee.

Dr. Becker was a member of two search committees for the Office of DoctoralStudies and for the department. Each of these were lengthy searches thatrequired a considerable investment of time.

Educational Leadership applied for and received a Faculty Learning Communitygrant to explore technology to improve our teaching. Dr. Becker led the monthlyworkshop sessions, preparing materials for us to read and activities in which tolearn. The 18 hour in-class workshop required nearly as much time to prepareas to deliver. The department greatly benefited from these sessions and learnednew skills as well as different ways to think about learning.

Dr. Becker agreed to co-facilitate a MERC project on technology. This is a threepart project which includes a literature review on distance learning, a statewidetechnology survey, and development of a cost analysis model for distancelearning. This is a complicated and daunting project which will require a greatdeal of management and attention.

Service to the Field of Practice: This year, Dr. Becker was invited by theVirginia ASCD to provide a series of technology webinars related to technologyand school leadership. These were free professional development opportunitiesdesigned around carefully selected topics and open to educators in Virginia andanyone else who was interested and aware of the opportunity. Dr. Beckerserved on the Albemarle County Technology Planning Committee as an externalexpert. He worked with the committee to revise/update the districts technologyplan.

Professional Service: Dr. Becker served as a reviewer for two journals:Journal of Social Leadership and inEducation. In addition, Dr. Becker co-chairsthe Technology and Leadership Special Interest Group of UCEA.

SummarySince it is possible to increase the tenure clock by a year upon the birth of achild, it seems important to note that Dr. Becker and his wife became parents oftheir second child during the fall 2009 semester. They are both very engagedparents and, unlike many men, Jonathan shares in the full range of childhood


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and parenting roles. While he hasnt mentioned this as being related to hisproductivity this year, I would find it amazing if it werent. Give this change infamily circumstances, I am pleased and surprised at his high level of productivity.

Publications are down, but there are several in progress. We need to see those

accepted and in print. Hopefully some of the work from the grants can bepublished. Unfortunately, while conferences are great for learning and sharingscholarship, they dont help in the VCU tenure process. We have learned that atVCU, for scholarship to count, it has to be published in a journal or a book. Dr.Becker needs to keep working on this.

Teaching is creative and excellent, both in the classroom and working withdissertation students. Ph.D. dissertation students are moving through thepipeline in a reasonable manner, indicating good advisement and attention.

Service is tremendous and, perhaps, would be a place to cut back in order to

have more time to publish.

Dr. Beckers national prominence in technology innovation could be put to betteruse by the School of Education. Id like to discuss how we might be able tocobble together a technology leadership position for him so that he can helpdirect the school in moving forward in technology use. A half time director oftechnology position as part of his load would be very beneficial to the faculty andstudents in the School.

Teaching 5 ExcellentResearch and Scholarly Activity 3.5 Very GoodService 5 Excellent

Summary Rating

Dr. Beckers summary rating is excellent. I have attached two other letters ofrecommendation I wrote for Dr. Becker this year to provide the broad record ofmy evaluation of his work.

Dr. Becker is recommended for a continuing contract.

Signed _________________________________________Date____________________Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D.Professor and Chair, Educational Leadership


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The faculty members signature below indicates that this document has beenread and reviewed. It does not necessarily reflect agreement. If desired, thefaculty member may submit a response and attach it to this assessment.

Signed ____ ___________________________________ Jonathan Becker, Ph.D.Assistant Professor, Educational LeadershipDate_______18 May 2009____________

Rejoinder from Dr. Becker: yes, attached no

jon becker annual evaluation 2009-2010_final

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