Dr. Mary Jane Moran
Associate Professor
My interest in both teaching and research is focused on the professional development of early childhood teachers. In particular, I am interested in supporting and studying the development of inquiry-oriented teaching that is informed and guided by teachers’ critical thinking and reflections related to their classroom practice. Children taught by teachers who think critically are more likely to develop problem-solving skills, exhibit resourceful, independent learning styles, and an ability to self-regulate behaviors (e.g., focused attention, logical thinking).
To this end, I work with novice teachers and teachers returning to graduate school to develop their classroom research skills focused on analyzing the relationship between teacher practice and children’s learning. Students learn to analyze documentation generated in their school placements in the UT Child Development Laboratory (CDL), Head Start and public school classrooms. Documentation, in this case, means the generation and study of photographs and videotapes of classroom experiences, transcriptions of teachers’ and children’s conversations, field notes, and children’s work samples.
An important dimension of students’ study of classroom records is the incorporation of technology as a tool for student/teacher research. My earlier research was focused on the relationship between teachers as documenters and teachers as inquirers. Today, my research has expanded to include the impact of technology on students’ analyses of documentation that makes visible their actions, children’s thinking and potential to learn. Here in the Child & Family Department, students access technology (computers, scanners, transcription machines, audio tape players, digital still and video cameras, and software such as iMovie) in the newly created Department Teacher Research and Documentation Center (TRDC). In this Center, technology is used by students, CDL teachers, and faculty to organize, analyze and archive classroom records. It is in the TRDC that I also study the way in which inquiry develops among novice teacher-researchers and train undergraduate and graduate students to conduct qualitative research.
Oja, S. N., Struck, M., Chamberlin, E., & Moran, M. J. (Summer 1997). Supporting the “teacher as learner”: Interns and cooperating teachers in a cluster site. Southeastern Regional Association of Teacher Educators, 6 (2), 30-38.
Moran, M. J., & Jarvis, J. (September 2001). Helping young children develop higher order thinking. Young Children, 56(5), 31-35.
Moran, M. J. (2002). Implications for the study and development of inquiry among early childhood preservice teachers: A report from one study. Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, 23, 39-44.
Moran, M. J., & Tegano, D. W. (June 2005). Moving toward visual literacy: Photography as a language of teacher inquiry. Journal of Early Childhood Research and Practice, 7(1).
Tegano, D. W., & Moran, M. J. (October 2005). Conditions and contexts for teacher inquiry: Systematic approaches to preservice teacher collaborative experiences. The NewEducator, 1 , 287-310.
Moran, M. J. (2007). Collaborative action research and project work: Promising practices for the development of inquiry among early childhood preservice teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education , 23, 418-431.
Moran, M. J., Desrochers, L., & Cavicchi, N. (2007). Progettazione and documentation as sociocultural activities: Changing communities of practice. TheJournal of Theory Into Practice, 46(1), 81-90.
Moran, M. J., Lamb, Demartino Newton, E., H., Worthington, L., & Carow, N. (Winter, 2007). The Communicative and Generative Qualities of Video-Narrative as a Mediational Tool of Mentor Teacher Inquiry. Co-Inquiry Journal Interchange in Education, 1 (3).
Invited Chapters
Moran, M. J. (1997). Reconceptualizing early childhood teacher education: Preservice teachers as ethnographers. In J. Hendrick (Ed.), First steps toward teaching the Reggio Way, (pp. 210-221). New York: Prentice-Hall.
Moran, M. J. (1998). The project approach framework for teacher education: A case for collaborative learning and reflective practice. In C. Edwards, L.Gandini, & G.Forman (Eds.), The hundred languages of children, Second Edition: The Reggio Emilia approach, Advanced reflections, (pp. 405-417). Norwood: Ablex.
Contact Information
1215 W. Cumberland Ave
237 Jessie Harris Building
Knoxville, TN
37996-1912
Phone: 865-974-8354
Email: mmoran2@utk.edu
Contact CEHHS
335 Claxton Complex
1122 Volunteer Boulevard
Knoxville, Tennessee 37996
Phone: 865-974-2201
Fax: 865-974-8718