School of Education

2009-2010 Annual Faculty Assessment

Dr. Jonathan Becker

Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Administration

Dr. Jonathan Becker presented his 2009-2010 Work Plan, 2009-2010 Final
Activity Report and Narrative, and his 2010-2011 Initial Work Plan. His materials
are complete and provide good evidence for reviewing his work and his
contribution to the Department and School. Dr. Becker had allocated 35% to
teaching, 30% to research and scholarly activity, and 35% to service.

Teaching
Dr. Becker’s primary teaching during 2009-2010 was in the Ph.D. program. In
fall 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 and
considered our students as semi-independent nodes”. Jonathan describes the
way he is thinking about teaching as “moving beyond connectivism into
rhizomatic education, where knowledge is negotiated”. For this course, Dr.
Becker “started with the contention that advances in technology render obsolete
any theory of learning that involves the individual construction of knowledge.”
His descriptions of his philosophy and approach have more depth and complexity
than I am including in this report and are worth reading. He has included
examples of student and professor collaborative, documented, and open
learning. Reading these descriptions gave me ideas for my own teaching and
provoked 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 of
his doctoral students are scheduled to complete their dissertations by the end of
the summer. At that time, Jon has agreed to accept two new students, keeping
his dissertation load high.

Dr. Becker’s teaching is excellent. For the second year in a row, he was
presented the SOE Alumni/a Council award for Innovative Use of Technology in
Teaching. Dissertation students regard his advisement highly. The student
evaluation forms for his Ph.D. class were not appropriate for the class. Only
three questions could be interpreted by students as connected to the class.
Students rated him as respectful, courteous, accessible, and well prepared.

Scholarship
Jonathan writes that “for me, academic year 2009-2010 was not my most
productive year with respect to ‘traditional’ scholarly activity.” Nevertheless, he
spent the year working on his grant research and presenting his scholarship at
professional meetings.
Dr. Becker has made a decision to focus his energies on conferences that are
dynamic and connected to the field. He notes that he has come to find “the
scholar practitioner dichotomy in education to be a false one reinforced by
conferences 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 other
conferences that are more technology focused, but that are not technology
conferences. That distinction is important because too often we confuse the
content and focus with the delivery. All five of his scholarly presentations at
these meetings have a technology component integrated with legal, policy,
learning, or leadership issues.

Dr. Becker’s 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 All
project. His NSF grant is examining the impact on student learning of using
curricular units that incorporate the analysis of data from research on the
consequences of everyday life and that link this research to environmental issues
and ecological principles. This is a randomized control trial in 60 classrooms in
New York City. This study has the potential to help improve our understanding of
how to frame scientific research to help students better understand the nature of
scientific activity.

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

And then there is Jonathan’s digital scholarship. He regularly publishes in his

blog, Education Insanity, which had 1,453 unique visitors connecting 1,826 times,
viewing 3,302 pages. I’m sure that’s more people than have read what I’ve
written in my entire 33 years of publishing. One of his blogs was a five part
critique of Robert Marzano’s study of interactive white boards. This blog –
beginning in June 2009 – has had tremendous viewing. He was named by
accreditedcolleges.com as one of the 50 top tweeters to follow in higher
education (across all disciplines in the world to watch

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

Service
Dr. 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, organizing
qualifying and comprehensive exams, and developing and managing an online
community space – Leadership Commons -- for our doctoral students. He was
also advisor to our doctoral student organization and helped them with their
events for the year. Dr. Becker developed a plan for our co-curricular activities
for our Ph.D. students which is comprehensive and rigorous.

At the University level, Dr. Becker served on the VCU Instructional Technology
Advisory group, a university committee tasked with addressing faculty instruction
technology and working with Dr. Joe Marolla. He is one of only 4 tenure eligible
faculty members on this committee. This group meets monthly and Dr. Becker
has taken a central role in the work of the group.

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

Dr. Becker was a member of two search committees for the Office of Doctoral
Studies and for the department. Each of these were lengthy searches that
required a considerable investment of time.

Educational Leadership applied for and received a Faculty Learning Community

grant to explore technology to improve our teaching. Dr. Becker led the monthly
workshop sessions, preparing materials for us to read and activities in which to
learn. The 18 hour in-class workshop required nearly as much time to prepare
as to deliver. The department greatly benefited from these sessions and learned
new skills as well as different ways to think about learning.

Dr. Becker agreed to co-facilitate a MERC project on technology. This is a three

part project which includes a literature review on distance learning, a statewide
technology survey, and development of a cost analysis model for distance
learning. This is a complicated and daunting project which will require a great
deal of management and attention.

Service to the Field of Practice: This year, Dr. Becker was invited by the
Virginia ASCD to provide a series of technology webinars related to technology
and school leadership. These were free professional development opportunities
designed around carefully selected topics and open to educators in Virginia and
anyone else who was interested and aware of the opportunity. Dr. Becker
served on the Albemarle County Technology Planning Committee as an external
expert. He worked with the committee to revise/update the district’s technology
plan.

Professional Service: Dr. Becker served as a reviewer for two journals:

Journal of Social Leadership and inEducation. In addition, Dr. Becker co-chairs
the Technology and Leadership Special Interest Group of UCEA.

Summary
Since it is possible to increase the tenure clock by a year upon the birth of a
child, it seems important to note that Dr. Becker and his wife became parents of
their second child during the fall 2009 semester. They are both very engaged
parents and, unlike many men, Jonathan shares in the full range of childhood
and parenting roles. While he hasn’t mentioned this as being related to his
productivity this year, I would find it amazing if it weren’t. Give this change in
family 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 be
published. Unfortunately, while conferences are great for learning and sharing
scholarship, they don’t help in the VCU tenure process. We have learned that at
VCU, 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 with
dissertation students. Ph.D. dissertation students are moving through the
pipeline 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. Becker’s national prominence in technology innovation could be put to better

use by the School of Education. I’d like to discuss how we might be able to
cobble together a technology leadership position for him so that he can help
direct the school in moving forward in technology use. A half time director of
technology position as part of his load would be very beneficial to the faculty and
students in the School.

Teaching 5 Excellent
Research and Scholarly Activity 3.5 Very Good
Service 5 Excellent

Summary Rating

Dr. Becker’s summary rating is excellent. I have attached two other letters of
recommendation I wrote for Dr. Becker this year to provide the broad record of
my evaluation of his work.

Dr. Becker is recommended for a continuing contract.

Signed _________________________________________
Date____________________
Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Educational Leadership
The faculty member’s signature below indicates that this document has been
read and reviewed. It does not necessarily reflect agreement. If desired, the
faculty member may submit a response and attach it to this assessment.

Signed ____ ___________________________________

Jonathan Becker, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership
Date_______18 May 2009____________

Rejoinder from Dr. Becker: yes, attached no