Andrea Miller earns Ph.D.

Furthering collaborative efforts between departments at Clarion University and extending that collaboration into primary and secondary education is one of the goals of Dr. Andrea Miller ('78, M.S. '82, M.S.L.S. '91), the department of library science's newest Ph.D.

Miller, an instructor of library science, recently defender her dissertation and received her Ph.D. in library science from the School of Information Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. Miller's dissertation was "The Effect of Instructional Intervention on the Methods of Collaborative Work with Elementary School Library Media Specialists by Pre-Service Elementary Classroom Teachers."

"It is critical for classroom teachers to be aware of the importance of key collaborators in a school building including the library media specialist," says Miller about her dissertation topic. "It is also important for educators to collaborate in preparation of units. I have worked in the high school setting and taught courses at Clarion and I could see the importance. But, I didn't feel that classroom teachers were aware of this role and that was the impetus for this study."

Miller found some of the tools she needed to conduct her research in the teacher preparation courses at Clarion University. She spoke with pre-service elementary classroom teachers about how the collaborative process worked. She followed them through their student teaching assignments, visited them at their student teaching sites and conducted a mediation session between the library media specialists and the student teachers which provided them with an opportunity to discuss units and resources.

One thing stood out in Miller's evaluation of her research. "Most of the student teachers believed they would find a full-time library media specialist in their schools," she says. "Many of them found this was not true. In many cases they found a person who was only there on certain days of the week and didn't have time for a lot of collaboration because of scheduling."

Miller plans to develop a model for teaching pre-service classroom teachers to infuse collaboration throughout teacher preparation courses. "Our students in teacher education need to know the importance of individuals such as the library/media specialist, instructional support teachers, and guidance counselors and work with them in developing units and integrating knowledge," she says.

The dissertation will also help Miller to develop a list of criteria that need to be met before a student teacher is placed, such as having a full-time library media specialist, and suggestions involving preparation time and type of climate needed to encourage the use of media center resources and collaborative work.

In addition, Miller wants to see the collaborative ideas applied to classes at Clarion University too. "Educational theory says that we need to cross the barriers of isolation and work in groups," she explains. "I want to work for more collaboration between the department of library science and the department of education in the preparation of teachers."

Miller received her B.S. in education in 1978 and M.A. in English in 1982 from Clarion State College, and earned her Master of Science in Library Science from Clarion University in 1991. She was a classroom English teacher and library media specialist in the Redbank Valley School District, New Bethlehem, from 1979-91. She started teaching part-time at Clarion University in 1991 and joined the faculty as a full-time tenure-track instructor in 1992, teaching undergraduate and graduate classes and supervising student teachers.