Curtis P. Nielsen, Ed.D
Associate Professor of Education
Department Head - Department of Teaching
"We are not thinking machines that feel; rather we are feeling machines that think."-Antonio Damasio
I am an Associate Professor of Education and Department Head serving the Department of Teaching at the University of Northern Iowa. My teaching career started in 1989. For ten years I taught fifth and third grades as well as served as Interim Principal at Lincoln Elementary in Cedar Falls, Iowa. In December 1997, I received an M.A.E. in Elementary Principalship from Northern Iowa. In the Fall of 2000, I accepted a position to teach 4th grade at Malcolm Price Laboratory School on the UNI campus. There, I taught multiple grade levels and was assigned several administrative roles. In 2008 I wrote the curriculum and implemented a high school spatial thinking and geospatial technology course, the only one of its kind in Iowa at the time.
Currently Reading
Video I'm Pondering
The Man in the Arena - Teddy Roosevelt
45 Life Lessons From a 90-Year Old
Gallery Walk: Understanding Teacher Candidates' Thoughts Prior to Early Field Experiences
National Association of Professional Development Schools Conference, Chicago, IL
Presentation
02.10.2022
Instructional Rounds: A Way to Strengthen the Early Field Experience
American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education Conference,
Atlanta, GA
Presentation
02.29.2020
RECENT PRESENTATIONS
Lincoln Instructional Rounds
National Field Experience Conference Greeley, CO
Presentation
04.04.2019
PUBLISHED ARTICLES
Nielsen, C.P. (2022). Teacher candidate perceptions of early field experiences instructional rounds. Theory & Practice in Rural Education, 12(1), 117-132.
Nielsen, C.P., Bryant, R., & Simpson, K. (2021). Teacher to teacher: Teachers observing each other teach. Kappa Delta Pi Record. (accepted for publication
January 2021).
Nielsen, C.P., & Lockhart, A. K. (2020) Using a professional learning community framework to assist early field experience students as they move
from teacher candidate to teacher. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching 15(1), 52-66.
Nielsen, C.P., Becker, E., Bonwell, J. & Kane, S. (September 2019) Lincoln writing consulting workshop. National Association for Professional Development
Schools Stories from the Field https://napds.org/category/stories-from-the-field/
Nielsen, C.P., Lockhart, A.K., Witt, J., and Rothweiler, L. (Fall, 2016) Embedded signature assessments in elementary early field experience classrooms.
PDS Partners, 12(2) 22-23.
Nielsen, C., Switzer, M. (Summer, 2015) Collaboration: An early field experience co-teaching example. PDS Partners, 11(1) 6-7.
Nielsen, C. P. (2012). Learning transfer of geospatial technologies in secondary science and mathematics core areas. (Doctoral Dissertation). Retrieved from
ProQuest.com (Publication number 3535654)
Nielsen, C., Oberle, A, and Sugumaran, R. (2011). Implementing a high school level geospatial technologies and spatial thinking course. Journal of
Geography, 110(2) 60-69.
Nielsen, C.P. (2011). Using the 5E instructional model to view geospatial technology use in K-12 classrooms. Meridian: Kindergarten Through High School
Information and Communication Technologies Journal, 13(2), http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/winter2011/nielsen/index.htm
Nielsen, C.P. (2008). The case for spatial literacy and geospatial technologies in the core k-12 social studies curriculum. Iowa Council for the Social Studies,
21 (1), 23-28.
Henning, J.E., DeBruin-Parecki, A., Hawbaker, B.W., Nielsen, C.P., Joram, E., and Gabriele, A.J. (2005). The teacher
work sample: A tool for scaffolding and assessing preservice teachers’ early field experiences. The Teacher Educator, 40(3), 188-207.