Digital Commons Network^™

History And Society: Fact, Fiction And Reform In The Serbian Education System, Valerie Ullrich

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

History instruction is a means of disseminating political and cultural “truth” in societies all over the world. History occupies only a small space in the educational schemes that socialize and politicize children to their societies, but it could be argued that it plays a disproportionate role in these processes. In societies with contentious historical records and/or histories of conflict, it is particularly important to examine the role that history instruction does in fact play, as it can have positive or disastrous consequences over the long term. Serbian society provides one example of the potential effects of incomplete, politically influenced historical …

Comparing Rural And Urban Primary Education In The Mekong Delta, Helen Behr

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over the course of one month I conducted a study of primary education in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam. I compared rural and urban schools to determine what the differences were, how they are reflected in individual schools, and what effects these differences have on individual children. I visited and studied three schools in Can Tho City and three schools in rural communities outside of Can Tho. The differences expected were in enrollment, teacher qualifications, facilities, student motivation and ambition, and curriculum.

Data was compiled from classroom observations, interviews with principals and teachers, and surveys completed by students. Results indicate …

Finding A Sexual Dialogue With Children: A Dutch Model, Cassandra Baxter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper investigates the ways in which Dutch children, under the age of 12, learn about sexuality. This is a holistic investigation of three different avenues of education that children receive; parents, schools, and organizations. Through a framework of developmental psychology, I examine how the methods of, and dominant theories behind, education reveal a larger cultural conception of childhood sexuality.

Through in-depth interviews, I spoke with one parent who lives in Amsterdam, one primary school teacher from the De Theo Thysen School in Amsterdam, two primary school sex educators from the Hulpverlening Gelderland Midden in Arnhem, and a representative from …

Aprender Sin Educación: El Aprendizaje, La Historia Personal Y El Contexto Comunitario En La Experiencia De La Universidad De La Tierra, Leah Oster-Katz

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Hace veintidós años nací en un cuarto pequeño que mi papá construyó en Carolina del Norte. Entré al mundo de una manera natural, siendo bienvenida por mi familia, amigos y una partera. Allí crecí con mis padres y mi hermano en una comunidad rural que cuenta con tierras comunales. Todas las familias de la comunidad están conectadas por lazos fuertes de amistad y comparten las responsabilidades del mantenimiento de la tierra comunal. Tengo muchos recuerdos de mi niñez cuando estaba ayudando en el jardín, recogiendo frutas del huerto comunal, y asistiendo a reuniones y fiestas de la comunidad. Desde los …

Educando Al Hombre Nuevo: La Pedagogía Histórica Y Política De La Cruzada Nacional De Alfabetización, Kevin Young

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

No abstract provided.

“To Be A Doctor” The Hopes And Aspirations Of The Children Attending Namu Elementary School, And The Obstacles That Block Their Paths To Obtaining Them., Lauren Burke

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

“Our village, Namu”. The children, some hesitant, others eager, all proud, bring forth pictures they have drawn of their hometown. In the children’s minds and through the crayons provided them, flowers sprout up next to streams, and birds fly in the sky. Almost every drawing includes a home with semicircle interloping plaster tiles for the roof. Fish swim in the rivers and a few suns contain smiley faces. First impressions of visitors to the town or school , may be similar. The pavement street leading from the village to the larger city abruptly stops and turns into dirt road at …

Deaf Culture In Mombasa And Hiv/Aids Education, Krystel Viehmann

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Ten years ago a crisis was recognized by the Kenyan deaf community when it was realized that the country’s roughly 1 million deaf citizens had received little or no education about the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In Kenya, as elsewhere, the deaf population has formed a community characterized by a common, shared language and experience as a disabled population. The intracacies of this unique culture affect their interactions with the majority hearing community as they have their own customs and ways of interacting with one another that are distinct from the hearing majority. In 2004, the first VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) …

Non-Formal Education And Autonomous Spaces: Cideci’S Independent Alternative And The Regeneration Of Indigenous Cultural Spaces In Chiapas, Rachel Beatty

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In this study I explore CIdeCI’s role in regenerating autonomous cultural and physical spaces for Indigenous learning, and thus living, outside of the government system through its alternative educational methods and non-formal, independent status. I argue that non-formal education plays an essential role in regenerating cultural and physical spaces necessary for ensuring that Indigenous forms of social organization retain and/or obtain their autonomy from state and national governments. I will begin by presenting a brief overview of my research methodology, followed by theoretical background regarding education and cultural spaces, specifically pertaining to the Indigenous population of Chiapas. I will then …

Reflection From A Pool Of Knowledge……………….Deep Within, Peter John Wergin

MA TESOL Collection

This paper details the journey of one teacher’s career. Through the lens of reflective practice, the paper focuses on how developing an awareness of the process in one’s teaching is a necessary and relevant condition for understanding the product or “end-result” and how this awareness, in turn, enables one to become a more aware and effective teacher. The writing includes personal reflections and examines the “self” of the teacher and how experiencing both the “highs” and “lows” in one’s teaching contribute to understanding and learning to teach, “who you are” (Parker Palmer). It analyzes the teacher’s “growth” and the pivotal …

Balance In Language Teaching And Learning: Honoring Tradition And Celebrating Innovation, Natalia Tsarikova

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents a study aimed at finding a flexible approach to teaching that is responsive to learner needs and preferences whilst at the same time utilizing communicative language teaching and form-focused instruction. In other words, the author aims to find a balance between CLT (learner centered approaches) advocated by many trainers and teachers in Uzbekistan and the Grammar Translation method (teacher centered approaches) that has been widely practiced as well. The author’s primary purpose is to find an approach which is centered principally on learning rather than on the teacher or the learner. The author maintains that teaching is …

Peer Interaction In The Haitian Public School Context, Fenel Pierre

MA TESOL Collection

The purpose of this paper is to define peer interaction and its major components. It identifies and examines the major challenges that language teachers in Haiti will face in incorporating peer interaction within the Haitian public school context. It explains the advantages of using peer interaction as a way to generate knowledge. The author concludes by providing practical guidelines and strategies of how to cope with these challenges and describing what he has learned from his research.

Since language is learned mainly through interaction with other learners and speakers of that language, this paper aims at persuading Haitian language teachers …

Teaching Value Concepts In South Korea, Marilyn Anne Schick

MA TESOL Collection

This paper presents a course that was developed to teach value concepts in an English as a Foreign Language/English as a Second Language (EFL/ESL) classroom. Six values were used: Love, Peace, Happiness, Freedom, Cooperation and Honesty. Lesson plans were prepared with the students’ focus on speaking; however, listening, reading, writing and grammar were taught as well. Details of why those values were chosen, six specific lesson plans, plus students’ feedback are included.

Bridging The Gap Between Culture And Academics, Patti Pedrus

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the possibility of building a bridge between culture and academics in order to fill the gap between them, and the role of traditional culture in an academic setting. It is evident that there is a gap between Micronesian cultural heritage and modern educational concepts taught in the classroom. The gap is that there is no blending of the Micronesian cultural heritage and the modern educational concepts. In other words, the bridge between academic abstractions and lived socio realities does not exist. In order to fill the gap, the blending of Micronesian cultural heritage and modern educational concepts …

A Framework For Teaching A Foreign Language Class Based On The Principles Of Chaos/Complexity Theory, Michael Kozden

MA TESOL Collection

Chaos/complexity theory first emerged in the study of the natural sciences over thirty years ago. Through the years, experts from a variety of fields have held this theory up as a new way in which to view the world around us, including its applications to the study of second language acquisition. The language classroom, like the natural world, can also be observed from this perspective because it exhibits many features of chaotic/complex systems. Language instruction in a classroom setting not only produces strange attractors and fractals, but is dynamic, complex, nonlinear, chaotic, self-organizing, unpredictable, sensitive to initial conditions, open, feedback …

Circles And Letters: I Do; I Understand, Thomas Kitchen

MA TESOL Collection

How do we writing teachers respond to our students’ writing? How does our response affect both us and the students? Is it irresponsible to mark only a few recurring errors? Or is irresponsible to mark every error? Do students learn better when the errors are labeled or not? What about positive feedback?

This thesis explains an action research project I conducted with my reading/writing students. In the project, I explored many methods of responding to student writing, and I documented how one of those techniques affected me and my students. That technique called the reduced grammar technique focuses on recurring …

Building Intercultural Communication Through Community Building Activities, Ayana Inoguchi

MA TESOL Collection

This project investigates methods for building intercultural communication through an effective learning community. Understanding culture (which may refer to nationality or certain aspects of an individual’s personality) is necessary for intercultural communication. My concept of culture in this project includes an individual’s personality. I am concerned with the idea that culture can be learned and taught in traditional ways. While I was doing my teaching internship at the Riverside Language Program, where some of the teachers employ the Community Language Learning (CLL) teaching approach, I learned that it is possible to facilitate intercultural communication for students, and that culture can …

Using Music And Song In The Second Language Classroom: A Description Of The Many Ways Music And Song Can Enhance The Teaching Of French, Christine Geueke

MA TESOL Collection

No abstract provided.

Tasks In Tbl: What Kinds Of Tasks Promote Meaningful Communication?, Anna Fatneva

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the process of developing and implementing TBL tasks in the EFL classroom. A title page is included. A non-specific abstract was created and included. The structure of this IPP is outlined in the Table of Contents. Teaching context as well as the reasons for my choice of the topic are described in the introduction. Research into ESL/EFL source literature on the topic is illuminated in Chapter 1. Classroom Observations based on the teaching journal kept throughout the project are depicted in Chapter 2. Implications for the use of this paper are considered in terms of advantages for …

Integrating Writing Within The Foreign Language Classroom: Shifting Dynamics, Not The Task, Patricia Ann Evans

MA TESOL Collection

This classroom based research project considers the following questions: Why should my foreign language students write? From Pedagogy to Purpose; what happens when students use technology with their writing; what transitions take place with regard to the role as teacher when integrating writing into the Spanish language classroom? This project follows the shift from writing , disconnected activities to writing. How a student-centered writing process and technology support the shift away from the perception that good writing is voiceless and mechanical. It traces the shift from learning to write to writing to learn. The project studies the shift that occurs …

Self-Assessment In In-Service Distance Teacher Training, Mihaela-Silvia Dascalu

MA TESOL Collection

This paper is based on my experience as part of a team that designed and implemented a distance-training course for English teachers in Romania. It begins with an overview of the training program. It outlines the importance of distance training for teachers in the Romanian educational system. Later, it focuses on the importance of developing self-assessment and self-evaluation skills as key elements of distance learning. In this paper, I propose some self-assessment techniques and activities based on theories of adult learning and on the specific features of the distance-training course I helped to develop. The final section of this paper …

Exploring The Teen Efl Classroom: The Students, Their Teachers, And The Tangles Of Dealing With Discipline And Motivation, Anna Burbridge

MA TESOL Collection

This paper discusses specific elements of teaching teens in an EFL context, in particular the areas of teen motivation and discipline. This was a teacher’s development project involving six teachers (including the writer), and lasting for one semester in a Brazilian bi-national language institute. The project was built on videotaped class observations, readings, group meetings, and journal writings. The result was a deeper reflection into the developmental stage dubbed “teenhood”, followed by subsequent considerations of motivation and discipline of teen groups, the role of the teen teacher, the importance of knowing and connecting with the inner teacher, and practical implications …

Mending The Broken Windows: A Curriculum Development Project Using Cooperative Learning Methods To Teach The Concepts Of Short Stories While Building A Community In The Classroom, Nicole Meltzer

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the purpose, process and results of using Cooperative Learning methods to study the elements of short stories in an intermediate English as a Second or Other Language high school class. The goal of this project was to create and build community in the classroom to alleviate the pressures felt by at-risk and immigrant students, while also meeting their academic needs. The project was conducted over three months time and was assessed through qualitative and quantitative methods.

Maintaining And Nurturing The Language And Culture Of Heritage Spanish-Speakers At The Elementary Level, Amanda Amarotico

MA TESOL Collection

In many schools across the United States native Spanish-speakers are enrolled in Spanish foreign language classes in order to fulfill a foreign language requirement. The Spanish foreign language class is inappropriate for the native Spanish-speaker’s needs. It is essential that these students be given opportunities to expand their linguistic skills to become fully bilingual and biliterate. Spanish classes for native Spanish-speakers exist at the high school level in many parts of the country, but elementary students are rarely given such opportunities.

The author of this professional paper and report on the creation of an after school Spanish Club discusses the …