Education Commons^™

A Meta-Analysis Examining Technology-Assisted L2 Vocabulary Learning, Aiqing Yu, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of technology-assisted second language (L2) vocabulary learning as well as identifies factors that may play a role in their effectiveness. We found 34 studies with 2,511 participants yielding 49 separate effect sizes. Following the procedure developed by Hunter and Schmidt (2004), we corrected for sample size bias and measurement error. The overall effect size for using technology to learn L2 vocabulary was d = 0.64, which is a moderate effect size. The Q statistic indicated a significant variability in effect size, so we followed up with a theory-driven moderator analysis. The results of the moderator …

“At School, It’S A Completely Different World”: African Immigrant Youth Agency And Negotiation Of Their Adaptation Processes In Us Urban Schools, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Hanihani Moundiba Traore, Guy Trainin

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

African immigrant youth adaptation processes in US schools remain underresearched. Using qualitative case study, this article examines West African immigrant middle- and high-school youth adaptation experiences in US urban schools. Findings show that racialized experiences, English proficiency levels, and multilingualism affected social relationships (both supportive and conflicted) with families, communities, peers, and school contexts. These experiences crucially influenced African immigrant youths’ adaptation processes. Participants drew from community resources and developed resilience skills to negotiate acculturative stressors when seeking friendship, belonging, and an integrated sense of identity in their new home. Recommendations for further supporting positive adaptive strategies are discussed.

Research Team As Methodology: The Value Of Pluri-National Research Teams For Studying Education And Migration., Edmund T. Hamann, Betsabé Román, Juan Sánchez García, Víctor Zúñiga

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Research team membership should be understood as a prospective dimension of research design. When the phenomenon to be examined is pluri-national – i.e., involving more than one country – as has been our case for more than two-decades of consideration of the educations of transnationally mobile children and youth, it follows that much can be gained by organizing a research team that is also pluri-national. Here, we suggest ways that our team’s border-spanning composition has supported our efforts to pursue empirical questions, like who, where, and how many. It has also allowed us to consider perception questions regarding how transnational …

Preparing Teachers For Culturally Responsive/Relevant Pedagogy (Crp): A Critical Review Of Research, Wen-Chia Chang, Kara Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Context: Proposed more than two decades ago, culturally relevant/responsive teaching or pedagogy (CRP) is one promising approach to transform education experiences of historically marginalized groups. The development of CRP has since inspired changes in teacher education programs and resulted in considerable research on preparing teachers for CRP. However, critics have argued that much work on CRP has not fulfilled its transformative potential of addressing racism and the white-supremacist foundations underlying teacher education research and practice, and have urged CRP research to grow from the existing knowledge base and to innovate.

Purpose of Study: This study critically examines the research practices …

Representing Transition Experiences: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of Young Immigrants In Children’S Literature, Xiaoyan Gu, Theresa Catalano

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Because literature can serve as a mirror for children’s self-reflection and a window into humanizing insights on immigrants and immigration, it can be a powerful educational tool to promote understanding of immigrant learner’s experiences and needs. However, this has not always been the case. As such, informed by our theoretical framework of critical discourse studies (CDS) and raciolinguistics, this study explores the representations of immigrant children’s experiences in children’s literature. Employing multimodal critical discourse analysis, the authors analyze the visual and verbal representations of immigrant children (and the ideologies behind them) in 18 picture books with immigration themes. Findings reveal …

Quality Content Teaching For Multilingual Students: An International Examination Of Excellence In Instructional Practices In Four Countries, Kara Viesca, Annela Teemant, Jenni Alisaari, Johanna Ennser-Kananen, Naomi Flynn, Svenja Hammer, Sara Routarinne

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Observations of Pedagogical Excellence of Teaching Across Nations (OPETAN) is a mixed methods observation study of 31 content teachers, most nominated for their excellence in teaching multilingual students in Germany, Finland, the US, and England. The study relied on an observation rubric that operationalizes seven Enduring Principles of Learning grounded in critical sociocultural theory and pedagogy. Findings revealed excellent teachers emphasize complex thinking, language use, and modeling. Teacher use of small groups, contextualization, and equity-focused practices were areas of potential growth. International research holds promise for understanding and improving K-12 content teaching and teacher education for teachers of multilingual learners.

Linguistically Responsive Leaders: Working With Multilingual Students And Their Families, Aprille Phillips, Joan Barnatt, Kara Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The demographic composition of the United States (US) has transformed since the early 1990s with immigrant arrivals from Mexico and Central America. Education leaders frequently exit preparation programs without content focused on opportunities around working successfully with multilingual students. This qualitative case study explores the implementation of online learning modules focused on engaging multilingual students and their families that were embedded into advanced leadership preparation coursework. Utilizing data (e.g., classwork, fieldnotes, semi-structured interviews) collected from 10 participants, findings include recommendations for stronger preparation on multilingual learners and flexible learning experiences that encourage the application of knowledge in professional practice.

Spiritual And Religious Meaning Making In Language And Literacy Studies: Global Perspectives On Teaching, Learning, Curriculum And Policy, Mary M. Juzwik, Robert Jean Leblanc, Denise Dávila, Eric D. Rackley, Loukia K. Sarroub

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Purpose—In an editorial introduction essay for the special issue on Religion, Literacies, and English Education in Global Dialogue, the editors frame papers in the special issue in dialogue with previous scholarly literature around three central lines of inquiry: How do children, youth and families navigate relationships among religion, spirituality, language and literacy? What challenges are faced by language and literacy teachers and teacher educators around the globe who seek to respond to diverse religious and spiritual perspectives in their work? And what opportunities do teachers seize or create toward this end? How are developments of language and literacy theory, …

Changing Faces And Persistent Patterns For Education In The New Latinx Diaspora, Edmund T. Hamann, Linda Harklau

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The study of education in the New Latino/a/x¹ Diaspora (NLD) was initiated in the 1990s with an understanding that education research from regions where the Latino/a/x presence is long-standing might not always fit well for places where Latino/a/x populations were newer and where histories of discrimination, political organizing, and resistance were much more limited. This chapter is the fourth in a series of "bigger picture" examinations of the status of education in the NLD over the past two decades (following Hamann, Wortham, and Murillo [2002] and Hamann and Harklau [2010, 2015]). Like previous iterations, this chapter points to gaps …

(Re)Turning To Freirean Philosophy In Preparing Content Teachers To Work With Multilingual Students, Kara Viesca, Peiwen Wang, Brandon Heinz, Alexa Yunes-Koch

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2019, Bettina Love published a call for abolitionist teaching, an effort for educational freedom and racial justice. In her work, she centered the role of theory in teaching calling it a "North Star." She suggested that theory provides teachers a "steadfast tool" that explains the experiences of people minoritized due to racism, sexism, ableism, linguicism, etc., as well as provides language for and knowledge about intersectional issues of injustice. Love literally calls theory a "practical guide" as well as a "location for healing" (Love, 2019, p. 132).

The work of Paulo Freire has long served as the kind of …

Developing Intercultural Competence In Multilingual Science Classrooms: A Narrative Study, Uma Ganesan, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid developments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural communication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering discourse and building intercultural competence among students is a common blind spot in teacher praxis. This can inhibit efforts to cultivate safe and supportive learning environments for all students and can ultimately threaten multilingual student success. As part of a larger study, this narrative inquiry explores the phenomenon of intercultural competence development through the lived …

Novice General Education Teachers’ Perceptions Of Preparedness In U.S. Public Schools: The Impact Of Learning About And Working With Multilingual Students, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Qizhen Deng Ph.D., Kara Viesca

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This study examined perceptions of preparedness among novice general education teachers using 2015/ 16 National Teacher and Principal Survey data. Results show that teachers with training in teaching multilingual learners reported higher perceived preparedness than those without across all five general aspects of teaching (i.e., instructional methods, teaching subject matters, assessing students, differentiating instruction, and using assessment data to inform instruction). Further, teacher preparedness in differentiating instruction was positively associated with the percentage of multilingual learners in a teacher's classroom. Findings suggest that learning to teach multilingual learners supports novice general content teachers to feel more prepared as teachers overall.

(Re)Turning To Freirean Philosophy In Preparing Content Teachers To Work With Multilingual Students, Kara Viesca, Peiwen Wang, Brandon Heinz, Alexa Yunes-Koch

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2019, Bettina Love published a call for abolitionist teaching, an effort for educational freedom and racial justice. In her work, she centered the role of theory in teaching calling it a "North Star." She suggested that theory provides teachers a "steadfast tool" that explains the experiences of people minoritized due to racism, sexism, ableism, linguicism, etc., as well as provides language for and knowledge about intersectional issues of injustice. Love literally calls theory a "practical guide" as well as a "location for healing" (Love, 2019, p. 132).

The work of Paulo Freire has long served as the kind of …

Vaccine Hesitancy - When Emotions Trump Reason, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Isn’t getting a vaccine a decision of choice or personal liberty? Yes, but only if personal choices don’t create health risks for other citizens. We no longer permit individuals to smoke in public spaces in which second-hand smoke can harm the health of others. In the case of COVID-19, at best, individuals whose choice it is not to be vaccinated slow progress toward herd immunity. At worst, if enough individuals choose not to vaccinate, this pandemic continues unabated, enabling variants of the original virus to emerge – variants that are often of increasing virulence. Fear of ingredients, however, is but …

Empowering Salieri - Extracting The Genius In Our Students, Zachary C. Schafer, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Aesthetic Based Alternative Assessment (ABAA) is a type of project-based learning that extends beyond science content and places students’ interests at the forefront of the learning environment. ABAA is consistent with a holistic approach to science teaching and learning long advocated by former NSTA President Hans O. Andersen (1989–1990), in which students’ interests serve as the departure to more intensive involvement with the subject.

Social Media, Populism, And Covid-19: Weibo Users’ Reactions To Anti-Chinese Discourse, Theresa Catalano, Peiwen Wang

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

US government communication about the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly the ‘Chinese virus’ discourse adopted by Donald Trump and his administration, has led to real-world violence and triggered heated discussions across social media sites, including Sina Weibo (aka Chinese Twitter). The current study explores the relationship between populism and social media by examining how Sina Weibo users respond to Trump’s communication on the virus. Employing multimodal critical discourse analysis, we examine both visual and verbal strategies used to build counter-discourses that challenge the use of terms such as ‘Chinese virus’. Findings demonstrate the potential of Weibo as a platform of resistance and …

Learner Ownership Of Learning, Aleidine J. Moeller

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Developing learners’ ability to manage their own learning is integral to building language proficiency and requires that learners clearly understand what they are learning and why they are learning it (Little, Dam & Legenhausen, 2017). There is general agreement that autonomous learners accept responsibility and take ownership for their own learning, share in identifying learning goals, actively and positively engage in learning tasks, and reflect on and evaluate their own learning (Holec 1981, Little 1991). When learners are actively engaged in the learning process, motivation is ensured, and temporary challenges and setbacks in language learning can be overcome.

This issue …

Learner Ownership Of Learning, Aleidine J. Moeller

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Developing learners’ ability to manage their own learning is integral to building language proficiency and requires that learners clearly understand what they are learning and why they are learning it (Little, Dam & Legenhausen, 2017). There is general agreement that autonomous learners accept responsibility and take ownership for their own learning, share in identifying learning goals, actively and positively engage in learning tasks, and reflect on and evaluate their own learning (Holec 1981, Little 1991). When learners are actively engaged in the learning process, motivation is ensured, and temporary challenges and setbacks in language learning can be overcome.

This issue …

Advice For Students Of Color And First-Generation College Students: Successful Transitions From High School Into And Within College/University, Amanda Morales

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

As you begin to read this pamphlet, you might ask, “Why should I listen to this person?” “What experiences has she had, or what expertise does she hold that makes her advice credible or worth my time and attention?” Well, given how busy we all are these days and knowing about all the advice out there about going to college, I see your point! However, I hope you find this piece a bit different from other resources. See, I approached the writing here in some ways as a consejo (a piece of advice) to my younger self. More specifically, I …

Advice For Educational Counselors, Advisors, Faculty, And Staff: Paving The Pathways To Post-Secondary Education: Removing Barriers And Creating Opportunities For Students Of Color (Soc) And First-Generation College Students (Fgcs) To Flourish, Amanda R. Morales, Edmund T. Hamann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this Equity Tool is to guide education stakeholders with roles in various parts of high school students’ development, in developing shared understandings to discuss the transition from high school to higher education.

For supplemental guidance, please see the companion pamphlet for Students of Color and First Generation College Students: Advice for Students of Color and First-Generation Students: Successful Transitions from High School into and Within College/University

Disrupting Evasion Pedagogies, Kara Mitchell Viesca, Tricia Gray

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

As we have researched in schools and reflected on our own teaching, we have come to recognize the lie and our untruthfulness that permeates many of our cultural scripts (Gutierrez et al., 1995) and practices as teachers. It is within these cultural scripts and practices that inequity is perpetuated and humanizing learning evaded. Thus, what we term evasion pedagogies, serve to sustain the status quo and are powerful tools to maintain oppressive projects like white supremacy, heteronormativity, gender binaries, patriarchy, ableism, classism, and linguicism. In this piece, we examine the notion of evasion pedagogies as a powerful lie in practice …

Evolutionary Theory: Establishing Positive Learning Environments, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

A simple but effective technique for self-assessing readiness to teach a particular topic is to explicitly reflect on the student questions, ‘Why do I need toknow this stuff?’ and ‘What’s in it for me?’ Faced with these questions, real or implied, instructional decisions should be made to better address and reflect the needs of target learners. If the teacher’s response does not have sufficient perceived relevance to the target learner, students find it quite easy to dismiss the ‘stuff’ as unimportant – something to be memorised for a test and forgotten. Preparation to teach evolution often carries with it an …

Setting Empirically Informed Policy Benchmarks For Physical Science Teaching, Elizabeth B. Lewis, Ana Rivero, Lyrica L. Lucas, Aaron Musson, Brandon Helding

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In the United States, research on beginning science teachers provides little guidance regarding empirical minimum levels of discipline-specific science coursework for sufficient subject matter knowledge to teach science. Accordingly, in this study we analyzed secondary physical science teachers' science coursework for subject matter knowledge (SMK) and resulting misconceptions of chemistry and physics concepts. Findings were compared with state-level science teacher certification policies. Participants had either: (a) completed a master's level teacher preparation program with an undergraduate degree in science, (b) completed an undergraduate teacher preparation program with a minor degree or more in science, or (c) were undergraduate students enrolled …

The Interplay Of Emotion, Cognition, And Learning In The Language Classroom, Aleidine J. Moeller

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Challenge Statement Emotions are inextricably linked to our actions, behaviors, and dispositions. To promote deeper learning, emotion and cognition must be in sync to maximize learning. How can we connect our learners’ emotions in ways that fully capitalize on the interplay with cognition and engages them in the language learning process?

Abstract This article seeks to broaden the discourse on world language teaching to take a more holistic view of learning and teaching that supports and promotes the integration of feeling and thinking. A summary of the research on the role of emotions in learning is documented and classroom examples …

Evolutionary Theory: Coping With A Pandemic., Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Early in 2020, nations across the globe were warned about the potential for a pandemic arising from a novel virus that originated in Wuhan, China. The virus began an inevitable steady march of infection locally, regionally, nationally, and eventually internationally. Questions posed by infectious disease specialists were:

• Is the infectious disease one that is already known? Answer: no.

• Does the infectious disease (at the very least) closely resemble other known diseases? Answer – other than the virus possessing a distinguishing corona or halo when viewed under electron microscopy – no.

Thus, other than identifying the morphological shape of …

Introduction To Doing Fieldwork At Home: The Ethnography Of Education In Familiar Contexts: In The Field At Home; Onward, & Bibliography, Loukia K. Sarroub, Claire Nicholas

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In this volume, we attempt to better understand ethnographic research on education in local contexts wherein the researcher has regular contact and social relationships with the intended research participants. Recent disciplinary trends find ethnographers increasingly engaged in research in settings familiar to them, such as their own workplaces, leisure spaces, neighborhoods, and communities. The study of such practices illuminates interconnected methodological, ethical, and analytical dilemmas. It also offers opportunities for methodological innovation, explicates and challenges the effects of educational policies and practices, and interrogates and develops theories about educational structures, policies, and experiences. Our aim is to highlight the agency …

“You Pulled The Chair From Right Under Me!”: How A Black Young Man Disappears From A High School Reading Class, Loukia K. Sarroub

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Relational identities in the classroom shape teachers and their students as well as the researchers who study them for the long term. Researchers whose fieldwork is located at “home” simultaneously embody with research participants the past, present, and future interactions on a shared continuum of experience. The collaborative enterprise of fieldwork is relived, retold, remade, and it is always present.

In this chapter, the shared, embodied experience that infused the ethnographic space in situ transformed one’s understanding of young people, their teacher, and the researcher. The study was focused on better understanding students’ experiences with literacy in high school. Within …

Translanguaging For Biliteracy: Book Reading Practices In A Chinese Bilingual Family, Shuling Yang, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Stephanie Wessels

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This is a qualitative case study that explores conversational interactions during book-reading practices in a Mandarin-speaking Chinese American family between the mother and her two young children. The study employs a sociocultural lens and the concept of translanguaging to describe the characteristics of interactional practices during book readings in a bilingual family with young children. Through discourse analysis of the book reading interactions, we found that translanguaging acted as a bridge to comprehension and served as a window to mental imagery that allowed participants to refine their understanding of the texts. We draw implications for teachers working with emergent bilingual …

Designing An Integrated Stem Semester For Pre-Service Elementary Teachers, Amanda Thomas, Matt Flores, Michael Hart, Elizabeth Hasseler, Tammera Mittelstet, Danae Peterson, Amy Sokoll Bauer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Teacher educators in an undergraduate elementary teacher certification program at a large university in the United States redesigned the traditional program to integrate STEM learning across multiple courses. During this Integrated STEM Semester, typically taken during the fifth semester of the undergraduate program, pre-service teachers (PSTs) enroll in mathematics content, mathematics methods, science methods, instructional technology, and practicum courses.

Shaping The Teaching And Learning Of Intercultural Communication Through Virtual Mobility, Theresa Catalano, Andrea Muñoz Barriga

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

The globally mobile reality of today’s world has made the field of intercultural communication increasingly relevant as people more often find themselves in intercultural situations. As a result, language teachers must be more prepared to work in intercultural contexts, and to teach their own students how to communicate across differences in intercultural situations both physically and virtually. The present paper examines this special issue’s topic of physical and virtual mobility and intercultural competence through the lens of teacher education. Using narrative inquiry, two teacher educators in very different geographic and socio-economic contexts (US and Colombia) explore their own attempts at …