Education Commons^™

The Prevalence Of Visual, Auditory, And Kinesthetic Senses Students With Low-Incidence Disabilities Utilize When Receiving Instruction, Elizabeth Gormley

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

This study sought to discover how often visual, auditory, and/or kinesthetic senses are used when students of low-incidence special education receive instruction. Low-incidence disabilities are physical and intellectual abnormalities that severely impact an individual’s ability to function independently in daily life. The research was completed through weekly observations in a classroom designed for students with low-incidence disabilities, including autism and traumatic brain injuries. Throughout the school day, it was noted whether the students reacted to the instruction using their auditory, visual, and/or kinesthetic sense. The students’ visual response was measured by marking whether the student made eye contact with the …

"I'M Just Not Talented With Languages!" The Role Of Self-Efficacy And Attribution Theory In The Foreign Language Classroom., Justice Nicolette Rioux

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

With many secondary and post-secondary institutions implementing foreign language requirements of at least two years of study of the same language, it is imperative that educators understand how to properly encourage their students so that they become motivated to complete the necessary language learning tasks. Moreover, foreign language teachers need to know how to motivate their students to continue learning the foreign language even after they have met their institution's requirements, so that the foreign language is eventually acquired as a second language by their students. In the current study, the interrelationship between achievement in the foreign language classroom and …

Self-Assessment Inspires Learning, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Self-reflection is self-assessment, and one of the most significant learning tools we can model for our students. Ultimately, we want our children and adolescents to be the self-assessors of their work, dispositions, and goals. Research repeatedly reports that the difference between good teachers and superior teachers is that superior teachers self-reflect.

Diversity In Times Of Austerity: Documenting Resistance In The Academy, David Moscowitz, Terri Jett, Terri Carney, Tamara Leech, Ann M. Savage

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

What happens to feminism in the university is parallel to what happens to feminism in other venues under economic restructuring: while the impoverished nation is forced to cut social services and thereby send women back to the hierarchy of the family, the academy likewise reduces its footprint in interdisciplinary structures and contains academic feminists back to the hierarchy of departments and disciplines. When the family and the department become powerful arbiters of cultural values, women and feminist academics by and large suffer: they either accept a diminished role or are pushed to compete in a system they recognize as antithetical …

Survive And Thrive During Testing Season, Lori Desautels

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Right now, students across the nation are embarking upon a series of standardized tests following intense days and weeks of test preparation accompanied by anxiety and worry from both parents and educators. Many of these test participants are English as a Second Language (ESL) learners with a wide diversity of learning potential, social and emotional challenges, strengths, cultures and interests. Among these young learners, there are many who put themselves to bed in the evening, get themselves up and ready for school, and do not have breakfast, arranged homework times or adult support to guide their school days...

Currere, Unexpected Journeys, And Unplanned Destinations In Academia, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

A sudden change of teaching placements forced my return to graduate school at the age of 40. Transformative graduate school learning resulted in the completion of a Ph.D. and earning a tenure track position in teacher education. This essay uses Pinar’s four steps of currere provide a lens to examine the past, look toward the future, take opportunity to look backward to the past while examining the present, and then re-enter the present. Mezirow’s transformative adult learning theory lends guidance for understanding why older adults may be uniquely poised to navigate successfully the complex maze of academia.

Test-Based Accountability Systems: Concerns For Indiana’S Multilingual Learners And Their Teachers, Kathryn Brooks, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Indiana’s current test-based accountability system grew, in part, out of decades of federal-level educational reform initiatives. This article reviews the history of Indiana’s test-based accountability system for schools and details how the system calculates evaluative ratings for Indiana teachers and schools. Additionally, the article analyzes how the Indiana accountability system contradicts what is known about appropriate measurement of English language learners and lists psychometric and validity concerns such as valid assessment, non-random assignment, norming groups, and ceiling/bottom effects. This article calls for a system in which multiple assessments offer rich data for school and teacher evaluations.

Indiana, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Indiana was admitted to the Union as the 19th state on December 11, 1816. Corydon, Indiana, located in southern Indiana, was the first state capitol until 1825, when the capital was moved to a more central location in Indianapolis. Indiana, located in the midwest, was formerly part of the Indiana Territory, dissolved in 1798. The first governor of the territory was William Henry Harrison, who served from 1800 until 1813. Harrison later became the into president of the United States, in 1840. Two constitutions have been ratified in Indiana: the first in 1816, and the current constitution in 1851. Indiana …

English Proficiency / Fluent English Proficient Students, Susan R. Adams

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

K-12 students whose first language is not English are identified upon enrollment in U.S. schools through a home language survey and are immediately assessed to determine whether English as a second language (ESL) services are required. Students who do not pass this initial screening assessment are classified as English Language Learners (ELLs), or as limited English proficiency (LEP) students, and are identified to receive school-provided English language development (ELD) and accommodations. Students who pass the initial screener or who demonstrate English proficiency two years in a row on state-mandated annual assessments are deemed fluent or fully English proficient (FEP) students …

Learn More Indiana 2013student Survey Results, Brandie M. Oliver, Sue Reynolds

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

No abstract provided.

Assessing A Young Writer’S Story, Julie Patterson

Articles

Now that's a story! Find out what this 1st grader is doing well and what our writer-in-residence would teach next.

Investigating Vocabulary And Reading Strategies With Middle Grades English Language Learners: A Research Synthesis, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Recent data indicate that many adolescent English language learners (ELLs) comprehend English texts at only a limited literal level. The purpose of this research synthesis was to systematically identify and describe the research related to the English reading comprehension of middle grades ELLs while also making practical connections to instruction. Parameters were established to determine whether the collected research studies met the purpose of the synthesis and the standards for quality research, using the guiding principles for scientific research set forth in the National Research Council’s Scientific Research in Education. Three themes emerged across the 11 identified studies: (a) the …

Internships And The Assessment Of Student Learning, William K. Templeton, Karel A. Updyke, Robert B. Bennett

Scholarship and Professional Work - Business

The use of internships is a powerful learning tool that allow business students to make connections between their classroom experience and the world of work. If designed appropriately and positioned correctly in the curriculum, they can also be an ideal opportunity to conduct assurance of learning activities related to business school accreditation. This study reports on survey results relating to business schools’ use of internships in their assurance of learning efforts and describes one school’s successful attempt to use internships as the key platform for its well-developed assurance of learning program.

Creating Conditions For Transforming Practicing K-12 Mainstream Teachers Of English Language Learners, Susan R. Adams, Kathryn Brooks

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Critical incident reflection journal writing provides a rich source for identifying high impact components of Project Alianza, a graduate course for mainstream secondary teachers funded by a US Department of Education Title III Professional Development grant. In this narrative pilot study featuring one strand of existing data, the co-authors, who are also co-instructors and co-researchers, begin the first rounds of analysis to identify emerging key conditions and contributing factors featured within specialized graduate courses for encouraging dispositional change and professional efficacy toward English language learners (ELLs) in practicing K-12 mainstream educators. Using Mezirow’s adult transformational learning theory (1991), Kegan’s stage …

Five Strategies To Support All Teachers: Suggestions To Get Off The Slippery Slope Of "Cookbook" Science Teaching, Paula A. Magee, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Many teachers shudder at the thought of implementing an inquiry curriculum. Perhaps they envision a rowdy classroom with little learning. Maybe they wonder, "How will this connect to all the standards?" Fortunately, these legitimate concerns can be addressed, and all students can engage in thoughtfully constructed inquiry science experiences. In this article, we outline five strategies that we have used with elementary school teachers as they moved from a "cookbook" approach in science to an approach that is inquiry-based. Having presented these five strategies in a linear format, we know that on the surface this may seem close to the …

English Learner Oral Language Production In Middle School Academic Classes, Kathryn Brooks

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Because of current federal and state educational policies, oral language development is an often overlooked aspect of language and literacy use and development of English Learning (EL) students in K-12 schools in the United States. This article describes a study in which a researcher used an ecobehavioral approach to investigate the conditional probability that young adolescent EL students would produce language in content area classes as they engaged in four different instructional grouping configurations: whole class, small group, one-to-one, and individual instruction. Significant differences emerged between instructional grouping configurations in terms of EL student production of oral academic language. Overall, …

Creating Inclusive Learning Communities For Ell Students: Transforming School Principals' Perspectives, Kathryn Brooks, Susan R. Adams, Trish Morita-Mullaney

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

School-level administrators are often concerned about tertiary supports for English language learners (ELLs), such as translating signs and school documents or offering Spanish classes for their teachers. Although modeling and learning the heritage language(s) of the ESL population can be helpful, its focus on language differences can limit our considerations of broader systemic challenges that impact the success of ELLs in our schools. This article shares the dialogues that school administrators are having about ELL students and discusses the use of social justice and equity focused professional learning communities as a way to transform this discourse to address the broader …

English Language Learner Academic Engagement And Instructional Grouping Configurations, Kathryn Brooks, Linda P. Thurston

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

This study used and ecobehavioral approach to investigate the conditional probability that English language learning (ELL) students would engage in academic tasks in urban middle school content area classrooms within different instructional grouping configurations. These configurations included whole class, small group, one-to-one, and individual instructions. The participants in the study included 28 native Spanish-speaking students who were all identified as being English language learners (ELL). The findings on this study indicate that participants were most likely to engage in academic tasks during small group and one-to-one instruction. They were least likely to engage in academic tasks during whole class and …

Working Toward A Third Space In The Teaching Of Elementary Mathematics, Ryan Flessner

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Building on work in the area of third space theory, this study documents one teacher’s efforts to create third spaces in an elementary mathematics classroom. In an attempt to link the worlds of theory and practice, I examine how the work of other theorists and researchers – inside and outside the field of education – can create new lenses for classroom practitioners. In addition, the article provides evidence that third spaces may be more difficult to realize than others have described. Rather than forcing a third space to emerge, what this study finds more important is creating an environment that …

Review Of The Book: Classroom Assessment Scoring System (Class). Manual K-3, Brooke Kandel-Cisco

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Dr. Kandel-Cisco's review of the book: Pianta, Robert C.; La Paro, Karen M. & Hamre, Bridget K. (2008). Classroom Assessment Scoring System (CLASS). Manual K3. Baltimore: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

Improving Reading Comprehension In Dual Language Programs, Susana E. Franco-Fuenmayor, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

The low achievement levels and high dropout rates of English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to be a great challenge for educators. One area that can provide us with useful information on how to improve the education of ELLs is dual language programs. Research in this area indicates that native language development is important for academic success. The present study examined the cognitive reading strategies of students enrolled in a dual language program. The results indicate that both language groups of students were using successful cognitive reading strategies to comprehend text. The study also describes how the questionnaire used in the …

Using A Resiliency Perspective To Inform Bilingual Teachers’ Classroom Inquiry, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Recent research has established the importance of teacher quality in the academic success or failure of students (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Sanders, Wright, & Horn, 2004) and policy initiatives, such as NCLB, have propelled the issue of teacher quality to the forefront of educational reform in the U.S. While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been successful in establishing minimum teacher quality standards for general educators, the act has failed to highlight the importance of quality for teachers of second language learners (Nieto. 2003).

Teacher quality is especially impo1tant for second language learners. both because of the pedagogic and Iinguistic complexities inherent …

The Mmpi As A Predictor Of Success Among Seminary Students, Sue Webb Cardwell

Graduate Thesis Collection

Purpose of the study. Since the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is the psychological test that is most widely used in seminaries in the United States, it was the purpose of this study (1) to establish norms for Christian Theological Seminary that could be compared with general norms and with the norms of two other studies, those of United Presbyterian and Southern California School of Theology seminarians, to help answer the question of how clergymen differ from non-clergymen and whether special norms need to be taken into consideration in the interpretation of MMPI protocols with seminary students; and (2) to see …

A Study Of Library Services In Seven Indiana High Schools Using The Evaluative Criteria Of The National Study Of Secondary School Evaluation, Olive Kinsley

Graduate Thesis Collection

The purposes of this study are three-fold: 1. To organize and summarize the data concerning library services for the libraries filling out these criteria; (2.) To find the strengths and weaknesses of these libraries; (3.) To point up areas in which improvement needs to be made.

A Follow-Up Study Of The Graduates Of Sandcreek High School 1952-1957, Earl Aaron

Graduate Thesis Collection

The problem in this study is to find what the graduates of Sandcreek Township High School, in Decatur County, Indiana, did vocationally after they graduated; whether they followed their vocational choices in high school; how well they felt the school curriculum met their needs; and which particular qualities they felt were most important in their teachers.

"Non-Musical" Interests And Abilities Of Students Of Arthur Jordan Conservatory Of Music, Nellie Jones

Graduate Thesis Collection

The present study is an endeavor to supply additional information which may assist in the evaluation of music students of Jordan Conservatory.

A Statistical Survey Of Beginning Wind Instrumental Methods, Paul H. Patterson

Graduate Thesis Collection

The purpose of this thesis is to ascertain to what extent authors of beginning brass and wood-wind methods agree and disagree

The Adequacy Of Music Theory In The High School As Applied To Collegiate Music Study, Esther M. Garretson

Graduate Thesis Collection

This present study grew of of the writer's own conviction of the need for a thorough comprehension of Music Theory for a well rounded musicianship in any field of musical endeavor. More specifically it was understaken to point out the need for more adequate preparation, through the study of Music Theory in Secondary schools, by those students who intend to enroll in a Collegiate Music School; to show that a major portion of the curriculum of such a school is made up of course in Music Theory; and to offer proof that Secondary schools on the whole do not meet …

A Comparison Of The Status Of Music, Home Economics, And Agriculture In The Secondary Schools Of Indiana, Reba Marree Geist

Graduate Thesis Collection

It is hoped that the facts revealed in this survey will aid in the passage of a law in Indiana concerning Music Education, similar to the law in effect in Indiana dealing with Vocational Education. It is further hoped that these facts will show a need for better programs of music education. The purpose of this survey is to collect data showing what is being done so that better things might be accomplished.

The Minnesota Clerical Test As A Measure Of Piano Aptitude, Helen Ferrell Harlan

Graduate Thesis Collection

No abstract provided.