Education Commons^™

3d Learning Spaces For Second Language Learning, Emma Olson

Honors Theses

Many language teaching techniques and approaches have been used and adapted to culminate in the development of Communicative Language Teaching, which focuses on developing functional proficiency and communicative competence. 3D learning spaces are becoming increasingly more popular for language learning as well, and more specifically, socially-based virtual worlds (or “metaverses”) make good educational tools for developing communicative competence, as they engage learners in situational and experiential learning through increasing authenticity, lowering anxiety levels (i.e., affective filters), and allowing for the development of tools that can support both structured and spontaneous speaking opportunities. After a brief literature review, this thesis therefore …

English 890: Advanced Research Methods, A First Benchmark Portfolio, Janel Simons

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

In this benchmark portfolio, I reflect on course design and student learning in a course I teach for incoming Master's students in the English department, ENGL 890: Advanced Research Methods. ENGL 890 is a mini-session course intended to introduce students to various aspects of managing graduate-level research within the discipline of English studies. In this portfolio, I discuss the learning outcomes and goals for the course, highlight some of the assessments I use, reflect on student learning throughout the course, and articulate changes that might improve student learning in future iterations of the course. Given the overarching goals of this …

A Science Teacher’S Experiences When Fostering Intercultural Competence Among Students In Multilingual Classrooms: A Narrative Study, Uma Ganesan, Amanda R. Morales

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

Increased globalization of the world economy, growth in human migration, and rapid devel-opments in science and technology have required people to develop intercultural commu-nication skills. Teachers play a crucial role in developing intercultural competence among students in our globalized, multilingual classrooms. The need for fostering collaborative discourse among students with diverse cultural and linguistic repertoires and building in-tercultural competence among students is a common blind spot in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics 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 …

Fashion Around The Francophone World: A 20-Unit Lesson Plan For Teaching Students 7-12 How To Discuss Clothing In French, Justin Solheim

Honors Theses

This paper is the directions for a high school French world language curriculum at the novice-low level. The curriculum covers 20 class periods, or four weeks, and it uses a variety of pedagogical techniques and technologies to help students quickly learn and retain French vocabulary and grammar. Each class period is 40 minutes. The lessons use a variety of assessments and feedback to help students improve and allow the teachers to monitor student achievement. The following lessons focus on forming basic sentences and practicing the basics of subject-verb agreement, while teaching the vocabulary for different types of clothing in the …

Challenges Encountered In The Implementation Of The National Literacy Acceleration Program (Nalap) In The Abura Asebu Kwamankese District, Ghana, Julius Arhin-Asamoah

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The National Literacy Acceleration Program (NALAP) aims to enhance early grade primary school pupils' literacy rates, yet national evaluations reveal widespread deficiencies in reading proficiency in both the local language and English. This study examines challenges in implementing NALAP in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district, Ghana, focusing on the teacher and resource-related issues. A mixed-methods sequential explanatory design was employed. The study covered 12 basic schools in the Abura Asebu Kwamankese district. In all, 61 respondents comprising 50 teachers and 11 circuit supervisors were involved in the study. The findings highlight teacher-related issues such as inadequate pedagogical practices, low motivation, …

Ecuadorian English Teachers’ Perspectives On Their Professional Development, Consuelo Marisol Gallardo

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents from University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Ecuadorian English Teachers’ Perspectives on Their Professional Development, Consuelo Gallardo, Ph.D., University of Nebraska, 2023

Professional development (PD) plays an important role in one’s ability to perform at a high level in a job (Mizell, 2010). As such, an increased emphasis on ongoing and varied PD opportunities to support educator’s professional growth has been described as an effective approach since it pays direct dividends for teachers’ self-efficacy and prepares them to help students surpass basic academic standards (Anderson, 2018; Borg, 2018; Tanveer et al., 2021).

However, PD opportunities for English teachers, who work at Ecuadorian public high schools (grades 8-13), …

The Bilingual Literacy Development Model: A Holistic Way To Support Spanish-Speaking Children, Stephanie Wessels

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

In the Bilingual Literacy Development Model: A holistic way to support Spanish-speaking children research study, I studied bilingual families over a 5-month period in their home environments through home visits. Drawing from data obtained through home visits, including interviews with mothers and observations of family literacy practices in the home environment, this study examines children’s bilingual literacy development. The findings are presented in an adapted Bilingual Literacy Development Model I created. The model was adapted from the work of researchers Leseman and de Jong (1998) and Bronfenbrenner’s ecological system (1977, 1995), from which four facets were developed: literacy and …

Services Provided To Aging Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities: Survey Of Speech Language Pathologists, Claire H. Gatewood

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Purpose: The present study explored current speech-language pathology service provision for aging individuals with intellectual disabilities in the United States, including areas and domains of services, factors restricting service provision, and reported knowledge and confidence of individuals within the field of speech-language pathology in providing services, to identify possible gaps of service and needed improvement.

Methods: Participants (n = 272) from across the United States completed an online survey to gather descriptive information about current speech-language pathology service provision for aging individuals with intellectual disabilities. Participants were recruited through state speech-language hearing associations and universities with speech-language pathology clinics …

French 203: Grammar & Conversation: A Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective & Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Erica Schauer

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The following Benchmark Portfolio is the product of a full reassessment of FRENCH 203: CONVERSATION & GRAMMAR, an intermediate-level grammar course that serves as a prerequisite for students pursuing a major or a minor in French at UNL. Previously, French 203 had been a review course that covered the essential grammar structures discussed in 101, 102, 201 and 202 and invited students to practice these structures orally with peers in class. This new iteration of the course, however, seeks to broaden the reach of student comprehension of French as a functional tool of communication by requiring students to understand and …

Translanguaging In World Language Higher Education, Alessia Barbici Wagner

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Increased global migration and a myriad of other social and political factors has made today’s universities more diverse than ever. As a result, teachers in higher education regularly find multilingual learners from a variety of different linguistic and cultural backgrounds in their classrooms and must consider this diversity in their teaching. One of the ways that teaching can better serve today’s multilingual and multicultural student population is through translanguaging. The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the intentional and unintentional use of translanguaging by multilingual language learners and world language instructors in higher education. Additionally, this qualitative case study …

Language Ideologies Of Multilingual Learners In An Intensive English Program, Madhur Shende

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Despite some rises and falls in the numbers due to various reasons, including the political climate in the Trump era and the COVID-19 pandemic (Laws & Ammigan, 2020), each year universities in the United States host a large number of multilingual international students from different parts of the world. Based on their TOEFL scores, many are required to enroll in an accelerated course of study in academic English, commonly known as the Intensive English Program (IEP) before they can begin their mainstream academic programs. Where there is language, there are language ideologies. Yet, often in monolingual, English-only classrooms, little is …

Defining And Transferring Digital Literacies: What Does This Mean For High School And College Educators?, Jocelyn Spoor

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This thesis aims to create a digital literacies transfer framework through a discussion regarding current conversations on transfer and digital literacies in the English field, including synthesizing the two ideas to think about the transfer of digital literacies as a concept. This digital literacies framework is made up of five components: the functional skills, critical skills, and rhetorical skills found in digital literacies scholarship and the genre awareness and meta-cognitive ideas found in transfer literature. This digital literacies transfer framework is then used to analyze information gleaned from four college and five high school English educators. The key findings from …

Multilingual Zambia - Language Issues In Primary/Secondary Schools Of The Eastern/Southern Provinces, Kenzie Steiner

NUTR/GLST 498b: Global Research Experiences in Nutrition and Health

Introduction: Zambia is a multilingual country that uses 8 different languages for instruction including English and 7 other indigenous languages.

Methods: Survey research conducted between May-June 2022 on 6-7th graders within 9 Zambian schools. Classroom observations made and teachers interviewed.

Results: In Eastern and Southern Provinces, Zambian teachers speak an average of 5 languages while students speak an average of 2. Both teachers and students say English remains the most important language followed by first languages.

Conclusion: Continued research on language-in-education policies and impacts on student performance must be conducted if “One Zambia, One Nation” is meant to promote all …

"The Blackbird Girls": Designing A Four Week Novel Unit For Upper Elementary And Middle Grades, While Navigating Teaching In An Ever-Changing Digital World, Ashley Kallhoff

Honors Theses

As a future teacher in an increasing digital world, I wanted to create an online curriculum I could use in my future classroom, students all over the world could use, and other teachers could implement in their own classroom. Taking all of this into consideration, I have designed a digital four-week, 20-day, novel unit for upper elementary and middle grades with social studies and language arts dual focus. The novel I chose was a historical fiction young adult text titled The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman. This novel follows the story of two young girls, one that is Jewish and …

Effect Of Academic Library Usage On Pre-Service Teachers’ Academic Achievement, Nneka Justina Eze Phd, Victoria Olasoji Omosowon Phd, Ifeoma Roseline Iketaku Phd, Claris Nnenna Eze Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study investigated the effect of academic library on pre-service teachers’ academic achievement. Based on the purpose of the study two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. Quasi experimental design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised of all the pre-service teachers in the department of Arts and Social Science Education, Ebonyi State University. A sample of 67 pre-service teachers were purposively selected and used for the study. The instrument used for data collection was English Language Achievement (ELAT). The validity of the instrument was established by …

Evaluating A Suite Of Strategies For Reading Graphic Novels: A Confirmatory Case Study, Maribeth Nottingham, Barbara J. Mcclanahan, Howard Atkinson

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

This article describes a qualitative study conducted by two researchers who are teacher educators and a literacy coach in a private school. The purpose was to determine the effectiveness of a set of strategies for reading and teaching about graphic novels by examining the responses of three elementary-grade teachers in a reading workshop environment to a semester-long professional development. Challenges both expected and unexpected were encountered but results overall were positive for teachers. In addition, they provided guidance to researchers for using the strategies introduced in the professional development in further studies.

Motivating Students To Participate In The German As A Foreign Language Classroom, Joanna Walton

Honors Theses

This details how to motivate students in the German as a foreign language class to participate and engage in the learning process. Increasing motivation in students is a struggle with which all teachers are familiar, but teachers of foreign languages have a particular challenge because of the intimidation students feel when faced with producing assignments and content in a new language. This topic is also of interest to foreign language educators because student retention is becoming a serious problem, leading many school districts to cut smaller language programs like French and German. Maintaining an engaging classroom environment, where students participate …

Library Resources Utilization By Lecturers In Nigerian University, Abigail Chikaodinaka Obodo Phd, Justina Nneka Eze Phd, Mercy Ifunanya Ani Phd

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study was designed to examine the utilization of library resources by lecturers in Nigerian tertiary institutions using lecturers Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) as case study. The specific objectives of the study is to find out the level of availability of library materials in Nigerian university, and determine the extent of use of the materials by lecturers. It is also to find out the factors that impede lecturers use of the library. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population for the study consisted all the full time lecturers made up of 536 …

Optimalisation Of E-Resources From National Library And Online Information Of Covid-19 To Develop Literacy And Numeracy Test Like Pisa, Nadi Suprapto, Binar K. Prahani, Utama A. Deta

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

By utilising the online information of Covid-19 from e-resources including the national library and online information, the development of literacy and numeracy item test called PISA-Cosains (science context of Covid-19) was carried out. The process was oriented to the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) science framework that has been carried out to produce an instrument product that is valid and practical. The method used in this study is the Research and Development method. The analysis in this study uses Rasch's Item Response Theory (IRT) model. The development process utilises e-resources from national library and online portal of Indonesian …

How To Attract The Library Visitors? The Role Of Csr At The Library, Library Image, Customer Value, And Loyalty To The Library: Evidence From Indonesia, Sri Hartini, Masmira Kurniawati, Jovi Sulistiawan, Muhammad Ihwanudin

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study focuses on the impact of CSR on the library’s performance in collaboration with CSR programs. Using the purposive sampling method, the sample was 350 library service users in Indonesia. Data was collected through a Google Form questionnaire distributed on social media. SEM-PLS was used to analyze five hypotheses, which were accepted. This study indicates that CSR in the library is significantly positively related to library image, customer value, and loyalty. In addition, library image and customer value are positively related to library visitor loyalty. Currently, the social responsibility literature is only limited to the customer perspective, and not …

A Study On Impact Of Library Resource Utilisation And Ict Literacy On Earning Of The Post-Graduate Students Of Assam, India, Arnob Paul, Masuma Ahmed

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Information and communication technology, or ICT, is a broad term for information technology that emphasises the importance of unified communications and telecommunications integration, as well as intelligent building management systems and audio-visual systems in modern information technology. ICT refers to all technical tools that are used to manage data and facilitate communication. It consists of computer and network hardware, as well as software and required applications. With the increasing demand for information and communication technology literacy among the young students, it is important to know the impact of ICT literacy on the level of part time income of the students. …

The Effect Of Visual Communication On Children's Reading Interest, Endri Endri

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This paper aims to measure the visual communication effect of Noura storybooks on children's reading interests. Theories used in the research are family communication theory, storybook visualization, and children's reading interest. The method used is an explanatory survey method with a quantitative approach and positivistic paradigm. The study population consisted of parents of the Setya Bakti Early Childhood Education Program (PAUD). The sampling technique used was simple random sampling, with 100 respondents. The data analysis technique used is the person correlation and regression test. The analysis resulted that Noura's storybook contributed 24.5% to children's reading interest. The remaining percentage of …

Exploring The Factors Affecting The Development Of Reading Habits Among Children, Zaheer Ahmad, Dr. Muhammad Tariq, Qaiser Iqbal, Tahira Akbar Sial

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This study explores the factors affecting the reading development of middle schools' students studying in private schools. A quantitative study with the help of survey design was conducted on parents whose children were enrolled in 6^th to 8^th grades in private middle schools of Lahore, Pakistan. The research findings indicated that excessive use of screens such as mobile, TV, and electronic games are the major problems parents face in the promotion of reading habits among children. The other difficulties include the excessive curriculum textbooks, lack of interest by parents, high cost of reading material, lack of school-level practices, …

Afterschool Club: German For K-5, Justin Solheim

Honors Expanded Learning Clubs

The lessons found in this paper were designed for a group of 20-25 elementary schools students in downtown Lincoln, NE. The students were split into two groups: K-2 and 3-5. Through a variety of activities, the students learned the basics of the German language and culture. Many of the lessons are simple and do not require difficult thinking, as this was a summer club. Instead, they allow students to collaborate, move around, color, and solve puzzles.

Knowledge Management Skills For 21st Century Library Professionals In India: A Study, Subaveerapandiyan A, Dharmavarapu Sindhu

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

In any kind of educational institute and organization, libraries are playing a crucial role. For the development of library services, skillful library professionals are indispensable. Without knowledge management skills, no one can provide essential services to the users. “Library is a growing organism” by S.R. Ranganathan (1931), based on his law, as library professionals have to adopt futuristic skills for better user services. The study investigates knowledge management skills and the chief strengths of library and information science professionals in India. For this study, data collected from the Institute of National Importance and Central Universities around India. The principal aim …

Research Visualization On Teaching, Language, Learning Of English And Higher Education Institutions From 2011 To 2020: A Bibliometric Evidences, Dr. Muhammad Shoaib, Mr. Nusrat Ali, Dr. Behzad Anwar, Dr. Shamshad Rasool, Dr. Raza-E Mustafa, Mr. Shi Zici

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

No abstract provided.

Considering Student Voices In Reading Intervention: Re-Conceptualizing And Rethinking Possibilities For High School Reading Through Arts-Based Educational Research, Angela Kramer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines best practices for secondary literacy intervention and instruction. It also exemplifies the ability of Arts Based Educational Research to give voice to struggling and striving high school readers. This dissertation encompasses three time horizons. The first was the crafting of a ‘non-fiction fiction ‘ play (Goldenstein, 2013; Sizer, 1984). The play’s characters, setting, and plot, were built on my review of literature, and years working with reading students as both a general and special education teacher. The second phase, inspired by the Chicana feminist epistemology process of testimonio, involved a student centered read through and revision of …

A Research Visualization Of Academic Learning Skills Among Students In Higher Education Institutions: A Bibliometric Evidence From 1981 To 2020, Dr. Muhammad Shoaib, Mr. Farooq Abdullah, Mr. Nusrat Ali

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This article provides an insight into the academic learning skills acquired by students in higher education institutions across the globe. A bibliometric study was designed to consolidate the published scholarship of the academic learning skills in the Web of Science indexed documents from 1981 to 2020. The data were extracted on March 18, 2021, at 06:54 AM, PST. A total of 964 publications were found using Biblioshiny, ScientoPy, VOSviewer, and MS Excel to extract data and preparation of figures. The study findings asserted that knowledge skill was the top topic, article as a type of documents, and the English language …

Research Productivity Of Journal Of Librarianship And Information Science From 1999-2019: A Bibliometric Study, Sanila Aslam, Nusrat Ali, Muhammad Naveed, Dr. Muhammad Ijaz Mairaj

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Journal of Librarianship and Information Science (JoLIS) is a peer-reviewed journal that deals with the fields of Library and Information Science and serving since 1969. The journal publishes various forms of data including articles, book reviews, letters, reviews and editorial material, etc. The study aims at highlighting the research productivity of JoLIS. Bibliometric data of JoLIS have been collected through Core Collection and Web of Science. VOSviewer, Biblishiny, and MS Excel spreadsheet were used to analyze the data. This bibliometric study explores the exact figures of publications, types of documents, year-wise distribution of published documents, frequency distribution of specific productivity, …

Esperanza Rising And Identity: Exploring Literature And Self In Upper Elementary School, Emma Fuller

Honors Theses

Upper elementary students benefit from exposure to windows and mirrors in literature. The term “mirrors” refers to when students can relate to characters and situations, and see their own lives valued in an academic context. Mirrors are important for representation in schools because it allows students to reflect on their own learning. “Windows” allow students to see a perspective into other people’s lives. They are important because they encourage reflection on different ideas and empathy among students. One of many literary works with strong “windows” and “mirrors” is Pam Munoz Ryan’s Esperanza Rising. In this Senior Project, I focused on …