Education Commons^™

Meet Me In The Middle: A Scoping Review On Understanding Adolescent Needs In Climate Communication, Gwendolyn Monica Hoff Anderson

Master's Projects and Capstones

The greatest effects of climate change are likely to be felt by youth. Young people are disproportionately affected by climate change due to their critical developmental stage and lack of power, and they experience both higher severity and prevalence of mental health issues related to climate change. Strong emotions have long been recognized as potential catalysts for action, or they may lead to paralyzing feelings of being overwhelmed. Climate communication is a critical tool to spark climate concern and encourage action. Activism, in turn, may help youth manage their anxiety about climate change. This scoping review examines emerging evidence on …

Techniques For Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety In Adult English Learners, Andy Mardesich

Master's Projects and Capstones

Making presentations to a group is a complex skill that takes time to develop, and it can be intimidating and anxiety inducing. Using mindset theory and feedback from interviews with community college teachers, this teacher's guide, Techniques for Reducing Public Speaking Anxiety in Adult English Learners, discusses approaches for reducing anxiety in an adult ESOL/EFL speaking classroom. It discusses the importance of providing a safe and comfortable environment to practice and manage anxiety, building good support structures, providing clear rubrics and student roles, and offering plenty of opportunities for interaction through purposeful communication. This guide holds significance for students, teachers, …

When Culturally Responsive Practices Meet Social-Emotional Learning: A Guide For Educators, Sharon Ju-Ting Cheng

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many educators hope to give their students quality and well-rounded education while balancing all the contents they need to learn. Social-emotional learning (SEL) and culturally responsive teaching, however, are two areas that teachers seem to struggle with (Stark et al., 2021). Teachers have encountered situations where it was difficult for them to support their students due to the cultural differences between the teacher and student (Heineke & Vera, 2021). This lack of professional development in the culturally responsive aspect is concerning.

The shortfall of training leads to failure to apply these practices into schools. For newcomer students, who are usually …

Understanding And Identifying Specific Learning Difficulties: Dyslexia, Autism Spectrum, And Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity In The Adult Esl/Efl Classroom, Kristen Kearns

Master's Projects and Capstones

Specific learning difficulties (SLDs), including dyslexia, autism spectrum disorders, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorders, are significant factors that influence the way and rate at which students learn English as an additional language. However, few Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) training programs address the cognitive and behavioral strengths and challenges these conditions carry for adult learners, in part due to concerns about bias in the over- and under- identification of learning disabilities among K-12 English language learners. Informed by Critical Disability Theory, and framed within a realistic discussion of the obstacles that remain in identifying and researching the parallel …

Desde El Suelo: Resources For Anti Colonial And Abolitionist Educators In Puerto Rico, Jazdil Poupart-Feliciano

Master's Projects and Capstones

“Desde el Suelo” is a set of resources, activities and reflections created for educators looking to name, understand and heal from the systemic harms experienced in our schooling in order to interrupt these cycles and better support children, youth and ourselves in our liberation. For Puerto Rican educators, this process begins with the understanding that any system created with the goal of expanding the u.s. empire through racist occupation and epistemicide can never be reformed into promoting freedom or social justice. Pulling from abolitionist teaching and critical pedagogy, inspired by historical struggles for Black liberation across the diaspora and in …

English Pronunciation Skills And Intelligibility Of Native Russian Speakers, Zoia Palgova

Master's Projects and Capstones

The rapid growth of the native Russian-speaking population in the United States created an urgent need to improve their pronunciation skills and increase their second language speech intelligibility. The purpose of this field project was to present a research-based curriculum, with the use of embedded technology, that can be utilized to improve the American English pronunciation skills and intelligibility of native Russian speakers.

The body of analyzed scholarship demonstrated that speech intelligibility is the primary goal of second language pronunciation teaching, justified the importance of research-based pronunciation teaching, emphasized the significant role of technology in pronunciation research and teaching, and …