Education Commons^™

The Charter School Commercial: Nyc’S Fight Against Public School Privatization, Keedra Gustava Gibba

Capstone Collection

Teaching in New York City public schools provided me with the opportunity become a part of the active grassroots education movement, be a part of one of the largest existing labor unions in the nation, and improve my teaching practice in the classroom. I began teaching in NYC at a time when mayor Michael Bloomberg assumed mayoral control of the public schools. For the first time in nearly half a century the NYC public school system is completely controlled by one individual, the city’s mayor. As a result, grassroots organizations have struggled to regain more participation in the governance of …

Summer Bridge Program At The University Of San Francisco For Conditionally Admitted Chinese Students, Adrienne M. Bergenfeld

Capstone Collection

While serving as a graduate intern at the University of San Francisco, I concluded that the conditional admit Chinese students were missing an essential element for academic success.

To insure a higher success rate for these students, I am proposing the creation of a Summer Bridge Program to bridge the gap between pedagogical learning and experiential learning. The program will focus on the acquisition of English as well as successful acculturation into the university. This “Bridge Program for International Students” will help students understand United States’ academic culture and the expectations of the university, introduce students to USF resources and …

English As A Foreign Language Professional Development Practicum: Placing Skilled Teachers Where They Can Grow A Program Proposal For The Schools Of Cañadilla, S.A. Santiago, Chile, Ellen Marie Dizzia

Capstone Collection

Chile is currently making great investments in English as a foreign language (EFL) programming as a means for international communication and commerce. The following mobility program has been designed for family run Cañadilla, S.A. to connect qualified, concerned EFL professionals with semi-private primary and secondary schools in Santiago. An in depth needs assessment was performed in their eight schools under Cañadilla’s Coordinator of English programs to determine the most efficient way to begin improvement. Professional development has been named a cornerstone in this process. This program intends to draw learned, practiced EFL teachers to participate in a hands-on professional development …

“The Warm Heart Of Africa” Program Proposal For S.T.E.P Into The World, Adam Goldberg

Capstone Collection

This capstone paper introduces “The Warm Heart of Africa”, an education abroad program proposal for pre-service and in-service K-12 teachers designed for the newly formed organization, S.T.E.P (Supporting.Teachers.Educational.Progression) Into The World. “The Warm Heart of Africa” will offer a month-long intensive program in the African nation of Malawi during the summer of 2012 with the purpose of providing participants with training in intercultural communication alongside an unforgettable cultural immersion experience. With a base of experiential learning, “The Warm Heart of Africa” design focuses on providing participants with a strong foundation in cross-cultural competency and sensitivity as it combines service-learning projects, …

Intercultural Competency Training For Semester At Sea, Leah Charbonneau

Capstone Collection

Semester At Sea, a comparative education study abroad program, is a unique experience that provides participants an opportunity to challenge their worldview. Semester At Sea cultivates opportunities beyond the classroom to explore issues of culture and identity. However, little training is provided to give participants the tools to navigate in intercultural contexts.

The proposed Semester At Sea (SAS) Intercultural Competency Training (ICT) program will offer a semester-long intensive training program with the purpose of providing participants with a foundation in intercultural competency and sensitivity. The purpose of the SAS ICT design is to incorporate experiential educational practices and classroom learning …

Arabic Diglossia And Arabic As A Foregn Language: The Perception Of Students In World Learning Oman Center, Hilal Al-Mamari

Capstone Collection

The principle objective of this independent inquiry is to address the research question: what are the impacts of Arabic Diglossia, if any, on the experience of learners of Arabic as a foreign language? The study attempts to answer this question through the perception of a sample group of 23 learners studying Arabic as a foreign language in World Learning Oman Center in semester of Spring 2011.

Diglossia is defined by linguists as a sociolinguistic phenomenon in which a particular language has two varieties, one of which is considered High and more standard and used in exclusive domains, while the other …

Sustainability Series: Creating Student Sustainable Practices Within Sfs And Beyond, Staci Hagen

Capstone Collection

The School for Field Studies (SFS) is a non-profit environmental research based study abroad program that integrates academic, research, social and community activities in a holistic education model. One of the six SFS centers is the Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) in Baja California Sur, Mexico. At CCS, students take courses that explore local and regional environmental, social and economic problems and they have the opportunity to design their own research project. Even though students study these problems and come up with sustainable solutions, it does not mean that they make personal choices with the least impact on the environment. …

Emerging Youth Leaders: A Redesign Of A Two-Way Youth Exchange Between The Us And Senegal, Aspen L. Felt

Capstone Collection

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs is increasingly focused on youth exchange programs to build bridges of understanding between peoples and address ongoing social, environmental, and political challenges in an increasingly globalized world. The Emerging Youth Leaders program is a unique Department of State exchange program that brought a group of thirty Senegalese and American students together for 6 weeks in Dakar and the San Francisco Bay Area in the summer of 2010 around the themes of democracy and governance in civil society. Over the course of the U.S. based portion of the program I …

Cultivating Knowledge In The School Garden: New Ways Of Teaching Literacy To Esl Students, Michele Durivage

MA TESOL Collection

My thesis project includes a combination of materials development and classroom-based research. In my paper, I explore existing garden-related curricula, and create original garden-based lesson plans to teach literacy to fourth grade ESL students. This curriculum development project contributes to the field of ESL in its innovative garden-based pedagogy. The field study took place during the spring semester of 2009 at Increase Miller Elementary School in Westchester County, New York. Using nature as inspiration for writing descriptive essays and poetry, the ESL students at Increase Miller produced imaginative writing pieces, using their own voices to express their thoughts. The students’ …

Building A Learning Community Within The Constraints Of Open Enrollment, Megan Pugh

MA TESOL Collection

This paper introduces the ways in which the challenges of open enrollment ESL programs affect both students and teachers and the importance of group cohesion in adult learning. The effects caused by open enrollment can be abated by building a strong community of learners through involving new students to build a sense of belonging to the class, meeting the needs of individuals within the group, having a supportive learning environment, and using selected best teaching practices to build community. With the solutions proposed in this paper, teachers can meet student needs and the negative effects of open enrollment will be …

Metaphorizing Grammar And Writing: Visual Learning In The English Classroom, Kulsoom F. Rizvi

MA TESOL Collection

My goals for this thesis include exploring how metaphors are used in the classroom and, in doing so, providing ways in which to help both teachers and students transcend their understanding. I will: (1) analyze and respond to the research on metaphors in the classroom, (2) illustrate and discuss the rationale of different metaphors I have collected from teachers as well as some I created for the English classroom, and (3) share student generated metaphors in the English classroom.

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos’ classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

Framework And Rationale For Developing A Single Language Exploratory Program For Students In Grades 1 – 3, Amy Bentley

MA TESOL Collection

This materials development project provides middle and high school language teachers, in a public school setting, the rationale and curriculum for implementing an introductory language program to elementary aged children in their school. This paper explores the author’s school community and the interest in providing an introductory language program for elementary aged students in the school district. The author, a second language teacher in the school, is also an advocate for introducing this type of programming, with the hopes that it will create enthusiasm and motivation for further language study in the students’ middle and high school years. The project …

Sustained Silent Reading In The Esl Classroom: The Silent Motivator?, Megan V. Ahonen

MA TESOL Collection

This classroom based research paper investigates the use of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) in the ESL classroom. The purpose is to determine if implementing a SSR program would increase students’ interest and desire to read in English outside of the classroom for pleasure. This paper will share background information on the students and school, different reading inventory samples and questionnaires with student responses, and current findings on SSR compared to my own personal findings. The final chapter is devoted to roadblocks and limitations encountered along the way throughout this study

Creating Avid Readers Across Content Areas: Explicit Reading Instruction In The Esl Classroom, Rashmi Koushik

MA TESOL Collection

Colleges are experiencing budget crises on a paramount scale and are funding programs that place higher demands on students to be able to read academic texts in specific fields of study. Unfortunately, students are often overwhelmed with the level of reading and the types of content that they encounter. Even more often, L2 (Second Language) learners are often left out of academic reading instruction in the college-level ESL classroom, and therefore rarely advance into academic pathways. This paper seeks to define and articulate the use of explicit reading instruction to help L2 learners become better readers in English, particularly of …

Folklore Or Britney Spears: Efl Decisions In An Increasingly Global World, Erin C. Anderson

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores my decisions concerning texts in the EFL classroom in the post-communist cities of Bruntál, Czech Republic in 1993 and Bila Tserkva, Ukraine in 2005. By examining my use of Slavic folklore in these EFL contexts, through the lenses of post-colonialism, folklore studies, and globalization, it is apparent that what has motivated my students has not necessarily been consistent with the goals of post-colonialism, i.e., the development and maintenance of national cultural values. In fact, students have been found to be most motivated by the use of texts they share a fondness for and a familiarity with, …

Using Technology In The Efl Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Neil Oby Morris

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the ways that technology, specifically the use of laptop computers and cellular phones, may be incorporated in the EFL classroom to enhance learning and lower the affective filter of male Saudi Arabian university students.

Saudi Arabia presents the EFL teacher with many challenges that are unique to this gender-segregated Islamic kingdom. Meeting these challenges and turning them into learning opportunities that other EFL teachers may find useful within their teaching contexts is the purpose of this paper.

The appendix includes a writing rubric and a 40-day materials introduction calendar. The calendar illustrates the day-by-day introduction of material …

From Riyadh To Portland: The Study Abroad Experiences Of Five Saudi Arabian Female Students, Dana Kampman

MA TESOL Collection

The number of Saudi Arabian students enrolled in college and university programs in other countries is increasing. This paper reports on a qualitative research project conducted with five female Saudi college students enrolled in a summer program at Portland State University. It examines how notions of culture can explain the source of the challenges that the students faced and how they overcame these challenges. Implications for pre-departure orientation and on-site support are presented and discussed.

Instructional Practices That Hinder And Support Esl Students In The Self-Contained Esl Classroom And The Mainstream Classroom, Ebru N. Bozburun

MA TESOL Collection

This paper describes the academic challenges that many English Second Language (ESL) students must deal with from the moment they start attending a bilingual program at elementary school until they finish the last step of their academic experience. These students continually struggle to keep up with their peers, often fail the state mandated tests, and eventually, drop out before receiving their high school diploma. For the past three years, both as a self-contained ESL teacher and an ESL certified co-teacher in the mainstream classroom, I taught ESL Language Arts to Spanish- speaking students at a public junior high school in …

Using Technology In The Efl Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Neil Oby Morris

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the ways that technology, specifically the use of laptop computers and cellular phones, may be incorporated in the EFL classroom to enhance learning and lower the affective filter of male Saudi Arabian university students.

Saudi Arabia presents the EFL teacher with many challenges that are unique to this gender-segregated Islamic kingdom. Meeting these challenges and turning them into learning opportunities that other EFL teachers may find useful within their teaching contexts is the purpose of this paper.

The appendix includes a writing rubric and a 40-day materials introduction calendar. The calendar illustrates the day-by-day introduction of material …

Rewriting The Upside Down World: A Reflective Curriculum To Provoke Perspective Transformation And Personal Development Among Ecuaexplora Participants, Katerine A. Mcconnell

Capstone Collection

Rewriting the Upside Down World is a reflective curriculum designed to foster perspective transformation and personal development among EcuaExplora participants. EcuaExplora (EcEx) is a volunteer, intern and study abroad organization that places participants in sustainable projects within its portfolio of health, environment and socio-economic development partners throughout Ecuador. EcEx recently expanded from its base in Guayaquil to include a broader network of Ecuadorian NGO partners in Quito and across the country. The widespread location of its project sites, often in remote areas of the jungle, Sierra and coastal regions, precludes one-on-one gatherings for reflection on participants´ experiences in the field. …

Hmgt 610: French Hospitality January-Term Abroad, Bradi Lenentine

Capstone Collection

January-term faculty-led courses abroad are a new initiative at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). As a former graduate of the hospitality management program, and now a graduate intern at the Center for International Education at UNH, I believe a January-term hospitality management class abroad is needed. Research focused on the purpose of January-term using NAFSA and IIE publications, and the hospitality management program‟s curriculum, mission and structure were examined. The research supported from an academic and financial viewpoint, a January-term hospitality management class abroad, to increase the accessibility of hospitality management students studying abroad. The paper is based on …

Building A Global Village: Intercultural Communication For The International House At The College Of New Jersey, Stephanie Holleran

Capstone Collection

The International House (I-House) at The College of New Jersey plays an integral part in welcoming international exchange students to New Jersey and the United States. It is a venue for international students to live and interact with TCNJ students on a daily basis. However, in previous years, the programming for the International House residents has been sparse. A living-learning community must successfully marry living with learning to ensure that students gain the full benefits of living with students from around the world.

Building a Global Village is an intercultural communication supplement to the International House experience that begins to …

Digital Storytelling: Enriching Reflection And Reentry For Princeton In Africa Fellowship Participants, Stephanie C. Hooper

Capstone Collection

Princeton in Africa’s digital storytelling reentry project was designed to fill gaps in reentry programming by encouraging returned fellowship participants to reflect on their experiences living and working in Africa and by helping them identify areas of personal growth and transformation. This project also aims to strengthen the connection Fellows feel to the Princeton in Africa community and their cohort of Fellows. The digital storytelling project will assist the organization with marketing, recruitment, attracting attention from potential partner organizations, engaging donors and other program needs. A pilot digital storytelling project took place at the end of the 2010-11 fellowship year …

International Student Orientation: Designing An On-Going Program For Soka University, Diana Ueda

Capstone Collection

The United States continues to host more international students than any other country in the world. Not surprisingly, universities in California hosted the largest number of international students with 94,279 (Open Doors, 2010). With more than 40 percent of its students consisting of international students, Soka University of America (SUA), located in Aliso Viejo, California, is one of the universities contributing to the influx of international students. As the number of international students increases, it becomes more crucial to have a structure in place to support these students, especially as they encounter many adjustment issues. Institutions can play a major …

Three Sisters Exchange: Building Alliances And Promoting Justice From The United States To Ecuador, Ariel Climer

Capstone Collection

This paper presents a proposal for a social justice and action-based study abroad program with foundations in the short-term reality tours of the education and human rights-based NGO, Global Exchange, a far-reaching non-profit with friendships built on solidarity against the spread of elite globalization. The program is called the Three Sisters Exchange to honor the sustainable design of indigenous crop planting prevalent around the world. The design comes at a time when international educators offer few programs with foci in social justice. The international education field needs more sustainable programs that take into account global systems. A propagation of such …

Positive Discomfort: Structured Student Reflection In International Service-Based Programs: A Social Justice Curriculum, Stephanie K. Kraemer

Capstone Collection

In the fall of 2009, Princeton University launched the Princeton Bridge Year Program—a service-based, international, pre-freshman “bridge” or “gap” year for 20 accepted students sent to four different countries. Princeton chose the international social enterprise ProWorld Service Corps as its partner organization to run the Bridge Year Program in Urubamba, Peru. Princeton University and ProWorld Peru both state a very clear intention in running this program: to transform participants. Their explicit goal is to turn out students who have a global perspective and are compassionate, humble, aware, innovative and inspired.

But how should program-providers, out in the field, actually accomplish …

Discovering The Potential Of Service Learning In Perugia, Italy: An Evaluation Of The Umbra Institute’S La Famiglia Italiana Project, Julie Falk

Capstone Collection

Today, American study abroad programs are increasingly shifting their focus to students’ community engagement efforts, one approach of which is service learning (Stone, 2008). Service learning principles and approach, however, are not always quickly and easily transported into other cultures. As an American pedagogical export, service learning in the study abroad context has the potential to overlook essential factors such as reciprocity, sustainability, and evaluation of student, faculty, and community partner experiences. This type of learning remains unexplored territory in many countries including Italy (Tosi, 2000). As the only American study abroad program of its kind in Perugia, Italy, The …

Funding The Fundamentals: A Peace First Teacher’S Recommendations For Increased Quality Sixth Grade Curriculum To Effectively Engage And Educate An Increasing Quantity Of Students., Pamela Gonzales

Capstone Collection

In the United States, the top 20% of the population owns 85% of the wealth. This leaves only 15% of the wealth for the rest of the population. This clear disparity of wealth, in combination with the common practice of racial segregation (created by 300 years of inequality) has direct correlations to violence in United States cities. Boston is one of these cities. Impoverished minority neighborhoods are struggling because they exist in a society that is essentially ignoring them. There are fewer opportunities in poor minority neighborhoods, particularly for young people. As a result, a cycle of violence has continued …

Paradise Lost, Found Or Created? Expectations Between Teachers And Vulnerable Children: Case Study On Peace House Secondary School, Northern Tanzania, Kelli Bee

Capstone Collection

The orphans and vulnerable children of northern Tanzania are offered a unique opportunity of education if selected to attend Peace House Secondary School. The school selects the most needy of this ostracized demographic and offers high quality education by focusing on student-centered techniques.

This study investigates the expectations between students and teachers using ethnographic methods carried out in 2010 and 2011, including student-wide survey, classroom observations and interviews with both teachers and students. Student perspective was intentionally of particular focus in data collection.

The study found that expectations which were shared by all participants revolve around passing exams. Students are …