Disability and Equity in Education Commons^™

Faculty Perspectives On Online Teaching In Higher Education: A Qualitative Approach To Understand Faculty Members’ Challenges And Experiences, Felix O. Quayson

Journal of Research Initiatives

This study explored faculty members' perspectives on online teaching in higher education and described, analyzed, and interpreted faculty members challenges and experiences of teaching online courses. Participants were twelve (12) faculty members who have taught online courses or currently teach online courses. Data was collected from 60-minutes semi-structured interview sessions, 78 open-ended questions, three research driving questions, background questionnaire, and personal artifacts from faculty members. Five major themes with subthemes, 15 code categories, and code co-occurrences emerged from the data collection, field notes, memos, and data analysis. However, not all of the code categories were replicated by all of the …

English Teachers' Opinions On Challenges Face In Teaching English As Foreign Language: The Case Of Jalalabad Selected Secondary Schools, Fahim Rahimi, Hangama Samadi

Journal of Research Initiatives

One important goal of teaching is to achieve learning outcomes. It has been observed in universities that many students have different levels of English language proficiency. However, they study in the same English courses at the school level. The main objective of this study is to learn the challenges that exist in teaching the English language as a foreign language in secondary schools that affect the English proficiency of students. In addition, ways in which these challenges will be overcome is reviewed. The data collection tools were questionnaires and semi-structured interviews to collect data from English language teachers in selected …

Supporting Exceptional Learners Through Evidence-Based Practices In Social Emotional Learning And Academic Settings, Lexia Werner

Honors Projects

My honors project will be purposeful in researching the learning strategies that help all students and comparing and contrasting them to strategies that specifically help learners with learning differences and/or have special education plans. These exceptional learners have specialized accommodations or educational plans tailored towards their learning needs. In other words, I will research the teaching strategies that are used in the classroom environment from a standard general education standpoint and strategies that are used, specifically, with students that obtain learning differences. In addition, I will analyze this information by comparing and contrasting the groups of strategies with one another. …

Parent Reports Of Executive Functions In Students With Learning Disability, Jane Roitsch, Annemarie L. Horn, Lisa Morin

Communication Disorders & Special Education Faculty Publications

This study examines the results of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-2) (Gioia et al., 2015) reported by parents of children with Specific Learning Disability (LD) and/or other comorbid disabilities. LD is most notably associated with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Alloway & Stein, 2014; Westby &Watson, 2004; Willcutt et al., 2013). A total of 43 parents completed the BRIEF-2 rating scale. Findings suggest children with LD and ADHD display greater challenges with inhibition, working memory, planning, along with greater challenges in organization and metacognition. Parents of children with LD reported their children have greater levels of …

The Playground: An Online Summer Camp For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Children, Emma Monson, Krista Schumacher, Annmarie Thomas

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

The PLAYground summer camp was developed by the Playful Learning Lab (PLL) at the University of St. Thomas, an undergraduate research group with a focus on learning through play. Through a partnership with a local school serving deaf and hard of hearing students, the PLAYground was designed to provide content to the deaf and hard of hearing community. Over the course of 8 weeks, 84 students were provided with materials that correspond with activities on the website. Each activity is accompanied with a lesson plan and video, both of which are available in English, American Sign Language, Spanish, and Arabic. …

Acting With Inscriptions: Expanding Perspectives Of Writing, Learning, And Becoming, Kevin R. Roozen

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article argues for increased attention to people’s engagements with inscriptions and inscriptional practices and the long-term implications they have for the ongoing production of persons, practices, and social worlds across heterogeneous times, places, and activities. Based on a multi-year case study, this analysis examines one microbiology major’s production and use of inscriptions at the intersections of his participation in both disciplinary science and religious worship and traces the long-term consequences those uses have for his becoming as a scientist of faith. If, as Paul Prior asserts, “ literate activity is not located in acts of reading and writing but …

Volume 25 Of The Journal Of The Assembly For Expanded Perspectives On Learning, Wendy Ryden, Peter H. Khost

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning (AEPL), an official assembly of the National Council of Teachers of English, is open to all those interested in extending the frontiers of teaching and learning beyond the traditional disciplines and methodologies. JAEPL is especially interested in helping those teachers who experiment with new strategies for learning to share their practices and confirm their validity through publication in professional journals.

Reading Robot, Gillian Watts, Andrew Myers, Sabrinna Tan, Taylor Klein, Omeed Djassemi

General Engineering

Presently, there is an insufficient availability of human experts to assist students in reading competency and comprehension. Our team’s goal was to create an improved socially assistive robot for use by therapists, teachers, and parents to help children and adults develop reading skills while they do not have access to specialists. HAPI is a socially assistive robot that we created with the goal of helping students practice their reading comprehension skills. HAPI enables a student to improve their reading skills without an educator present, while enabling educators to review the student's performance remotely. Design constraints included: physical size, weight, duration …

Writing Interventions For Students With Specific Learning Disabilities, Phillip Rose

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Only 27% of U.S. eighth graders are at or above grade level proficiency in writing (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012). Students with specific learning disabilities frequently exhibit skill deficits in planning, organizing, and writing conventions, and show inadequate awareness to write strategically (Troia, 2006). The purpose of this study is to examine evidence-based writing interventions aimed at enhancing the writing skills of students with specific learning disabilities and then to indicate which interventions were proven to be effective. The results of a variety of studies of writing intervention strategies have been reviewed. Specific instructional strategies that were successful in …

Emphasis On Test Scores In Education, Lindsay Olson

Empowering Research for Educators

This article discusses how too much emphasis on standardized testing can affect student learning as well as teaching in the classroom. It includes a personal interview with a high school teacher as well as an article from the Washington Post regarding a study that was completed involving testing students.

Engaging Student Disengagement, Emily E. Calvert

Exigence

Student disengagement is pervasive in community colleges. The Virginia Community College System serves a varied demographic that includes single parents, the disabled, minorities, and the impoverished. These unique qualities present unique challenges to keeping these students involved. Students at community college may have low self-esteem, lack purpose and encouragement, or have negative peer influences. While many students may not acknowledge this problem, VCCS takes many steps to combat it. This papers delves into the core of disengagement and examines the personal aspects of student disengagement.

How Mobile Learning Initiatives Can Empower Women, Helen Crompton

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The Sustainable Development Goal 5 provides a call to action to promote gender equality and to empower women. This article responds to that call by providing insight into how mobile learning initiatives have been used to support that aim. A critical analysis is conducted of studies in the past decade to review what strategies have been effective in empowering women. The analysis revealed that initiatives were targeted towards three areas: Education, health, and financial empowerment.

Findings show that in certain topics women should play an active role to further the empowerment process. This article also aligns with Objective 4 of …

Identity Politics, State Standards, And On The Ground Realities: A Critical Policy Analysis Of Teaching/Learning Gender/Sexuality In A Virginia Elementary School, Stefanie Hudson

Theses and Dissertations

Even though America has seen an increase in the level of acceptance for people who identify as LGBTQ and/or gender non-conforming, certain aspects within society continue to hinder their rights, especially within public education. Specifically, there are insufficiencies regarding content of and attitudes toward including LGBTQ issues in teaching and leadership training programs. Add to that, the deficits in most Family Life Education (FLE) programs in elementary schools as they lack adequate coverage of developmentally appropriate teaching and learning about gender and sexuality. Taken together, it remains questionable whether the needs of LGBTQ and/or gender non-conforming children can truly be …

Importance Of Accommodating Elementary School Students With Learning Disabilities, Angelica R. Rivera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This senior capstone examines the rationale why it is important to accommodate the students with learning disabilities at the elementary schools. Mainstreaming students with disabilities with those in regular general education classrooms remains a very important issue for principals and teachers. Through the use of literature review and interviews with a principal and a teacher from their respective schools in the Monterey County area, the results show that there is a gap between the services provided to students with learning disabilities.

An Examination Of Accessible Hands-On Science Learning Experiences, Self-Confidence In One’S Capacity To Function In The Sciences, And Motivation And Interest In Scientific Studies And Careers., Mick D. Isaacson, Cary Supalo, Michelle Michaels, Alan Roth

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

This study examined the potential relationship of accessible hands-on science learning experiences to the development of positive beliefs concerning one’s capacity to function in the sciences and motivation to consider science as a college major and career. Findings from Likert survey items given before and after engaging in accessible hands-on science laboratories show that students who were blind or had low vision (BLV) were more likely to agree with the following items after engaging in accessible science experiences: 1) I plan on enrolling as a science major in college; 2) My educational experiences, so far, have given me the …

Beyond Child-Centered Constructivism: A Call For Culturally Sustaining Progressive Pedagogy, Alisa Algava

Occasional Paper Series

Algava argues that twentieth-century constructivist pedagogies are not sufficient to fulfill progressive education's inherently political, activist and democratic potential. She calls for a culturally sustaining progressive pedagogy that critically engages questions of power with both children and teachers.

When Meaningful Writing Reflects Vincentian Values, Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, Neal Lerner

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

In The Meaningful Writing Project – our study of over 700 seniors at three universities – students describe how education values are embodied in writing projects in and out of school. In brief, our results show that students find meaning when they are invited to tap into the power of personal connection, see what they are writing as applicable and relevant to the real world, imagine their future selves, immerse themselves in what they are thinking and writing about, and experience research for learning. In many cases, the experiences students reported are aligned with Vincentian values for higher education, namely …

Must Schools Hinder Education?, Lorraine Monroe

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

A brief essay which explores the differences between schooling and education.

Front Matter

Thought and Practice: (1987-1991) the Journal of the Graduate School of Bank Street College of Education

No abstract provided.

Resilience: A Framework For Inclusive Pedagogy In A South African Context, T. M. Makoelle, M. Malindi

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The social ecology of resilience perspective sees resilience as the capacity of individuals to negotiate and navigate their pathways towards the resources that sustain well-being, the capacity of the individual’s physical and social ecologies to provide resilience resources, and the capacity of individuals, families and communities to negotiate culturally meaningful ways to share health-promoting resources. This means that resilience is a process that involves an individual’s own assets or strengths as well as those found in his or her physical social and ecology. Inclusive education, on the other hand, is a discipline that allows learners whose socio-economic circumstances, physical disability …

Culturally Relevant Booktalking: Using A Mixed Reality Simulation With Preservice School Librarians, Janice Underwood, Sue Crownfield Kimmel, Danielle Forest, Gail K. Dickinson

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The role of school librarians is often overlooked in advancing a respect for cultural diversity among youth, yet librarians are in key positions to champion for social justice reform in educational settings. In this qualitative study, we examine preservice school librarians' experiences with booktalking multicultural literature in a mixed reality simulation environment, as a vehicle to introduce social justice issues. Our purpose was to explore the booktalking experience as a means of developing preservice librarians' understanding of culturally relevant pedagogy, a stance concerned with developing cultural competence and critical consciousness. Our findings revealed that preservice librarians gained different levels of …

A Starfish For Teaching: A Model Of Hope For Students And Pedagogy, Virginia Heslinga

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

Millenniums have offered ideas about how people think, cope, adjust, and survive. Nurturing and maintaining a heart and mind to help others, to be inclusive against incredible odds and societies that act more quickly to exclude needs symbols to aid progress. Cognition, observation, hope, imagination, perception, responsibility, and self-efficacy connect well to the starfish. Students of any age need images, symbols, role models, and practice in finding ways to triumph over life experiences that cause pain and discouragement. Starfish in actual examples, metaphors, and stories aid educators in building thinking, learning, and coping skills for healthy inclusive environments.

Andragogy Around The World In K-20 Education: It Is All About Trust, John A. Henschke Edd

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

The author's research in andragogy started in the late 1960s. More serious in-depth attempts were launched in 1997, just after Malcolm S. Knowles died - the author wanted to honor his legacy since he and his work in andragogy were influential in the author's life. The author's research yielded an instrument with the strongest factor being 'teacher trust of learners' - a belief that applies all the way through k-20 Education. This is found to be so in doctoral dissertations, overarching trust behaviors, and threaded through the literature surrounding trust. Trust is found to be congruent between the author's scholarship …

Inclusion, Signing, Socialization, And Language Skills, Virginia Heslinga Ed. D., Erica Nevenglosky

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

21st-century education finds schools challenged to increase the inclusion of students with widely varying learning abilities, language backgrounds, social diversity, and skills. Educators and administrators acknowledge a need for interactive learning that engages visual, auditory, linear, spatial, tactile, and kinetic learning styles. Students’ styles for learning vary in combinations and intensity and teachers need to combine flexibility and creativity to present material and practices that will build enthusiasm for learning. Adding sign language to a classroom of heterogeneous learners that includes English language learners (ELL) will aid in generating a positive learning environment, inclusive and interactive for varied learning needs …

Whatever Works: Teaching Adults With Learning Difficulties In Adult Basic Education Programs: A Dissertation, Susan Noyes Spear

Educational Studies Dissertations

Research indicates that significant numbers of adult learners who attend adult basic education (ABE) programs have learning difficulties and/or learning disabilities. However, most ABE teachers have not been trained to teach students with these complex learning needs. This qualitative study, conducted through an interpretivist/constructivist lens, used in-depth individual interviews to garner the voices and experiences of ten ABE teachers as they described how they identify and manage the learning needs of their students. Results showed that ABE teachers described their practice in terms of how they identified their students' learning difficulties; their perceptions of their identity and role as an …

Technology, Quality Learning And Student Disabilities: Challenges For, Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

No abstract provided.

Automathic Blocks: Supporting Learning Games For Young Blind Students, Arthur Karshmer

Business Analytics and Information Systems

The AutOMathic Blocks system has been developed to help young blind students in the acquisition of elementary math skills. Through the use of Braille labeled blocks, a plastic grid, a touchpad device and any computer, the system has been defined to aid the young student in this most important domain of education. Without these basic skills, students have a much higher probability of not being able to enter math related professions.

Integration And Innovation In Early Childhood Education In Nigeria, Onu V. C, Obiozor Et Al

Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

This survey research studied integration and innovation in early childhood education and implications for quality teacher preparation. The study was a descriptive survey research, with one hundred and twelve (112) sampled preschool teacher. Eight research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. Early Childhood Programme Instrument on Integration and Innovation (ECPAI) was constructed, validated and used in eliciting responses from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using percentage, mean, and Paired Sample tests. The study revealed a significant difference in the opinions of public and private preschool teachers toward integration and innovative practices in early childhood education in Nigeria. …

Bringing Together Personal Learning, Higher Education Institutional Elements, And Global Support For A Re-Orientation Toward A Focus On Lifelong Learning And Education, John A. Henschke Edd

IACE Hall of Fame Repository

This extended research study focused on bringing together learning, higher educational institutional elements to be considered for helping higher educational institutions and individual learners in various countries to re-orient themselves toward a focus on lifelong learning, and placing this within the support and context of lifelong learning and education around the globe. Research is presented on the background and experiences of various higher educational institutions and individual learners in this regard, developing a tentative policy statement and identification of the elements of a re-orientation toward lifelong learning focus as products of several worldwide conferences. In addition, the support of UNESCO …

Language And Graffiti Of Exceptional Individuals In West Africa, Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

Dr Williams Emeka Obiozor

This paper establishes the place of language and graffiti practiced by exceptional individuals in the interpretation of family values, the preservation of culture and traditional heritage of the Igbo community in Southeastern Nigeria. The paper also takes a cursory look at graffiti art and exceptionality in a time when the Igbo tradition and culture were highly respected, jealously guarded and deep-rooted in the heart and soul of its people. Graffiti creations by exceptional individuals transfer both oral and visual education to documented tradition; for societal knowledge and awareness, individual wisdom, expressions against repression, pride and recognition of Igbo language and …