Other Education Commons^™

Global Citizenship Education In Homeschooling Practices And Experiences In Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, And Pennsylvania, Bethany Shackelford

Capstone Collection

Global citizenship education (GCED) has moved to the forefront of U.S. education policy. The core tenets of GCED are knowledge, skills, behaviors, actions, attitudes, and values. Through these tenets, GCED strives to prepare students to be contributing members of society through making positive change. In this study, I examined the extent to which GCED was integrated in homeschooling education in eight families located in four Northeastern states, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.

The findings derived from individual interviews and surveys with homeschooling parents and their adult children as well as document analysis demonstrate that seven of the eight …

Designing An Integrated Education And Training Program For English Language Learners At A Community-Based Literacy Organization, Courtney J. Lord

MA TESOL Collection

Since the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) in 2014, adult education programs across the country began to plan and implement integrated education and training (IET) programs. IET programs combine adult basic education or ESL instruction with workforce preparation activities and training to not only help participants improve their basic skills or English language proficiency, but also help them advance in their educational or career paths. This model has been particularly challenging for community-based literacy organizations (CBLOs) to adopt, as IETs require additional funding streams, collaborative partnerships, and significant support services. In addition, literature regarding how to …

Language Matters: What Are The Primary School Teachers' Perspectives And Lived Experiences Of Burundi's Language Policy?, Leah Passauer

Capstone Collection

Burundi is a small country in the Great Lakes region of Africa. Burundian language policy dictates that four languages, Kirundi, French, English, and Kiswahili, must be taught starting in the second trimester of grade one. The language policy decision is not an obvious one since the country is linguistically homogenous, meaning that almost the entire population speaks Kirundi as their first language. Primary school teachers in the public education system typically receive training in a vocational setting that may not fully prepare them for the complex multilingual classroom environment they are expected to cultivate. The aim of this small-scale mixed-methods …

Peacebuilding And Community Development, A Civic Engagement Program For Vietnamese Undergraduate Students In Cambodia, Thuy Nguyen

Capstone Collection

This proposal presents a program design for the Peace Building and Community Development program, a ten-week civic engagement program for undergraduate Vietnamese students in Cambodia during the summer break. This is a new program model proposed to Sarus, a leadership and peace education organization, which has run its programs mostly in the form of short-term exchange programs. The program will be executed by Sarus in partnership with higher education institutions in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and community partner organizations in Cambodia. The program aims to give students exposure to a multicultural environment, opportunities for holistic development, as well as …

Residential Life Curriculum: Wyoming Seminary, Allie Maxwell

Capstone Collection

This course linked capstone will focus on creating a residential life curriculum that is student centered, increases cultural competencies, and strengthens the community of the Wyoming Seminary Upper School. Many boarding schools have accepted international students into their schools to respond to a growing revenue need while simultaneously adding to a school’s diversity. The shift in student demographics has created a secondary level international education sector without many people specializing in this arena. Additionally, there has been a push to increase residential life resources in schools to help increase student support. With the drive for additional support and a growing …

Semester At Sea Global Studies Program, Laura B. Mcdonald

Capstone Collection

Increasing intercultural competence in students is becoming extremely important to institutions around the United States. With the current trends in higher education, study abroad programs need to address intercultural competence as a necessity for the global age (Fantini, 1995). There is no clear consensus on how intercultural competence should be defined. Despite the varied definitions, the need for preparing students for an interconnected world could not be more important.

There has been a recent push for assessing intercultural competence in study abroad programs. Many institutions and organizations claim that their programs are developing global citizens and intercultural competence, but they …

Peer Advising 101: A Training Workshop For Peer Advisors In Study Abroad, Anna Marter

Capstone Collection

Peer advising and peer education programs have been prevalent in all areas of higher education. Recently, there has been growth in peer advising programs in study abroad offices to address the gap between student advising needs and the time constraints of professional staff. While initially intended to take pressure off understaffed offices, other benefits emerged from the use of students as paraprofessionals. Peer advisors were able to encourage students to go abroad, as well as provide valuable insider information about specific programs. While a lot has been written on the topic of peer education in other areas of higher education, …

Argument For Internationally-Focused Curricula In Us Primary Education Reform, Hector Santiago

Capstone Collection

The purpose of my research is to investigate the current climate within the field of International Education, create a meaningful connection to education reform efforts that shows the merit and necessity of internationally-focused curricula in a global society, and to argue in favor of attainable, effective cultural engagement programing in US primary education reform by which US students combine standard learning objectives with multicultural elements to improve cultural communication, awareness, understanding, and adaptation. By beginning cultural education and engagement in primary school, I will explain how students will develop a better understanding of other cultures, be more willing to invest …

Effects Of The Omrit Project On Student And Alumni Participants From Macalester College, Nancy Bostrom

Capstone Collection

As participation in short-term study abroad programs increases, practitioners seek to understand the effects of these programs not just in terms of increasing participation in study abroad, but also with an emphasis on understanding the effects of these programs on student learning. Some research indicates that program design, rather than length, determines a successful experience abroad; however, the literature also reveals concern that there is not enough data to understand the impact of short-term programs on student learning and that much of the available research is too focused on immediate rather than longer lasting effects.

This paper reports on a …

Breathe To Understand, Maxine Swisa

MA TESOL Collection

BREATHE is an acronym for Breathe, Reflect, Empathize, Accept, Thank, Hearten, Engage. The addition of Understand allows for a holistic approach to living a healthy and balanced life both inside and outside the classroom. This paper took form as a result of my personal, spiritual journey, as well as my teaching practice. I noticed that the majority of my students enjoyed experiential activities that included time and space for self-reflection, relaxation and meditation. I began looking for books, seminars, and workshops that explored these areas. Deepak Chopra, Jonathan Kabat-Zinn, Dan Siegel, Eckhart Tolle, et al. offer insights into the benefits …

Active Development Of Tacit Knowledge: Adtk In A World Without Farmers, Roger E. Garrett Jr.

Capstone Collection

Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) and extensions such as Transformative Learning Theory offer significant potential for skill development later in life – reskilling. Despite wide acceptance and deployment, practitioners are still obliged to design their own methods and activities in order to implement these theories. This paper introduces a novel curricular model, Active Development of Tacit Knowledge (ADTK). Educators can use ADTK to effectively implement and scale ELT. Agricultural Education, specifically the training of new farmers, is used as a sample context to demonstrate ADTK. In new-farmer education, it is necessary to compress the educational cycles of dozens of years of …

Principled Approaches In Online Teacher Education: Migrating Sit’S Masters In Teaching Program, Katrina N. Baran

MA TESOL Collection

Delivery methods for teacher education at the post-graduate level are changing to accommodate in-service professionals and take advantage of technology. To shift the SIT Graduate Institute’s Masters in Teaching program to a low-residency format, an evaluation of underlying principles in teacher education, online education and the MAT program itself is necessary in order to preserve the integrity of the program and ensure success in this new format. Within the context of these principles and an analysis of a sampling of program areas, recommendations are provided.

Movement In Learning: Revitalizing The Classroom, Marcus Van

MA TESOL Collection

Movement is a vital part of our every day lives, and it is also important for a healthy brain. The following paper examines the shift from movement based learning to a more restrictive rote format, which often has adverse effects on learning. This work discusses the ways in which teachers are under pressure to “teach to the test” instead of creating student-centered classrooms. Some of the side effects of a test-centered approach are low self-esteem (from not meeting strict academic requirements) and behavioral problems in students.

Adding more movement to lessons can provide variation and relief from the rote-only system. …

Second Language Acquisition In A Content-Based Web Building Course, Scott Degalis

MA TESOL Collection

Content based courses have been shown to provide an effective environment for second language acquisition (Snow, Met and Genesee 1989). In this content based course students learn how to make a website in 48 hours of class time. In doing so, they improve their English in the skill areas of reading, writing, listening and speaking for an authentic need (Sterns 1990). Learners are motivated and enthusiastic about their projects, leading to more success in language acquisition (Gardner 1985). They are given an opportunity to express themselves creatively and artistically using the target language. Graduates leave with a published portfolio that …

Well Begun Is Half Done: Preparing For The Start Of A New Class, Stephanie C. Downey

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the critical learning moment that occurs on the first day in a new language class as the individual students, group and teacher interact for the first time. It states that the first day can influence the entire direction a course takes and asserts that the learner, the group, the teacher and the cultural context are key variables that determine how the first day turns out. It argues that by being aware of the impact each of these variables has on learning, the teacher can direct the emotional, mental and social energy of the group positively and create …