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Instructional Strategies That Promote Cultural Competence In Nutrition And Dietetics Education, Cecile Adkins Jan 2017

Instructional Strategies That Promote Cultural Competence In Nutrition And Dietetics Education, Cecile Adkins

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Changing demographics in the United States to a minority-majority culture require health care professionals who are culturally competent to provide appropriate care to patients. In a university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, a gap existed between student education and the culturally competent professional practice of entry-level registered dietitians. Using Freire's notion of social justice and Vygotsky's constructivist theory as the conceptual frameworks, the purpose of this study was to explore educators' instructional strategies that promoted cultural competence in nutrition and dietetics education. The research questions examined how educators described the instructional practices they employed to promote cultural …


Teachers' Perceptions In Developing Robust Vocabulary Instruction At An American International School, Cathleen S. M. Lee Jan 2017

Teachers' Perceptions In Developing Robust Vocabulary Instruction At An American International School, Cathleen S. M. Lee

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

At an international school in Taiwan, English learners have struggled to meet the U.S. national average in vocabulary on standardized testing instruments. This problem has become more significant since 2009. The purpose of this research was to conduct a case study on successful vocabulary teachers to determine their perceptions of effective teaching. Knowles' andragogy, Brookfield's self-directed, experiential learning, and Vygotsky's social constructivist framework provided the conceptual framework for this study. The research questions focused on teachers' perceptions of why they were successful in teaching vocabulary in English. The study site had access to quantitative data regarding previous standardized testing results; …


Elementary Instructional Best Practices For English As Secondary Language Teachers, Terrance Michael Bigley Jan 2017

Elementary Instructional Best Practices For English As Secondary Language Teachers, Terrance Michael Bigley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A trending national concern is the increasing number of English language learners (ELL) who are being reclassified as long-term English language learners (LTELL) instead of progressing to the general education classroom. This trend is a local problem for the study elementary schools. Guided by sociocultural learning theory that outlined ESL best instructional practices, the purpose of this case study was to examine the instructional practices of elementary ESL teachers. Ten ESL teachers from each grade level from 1st to 5th grades were interviewed and observed. Analysis and organization of the data through its transcription and coding led to the emergence …


Teaching Abroad And Implementing Culturally Appropriate Instructional Practices, Denise Ryan Mason Jan 2017

Teaching Abroad And Implementing Culturally Appropriate Instructional Practices, Denise Ryan Mason

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increasingly diverse population of the United States is reflected in classrooms across the country. Teachers often struggle with understanding students' cultural differences in the classroom and therefore also struggle with implementing culturally appropriate instructional strategies. The results of this study provide educational leaders with a viable option to enhance intercultural competence for implementing culturally appropriate instructional practices through the experiences gained in teaching abroad programs like Apufram International. This exploratory case study investigated how teaching experiences abroad contributed to implementing culturally diverse instruction in multicultural classroom settings. The multicultural educational theory of Banks was the theoretical framework used for …


Impact Of Childcare Center Programs On Reading Achievement Of English Language Learner Students, Valerie Keil Jan 2017

Impact Of Childcare Center Programs On Reading Achievement Of English Language Learner Students, Valerie Keil

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Some children struggle to learn the academic skill of reading. Providing effective assistance to struggling students, especially to English Language Learners (ELLs), can be a challenge for teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of childcare programs on the reading achievement of ELLs in kindergarten and first grade. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory along with developmentally appropriate practices constituted the theoretical framework. The overarching research question examined differences in overall reading achievement of ELLs based on the completion of formal childcare programs. A causal-comparative design was used with a cluster sample drawn from a United States federal database …


Teachers' Understanding Of Culturally And Linguistically Differentiated Instruction For English Language Learners, Poorandai Itwaru Jan 2017

Teachers' Understanding Of Culturally And Linguistically Differentiated Instruction For English Language Learners, Poorandai Itwaru

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A large school district in the northeastern United States struggled with teaching middle school English Language Learners (ELLs) to succeed in reading and writing. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teachers' perceptions regarding what they could do to increase academic achievement for ELLs. The conceptual framework emerged from Weimer's learning-centered teaching, which aligns with Dewey's social constructivism. Ten purposefully sampled teachers agreed to be interviewed in the attempt to answer the research questions about instructional strategies teachers believed were best to deliver culturally and linguistically appropriate instruction for ELLs and what teachers believed could be done to …