Digital Commons Network^™

Online Course Design For Student Centered Learning, Charlotte Nirmalani Gunawardena, Neelakshi Chandrasena Premawardhena

University Libraries & Learning Sciences Faculty and Staff Publications

Agenda

1. Why do we need a paradigm Shift to Student Centered Learning ?

2. What is student centered learning (SCL)?

3. What’s the theoretical basis for SCL?

4. What are the design features of SCL?

5. An example of SCL from the University of Kelaniya

6. A framework for designing SCL

Preservice English Teachers’ Evolving Conceptions Of 21st-Century Writing, Amber Jensen

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study used stimulated-recall interviews throughout four secondary English preservice teachers’ (PSTs) semester-long student teaching internships to examine how critical teaching moments shaped their evolving conceptions of 21st-century writing. The article first describes the participants’ collective definitions of features and experiences of 21st-century writing in the ELA classroom, focusing specifically on how they understood digital and multimodal composition. It then examines two case studies that demonstrate how PSTs’ teaching experiences destabilized, challenged, and contradicted their emerging definitions. Findings suggest that English educators may engage PSTs in conceptualizing nuanced and flexible 21st-century writing pedagogies as they construct field experiences as reflective …

What Is Education For? A Response To "What Kind Of Citizens Do Educators Hope Their Students Become? A Response To 'Storypath: A Powerful Tool For Engaging Children In Civic Learning.'", Margit E. Mcguire, Laurie Stevahn, Shari Wennik Bronsther

Democracy & Education

Darwich (2020) asked “What Kind of Citizens Do Educators Hope Their Students Become?” in her response to “Storypath: A Powerful Tool for Engaging Children in Civic Education” (McGuire et al., 2019). She argued that civics should be rooted in social justice grounded by critical civic empathy, which requires focusing on power and privilege given persistent disparities in caring for all people within our democracy. We agree and here further emphasize the importance of dismantling systems of oppression that block efforts to advance this goal. We also recognize pragmatic complexities in elementary school classrooms that require teacher professional judgment to create …

Writing That Counts: Grounding A Critique Of The Common Core English Language Arts Standards In Classroom Memories, Katie Nagrotsky, Anaisbely Franjul Grullon

Democracy & Education

The authors of this article call upon classroom memories to demonstrate the harm of the standardized testing apparatus in the English Language Arts (ELA) classroom. Goal setting under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) has led to targeted school intervention based on metrics, and many states have chosen to double down on standardized ELA and math test data to determine the quality of a school, student learning, and teacher effectiveness. The authors argue that the assessments associated with the ELA Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are harmful to all students, and particularly students from marginalized communities whose literacies are not …

The Measure Of Youth Policy Arguments: An Approach To Supporting Democratic Participation And Student Voice, Ben Kirshner, Shelley Zion, Daniela Digiacomo, Ginnie Logan

Democracy & Education

Although experiential approaches to democracy education are gaining increased support from educators and scholars, few educational resources exist to support youth in constructing and delivering high-quality, evidence-based policy arguments to authentic audiences. Such presentations are often the first time that young people step into the public sphere and speak to public officials; they represent rich opportunities for youth political development and activism. In this paper, we introduce an assessment tool, called the Measure of Youth Policy Arguments (MYPA), which is intended to be a resource for community and school educators. Drawing on data from two years of field-testing and iterative …

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 4, Issue 2

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Fall 2020 issue (Volume 4, Issue 2) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity, And Pedagogy, Raven Jones Stanbrough

Michigan Reading Journal

No abstract provided.

Developing A Common Language Of Ethical Engagement In Teaching: Lessons For And From A Time Of Crisis, Richard D. Sawyer

Northwest Journal of Teacher Education

This article explores how educators may develop and contribute to a common language of ethical engagement, a language that rises above specific actions but is grounded in ethical practice and scholarship. Questions are raised about how online education may further the patterns educational inequities in the United States. An ethics framework is explored through a comparison. The author explores the educational principles--not standards—that educators can surface in their teaching practice. A discussion is included of recent dilemmas and problems with online teaching environments, underscoring the need for ethical principles helping to frame practice.

It’S (Not) In The Reading: American Government Textbooks’ Limited Representation Of Historically Marginalized Groups, Shawna M. Brandle

Publications and Research

The Introduction to American Government course, and its textbook, is a nearly universal experience for students in American colleges and universities, but what exactly is being taught in this course? Do the textbooks used in this widely taught course accurately reflect the diversity of populations and experiences in the United States? More specifically, how do textbooks for Introduction to American Government cover historically marginalized groups, if at all? This article builds on previous work by analyzing the representation of individual historically marginalized groups to conduct index search and content analyses on traditionally published and openly licensed (i.e., open educational resources …

Key Stakeholders’ Lived Experiences While Implementing An Aligned Curriculum: A Phenomenological Study, Pedro P. Aguas

The Qualitative Report

Furthering innovation in English as a foreign language curriculum has been a concern for the Colombian educational system for many years. Nevertheless, the major attempts at the national level continue to fail. Through this phenomenological study of 12 participants at a an urban public school in grades 6-12 I attempted to answer the phenomenological question, “What were the lived experiences of key stakeholders involved in implementing an aligned curriculum at an urban public school in a northern city in Colombia, South America? “The theoretical framework that guides this study included innovation, the theory of policy attribution, and the learner-centered philosophy. …

Emergent To Fluent Literacy, Megan Blumenreich

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Recognizing Art As A Semiotic Mode: Revelations Of An Adolescent Mind, Catherine Elizabeth Deaton

Theses and Dissertations

The following gallery is predicated on the belief that a complete high school curriculum must be responsive to the needs of students as they navigate the stresses of living in isolation during a pandemic and always. High school students with minimal directions or guidance were charged with submitting a photo of a piece of art they had constructed to capture their perceptions of living through the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020. The results give a candid view of how these students give purpose to the process of creating art as they construct and convey a sense of “being in the world.” …

Disrupting The Deficit Gaze: Equity Work With University Supervisors, Maika J. Yeigh

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teacher candidates commonly experience tensions within their clinical field placement classroom. Recently, candidates have brought forward tensions around the use of a deficit gaze (Dudley-Marling, 2007) on students and their families by their mentor teachers. Where candidates of the past would ignore negative framing, current candidates want to disrupt the status quo. This conceptual article describes one EPPs attempt to support teacher candidates “disruption” of instances where a mentor teacher used a deficit-lens toward students and/or their families. Clinical supervisors were offered professional development to support teacher candidates and guide them to disrupt in ways that maintained the professional relationship …

Exploring The Needs, Practices, And Attitudes Toward Technology Integration Of Community College Esol Instructors: Recommendations For Professional Development Through Action Research, Courtney Cunningham

Theses and Dissertations

Research has established both the importance of integrating technology in English language learning and of properly training teachers in order to integrate technology effectively. Inadequate teacher and learner training prevent technology from being utilized to its fullest potential in the English language classroom. A portion of the problem is due to lack of training for practicing teachers. While this is true for English as a second language teachers in all contexts, there is a strong need for instructors working with adult learners to utilize technology and be properly trained in technology integration. Professional development is a way to overcome barriers …

Exploring The Impact Of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy On African American Students’ Attitudes Toward Reading In A Pre-Kindergarten Classroom: An Action Research Study, Janet Brantley

Theses and Dissertations

In U.S. schools, the academic needs of many African American students are not being adequately met. This alarming trend has prompted many educators to recognize the need to make changes in their knowledge base and instructional practices in order to better serve African American students. Culturally relevant pedagogy--a multifaceted approach to teaching that utilizes students’ cultural experiences to facilitate cultural competence, social justice, and student learning-has been identified as a method that may create more positive learning outcomes among African American students and diverse learners.

This study investigated the impact of culturally relevant pedagogy on African American students’ attitudes towards …

“It’S Like They Don’T Recognize What I Bring To The Classroom”: African Immigrant Youths’ Multilingual And Multicultural Navigation In United States Schools, Lydiah Kananu Kiramba, Alex Kumi-Yeboah, Anthony Mawuli Sallar

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Discourses of African immigrant children are rare in educational research. As such, African immigrant educational experiences are often obscured (in part, owing to the model minority myth about Africans based on higher education degrees received by African immigrants), as well as the actual experiences and realities for African immigrant K-12 students. This qualitative study examines cross-cultural educational experiences of 30 Black African immigrant youth in U.S. schools. The findings reveal multiple participants’ struggles with cultural and linguistic differences, stereotypes and marginalization in the school environment, low expectations from teachers, and adjusting to new schooling practices. The African youths’ voices exhibited …

Finding Their Strengths, Dreams And Struggles: A Narrative Inquiry Of High School Students Independent Reading Habits, Tori T. Simmons

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to read and understand texts are important to student’s success in school and life. However, many secondary students enter without the skills needed to handle the rigor and amount of reading they will meet as they matriculate high school. Yet, this is not the case for those who struggle to read most. Allington (2013) found that students who struggle the most to read are also those who given the least amount of time to reading and the most to worksheets (p. 526). Therefore, this study hopes to better understand the reading histories of three high school students and …

“Virtually A Sisterhood” Virtual Collaboration And Its Impact On Social Connectedness Among A Group Of Culturally Diverse Women, George Banks-Weston

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the impact of virtual collaboration on social connectedness among a group of culturally diverse women participating in an online business strategy course. This study was guided by three research questions (1) How and to what extent does virtual collaboration impact social connectedness among a group of culturally diverse women participating in an online business strategy course? (2) How and to what extent does a group of culturally diverse women use virtual collaboration tools for activities in an online business strategy course? (3) What are the experiences of culturally diverse women …

The Effects Of Project-Based Learning In The Intermediate World Language Classroom, Steven Tanner Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this action research study was to further examine the reluctance of intermediate language learners in speaking production in their second language. Additionally, with emerging strategies such as project-based learning, the study explored the efficacy of this strategy, specifically in terms of the students’ volition and motivation to produce the spoken language during classroom activities. The goal was to assist educators in discovering new social and constructivist techniques that could potentially foster student engagement and language acquisition, especially in regard to speaking competencies in the foreign language. Undoubtedly, action research was the appropriate method for the current …

Designing Vocabulary Instruction For English Language Learners In A Kindergarten Classroom, Loretta C. Ayers

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this action research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional practices used to teach vocabulary to English Language Learners in a kindergarten classroom. The central question of the study was: what instructional practices in a classroom support vocabulary acquisition of ELLs? The purpose was to determine the impact of an intervention on vocabulary acquisition with a focus on directional prepositions and rhyming word vocabulary. Students were given whole group direct instruction, small group targeted instruction, and integrated peer play opportunities over the course of the study as vocabulary interventions. Data for this study included pre- and …

Examining The Preparedness Of Educational Diagnosticians In Texas, Mertie Gomez, William H. Blackwell, Corinna Villar Cole, Chase Young

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

This study examined the extent to which educational diagnosticians in Texas perceived their certification program prepared them with the professional knowledge recommended by the Council for Exceptional Children’s Advanced Preparation Standards Specialty Set: Special Education Diagnostician Specialist (CEC, 2015). A total of 113 currently practicing educational diagnosticians in Texas responded to a 28-item survey based on the CEC standards for educational diagnosticians. Participants reported being less prepared to meet standards related to collaboration, vocational and assessment measures, behavior assessment measures, and language assessment measures. Diagnosticians working in urban school districts reported lower levels of preparation as compared to those working …

Resisting Student Labeling In This Era Of Testing, Richard Kitchen, Michelle Garcia-Olp, Jacklyn Van Ooyik

Colorado Mathematics Teacher

We examined perspectives that prospective elementary teachers (PTs) noticed their mentor teachers held with regards to classifying students by achievement or behavior. Many PTs noticed deficit mathematical discourse and expressed concern about how that could lead students to develop negative views of themselves.

Editing My Own Drum, Adrienne Adams

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

The author examines her art and poetry practice exploring how the "Badlands" of Alberta, Canada in particular Áísínai'pi (Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park), are "the bones of the earth". She looks at the visual and linguistic poetry within them and examines her wording to decolonize her practice and learning/unlearning from the land and the cultures; Blackfoot and Settler, and peoples that inhabit it. She highlights how her process of editing a specific poem “My Own Drum” prompted and echoes an examination of her practice that leads to the writing of a new poem written during this process, revealing some of her findings. …

Conversations With Each Other: Love Songs To The Earth, Adrian M. Downey, Gonen Sagy

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

Conversation is a complicated, ever-changing, and dynamic space—a space which is foundational to both education and curriculum, broadly conceived. In this article, we continue our ongoing conversion through the notion of writing love songs to the Earth and to each other. Within the conversation, Gonen shares original poetry emergent from his lived experiences, while Adrian attends to Gonen’s poetry in prosaic response. In this, the socio-political moment of the Canadian movement toward reconciliation between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples, we view our relationship and our conversations as speaking back to the competitive languages of diasporic space and Indigenous place through an …

A Contemplative And Artful Métissage Of Inquiry And Response, Jackie Mitchell, Nicholas Phillips, Robyn Trail, Susan C. Walsh, Barbara Bickel, Wendalyn Bartley, Medwyn Mcconachy

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

In this mixed media métissage, we offer an exploration of artful and contemplative inquiry and response. We are a group of seven artist-researchers who engage with contemplative practices associated with various spiritual traditions, including spiritual feminist, Wiccan, Mi’kmaw, and Tibetan Buddhist, integral to all of which are beliefs about human interconnectedness with the energies of all sentient beings, the Earth, and beings in the spirit worlds. As artist-researchers, we engage with a range of arts disciplines including poetry, creative non-fiction, storytelling, sounding, visual art, filmmaking, and photography. Together, we invite the reader/listener/viewer--as co-creator—into the potentialities of our métissage: the narratives, …

Teacher Candidates’ Use Of Critical Literacy To Shift Thinking About Texts And Social Justice, Aimee Papola-Ellis

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

It is essential to support teacher candidates in becoming culturally responsive and learning about social justice in the classroom as schools across the country become more culturally and linguistically diverse. In this qualitative study, the author looked at children’s literature as a way to support teacher candidates’ learning about critical literacy and social justice. Teacher candidates constructed an annotated bibliography of children’s texts centered around a topic of their choice. Findings suggest teachers increased their understanding and use of a critical literacy lens on the literature they selected and developed a deeper understanding of the potential connections between children’s texts …

The Learner Profiles Of Novice Literacy Coaches, Lisa L. Ortmann, Katherine Brodeur, Susan Massey

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Literacy coaches need support developing their professional capacities for coaching (Kern et al., 2018). This study explored the ways novice literacy coaches developed literacy coaching discourses during coursework in two reading specialist master’s degree programs. Through qualitative and discourse analysis of transcribed coaching videos and assignments, novice literacy coaching discourse was compared to professional literacy coaching discourse. Findings revealed candidates used coaching language and stances with varying degrees of success, but the discourse of novice and professional differed greatly. Five learner profiles of novice literacy coaching are presented: the interviewer, the role-player, the curious learner, the cheerleader, and the natural …

Bilingual Children's Talk About Informational Text: Focus On Ideas, Images, And Print, Laura Beth Kelly

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

Current standards push for elementary students to have text-based and text-centric discussions of what they read. This study explored what bilingual third-grade students talked about during small-group text-based discussions of informational texts. The author conducted a qualitative analysis of 10 video-recorded discussions, five of books matched to students’ reading levels and five of complex texts one year ahead of students’ reading levels. Two groups of three students participated. All students needed additional support to read successfully at grade level. Findings show that only a quarter of student talk clearly connected to printed text. Their talk oriented toward ideas, images, and …

Back Matter-Jaepl Volume 25, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Back Matter

Invictus: Race And Emotional Labor Of Faculty Of Color At The Urban Community College, Kerri-Ann M. Smith, Kathleen T. Alves, Irvin Weathersby Jr., John D. Yi

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article shares the counter-stories of four junior faculty members of color, whose lived experiences provide concrete examples of what emotional labor sometimes entails in higher education. Grounded in Critical Race Theory and antiracist methodologies, these academics identify specific ways in which they experience emotional labor: guilt, silence, anger, navigating double-consciousness and liminality, and self-regulating physical and mental health. They seek to buttress their experiences with counternarratives and, consequently, recommendations for how community college leaders may help to alleviate the emotional labor associated with junior faculty members of color through promotion, leadership, mentoring, and recognition of diverse perspectives and contributions …