Digital Commons Network^™

Partners, Not Adversaries: Higher Education And Diverse Schools, Edmund T. Hamann

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

Often education researchers enter schools only to depict inequity and weak practice, but the same empirical skills that illuminate challenges can, under a different premise, illuminate excellence. This chapter describes how graduate students enrolled in an “Effecting High School Improvement” course helped a diverse public high school document its excellence and win National Education Policy Center (NEPC) recognition as a 'School of Opportunity'. Although this case is unique in specific detail, other school/higher education partnerships could clearly function like this one did. Good schools may not have staff to document their multifaceted responsiveness to diverse enrollments, but, with university assistance, …

Understanding The Intercultural Motivators That Encourage Adult Basic Education Esl Students To Pursue General Education Opportunities, Nelecia Renetha Murrell

Theses and Dissertations

Per internationalization, the world of Adult Basic Education (ABE) has exponentially increased within the last decade (National Center for Statistics, 2015). Subsequentially, the Adult Basic Education (ABE) English as a Second Language (ESL) student population has experienced a huge upsurge nationwide. However, the students who have the English language proficiency to expand their academic and vocational skills by taking General Education classes (GenEd) are underrepresented in GenEd courses. Research posits ESL students are more apt to accomplish their academic and professional aspirations if their teachers employ interculturally competent (ICC) practices in the classroom. Nonetheless, Adult Basic Education (ABE) educators are …

Web Annotation In English Language Arts: Online Dialogue As A Platform To Support Student Comprehension Of Texts, Jonathan B. Allred

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how web annotation—through a process of online reading, writing in the margins, and replying to others’ comments—influences student dialogue in ways that research suggests are associated with improved comprehension. Viewing data through a dialogic lens, and using a qualitative, multiple case study design to observe two high school English Language Arts teachers and their students, this inquiry was guided by the following research questions: (a) How do English Language Arts teachers use web annotation to support student comprehension of texts? (b) To what extent, if any, does web annotation appear to support student comprehension of texts? and …

Critical Approaches To Digital Video Composition And Media Literacy In Preservice Teacher And High School Contexts: Understanding Students’ Perspectives, Seth D. French

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The first of the following manuscripts explores graduate-level preservice teachers’ responses to a critical digital video project in the context of a Disciplinary Literacies course. This study was particularly interested in the preservice teachers’ obstacles and collaborations they experienced while completing the project, as well as future applications they envisioned for the project in their own classrooms. Findings reveal common obstacles that many preservice teachers experienced throughout the composition process as well as key differences that contributed to some having a more favorable experience with the project than others. The study also identifies insights preservice teachers gained from the critical …

The Significance Of Parental Involvement In The Development In Infancy, Yanhui Liu, Mona F. Sulaimani, John E. Henning

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The earliest years’ experiences of children can ensure their future success, and parenting is noted to be an influential factor (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Lamb et al., 2002). Many researchers theorized that parental involvement could encourage children to actively engage and improve their academic achievement in schools (Epstein, 2018). However, less attention was paid to the significance of parental involvement in infants’ development. This paper explores the role of parental involvement in infants’ development by reviewing and discussing abundant relevant studies. This study recommends that parental involvement should be considered as an affluent resource and a useful tool because it could provide …

Nurturing Wonder And Igniting Passion. Designs For A New School Curriculum: Nsw Curriculum Review, Geoff N. Masters

NSW Curriculum Review

This Review of the New South Wales school curriculum has concluded that change is required. The changes recommended by the Review are far-reaching and amount to the introduction of a new curriculum for NSW schools, from Kindergarten to Year 12. The syllabuses of this new curriculum are designed to ensure every student learns with understanding, builds skills in applying knowledge, and makes excellent ongoing progress in their learning. The goal is to provide every student, in each phase of their learning, with strong foundations for what comes next. Detailed planning, piloting and implementation of the new curriculum will be required …

Weekend Spanish Immersion Camp: A Non-Traditional Teaching World Language To Middle School American Students, Jorge Oscar Ramirez

Dissertations and Theses

The nature of today's global economy demands that students demonstrate high levels of proficiency in foreign languages. To meet global demand, most countries around the world are including comprehensive world language instruction in their educational systems beginning at an early age. The increasingly multi-lingual nature of culture within and beyond the Unites States. is escalating the importance of immersing students in world languages as early as possible to ensure a high level of written and oral foreign language skill proficiency by the time students graduate from high school. However, most American students do not have the opportunity to study a …

Empathy, Fiction, And An Educational Ecosystem: A Narrative Case Study Of A High School Ela Classroom, Danielle Marie Klein

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study explores how empathy exists, as an experience, in an English Language Arts classroom. The research was conducted in an 11^th grade classroom during an instructional unit with Arthur Miller’s The Crucible as the anchor text. The study relies upon Transactional Reader Response Theory (Rosenblatt, 1988) to justify the exploration of the aesthetic, evocative nature of a text. Narrative inquiry methodology was used to collect and assemble the instances of empathy as inspired by the play. Guided by Doll’s (1993) premise of the classroom as an ecological, open system with multiple contributing forces, data was collected through classroom …

Community Asset Inquiry: A Model For Esol Teacher Praxis In Family And Community Engagement, Felice Atesoglu Russell, Amanda Richey

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

In this article, we present findings from our qualitative, self-study research on the development and implementation of two course assignments (community asset maps and oral histories) designed to support practicing teachers’ praxis in working with English learner (EL) students within the context of family and community engagement. Providing an example of how English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teacher praxis might be developed, findings are framed by our Community Asset Inquiry model. This model, grounded in equity literacy and transformative family and community engagement supports teachers’ development of praxis in support of an asset-based approach, deep knowledge of …

“I Don’T Love Language; I Love Children”: Students’ Knowledge, Attitudes, And Beliefs About Linguistics And Their Choice To Major In Speech-Language Pathology, Michelle Veyvoda, Amanda Howerton-Fox

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

Purpose: This pilot study explored the linguistic attitudes, knowledge, and beliefs of undergraduate majors in speech-language pathology (SLP) and the role an interest in linguistics played in their choice of the SLP major.

Method: Fifteen undergraduate students declared as SLP majors participated in this mixed-methods study. Participants responded to a survey and open-ended questions measuring their knowledge about and interest in linguistics; they also wrote a narrative essay describing their decision to major in SLP. Data was collected via Qualtrics. Descriptive statistics were done on the quantitative data, and thematic coding using NVivo 12.1.0 was done on qualitative …

Letter From The Editors, Christine E. Ashby, Julia M. White

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Table Of Contents, 12.2, Julia White

Excelsior: Leadership in Teaching and Learning

No abstract provided.

Spatial Production And Nomadic Subjectivities In A Buddhist Learning Space, Chau Bao Le

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Space and place are an integral part in the geographies of education, therefore, knowledge about culturally complex and ethnically diverse transnational communities could inform curricular innovations that meet the needs of individual students. This year-long ethnographic study challenged the prevailing realities that U.S. schools continue to devalue the experiences and cultural backgrounds of immigrant youth, which caused students from ethnic, cultural, racial, linguistic, and religious minority groups to feel structurally excluded and marginalized. Through examining the spatial production and nomadic subjectivities enacted over time in a transnational, diasporic space of a Buddhist temple in a U.S. southern state, the study …

Animal Magic, Secret Spells, And Green Power: More-Than-Human Assemblages Of Children's Storytelling, Angela Molloy Murphy

Dissertations and Theses

Early childhood settings have become contested spaces, or sites of struggle, between economic and sociocultural interests disputing their purpose. Recent years have shown increased pressure on children in early education settings to demonstrate predetermined learning outcomes, which (a) limits the scope of what is possible in the classroom, (b) narrows the range of what learning is considered valid, and (c) privileges the experience and values of the dominant culture, thereby determining who and what matters in early childhood settings. Thus, in the current education climate where conventional knowledges are routinely privileged, unconventional knowledges and small stories from children's lives are …

A Proposed Literature-Based Syllabus For Eap Writing, Kyle Perkins, Xuan Jiang

Journal of Global Education and Research

This paper proposes a literature-based composition course for advanced Non-native English Speaking (NNES) students in an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) program and provides a rationale, a syllabus, and some suggested pedagogy for consideration. The principal reasons for choosing a literature-based format include the following: (1) extended writing about a text, or texts, should lead to reading comprehension improvement; (2) culturally responsive literature should enhance engagement; (3) reading literature, as writerly reading, will assist NNES students with developing strategies applied to reading-to-write tasks and to integrated writing skills; (4) reading for writing (RFW) will expose NNES students to a wide …

Implementing The Siop Model To Support English Language Learners, Pamela T. Chandler

All Theses And Dissertations

Children who are English as a Foreign Language Learners (EFL) and/or English language learners (ELLs) are missing critical content-specific learning. These students are transitioning into mainstream classrooms, lacking basic literacy foundation skills, including vocabulary, grammar, comprehension, phonology, and meaning, which is preventing them from accessing grade-level content. Teachers who are charged with educating English language learners are not always provided with sufficient professional development that will allow them to meet the students’ needs. ELL students need specific instructional strategies that will address their learning needs as well as language development. The purpose of this study was to examine the implementation …

Wakanda College Retention Program: Developing Black And Brown Young Men, William A. Mchenry

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Currently, urban education is filled with great disparities related to issues of equity and access to a quality education for African American and Mexican American male students in secondary education settings. These groups are plagued with negative stereotypical images and subjected to the belief that they are inherently inferior to White students and incapable of academic and social success. Their social capital, which stems from their racial diversity, is not celebrated on any level in any educational space. Research for this study will show how the Wakanda College Retention program (WCR) has successfully addressed this disparity by employing the use …

How Do Personalized Learning Programs’ Instructional Designs Match Gifted Students’ Experiences In Using Them?, Sarah Bright

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Personalized learning technology is a quickly spreading and well-funded educational trend that is the focus of much discussion and controversy. The impact of personalized learning tools for reading in the general education population have been widely researched and hotly debated, but there is little research around the success and impact of its use with gifted students. Using a grounded theory methodology, my qualitative research study worked within the theoretical frameworks of critical technology and New Literacy to compare the assumptions and understandings about the reading process applied by the developers of Reading Plus, a personalized learning program for reading, with …

Is Critical Thinking Really Critical? A Research Study Of The Intentional Planning For The Teaching Of Critical Thinking In The Middle Grades, Michelle Smith

Dissertations

Critical thinking is an integral part of human life. However, it is not intentionally planned for and implemented in most public educational institutions. Due to this lack of planning, not everyone thinks critically. Critical thinking is a skill that must be fostered and developed over a period for it to be applied consistently. Individuals who exhibit critical thinking are increasingly likely to be successful in life.

This study focused on the teaching of critical thinking and was conducted at Wildcat Middle School, located in a suburb of Chicago, IL. The research examined the extent to which teachers intentionally planned for …

Beginning Teachers' Technology Integration Self-Efficacy Based On Level Of Technology Infusion In The Undergraduate Program, Reeshemah Tamar Johnson

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Four-year educator preparation programs in North Carolina are tasked with producing teachers capable of effectively integrating technology in the curriculum. The state created The Digital Learning Competencies for Classroom Teachers as the guidelines for what teachers are expected to know and be able to do with regards to digital technology integration. The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between beginning teacher self-efficacy with technology integration and the extent to which technology was infused in their undergraduate four-year educator preparation programs (stand-alone course versus technology infusion across the undergraduate curriculum versus a combination of both a …

Stealin' The Meetin': Black Education History & The Black Panthers' Oakland Community School, Robert P. Robinson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation frames the Black Panthers' Oakland Community School (OCS) as a convergence of Black self-determination/Black Power, Black education history, and curriculum studies. Drawing from widely-cited archives, rarely-cited archives, oral history, periodicals, and secondary source material, the proposed study extends the OCS narrative by tracing its curricular trajectory and highlighting the voices of students, parents, and staff. It considers how the school’s history provides examples of educational practices—such as restorative justice and culturally relevant pedagogy—that would not become named or popularized in mainstream education until much later, asserting that histories of this sort can inform educational endeavors in the present. …

Advocating For Culturally Responsive Practices In The Ib Diploma Programme: Tapping In The Potential Of Acid Tests To Foster Coherence Between The Ib Principles And Teaching Practices, Timizay Ruiz Pineda

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

International education programs, like the one proposed by the IB Organization, offer students across the world education for global, internationally-minded citizens. Nonetheless, the definition and often, the use of these terms are vague and, for the most part, refers to education and practices of Western countries that are Eurocentric in nature. It is necessary to develop coherence between the principles expressed in many international education frameworks and the reality of their practices. For this, it is fundamental that explicit guidance on culturally responsive teaching practices is acknowledged and provided by organizations like the IB. This paper provides theoretical support explaining …

A Study Of The Difficulties And Instructional Support Related To Spoken Interaction In An Emi Course For Higher Education Students, Mei-Ying Chien, Martin Valcke

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

The use of English as a medium of instruction (EMI) in higher education is considered a vehicle in non-English speaking countries for the purpose of internationalization, enhancing students’ employability, and international competition. Many higher education institutions in Europe adapted their curriculum and started teaching in English, while enrolling international students from Erasmus programs and non-European countries. This study builds on an EMI course set within a Belgian university. Six L2 (English as a second Language) students were interviewed to identify and explore their motivation, difficulties, and instructional support as it relates to their spoken interaction during the class. The findings …

“Because Like – And So I Don’T – So I Think It’S Maybe, I Don’T Know”: Performing Traumatic Effects While Reading Lynda Barry’S The Freddie Stories, David Lewkowich, Michelle Miller Stafford

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

As a picture of childhood composed from the point of view of a young boy named Freddie, who suffers the effects of repeated and ongoing trauma, the experience of reading The Freddie Stories presents a number of interpretive challenges: its main character is often split and in various states of disassociation, the difference between dreaming and waking life is not always obvious, multiple monsters appear in different and changeable forms, and as Freddie experiences repeated difficulties with language and cognitive function, his traumatic past enfolds upon the time in which the story is set. In this paper, we analyze how …

Developing Strategic Learners: Supporting Self-Efficacy Through Goal Setting And Reflection, Zoi A. Traga Philippakos

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

When students face academic challenges, when they receive poor grades on a subject, and when they see unchanged performance -even though they put effort on a task- they often develop the belief that they are not capable of overcoming challenges. Continuous underperformance affects students’ self-efficacy and belief that success is an achievable goal. The purpose of this paper is to explain the process of goal setting with continuous reflection to support students’ writing growth and persistence. The paper further comments on teachers’ goal setting for instructional and professional goals in order to support their instructional delivery and their growth as …

Valuing Voices: Construction Of Meaning Through Discursive Interactions During A Critical Service-Learning Partnership, Jane Helen Noble

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

As teacher educators strive to prepare preservice teachers for careers as literacy instructors and advocates of social justice in education, critical service-learning pedagogy has been considered as an approach for teacher education programs. Tenets of academic study, reflective practice, social change, and the development of authentic relationships between universities and communities outline the structure for critical-based field experiences. What are preservice teachers learning in these spaces? How do they grow as part of critical service- learning courses? How do community organizations and members interpret experiences in the partnership, and how do they describe their roles?

This study highlights the voices …

Using Bloom's Taxonomy To Teach College English In China: A Handbook For Educators, Yue Cai

Master's Projects and Capstones

With the modernization and globalization of China, the Chinese need to study and utilize English to be a part of the world. College students are essential to learning English. However, the purpose of college English in China still focuses on the national College English Tests. College students are not able to meet their original goal of learning English.

The purpose of this project is to create some teaching materials that improve students’ motivation and ability to learn English instead of raising exam grades. The project is a handbook which composes two model units based on Bloom’s taxonomy. Each unit contains …

Digital Awareness For Esl Students, Ehab Khalaf

Master's Projects and Capstones

ABSTRACT

Many immigrants come to the United States of America seeking to live, study, and work in this country. With an influx of immigrants, there is a need for educational opportunities tailored to meet their needs and demands with the ultimate aim of helping them integrate into society. One of the major demands is for English as a Second Language (ESL) classes, which are useful in equipping immigrants with not only the English language skills, but also in equipping and preparing the students for success in the workplace and with communication skills for navigating life in the United States. The …

Teaching English To Refugees And Immigrants With Low Literacy In Their Native Language And Limited English Proficiency (Using The Language Experience Approach), Jacqueline Hill

Master's Projects and Capstones

Immigrants who enter the United States come with varying degrees of education. Some immigrants come with a bachelor’s degree or higher, and some come with very limited schooling or no schooling at all. Yet many immigrants or refugees that come to the United States with low literacy in their native language, and limited English proficiency never enroll in an ESL class. There are many causes attributed to this lack of enrollment: learners’ embarrassment and anxiety to admitting their lack of literacy, class scheduling conflicts, long waiting lists, and the English-only approach taken by most ESL classes in the United States. …

Black Unrealia: Handbook For Teaching The Structure Of Past Counterfactual Statements, A. Carter

Master's Projects and Capstones

For various reasons, students are attending California community colleges to learn English. Classes taught are usually influenced by models that integrate aspects of reading, writing, speaking, and listening, and courses that center on grammar are rarely if ever taught. There has been a resurgence in interest in Form Focused Instruction and strong evidence that grammar instruction combined with Corrective Feedback can produce marked gains in a student’s implicit and explicit knowledge of grammatical forms. This Field Project proposes that by combining Form Focused Instruction with aspects of Communicative Language Teaching such as authentic materials, or realia, instructors can assist learners …