Digital Commons Network^™

Effect Of Two Semesters Of Small Group Problem-Based Learning (Pbl) On Expectations Of Physician Assistant Students Regarding Self, Others, And Facilitator Using The Pbl Readiness Questionnaire, Susan Hawkins, Mark Hertweck, Anthony Goreczny, John Laird

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess changes in expectations and perceptions among physician assistant (PA) program matriculants regarding small group problem-based learning (PBL) from the beginning to the end of the first didactic year. Some of the stress experienced by students entering health science professional programs using PBL may be due to lack of awareness of the goals and norms of PBL which differ from those of traditional lecture-based curricula. A change in student expectations as a result of participation in PBL would indicate that these goals and norms can be learned through participation. Methods: The authors …

“I Understand What These Students Are Experiencing”: Linguistically Diverse Preservice Teachers’ Narratives Regarding English Learners, Amanda Sugimoto

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications and Presentations

Preservice teachers enter their preparation programs with multiple years of experience in schools as k-12 students. Past schooling experiences, or their ‘apprenticeship of observation’ (Lortie, 1975), often shape preservice teachers’ understandings of schools, teaching, and learning. Teacher preparation programs must address these experiences and related preconceptions when preparing preservice teachers to work with students, specifically diverse student populations (Hammerness et al., 2005). While the majority of the teaching force remains White, female, and monolingual English speaking, the scholarly community has begun to focus on the preparation of diverse preservice teachers (e.g., Tsui, 2007). This study focuses on one such a …

Critical Literacy: An Innovative Approach To Learning Among Students With Reading Disabilities, Karyn Marie Chiapella

Wayne State University Dissertations

ABSTRACT

CRITICAL LITERACY: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO LEARNING AMONG STUDENTS WITH READING DISABILITIES

by

KARYN M. CHIAPELLA

DECEMBER 2015

Co-Advisors: Dr. Marshall Zumberg; Dr. Gerald Oglan

Major: Special Education

Degree: Doctor of Philosophy

Many students, particularly those with learning disabilities do not read and/ or write at levels sufficient for meeting the demands of the 21st century. Successfully reading to learn requires the ability to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information from multiple texts. Critical literacy provides a framework for students to engage in dialogue with texts to become more aware of the relationships of power communicated within texts. This study …

Parent-Child Book-Reading Styles, Emotional Quality, And Changes In Early Head Start Children's Cognitive Scores., Keely Cline, Carolyn P. Edwards

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

The objective of this study was to understand how book-reading style and emotional quality of reading interact and relate to cognitive skills in a sample of at-risk infants and toddlers. Participants included 81 parents and their children participating in Early Head Start programs in the rural Midwest. Correlation and multiple regression analyses were used to test the hypothesis that parental book-reading style and emotional quality interact and relate to changes in children's cognitive scores for culturally and linguistically families. Results included that there were variations in how book-reading qualities interacted and related to changes in child cognitive scores for families …

Beliefs And Motivations Of Foreign Language Learners, Noriko Okura

Online Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the Eastern Kentucky University students’ current characteristics, purposes, and expectations for learning Japanese and/or Spanish language. A survey was conducted to collect data on EKU students’ demographics, as well as motivations and foreign language learning beliefs. Two hundred thirty eight students completed the questionnaire that includes a modified version of Horwitz’s (1988) “Beliefs about Language Learning Inventory” (BALLI). Descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations, and frequencies were utilized to analyze the BALLI items. Results indicated that EKU students’ demographics are diverse. Students in Japanese and Spanish language classes differed primarily in their language beliefs related to their …

Syntactic Structures In Dialogue: The Role Of Influence, Brenda Ellen Hite

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Genuine dialogues reflect the way that language is initially developed by providing opportunities to hear and practice language. Participants within dialogues are found to speak in similar ways through the priming effect, giving language learners continued opportunities to hear and practice a greater variety of syntactic structures. The purpose of this study was to determine if genuine dialogue, and the priming that occurs, could aid in the use and expansion of syntactic structures.

Within the context of Reading Recovery, the teacher/researcher (a female member of the dominant culture) and a single student participant (male, African American, 6- years-old) were engaged …

2016-2017 Undergraduate Catalog, Morehead State University

Morehead State Catalog Archive

2016-2017 undergraduate catalog for Morehead State University.

2016-2017 Graduate Catalog, Morehead State University

Morehead State Catalog Archive

2016-2017 graduate catalog for Morehead State University.

Multilingual Pedagogies And Pre-Service Teachers: Implementing “Language As A Resource” Orientations In Teacher Education Programs, Theresa Catalano, Edmund T. Hamann

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

While Ruiz’s (1984) influential work on language orientations has substantively influenced how we study and talk about language planning, few teacher education programs today actually embed his framework in the praxis of preparing pre-service and practicing teachers. Hence, the primary purpose of this article is to demonstrate new understandings and expansions of Ruiz’s language-as-resource (LAR) approach and ways in which teacher education programs can model this orientation in their own classes, including those programs, like ours, that prepare mostly monolingual preservice and in-service teachers to work with bi/multilingual students. The authors pursue this by laying out the theoretical framework for …

Indonesian Pre-Service Teachers’ Identities In A Microteaching Context: Learning To Teach English In An Indonesian Teacher Education Program, Dwi Riyanti, Loukia K. Sarroub

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

In today’s globalized era, English has become one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. As a language of science and an international means of communication, English has attracted people around the world to learn and speak it. While the global role of English has been viewed in various different frameworks including “colonial celebratory” (Pennycook 2001, 59) and a form of imperialism (Phillipson 1992), English has become a global language because of the power that its speakers have (McKay 2002; Crysta11997). However, with English being a global language, it is no longer solely the property of native speakers …

Fostering Connections, Empowering Communities, Celebrating The World, Aleidine Kramer Moeller

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

Selected Papers from the 2016 Central States Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

Editor: Aleidine Moeller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

1. Analyzing Song Lyrics as an Authentic Language Learning Opportunity — Georgia Coats

2. Prose Combat: Contemporary Target Language Songs as Authentic Text — Kirsten Halling & Pascale Abadie

3. Enhancing the Use of Music in Language Learning through Technology — Nick Ziegler

4. The Case for Integrating Dance in the Language Classroom — Angela N. Gardner

5. Digital Language Learning: Bringing Community to the Classroom — Leah McKeeman & Blanca Oviedo

6. Digital Storytelling in the Foreign Language Classroom …

Personal Practical Knowledge Of Teacher Educators, Vicki Ross, Elaine Chan

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

We introduce the notion of personal practical knowledge (PPK) and, then, explore complexities of knowledge and knowing in the lives and work of teacher educators. To do so, we draw heavily on existing literature based upon and addressing personal practical knowledge (Connelly & Clandinin, 1988) to better understand tensions at play in the field of teacher knowledge, and to offer research literature and methods that value, document, and fold in details of teachers’ experiences to inform understanding of the work of teacher educators.

We begin with a definition of the term ‘personal practical knowledge’, proposed by Connelly and Clandinin (1988), …

Being “In A Limbo”: Perceptions Of Immigration, Identity And Adaptation Of Immigrant Students In South Africa And The United States, Theresa Catalano, Jill Fox, Saloshna Vandeyar

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

Much research is available that details student experiences of immigration and adaptation to receiving countries and schools, but few studies analyze the metaphors used by immigrant students (IS) when talking about the immigration experience, or offer a comparative lens through which to view identity negotiation in two very different contexts. The present paper aims to address these gaps by conducting a comparative linguistic analysis of 20 interviews conducted with IS at universities in South Africa and the United States in order to gain a greater understanding of immigration and the types of identity negotiation processes learners undergo in these very …

A Phenomenological Analysis Of Social Justice/Injustice On The Lives Of African-American High School Males, Michael R. Harris

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to analyze what high school African-American males perceive as significant influences that directly impact their academic achievement while attending a predominantly White suburban high school. This qualitative research study will utilize semi-structured case interviews to collect and analyze data gathered from among a criteria-based subgroup of African-American high school males. An examination of archival data such as student course selections, a review of high school Carnegie units earned and attempted, the availability of support resources and interventions, as well discipline and attendance reports will each provide evidence of the probable obstacles impacting the achievement …

‘Knowing Your Students’ In The Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Classroom, Robyn Moloney, David Saltmarsh

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The population movement of globalization brings greater cultural and linguistic diversity (CALD) to communities and education systems. To address the growing diversity in school classrooms, beginning teachers need an expanded set of skills and attitudes to support effective learning. It is an expectation today that teachers know their students and how the students learn. It follows that lecturers and tutors should also know something of the cultural and linguistic profile of their pre-service teacher education students. This article reports a study in a university which examined its teacher education practice in this light. It assessed the curriculum provision of material …

The Effects Of Using Digital Storytelling For Fourth Graders' Literacy Learning, Benjamin J. Feight

Graduate Research Papers

The dual purposes of this action research project were to investigate how the inclusion of digital learning techniques helped impact students' perceptions towards literacy instruction, and any impact on parents' perceptions. The action research was conducted in a fourth grade classroom of twenty-one participants in a rural school, engaging students in the whole process of creating a digital story.

The major results indicate that: a) student motivation towards writing increases when introduced to the concept of using some sort of digital device to write the story; and b) parents were enthused about the level of work their students submitted when …

Advocating School-University Partnership For Responsive Teacher Education And Classroom-Based Curricula: Evidence From Teachers’ Cognitions About Principles Of Curriculum Design And Their Own Roles, Muhammad Rahimi, Lawrence Jun Zhang, Nasim Nasr Esfahani

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This study investigated the differences between novice and experienced non-native English-speaking English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) teachers’ cognitions about EFL curriculum design principles and their own roles in designing an EFL curriculum. The challenge these teachers faced in their roles and the support system they needed were also explored. Data were collected from 40 non-natives English-speaking EFL teachers using a questionnaire and open-ended questions. The results show that the observed differences between the two groups’ cognitions about EFL curriculum design principles were not statistically significant. Results also reveal that both groups believed they lacked the required theoretical knowledge, practical skills, and time and …

Increasing Vocabulary And Oral Language Skills Of Pre-K English Language Learners Through Shared Storybook Reading And Take-Home Literacy Bags, Angela Butler

Graduate Research Papers

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of Shared Storybook Readings and Take Home Literacy Bags utilizing Dialogic Questioning Techniques on the oral language skills and vocabulary knowledge of preschool-aged English Language Learners.

Eleven preschool students identified as English Language Learners in a suburban school district took part in the six-week intervention. Each week students were exposed to three read-aloud experiences utilizing Dialogic Reading Techniques and Questioning and a Take Home Literacy Bag for further reading experiences with their families. Student growth was assessed weekly using three tools: Teaching Strategies GOLD observations, a Teacher-Created Vocabulary Assessment, and …

A Phenomenological Study Of Teachers' Perceptions Of Kindergarten Retention: Are Standards To Be Blamed?, Ginger Delaigle

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Currently there are a number of Kindergarten students who are being retained for not mastering Common Core State Standards. One of the methods that teachers can use to support Kindergarten students in achieving these standards are Developmentally Appropriate Practices. The exploration of the perceptions of teachers who have experienced the phenomenon of retaining Kindergarten students served as the goal for this qualitative, phenomenological study. The results provided data for examination of the perceptions the teachers had with retaining Kindergarten students and their perceptions of the developmental appropriateness of the Common Core State Standards. Four Kindergarten teachers participated in three interviews …

[Introduction To] Pedagogical Matters: New Materialisms And Curriculum Studies, Nathan Snaza, Debbie Sonu, Sarah E. Truman, Zofia Zaliwska

Bookshelf

This edited collection takes up the wild and sudden surge of new materialisms in the field of curriculum studies. New materialisms shift away from the strong focus on discourse associated with the linguistic or cultural turn in theory and toward recent work in the physical and biological sciences; in doing so, they posit ontologies of becoming that re-configure our sense of what a human person is and how that person relates to the more-than-human ecologies in which it is nested. Ignited by an urgency to disrupt the dangers of anthropocentrism and systems of domination in the work of curriculum and …

Institutionalizing Faculty Mentoring Within A Community Of Practice Model, Emily R. Smith, Patricia E. Calderwood, Stephanie Burrell Storms, Paula Gill Lopez, Ryan P. Colwell

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

In higher education, faculty work is typically enacted—and rewarded—on an individual basis. Efforts to promote collaboration run counter to the individual and competitive reward systems that characterize higher education. Mentoring initiatives that promote faculty collaboration and support also defy the structural and cultural norms of higher education. Collaborative mentoring initiatives, however, support all faculty to be lifelong learners. We analyze a reciprocal model of mentoring—a community of practice for mentoring—that integrates collaborative mentoring into faculty’s daily work. Additionally, we examine the dilemmas, benefits, and costs of institutionalizing a community of practice model for mentoring in higher education. Our analyses indicate …

A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Inquiry Into The Meaning Of Language Learning Strategies As Experienced By Successful English Language Learners At A South Korean University, Eric Hall

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the shared experiences and beliefs concerning the use of language learning strategies (LLS) among successful English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners at a South Korean university. The research questions focused on how successful EFL learners describe their experiences learning English through the lens of learning strategies. Further examination described the role LLS play in the student’s successful English language learning. The participants were 12 successful EFL students from a South Korean university. Data collection consisted of interviews, focus groups, and observations. Data analysis was achieved through use of the hermeneutic …

Barriers High School Teachers Encounter In Teaching Critical Thinking In Writing, Monica Murray

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In an urban high school in California, students are generally unskilled in critical writing. The problem has been associated with instructional barriers encountered by teachers. In this qualitative case study, English Language teachers provided their perceptions of such barriers and shared perspectives for solutions based in professional development. Grounded in the theories of Halpern, Saiz and Rivas, Weigle, and Harris and Graham, the conceptual framework emphasized instructional models that develop metacognition in writing, which can increase students' critical thinking. Selection criteria required participants who were English Language Arts teachers of writing critical thinking. Data from 4 participant interviews were coded, …

Effects Of Direct Instruction Common Core Math On Students With Learning Disabilities, Joseph Ifeanyi Monye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

U.S. students with learning disabilities' math skills acquisition has been on the decline in recent years. Studies show that teachers using traditional methods of teaching math lack knowledge of task analysis, chunking, sequencing, mass practice, modeling, and repetition of instruction. These components of direct instruction or pedagogical activities are hallmarks of special education teaching and are collectively described as cognitive support pedagogy. The study evaluated direct instruction teaching strategies to teach Common Core math to middle school students with learning disabilities, to determine if the current downward trend in math skills acquisition amongst them can be reversed. The theoretical framework …

A Literacy-Level Curriculum For Adult Spanish-Speaking English Language Learners With Limited Formal Education, Kirsten L. Keihl

Master's Projects and Capstones

Many Spanish-speaking adult immigrants in the United States face an immediate need to learn English, but also suffer from a lack of formal education as many did not complete middle school or high school. These learners need a curriculum that is tailored specifically to their needs. This project provides a communicative curriculum for teaching English and Spanish literacy, English speaking and listening skills, and basic classroom skills utilizing native language instruction when helpful using learning strategies and authentic materials that are appropriate for adults. It also addresses sociocultural and sociopolitical concerns of this population and utilizes culturally relevant materials.

The Impact Of A Common Approach To Instruction Within A Nebraska Rural School District, Bret Allan Schroder

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine the instructional understanding and effectiveness of a district wide implementation of a Common Approach to Instruction. This research study provided a greater understanding of the affects that such an implementation had on certified staff regardless of grade level, experience, subject, or gender.

This explanatory, sequential, mixed methods study was conducted during the summer, spring, and fall of 2014-2015. The study initially gathered data using an online survey, based on Marzano’s 41 instructional elements, in a single class-B school district in Nebraska. All certified staff members within this school district were …

Digital Lessons For Enhancing Communicative Skills: A Handbook For Turkish Efl Teachers, Hale H. Demirel

Master's Projects and Capstones

It is necessary for English teachers who are interested in exposing their students to the authentic and communicative use of English to have access to model instructional materials. This project sought to develop a handbook and an accompanying website for teachers of English working with intermediate ESL/EFL students at university level. The handbook includes two theme-based lessons that emphasize the development of communicative competence with the help of engaging free digital tools. The content of the handbook can be improvised or modified and adapted to meet the needs of unique teaching-learning situations in case of need.

Enhancing Language Development For English Learners, Frank L. Silva

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Previously accepted and current research has been reviewed regarding the development of English proficiency for English Language Learners. The particular areas of concern deemed crucial for language development are the domains of reading, writing, listening and speaking. The critical components for effective English Language Development instruction as well as the strategies considered the most effective and efficient were also investigated. The review resulted in the creation of an English Language Development unit that includes the essential components and various strategies that are considered effective in developing English proficiency for English Language Learners.

From Literacy To Literacies: Negotiating Multiple Literacies In The English Classroom, Breanne S. Campbell

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

This dissertation is a narrative description of my teaching moves as I attempted to negotiate within my classroom both traditional print literacy and new literacies afforded by emerging technology. In this study, I sought to reconcile my rhetoric with my reality (Zeichner, 1999) by teaching students how to read and design multimodal compositions within the traditional framework and curriculum required by my school district. Students composed traditional memoirs and then participated in the synaesthesia process by remediating their memoirs using technology. Students were also asked to write a Statement of Goals and Choices (Shipka, 2011), reflecting on their own rhetorical …

Teacher Perspectives On Professional Development Needs For Better Serving Nebraska's Spanish Heritage Language Learners, Janet Marie Eckerson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

A growing number of heritage language speakers of Spanish are enrolling in Spanish language courses during secondary school. Current scholarship has suggested that these heritage language learners (HLLs) have very different instructional needs than learners of second or foreign languages. Because Spanish language instruction in Nebraska secondary schools has been traditionally conceptualized only as foreign language instruction, classroom teachers may not be adequately prepared to meet the needs of HLLs. This dissertation examined the experiences of Nebraska secondary Spanish teachers who worked with HLLs in order to inform the creation of relevant professional learning experiences for pre- and in-service teachers. …