Digital Commons Network^™

Jmer Vol. 9: The Power Of Voice: Contributions Of Ofelia García To Language Education

Journal of Multilingual Education Research

This special issue of The Journal of Multilingual Education Research is a tribute to Ofelia García as a scholar and as a mentor. Dr. García has made 'translanguaging' famous throughout the world. The fifteen articles in this issue reflect her impact on translanguaging.

Promise In Infant-Toddler Care And Education

Occasional Paper Series

This special themed issue of the Occasional Paper Series seeks to highlight and challenge assumptions about infant-toddler care and education. In the Call for Papers, we specifically asked for critical analyses of the state of the field; for contributions from practitioners, policy researchers and policymakers, teacher educators, and colleagues from international contexts to interrogate the status quo. We were not surprised, however, when the papers submitted, with one exception, came from university researchers or faculty working with students. Caregivers and teachers of the youngest children are overwhelmingly women, often with families of their own, with limited time, support, or incentives …

Including Autism: Confronting Inequitable Practices In A Toddler Classroom, Emmanuelle N. Fincham, Amanda R. Fellner

Occasional Paper Series

As co-teachers in a toddler room, we share a personal narrative about our experiences working with a child diagnosed with autism while in our care. Framed within the competing discourses of the medicalized perspective on disability and the individual, child-centered philosophies of early childhood education, we investigate the inequities we felt in the classroom and make connections to the field of early childhood inclusive education at large.

A Bizarro World For Infants And Toddlers And Their Teachers, Marcy Whitebook

Occasional Paper Series

A bizarro world reverses our everyday realities. You may be familiar with the concept if you have ever read DC Comics or watched Seinfeld. In the bizarro world I envision for our nation’s infants and toddlers, family income does not determine whether their parents can afford to take time off work in the first months of their lives nor their right to high quality early care and education. In every infant-toddler program, whether offered in a center or home, staff are steeped in the science of child development and early learning pedagogy, and can depend on good wages and working …

Infant Toddler Care And Education: Speaking Up For Young Children And Their Caregivers, Virginia Casper, Sharon Ryan

Occasional Paper Series

Much of the policy-and practice-focused research on infant-toddler care and education has been concerned with the issue of program quality. That is, what elements constitute a quality program for infants and toddlers that ensures their ongoing developmental success? Researchers have sought to identify the structural and process indicators necessary for young children to receive the kinds of responsive interactions that contribute to positive developmental outcomes.

Successful Instructional Reading Practices For African American Male Third-Grade Students, Kimberly D. Whaley, Steve Wells, Nancy Williams

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

African American male third graders in U.S Title I schools frequently fail to read on grade level. However, in three Title I schools in East Texas, this demographic demonstrated exceptionally high reading ability. This explanatory case study investigated the instructional strategies and practices linked to high reading achievement for these students. The study is grounded in Ladson-Billings’s theory of culturally relevant pedagogy and supported by Vygotsky’s theory of social and cognitive constructivism. The research questions were used to examine the instructional strategies and practices used on each campus that may have resulted in such high reading achievement. This study engenders …

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

NSW Curriculum Review

This report is an interim report of the New South Wales Curriculum Review. This review has concluded that change is required. The changes proposed by the Review are significant. They relate to the amount and nature of syllabus content, the overall structure of the curriculum, and the focus of learning in the senior years of school. It has been produced as a progress report and a basis for consultation on the broad directions it identifies.

Revision Or Re-Vision: Exploring Approaches To The Differentiation Of Qualification Types In The Australian Qualifications Framework, Kate Perkins, Justin Brown, Paul R. Weldon, Louise Wignall

Vocational, adult and professional education research

In March 2019, the Department of Education commissioned the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) to conduct a conceptual analysis of the most appropriate way to develop and present a taxonomy of learning outcomes within a qualifications framework; and a technical analysis and revision of the Knowledge, Skills and Application of Knowledge and Skills descriptors used in the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF). Later this was extended to development of two alternative models that: (a) reflect the new conceptual base developed in Part I; (b) comprise a set of revised domain definitions (along with a new typology for each domain); and …

Cross-Cultural Considerations: Raising Language Teachers Awareness About The Importance Of Multiculturalism, Abir El Shaban

Journal of Research Initiatives

Abstract

With the worldwide use of English as a second language (ESL) and globalization, teachers are expected to understand, acknowledge and interact with culturally and linguistically diverse students and integrate their linguistic and multicultural backgrounds in classroom settings. Teachers need to be multicultural to be able to successfully impact their students to be multicultural. This paper provides English language teachers with valuable recommendations based on cross-cultural studies and my experience, as an ESL teacher, on how to be responsive to students from different cultures to empower and enhance their language proficiency skills.

Barriers To Learning, Part 2, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

In this post we write about the dispositional barriers adult learners face, as well as how important perseverance and a positive mindset are when learning and changing one's career trajectory.

Linguistic Discrimination Against Native Spanish Speakers In The New Mexico Bar Examination In The 1970s, Marie Chávez

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

In the 1970s, many people from Hispanic backgrounds, whether their first language was Spanish or English, who had graduated from law school took the New Mexico Bar Examination. A disproportionately large percentage of them (compared with their counterparts who did not come from Hispanic backgrounds) did not pass the Bar Examination. They therefore were denied admission to the bar. This dissertation examines how this came to be.

The study centers on the history of identity politics in New Mexico for Spanish-speaking people and their descendants. It examines the relationship between language and ideologies about race and ethnicity, as well as …

Recursive Reflective Reports: Embedded Assessment In Pbl Courses For Second Language Teacher Education, Cynthia A. Caswell

Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-Based Learning

This conceptual article begins with a general definition of reflection and the soft skills of PBL: collaboration, agency, and metacognition. Then it presents theoretical frameworks for reflection from second language teacher education (SLTE) (Farrell, 2015; Pennington & Richards, 2016) and illustrates six types of reflection with examples from the field of SLTE. The article features a reflective self- and peer-assessment instrument, utilized in a graduate SLTE program. The standard yet flexible template of the reflective teaching report (RTR) allows these teacher educators to interact with their students’ development in the soft skills and the content of the SLTE knowledge base. …

Barriers To Learning, Part L, 21cleo Research Team

21CLEO Research Project Blog Posts

This blog post is the first in a two-part series that focuses on barriers to learner participation and persistence in employersupported educational opportunities. In this framing of past research and reports, the 21 CLEO Research team draws on Margaret Patterson's categories of learning and persistence barriers as an analytic lens to situate literature reviewed in our landscape scan.

Latest From Acer International Offices

International Developments

ACER works through its international offices to deliver a diverse range of results-oriented projects. They are often implemented in partnership with global and local development partners with the goal to advance education outcomes and improve learning.

International Developments (No.9) 2019

International Developments

In this issue of International Developments, we summarise the research evidence gathered through the work of the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and the impact our projects make around the globe.

Digital Literacy Skill Development: Prescriptive Learning Analytics Assessment Model, Elspeth Mckay

2009 - 2019 ACER Research Conferences

There is a broad awareness of how information communications technology (ICT) digital literacy impacts everyday life. In schools, use of ICT tools has become mandatory. These tools include computers, tablets and mobile phones. These smart devices are used to send emails, browse the internet and make video calls. It is essential for teachers to identify student digital literacy levels through classroom activities and when to implement flexible ePedagogies for students who need help. This presentation will provide easy-to-follow steps to manage learning analytics to determine digital literacy skill levels. Learning analytics can be used for a range of purposes: to …

Identifying Academically At-Risk Incoming Freshmen At A Private University In Uruguay: Psychometric Evaluation Of A Mathematics Diagnostic Test, Wilson J. Gonzalez-Espada

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

This study determined to what extent the mathematics diagnostic test (MDT) used at the Catholic University of Uruguay (CUU) was psychometrically appropriate. Also, after removing “red-flagged” items, the study measured to what extent MDT scores correlated with academic success. It was found that five MDT items (out of 30) did not meet the guidelines and were discarded. The score on the remaining items showed the highest correlation with the number of mathematics courses completed, confirming that students with low MDT-Revised scores might need additional academic support to remain in the engineering program.

Patterns Of Reading Errors Among Emirati Second Grade Students, Abdelaziz M. Sartawi Prof., Yaser S. Natour Prof., Wesam B. Darawsheh Dr., Salma Daiban Dr., Mona Aljanahi Instructor

International Journal for Research in Education

The impact of morphological awareness on reading proficiency has been neglected and there has been much focus on researching the impact of phonological awareness on reading skills. The aim of this study was to examine reading errors among second-grade Emeriti students by mapping a threefold paradigm (i.e., difficulty level, lexical category, and reading error patterns). The study sample included 168 Emirati second grade students (87 males and 81 females). One hundred forty four words were randomly selected from the Arabic reading curriculum. Those words were classified into lexical categories as nouns (45%), verbs (34%), adjectives and adverbs (10%), and functional …

Exploring Restorative Justice, Suspensions, And Expulsions With African American Males, Dorothy L. Mosby

Dissertations

Zero tolerance programs led to unequal consequences for African American males because the programs targeted behaviors African American students were more likely to receive discipline for, which resulted in an increase of disciplinary situations for the students. With the disproportionate suspensions and expulsions of African American male students in public schools, Illinois Senate Bill 100 addressed the discipline issues to reduce the number of long-term suspensions and expulsions. In the 2016–2017 school year, the state of Illinois implemented Senate Bill 100. The bill reconstructed the procedures on how school administrators suspended and expelled students; Restorative Justice was a technique used …

A Dialectical Relational Analysis Of Tesol Quarterly 2006 Special Issue On Race: Discourse, Race, And White Supremacist Ideology, Ginger A. Looney

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

Although the field of TESOL is not racially neutral this dialectical relational analysis examined (1) what discourses did the authors use to deploy race in the articles in the 2006 TESOL Quarterly Special Issue on Race (TQSIR)? and (2) how do these discourses work to either conform to, or resist white supremacist ideology? Analysis of the texts identified four key discourse: racialization, whiteness, emotional labor of racism, and sonic and optic negation of racism. These discourses were examined in the domains of scholarship, curriculum, teachers, and students. In 21 instances, these four discourses work to resist white supremacist ideology. …

Teaching English Learners: A Study Of Procedures And Perceptions Of Missouri Program Directors And Mainstream Classroom Teachers, Merica Schoen Clinkenbeard

Dissertations

Professional development for mainstream classroom teachers to meet the influx of diverse learners is not adequately met by most school districts (Quintero & Hanson, 2017). The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to gain information from English learner program directors about English learner program practices and professional development specific to the needs of English learners in Missouri school districts. Mainstream classroom teachers from different-sized schools with high- and lowincidence of English learner students were interviewed to gather the perceived level of understanding of best practices for the implementation of research-based strategies. The Missouri Professional Learning Guidelines for Student Success guided …

Correlate Not Optional: Pp Sprouting And Parallelism In “Much Less” Ellipsis, Katy Carlson, Jesse A. Harris

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

Clauses that are parallel in form and meaning show processing advantages in ellipsis and coordination structures (Frazier et al. 1984; Kehler 2000; Carlson 2002). However, the constructions that have been used to show a parallelism advantage do not always require a strong semantic relationship between clauses. We present two eye tracking while reading studies on focus-sensitive coordination structures, an understudied form of ellipsis which requires the generation of a contextually salient semantic relation or scale between conjuncts. However, when the remnant of ellipsis lacks an overt correlate in the matrix clause and must be “sprouted” in the ellipsis site, the …

School-Wide Implementation Of Positive Behavioral Interventions And Supports In An Alternative School Setting: A Case Study, Amy-Jane Griffiths, Elena Lilles Diamond, James Alsip, Michael Furlong, Gale M. Morrison, Bich Do

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Aims

The purpose of this 1‐year case study was to identify how School‐Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SW‐PBIS) can be adapted to meet the needs of students in alternative schools and to evaluate the early impact of SW‐PBIS on discipline outcomes.

Methods

Suggestions for adaptations are provided at each stage of the intervention process with a focus on buy‐in, training, data collection, and resource allocation.

Results

Data from this case study included information about key components of the implementation process as well as initial outcomes. Process data revealed the importance of stakeholder buy‐in, training opportunities, and potential adaptations to …

Effects Of Frequency Of Early Intervention On Spoken Language And Literacy Levels Of Children Who Are Deaf Or Hard Of Hearing In Preschool And Elementary School, Ann E. Geers, Jean S. Moog, Amanda M. Rudge

Journal of Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Language delays associated with hearing loss during infancy may have a negative impact on academic development throughout childhood. Early intervention provided by the Moog Center for Deaf Education prior to 36 months of age was quantified, and associations with later outcomes were examined for 50 students who are DHH representing Moog Center alumni. The objective was to determine whether the amount of early intervention (referred to hereafter as dose of early intervention received at the Moog Center during the time children were 0-36 months of age) contributed uniquely to outcomes in preschool (4–6 years) and in elementary school (8–14 years). …

Empowered Learning Systems In Student Success, Craig C. Laupheimer

Education | Master's Theses

Abstract/Description

Although various support systems are attempted by public schools to cause changes in student motivation and academic performance, students continue to consistently under perform and doubt their academic potential. A literature review revealed a growing body of research outlining a direct relationship between internal beliefs and performance outcomes. Yet little has been done to understand student thought patterns from their perspective, or to what extent they are able to recognize and address the internal systems of language, belief, and emotion that interact with learning. By analyzing a wide range of student perspectives, this study examines what tools and strategies …

Sources Of Missed Understanding: A Framework For Diagnosing Comprehension Breakdown, Tarr Jennifer

Dissertations

This research sought to understand how a formative assessment framework created by the researcher (called the Sources of Missed Understanding construct) would be used by teachers to diagnose students’ reading comprehension challenges during authentic reading instruction, and to understand the context and supports teachers needed to use the tool effectively. A design experiment methodology was used to follow the diagnostic processes of five reading specialist candidates, each working one-to-one with an upper elementary or middle school reader during a five week summer university-based tutoring setting, resulting in five case studies and cross case analysis. This study shows that teachers who …

The Influence Of Gambling On The Immigrant And Refugee Community, Tamika Harvey

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The state of Pennsylvania approved new gambling activities, such as internet gambling and “Play at the Pump” to increase revenue in effort to support special populations. Forming partnerships with community leaders the City of Philadelphia learned how former and new gambling activities has impacted the special population group involving the immigrant and refugee community. The discussion will consist of gambling related activities commonly practiced in their culture and the challenges faced when attempting to access services for problem gambling.

Critical Discourse Analysis And Critical Qualitative Inquiry: Data Analysis Strategies For Enhanced Understanding Of Inference And Meaning, Mary Ziskin

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

This manuscript describes an approach to critical qualitative data analysis that combines (1) Carspecken’s critical qualitative methodological framework (1996; 2012) with (2) the conceptual resources of critical discourse analysis (CDA), as framed by Fairclough (2003, 2016) and colleagues (Chouliaraki & Fairclough, 1999; Fairclough & Wodak, 1997). Carspecken’s methodological theory illuminates the connection between sociopolitical power and culture by introducing the content of validity claims into analysis of discourse. In turn, CDA helps to support the analysis of validity claims in that these are often expressed or legitimated through implicit references, and through the rhetoric, shape, or tone of what is …

Msc Applied Software Development 2019, Qqi (Quality And Qualifications Ireland)

Monitoring, Review, and External Quality Assurance

Evaluation report on the validation by a QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland) panel of an application by CCT College Dublin to deliver a Level 9 MSc in Applied Software Development.

The Effect Of Demographics On The Implementation Of The Principal Walkthrough, Jason A. Marx

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

The purpose of this quantitative study was to research how school and principal demographics influence a principal’s implementation of the walkthrough process. Principals from New Jersey were administered a survey to provide insight into how they implement the walkthrough process in their schools. The findings suggest that socioeconomic status and level of principal experience have no influence on how walkthroughs are implemented; however, the findings also suggest that level of principal experience does have an impact on whether or not principals share the results of walkthroughs with teachers.