Digital Commons Network^™

Inside Stories: Stories Within, Personal Narrative In The Classroom, Carol Block

MA TESOL Collection

This discussion of a project conducted in 2004 involved two ESOL Middle School Students. The project used personal narrative and autobiographical elements to produce booklets based on these students’ experiences which created a bridge into the academic community, for themselves and their families. This paper discusses the elements that made this project successful and the reasons that personal narrative is so powerful and meaningful for all students and, most especially, second language learners.

It Takes Discipline: Learning In A World Without Boundaries, Stephen Healey

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

As Plato suggested, pedagogy is inextricably related to the polis. The learner and teacher are constituted by social, political, and economic bounds, and yet the twenty-first century polis is increasingly a world without boundaries. This is a perilous and exciting time to teach and learn. As agents of terror have shown, political boundaries are uncomfortably permeable. Economically, culturally, and religiously, globalization has reduced the power of nation-states and threatened erasure of their boundaries. Isolated identities—nationalistic, religious, linguistic, sexual— are under siege. Nothing is immune from alteration by these large-scale forces. Plato’s insight is that the pressures and possibilities, which determine …

Catalogue 2009-2010, Bank Street College Of Education

Graduate School of Education

This course catalog from a past academic year is a resource for referring to previous course offerings, degree requirements, institutional policies, and more.

A Case Study Of Reform At One Urban High School, Linda Nadene Sorenson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Our schools in America are in crisis. At particular risk are poor and minority students who attend high schools in urban areas. With so many urban high schools failing, reformers have sought ways to improve schools and increase student achievement. Effort toward urban high school reform is occurring across the United States. What happens to a school during the process of reform?

The purpose of this case study was to describe the significant events and changes that characterize one urban high school's reform efforts and analyze stakeholders' perceptions about the reform themes found in the researcher literature on high school …

Common Strategies Used By Kindergarten Teachers To Instruct Reading To English-As-A-Second-Language Students, Emma Kaye Penn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research was designed to describe, analyze, and interpret what reading strategies experienced kindergarten teachers believe are essential to instruct English-as-a-Second-Language learners how to read. Through in-depth interviews, experienced kindergarten teachers were given a voice to describe what they consider essential reading strategies to instruct English-as-a-Second-Language learners to learn how to read.

The participants were four licensed, non-probationary kindergarten teachers instructing reading in English to a minimum of 51% English-as-a-Second-Language population. Selected kindergarten programs were consistent in program design. Processes were influenced by the gateway approach. The stories teachers told about their experiences in teaching ELLs how to read was …

Content Anlaysis Of Computer Conferencing Transcripts, Roisin Donnelly, John Gardner

Journal Articles

Within the field of higher education, there are situations where the learner is not well served in a classroom setting. Problematic issues such as scheduling, critical mass, time, pace and location have the potential to be counterbalanced by e-learning. Within this, the asynchronous nature of today’s online learning environments and computer conferencing tools have popularly been claimed to offer tremendous benefits for learners who are willing to take responsibility for their own learning, to progress at their own pace, and interact with their online teacher to get immediate feedback on their learning and progress. Indeed, increasingly, educators today are very …

Exploring Best Practices For Identification, Assessment, Course Placement, Support Services, And Academic Monitoring Of First Year Students Whose Act Writing Scores Indicate Needs For Skill Building, Kellian Clink, Amy Mukamuri

Library Services Publications

The authors share some of the research about Generation 1.5 students as well as other students whose academic writing skills may need development. We relate some data from MSU, from state of Minnesota reports, and from federal studies and discuss some of the reading and writing issues for these students. We describe the possible roles of Adult Basic Education (ABE), community colleges, and MSU in developmental writing coursework and explore assessment tools utilized. We describe some models of writing development around the state and the nation, and finally describe some consequences of doing nothing, piloting project(s), and implementing a program …

"I Am Not Afraid To Listen": Prospective Teachers Learning From Students, Alison Cook-Sather

Education Program Faculty Research and Scholarship

This article describes a project that positions high school students as teacher educators within an undergraduate secondary certification program. A brief review of researchers' arguments for listening to students and a description of the project contextualize the perspectives of graduates of the program who teach or have taught in city schools. These teachers emphasize howthe project allows them to reaccess the student experience in school; get clear on what it means to really listen; learn how important it is to take students' experiences and perspectives seriously; recognize how much more engaged in their learning students are when teachers listen and …

Completions 2009-10, Uno Office Of Institutional Effectiveness

IPEDS Completions

IPEDS Completions annual report contains the following information:

• Number of awards conferred by program, by level, and by race/ethnicity and gender of recipient
• Number of completers, separately by race/ethnicity, gender, age and level of award

Validitas Tes Cloze, Tes-C, Dan Penilaian Diri Sebagai Alat Ukur Kemampuan Membaca Teks Bahasa Inggris, Suharso Suharso

Jurnal Penelitian dan Evaluasi Pendidikan

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui validitas tes cloze (CL) dan tes-C (C) sebagai alat ukur kemampuan membaca teks bahasa Inggris dengan tes Reading Comprehension (RC) dari TOEFL sebagai tolok ukur dan mengetahui validitas penilaian diri (PD) dengan mengacu pada ketiga tes tersebut. Populasi penelitian meliputi mahasiswa yang mengambil mata kuliah Reading I, III, dan V pada semester gasal tahun akademik 2006/2007 di Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Fakultas Bahasa dan Seni, Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta. Sampel penelitian terdiri atas 121 mahasiswa yang dipilih dengan menggunakan teknik sampel acak gugus. Data kemampuan membaca dikumpulkan dengan tes RC, CL dan C. Data PD …

Indigenous Languages Programmes In Australian Schools - A Way Forward, Nola Purdie, Tracey Frigo, Clare Ozolins, Geoff Noblett, Nick Thieberger, Janet Sharp

Indigenous Education Research

In 2008, over 16,000 Indigenous students and 13,000 non-Indigenous students located in 260 Australian schools were involved in an Indigenous language program. More than 80 different Indigenous languages were taught. This project sought to present practice which would strengthen the quality of Indigenous language programs in schools. The report consists of a literature review, a mapping exercise to document current practices relating to Indigenous languages in Australian schools, an analysis of existing models of teacher preparation, and six case studies of good practice examples.

The Academic Needs Of The Native Spanish-Speaking English Language Learner Under The No Child Left Behind Act (Nclb), Amy J. Whicker

Senior Honors Theses

The instructional demands and pressures placed on today’s educators are constantly increasing, influenced by national and state learning standards, assessments, and changing student demographics. More specifically, the standards of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) set by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) require academic gains to be made yearly by all students, including those with significant learning hurdles, such as the language acquisition difficulties faced by English Language Learners (ELLs). While the future of the NCLB Act is debatable, the necessity of effective classroom arrangements and instructional methods is indubitable. In addition, because the majority of this ELL population is …

Effects Of Plain Language Revision On Item Difficulty, Discrimination And Dif, Holly E. Baker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Colorado assesses approximately 98% of students enrolled in grades 3-10 in the area of mathematics. In 2005, 69,872 English Language Learners (ELLs) in grades 3-10 participated in the state content area assessments. In 2007, 88,060 ELLs participated in the state content area assessments. With this dramatic growth in the ELL population in the state of Colorado and elsewhere in the nation, ensuring that ELLs have access to comprehensible materials on state assessments is of paramount importance. Accommodations provide access for students based on their individual needs. Likewise, assessment items designed and/or revised using the principles of plain language and universal …

Teaching Metalinguistic Awareness And Reading Comprehension With Riddles, Marcy Zipke

Education Faculty Publications

The article reports on multiple meanings in sentences and metalinguistic awareness in education. Comprehension of lexical ambiguity and structural ambiguity are presented as key components of reading education. The author explores the use of riddles in teaching language comprehension and having students develop their own riddles. The author concludes that riddles can encourage metalinguistic skill development and awareness. Other topics include homonyms, ambiguous sentences, riddle books, and brainstorming.

Problem-Based Educational Games: Connections, Prescriptions, And Assessment, Andrew Walker, Brett E. Shelton

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

The overwhelming success of the commercial game market has brought increased attention to emerging work in educational game design. Much of the existing work in educational games a strong similarity to the field of Problem-Based Learning (PBL), which has a rich history of conceptual literature as well as empirical investigations. Despite apparent similarities between the two fields, there has been no formal effort to explore the connections between them. This conceptual paper examines the basic tenants of PBL with an eye toward making prescriptive recommendations for the design and use of problem-based educational games. Examples within existing educational games are …

Questionnaire Construct Validation In The International Civic And Citizenship Education Study, Wolfram Schulz

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

International studies tend to use student, teacher or school questionnaires for the collection of contextual data on student or teacher characteristics, background, activities and the school's learning environment. Furthermore, student measures of values, attitudes and behavioural intentions are also frequently viewed as important learning outcomes, in particular in the context of studies of civic and citizenship education. Data obtained from these instruments become frequently important predictors of student performance or are treated as learning outcome variables of interest. Therefore, the scaling of questionnaire items to obtain measures of students', teachers' and principals' perceptions and attitudes should ideally be subject of …

Alternative Scaling Models And Dependencies In Pisa, Greg Macaskill

OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

This paper examines trends between PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 for the reading and mathematics scales for the OECD countries using both the standard one parameter (1PL) model that has been used in published OECD reports, and a generalised partial credit model, as implemented in ACER ConQuest, which estimates optimal values for each possible score on an item.

Classroom Organizational Structures As Related To Student Achievement In Upper Elementary Grades In Northeast Tennessee Public Schools., Darrell Wayne Moore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Metamorphosis Of Thought: Parent Education Based On Transformative Learning Theory In A Title I-Funded Middle School, Ayanna Lichelle Shivers

Dissertations

Section 1118(e)(2) of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 encouraged public schools to conduct and evaluate parent education programs to assist with closing the achievement gap. In an effort to combat the existing problem, the researcher engaged in a mixed-methods study to address four research questions.

A comparative-quantitative study, using the Middle School Parent Perception Survey, was conducted to determine if there were statistically significant differences in perceptions of parents whose children attended Title I funded and non-Title l-funded schools in the following areas—barriers to parent involvement, their ability to assist their children with schoolwork, and the support …

Identifying Preschool Students In Need Of Early Intervention, Cassie Delso Wells

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate a screening instrument targeting identification of preschool students in need of early intervention in order to determine the screening instrument's predictive validity. This study specifically examined the relationship between student scores on the DIALS and student achievement in reading at the end of first grade. All participants in the study were residing on Alaska's North Slope and the majority were Alaska Natives. The remote geographic location of the North Slope along with the ancient traditions of the Inupiat Eskimos, including the Inupiaq language that is still spoken among the residents of the …

Assessing And Reporting Of Employability Skills Of Senior Secondary Students, Gabrielle Matters, David D. Curtis

2008 – Touching the Future: Building Skills for Life and Work

This paper traces the emergence of ‘life skills’ from being rather general and global prescriptions for educational change to specific lists of ‘skills’ that schooling, vocational and higher education should address. We focus specifically on the ‘key skills’ of the Employability Skills Framework (ESF) developed jointly by the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) and the Business Council of Australia (BCA) (ACCI & BCA, 2002). We propose a strategy for extending the definitions of the key skills to include personal, social and civic objectives. We also identify a sequence of challenges that schools and school systems must address in …

Ict Trends In Education, Gerald K. White

Digital learning research

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education is a relatively new phenomenon. Educators, researchers and thinkers have taken up the challenges of using ICT since the 1980s with varied success. The advent of the internet and the World Wide Web has pressured new productivity and service demands as well as expectations on these endeavours although research to guide best practice remains scant and elusive. This discussion about the trends occurring in ICT in education and research begins with a brief history. The brief history of ICT raises a number of issues that provide options for thinking about …

The Relationship Between Learning Styles And Student Performance On The Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test In A Low Performing, Low Socioeconomic-Status School, Joseph Lassale Williams

Dissertations

The intention of this research was to bring light to the current state mandated testing, and possible solutions in assisting educators to address the issues of students not meeting the standards. In more general terms, this study is looking to prove to what extent a student's learning style has on their performance on the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT). This study analyzed four of the twenty-six learning preference areas identified by the Learning Style Instrument (LSI) of middle school students in a traditional public middle school in seventh grade. The four areas that were looked at were kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, …

If Our Students Fail, We Fail, If They Succeed We Succeed: Case Studies Of Boston Schools Where Latino Students Succeed, Eileen De Los Reyes, David Nieto, Virginia Diez

Gastón Institute Publications

This report focuses on the findings of five case studies of Boston schools whose Latino students are succeeding academically. The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of schools where Latino students succeed so that it can serve as a guide to educators as they plan for programs directed at these students as well as to parents as they choose educational settings for their children.

If Our Students Fail, We Fail. If They Succeed We Succeed reports on case studies of the Manassah E. Bradley Elementary, the Hugh R. O’Donnell Elementary, the Donald McKay K-8 School, Fenway High …

Catalogue 2008-2009, Bank Street College Of Education

Graduate School of Education

This course catalog from a past academic year is a resource for referring to previous course offerings, degree requirements, institutional policies, and more.

Beyond Writing: Integrative Learning And Teaching In First-Year Seminars, David H. Krause, Robert C. Lageaux

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Campuses across the country continue to establish first-year seminars that promise students integrative and transformative learning experiences necessary for the twenty-first century. This trend inevitably challenges faculty members to teach in ways that transcend or subvert both their disciplinary expertise and their familiar, comfortable ways of teaching. These challenges become especially visible in the design and evaluation of assignments. At Columbia College Chicago, for example, where the majority of students aspire to careers in the arts, media, and communication, teachers have been negotiating the place of writing in a required firstyear seminar in liberal learning. These negotiations play out differently …

The Relationship Between Critical Thinking And Language Proficiency Of Malaysian Undergraduates, Rosyati Abdul Rashid, Rosna Awang Hashim

EDU-COM International Conference

In the present information era, university students are expected to be able to think critically so that they will be able to keep up with the changes brought about by new technological innovations and have better chances of employability. Since language is an important tool for acquiring knowledge at the tertiary level, it is therefore important to gain insight into the nature of the critical thinking ability of undergraduates and its possible link to their language proficiency. This study examined the critical thinking ability of Malaysian undergraduates and its relationship to language proficiency. The Bahasa Malaysia version of the Cornell …

Using A Resiliency Perspective To Inform Bilingual Teachers’ Classroom Inquiry, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

Recent research has established the importance of teacher quality in the academic success or failure of students (Darling-Hammond, 2000; Sanders, Wright, & Horn, 2004) and policy initiatives, such as NCLB, have propelled the issue of teacher quality to the forefront of educational reform in the U.S. While No Child Left Behind (NCLB) has been successful in establishing minimum teacher quality standards for general educators, the act has failed to highlight the importance of quality for teachers of second language learners (Nieto. 2003).

Teacher quality is especially impo1tant for second language learners. both because of the pedagogic and Iinguistic complexities inherent …

Improving Reading Comprehension In Dual Language Programs, Susana E. Franco-Fuenmayor, Brooke Kandel-Cisco, Yolanda Padrón

Scholarship and Professional Work – Education

The low achievement levels and high dropout rates of English Language Learners (ELLs) continue to be a great challenge for educators. One area that can provide us with useful information on how to improve the education of ELLs is dual language programs. Research in this area indicates that native language development is important for academic success. The present study examined the cognitive reading strategies of students enrolled in a dual language program. The results indicate that both language groups of students were using successful cognitive reading strategies to comprehend text. The study also describes how the questionnaire used in the …

Identification Of Learning Barriers Affecting English Reading Comprehension Instruction, As Perceived By Esl Undergraduates In Thailand, Chayapon Chomchaiya, Katie Dunworth

EDU-COM International Conference

Facility in English language reading comprehension is essential for learners of English as a second language, since English is the international language of written (as well as spoken) communication for business, science and technology. In Thailand, as acknowledged in the literature, learners of English as a second language often experience considerable difficulties with reading. There are many reasons for this, but, given the importance of reading to the development of language proficiency, it is of great importance to identify ways in which student learning can be enhanced. This paper reports on a project that sought to obtain specific information from …