Digital Commons Network^™

Unpacking The Science Of Reading Research, Greta Rollo, Kellie Picker

Literacy and numeracy

The science of reading (SoR) is a term used for a body of evidence encompassing multi-disciplinary research from education, cognitive psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience. This evidence points to six key constructs that contribute to proficient reading: oral language, phonological awareness including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and reading comprehension. Research around these constructs provides researchers and teachers with an evidence base of the knowledge, skills and strategies involved in competent reading and describes how reading develops in both typical and atypical readers. This paper synthesises evidence reviews conducted by ACER researchers that unpack the science of reading. The aim of …

Authentic Assessment For Children With Language Considerations: Early Identification And Connection To Services, Karen Zyskind, Marisa Macy

Perspectives on Early Childhood Psychology and Education

Early identification of delay or disability is critical in the early years when children are developing. Yet practices for early identification are often rife with challenges for the families of young children. Part C of the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Program of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) was authorized almost 40 years ago, mandating that children with developmental disability or developmental delay be identified and fairly assessed to obtain high quality early intervention services. An overview of the components of Fair Assessment and legal requirements are highlighted in this article. An outline for recommended practices and …

Introduction: Leading Social Change From The Lived Experience Of Intersectionality, Margaret Grogan, Aubrey H. Wang

Education Faculty Books and Book Chapters

This introductory chapter explains why education leadership for social change is an urgent priority and how principals, superintendents and other leaders who identify as anti-racist, inclusive, and activist can conceptualize their work. To frame the examples of Critical Leadership Praxis (CLP), (Pak & Ravitch, 2021) that the seven practitioner-scholars write about, Grogan and Wang describe the current context of leadership expectations and review the development of leadership theories alternative to the mainstream discourse. They outline current theories of intersectionality, and consider how storytelling and counter stories can illuminate the value of lived experiences of multiple marginality. This introduction also describes …

Language Equity In The Undergraduate Classroom: Fostering Language Diversity In The World Of Standard Academic English., Gabriela Johnson

Higher Learning Research Communications

In this essay, I explore the complex intersection of language, identity, and education with a particular focus on the importance of fostering linguistic equity in higher education settings. It is imperative for higher education institutions to reevaluate language-related practices and foster linguistic diversity and equity. Drawing upon linguistic theories and real-world examples, I highlight how language is deeply intertwined with personal identity, culture, and heritage. Various English dialects, such as African American Vernacular English, Chicano English, and others, are highlighted as valid linguistic expressions rather than deviations from a supposed standard. The role of standard academic English (SAE) in academia …

Monitoring Learning In The Early Years. A Review Of Early Childhood Assessments To Support Global Monitoring, Dan Cloney, David Jeffries, Stephanie Templeton, Ursula Schwantner, Juliette F. Mendelovits, Amy Berry, Syeda Kashfee Ahmed, Nicola Andrews, Bethany Davies

Global education monitoring

Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) aims to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”. In relation to Early Childhood Education (ECE), SDG Target 4.2 aims to “ensure that all girls and boys have access to quality early childhood development, care and pre-primary education so that they are ready for primary education”. To operationalise this goal, the primary Indicator 4.2.1 sets out to measure the “proportion of children aged 24–59 months who are developmentally on track in health, learning and psychosocial well-being, by sex". The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is the custodian of …

Exploring Aspiring K-12 School Leaders' Understanding Of Culturally Responsive School Leadership, Muhammad S. Uddin, Thurman Bridges

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

This qualitative document analysis study analyzed 13 aspiring school leaders’ assignments to explore their understanding of Culturally Responsive School Leadership (CRSL). A thematic analysis approach was used to analyze their papers, and five themes emerged. These were (1) leading by example, (2) showing care and support, (3) enhancing teachers’ capacity, (4) ensuring culturally responsive curriculum and instruction, and (5) building teacher-student relationships. The findings of this study showed that aspiring school leaders need more research-based strategies to lead their future schools using CRSL approaches. This study suggested that leadership preparation programs implement praxis-based learning and simulation to prepare future school …

Leading Participatory Action Research For Teacher Agency, Kimberly Hellerich

Journal of Educational Leadership in Action

Participatory Action Research (PAR) can benefit teachers and students. Based on student-led PAR projects utilized within the author's secondary classroom, student researchers provided instructional strategy recommendations based on student researchers' analysis of peers' survey responses. Yet without a transformative leadership approach, allowing for teacher agency and empowerment, PAR projects will not be successfully implemented. The author describes a set of teacher and leader dispositions that are expected to allow PAR projects to be successful.

Putting Creative Thinking At The Core Of The English School Curriculum: An Exploratory Study, Sladana Krstic

Assessment and Reporting

Across much of the world, in more than 20 educational jurisdictions, the ability to think creatively is seen as a core aspect of what it is to be a successful learner today and, consequently, it has been included within various national curricula (Taylor et al., 2020). In England this is not yet the case, despite strong arguments being made for creative thinking being a core part of the curriculum in the Durham Commission on Creativity and Education (2019). In 2023 Rethinking Assessment and ACER UK conducted an exploratory study to examine the feasibility of integrating creative thinking into five subjects …

Speaking Up: A Narrative Inquiry Of International Students' Active Verbal Engagement In Classrooms At A Southeastern American University, Sabrina Xiaoyan Liu

Graduate Theses and Dissertations (2019 - present)

This qualitative narrative research investigated successful cases of international students who actively verbally participate and speak up during academic or coursework discussions in the classrooms. More specifically, the aim of this narrative inquiry was to capture the lived and living experiences of English language learners (ELLs) navigating American mainstream classrooms. Moreover, this qualitative study explored how they perceive the impact of their English language proficiency on their verbal engagement during class. I recruited participants through the international office at a southeastern university in the United States. After an initial phone screening session to verify that each interested participant met the …

Analyzing Common Mistakes In First-Year Medicine Faculty Students’ Paragraph Writing, Pervaiz Yaseeni, Fahim Rahimi, Fareed Sahil

Journal of Research Initiatives

Academic writing is a salient skill for medical students all over the world. Academic writing starts with composing effective paragraphs, laying the foundation for students' advancement in writing during college. This study investigated common mistakes in English paragraph writing committed by the first-year medical students of the Medicine Faculty at Kabul University of Medical Sciences. Additionally, it measured the challenges that Medicine Faculty students tackled in paragraph writing. This quantitative study was conducted through an action research design. The data were collected from 52 medical students, and their work was analyzed using the developed rubrics. The data were analyzed in …

Children’S University In Australia And New Zealand: Reach And Impact, Katherine Dix, Shani Sniedze, Tamara Van Der Zant

Higher education research

This report presents a comprehensive overview of the reach and impact of Children’s University in Australia and New Zealand. The Australian Council for Educational Research compiled available evidence to consolidate the evidence of the Children's University outreach program's extent and influence across the Australasian partnership. The independent evaluation synthesises information from existing research, reports, operational data, social media, and other documentation to provide a current snapshot of the Children's University's reach and impact, guided by the following research questions. How is the program underpinned by evidence-based best practice? What is the reach of the program in Australia? What does the …

Community Engagement In Art & Design Colleges, Mah Rukh Raja

Masters Theses

This thesis titled ‘Community Engagement in Art & Design Colleges: Case Studies from Pakistan’ highlights the importance of community-engaged practices in education, specifically within the realm of art and design, and examines the effect of community engagement on student learning. It focuses on the importance of creating opportunities for reciprocal, community-engaged learning where responsibilities, roles and credit are shared equally among students, community partners, and educational institutions to develop projects that are in the best interest of communities.

This research coincides with the introduction of community and civic engagement in undergraduate education in Pakistan. Its primary objective is to serve …

Poetry In Teaching & Learning Qualitative Research, Amber Mullens, Audra Skukauskaite, Megan K. Mitchell

The Qualitative Report

This article stems from a workshop presented at the 15th TQR conference on poetry in teaching and learning qualitative research. Over the last few decades, scholars have argued for the use of poetry and other arts-based techniques in qualitative research. Most of the research, however, focuses on using poetry for data analysis and representation. In this article, we shift the conversation to the use of poetry for teaching and learning qualitative research. Starting with a poem in three voices of educator, student, and researcher, we provide an overview of poetry use in qualitative inquiry. We then offer brief overviews of …

An Empirical Study Of Student Satisfaction At Selected Private Universities In Bangladesh, Mubina Khondkar, Abureza M. Muzareba

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Satisfying students in higher education has proven to be a difficult task, although universities are striving to meet student needs and expectations. Private universities are trying to become more student-oriented and are seeking to understand students’ perceptions of higher education facilities. This research was designed to measure the gap between students’ expectations and perceptions of various aspects of private universities in Bangladesh. It uses a SERVQUAL framework and the Gaps Model of Service Quality. The population of students at private universities in Bangladesh is represented by a sample of 412 respondents from five top-tier private universities. Findings indicate that the …

Transnational Higher Education And Quality Assurance : A Study Of 2+2 Student Learning Experience From Sino-Uk Cooperative Universities, Guoguo Ke

Lingnan Theses (Doctoral degree)

Background: The unavoidable effects of globalisation and increased competition amongst nations have fuelled students’ pursuit of international higher education. In response to this development, the adoption of transnational higher education has become a major global trend. For instance, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MoE) initiated Sino–foreign cooperative education in different forms to reform its education system whilst introducing high-quality educational resources from overseas. As one of the most popular forms, the articulation programme (2+2 programme) has attracted many students. Thus, the quality assurance of this programme warrants further exploration.

Aims and objectives of the study: The present study focuses on …

A Case Study Of Early Childhood Educators' Self-Determination In Implementing Social Emotional Learning Pedagogy, Ingrid Brouwer

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this single common case study will be to answer the question, “How does intrinsic motivation and self-determination in the ability to make choices and manage one’s behavior guide the implementation of social-emotional teaching practices into the early childhood classroom?” for the participants at Mount Uinta (pseudonym). The theory guiding this study will be Deci and Ryan’s Self-determination Theory (SDT), as it will validate the three basic psychological needs to strengthen learners’ autonomy, competence, and a sense of positive relatedness in social-emotional learning and teaching. Reaching the goal of implementing intrinsic motivation and professional development (PD) for early …

Black School Leader Truth: How Black School Leader Epistemology Influences Liberatory Mindset Development In Their Staff, Orpheus Williams

Dissertations

Black students in the United States have consistently been denied access to empowering, culturally affirming, and responsive learning experiences in the traditional public system. The epistemological and pedagogical beliefs embedded in a liberatory mindset can subvert this pattern of disempowerment (Shujaa, 1998). Black school leaders (BSLs) who understand the systemic and institutional pressures Black children may face and have to overcome, having undergone similarly racialized experiences in school, are uniquely placed to create liberatory spaces for Black students by recruiting and developing these liberatory mindsets in their staff. This instrumental case study used qualitative research methods of front-porch pedagogy (McTighe …

Borderland Voices: Exploring The Educational Journey Of Transfronterizx Students, Families, And Educators For Enhanced Engagement And Empowerment, Sobeida Velazquez

Dissertations

Transfronterizx students and their families cross the U.S.–Mexico border for academic, economic, social, cultural, and linguistic reasons. Socioeconomic disparities, deportation, and work have propelled some families to live in Mexico and enroll their U.S.-born children in U.S. schools to provide more socioeconomic opportunities in the United States. Educators of transfronterizx students are uniquely tasked to work with these nontraditional students. Moreover, transfronterizx students and their families have distinct needs in U.S. schools; as such, there is a need for further research on the transfronterizx experience in the U.S. K–12 system. This qualitative narrative inquiry study aimed to understand the experiences …

Navigating Epistemological Barriers For Inclusive Assessment: A Collaborative Self-Study, Yuankun Yao, Comfort M. Ateh

Education Faculty Publications

While inclusive pedagogy has been increasingly embraced in teacher education, inclusive assessment of student learning remains an area that has received limited attention. A critical friend (Ateh) from an outside institution encouraged Yao to examine how he approached inclusive assessment in a course on assessment strategies for preservice teachers. The collaborative self-study showed that his initial understanding of inclusivity was limited when he taught and practiced inclusive strategies in the assessment course. Yao’s reflections came upon moments of tensions as he navigated through barriers for conceptualizing and implementing inclusive assessment strategies. The weekly interactions with his critical friend, helped Yao …

A Teacher And Her Language Minoritized Students In A Translanguaging Mathematics Classroom: Activating And Suppressing Our Full Linguistic Repertoires For Increased Mathematical Reasoning And Sense-Making, Ana M. Bogota

Education Doctorate Dissertations

This study delves into translanguaging practices within a mathematics classroom led by a bilingual teacher and attended by language minoritized students. Grounded in translanguaging theory and practices, it investigates the dynamic language interactions between teacher and students, shedding light on the activation and suppression of linguistic features within purported “named languages.” Utilizing diverse data sources, such as audio-recorded lessons and student interviews, the study uncovers patterns in classroom language use. Results highlight the prevalent utilization of the full linguistic repertoire by both teacher and students, especially in elucidating mathematical concepts and fostering conceptual understanding. Furthermore, the study examines how translanguaging …

Finding Focus: Authentic Inquiry And Composition In The Third Space, Noah Brewer

Dissertations

This research seeks to better understand the attitudes and dispositions of advanced-level English Language Arts students toward the activities of academic research and writing, and to explore the ways that critical pedagogies focused on authentic inquiry and composition interact with these attitudes. The project draws upon research in student motivation, sociocultural definitions of literacy, and theories of hybrid identity in order to discover the potential impact of engaging students in critical reflection on their own meaning-making practices, and of curricular and pedagogical choices aimed at making the lessons of the classroom more relevant to the demands of real-world literacy practices …

Be A Tree: Reconceptualizing Early Education Through The Roots And Fruits Methodology Of Teaching And Learning, Virginia Dearani

Occasional Paper Series

This past Winter, my seven-year old son lived through a traumatic experience, resulting in the amputation of a significant portion of his middle finger. While reflecting on the concept of being a “Whole Child,” I was engaging in conversations with my son, exploring questions on wholeness, such as, “What is the purpose of our bodies? How will my hand work now with the loss of this finger? How will my classmates see me, and view my finger? When will my nerves re-align as I place my stubbed finger on different textures of fabric, petting our dog, holding my bike handle-bars, …

Learning Stories As Assessment For Liberation, Helen Frazier

Occasional Paper Series

This paper illustrates the transformative power of learning stories as an alternative approach to in early childhood assessment. The author uses examples from her own classroom to demonstrate the use of formative assessment to foster attachment, pluralism and creativity.

Introduction: Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care And Education With Equity At The Center, Mark Nagasawa, Cristina Medellin-Paz

Occasional Paper Series

Issue 51 of the Bank Street Occasional Papers Series is a response to Gunilla Dahlberg, Peter Moss, and Alan Pence’s 25-year interrogation of the concept of quality in early childhood education (ECE) (Dahlberg et al., 1999, 2013, 2023). Their groundbreaking work has called early childhood educators to question deeply held assumptions about the universality of childhood and how these shape the standardization of practices in early childhood settings around the world. They have argued that the homogenization of ECE practices is a factoryization of early childhood that undermines cultural pluralism and the field’s equity aspirations. This raises an imperative to …

Reconceptualizing Quality Early Care And Education With Equity At The Center

Occasional Paper Series

No abstract provided.

Book Review: How Education Policy Shapes Literacy Instruction: Understanding The Persistent Problems Of Policy And Practice, Nicole Hertz

The Language and Literacy Spectrum

Abstract: This review of How Education Policy Shapes Literacy Instruction: Understanding the Persistent Problems of Policy and Practice, edited by Rachael Gabriel, explores the most pressing educational concerns and their relationship to history and policy, written by scholars from all over the country, such as retention, intervention, early childhood and English language literacy acquisition, and coaching. With the current Science of Reading (SoR) movement and all the related laws that are being passed throughout the United States based on current educational reform measures, this review explores the relationship to past, present, and future literacy legislation, through a historical lens, …

Emotional And Metacognitive Impacts Of A Human Anatomy Course Utilizing Three-Dimensional Learning Modalities, Shawn M. Magrum

Theses & Dissertations

A high school human anatomy course was designed to integrate three-dimensional learning modalities through the use of three-dimensional visualization technology, augmented reality, and whole-body donors (cadaveric specimens), and customized 3D digital models were created to support student learning. The course was organized so that each class meeting fell into one of six unique learning session types: lectures, augmented reality labs, gross anatomy (cadaveric) labs, content application (active learning) sessions, review sessions, and examination sessions.

An interval scale using ten emoji, each associated with a particular emotional valence (i.e., pleasantness) level, was developed and integrated into the course to track students’ …

Professional Development For Culturally Responsive Teaching: Examining The Relationship Between Self-Efficacy And Implementation In Teaching Practice, Chrystal Mckeever

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study sought to investigate the link between professional development and the implementation of professional learning to improve student performance. The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study explored whether the professional development of culturally responsive teaching influenced classroom implementation. Second, this study examined the relationships between teachers’ implementation of culturally responsive strategies, teacher self-efficacy, and student performance. This approach (which contextualized academic knowledge and skills within a real-world setting) has been shown to lead to more meaningful experiences and increased interest in academic content (Gay, 2010; Ladson-Billings, 1995). The overarching questions that led this …

Affirming Black Girls: Creating And Sustaining Affirming And More Inclusive Learning Environments For Black Girls Through Professional Learning, Demetria Green Walters

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.)

This Improvement Science Dissertation in Practice (ISDiP) qualitative research study aimed to investigate targeted interventions and resources designed to enhance educators' cultural awareness and competence, fostering the creation of identity-affirming learning environments for Black girls as a lever for reducing racial discipline disparities. Identity validation and the provision of inclusive learning environments are necessary elements for promoting academic success while positively impacting the needs of Black girls. The intersectionality of being both Black and female poses an educational challenge that is often misunderstood and overlooked, yet it deserves significant attention to improve outcomes for this student group. Without intervention, racially …

2023-2024 Common Data Set, Systems Intelligence And Data Analytics, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

Common Data Sets

The Common Data Set (CDS) initiative is a collaborative effort among data providers in the higher education community and publishers as represented by the College Board, Peterson’s, and U.S. News & World Report. The combined goal of this collaboration is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved in a student’s transition into higher education, as well as to reduce the reporting burden on data providers.