Digital Commons Network^™

Multidimensional And Burgeoning Leadership: Literacy And Multilingualism, Emily Howell, Hazel Vega, Lindsey W. Rowe, Katie M. Crook, C.C. Bates, Kavita Mittapalli, Amlan Banerjee

Publications

This design-based research study worked with 25 teachers with specialized early literacy training. Researchers investigated the impact of professional development advancing their multilingual learner (ML), literacy, and leadership capacity, addressing gaps in the research merging the fields of literacy, multilingual instruction, and leadership. Spanning two years of both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis including teacher, student, and district surveys, teacher logs, research logs, and teacher interviews, the researchers capture the iterative nature of the needs of teacher professional development to serve MLs. The researchers describe the needs of teachers for professional development, the micro modifications made to adapt …

Assessing Digital Collaborative Skills Among Pre-Service Elementary Teachers: Initial Instrument Evidence And Demographic Differences, Candra Utama, Aynin Mashfufah, Esti Untari, Sofia Haratee

Jurnal Pendidikan: Teori, Penelitian, dan Pengembangan

Digital collaboration skills are an important competence for prospective elementary school teachers as 21^st-century learning demands the ability to use technology to work on a team, to communicate and share responsibilities, and to reflect on the learning process. This study aims to analyze evidence of the instrument initial validity, reliability, collaborative skill profile, and score differences based on the demographic characteristics of pre-service elementary teachers after participating in digital-based collaborative learning. The research uses a post-implementation evaluative quantitative approach sourced from a digital collaborative learning research design in the fourth-semester of elementary school teacher education study program at …

Vocabulary Acquisition Through Developmental Play, Amy Storlie

Graduate Teacher Education

As the population of English learners in the United States grew, there was a greater need for linguistically and developmentally appropriate instructional approaches for young learners. The question that guided this research on appropriate instructional approaches was: How does developmental play support the acquisition of academic vocabulary among early-emergent multilingual students in kindergarten and first grade? The research review examined peer-reviewed research across three interconnected bodies of literature: play-based learning, interactions in developmental play, and vocabulary instruction. The findings indicated that purposeful, guided play strengthened executive function, expressive language, and academic growth. In addition, collaborative practices such as translanguaging supported …

Bridging The Gap Between Research And Practice In Schools, Giorgio Ostinelli

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This case study examined how a group of Swiss primary school teachers collaborated with a school improvement advisor/researcher (SIA); it is now part of a larger project that uses a design-based methodology. The SIA is a rising entity in the educational landscape and serves as a state-mandated coach who bridges the gap between universities and schools. The SIA embodies the characteristics of both an educational researcher and a school advisor/coach. The SIA experience was created and designed using a frame–object, a valuable tool for collaboratively building professional development experiences with teachers and coaches. Understanding by Design served as the frame–object …

Stephen Baenziger, Unl Agronomy & Horticulture, Breeding New Wheat Varieties, Mark Griep, P. Stephen Baenziger

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Stephen Baenziger awarded the ORCA in 2011. He was born in 1951 in Toronto, Canada. When he was an infant, his family immigrated to the U.S., where he grew up in Des Plaines, Illinois. He earned a bachelor's in biological chemistry magna cum laude from Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Next, he earned a master's and doctorate in plant breeding and genetics at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Over the next decade, he worked for the USDA at Beltsville Agricultural Research Center in Maryland and then at the Monsanto Corporation in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1986, he joined the …

Applying The Ottawa Charter To Evaluate Health Literacy Outcomes Of The Little Aussie Bugs Course For Australian Early Childhood Educators, Amelia Ruscoe, Elizabeth J. Cook, Eleanor K. O'Brien, Leesa N. Costello, Gillian Kirk, Ros Sambell, Theresa Rayfield, Amanda Devine, Ruth M. Wallace

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Early childhood offers an important opportunity to lay the foundations for lifelong health literacy. The Little Aussie Bugs (LAB) dialogic book series and online professional development (PD) course were designed to support Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) educators to embed health literacy concepts, including hygiene, healthy eating, and oral health, into everyday learning routines. This mixed methods study evaluated the course pilot and examined its contribution through the lens of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion—a framework comprising five interrelated action areas: building healthy public policy; creating supportive environments; strengthening community action; developing personal skills; and reorienting health services. …

Caring In An Online Graduate Synchronous Learning Environment, Keith Higa

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

This self-study examines how caring practices are understood, enacted, and experienced within a synchronous online graduate teacher-education environment. Although online programs have expanded substantially, limited research addresses how relational approaches translate into mediated instructional spaces. Guided by Noddings’s ethics of care, this inquiry integrates reflective self-study with participant interviews to explore how technological structures, instructor practices, and real-time interactions shape students’ experiences of care. Findings reveal a multidimensional model consisting of (a) technological or structural care, characterized by course organization, predictability, and flexibility, and (b) humanistic care, expressed through relational presence, acknowledgment, responsiveness, and emergent dialogue in synchronous sessions. Together, …

Preparing General Education Teachers For Implementing Accommodations In Inclusive Classrooms, Katherine J. Ramirez

PhD in Education

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of general education teachers and their perceptions of preparedness to implement accommodations after attending specialized, targeted training. The study included one research question, which focused on the teachers’ perceived preparedness to implement accommodations after attending specialized training. The study was influenced by the work of Mezirow (1997) and Meyer et al. (2014) and incorporated transformative learning theory and universal design for learning (UDL) elements. The researcher used convenience sampling to select seven general education teachers who taught inclusion classes in Central Florida to participate in the study. …

Dnp Final Report: From Academic Chaos To Professional Preparedness: Time Management And Goal Setting To Support Self-Efficacy In Undergraduate Nursing Students, Cristy Baker Mrs.

DNP Final Reports

Low perceived self-efficacy among undergraduate nursing students may contribute to stress, burnout, and challenges with academic success and program completion. Evidence suggests that interventions focused on time management and goal setting may support students' confidence.

The purpose of this improvement project was to implement time-management and goal-setting interventions and evaluate changes in perceived self-efficacy among undergraduate nursing students. Guided by Bandura's Self-Efficacy Theory and the ADKAR Change Model, the project examined the changes in perceived self-efficacy following the implementation of the interventions. The PICOT guiding the project was: In undergraduate nursing students (P), how does implementing time management and goal-setting …

Building A Toolkit Of Writing-Based Learning Activities For Finance Classes, Esther Afoley Laryea

GHEA21 Publications

No abstract provided.

Necessary Digital Competencies Of Preschool Teachers In Austria, Walter Fikisz

Journal of Global Education and Research

The aim of this paper is to identify specific digital competencies that preschool teachers require, compared with schoolteachers, to extend the Austrian digital competence model for teachers, digi.kompP. Methodologically, the study is based on interviews with Austrian experts in early childhood education, media pedagogy, computer science, and preschool teacher education. The expert interviews addressed the digital competencies required by preschool teachers, differences compared with schoolteachers, the timing and nature of competence development, and the institutions involved. As a result of this study, sixteen new can-do statements were developed for the expansion of the existing digi.kompP model, which maps the specific …

Undercooked Or Over Easy? Perceptions Of Initial Teacher Educators On The Growth Of Alternative Authority To Teach Contracts, Sharon A. Louth, Linda Mahony

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The practice of employing pre-service teachers (PST) in schools prior to the completion of their teacher training, has grown over the last three years as the teacher shortage across Australia and the world worsens. This study examines the perceived impact of Alternative Authority to Teach (AAT) contracts on the teaching profession through the lens of university lecturers working within the Initial Teacher Education (ITE) space. This phenomenological research sought to gain a wider understanding of the impact of AAT contracts on ITE stakeholders and their PST. Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted with eleven university lecturers. A thematic analysis of the …

A Student’S Confidence And A Teacher’S Practice: Reflecting On Parallel Writing Journeys In A Theatre-Making Classroom In South Africa, Néka Da Costa

GHEA21 Publications

No abstract provided.

Establishing New Territorializations In A Community-Engaged Tesol Program: Insights From College Student Experiences, Lourdes Cardozo-Gaibisso, Savanah Stewart, Daniela Coral Patino, Haylee Morman

Journal of English Learner Education

This article presents a community engaged learning experience and its instructional implications for TESOL. The instructional cultures established in policies and practices that dictate college students’ engagement with the “real world” are dependent upon the ways they respond to and translate existing territories in social, cultural, political, and linguistic interactions with multilingual learners and communities. From a Deleuzoguattarian perspective on territorialization and deterritorialization, this article problematizes how college students perceive, and question established norms and taken-for-granted ways of doing emphasizing the importance of reflective practices, ongoing supports for all participants involved, and partnerships with local communities, advocating for a nuanced …

The Relationship Between School Connectedness And Well-Being Among Racial Minority English Language Learners: Implications For School Counselors, Laura Craven, Jonathan Ohrt, Keeland Lodato

Journal of English Learner Education

Students who feel connected to their school experience better academic performance, social competence, and mental health. English Language Learners (ELL) face unique challenges to school connectedness compared to their English-speaking peers. In this study, we explored the relationship between school connectedness and well-being for 205 racial minority ELL students. ELL students’ perceived school belonging was a significant predictor of well-being. We discuss implications for school counselors, including specific strategies for increasing ELL students’ school connectedness.

Sustained Reading: Multilingual Learners Exploring The Language Of A Text, Priscila J.B.M. Costa, Luciana C. De Oliveira, Meghan Love

Journal of English Learner Education

In US schools, multilingual learners (MLs) are expected to meet the same rigorous disciplinary standards as their English-speaking peers while also developing proficiency in English. This article demonstrates how sustained reading, as part of the Teaching and Learning Cycle, can support MLs' access to disciplinary literacy through the explicit attention to language features. Grounded on the Language-based Approach to Content Instruction (LACI), the article presents a classroom vignette from a 5th-grade social studies lesson in which MLs dissected a mentor text. The lesson illustrates how code-breaking within sustained reading makes disciplinary language visible, helping students notice the linguistic choices common …

The Woman In Hijab: A Performance Autoethnography Of Intersecting Identities In Arabic Language Teaching, Sayonara Tomoum

Journal of Educational Research and Innovation

This performance autoethnography inhabits the pedagogical encounter between a North African Muslim woman in hijab teaching college-level Arabic and an African American Muslim student whose Islam traveled a different racial and geographic history. Race and religion move through every exchange, shaping who holds authority, whose Arabic counts, and how bodies are racialized and read through religious markers. This work draws on Della Pollock’s (2007) concept of error as a site of possibility and her performative question “What now?” to name pedagogical rupture as the moment when the conditions shaping the encounter become legible as knowledge. Through performative writing, this autoethnography …

How Intelligent? Student Success, Student Engagement, And Faculty Use Of Intelligent Agents In Online Classes, Teresa P. Raczek, Anja Bernardy, Audrey E. Garcia, Ulrike Ingram, Laura Mcgrath, Snehal Shirke

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

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In asynchronous online classes, consistent engagement with the course instructor helps students connect to the course and perform better. Automated Intelligent Agent (IA) emails that can be set up in a learning management system allow faculty to send targeted communications to students in the form of personalized reminders, offers of help, words of encouragement, praise, and other tailored messages. To assess the effectiveness of IAs in supporting student success, this study analyzed the use of the technology by 10 faculty across seven humanities and social science disciplines. We examined how IAs …

Snap Challenge In Teacher Education, Eric Hogan, Sean Forbes, Carey E. Andrzejewski

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

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Training pre-service teachers often focuses on educating them about issues they will see in their own classrooms. One such issue is food insecurity. Food insecurity is defined by limited or uncertain access to nutritionally adequate and safe foods or the ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (Rabbitt et al., 2023a). This article focuses on pre-service teachers' experiences while engaging in the SNAP Challenge to learn more about food insecurity while also learning how food impacts student learning and motivation. Participants in the study discussed how living off the …

Effects Of Cross-Curricular Instruction On Clinical Education Outcomes For Speech-Language Pathology Graduate Students, Michele Dacy, Kimberly Smith

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

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Cross-curricular instruction is the process of combining information from two or more subjects within a single discipline in order to help students integrate the knowledge and skills they learn from separate courses. The purpose of this study was to examine how cross-curricular instruction impacted speech-language pathology (SLP) graduate students' knowledge, confidence, and clinical skills related to the assessment of patients with co-occurring diagnoses of dementia and dysphagia. Twenty-three SLP master's students completed a questionnaire before and after receiving cross-curricular instruction on how to assess dysphagia in persons with dementia. The questionnaire …

Overcoming Current Challenges In Higher Education Through Team Teaching, Carol Rogers Shaw, Corinne Brion, Katelyn Case

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

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Team teaching in online higher education courses provides an innovative approach to meeting the needs of students and enhancing the teaching experiences of instructors. In this study, two instructors collaborated to team teach a course in an online doctoral program; this article shares their experiences. A multi-method qualitative approach was utilized to explore the benefits and challenges of team teaching. Data included questionnaire responses from students, journal entries written by instructors, and interviews with program administrators. The findings offer possible solutions to common challenges in higher education today such as increasing …

Jete Spring 2026 Introduction, Nichelle Frank

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

An introduction to the Spring 2026 issue of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Access the online Pressbooks version of this introduction here.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 10, Issue 1, Spring 2026

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full-length Spring 2026 issue (Volume 10, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Access the online Pressbooks version (with downloadable EPUB format) here.

This issue of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence brings together articles that explore innovative instructional approaches and emerging technologies for strengthening teaching and student learning in higher education. The contributions examine team teaching as a model for building instructor collaboration and reducing burnout in online doctoral courses, cross-curricular instruction in speech-language pathology clinical education, guidance for graduate students undertaking single-case research design in the social sciences, an experiential SNAP Challenge assignment for …

Context-Specific Legitimacy In English Language Teaching: Rethinking Nativeness In The Korean Efl Context, Kenn Arcenal, Teri An Joy G. Magpale

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Although non-native English-speaking teachers now make up the majority of the global ELT workforce, perceived nativeness continues to function as an enduring filter in hiring and evaluation. This perspective paper examines how that filter operates unevenly across the institutional sectors of South Korea’s EFL labor market, arguing that Filipino English Teachers (FETs) face a distributive rather than a uniformly ideological inequity, with the biggest disadvantage concentrated in commercially driven private academies. Drawing on two companion studies of FETs working across Korean academic sectors (Magpale & Arcenal, 2025, in press) and integrating more recent scholarship on native-speakerism with comparative evidence from …

Trauma-Informed Esl Ecology: Centering Teacher Well-Being, Equity, And Structural Responsibility In Adult Esl Classrooms, Ghenwa Nasreddine, Heejin Song

Journal of English and Applied Linguistics

Government-funded adult English as a second language (ESL) programs in Anglophone countries increasingly encounter students with histories of trauma, displacement, and structural adversity due to existing and emerging geopolitical conflicts and unsettling sociopolitical realities. These conditions shaping English language teaching (ELT) inevitably influence learners’ cognitive and emotional engagement in language learning, as well as their relationships with teachers and peers. Despite burgeoning literature on trauma-informed practice in ELT, significant gaps remain regarding teacher preparedness, professional development, and institutional support structures to enact trauma-informed pedagogies in linguistically and culturally diverse adult ESL classrooms. Drawing on a critical review of recent scholarship …

Protecting Graduate Students From Burnout With Self-Compassion And Authenticity, Michael S. Leeman, Joshua J. Castleberry, Anna A. Ellenson, Morgan Wallbrown

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This study investigated whether practicing self-compassion and embracing one's authentic self could protect graduate students from burnout. Researchers also empirically examined the mediating effect of authenticity in the relationship between self-compassion and burnout. A total of 318 master's degree students in a helping profession completed surveys assessing their levels of self-compassion, authenticity, and burnout. Results found that graduate students with higher levels of self-compassion and authenticity tended to have lower levels of burnout. Additionally, authenticity mediated the relationship between self-compassion and burnout. The findings suggest that practicing self-compassion and embracing one's authentic self may lead to lower levels of burnout …

Exploring The Interactions Between Student–Teacher Relationships, Teacher Passion, And Student Intrinsic Motivation: A Critical Examination Of The Hierarchical Model Of Inspirational Teaching, Stephen W. Rowcliffe

Plymouth Interdisciplinary Education Open Journal

This study critically examines the Hierarchical Model of Inspirational Teaching (Rowcliffe, 2022), a conceptual framework proposing that pedagogical competence, student-teacher relationships, and teacher passion are associated with student intrinsic motivation. Although the model has previously been presented conceptually, it has not been subjected to quantitative scrutiny.

Data were collected from 369 students and 33 teachers across two international post-16 schools. Student questionnaires assessed perceptions of student-teacher relationships, teacher passion, and intrinsic motivation, while teacher questionnaires examined burnout. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to examine construct structure, followed by correlation, regression, and mediation analyses to explore relationships among variables. …

Interview With Orca Award Winner Ross Thompson, Unl Psychology; Childhood Emotional Development, Mark Griep, Ross Thompson

UNL ORCA Interview Series

Ross Thompson was awarded the ORCA in 2000. He was born in 1954 in Madison, Wisconsin. He traveled nearly 2000 miles west to earn a bachelor’s in psychology magna cum laude from Occidental College in Los Angeles. Then, he traveled east over 2200 miles to earn a master’s and doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In 1981, he joined the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as an assistant professor of psychology and rose quickly through the ranks while studying childhood emotional development. In 2003, three years after earning the ORCA, Ross left UNL to join the psychology …

‘It’S A Win-Win Situation’— Cultivating University & School Partnerships, Emily Wisniewski, Kelly Virgin, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This qualitative case study examines Writing Zones, a fifteen-year university–high school partnership that embeds preservice English teachers in secondary classrooms as writing mentors. Drawing on surveys from 20 preservice teachers and eight high school teachers, along with follow-up interviews, the study explores perceptions of preparation, support, and program impact. Findings highlight Writing Zones as a mutually beneficial model that enhances student writing through individualized support while providing authentic, field-based learning for preservice teachers. However, effectiveness was conditional, shaped by mentor preparedness, clarity of roles, communication, and scheduling. The study underscores the importance of intentional training, sustained relationships, and institutional alignment …

Dismantling Future Writing Teachers’ English-Only Assumptions: Composing Videos To Learn The Value Of Linguistic And Cultural Inclusion, Ann N. Amicucci

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article presents the results of a study of 12 students’ video composing assignments and accompanying reflections in which students, all of whom were future writing teachers enrolled in an undergraduate TESOL course, examined how well public spaces acknowledged and included multilingual individuals. Students’ videos and reflections demonstrated that the assignment dismantled these future writing teachers’ assumptions that multilingual writers learn best in an English-only environment but perpetuated perceptions of languages as discrete rather than intertwined. Findings are discussed within the context of scholarship on writing teacher education and English-only policy and practice in the U.S.