Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Single-Gender Scheduling On Students In A Title I School, Janet L. Moss

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to examine the impact that single-gender scheduling would have on students who attend a struggling Title I middle school. The importance of the middle level cannot be denied. Strong research points to this time in a student's life as the pivotal crux on which success and failure are balanced. Middle level educators are charged with the responsibility of tipping the scales in the favor of student success by arming them with the skills they will need to survive and succeed.

A middle school in the northeastern part of Mecklenburg County had the majority of its students …

The Impact Of Bilingual Treatment On The Math Skills Of Hispanic High School Algebra Students, Robert Kirk

Education Dissertations and Projects

This dissertation was designed to measure the impact of instructional techniques in the Foundations of Algebra classroom to bridge linguistic barriers between Hispanic students and the language of teaching. Two consecutive years of failing to meet anticipated yearly growth among Hispanic students in Algebra I, as determined by the North Carolina End of Course exams, indicated a cognitive gap among these students when it comes to learning mathematics.

The writer developed an experiment to be delivered among 9 sections of Algebra in a North Carolina high school. The control group used Microsoft PowerPoint slides created for every lesson plan determined …

Cultivating Knowledge In The School Garden: New Ways Of Teaching Literacy To Esl Students, Michele Durivage

MA TESOL Collection

My thesis project includes a combination of materials development and classroom-based research. In my paper, I explore existing garden-related curricula, and create original garden-based lesson plans to teach literacy to fourth grade ESL students. This curriculum development project contributes to the field of ESL in its innovative garden-based pedagogy. The field study took place during the spring semester of 2009 at Increase Miller Elementary School in Westchester County, New York. Using nature as inspiration for writing descriptive essays and poetry, the ESL students at Increase Miller produced imaginative writing pieces, using their own voices to express their thoughts. The students’ …

How Esol Teachers Become Aware Of Communicative Peace, Josette Leblanc

MA TESOL Collection

This paper examines the implications that the relationship between teacher language awareness and communicative peace may have on educational programs for teachers of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL). The evaluation begins by analyzing proposals set out by the applied peace linguist Francisco Gomes de Matos, who suggests that ESOL teachers should teach communicative peace as an element of communicative competence, and also that education programs should provide training to support this approach. By juxtaposing current literature on structural and linguistic violence with Gomes de Matos’ classroom techniques, the hypothesis is made that teachers who would teach communicative peace …

Framework And Rationale For Developing A Single Language Exploratory Program For Students In Grades 1 – 3, Amy Bentley

MA TESOL Collection

This materials development project provides middle and high school language teachers, in a public school setting, the rationale and curriculum for implementing an introductory language program to elementary aged children in their school. This paper explores the author’s school community and the interest in providing an introductory language program for elementary aged students in the school district. The author, a second language teacher in the school, is also an advocate for introducing this type of programming, with the hopes that it will create enthusiasm and motivation for further language study in the students’ middle and high school years. The project …

Folklore Or Britney Spears: Efl Decisions In An Increasingly Global World, Erin C. Anderson

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores my decisions concerning texts in the EFL classroom in the post-communist cities of Bruntál, Czech Republic in 1993 and Bila Tserkva, Ukraine in 2005. By examining my use of Slavic folklore in these EFL contexts, through the lenses of post-colonialism, folklore studies, and globalization, it is apparent that what has motivated my students has not necessarily been consistent with the goals of post-colonialism, i.e., the development and maintenance of national cultural values. In fact, students have been found to be most motivated by the use of texts they share a fondness for and a familiarity with, …

Using Technology In The Efl Classroom In Saudi Arabia, Neil Oby Morris

MA TESOL Collection

This paper explores the ways that technology, specifically the use of laptop computers and cellular phones, may be incorporated in the EFL classroom to enhance learning and lower the affective filter of male Saudi Arabian university students.

Saudi Arabia presents the EFL teacher with many challenges that are unique to this gender-segregated Islamic kingdom. Meeting these challenges and turning them into learning opportunities that other EFL teachers may find useful within their teaching contexts is the purpose of this paper.

The appendix includes a writing rubric and a 40-day materials introduction calendar. The calendar illustrates the day-by-day introduction of material …

Program In Faculty Development 2011-2012

Program in Faculty Development

Welcome to a new academic year and to opportunities to improve your skills as an educator, scholar and leader in the academic health professions! This booklet will provide you with information about the TJU Faculty Development Program for the 2011-2012 academic year including course listings, registration information, and general program information. This booklet features two “At-a-glance” outlines of the faculty development programs: a course outline for each of the three faculty development program focus areas (education, research/scholarship, and professional development and leadership) and a month-by-month calendar of activities. Detailed program information for each focus area follows. The faculty development programs …

Catalog 2011-2012, 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.

Cognitive Load And Its Major Pedagogical Implications, Focus On Education In Jordan, Bassam Kutkut

MA TESOL Collection

Through my teaching experience in Jordan, I noticed the amount of work students had to do. I noticed the tremendous amount information they received from their teachers on a daily basis. I also noticed that students forgot most of the information they learned in class right after their exams. I was wondering if that’s the right way of teaching. Then, after my study at SIT, I learned that this is a cognitive overload that can impair the learning process.

Cognitive load refers to the information processing abilities in the human memory system which has limitations. When these limitations are exceeded, …

Effective Vocabulary Teaching Strategies For The English For Academic Purposes Esl Classroom, Joseph Mukoroli

MA TESOL Collection

Vocabulary learning is an important and indispensable part of any language learning process. The author of this thesis focuses on effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes ESL classroom. Drawing on findings obtained from observing three English for Academic Purposes ESL classrooms across the U.S.A, several current databases and his personal experience as a teacher and learner, the author discusses various effective vocabulary teaching strategies in the English for Academic Purposes classroom which could greatly assist English language learners in their journey of language acquisition and therefore expedite the language learning process.

Emerging Trends In Digital Citizenship In Pre-Service Teacher Practice, Gayle Yvonne Thieman

Education Faculty Publications and Presentations

The article examines how technology and emerging digital trends are affecting civic participation and ways teachers can put strategies and techniques into practice and increase civic engagement.

One Adolescent's Construction Of Native Identity In School: "Speaking With Dance And Not In Words And Writing", Amy Wilson-Lopez, M. D. Boatright

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This case study describes how one eighth-grade student, Jon, asserted Native identities in texts as he attended a middle school in the western United States. Jon--a self-described Native American, Navajo, and Paiute with verified Native ancestry--sought to share what he called his Native culture with others in his school wherein he was the only Native American, despite his perception that schools have historically suppressed this culture. To study how the texts that Jon designed in school may have afforded and constrained the expression of Native identities, the authors collected three types of data over the course of eight months: (a) …

Workplace Pressures Of Pk-8 Teachers In A Midwestern Archdiocese, Carrie O'Donnell Brink

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intent of this research study was to determine the types of workplace pressures that PK-8 teachers, in a Midwestern Archdiocese, experience. Two hundred eighty teachers participated in the survey. Results from this study indicate that PK-8 teachers express elevated levels of stress in the following areas: income/salary, amount of hours spent outside contract hours on instructional tasks, paperwork required, student behavior/discipline, and implementation of new curricula.

Statistical differences were found in the following areas: female and male stress levels with regard to income; school locale (suburban, urban, and rural) income stress levels; school locale (suburban, urban, and rural) implementation …

Two Studies Of Tierii Literacy Development: Throwing Sixth Graders A Lifeline, A. W. Graves, L. Duesbery, Nicole Pyle, R. Brandon, A. Mcintosh

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

Two experimental studies at one urban middle school investigated the effects of the combination of Tier I and Tier II evidence-based reading instruction compared to Tier I alone on struggling sixth-grade readers (N = 109). All participants received free or reduced-price lunch, and 95% were considered English learners at some point in their school history. In both studies, Tier II intervention consisted of intensive instruction in word analysis, fluency building, comprehension, and vocabulary for 30 hours across 10 weeks. Results of both studies taken individually and combined indicated significant differences in favor of the intervention groups on oral reading …

What Matters: Preparing Teachers Of Reading, Sara R. Helfrich, Rita M. Bean

Reading Horizons: A Journal of Literacy and Language Arts

A descriptive study was employed to determine differences in knowledge of literacy instruction and perceived preparedness to teach literacy between two groups of teacher candidates enrolled in two different teacher preparation programs at one university. This study investigated which components — coursework, field experience, and collaboration — candidates perceived as best preparing them to teach literacy while enrolled in their program. Data collection instruments included the Survey of Perceptions and the Knowledge Inventory. Both groups of candidates, regardless of program and amount of time in the field, viewed both coursework and field experience as important. Few significant differences were found …

Examination Of Dispositions And Practices In Diversity: The Impact Of A Teacher Education Course Promoting Culturally And Responsive Pedagogy, Deuslene Leite Bastos

Wayne State University Dissertations

Assimilation ideology guiding teachers and policy makers to mainstream immigrant children into the American schools has prevailed in spite of pluralists' efforts for reform schools to provide more opportunities for culturally and linguistically diverse students. Research shows a need to change assimilation driven policies and practices which are harmful to students into a reconstructivist ideology that has shown to be more conducive for the application of culturally responsive teaching. Teacher education courses aimed to prepare teacher candidates for diverse classrooms have shown limitations due to abundant focus on theory or lack of elements in course work that are known to …

No.3, January 2011: The Promise Model: An English-Learner Focused Approach To School Reform, Laurie Olsen Ph.D.

Education and Policy Briefs

Findings from a 3-year (2006-2009) evaluation of the PROMISE Model pilot are presented in this policy brief that seeks to address three questions: 1) What is the PROMISE Model ?; 2) What changes occurred in schools as a results of implementing the PROMISE Model ?; and 3) What are the lessons learned from the PROMISE Model pilot that can contribute to an understanding of school reform for English Learners? A qualitative, ethnographic approach allowed for exploration of the research questions. The researcher identified five foundational elements to the PROMISE Model. Implementation of the PROMISE Model increased use of EL specific …

Teacher Educators Under Surveillance At A Religious University, Genevieve Harris

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this paper is to examine how institutional norms are enforced through surveillance and self-discipline among teacher educators at a religious university. The study builds on prior research regarding university norms and surveillance, as well as religious orientation and prejudice. Eight teacher educators met as part of a larger study on white racial identity and praxis. Focus groups and personal interviews were transcribed and analyzed using situational mapping, a postmodern form of grounded theory. Participants discussed four themes that illustrate surveillance and self-discipline: the university, academic culture, religion and whiteness, and sexism. The data reveal participant responses as …

Table Of Contents - Winter 2011, Fort Hays State University College Of Education

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Academic Leadership Journal Winter 2011 table of contents

How To Recruit And Retain Bilingual/Esl Teacher Candidates?, Zulmaris Diaz, Lakshmi Mahadevan

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The student population in the United States is rapidly changing; in 2004-2005, approximately 5.1 million or 10.5 percent of the U.S. student population were English-language learners (Pearson, 2006). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2003) revealed that 47 states provide English language services to English language learners (ELLs) enrolled in public schools. California alone educates 1.6 million ELLs, one-third of all the nation’s ELLs, while in Texas more than half a million students received ELL services, one in seven students (NCES). The problem is that a great number of these students are being served by teachers new to the …

Assessment Practices In English Language At The Nigerian Secondary School Level: A Psycholinguistic Issue, Oluwole Akinbode, Anthony Dairo

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The major purposes to which the results of assessment could be put were diagnosis, evaluation, guidance, grading prediction, and selection. In Nigeria, it is unfortunate that the results of many examinations have been used almost exclusively for grading and promotion exercises and inevitably there has been a neglect of diagnosis, guidance and evaluation although considerable informal use of assessment for these purposes are made by teachers in the classroom.

Developing A Personal Leadership Theory: Exploring Feminist Pedagogical Theory And Social Justice Issues, Betsy Surplus

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Thirty years of my life had been devoted to teaching and administration in a suburban public school district. I retired and made plans to move on to a related career in higher education and complete my doctoral studies in educational leadership. When I began my career as a community college developmental reading instructor, I was prepared to experience change in my leadership actions and understandings as I followed the spiraling path of learning that typifies reflective practice, which was key to this study. However, I did not anticipate encountering so many forks in the road. My learning path was guided …

Driving Policy Of Higher Education In Nigeria Towards Relevance, Kayode Ijaduola

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

The educational system of a country remains the main source of human resources that when combined in the right quantity and quality would bring about the development of a nation (Nelson, 2002; Saint, 2002; Tettey, 2002; Nunn, 2005; Mouton, Boshoff, Kulati & Teng-Zeng, 2007). The implication of this is that the level of national development depends upon the quantity and quality of its human resources which in turn depend on the type of the educational system in operation.

The Relationship Between Vocabulary Knowledge, Linguistic Intelligence And Morphological Awareness Among Efl Learners, Keivan Zahedi, Nasser Fallah

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

This article will share numerous interesting insights that are important for business development, marketing and sales growth.

The Role Of Staff Development In School-Based Management, Hon Yau, Alison Cheng

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal (2003-2012)

Today’s frontier is knowledge. Brain has taken precedence over brawn; our physical struggle for existence has been replaced by intellectual struggle, and knowledge of words has become the most valuable tool for this struggle. Words are the very cornerstone of any language. With a good vocabulary, which indicates scope of knowledge, we can grasp the thoughts of others and be able to communicate our own thoughts to them. As Stahl (1999) argued, discussion of words is discussion of knowledge of the world, and knowledge of the world is knowledge of who we are and where we stand in the world. …

Teaching English Language Learners In Mainstream Science Classrooms: Teacher Practice And Educational Opportunity, Carlotta Dorothy Schroeder

Wayne State University Dissertations

Equal educational opportunity for English language learners (ELLs) has been a goal of the public educational system in the United States. Language policy reforms have increasedaccountability in order for schools to improve student achievement and measure the progress of ELLs. The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires assessment and accountability. In this study, the number of ELLs has increased significantly at the high school level and school district as a whole.

Along with the changing demographics, the findings reveal a district-wide policy of equalizing educational opportunity through equal treatment. Language policies provide critical decisions about how to measure what …

The Effects Of School Home Communication And Reading Fluency In Kindergarten Children, Farjana Khan

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many researchers have documented that reading fluency scores continue to be a national concern for the United States and have suggested that early reading failure has long-term detrimental effects on society. However, much less is known regarding specific interventions that could reduce this concern. Investigators in other studies have suggested the development of early school-home partnerships to improve reading scores. The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a systematic school-home intervention to improve reading fluency scores. Following the theoretical foundation of emergent literacy theory and Joyce Epstein's framework, the research question focuses on the association …

One Rural School's Initial Efforts To Assist Teachers In Improving Student Outcomes, Brenda R. Gingerich

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Across the United States, student achievement is a concern. The local district under study is not meeting adequate yearly progress (AYP), a standard initiated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which schools are expected to attain to avoid sanctions. The district's students are performing lower than state average on the state's standardized test, and the district wants to increase teachers' knowledge and use of differentiated instruction (DI). The purpose of this study was to describe teachers' DI practices, create a project that may increase the implementation of DI, and recommend further study to seek correlations between teachers' use …

Middle School Teachers' Perceptions Of Barriers Of Managing Student Behavior, Winifred Nicole Whitlock

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite training and support, many middle school teachers struggle to create, implement, and enforce research-based strategies to manage students' behaviors. The purpose of this case study was to examine teachers' perceptions about the barriers of managing student behavior. The research questions investigated 9 teachers' perceived barriers of managing student behavior at one middle school and the observed actions of these teachers' reactions to student behavior. Each participant was asked to participate in a 45-minute semistructured interview to examine their perceived barriers of managing student behavior and the strategies they use to manage student behavior relative to McGregor's theories X and …