Digital Commons Network^™

Higher Education And Privilege: 21st Century Issues [Special Section], Fatma Ayyad

College Student Affairs Leadership

This literature review analysis revealed that governmental and non-profit foundations have promoted racial equity to enhance the life of people who live in poverty in the United States. These institutions intended to provide opportunities for low-income individuals, such as education. Despite improvements for historically underrepresented students in higher education, there are still gaps in college attainment between White non-Hispanics and minorities. This paper discusses how system polices in the workplace and schools create social economic disparities in society.

How The Feds Became The 800lb Gorilla In K-12 Policy: A 50 Year Synopsis, Roger T. Wilson

Colleagues

No abstract provided.

Lanthorn, Vol. 50, No. 08, September 21, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 50, July 13, 2015 - June 6, 2016

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Is “Culture” A Workable Concept For (Cross-)Cultural Psychology?, Ype Poortinga

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

In this essay three points are addressed:

First, despite repeated findings of limited cross-cultural variation for core areas of study, research in cross-cultural psychology continues to be directed mainly at finding differences in psychological functioning. This often happens at the cost of attention for similarities between groups, or invariance. As a consequence, cross-cultural psychology as a field is feeding into stereotyped views of “them” versus “us”.

Second, the notion of culture implies a holistic perspective, in which various aspects of the behavior repertoire within a group tend to be seen as hanging together. Such views tend to contribute to ideas …

Implementing Schema-Based Instruction In The Elementary Classroom (Project), Claire B. Lim

Honorable Mentions

Solving mathematical word problems is an ongoing problem for students with both reading and math learning disabilities (Powell, 2011). As more and more students with learning disabilities are included in the general education classroom, teachers must differentiate instruction to benefit all learners. The current strategies emphasized in textbooks are misleading and too general for students who struggle (Jitendra, 2008). Schema-based instruction is an alternative problem solving strategy, which requires students to identify the underlying structure (schema) which each word problem belongs, to translate important information to a diagram, and then to solve the problem. This project uses cognitive theory as …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 1 Summer 2015, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 62, June 1, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Reading Intervention Strategies For General Education Middle School Students: Providing A Space For Teachers To Share Effective Methods, Amy Michelle Baas

Masters Theses

While studies have been conducted to highlight intervention strategies that will help struggling readers, very few of these empirical studies have used middle school aged students as participants. And among those studies which have, the results were based solely on quantifiable data; the opinions of the classroom teachers who work with these students daily cannot be found in these or any of the empirical studies. The purpose of this thesis is to fill this gap by offering a space for middle school English language arts teachers to share effective intervention strategies that they use in their classrooms to help struggling …

Language, Hegemony, And Lgbt Rights, Gregory Shafer

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Nerds: A Reclamation Of An Identity, Angiola L. Gabriel

Masters Theses

The term nerd has seen an alteration in usage since it was first used in the 1950s. Originally, nerd carried a negative connotation and people labeled as such were given or had traits such as being overly studious, socially inept, or physically unattractive. However, the term nerd has seen a change in usage since the 1980s; now, the term nerd is seen as a more positive identifier that denotes passion, as well as individuality and intellectualism. There a number of different studies that address nerd identities and cultures in the K-12 educational setting and a broader societal contexts. Yet, there …

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 039, Number 26, March 30, 2015, Grand Valley State University

2014-2015, Volume 39

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 039, Number 24, March 16, 2015, Grand Valley State University

2014-2015, Volume 39

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 43, February 12, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Lanthorn, Vol. 49, No. 35, January 15, 2015, Grand Valley State University

Volume 49, July 7, 2014 - June 1, 2015

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Understanding Understanding: Interdisciplinary Articulation For Instruction And Assessment, W. Douglas Baker, Elisabeth Daumer

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Writing In Motion: Using Kinetic Texts In The Writing Classroom, Larissa Babak

Honors Projects

No abstract provided.

The Connection Between Reading And Writing In The Writing Center Environment, Alaina Moreau

Honors Projects

The connection between reading confidence and writing ability is heavily supported by the broader framework of pedagogical research, allowing it to be applied to a context specific to the writing center environment. However, writing tutoring through writing center consultations often focuses on the strengths and weaknesses of the writer, which treats writing as an individual, isolated process rather than as a process interconnected with the experience of reading. Specific to the Fredrick Meijer Center for Writing and Michigan Authors, whose mission statement explicitly relies on the crafting of confident and self-sufficient writers, special focus should be placed on the importance …

An Examination Of The Complexity And Comprehensibility Of Various Software Models, Taran Staal

Technical Library

In a discussion of the creation and evolution of the statechart, David Harel, the creator of the model, talks about his primary goals for making a good model. He emphasizes that a good model should be clear, precise, visualizable, and executable. A clear model is one that can be easily understood by someone unfamiliar with the system being modeled. A precise model shows the entirety of the system under consideration, without including extraneous information. A visualizable model is one that can be interpreted by a user using primarily visual information, meaning some words must exist for thing like labels, but …

Knowledge Sharing Application, Namrata Pradhan

Technical Library

Information sharing these days is becoming very common in the Internet through various website, be it news website, be it educational forum, etc. Everyday people depend more and more on the sources available in the Internet.

However lot of people can’t acquire information and at the same time contribute information using the same platform on various topics.

The objective of this system is to provide platform to everyone who wants to contribute their ideas or any articles, or even ask questions, etc. that can be developed as an innovative Web based application called “Knowledge Guru” which is a knowledge sharing …

Testing, Assessment, And The Teaching Of Writing, Gregory Shafer

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

Using Authentic Writing Contests To Prepare Third Graders For High Stakes Standardized Assessments, Danielle Defauw

Language Arts Journal of Michigan

No abstract provided.

The Hungry Games, Timothy Deters, Michael Garnaat, Isabel Gonzales, Megan Kupres, Evelyn Lugo, Ashley Munniksma, Jose Rivera, Nathan Spencer

LIB 322: Wicked Problems of Sustainability

Environmental activist and culture critic, Wendell Berry states in “The Pleasures of Eating,” “When food, in the minds of eaters, is no longer associated with farming and with the land, the eaters are suffering a kinds of cultural amnesia that is misleading and dangerous” (Berry 2) The obesity epidemic, mass hunger, the invasion of overly-processed and GMO-contaminated foods are just a few of the frightful consequences of our society’s overall disconnect with the food system. With so many obvious shortcomings, how does one even begin to tackle the wicked problem of food? According to several culture critics, including Michael Pollan, …

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 039, Number 13, November 17, 2014, Grand Valley State University

2014-2015, Volume 39

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Grand Valley Forum, Volume 039, Number 11, November 03, 2014, Grand Valley State University

2014-2015, Volume 39

Grand Valley Forum is Grand Valley State's faculty and staff newsletter, published from 1976 to the present.

Integrating Intercultural Communication And Cross-Cultural Psychology: Theoretical And Pedagogical Implications, Shuang Liu, Cindy Gallois

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

While psychology and communication have borrowed theories and methodologies from each other, much scholarly discussion tends to focus on the flow from psychology to communication. Relatively less attention has been paid to the work in communication that adds to psychology, particularly in examining the processes of developing relationships with culturally different others. It is timely for us to look at how communication theory and methodology have contributed to psychology in understanding differences between groups, as well as in improving intergroup relations. This paper focuses on intercultural communication, particularly acculturation of immigrants and sojourners as a clear intersection between cross-cultural psychology …

Cultural Neuroscience: A Historical Introduction And Overview, Nicholas O. Rule

Online Readings in Psychology and Culture

The integration of cognitive neuroscience with the study of culture emerged from independent ascensions among both fields in the early 1990s. This marriage of the two previously unconnected areas of inquiry has generated a variety of empirical and theoretical works that have provided unique insights to both partners that might have otherwise gone overlooked. Here, I provide a brief historical introduction to the emergence of cultural neuroscience from its roots in cultural psychology and cognitive neuroscience to its present stature as one of the most challenging but rewarding sub-disciplines to have come from the burgeoning growth of the study of …

Grand Valley Magazine, Vol. 14, No. 1 Summer 2014, Grand Valley State University

Grand Valley Magazine

Grand Valley Magazine is a quarterly publication about Grand Valley State University produced by University Communications since 2001.

Investigating Teachers’ Self-Reported Efficacy In Instructing Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Learners In Alternative Settings, Liane Kay Lancaster

Masters Theses

Teachers in alternative schools have limited to no knowledge of issues influencing students who are culturally and linguistically different. Current educational research lacks an in-depth examination of teachers’ perceptions of their use of culturally relevant practices with this group.

Using an adaptation of Siwatu’s (2007) Culturally Responsive Teaching Self-Efficacy Scale and drawing upon the theories of constructivism and multiculturalism, this study documents the perceptions of teachers’ preparedness in an alternative high school in the Midwest. The investigator collected information that may assist teachers and teacher preparation institutions in delivering instruction that better suits students who are culturally and linguistically diverse. …

Survey Instruments Used To Evaluate Foundation-Funded Nonprofit Capacity- Building Programs: Considerations For Organized Philanthropy, Catherine H. Brown

The Foundation Review

· Alongside a growing interest in nonprofit capacitybuilding programs has come a growing concern with the impact of these programs, especially by organizations that fund them. This article describes how the McKinsey Organizational Capacity and Assessment Tool and, to a lesser extent, the Abt Associates survey have been used to assess changes in nonprofit capacity as part of nonprofit capacity-building programs.

· Drawing on field experience with both survey instruments in the context of a foundationfunded nonprofit capacity-building program, this article compares the respective benefits and costs of these instruments from the perspective of evaluators as well as survey respondents. …

Contextualizing Subjectivity: Speaking (Back To) Colonialism In Jamaica Kincaid’S Annie John, Lucy, And A Small Place, Sierra Holmes

Masters Theses

The narrators of Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, Lucy, and A Small Place all struggle to form a coherent sense of self while living within the colonial ideology that objectifies them and denies them identities as speaking subjects. In this thesis, Julia Kristeva’s theories of language and subject formation are used to explain why and how the narrators’ subjectivity is limited by colonial discourse. Particular attention is given to the way in which the narrators’ relationships with their mothers both threaten and necessitate their emergence into Kristeva’s symbolic order of language, and therefore into the colonial discourse community. The thesis also …