Education Commons^™

Elegy For The Fall(En), Nicole Warchol

New Jersey English Journal

No abstract provided.

Creating A Productive Ela Classroom Environment, Caroline E. Schack, Hagan Wells, Gary A. Pickle

New Jersey English Journal

Two early service teachers and one pre-service teacher offer strategies for creating a more effective, inclusive ELA classroom experience. The approaches include writing as a process, unification of behavioral management through class assignments, and a restorative approach to communication. Implementing these strategies can revive productivity in the ELA classroom.

A Post-Pandemic Perspective: Challenges, Choices, And Adaptations, Joseph S. Pizzo

New Jersey English Journal

This poem deals with the challenges of returning to an in-person experience after having faced the challenges associated with teaching in remote and hybrid classrooms during the pandemic.

Seven Steps Of Poesis, Neil Baldwin

LASER Journal

This text responds to a request from Ashwin Vaidya, co-editor of LASER, in the spirit of his journal’s mission, “to explore links between science and art.” I have published ten volumes of nonfiction -- biography, history, essays and cultural studies – and two collections of poetry and translation over the past five decades. And I was founding director of The (virtual, interdisciplinary) Creative Research Center at Montclair State University from 2010-2020. This is my first attempt to write systematically and analytically about the phases, stages and challenges of generating and structuring a full-length monograph, peering downward from a thirty-thousand foot …

Faculty’S Experiences Teaching English Language Learners In Higher Education, Chedia A. Ayari

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Conducted in a large size four-year state university, the purpose of this qualitative study was to learn how faculty of multiple disciplines examined and made meaning of their instructional practices and decisions when teaching ELL students, how they modified their instruction to meet the needs of ELLs, and what they saw as areas of struggle when working with this student population. Critical pedagogy (Freire, 1970) was used as a theoretical framework to further investigate the complex nature of how higher education faculty make meaning of their instructional experiences when teaching ELLs within the hierarchical structures inherent in higher education and …

Call For Culturally Inclusive Texts In The English Classroom: Books As Mirrors And Windows, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

The literary canon has long been revered in public education as representing the “‘depth and breadth of our national common experience,’ but the problem is that what was once defined as ‘common’—middle class, white, cisgender people—is no longer the reality in our country” (Anderson 1). The United States has a very diverse population, but there is a lack of diverse representation in books taught in the English classroom. In other words, American classics embedded in the curriculum hold merit, but they do not fully represent the stories of all ethnic and culturally diverse students with their own “American” experiences. Poor …

Covid-19 Isolation: Daily Lessons, Joseph S. Pizzo

New Jersey English Journal

COVID-19 continually disrupts classroom structure, design, and the lessons being taught. A return to in-person, on-site classrooms is being challenged again by new variants and people’s desire to gather during holidays. Our goal as caring educators is to “educate rather than separate” as we “continue / To humanize / Our study / Of humanities.”

Professional Development, John Chorazy

New Jersey English Journal

Written from the perspective of a teacher, this poem reflects on the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Charles Peirce And The Community Of Philosophical Inquiry, Maughn Rollins Gregory

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction: "We individually cannot reasonably hope to attain the ultimate philosophy which we pursue; we can only seek it, therefore, for the community of philosophers." Charles S.Peirce, 1868 (5.265).

Since the American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914) originated the idea of a ‘community of inquiry’ to describe and promote the norms of scientific inquiry, that idea has been used to characterize a wide variety of educational programs, academic disciplines, and institutional, governmental, and political practices. The first purpose of this essay is to establish that the precise phrase ‘community of inquiry’—which does not occur in Peirce’s writings—was coined in 1978 …

Philosophizing With Children’S Literature: A Response To Turgeon And Wartenberg, Darren Chetty, Maughn Rollins Gregory, Megan Jane Laverty

Department of Educational Foundations Scholarship and Creative Works

Introduction: With the maturation of a field comes the opportunity and the responsibility to reflect on its sources, its areas and directions of development, debates among its proponents, and critiques originating from inside and outside the field. While early proponents of philosophy for children supported each other in the face of misunderstanding and misapprehension, differences inevitably arose among them, not only concerning materials and methods, but also concerning the very meanings of philosophy, childhood and education. These differences remain among contemporary scholars, educators and practitioners, who continue to engage in robust debates about how to research and practice philosophy with …

How Padlet Encouraged Student Collaboration And Engagement In My Virtual Classroom, Annie Yon

New Jersey English Journal

With the growth of virtual classes, it is crucial for teachers to integrate strategies and resources that foster student engagement and build a sense of community in an online environment. One way to augment synchronous and asynchronous communication is to implement an online discussion board, which can provide rich opportunities for students to share insights, ask clarifying questions, collaborate, create multimodal projects, and have their voices heard. By incorporating an interactive discussion board, such as Padlet, as part of class resources, teachers can facilitate discourse among students that transcends the physical boundaries of the classroom, create a motivational environment, improve …

In Praise Of Poetry: Using Poems To Promote Joy, Community, And Social Emotional Learning During The Pandemic, Jordan Virgil, Katie Gallagher

New Jersey English Journal

No abstract provided.

Two Poems: Connected, Open Minds, Kathryn Sadakierski

New Jersey English Journal

No abstract provided.

Their American Dream, Danne Davis

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

Centuries before W.E.B. DuBois named the colorline—i.e., racism—as the problem of the 20th century, skin color stratification was a persistent phenomenon. In 1983 Black feminist, scholar, and Pulitzer Prize winning author Alice Walker termed “colorism” as “prejudicial or preferential treatment of same-race people based solely on their [skin] color”. Using the tools of genealogy, I conducted a critical family history of my parents, Lem and Mae’s, pursuit of their American Dream. Such exploration digs deep to decipher the nexuses of a family’s evolution. Dr. Maya Angelou routinely shared stories about her past to impart the importance of embracing one’s history. …

What If The Arts Were Taken Away?, Joseph S. Pizzo

New Jersey English Journal

The arts give clarity to their emotions, situations, questions, and lives. Students experiencing all the arts gain a comprehensive perspective. Lyndon B. Johnson observed: “(I)t is in our works of art that we reveal to ourselves and to others the inner vision which guides us as a nation.”

Helping Students Improve The Quality Of Their Sentences, Michael Laser

New Jersey English Journal

This article shares some of the teaching methods I've devised to address awkwardness and other sentence-level issues in student writing.

Beyond Man Vs. Nature: Utilizing Book Clubs On Nature And Climate Change To Create Engaged Citizens Of The Anthropocene, Shannon Falkner, Ryan Skardal

New Jersey English Journal

In this article, we consider the following question: "What’s next for ELA? Over the next 10 years, how will our students change? How might we need to change? Which traditions and practices will (or should) grow obsolete, and which should be preserved?" Our aim is to help teachers find ways to bring "climate literacy" into their classrooms and to help teachers recognize the central role that ELA as a discipline can play in educating students about the environment and climate change. We see this topic as highly engaging for students, and we want teachers to reconsider and reanimate older approaches …

"'Who’S There?' 'Nay, Answer Me. Stand And Unfold Yourself' : Attending To Students In Diversified Settings", Naomi C. Liebler

Department of English Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Teaching Shakespeare at secondary or undergraduate university levels is remarkably variegated. Students bring their lives and experiences to their understanding, making it an unpredictably rich experience, regardless of the “level” of the class. I aim to tap into what they already know to enable them to find a path for them to forge their own connections. I want them to own what they read, to make it their own.

Teaching English As A Second Language In An Urban Public University In Sri Lanka : A Reflective Paper, Kasun Gajasinghe Maramba Liyanage

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

The purpose of this Master of Arts (MA) thesis is threefold:

First, this reflective paper provides a critical literature review on English Language Teaching (ELT) in Sri Lanka.

Second, this reflective paper presents seven guiding principles which will steer my English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching in an urban public university in Sri Lanka.

Third, drawing from the seven guiding principles, this reflective paper presents a complete syllabus and three assignments as concrete examples (attached as appendixes) which will be implemented in a College of Humanities and Social Sciences in an urban public university in Sri Lanka.

The importance …

Mainstream Teachers Learning To Teach English Language Learners : Uncovering The Systems Of Teacher Professional Learning, Alma Morel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this qualitative study, I followed three teachers as they participated in a sheltered English instruction professional learning initiative planned and implemented by their school district for purposes of preparing middle school science and social studies teachers to teach English language learners (ELLs). I explored the professional learning process of these teachers and how the ideas to which they were exposed in the professional learning initiative moved into their classroom practices, if at all. The study was guided by a complexity perspective, from which teacher professional learning was conceptualized as emerging from nested systems. In general, the study sought to …

Sikh Youth Coming Of Age: Reflections On The Decision To Tie A Turban, Muninder Ahluwalia, Tyce Nadrich, Ikbal Singh Ahluwalia

Department of Counseling Scholarship and Creative Works

In Sikhism, the turban is a sign of adherence to faith and fighting for justice; for Sikh men, it can also be considered essential to manhood (Chanda & Ford,). The authors provide an introduction to Sikhism and discuss the turban's importance to Sikhs. Next, they present a self-reflective case of one individual's experience of the decision to tie a turban and discussion of that case. Finally, the authors discuss implications for counselors.

Hacking, Unlearning, Unleashing, Livia Alexander, Richard Jochum

Department of Art and Design Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

Using A Model To Design Activity-Based Educational Experiences To Improve Cultural Competency Among Graduate Students, Yeon Bai, Kathleen D. Bauer

Department of Nutrition and Food Studies Scholarship and Creative Works

To improve the cultural competency of 34 students participating in graduate nutrition counseling classes, the Campinha-Bacote Model of Cultural Competence in the Delivery of Health Care Services was used to design, implement, and evaluate counseling classes. Each assignment and activity addressed one or more of the five constructs of the model, i.e., knowledge, skill, desire, encounters, and awareness. A repeated measure ANOVA evaluated pre- and post-test cultural competence scores (Inventory for Assessing the Process of Cultural Competence among Healthcare Professionals). The overall cultural competence score significantly improved (p < 0.001) from “culturally aware” (68.7 at pre-test) to “culturally competent” (78.7 at post-test). Students significantly improved (p < 0.001) in four constructs of the model including awareness, knowledge, skill, and encounter. Factor analysis indicated that course activities accounted for 83.2% and course assignments accounted for 74.6% of the total variance of cultural competence. An activity-based counseling course encouraging self-evaluation and reflection and addressing Model constructs significantly improved the cultural competence of students. As class activities and assignments aligned well with the Campinha-Bacote Model constructs, the findings of this study can help guide health educators to design effective cultural competence training and education programs.

History In 140 Characters: Twitter To Support Reading Comprehension And Argumentation In Digital-Humanities Pedagogy, Kalani Craig

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Click-bait headlines that tackle the modern phenomenon of social media often rail against the stultifying effects of too much Twitter. At the same time, productive educational use of Twitter in the classroom is a particularly germane area of study for digital humanists, who consider Twitter a central piece of their community-building practices. This case-study analysis addresses the use of microblogging by using activity theory to understand how social media can be harnessed to help students quickly appropriate the norms of professional historians in a discipline they often encounter as passive listeners in a large lecture course. Students reimagined Prokopios’ biography …

Entering The Digital Commons: Using Affinity Spaces To Foster Authentic Digital Writing In Online And Traditional Writing Courses, Jeffrey Bergin

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Despite the fact that the field of rhetoric and composition has been closely allied to the digital humanities for many years, instructors in these disciplines often remain on their own in terms of adopting, implementing, and evaluating digital technologies. While theoretical scholarship in digital rhetoric is advancing, instructional practices lag behind. Surveying 72 doctoral-granting rhetoric and composition programs, researchers found innovation in the implementation of new media comes primarily from solitary instructors (Anderson and McKee, 74). This article presents several ways in which writing instructors can leverage digital spaces to improve their pedagogies. In particular, the article focuses on digital …

The First-Year University Experience For Sexual Minority Students: A Grounded Theory Exploration, Edward Alessi, Beth Sapiro, Sarilee Kahn, Shelley L. Craig

Department of Social Work and Child Advocacy Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This exploratory study used grounded theory to understand the role of minority stress on the first-year experience of lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning emerging adults attending a university in the Northeastern part of the United States. Twenty-one lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning sophomores participated in focus groups asking them to reflect on their first year of university. Themes suggest that participants tackle multiple challenges simultaneously: the developmental task of increased independence and stressors specific to lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, and questioning adults such as encountering stigma. Furthermore, participants manifested resilience in response to minority stress. Participants joined campus …

When Technology Is Too Hot, Too Cold Or Just Right, Jonathan Howell

The Emerging Learning Design Journal

Many instructors acknowledge the importance of quantitative literacy in non-STEM fields and may themselves use advanced tools for data analysis, statistics and visualization. But how, if at all, does an instructor introduce quantitative methods into the classroom without overwhelming and disengaging students who may have been drawn to the field precisely because it has not traditionally required any skill or interest in science, technology, engineering or math? I present a model of iterative assignment design illustrated by the evolution of a phonetic exercise in which students are asked to measure vowels from their own speech and to plot their measurements …

Flash Study Analysis And The Music Learning Profiles Project, Radio Cremata, Bryan Powell, Joseph Michael Pignato, Gareth Dylan Smith

John J. Cali School of Music Scholarship and Creative Works

This paper introduces the Music Learning Profiles Project, and its methodological approach, flash study analysis. Flash study analysis is a method that draws heavily on extant qualitative approaches to education research, to develop broad understandings of music learning in diverse contexts. The Music Learning Profiles Project (MLPP) is an international collaboration to collect and curate a large number of flash studies exploring musicking and music learning in a variety of contexts that fall outside traditional school music education. In this paper the authors present context, rationale, and methods for the project, along with indicative preliminary findings. The project aims to …

Sexuality Education Websites For Adolescents: A Framework-Based Content Analysis, Sara Silverio Marques, Jessica S. Lin, Summer Starling, Aubrey G. Daquiz, Eva Goldfarb, Kimberly Garcia, Norman A. Constantine

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

The web has unique potential for adolescents seeking comprehensive sexual health information. As such, it is important to understand the nature, scope, and readability of the content and messaging provided by sexuality educational websites. We conducted a content analysis of 14 sexuality education websites for adolescents, based on the 7 essential components (sexual and reproductive health and HIV, relationships, sexual rights and sexual citizenship, pleasure, violence, diversity, and gender) of the International Planned Parenthood Framework for Comprehensive Sexuality Education. A majority of content across all sites focused on sexual and reproductive health and HIV, particularly pregnancy and STI prevention, and …

Robo-Teaching? : Automated Essay Scoring And K-12 Writing Pedagogy, Swati Viren Chauhan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This paper will examine the current state, and future, of AES in secondary literacy education through a review of current research in the topic. An analysis of the history of assessment will seek to explain why AES systems have gained such popularity within high-stakes assessment, and how the use of AES in secondary education, high-stakes testing affects pedagogy. This paper will also look into reliability and validity issues that are presented when using AES as a form of scoring essays. Finally, this paper explores some ways that AES can be used effectively within the K-12 writing classroom, rather than solely …