Education Commons^™

Investigating Pre-Service Teachers' Intention To Apply Critical Media Literacy (Cml) In Career, Chenyang Xu

College of Education Student Presentation Series

Poster presented on 2023 UMass Amherst College of Education Annual Research Showcase

In the contemporary era characterized by the proliferation of "fake news" and "alternative facts," the importance of Critical Media Literacy (CML) has never been more pronounced. This study investigates the beliefs and intentions of pre-service teachers towards the integration of CML into their future teaching practices, utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework. The outcomes of this study aim to provide a comprehensive insight into pre-service teachers' perspective towards CML, serving as a significant resource for researchers, teacher education faculty, administrators, and the broader …

Developing A Culturally-Responsive Coding Scheme For Game Design, Sai Gattupalli

College of Education Working Papers and Reports Series

This research seeks to advance culturally-responsive computing education (Eglash et al., 2013) by creating an instrument to systematically analyze manifestations of students’ cultural contexts within the collaborative artifacts they produce using the WL curriculum learning activities. With an aim to develop an analytical “tool” to identify, categorize, describe and study cultural signatures in WL game design rtifacts, the RQ becomes:

RQ: How can Pusch’s seminal framework of cultural dimensions inform systematic analysis methodology to decode students’ localized cultural contexts, worlds views, and self-conceptions reflected through their collaborative game designs using the WearableLearning education technology across 3 countries?

The Dean’S Racial Justice Curriculum Challenge, S Civjan, Erin Baker, Samantha Wojda, Promise Mchenga, Nick Tooker, Esha Uddin, Hannah Wharton, Sophia Chang, Lia Ciemny, Jacqueline Thornton, Wayne Burleson, Paula Rees

Publications

This Work in Progress paper will present the College of Engineering Dean’s Racial Justice Curriculum Challenge. This challenge tasks all faculty in the college to use their engineering problem-solving skills to develop creative ways to incorporate issues of diversity, equity, inclusion, and racial justice in every class we teach. The challenge was inspired by our students, who requested a greater connection between the technical content of classes and real world issues, in particular the role engineers play in either fostering inclusive solutions or contributing to the propagation of inequities. The intent is to engage faculty in the development of new …

Digital Media Training For Pre-Service Teachers: A Comparison From A Ttc In Malawi And A University In Massachusetts, Lusayo Mwenifumbo

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Engaging Influential Network Members In The Community To Advocate For Health And Aspirations Of Unmarried Adolescent Girls In Kolkata, India, Evangeline Ambat

Master's Capstone Projects

Working with unmarried adolescent girls on issues related to their health, nutrition and building life skills impacts the health of their children in the future. This paper presents both the needs analysis and the outline of a project proposal resulting from the needs analysis to work with unmarried adolescent girls. Project ASHAYEIN (Advocacy for Supporting Health & Aspirations of Youth by Engaging their Influential Networks) - the acronym means "hopes and wishes" in Hindi- seeks to create a web of support to reduce the vulnerability of adolescent girls in an urban slum community in the Howrah area of West Bengal …

Digital Storytelling With Refugee Youth: A Tool For Promoting Literacy And Youth Empowerment And A Catalyst For Social Action, Christina Chen

Master's Capstone Projects

For my master’s project in the International Education concentration, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I chose to conduct an action research project where I worked with refugee youth aged twelve to fourteen in Springfield, Massachusetts, to facilitate them in creating digital narratives about their lives and experiences coming to the United States. From November 2014 through March 2015, I recruited seven students to participate in a 22-hour workshop I facilitated over twelve weeks. During the workshop, they learned about digital storytelling, wrote their stories, and created multimedia videos of these narratives. They shared their digital stories with each …

Recognizing Culture In Experiential Education: An Analysis And Framework For Practitioners, Valerie J. Kurka

Master's Capstone Projects

Experiential education is an intentional educational process that relies on experiential learning theory. This paper categorizes common features of experiential education and analyzes them with a cultural framework. Common features of experiential education include individual development, student-centered teaching, individual challenge and learning, challenge-by-choice, “emotional safety”, and reflection/processing activities. The features of experiential education that I have analyzed have basic cultural assumptions of high individuality, low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, high achievement, emphasis on internal control, and possible interaction with ascriptive dispositions and masculine characteristics. These assumptions may have implications for practitioners practicing cross-culturally. In an increasingly global world and …

Contemplative Education: How Contemplative Practices Can Support And Improve Education, Judith Johannes

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose of this study is to explore how contemplative education can have a viable role in education. In the first part of this thesis I will share my own personal experience with contemplative practices and how they led to my personal growth and transformation.

The second part will give some brief insights about the benefits the ancient wisdom traditions Hinduism and Buddhism attributed to contemplative practices. They claim that those practices help to reach a state of expanded awareness and stillness of the mind. Contemplative practices such as mindfulness, which is a Buddhist meditation technique, were used to better …

How The Chameleon Overcame Its Complex: Engage And The Formation Of A Prefigurative Social Movement, Philip W. Mangis

Master's Capstone Projects

U.S. students who participate in justice-oriented study abroad programs face great challenges reintegrating to life in the United States. In addition to working through culture shock, these students ultimately confront the dilemma of putting into practice a newfound transformed worldview that runs counter to hegemonic norms. Faced with the challenge of negotiating this dissonance, students can choose to blend in and conform to the status quo while struggling internally with their un-actualized perspective transformation – like a chameleon with a complex – or they can find ways to resist assimilation by acting on their transformation and taking action in the …

Theatre Of The Oppressed A Manual For Educators, Gopal Midha

Master's Capstone Projects

Promoting social equity and justice, I think, are not just important but essential qualities in a good educator. My experience as a graduate student at University of Massachusetts helped me understand and practice different ways in which this could be done. For instance, I learnt how I could promote social justice through changes in curriculum, co-operative learning, inter-group dialogues or multicultural education. However, my search was for a method that did not require literacy as a pre-requisite and that went beyond mere conversations about social justice. One of the key elements of the power structures which lead to oppression, I …

Final Report, Center For International Education

Learning Initiatives for Rural Education

Since August 2007, the Learning Initiatives for Rural Education (LIRE) project in Senegal and The Gambia has strengthened educators' capacity to deliver and support quality multi-grade (MG) education in rural areas with low population densities. In a truly collaborative approach, the LIRE project worked with 20 demonstration schools (13 in Senegal and 7 in The Gambia) to develop a teacher training manual and teachers' guide that was locally appropriate and in keeping with the curricula of each country. The LIRE team was truly international, with team members in Senegal, The Gambia and in the United States. The team met regularly …

Assessment Practices: Student’S And Teachers’ Perceptions Of Classroom Assessment, Sayed Ahmad Javid Mussawy

Master's Capstone Projects

The primary aim of this study is to explore pre-service teachers’ perceptions of classroom assessment. A secondary purpose is to explore the faculty members’ perceptions of classroom assessment and their expectations of students’ learning. This study examines what assessment approaches are being used in Baghlan Higher Education Institution, School of Education. In addition, the investigator was interested in learning the extent to which assessment results were used to improve students’ learning and classroom instruction.

Multicultural Training For Korean Teachers, Bokeong Cheong

Master's Capstone Projects

The main focus of this Master’s project, Multicultural Training for Korean Teachers, is to generate recommendations for multicultural training for elementary and secondary school teachers in Korea. The background is in the current circumstance that Korea is being illuminated as a newly emerging multicultural society. The two factors illustrated as the primary reasons for this shift are the increase of foreign immigrant workers and internationally married couples centered in Korean rural areas. While these foreign populations contribute to the economic development of society in both rural and urban areas, the majority of Koreans view them in negative and prejudiced ways. …

Supporting The Language Agenda In Teacher Development: Preparing Teachers/Or Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students At The New Teacher Professional Development Institute, Andrew Habana Hafner

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Knowledge, Attitude And Practice Of Classroom Assessment: Implications On The Implementation Of School-Based Assessment In Malawi, Chokocha Mathias Selemani-Mbewe

Master's Capstone Projects

The study investigated a sample of Malawi Secondary School teachers’ knowledge, attitude and practice of classroom assessment. A knowledge of classroom test and an attitude toward classroom test survey were administered to 51 qualified teachers from six randomly selected secondary schools. Focus group discussions were also conducted to get an in depth understanding of the problem under investigation. Two schools were national secondary schools; two were district boarding schools, and other two were district day secondary schools. The results of the study indicate that although the teachers had positive attitudes toward classroom assessment, they had very limited knowledge in this …

Malawi Teachers' Knowledge Of And Attitudes Towards Standardized Tests, Leah Kaira

Master's Capstone Projects

Standardized tests play a great role in education. In Malawi, results of these tests are used to make: critical decisions about individuals, hence the need for students to be well prepared. Students' performance can be influenced by their teachers' attitude toward and knowledge of standardized tests. This survey was designed to establish Malawian teachers· knowledge of standardized tests and their attitude towards these tests. While the teachers displayed positive attitudes, it was found that they would benefit from more knowledge about standardized tests.

Kinsey Dialogue Series #4: Claiming Global Space: Global Grassroots Movements, Srilatha Batliwala

Participatory Research & Practice

The influence of transnational civil society organizations and networks - both civil and uncivil - in global politics and unprecedented. Among them, those dedicated to greater social and economic equity and equality, to human security, ecological sustainability, peace, inclusion, and tolerance, have played a particularly effective role in restructuring the norms that inform policy and regulatory frameworks for the world. Some scholarly analysts grant that they have in fact effectively restructured global politics in visible and lasting ways. For this very reason, perhaps, their legitimacy, accountability and constituency base is being challenged by states, multinational corporations, scholars, and leaders of …

Self-Reflection For Staff Development, Mainus Sultan

Methods, Training, & Materials Development

The larger purpose of this module is to create a learning climate that fosters the professional growth of development workers. This approach offers a subjective framework that encourages each participant to contribute to the development of the educational environment. The key rationale for creating an environment that is conductive to learning is to allow the participants to step back from their field reality in order to reflect upon their work experience. The tools presented emphasize the exploration of participants' existing knowledge instead of focusing on providing new information. The key objective is to develop a method that assists the participants …

Evaluating Attainment Of Global Education Goals, Silva Kurtisa

Master's Capstone Projects

Movement that might be labeled "global education" has been existent in the United States for about 30 years. Global education content has been substantially expanding during evolution of the term. It may be drawn from all social sciences subjects but should not be limited to them. Recognizing that global education cannot be defined in terms of discipline, educators may infuse a global perspective in all subjects. A number of learning activities, resources, and teaching methodologies that contribute to a truly global curriculum have also been emerging and are described here. However, various descriptions and vague definitions of global education have …

A Model Of Academic Program Review For Program Improvement, Azat Muradov

Master's Capstone Projects

The purpose is to develop a model of academic program review for program improvement and determine the implications of this model for institutionalization at Turkmen higher education institutions. The study builds on the communalities in institutional approaches relative to designing, conducting and using program review at selected public universities in the United States. The study is primarily concerned with institutional approaches that are oriented towards improving academic programs.

Communalities in improvement-oriented academic program reviews share earlier findings in the research. In the reviewed documents, the key role belonged to the program individuals. Other characteristics included facilitating faculty participation in all …

Kinsey Dialogue Series #3: Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser

Participatory Research & Practice

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey Lecture to bring together some of the ideas expressed in my recent work, and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context that experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of …

Landscaping The Learning Environment To Create A Home For The Complex Mind, Jan Visser

Participatory Research & Practice

I am going to use the opportunity presented by the 2001 David Kinsey lecture to bring together some ideas expressed in m recent work and to reflect on my decades-long experience in creating the conditions for the development of learning in an international context. That experience, and my reflections on it, has led me to recognize that learning is an immensely more complex phenomenon than most of our current practice to promote and facilitate it would have us believe. Consequently, I have come to the conclusion that the complex human mind is poorly at home in much of the environment …

The Beanpot Game: An Educational Tool For Teaching Nutrition To Hispanic Populations In The United States, Roja Affolter-Aschari

Master's Capstone Projects

This masters project documents the process of the development of a game to teach nutritional behaviors as a strategy to address major health problems in the Hispanic populations in New England. The game can be easily adapted to meet diverse cultural requirements across the U.S.

After discussing the major issues that plague nutrition education programs for Hispanic populations, this paper discusses arguments that support the idea to attempt to teach nutritional issues through the use of games. The paper also discusses the use of culturally appropriate nutrition symbols, the choice of quiz questions, as well as the research process that …

Kinsey Dialogue Series #2: Participatory Research And Action: Flower, Weed, Or Genetically Modified Monster?, Eileen Kane

Participatory Research & Practice

Over the last fifteen years I have been using participatory research in many areas, and especially to look at problems and opportunities for girls' education in developing countries. In this paper, I want to share some ideas about what I think needs to happen if participatory approaches are to grow and flourish in the future. The questions I am asking are, "what is participatory research? is it a sunflower, getting stronger as it pushes toward enlightenment? Is it kudzu, omnipresent and sometimes out of place? Is it a rootless creation, a carbuncle grafted on to the conventional trunk of research? …

Tractatus Pedagogico Peripateticus (The Walk Of Future Learning), Daniel James Macneil

Master's Capstone Projects

Our understanding of human learning has been greatly improved by recent research findings from the fields of cognitive science, neurobiology, organizational studies, anthropology, linguistics, and evolutionary psychology. Despite all that is known, however, the majority of formal schools in the world operate much as they did 50 years ago. The pedagogy and the structure of the educational experience still reflect industrial age assumptions that are increasingly anachronistic in the modern knowledge production economy and in the post-modern cultural arena. Given the paucity of examples, it is difficult to visualize the characteristics of a future learning society - a society that …

Kinsey Dialogue Series #1: The Origins And Challenges Of Participatory Action Research, Orlando Fals Borda

Participatory Research & Practice

Participatory research as we now know it, with its emphasis on practice in conditions of exploitation and poverty, originated in Third World countries such as India, Brazil, Mexico, Tanzania and Colombia. Participatory research emerged around 1970, when socials scientists who shared a particular concern about life conditions among the rural poor, became dissatisfied with our training. Our conceptions of Cartesian rationality, progress, and "normal" science had been challenged, and we sought alternative emancipatory modes of research and action. This included looking for conceptual elements to guide our fieldwork that would take us beyond our tentative first steps with social psychology, …

''A Tree Bears Many Fruit'' Undergraduate Service Learning­ A Redefinition, Shekhar K. Regmi

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Students’ Dropout In Continuing Education: A Namibian Case Study, Vekaama Heroldt Murangi

Master's Capstone Projects

This study was undertaken in Namibia, to determine causes for student dropouts m continuing education face-to-face centers. The utilized sample in the study consisted of one hundred and seventy learners (including both current & non-continuing learners), and sixty tutors. In this context, dropout refers to those students enrolling for a course (Grade 10, Standard 10) at face-to-face centers and discontinuing their studies before completing the entire course. It is required from all learners to attend classes regularly before they can sit for the final external examination taking place annually in October or November.

Chapter 1 of the study gives a …

Producing Newsletters For New Literates, Mainus Sultan

Action-Learning Manuals for Adult Literacy

This manual provides detailed information on one method for creating local literacy materials. It is based on the author's experience producing newsletters and learner-generated materials in Bangladesh.

This manual is designed to help you create a newsletter with and for the new literates served by your literacy program. Step-by-step guidelines explain the process of publishing a newsletter including how to organize facilitators, learners and new literates to collect local news stories, how to edit, do a layout, and publish a local newsletter.

The manual is designed for literacy and nonformal education practitioners who want to provide graduates of their literacy …

Gender Perspectives In Literacy, Sushan Acharya, Joanie Cohen

Action-Learning Manuals for Adult Literacy

A manual which explores how gender issues affect literacy programs and women’s and girls’ education. The information is based on the author’s work with women’s groups in Nepal and Latin America.

Literacy programs designed specifically with women in mind can provide women with the guidance and support necessary to help them gain self-confidence and self-dignity. With creativity and commitment, facilitators in literacy classes can expand their program beyond basic reading and writing skills, using activities that will help both men and women improve women's status in the community, their access to community resources, and their overall health and well-being.

This …