Education Commons^™

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

''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 …

Community Learning Groups: A Method In Adult Literacy For Community Participation And Learning, Sirkka Kapango Hamutenya

Master's Capstone Projects

The study was done in the context of the Namibia National Literacy Program and was influenced by my working environment. While studying adult education, and by being exposed to a variety of philosophical views and ideas, I tried to reflect those views and ideas to the adult learner groups who graduated from the Namibia National Literacy Program as well as to those in the communities not attending any classes. The questions I had in my mind were the following: What can they do together to learn? How can they utilize their new skills to get involved in participatory community development. …

"From Snails To Alpha Males", A. Michael Marzolla

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Establishing A Women's Literacy Support Group (A Post Literacy Approach): A Manual For Facilitators, Sushan G. Acharya

Master's Capstone Projects

Chapter One of this manual provides a framework a self-support system and provides a rationale for establishing a Women's Literacy Support Group in Nepal. Chapter Two specifically explains how the support group meetings can be organized and how different types of learning modes/methods can be used in order to keep the group moving in the appropriate direction.

The last section of Chapter Two proposes a format for evaluation. An ongoing evaluation is suggested in order to maintain the appropriateness of the support group meetings/activities.

This manual is an attempt to introduce a pattern for a support group. This manual endeavors …

Manual Of Teaching Activities For Pregnant And Parenting Adolescent Mothers In Preparation For The G.E.D. Exam, Lucia Nunez

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Theory And Practice Of Reactivation In The Standard Oral Lesson, Dumery Noe Serge

Master's Capstone Projects

In this Master's Project I would like to propose a technique that will enable school learners of English as a Foreign Language to become more conversant with some structures which are seldom used in the students' active repertoire. By the time they reach "Seconde" (10th Grade) learners have been introduced to most intermediate and a good number of advanced structures of the English language. However, some of these structures are used by the students only passively, that is they are recognized only in reading or when they are heard. To reinforce the structures which they recognize as they read or …

A Situational Analysis And Recommendations For Educational Policy For Addressing The Problem Of Out-Of-School Youth In Cabo Verde, Ondina Ferreira

Master's Capstone Projects

The objective of this project is to examine the negative effects of the current formal educational policy in Cape Verde and to recommend to the Ministry of Education some educational alternatives in order to deal with the out-of-school youth's problem in the country.

Problem: The Legal system places outside secondary school the young who are considered overage (16 years old and above) to get her/his first application.

actually and annually approximately one thousand young people leave middle school without possibility to pursue their secondary education. Generally, speaking, the out-of-school youths belong to the socially and economically disadvantaged population in the …

Supplementary Reading Materials For Efl Secondary School Students In Cote D'Ivoire, Dagbassoue Cecile

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Science Teacher Training In Tanzania: A Study Of Junior Secondary And Primary School Teacher Training Programs, Ward M.J. Mavura

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Science In The Secondary Schools Of Tanzania, Oliver P.J. Mhaiki

Master's Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.