Education Commons^™

The Nature Of Primary Source Instruction In Social Science Methods Courses, Judith Loraine Bee

Theses and Dissertations

137 Pages

Teachers are the key to shifting the way learning happens in the classroom. However, teachers are not always skilled in inquiry, critical thinking, and historical impact. Teaching with primary sources provides a context from which to educate preservice teachers in these essential skills. This dissertation focuses on the nature of primary source instruction in preparing preservice teachers to teach social sciences at the K-8 level. This qualitative study explores education methods professors’ practices for educating preservice teachers to use primary sources in their classroom instruction. Social Science methods professors in Illinois were observed, interviewed and an analysis of …

The Uses, Understandings, And Values Of Student Strucutral Assisting Metatexts In College First Year Composition Courses, Joseph Ryan Dundovich

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers a look into the perceptions, views, and experiences of first-year composition students into being offered a large amount of choice/agency in their major summative writing projects, but also accountability and guidance during their process in the form of resources called ‘structural assisting metatexts’. The major question that guided this study is the following:

- How do first year composition students use, understand, and value forms of structural assisting metatexts during the writing/creation process?

The two parts of the writing process that were specifically researched in conjunction with their correlating metatexts are the topic selection (with the Proposal …

The Magic Of Teaching And Assessing Writ [ Rid ] Ing, Kristina Koehler

Theses and Dissertations

Theories of hermeneutics (Moss) and complementarity (Broad and Boyd) claim that human understandings deepen when inquiries are informed by multiple perspectives. This thesis renders two distinct but related pedagogical enterprises—the teaching of writing and the teaching of horseback riding—reciprocally illuminating and complicating. As a result, the Elbovian “magic” of teaching, assessing, writing, and riding has come to light: the delicate humanity and intimacy of our work in both “communities of practice” (Star). My argument calls teachers to embrace this “magic” in our classrooms by addressing and normalizing fears that both we and our students experience. Doing so is essential to …

Exploring Teacher Candidates’ Civic Efficacy Through Civic Engagement And Critical Literacy In A Literacy Methods Course, Dana M. Karraker

Theses and Dissertations

Public school spaces play a large role in developing people’s understandings of civic knowledge and responsibility. Teachers, administrators, and policy-makers design school curriculum to reflect the types of citizens they believe a society needs, and thus, determines approaches to teaching and curriculum development (Labaree, 1997). This action research study examined the civic efficacy and critical literacy understandings of seven elementary education teacher candidates enrolled in a content area literacy course. The course and the study were designed using a critical literacy and civic efficacy framework as literacy practices are closely connected to the ways in which people are able to …

Does Gender Still Matter? Child Custody Bias In The Illinois Family Court System, Derek K. Ronnfeldt

Theses and Dissertations

Over the last several decades, nearly all of the states have formed task forces to look at the perception of a gender bias within the family court systems as they pertain to child custody. This self-scrutiny has included the attitudes of judges and attorneys within the system and the need of reform of our family courts. This research focused on replicating a study conducted by Dotterweich and McKinney that was completed in 2000 that compiled statistics from four different state task forces in Maryland, Missouri, Texas, and Washington. This research focused on Illinois judges and attorneys, using the same questions …

The Invisible Composition Classroom: The Reciprocity Of Face, Identity, And Politeness, Pennie L. Gray

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the role of face and identity as they arise in a first year composition classroom. Using the illuminating theoretical framework of linguistic politeness theory, new understandings of the social interactions in the composition classroom are unveiled. Specifically, through an analysis of the politeness strategies that students use during the peer review process, it becomes clear that students prefer to temper their critique of others' work rather than openly criticize that work. Additionally, students offer far more positive feedback than their peers' work perhaps merits, minimize the revision work they suggest, and downplay their own authority over each …

Learning To Practice Leadership For Social Justice: An Autoethnography, David S. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Some students in schools are served well, whereas others are not. Students traditionally marginalized in schools are students of color, students whose native language is not English, students who receive free and reduced-price lunches, and students with an individualized education program. On nearly all measures in all schools, there exists a persistent achievement gap. The role of leadership in schools can be an important piece in addressing the achievement gap. Traditional leadership has focused on managerial skills such as efficiency, charisma, heroism, decisiveness, and confidence. Another form of leadership exists that can serve to lessen or eliminate the achievement gap: …