Education Commons^™

Teacher Trainees’ Reasoning About Teaching Mathematics To English Learners In An Era Of Core Content State Standards, Sultan Turkan, Megan Schramm-Possinger

Journal of English Learner Education

Research has indicated over the years that English learners (ELs) are not supported to achieve their goals in learning academic content and acquiring English. Despite a growing body of research on the essential teacher knowledge-base for teaching ELs and effective linguistically-responsive teacher education, there is still a dearth of research on candidate content teachers’ reasoning and instructional decision-making especially regarding teaching mathematics to ELs. This paper explored how a group of ten future mathematics teachers reasoned about a handful of scenarios illustrative of teaching mathematics to ELs. Qualitative analyses of the candidates’ discourse revealed that pre-service mathematics teachers’ perceptions of …

Ell Families: Myths, Truths And Strategies For Engagement, Stephanie Knight, Marjaneh Gilpatrick

Journal of English Learner Education

This article is the first in our new category, Teaching Tips. These are practitioner articles designed to enhance existing in-service teacher's classroom strategies with ELs.

Parental involvement may be the strongest predictor of a child receiving a solid education. This means it is vital that teachers and administrators understand the students’ families’ culture and the way they view education. We also must be proactive with them so that we can empower them with literacy strategies to ensure academic success. Also, many English Language Learner (ELL) families are not familiar with the school system in the United States and may …

The Case For Grammar: What Preservice Teachers Need To Know About Metalinguistic Awareness, Aimee Schoonmaker, Kerry L. Purmensky

Journal of English Learner Education

The present study focused on preservice teachers’ grammar knowledge and its importance for their future students’ understanding and use of language, particularly English Learners. This quasi-experimental one-group pretest-posttest study investigated the grammar knowledge of preservice teachers who were enrolled in an undergraduate applied linguistics course at an urban university in the southern United States. The results confirmed prior research which found that preservice teachers are not knowledgeable enough about English grammar when explaining sentence level errors. This study demonstrated that preservice teachers’ basic understanding of English grammar can be increased in a short time, particularly in the recognition of simple …

Three Ways To Help Esl Content Linger Beyond The “El Course” In Teacher Preparation Programs, Melanie Gonzalez

Journal of English Learner Education

Like many other states, our teacher preparation program arrived at this compartmentalized, “single-experience” ESL-focused course model as a result of local, state, and federal policies in the United States that have increasingly placed ELs into mainstream classrooms rather than into language and literacy development courses (de Jong, 2014). TESOL faculty might have questioned: how can everything related to effective ESL teaching be covered in one semester? The fact of the matter is that the onus on this work largely rests upon teacher candidates’ shoulders after they depart the ESL-focused course. What follows are three practices that largely have arisen …

The Relationship Of English Language Scores On International Students' Academic Success, Rebekah Shbeeb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

International graduate students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) are not completing graduate programs at the same rate as domestic graduate students. One of the main differences in the admissions process for international graduate students compared to domestic students is the English language test requirement. The purpose of this study was twofold: to test if the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the (International English Language Testing System) IELTS scores have any statistically significant linear relationships to international graduate students' academic success as defined by their cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Secondly, this study sought to …

Health Literacy Intervention To Influence Choices Made By Students In A Title I School Who Receive Free Lunch, Melissa Kent

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to influence choices made by Kindergarten students in a Title I school who receive free breakfast and lunch through a health literacy intervention with the intent of decreasing daily added sugar consumption. Fruit and milk choices, either with naturally occurring sugar (NOS) or added sugar (AS), were recorded for 70 Kindergarten students among six classes in a Title I school for ten days before a four-week health literacy intervention. Three of the classes were randomly selected to learn about 'sometimes' and 'anytime' choices through the Healthy Habits for Life curriculum delivered by representatives from Nemours Children's Hospital. …

Phenomenological Study Of Urban Elementary Teachers With Proficient English Language Learners, Tracy Webley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to explore the lived experiences of fourth grade teachers working in a large urban school district, where the achievement gap between English Language Learners (ELLs) and non-ELLs was smaller when compared to other schools within the district. The problem originated from the need to consider factors beyond teacher training that potentially influenced academic achievement. The research question guiding this study asked: What are the lived experiences of 4th grade teachers who have taught at identified elementary schools, where ELL students have demonstrated proficiency on the ELA portion of the state standards assessment? …

Selecting Methods To Teach Controversial Topics: A Grounded Theory Study, Sean Loomis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This grounded theory study examined the perceptions of 14 high school social studies teachers from three school districts in the Central Florida area. They were interviewed to uncover the decision-making process that high school social studies teachers use to choose methodologies when teaching controversial public issues (CPIs). The result was a three-phase model, the CPI Decision-Making Model, in which teachers move through three conceptual phases to decide on a particular methodology. By working through this process, teachers analyze the benefits and drawbacks of different methods for teaching controversial public issues. Significant results from this study included: (a) teachers were choosing …

An Exploration Of Teacher Perceptions Of The Presence Of Cultural Reproduction In Two Middle Schools, Kaitlyn Montcrieff

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Contemporary challenges to education pose threats that our current educational system remains unable to meet. With the prevalence of school shootings, rapid technological development, threats to mental health, superficial curriculum content, increased testing standards, and continued inequality in classrooms, now more than ever it is imperative to define, explore, and quantify the ways in which the system of education reproduces or replicates norms, values, behaviors, and practices and the effects these possibly have on students and teachers. The purpose of this research is to redefine 'cultural reproduction' into reproduction and replication in order to explore how the education system in …

An Examination Of A College And Career Preparation Program For Low Socioeconomic And First-Generation Students In An Urban School District, Lucille Gillam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if the college and career program, in one urban high school setting, was being implemented as intended by the school district. A mixed methods analysis was conducted using student PSAT/SAT scores, interviews, surveys, focus groups, classroom observations and anecdotal notes from the program director. The results were coded to show emerging trends and themes. The results of the analysis showed that portions of the program were being conducted as designed by the school district; however, of the four criteria required to be invited to bet admitted into the program, one was not …