Education Commons^™

Deconstructing Cultural And Social Norms In The Classroom, Kimberly Davis, Ann Brunjes, Sabrina Gentlewarrior, Margaret Lowe

Margaret Lowe

BSC’s strategic priorities emphasize our commitment to “achieving a heightened appreciation of social responsibility.” One way we can do this in the classroom is to raise, investigate, and potentially deconstruct unexamined and often limiting social and cultural norms. In this roundtable, presenters will share specific classroom and scholarly practices that encourage students to grapple with these complex issues. Informed by multidisciplinary perspectives, the presenters will discuss strategies for using films about racial conflict to critique white ways of seeing; strategies for teaching the idea that race, including “whiteness,” is a historically specific social construction; the use of literary texts to …

Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar

Christina Triezenberg

Despite the growing evidence of humanity’s impact on the natural world and the urgent need to shape citizens who understand the impact that their choices and actions have on their local and global environments, colleges and universities throughout the United States have been slow to add environmental education as a core component of their undergraduate curricula. Harnessing our shared interest in environment issues and the humanities, we designed and taught an experimental course in environmental literature for the honors program at Western Michigan University that we hope will become a template of what is possible in postsecondary environmental education. Using …

Embracing Learner’S Ideas About Diffusion And Osmosis: A Coupled-Inquiry Approach, Ryan Sweeney, Lisa Martin-Hansen, Geeta Verma, John Dunkhase

Geeta Verma

Learning about osmosis and diffusion is often a challenging task for middle school students. Here the authors present a lesson that was converted from a “cookbook” lab (McLaughlin and Thompson 2007) into a more inquiry-oriented lab that uses inquiry teaching strategies and hands-on investigations to teach middle-grade students about osmosis and diffusion.

Three International Commentaries [Book Chapter], I. Macpherson, I. Gado, Geeta Verma

Geeta Verma

No abstract provided.

Where Tradition Meets Innovation: Providing A Practice-Oriented Curriculum, Andrea Lyon

Andrea D. Lyon

No abstract provided.

Cohesion In Spoken And Written Dialogue: An Investigation Of Cultural And Textual Constraints, Johanna Destefano, Rebecca Kantor

Rebecca Kantor

Interactions of language, culture, minority group membership, and literacy instruction in schools have evidently spelled success for some children but not for others. The purpose of this study was to explore an area of intersection among language use, ethnolinguistic group membership, and literacy learning materials to provide additional insight into the higher rates of literacy problems in urban black and Appalachian cultures. Specifically, it investigated how the informal discourse modes, exemplified by mother-child dialogue in a child's home environment, compared and contrasted with more formal discourse modes, exemplified by dialogue among characters in basal reader stories and in children's storybooks. …

Archives Alive!: Librarian-Faculty Collaboration And An Alternative To The Five-Page Paper, Tom Keegan, Kelly Mcelroy

Tom Keegan

Panel: Collaboration And Digital Projects, Matthew Gilchrist, Tom Keegan, Paul Soderdahl, Shannon Davis, Joel Minor

Tom Keegan

In 2011 the University of Iowa Libraries began crowdsourcing the digital transcription of its manuscript archives. Four years and over 50,000 transcribed pages later, that project, known as DIY History, has garnered considerable internet attention via Buzzfeed, Twitter, Tumblr, and the NBC News blog. At the same time, it has been threaded into undergraduate classrooms at Iowa as a means of introducing students to primary source research, information literacy, and multimodal design. Matt Gilchrist and Tom Keegan will discuss how faculty members and librarians collaborated on an assignment that emphasizes course objectives while strengthening student connections to the UI Libraries. …

Book Review: Smyth, J., Down, B., Mcinerney, P. & Hattam, R. (2014). Doing Critical Educational Research: A Conversation With The Research Of John Smyth. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc., Christine Cunningham

Dr. Christine Cunningham

This is a book review for Smyth, J., Down, B., McInerney, P. & Hattam, R. (2014). Doing critical educational research: A conversation with the research of John Smyth. New York: Peter Lang Publishing Inc.

Damunwha Students’ Funds Of Knowledge In English: A Qualitative Case Study In The South Korean Context, Miso Kim, Tae-Young Kim

Dr. Tae-Young Kim (김태영, 金兌英)

This study explores the interface between multicultural, or Damunwha, students’ households and English learning in the Korean context. Korea is a relatively homogeneous nation in terms of its ethnic and cultural diversity. In this context, students whose parent(s) are not Korean are labeled as Damunwha students. Despite their minority position, the students have accumulated multilingual and multicultural funds of knowledge, the experience and culture unique to their households. Their use of funds of knowledge in English learning was analyzed from an ecological perspective, which emphasizes learners’ active agency in learning. Two junior-high school students from international marriage families and two …

Embedding Employability In The Curriculum – Strategies To Improve Outcomes For University Graduates, Sarah Richardson

Dr Sarah Richardson

No abstract provided.

Building Support For The Introductory Oral Communication Course: Strategies For Widespread And Enduring Support On Campus, Jon A. Hess

Jonathan A. Hess

A strong introductory course is important for many communication departments, for the discipline, and for meeting our obligation to society. This paper utilizes the example of a recent curricular reform that threatened to eliminate a required oral communication course to reflect on strategies departments can use to build widespread and lasting support for the course. The paper reviews the events that led to the challenge and details the department’s response, which offers lessons that may be useful for other institutions. Four lessons include: * Tailoring the introductory course to the institution’s needs and mission * Involvement in university work * …

Project-Based Collaborative Innovation For The Igeneration, James Gerry, Carl Heine

Carl Heine

Social media provides powerful opportunities to create new learning communities. Online, project-based activities reach today's iGen students in ways they learn best, maximizing interaction and individualization through the use of free Web technologies such as CoolHub.IMSA. Discover ways to use networing tools to transform teaching and learning at your school.

Barriers To Attracting Apprentices And Completing Their Apprenticeships, Chelsey Maclachlan, Joel Lopata, Catharine Dishke Hondzel, Debra Mountenay

Catharine Dishke Hondzel

Supporting apprenticeships benefits employers by increasing workplace competitiveness, improving productivity, improving quality of services and products, improving workforce skills, and reducing staff turnover. This report analyzes the barriers employers face in attracting apprentices, and barriers apprentices face when attempting to complete their training.

Community-Based Teaching In A Wicked World: Preparing Students For Messy Inquiry, Danielle Lake, Anna Sluka

Danielle L Lake

New Design Thinking Class To Be Offered, Matthew Makowski

Danielle L Lake

The Social Learning Agenda - Briefing Paper - For All Party Parliamentary Group For Children, Sam Frankel, John Fowler

Sam Frankel

The Social Learning Agenda invites schools to invest in children as social learners through 5 key areas of attention, ethos, community, lead, speak and act. This briefing paper outlines the agenda and reflects briefly on some of its impact so far.

America, Lauren Gatti

Lauren Gatti

“It [University] Wasn’T Spoken About At Home, It Was Just Assumed That We Would Start Working…”. First In Family Students, Family Capital And Higher Education Participation, Sarah E. O' Shea Dr

Professor Sarah O' Shea

No abstract provided.

Arriving, Surviving And Succeeding: First In Family Women And Their Experiences Of Transitioning Into The First Year Of University.1, Sarah O' Shea Dr

Professor Sarah O' Shea

No abstract provided.

Gvfaces D Lake, Danielle L. Lake

Danielle L Lake

No abstract provided.

Advocating For Mother Earth In The Undergraduate Classroom: Uniting Twenty-First Century Technologies, Local Resources, Art, And Activism To Explore Our Place In Nature, Christina Triezenberg, Ilse Schweitzer Vandonkelaar

Ilse A Schweitzer VanDonkelaar

Despite the growing evidence of humanity’s impact on the natural world and the urgent need to shape citizens who understand the impact that their choices and actions have on their local and global environments, colleges and universities throughout the United States have been slow to add environmental education as a core component of their undergraduate curricula. Harnessing our shared interest in environment issues and the humanities, we designed and taught an experimental course in environmental literature for the honors program at Western Michigan University that we hope will become a template of what is possible in postsecondary environmental education. Using …