Bilingual, Multilingual, and Multicultural Education Commons^™

Impact Of International Education Experiences On Undergraduate Students, Elizabeth J. Sandell

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

The article discusses research on the impact of study abroad experiences on students at Minnesota State University in Mankato. The International Programs Office at the university identified a convenience sample of 233 students who studied abroad during the calendar year 2006. The students were asked to rate the impact of their international education experience in four areas including professional role, international perspectives, personal development and intellectual development. More than 80 percent of respondents reported their international education experiences had already made them reassess their outlook on their lives in the U.S. and contributed to their level of self-confidence.

The Impact Of Intercultural Training On The Satisfaction And Achievement Of Undergraduates Taught By International Teaching Assistants, Kirsten Jensen

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

Much has been done to prepare international teaching assistants to teach American undergraduates, but very little has been done to help the undergraduates learn effectively from instructors of different cultural and linguistic backgrounds. This research used a quasi-experimental, quantitative approach combined with a small ethnographic study to examine the impact of a short intercultural training activity on the satisfaction and achievement of freshman students in the fall Freshman Biology laboratory course at a large public university in Virginia. Satisfaction was measured by the responses of students on an end-of-course questionnaire, and achievement by their grades in the course. Audio interviews …

Fostering Global-Mindedness In Teacher Preparation, Gail D. Zahn, Elizabeth J. Sandell, Caryn E. Lindsey

Elementary and Literacy Education Department Publications

Teacher education programs require attention to the rapid changes in the world, in part because populations are becoming increasingly diverse. These rapidly changing classroom environments have prompted a need to train teachers who can communicate with and teach students from increasingly diverse backgrounds. In addition, they must have an understanding of cultural family values and practices which influence individual students among the various ethnic populations they teach. This paper will describe steps taken by one College of Education to create international partnerships and learning experiences in an effort to enhance their teacher training programs and develop an environment of global-mindedness.

First-Year Student Retention And Achievement: The Influence Of Diversity And Background Characteristics, Krystall Dunaway

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

The racial climate of a campus can be either prejudicial or cooperative, and is directly affected by the frequency and profoundness of diverse interactions (Antonio, 2001); the greater the number and meaningfulness of diverse interactions, the more positive the campus climate. When related to Tinto's Student Departure Theory (1993), it is not difficult to deduce that the more comfortable and satisfied a student feels with the diversity climate on campus, the more likely he or she is to feel integrated, thus to maintain his or her student status at that university and also to perform well academically. Conversely, incongruence, or …

Examining The Relationship Between Student Support Services And Student Outcomes At A Four-Year Institution, Angela Williams

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study identified and examined the service variable combination(s) provided by Student Support Services (SSS) TRIO program that had a statistically significant relationship with program participants’ academic performance and retention. SSS is a federally funded program designed to increase the retention and graduation rates of undergraduate first-generation, low-income, disabled college students. While SSS has played a significant role in the retention of disadvantaged students, scarce empirical research exist which examine the combination of SSS services that affect students’ academic performance and retention. Considering SSS programs will probably not experience large increases in federal support in the future and given the …

International Students: Culture Shock And Adaptation To The U.S. Culture, Stefanie Theresia Baier

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

Annually thousands of international students attend US colleges and universities which requires them to adjust to a new environment, often accompanied by a culture shock experience.

This study analyzes to what degree cultural background, gender differences, language proficiency, self-confidence/self-efficacy, and social support networks impact the adjustment process of international students to the US culture.

Forty-five international students attending a Michigan community college were surveyed and interviewed to assess the relationship among self-confidence/self-efficacy, cultural background, gender and social support networks. Western students reported more positive cultural adjustment (M=29.0) than non-western students (M=29.0). Males adjusted better (M …

Flarr Pages #49: Las Madres Takes On A New Meaning For Bemidji State University Students Who Travel To Argentina, April Larson

FLARR Pages

No abstract provided.

Seeing Fluency First Through The Kaleidoscope Of Grammaring, Martha Iancu

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

Fluency First inspires second language students to become readers, a major step forward in their language and academic development. By providing meaningful content and practices that nurture all language skills in accord with the grammaring principles and practices proposed by Larsen-Freeman, Fluency First offers great promise in the struggle to overcome the inert knowledge problem.

Underrepresented Doctoral Students: The Cultural And Institutional Barriers That Hinder Their Ability To Graduate, Nancy Greer-Williams

Dissertations

African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian doctoral students continue to have attrition rates substantially higher than their White counterparts (Lovitts, 2001). Attrition was defined as the act of weakening or exhausting by constant harassment, abuse, or attack (Merriam-Webster, 2004). Research todate on this topic has focused on causes and barriers that can be attributed to mainstream groups, not on particular cultural barriers that may adversely affectdoctoral persistence among underrepresented groups. This study collected the lived experiences of these students at three separate university settings and turned them into conceptualized statements in an effort to understand the meaning of their experiences …

Comparison Of Grade Point Average Of Honor Senior Students And College Of Liberal Arts Senior Students At A Florida University, Iwasan D. Kejawa

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

Attrition rates in theHonor College program division of Florida Atlantic University have risen in recent years. It has been determined that even though a higher high school grade point average is required for admission into the honor program of the university, many applicants to the program were under-prepared to asumme the workload demanded of the students by the Honor College. The requirements for admission into the honor program of the Florida Atlantic University is an overall high school grade point average of 3.5 and a score of 1000 points on the SAT examination while the requirement into the College of …

Social Experiences Of African-American Female Students On A Predominantly White Campus, Guy Alexander Sims

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study examined the social experiences of African American female students at a predominantly white institution finding that in several areas of student life African American female students persisted to graduation without necessarily establishing informal social interactions within the university community. This is contrary to Vincent Tinto's posit that students who fail to make a connection with the campus community are more likely to withdraw from the institution. This study introduces the term irrelation as a descriptor of a social construct I have applied to African American female college students on the campus of a large, public, mid-western university. Irrelation …

Instructors' Communicator Style In The College Classroom: Perceptions Of African American And European American Students, Angela Adair

Theses Digitization Project

This project concerns instructors' perceived communicator style in the college classroom with African American and European American students.

Nsu Graduate Teacher Education Program (Gtep) Master's Degrees, Educational Specialist Degrees, Certification Programs, Recertification Courses Program Brochure 2002, Nova Southeastern University

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education and School of Criminal Justice College Archive

No abstract provided.

The Effectiveness Of The Writing Workshop Model To Teach An English-As-A-Second-Language College Writing Course In Puerto Rico: A Look At Students' Outcomes, Marie Jacqueline Agésilas

Dissertations

Problem. Questions have been raised regarding the number of limited-English-proficient students who enter undergraduate schools every year. This study was designed to look at the effectiveness of the Writing Workshop model in improving English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) college students' writing skills in a small liberal arts university in Puerto Rico.

Method. Students registered in two Intermediate English-as-a-Second-Language writing classes were asked to take a pretest-posttest related to writing skills and a pretest-posttest related to composition skills to indicate their level of agreement for each of the 22 statements on a Likert-type (survey) instrument--strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (4)--related to their attitudes …

Portland Dialect Study - High Rising Terminal Contours (Hrts) In Portland Speech, Rebecca A. Wolff

Dissertations and Theses

This study reports on the use of an intonation contour used in declarative clauses that is referred to in at least some of the literature as a "High Rising Terminal Contour" (HRTs). The intonation pattern is characterized by a final rise, which is similar to the pitch change used in yes-no questions. The purpose of this study is to document the use of this intonation pattern by residents of Portland, Oregon, in order to see what light it can shed on the HRT's status and function, especially among the young to see if it can be implicated in language change. …

Counting Quality, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fifth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Predictors Of College Adjustment And Success: Similarities And Differences Among Southeast-Asian Americans, Amy Strage

Faculty Publications

The role of students' family backgrounds and rapport with instructors and peers as predictors of five indices of the adjustment and success were examined, for a cohort of 150 Southeast-Asian-American, Hispanic and White college students. Ethnic differences emerged for nearly all predictor and outcome measures. Discussion of these patterns includes consideration of the origins of a learned-helpless profile characteristic of many of the Asian-American students and of a mastery orientation characteristic of many of the Hispanic and White students.

Diversity In The College Curriculum : Overview Of The Literature, Ruben J. Carrion

Graduate Research Papers

The colleges and universities in the United States that have adopted a proactive commitment to diversity in the curriculum have done so because they understand how their central mission is linked with the future of a diverse society. They are aware that, in the new millennium, most new jobs in the economy require a postsecondary education, and women and racial/ethnic minorities compose a majority of the workforce. One result of this awareness is the transformation taking place at many institutions that links diversity in the curriculum with the development of new teaching practices and learning practices.

This review of the …

Japanese Students' Perceived Need For Communicative English And Their Perceived Proficiency Levels, Takanori Mita

Dissertations

Japanese students of English need to develop their proficiencies not only in oral aspects but in overall practical language aspects. English programs from junior high school to college levels need to be improved in consideration of current needs of students.

This study was conducted to assess college students’ perceived need for changes in the English curricula enhancing communicative competence and to seek their perceived levels of proficiency at graduation in the four skill areas (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) in relationship with students’ majors, academic experience in English-speaking countries, and lengths of such experience.

The research was conducted in Tokyo …

Perceptions Of Factors Associated With Academic Success Among African American Students On Four Predominantly White Campuses In Northeast Tennessee, Jean M. Harper

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between the perceptions of successful African American sophomore students and their adjustment to academic success at predominantly White colleges and universities. Twenty African American sophomore females and twenty African American sophomore males from two predominantly White community colleges and two predominantly White universities participated in the study. Each subject completed a demographic survey and participated in an interview. Results indicated that both the attitudes of African American students toward education and their perceptions of the attitudes of those in the educational system towards African American students played an integral role …

Cultural Adaptability Of Students Attending Culturally Diverse And Non-Culturally Diverse Dental Hygiene Programs, Katrina White Magee

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive investigation was to determine the cultural adaptability of students attending culturally diverse and nonculturally diverse dental hygiene programs throughout the U.S. The dental hygiene schools were identified according to their ethnic diversity as reported by the ADA Commission on Dental Accreditation in the 1996-1997 Survey of Dental Hygiene Education Programs. Once the programs were identified, a random sample was taken from the diverse and non-diverse dental hygiene programs. A 50-item inventory, the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI), was mailed to the participating dental hygiene programs. One-hundred eighty-eight students represented U.S. dental hygiene programs in the …

Correlates Of Minority Transfer Students Academic Performance And Retention At A Four Year Public Institution, Pedro Zayas

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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A Descriptive Study Of First-Year Students Of Color At Portland State University: The Student's Perspective, Dorothy Claire Oliveros

Dissertations and Theses

The population of the United States is rapidly growing and the country's demographics are changing. As the U.S. population nears 269 million, 74.2 million represent ethnic minorities. Hence, many more ethnic minority students will enter the hallways of academe. Therefore, it is important for institutions of higher education to provide ethnic and racially diverse students opportunities for academic and social development within the educational setting.

Attending predominantly white institutions can cause ethnic minority students social, cultural, and mental adjustments that may affect academic achievement.

This thesis is an examination of the similarities and differences among first-year African American, Latino, and …

The Role Of Ethnicity Among International Students In Adjustment To Acculturative Stress, Mohd. Tajudin Hj Ninggal

Dissertations

This study examined whether there were differences in six acculturative stress themes among three Malaysian ethnic groups who were enrolled at Western Michigan University during the Fall, 1997 semester. The study also investigated whether the following demographic attributes: (a) gender, (b) academic major, (c) financial sponsorship, (d) family socioeconomic status, (e) type of residential setting, and (f) scores on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) affected Malaysian students in relation to the six acculturative stress themes: (1) Perceived Discrimination, (2) Homesickness, (3) Perceived Hate, (4) Fear, (5) Culture Shock, and (6) Guilt.

A total of 138 respondents …

Unlv College Of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter, Steve Mccafferty, John Filler, Nancy P. Gallavan, Le Ann Putney, Kyle Higgins, Porter Troutman, Stanley Zehm, Cyndi Giorgis, Jack Starr, Sheila Gregory, Joyce Nelson-Leaf

College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

The workshop sponsored by the College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Committee on Friday January 16, 1998 was attended by approximately 40 faculty members and students from the College of Education. Dr. Gary Howard from the REACH Center (Respecting Ethnic And Cultural Heritage) located in Seattle, Washington provided an excellent three-hour workshop that asked attendees to ponder various dimensions of multicultural and global education. Dr. Howard provided information designed to facilitate the development of positive leadership skills for the implementation of cultural awareness and valuing diversity strategies in the classes in which the attendees teach---whether that be at a university …

Unlv College Of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter, Steve Mccafferty, John Filler, Nancy P. Gallavan, Sandra Okura, Kyle Higgins, Porter Troutman, Stanley Zehm, Mark Bannatyne, Mildred Mcclain, Joyce Nelson-Leaf

College of Education Multicultural & Diversity Newsletter

The emerging philosophy of the Multicultural and Diversity Committee is that excellence in education cannot be achieved without educational equity for all who enter our schools. This includes (but is not limited to) females, males, people of color, people who live in poverty, people who live alternative lifestyles, people with disabilities, people with a language background other than English, people of all ages, and people who have recently immigrated to the United States. Educational equity is defined by processes that work against marginalization and foster knowledge of and respect for the diverse nature of our population.

Identity Development And Student Involvement Of African-American Undergraduate Students At Historically White Colleges And Universities In Southern Appalachia, Rosemary G. Bundy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study of African American undergraduates at Emory & Henry College, Tusculum College, Western Carolina University, East Tennessee State University, Appalachian State University, and University of North Carolina at Asheville was conducted to determine students' stages of identity development, level of involvement in campus activities, and demographic characteristics within historically White Southern Appalachian colleges and universities, both public and independent. Three research questions were answered by analyzing 21 null hypotheses using the t-test and the chi square test. Hypotheses were tested at the.05 level of significance. Data collected in this study revealed that the students' perceptions of identity development and …

A Comparison Of White Male College Students Attending An Urban Black University And An Urban White University: White Racial Identity And Perceived Comfort With Blacks, Cheryl Lorraine Evans

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

The purpose of this study was to determine the difference in White Racial Identity and degree of tolerance for Blacks between two samples of White male undergraduate students attending an urban Black university and those attending an urban White university. The theoretical framework for this study was based in Social Contact Theory as a contributor to racial tolerance and Racial Identity Development Theory as a factor in human growth toward increasing acceptance of diversity. This was a quasi-experimental post-hoc design using intact groups.

The study analyzed the responses of 182 White male undergraduates using three instruments. A Background Questionnaire, designed …

The Cultural Adaptability Of Dental Hygiene, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Nursing And Physical Therapy Faculty, Irene Mary Connolly

Dental Hygiene Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the cultural adaptability of full time faculty in the College of Health Sciences, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, Virginia. The sample consisted of 40 health science faculty representing dental hygiene, medical laboratory sciences, nursing and physical therapy. The principal investigator personally administered the Cross-Cultural Adaptability Inventory (CCAI), a 50 item instrument, which contains questions to measure the construct cultural adaptability and its four dimensions: emotional resilience, flexibility/openness, perceptual acuity and personal autonomy. The CCAI is not targeted to one particular culture, but rather is designed to be culture general.

Analysis of …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Psychological Androgyny And College Adjustment Among Korean American College Students, Daniel Donghyun Kim

Dissertations

Problem. The process of adjusting to college has been difficult for many Korean-Americans because of the tension that exists between traditional sex roles versus androgynous sex roles. While it has opened doors to new and exciting opportunities in personal growth, complex challenges of academic, emotional, and social adjustments must be made. The traditional views of the subculture have posed unique problems for young Korean Americans who have enrolled in higher education. This descriptive study examined the relationship between androgynous flexibility and the college adjustment of Korean American students. Androgynous flexibility was investigated in terms of college adjustment.

Method. The sample …