Educational Methods Commons^™

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editors' Message

Morris Berman tells the story of his maternal grandfather, who, when he was five years old in 1883 or 1884, was sent to a Jewish elementary school in Belorussia. On the first day of class, the teacher startled the young boy by taking each child's slate and smearing the first two letters of the Hebrew alphabet—aleph and beys—on it in honey. His grandfather's first lesson consisted of eating the letters off the slate. The symbolism of this act is complex, Berman muses, but central to the ritual is the belief that what is real must be taken into …

Imperfection: The Will-To-Control And The Struggle Of Letting Go, W. Keith Duffy

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

As I found myself beginning to appropriate my students' writing more and more, I wondered if this was evidence of a spiritual imbalance—an unwillingness to acknowledge my own imperfection as a teacher and human being.

A Poetics Of Student Writing, Dennis Young

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Focusing on student reflective essays about learning writing, I rely on depth psychology and hermeneutics to illustrate the image-making, poetic dimension of student work.

Being There: Revising The Discourse Of Emotion And Teaching, Dale Jacobs

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This essay explores the fine line that exists between teacher engagement and teacher burnout and suggests strategies for teachers and mentors of teachers to help negotiate this line.

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Front Matter

Felt Sensing Of Speech Acts In Written Genre Acquisition, Randall Popken

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This paper theorizes about the experiential dimension of acquiring rhetorical genres—specifically the way developing writers rely on felt sensing when they encounter the "core" of genres: illocutionary speech acts.

Teacher Growing Pains, Carolina Mancuso

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reflecting on a teacher education course which incorporated experiential learning in an exploratory pedagogy, the author examines how the relationship between teachers and students can affect both personal and professional lives, particularly in periods of individual transition.

Flow, Centering, And The Classroom: Wisdom From An Ancient Friend, Lorie Heggie

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Understanding "flow" and drawing on the metaphor of the dialectic that occurs between horse and rider can guide us to create a centered classroom.

Connecting, Helen Walker, Laura Milner, Candace Walworth, Dave Waddell, Vic Kryston, Richard L. Graves

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Laura Milner—Steve's Story.

Candace Walworth—War & Peace in a Two-Car Garage.

Dave Waddell—Caring.

Vic Kryston—Ralph and the Unexpected Fix.

Richard L. Graves—The Abraham Dream.

Reviews, Lisa Tyler, Fran Claggett, Bruce Novak, Neal Lerner

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Lisa Tyler. Writing and Healing: Toward an Informed Practice. (Charles M. Anderson and Marian M. MacCurdy, eds., 2000).

Fran Claggett. Revisioning Writers' Talk: Gender and Culture in Acts of Composing. (Mary Ann Cain, 1995).

Bruce Novak. Tomorrow's Children: A Blueprint for Partnership Education in the 21st Century. (Riane Eisler, 2000).

Neal Lerner. Stories from the Center: Connecting Narrative and Theory in the Writing Center. (Lynn Craigue Briggs and Meg Woolbright, eds., 2000).

Discredited Metaphors Of Mind Limit Our Vision, Marilyn Middendorf

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Teachers will be intrigued by recent discoveries in "the brain sciences" and the new metaphors of consciousness they suggest.

Back Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Women In Public Middle School Administration In Georgia: A Feminist Analysis Of The Perceptions Of Women In Power, Karen L. Doty

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

The field of educational leadership is currently experiencing an era of educational change. Women who work in primarily male-dominated careers as principals of middle schools have experienced a variety of complex issues related to their leadership roles and their gender roles. There has been a notable increase in the number of female principals in Georgia, and in the nation, therefore the role of the principal was studied to determine how much this role has changed. Feminist standpoint theory was used to provide different insights and perspectives about the problem of marginalization of women in educational administration. Georgia middle school principals …

The Widening Gyre: Images As Central To The Global Village, Mark Smith

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The image is emerging as the lingua franca of technological culture, both resurrecting characteristics of pre-literate classicism and consolidating the global community.

The Evaluation Of Education Systems: Insecurity Through Testing?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some fallacies in a common approach to employing the testing of students in evaluating education systems.

Querida Prima, Dear Prima : A Story For Children Seven To Ten Years Old, Stephanie Hermann

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This project is an original bilingual story of two cousins who live in two different countries. The United States and Costa Rica. They bridge their separation by writing letters and emails throughout the story. Through this correspondence they learn about each other and the have more in common in their seemingly distinct worlds than they realize. The text of the book is written in English. The correspondence between the two characters is in English with Spanish translations.

This thesis includes a rationale which explains the need for this book in a world that recognizes the importance of bilingualism and on …

Water In Our Neighborhood A Study Of The Neighborhood With A Focus On Water An Integrated Curriculum For Six And Seven Year Old Children, Simone Graniela

Graduate Student Independent Studies

This unit was developed and created for children as an interdisciplinary study for a New York City public school setting in the Bronx. Through trips, children learn about the goods and services provided as well as the various ways water is used within the neighborhood The curriculum allows for many opportunities for parents to be partners in their children's education which is emphasized throughout the lesson plans provided.

Transforming Experiences: The Benefits Of Intellectual Risk, John Strassburger

Publications

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

Front Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor's Message

Zen students, Charlotte Joko Beck tells us, have a job to do, "a very important job: to bring . . . life out of dreamland and into the real and immense reality that it is" (12). The goal and the way to the goal are the same: mindfulness, a return to the clear experience of the present moment, within which the artificial dualism separating self and object dissolves. To be mindful is to be aware, The American Heritage Dictionary says, to hold in the fullness of mind rather than to be destitute of mind or consciousness. Mindfulness is …

Writer Motivation: Beyond The Intrinsic/ Extrinsic Dichotomy, Bradford A. Barry

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This article articulates and develops a much needed theory of communication motivation which shows how we can nurture in our students rhetorically-based intrinsic motivations.

The Ethics Of Empathy: Making Connections In The Writing Classroom, Kia Jane Richmond

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Kia Jane Richmond teaches composition and ESL at Illinois State University, where she is completing her Ph.D. in English Studies. Her focus is on the intersection between emotions and the teaching of composition at the college level.

The Architectonics Of Information: Ancient Topical Thought And Postmodern Information, Catherine L. Hobbs

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This paper examines the usefulness of thought patterns from ancient rhetoric as they have been appropriated historically and as potentially applicable concepts for the present and future in today's interlinked electronic environment.

An earlier version of this paper, first delivered as part of a panel at the Rhetoric Society of America meeting at Tucson in May 1 996, was delivered and published as "The Architectonics of Information: Ancient Topical Thought and Postmodern Cognition" in Proceedings of the Mid-America Symposium on E merging Computer Technologies, October 1 996. (The published papers are available in "Information Problems" at http://www.ou.edu/cas/english/agora/). I would like …

Learning From Everyone, David Bleich

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

In the teaching of writing and literature, it would be helpful to teachers and students to encourage students to overtake, use, and reuse one another's various uses of language in essays and other course work.

This essay was the keynote address at the Fourth Annual Colorado Conference of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning in Estes Park, Colorado in June 1998.

Narratives Of Pain: Trauma And The Healing Power Of Writing, Lisa Tyler

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Writing about traumatic events is useful, healing, and meaningful, and such work deserves a place in the composition classroom.

Jaepl, Vol. 5, Winter 1999-2000

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Essays

David Bleich. Learning from Everyone. In the teaching of writing and literature, it would be helpful to teachers and students to encourage students to overtake, use, and reuse one another's various uses of language in essays and other course work.

Lisa Tyler. Narratives of Pain: Trauma and the Healing Power of Writing. Writing about traumatic events is useful, healing, and meaningful, and such work deserves a place in the composition classroom.

Bradford A. Barry. Writer Motivation: Beyond the Intrinsic/Extrinisic Dichotomy. This article articulates and develops a much needed theory of communication motivation which shows how we …

Back Matter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Spirituality In Pedagogy: "A Field Of Possibilities", Susan A. Schiller

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Students' responses to a spiritual approach to teaching provide evidence of the efficacy inherent in such an approach.

Reviews, Anne E. Mullin, Keith Rhodes, Ellen Davis, Jean R. Trounstine

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Reviews

Anne E. Mullin. Teaching Writing Creatively. (David Starkey, Ed., 1998).

Keith Rhodes. Zen in the Art of Rhetoric: An Inquiry into Coherence. (Mark Lawrence McPhail, 1996).

Ellen Davis. Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women. (Jane Hirshfield, Ed., 1994).

Jean R. Trounstine. Educational Drama and Language Arts: What Research Shows. (Betty Jane Wagner, 1998).

A Study Of Elementary Teachers' Attitudes Toward Mathematics Instruction And Mathematics Teaching Methods Used In The Elementary Classroom, William Otis Lacefield Iii

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations (1964–2006)

This study involved an investigation of elementary (grades K-4) teachers' attitudes toward mathematics instruction and the mathematics teaching methods elementary teachers plan and implement in the classroom setting. The population consisted of 492 elementary teachers (grades K-4) currently teaching in the Bibb County, Georgia, Public School System. The sample represented a cluster sampling of the population and consisted of 90 elementary teachers currently teaching in six public elementary schools. One inner city school, four suburban schools, and one rural/semirural school were randomly selected. The research design used was a correlational design. The sets of data considered were elementary teachers' self-expressed …

Challenging The Norms: Democracy, Empowering Education, And Negotiating The Curriculum, Joshua Sean Thomases

All Faculty and Staff Papers and Presentations

Discusses the principles of a democratic classroom, and how implementing these principles can create a powerful environment where extensive and in-depth learning truly happens.