Liberal Studies Commons^™

From Reluctance To Resilience: The Link Between Attitude And Growth Mindset In Calculus Students, Olivia Valente, Kathryn E. Pedings-Behling, Amy N. Langville

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Many postsecondary students enter general education mathematics courses with negative attitudes, shaping their willingness to engage with the content. This study explores the relationship between students’ attitudes towards mathematics and their growth mindset, revealing effective strategies to enhance learning experiences, particularly for students who are reluctant learners. The research investigates two questions: (1) How do students’ Attitude Toward Mathematics Inventory (ATMI) scores and Growth Mindset Scale (GMS) scores relate? and (2) Do gender or course modality affect this relationship? This study addresses a gap in literature by examining how enjoyment, motivation, self-confidence, and perceived value connect with growth mindset. The …

Teaching (In) Community: Reflection And Relationship In The Writing Methods Course, Kristie Jolley, Emily Stephens Kasper, Meridith Reed

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article, three writing teachers, one a writing teacher educator, reflect on how the writing methods course has shaped their work as teachers and helped them build community and identify resources to adapt to new teaching contexts and challenges.

Our Journeys As Teachers Of Writing: Learning From Our Mentor, Tracey T. Flores, Cecilia Espinosa

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Written in two voices, we reflect on our journeys as teachers of writing and teacher educators shaped by transformative mentoring in literacy methods courses at Arizona State University and community embedded learning at William T. Machan School. Weaving together sociocultural and translanguaging theories, we explore how being invited to write from our lives reshaped our identities as writers and educators. In our work, we draw on strength-based approaches to teaching writers that centers voice, meaning making, multilingualism, and funds of knowledge. In the midst of an increase in the use of a scripted curriculum, we argue for reclaiming writing as …

Writing Workshop Methods Course As Catalysts For Long-Term Pedagogical Identity: A Co-Authored Narrative Of Resonance, Resilience, And Effects, Elsie L. Olan Dr., M.Priscilla Develder

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

Writing workshop methods courses introduce teachers to foundational practices for teaching writing, yet their long-term influence on teacher identity and instructional decision-making often remains underexamined. This co-authored narrative explores how experiences within a graduate-level writing workshop shaped the pedagogical development of two educators: a professor who designed and facilitated the course and a former graduate student who went on to teach English Language Arts (ELA) in both elementary and higher education settings. Drawing on a 60-hour shadowing experience, the narrative analyzes classroom observations, reflective writing, and dialogic exchanges to illuminate three central themes: resonance, resilience, and effects that demonstrate how …

“Ummm I Don’T Know If I Took A Writing Methods Course”: Learning From In-Service Teachers Revisiting The Methods Course, Christina Saidy, Isabelle Alize Meza, Talia Baca

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this article two teachers and their writing methods professor explore the challenges of the traditional methods course. In sharing the teachers’ experiences of retaking the methods course, they argue for the need to consider ways that practicing teachers can revisit the methods course to develop sustainable practices for the teaching of writing in secondary schools.

The Good Ghosts Of Process And Models: What Endures From The Composition Methods Course [Special Issue], Rebecca Powell, Jonathan Rivera, Heather Serpas

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines how secondary English teachers understand and implement writing pedagogy in their classrooms years after completing a writing methods course. Through reflective interviews and written responses from teachers in their fifth through seventh years of practice, we explore the tensions between pedagogical ideals learned in teacher preparation and the institutional pressures of contemporary schooling. Key themes include the influence of standardized testing on writing instruction, the challenge of maintaining process-oriented approaches amid curriculum standardization, and the ways teachers adapt their methods course learning to their specific school contexts.

“I Want To Teach That Way”: What We Learn In A Writing Methods Class [Special Issue], Brad Jacobson, Ana S. Muñoz, Paola Vianney Trevizo

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

In this dialogic essay, a teacher educator and two early career teachers discuss the influence of a writing methods course on their pedagogy in practice. The conversation focuses on a digital testimonio task that instilled values the early career teachers continue to bring to their teaching, including an expanded conception of what counts as writing and a critical, humanizing approach to literacy education. Moreover, the challenges they experienced as preservice teachers when composing a digital text helped them to see the value of a scaffolded writing process, demonstrating the value of experiential learning. While the digital testimonio project itself was …

From Corrector To Reader: Pre-Service Teachers’ Writing Values And Feedback, Amanda Brewer

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This study investigates the written feedback practices of secondary English Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to understand how their values regarding "good" writing influence their comments on student work. Through analysis of feedback on 10th-grade writing samples and value-sorting surveys, the study examines their feedback tendencies and the links with their values. Findings indicate a significant shift over the semester from a directive, deficit-based "corrector" stance to a facilitative, asset-based "reader" stance. The data suggests that when PSTs lack specific metalinguistic language, they default to generic advice or mechanical correction. However, when instructed to align their feedback with their core writing values, …

Building A Foundation: Preservice Teachers' Exploration Of Writing Studies - Special Issue, Ellen Shelton

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article examines the Concept Exploration Essay assignment in a writing studies course that encourages PSTs to explore and question writing theories as they connect to their own experiences and understandings. The focus of the course is to develop an understanding of the self as a writer and as a future writing teacher through practical application of composition theory. Students are invited into the Burkean Parlor and enter the conversation as scholars. The students explore, question, and trouble complex writing theories in a dialogic classroom. PSTs leave the course empowered with the knowledge they can allow their future students the …

Introduction: Echoes, Effects, And Resonance: Examining The Writing Methods Course, Elizabeth Thackeray Nelson, Erinn Bentley, Jonathan E. Bush

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

No abstract provided.

‘It’S A Win-Win Situation’— Cultivating University & School Partnerships, Emily Wisniewski, Kelly Virgin, Pauline Skowron Schmidt

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This qualitative case study examines Writing Zones, a fifteen-year university–high school partnership that embeds preservice English teachers in secondary classrooms as writing mentors. Drawing on surveys from 20 preservice teachers and eight high school teachers, along with follow-up interviews, the study explores perceptions of preparation, support, and program impact. Findings highlight Writing Zones as a mutually beneficial model that enhances student writing through individualized support while providing authentic, field-based learning for preservice teachers. However, effectiveness was conditional, shaped by mentor preparedness, clarity of roles, communication, and scheduling. The study underscores the importance of intentional training, sustained relationships, and institutional alignment …

Dismantling Future Writing Teachers’ English-Only Assumptions: Composing Videos To Learn The Value Of Linguistic And Cultural Inclusion, Ann N. Amicucci

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

This article presents the results of a study of 12 students’ video composing assignments and accompanying reflections in which students, all of whom were future writing teachers enrolled in an undergraduate TESOL course, examined how well public spaces acknowledged and included multilingual individuals. Students’ videos and reflections demonstrated that the assignment dismantled these future writing teachers’ assumptions that multilingual writers learn best in an English-only environment but perpetuated perceptions of languages as discrete rather than intertwined. Findings are discussed within the context of scholarship on writing teacher education and English-only policy and practice in the U.S.

Integral Education, Institutional Solidarity: A Response To Arturo Sosa’S 2025 Iaju Address, Paul L. Lynch

Jesuit Higher Education: A Journal

During the 2025 meeting of the International Association of Jesuit Universities (IAJU) at the Pontifica Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, Jesuit Superior General Arturo Sosa offered the keynote address, “The Jesuit University: Witness to Hope, Creative and Dialogical Presence.” He urged the global university apostolate to respond to our common challenges: the climate crisis, political reactionism, institutional mistrust, and economic inequality. The Jesuit university, he insisted, must reimagine itself in order to respond to these threats. But the precise manner in which Jesuit universities should respond must still be articulated. This essay begins that project. It opens with an analysis …

Defending The Humanities: Introduction To The Special Issue On “Why The Humanities Matter”, Megan Hutchinson

Critical Humanities

Introduction to the Special Issue

Defending the Humanities: “why the Humanities Matter”

Centering Joy And Connection: Returning To Instruction After Hurricane Helene, Megan Keiser

Current Issues in Middle Level Education

This descriptive essay focuses on one teacher educator's response to a disrupted academic semester after a natural disaster that threatened to erode a service-learning designated interdisciplinary methods course for middle grades educators. This essay shares the process of pivoting to retain critical elements of the course. Reinforcing the use of resilience-informed pedagogy and modeling use of advisories, the instructor focused on developing a cohesive classroom community. Other aspects of the course revamp include offering differentiated service-learning opportunities. Centering teacher candidates’ joy and modeling best practices for middle level educators, the instructor describes project-based learning, a multidisciplinary literacy experience with a …

International Students In Early American Forensics: Notes On The History Of The U.S.-Japan Forensics Relationship During The Late 19th And Early 20th Centuries, Satoru Aonuma, Junya Morooka, Tomohiro Kanke

Studies in Debate and Oratory

Ending 215 years of “national seclusion,” in 1854, Japan ratified the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with the United States and opened its doors to the rest of the world. Because of this special bilateral relationship, between the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, more Japanese began traveling to the U.S. than to any other country. Focusing on young Japanese who went to the U.S. as students and participated in debate and oratorical education during this period, this essay will re-examine the history of the U.S.-Japan relationship in terms of academic debate and oratory. During this period, American …

News Briefs, Marvin H. Jeter Iii, Joyce Shaw

Mississippi Libraries

News updates from Gunter Library at the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory and from the Mississippi Library Commission.

Partnering With Students To Create A Positive Image Of Mathematics, Manmohan Kaur

Journal of Humanistic Mathematics

In a 1989 paper, Barbeau states, “Probably no area of human activity is as afflicted as mathematics with a gap between the public perception of its nature and what its practitioners believe it to be.” Decades later, the situation is much the same. With the technical advances in the contemporary world, mathematics affects our day-to-day activities in essential ways such as e-commerce and credit card security. Mathematical problem solving intrinsically requires creative and critical thinking. However, mathematics is often perceived as uninventive, sterile, static, and removed from human needs and culture. This paper describes how mathematicians can own the image …

Culturally Sustaining Literacy Practices: Insights From Pre-Service Educators, Patricia E. Lane

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

The research question for this paper is: How does the tenet culturally sustaining pedagogy of the Integrated Teacher Education Program bridge and/or buffer pre-service teachers’ literacy experiences? Through the use of a case study, the researcher examines Integrated Teacher Education Program (ITEP) pre-service educators’ experiences incorporating culturally sustaining pedagogy into the literacy classroom, while also investigating whether these practices serve to bridge and/or buffer pre-service teachers’ experiences (Honig & Hatch, 2004).

Atmospheres Create Interest: Experiencing And Utilizing Shared Situations, Andreas Rauh

Duquesne Studies in Phenomenology

Even though atmospheres are usually only subtly perceived in the manner of a felt body in everyday life, they possess a specific efficacy. They hold the potential to address people in their felt-bodily constitution and to arouse interest in the shared situation. In the following, the phenomenon of atmosphere is explored through case analyses from an art education project and defined as a shared situation in contrast to affect and mood. This is followed by an examination of the fundamental importance of atmosphere for learning environments. With a focus on pedagogical relationships, the role of atmospheres in educational contexts and …

Table Of Contents - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Front Matter - Jaepl - Volume 30, Wendy Ryden

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Full Issue Of The Journal Of The Assembly For Expanded Perspectives On Learning Volume 30, Wendy Ryden, Jonathan M. Marine

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

No abstract provided.

Writing Without Peter: Reflections On Peter Elbow And His Legacy: Peter Elbow The Philosopher, Irene Papoulis

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

On the occasion of Peter Elbow’s passing, we read many tributes and praises commemorating him and the foundational contributions he made to the multi-faceted field of writing studies. But as we know, even as Peter’s ideas were lauded and embraced, they were also questioned by many, including other renowned members of our profession.

“Narrative Medicine Saved My Life”: Writing Is A Verb As Well As A Noun, Marian M. Maccurdy, Sarah Robinson

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Dedicated to Professor Peter Elbow 4/14/1935 – 2/6/2025

I, Marian, began my career as a graduate student in medieval literature who had a teaching assistantship to fund her degree. As a graduate student I lived in a world that saw writing as a noun, something done and finished, not as a verb, a process that shows us a world that is as ever-changing as we are. But as a writing teacher I found myself sliding into the world that writers inhabit, and

The Giving And The Receiving: Spiritual Traditions And Teaching, Aepl Summer Conference 2025, Estes Park, Co., Bhushan Aryal, Beverly Brannon, Geri Deluca, Nate Mickelson, Laurence Musgrove, Kristin B. Rajan, Adrian Matt Zytkoskee

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Editor’s note: This past year, AEPL held its first full, in-person conference since the pandemic at our beloved Estes Park location in the Rockies. To commemorate the return of this staple event for our organization, here’s a snapshot of one of the workshops, led by immediate past AEPL Chair, Geraldine DeLuca, “Writing Our Spiritual Autobiographies,” in which DeLuca asked attendees to consider, where and how did we begin, spiritually? What sustains us now? Deluca provided three prompts by Wallace Stevens, Karen Armstrong, and Audre Lorde to aid attendees in their reflection and writing processes. These prompts appear at the end …

Review: Williams, Bronwyn T. Literacies In Times Of Disruption: Living And Learning During A Pandemic., Ashna Singh

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

This review is structured around three central concepts that Williams develops throughout this book: affect, assemblages, and the connection between memory and identity. In Literacies in Times of Disruption: Living and Learning During a Pandemic, Williams focuses on the narratives of over thirty university students at the University of Louisville to examine how their literacy practices and emerging identities were influenced by physical, emotional, and structural crises.

Bringing Mindfulness Into First-Year Composition, Matt Lemas

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

I first stumbled upon the relationship between mindfulness and writing sometime after college. I had been meditating for a few years—not perfectly, but enough to notice the way it softened the inner critic and procrastinator that usually accompanied me to the page.

James Moffett’S Basic Principles, Jonathan M. Marine, Stephen Lafer

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

The tricky part about trying to distill James Moffett’s basic principles is that there are so many of them. In literature, the “major” poets are separated form the “minor” for a number of reasons, but one critical criteria is development; major poets have to develop across the span of their careers, either writing in new forms, or about and with new ideas or themes. Suffice to say, Moffett developed a great deal across his career, from a focus on pedagogy to a focus on spirituality and mindfulness along with increasing consideration of educational assessment and policy. Of course, I’m overgeneralizing …

Book Reviews Introduction: Is It Just Me?, Curtis Porter

The Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning

Each of the reviews in this issue of JAEPL focus on a book that was published long before this particular crisis. The books span very different academic fields and very different research methodologies. Yet each reviewer gives a glimpse of how the research behind each book emerged from lived challenges and illustrates how that research sheds light on the daily work and daily struggle that we collectively face.