College of Education Dissertations Collection

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14394/113

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A Program Evaluation of a Policy Intervention to Increase Racial Diversity in the Sciences and Engineering
(2013-09) Gomez Yepes, Ricardo Leon
This dissertation is an evaluation of an intervention designed to (a) increase the number of minority students who pursue graduate degrees in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines, and (b) to develop a cadre of qualified individuals from minority backgrounds who, upon finishing their training, are ready to take positions as faculty members and mentors. The Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) is a program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to support a pathway from undergraduate to graduate school and to a career in the professoriate. AGEP is part of an effort by the U.S. Government to keep the nations' competitive edge; redress historical gender and racial inequalities still prevalent at the higher levels of science and academia; and to use those who have reached the top of their professions as effective role models for the thousands of talented youth who are excluded from STEM fields due to real or perceived social, economic, or cultural barriers. As of September 2012, there were 178 colleges and universities grouped in 37 alliances nationwide and serving approximately 22,000 minority doctoral students. Specifically, this evaluation focuses on one alliance situated in the North Region of the United States, and presents the approaches, rationale, and findings of evaluation activities conducted during 2011 through 2012. The overarching goals of this evaluation were to assist program managers and staff in their efforts to improve the quality and effectiveness of the program, and to provide them with information related to the program's contribution to increasing the recruitment and retention of students from underrepresented minorities (URMs) in STEM graduate programs, their transition into the professoriate, and the strength of the program's theory of change. To achieve these goals the evaluation design included a) the reconstruction of the program's theory, b) a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing research; and c) analysis of primary data collected from a sample of current AGEP students, alumni, faculty, staff, and program officers. Primary data were collected through focus groups, interviews, and electronic surveys for current and former participants. The evaluation found evidence that the North Region program has been largely successful in contributing to the number of URM receiving STEM graduate degrees at both the master's and doctoral levels in North Carolina since its inception in 1999. Those who have received their graduate degrees are employed in academic and non-academic settings as practitioners, researchers, and as university faculty. Probably the most significant weakness was the absence of a systematic or coherent evaluation design of the program that could be found throughout the history of the program.
"Miss, Miss, I've Got a Story!": Exploring Identity Through a Micro-Ethnographic Analysis of Lunchtime Interactions with Four Somali Third Grade Students
(2013-05) Kosha, Jean Marie
This study is an exploration of the ways in which four Somali students use language to express their identity and assert their views. The study explores the ways in which the Somali students' home culture and the school culture influence the development of their identity. Students participated in a lunchtime focus group on a regular basis over a period of several weeks. Using a micro-ethnographic approach to analysis, the students' interactions were reviewed while considering the ways in which knowledge was affirmed and contested, examples of intertextuality and intercontextuality were identified, and ideational notations or larger world view constructs were pinpointed. In this approach, specific events and interactions were linked to the broader contexts and connections that the participants were using in their communications. The result suggests a new and deeper understanding of the way in which these Somali learners use language to express their identity and negotiate the world. As a result of the examination of their interactions, educators can take from these participants' experiences some ideas about issues to consider when working with second language learners and their families. In this study students used language to assert their own identities as well as to position others in the group. These identities were continually negotiated by students and teachers alike. Students at times pushed back against ways in which they were identified. The Somali learners spoke of changing roles in the family as a result of learning English and being relied on to translate for parents who were non-English speakers. There were occasions where students used language in meaningful and contextually appropriate ways, but without understanding the power of the terms they used. Teachers have a significant role to play in shaping learners use of language and terms and guiding them to a more nuanced understanding of language. By examining children's language, it became apparent that teachers can provide critical information to help parents of second language learners negotiate the school and district resources. Students did express their Somali language and culture as they negotiated their school experience.
A Professional Development Program for the Mother Tongue-Based Teacher: Addressing Teacher Perceptions and Attitudes Towards MTBMLE
(2012-05) Paulson Stone, Rebecca J
This study investigates teacher attitudes about language and education. The purpose of the study is to help program designers develop professional development efforts that successfully address some of the major identified challenges teachers face when transitioning into Mother Tongue Based Multi-Lingual Education (MTBMLE), including negative attitudes. It also suggests protocols and issues that trainers should consider when designing professional development for MTBMLE teachers. The research question guiding this study is: 1. Do teachers' attitudes towards and knowledge about mother tongue-based instruction change after they participate in professional development that is consistent with good professional development practice? a. What were teachers' knowledge and attitudes about MTBMLE before the professional development program? b. Did teachers' knowledge and attitudes change after participating in the professional development program? c. Why did teachers hold particular attitudes towards MTBMLE prior to professional development and what factors influenced their change? I conducted this research during a three-month MTBMLE professional development program with a group of indigenous first grade teachers and their school principals in Save the Children's outreach areas in rural Mindanao in the Philippines. I used a Q sort methodology for initial interviews conducted with a subset of five first grade teachers followed by a second interview after the professional development program. The interview data showed that teachers came into the trainings with two distinct viewpoints; mother tongue supporters and one mother tongue resister. After the professional development program, however, teachers were all more positive about using the mother tongue as the language of instruction. Interviews revealed that teachers were more positive and confident in teaching the mother tongue when they had the opportunity to: 1) spend time learning about their own language, 2) create mother tongue teaching and learning materials, and 3) reflect on their early learning experiences and experience what it is like to learn in a language that is not familiar. This paper will discuss the research findings in depth and will provide a clearer picture of how to train and support teachers who are transitioning into MTBMLE.
A program evaluation of school-wide positive behavior support in an alternative education setting
(2009-05) Weinberger, Elana Rachel
The current program evaluation of school-wide positive behavior support (PBS) in an alternative education setting was conducted in three phases (Phase 1: initial evaluation; Phase 2: intervention; Phase 3: follow up evaluation). The purpose of the evaluation was to identify strengths and weaknesses of the PBS program and to implement changes to improve program effectiveness and positive outcomes for students. An exploratory case study design was used to achieve an in-depth understanding of the program through the use of quantitative and qualitative data collection. The evaluation was completed within one school year, between November 2007 and May 2008. The participants in this evaluation were the students and staff of the alternative school. Quantitative data included behavioral data on the students, inter-observer agreement data, and survey data; qualitative data included survey data and data from student and staff focus groups. Overall, the evaluation was successful in that the evaluators were able to identify strengths and weaknesses, and areas of concern to be addressed through interventions. The evaluators were able to implement a variety of interventions, and received feedback that the interventions were successful. Although student behaviors were not effectively changed as a result of this evaluation, the evaluators did develop a plan for ongoing evaluation, future trainings and program modifications, to be implemented over the course of the 2008-2009 school year.
A New Approach to Using Photographs and Classroom Response Systems in Middle School Astronomy Classes
(2012-05) Lee, Hyun Ju
This study reports middle school astronomy classes that implemented photographs and classroom response systems (CRSs) in a discussion-oriented pedagogy with a curriculum unit for the topics of day-night and cause of seasons. In the new pedagogy, a teacher presented conceptual questions with photographs, her 6th grade students responded using the CRSs, and the teacher facilitated classroom discussion based on the student responses. I collected various data: classroom observation with field-note taking and videotaping, student pre- and post-conception tests, student attitude survey and classroom short surveys, and teacher interviews. Classroom video recordings and teacher interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed with the grounded theory approach. This approach was used to analyze the open responses of the student attitude survey as well. Pre- and post- conception tests consisted of open-ended questions and they were scored based upon rubrics. Numerical data were analyzed with descriptive statistics and simple t-tests. In this study, I answered three research questions: 1) student-teacher discourses and interaction patterns while learning and teaching with the photographs and CRSs in the new pedagogy; 2) 6th grade students’ misconceptions about the concepts of day-night and cause of seasons, and their knowledge gains after they had the intervention; and 3) the students’ and the teacher’s attitude toward the new curriculum and the new pedagogy. Finally, I discuss the student-teacher interaction model and three important teacher-questionings in this pedagogy; levels of misconceptions; and the pedagogical roles of the photographs and CRSs.
A Study of Pre-Service Teachers: Is it Really Mathematics Anxiety?
(2009-05) Guillory Bryant, Marsha Marie
This research study was motivated by a hypothesis, generated on the basis of formal and informal observations, personal and professional experiences, discussions with prospective teachers and a pilot study conducted by this author; that pre-service teachers have a high level of mathematics anxiety and negative attitudes about mathematics. The primary purpose of this research was to examine the relationship between mathematics anxiety and pre-service teachers. The secondary purposes of this study were to examine the relationship between anxiety and performance and to examine the relationship between math anxiety, test anxiety, and stereotype threat. A quantitative experimental research design was used to investigate the research questions. The population consisted of prospective teachers at colleges and universities in Louisiana. The sets of data are mathematics anxiety of prospective teachers, a test anxiety inventory and a mathematics performance task. A personal data questionnaire was used to gather demographic information and attitudinal information about the participants. The implications of this study for elementary teacher education programs point to increased attention on the mathematics anxiety of pre-service teachers. This process is two-fold. One, it is recommended that pre-service teachers be made aware of their mathematics anxiety level and their attitudes about mathematics and two, it is recommended that teacher education programs acknowledge and address the importance of these affective variables and their role in pedagogy.
A Process of Becoming: U.S. Born African American and Black Women in the Process of Liberation From Internalized Racism
(2011-05) Williams, Tanya Ovea
Internalized racism is a contributing factor to the inability of African Americans to overcome racism. (Speight, 2007) Because this is a cognitive phenomenon over which individuals can have agency, it is important to study, understand, and seek out ways that African Americans are able to gain a liberatory perspective in the midst of a racist society. By using colonization psychology and post-traumatic slave psychology to define the phenomenon, and Jackson’s Black identity development model theory to ground and analyze participants’ process of liberation, this study used phenomenological in-depth interviewing to understand the experiences of African American and Black women who have gained more consciousness of their internalized racism. The researcher interviewed 11 U.S. Born African American and Black women for an hour and a half to gain their understanding of internalized racism and liberation. The study found that Black and African American women in a process of liberation 1) move from experiencing lack of control to an experience of having agency; 2) gain agency from developing greater knowledge and pride of a positive black identity; 3) replace negative socialization with a knowledge of self; and 4) are supported in their liberation by a systemic analysis of racism. The study also found that 1) internalized racism and liberation are complexly defined phenomena, 2) participants continued to practice manifestations of internalized racism while practicing a liberatory consciousness, which confirms the theories of the cyclical nature of identity, and 3) racial identity development models offer a framework for understanding a transition from internalized racism towards liberation but lack clarity about how transformation actually occurs.
A Phenomenological Study of the Experiences of Helping Professionals With Learning Disabilities
(2010-02) Peters, Madeline Lorraine
The purpose of this study is to explore the extent, to which professionals in helping professions (PHPS) with learning disabilities are able to name the support, services, and assistance that they require to successfully engage in the full range of activities for their daily living. Additionally, the study explores how PHPS describe their experiences with support, services, and assistance available to them. The study was conducted using a qualitative, phenomenological in-depth interview methodology. The study sample consisted of 10 helping professionals with learning disabilities that work in helping professions. Data was collected using audiotaping of interviews and field notes. Audio tapes were transcribed and data from the transcriptions was analyzed for this study. Nine major themes emerged from the analysis of the study data the themes were disability, daily living, oppression, self-esteem, self-reflection, creative management, creative management adaptive behaviors, services and support. Key findings from the study suggest that professionals in helping professions (PHPs) with learning disabilities are creative, strong willed and persevere despite the odds. Most of the PHPs went through school without accommodations and relied upon their own abilities and determination to pass. Two out of the ten PHPs were diagnosed with learning disabilities when they were children. Three of the PHPs were born before learning disabilities were formalized and labeled as a disability. The data suggests that people with learning disabilities need support, services and assistance in all areas of their daily living. Recommendations for change are provided for addressing the problematic themes that emerged from the data.
A Blog-Mediated Curriculum for Teaching Academic Genres in an Urban Classroom: Second Grade ELL Students’ Emergent Pathways to Literacy Development
(2009-09) Shin, Dong-shin
This dissertation examines the academic and social goals that three second-grade English language learners in a U.S. urban school bring to their blog-mediated academic writing practices, and the interrelated nature of those goals. This study aims to bridge the dichotomy between approaches to studying computer-mediated language and literacy development that are oriented toward academic goals inside school, and those that are oriented toward social goals outside school. The study also aims to investigate connections between language use and language development by highlighting linguistic features of semiotic choices that the students made for their texts. This builds upon recent research studies of literacy practices that focus only on situated uses of literacy in various social and cultural contexts (Christie & Martin, 2007). In this study, learning is defined as appropriation and language is defined as a semiotic system, from sociocultural perspectives that capture the transformative nature of tool-mediated practices (Bakhtin, 1981; Halliday, 1985; Kress, 1998; Vygotsky, 1978). Ethnographic data collected over the course of a year include students’ texts, blog comments, videotaped classroom interactions, interviews, instructional materials, and school documents. Analysis of the data examines student goals, semiotic choices employed by the students, and roles adopted by the students, in the social processes of learning academic genres. Systemic functional linguistics is used to analyze register variables across texts and blogging comments, to examine changes in the students’ uses of linguistic resources. The findings demonstrate that students appropriate blogging for both academic and social goals, and compose their texts by drawing on linguistic features appropriate for goals related to the audiences reading their blog posts. Writing for meaningful goals and for wider audiences encourages ELLs to become more invested in learning, and to use linguistic patterns in context-dependent ways. The study concludes with a discussion of the significance of social goals in developing critical academic literacies (Gebhard, Harman, & Seger, 2007), and implications for K-12 educators who are attempting to open up curricular spaces in which all stakeholders collaboratively work toward transformative learning experiences for ELLs (Willett & Rosenberger, 2005).
"For a future tomorrow": The figured worlds of schoolgirls in Kono, Sierra Leone
(2014) Hale, Jordene
Current research in Sub-Sahara Africa suggests that young women face challenges in accessing and completing schooling, due among other things to gender related school based violence (Bruce & Hallman, 2008; Dunne, Humphreys, & Leach, 2006; Lloyd, Kaufman, & Hewett, 2000). These studies, while valuable in providing documentation on school enrollment and school leaving, do not explore the motivational framework where young women remain in school. The purpose of this dissertation is to trace how schoolgirls’ identities or “figured worlds” (Gee, 2011) are co-constructed in particular contexts by the same cohort of schoolgirls, their teachers, households, and communities through an ethnographic case study conducted over a period of three years from 2010 to 2013 in Kono, Sierra Leone. The unit of analysis is the experience of the individual schoolgirls rendered in detailed portraits. The central research question addressed is: What are the ‘figured worlds’ that these schoolgirls inhabit that compels them, in the face of overwhelming odds, to commit to schooling? What is the role of “imagined communities” for these schoolgirls (Anderson, 1991; Kanno & Norton, 2003)? Further, how do the schoolgirls utilize the liminal space of schooling (Switzer, 2010)? Employing the portraiture methodology (Lawrence-Lightfoot & Hoffman Davis, 1997) this research focuses on three schoolgirls, their communities, and their relationships with the researcher. This research analyzes how for schoolgirls in sub-Sahara Africa, the figured worlds of schoolgirls, is an identity that despite the physical risk, economic loss, and unlikely career success, becomes compelling. This dissertation contributes to research seeking gender equity in education in sub-Sahara Africa.
"How Many Generations Will be Spoiled at the Cost of Such Compromises?" The Resolution Strategies of High School Principals in Value-Conflict Situations Between School Law and Moral Values in Azad Kashmir
(2016-09) Khawaja, Muhammad N
The phenomenon of ethical administration and decision-making in the context of school administration is a recent trend even in the Western scholarship on school administration. Although there have been a many academic endeavors in the last two decades of the 20th century to explore the ethical dimension of school leadership mainly in the works of Greenfield (1985), Starratt (1991,1994), and Hodgkinson (1996). However, in the first decade of 21st century, there have been much more concerted efforts to explore and propose theoretical models to explain the ethical dimension of school leadership. There have been a many attempts to analyze the ethical dilemmas or value-conflicts faced by school administrators by proposing new ethical paradigms. The notable examples are the works of Noddings (2003), Samier (2003), Furman (2004), Greenfield (2004), Stefkovich and O'Brien (2004), Stefkovich (2007), Shapiro and Gross (2008), Shapiro and Stefkovich (2011), and Shapiro, Stefkovich, and Gutierrez (2014). Although these theoretical approaches have a global outlook towards ethical dimension of school leadership but the context of all these theoretical endeavors is wholly western. However, this study uses the theoretical works of Hodgkinson (1996) and Stefkovich (2004, 2007, 2011, 2014) not only to ground this discussion in a theoretical context of related literature but also as an analytic framework to look into the responses of the school principals in their value-conflict situations between school law and moral values. To understand the value-conflict situations faced by government high school principals in Azad Kashmir, their resolution strategies and underlying moral frameworks, seven experienced and well-reputed effective high school principals were interviewed. The analysis of participants’ value-conflict experiences provided valuable feedback on the utility and limitations of ethical theoretical perspectives used in this study. Moreover, in the context of Azad Kashmir, this research study is a first organized inquiry to understand the difficult situations and value-conflicts epxerienced by high school principals. This study provides a peek to understand the state of public sector in Azad Kashmir. The findings of this study reveals the increasingly dysfunctional state of public sector education sector through school principals' narratives.
A Journal Club: A Scholarly Community for Preservice and Inservice Science Teachers
(2014) Tallman, Karen
This qualitative case study examines how a journal club can be used as a pedagogical tool in science teacher education. Six preservice and inservice science teachers, for seven months, participated in a journal club where they chose, read, and discussed science education research articles from problems or concerns they had in their teaching practice. The data included field notes, audio-recordings of meetings, pre- and post- interviews with all the teachers, two focus groups, artifacts collected (e.g. journal articles, reflective paper, e-mail exchanges, and researcher’s field notes). The data were analyzed using the techniques of grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2008). Unlike grounded theory, I also used preconceived categories created from existing literature on journal clubs and communities of practice (Newswander & Borrego, 2009; Tallman & Feldman, 2012; Wenger, 1998). The findings reveal the journal club functioned as a community of practice where the teachers learned how to search for and critique research articles and participated in discussions that examined the implications of educational theory to their practice. The teachers engaged in scholarly talk. Scholarly talk was defined as using three modes of collaborative discourse: critically analyzing a research article, sharing teacher anecdotes, and weighing different perspectives through exploratory talk. In the journal club, these conversations helped the teachers learn about their teaching practice and reflect on how to bring changes to their practice. It is through the collaborative conversations in the journal club that all the teachers began to examine teaching through a new lens. The findings suggest the teachers embraced the educational theory read in the journal club. They welcomed being scholars in the journal club and forming a professional network among inexperienced and experienced science teachers. The journal club provided the teachers the tools to engage with intellectual concepts and become critical thinkers and consumers of theoretical knowledge.
A Comparison Of Guided Reading And Systematic Phonics Approaches To Supplementary Reading Instruction
(2022-05) Berkowitz, Madeline R
Early mastery of reading fundamentals is essential. However currently there is a debate on the best way to teach reading. Across the US schools are choosing to use varying forms or reading curricula aligned with different pedagogies. However, not all curricula are based in empiral science. This study compares two approaches to supplementary reading instruction: guided reading and explicit phonics. A randomized controlled design was used, and first grade students were assigned to receive either explicit phonics or guided reading intervention three days per week for approximately thirty minutes each lesson. Reading fluency and a broad reading measure served as dependent variables. Results indicated that explicit phonics instruction was more effective than guided reading for students reading below grade level but was not more effective than guided reading for above grade-level. Significant results were not found for broad reading.
"Take it with You": Humanizing and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies as Racial Literacy in Undergraduate Education
(2021-05) Downey, Robert Jamaal
Given the current racially charged climate around the world, but more specifically in the US and on college campuses, we as instructors of undergraduates are vastly underserving our future generations by avoiding tough questions in the classroom surrounding race. Without the proper language and space to discuss issues surrounding race, students are left behind without the words to express how they are thinking, feeling, and dreaming. The purpose of this qualitative critical ethnographic study through a Critical Race Theory (CRT) framework is to examine the ability of humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogies to elicit racial literacy in three White undergraduate students enrolled in a general education course at a PWI. This project is a call to teach our students a new literacy—racial literacy—and provide pedagogues the tools and pathways for achieving this goal. Racial literacy is a literacy that will help them put words to feelings and experiences they’ve had but not able to articulate. This study offers insight of the positive impacts that humanizing and culturally sustaining pedagogies had on how racial literacy was learned and/or taught. The tools used to implement an ontological shift with the White student participants include: the importance of reflexivity for both the teachers and students, concrete connections between the content and theory being presented to the reality of the students, fostering pluralisms through dialogue, counternarratives and creating a Community of Practice (Wenger, 1999), and creating different ways of expression for students to express their thoughts and feelings. By implementing these tools, the results of this study concluded that all of the participants made movement toward a deeper understanding of racial literacy, albeit at different depths.
A Novel Approach to Using Personal Response Systems and Diagrams to Foster Student Engagement in Large Lecture: Case Study of Instruction for Model-Based Reasoning in Biology
(2014) Fitzgerald, Johanna M
At UMass Amherst a method of personal response system (clickers) use in large lecture biology called Guided Application of Model-based Reasoning (GAMBR) has been designed to give students experiences in reasoning like expert biologists: In large lecture biology many instructors appear to use clickers mainly as a quizzing and attendance tool. Less well documented and examined are uses of clickers to facilitate cognitive engagement in learning scientific models and skills. In GAMBR, clicker questions ask students to apply and perturb biological models; this is designed to engage them in model-based reasoning. In an attempt to understand such a course, an exploratory case study of GAMBR was conducted to examine and describe three main components: clicker questions design, the hierarchical organization of the course, and student utterances during class-wide discussions. Field notes and course materials served as the primary basis for case study descriptions of hierarchical organization, clicker questions, and for open coding to generate new categories of student talk. A taxonomy of types of student utterances was identified, including utterances that suggested student engagement with the models. An important subset of the latter type suggested model-based reasoning. Results indicated that 89% of utterances during class-wide discussions following clicker questions suggested engagement with the model, and within those 33% suggested reasoning with the model. Two major types of diagrams were used with clicker questions. Model representation diagrams presented a partial model. Data diagrams presented data related to the model. Other questions had no accompanying diagram. Student talk that suggested engagement in model-based reasoning occurred at a higher frequency when clicker questions were accompanied by a diagram and especially with a model-representation diagram. A hypothesized model of six nested levels of processes in the instructional approach and hypotheses on why GAMBR produced a high percentage of model talk and model-based reasoning talk were generated, grounded in the case study observations of clicker question and course structure. It is suggested that GAMBR contains interesting alternatives to the more commonly used approach of peer instruction in large lecture biology courses using clickers, especially for those interested in promoting scientific reasoning.
A Critical Examination of Policy and Practice in the Transition Experience for Students with Math Learning Disabilities in Mumbai, India
(2014) Eichhorn, Melinda S.
Although some research has examined the experiences of students with learning disabilities in Indian secondary schools (see Karande, Sholarpurwala, & Kulkarni, 2011; Karande, Mahajan, & Kulkarni, 2009), the role of policy in students‚Äô transition into post-secondary education has been largely unexamined. This study is a preliminary effort at providing an investigation of special education policy in Mumbai and the impact on students‚Äô transition to post-secondary education, especially in regards to mathematics. This study extends the current knowledge of students with learning disabilities in Mumbai by 1) taking an in-depth look at students with math learning disabilities specifically, 2) focusing on the transition between secondary and higher secondary education, and 3) examining the impact of current policies and procedures through the lens of critical pedagogy. In this study, I gathered data on the math proficiency of secondary students with MLD and their typically achieving peers in Mumbai. Additionally, I conducted interviews with secondary students and post-college adults with MLD, as well as interviews with secondary math teachers and college lecturers in mathematics. I also observed post-secondary math classes in various colleges, collected survey data from math lecturers, and reviewed documents from educational institutions all over Mumbai. The data from this mixed methods study revealed that, for this sample of students in Mumbai, secondary students with MLD do have gaps in their conceptual and procedural knowledge of mathematics as compared to their peers without MLD, especially in the areas of fractions, decimals, pre-algebra, and word problems. Through interview and survey data, secondary students with MLD also expressed frustration with geometry and algebra. The data also revealed that post-secondary students who take Secretarial Practice in place of math in junior college are not prepared for the degree college math course that follows. Additionally, post-secondary students with MLD expressed feelings of fear and judgment when asking for help in mathematics from college lecturers and peers. This suggests that there is a need for professional development among all educators, from primary to post-secondary, to raise awareness of MLD. Also, trying to mediate students‚Äô difficulties at the secondary or post-secondary level is too late; early identification of MLD and early intervention are necessary. These findings will be useful for inclusive education advocacy groups in India as they work with policy makers and enforcers at the national and state level, as they revise policy and procedures for students with learning disabilities in Maharashtra and India.
(Social) class is in session: Examining the experiences of working-class students through social class identity, class-based allyship, and sense of belonging
(2019-05) Bettencourt, Genia M.
Working-class students experience numerous barriers in accessing and persisting within higher education. These barriers are often amplified at public research institutions that facilitate greater social class diversity, career opportunities, and degree completion, but cater to middle- and upper-class students. The result is a contrast for working-class students in which higher education can serve as a tool for social mobility while also reinforcing barriers that reproduce class inequality. In this dissertation, I used narrative inquiry to conduct 44 interviews with 24 working-class students regarding their social class meaning-making, perceptions of class-based allyship, and sense of belonging. All three concepts have been empirically explored as ways to promote the development and retention of other marginalized groups, but rarely applied to social class. Understanding of these concepts illuminates strategies to better support students on campus while challenging systems of classism broadly. Findings from this study fall into three categories. First, obstacles that working-class students encounter prior to and during the transition to college facilitate an internal meaning-making process. Through this process, students are able to challenge stigmatized views of social class to frame their working-class backgrounds as asset-filled. Second, working-class students define the goals of class-based allyship as sustaining students already within college rather than challenging classism on campus. Allyship thus was perceived as affinity spaces, financial resources, and navigational support. Third, working-class students viewed sense of belonging as something that they created rather than provided by institutions. While participants experienced varying degrees of connectedness, support, and belonging, they rarely felt valued on campus. Implications of this research suggest a need to re-evaluate traditional concepts used within higher education to better understand the variance within working-class identity, allyship, and sense of belonging. Participants’ experiences emphasize the importance of shared values, particularly related to work ethic, responsibility, and social justice, in creating communities and relationships. Results also suggest that institutions should do more to celebrate working-class students and the assets they bring to campus while infusing cultural competency into existing resources to make them more accessible.
3CAM MODEL CONCEPT MAPS, CRITICAL THINKING, COLLABORATION ASSESSMENT (3CAM) TOWARD THE PATH OF MASTERY LEARNING
(2019-05) Zandvakili, Elham
This study reports an exploratory study of the 3CAM model of classroom learning. 3CAM is an acronym for concept maps, critical thinking, collaboration, and mastery. It is a student-centered approach to mastery learning that empowers students to take responsibility for their own learning. The model is a theory and a practice. The theory is the language games of critical thinking and the practice is the activities of visualizing concept maps, applying critical thinking, collaborating, and creating their own assessment. Students play the language games of critical thinking using the WH questions: “what, when, why, where, who and how”. Students apply the model each week to the chapters of a child development text. The study also compared two groups of students: a group working collaboratively and a group working individually using the 3CAM model. The results of the study support the practices of the activities of the model as well as the theory of the language games of critical thinking. The data reveal that students who work collaboratively use significantly more “why, how and when” questions in creating their concept maps. The most used critical thinking question was “what”, and its use declined in the collaborative group as the use of “why, how and when” increased. The use of “what” remained the same for the individual group. Student comments about the model were so supportive of both theory and practice.
A SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF LINGUISTIC AND CONCEPTUAL DEVELOPMENT IN MATHEMATICS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS
(2019-05) Shin, Hyunsook
This study explores how an elementary mathematics teacher supported English language leaners’ (ELLs’) academic language and concept development in the context of current high- stakes school reform. The conceptual frameworks informing this study include Halliday’s theory of systemic functional linguistics (e.g., Halliday & Matthiessen, 2014) and Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of concept development (Vygotsky, 1986). Specifically, this study analyzes the interplay between academic and everyday language and how this interplay can facilitate the development of what Vygotsky referred to as “real” or complete concepts as students shift from “spontaneous” to more “scientific” understanding of phenomenon (Vygotsky, 1986, p.173). This year-long qualitative study combines case study methods with discourse analysis using SFL tools. Participants included an English-as-Second-Language teacher and her 14 ELL students. At the time of the study these students had varying degrees of English proficiency and were enrolled in a mix-aged classroom in an urban elementary school in Massachusetts. In SFL terms, the findings from this investigation indicate that the teacher used language in a structured way to interweave everyday language connected with familiar or “Given” information with academic language regarding “New” information. In addition, the data suggest that student talk, over time, mirrored the way the teacher used language to “bind” everyday language representing spontaneous concepts with academic language representing mathematical concepts. Moreover, mathematics classroom discourse in this context often related multiple semiotic resources as “Token” to their meanings as “Value.” Drawing Halliday and Matthiessen’ (2014) concept of “decoding” and “encoding” activities associated with Token-Value relationships, students were guided in verbalizing mathematical reasoning that promoted both spontaneous and scientific concept development. In addition, the participant teacher made linguistic choices differently depending on the multisemiotic resources she used during instruction. The findings of this study suggest that teachers’ use of language plays a pivotal role in developing students’ language and mathematical conceptual knowledge simultaneously. Drawing teachers’ attention to the role discourse plays in classroom interactions and students’ disciplinary literacy development is especially consequential given the discourses of high-stakes testing, standardization, and accountability systems in K-12 schools in the United States.
"No One is Gonna Tell Us We Can't Do This": The Development of Agency in Student-Initiated Community Engagement
(2019-02) Archer, Shuli A
By its simplest definition, service-learning and community engagement (SLCE) connect work in the community and reflection on that work with credit-bearing academic courses. SLCE has been critiqued for, among other things, an incomplete consideration of power dynamics, and scholars and practitioners have recently expressed a desire to reinforce service-learning as primarily promoting agency, or the capacity to make change in society. Student-initiated community engagement programs offer a unique perspective and context to study agency. These programs, much like student-initiated retention projects, provide spaces where students take the lead in curriculum development, community partner relationship development, and program administration. Using Emirbayer and Mische’s (1999) trichordal theory of agency as a framework, this qualitative case study of a student-initiated and student-run community engagement program utilized in-depth, three-part phenomenological interviews to explore how seven student leaders made meaning of their experiences and their development of agency. Secondary research questions explored if and how participants felt connected to SLCE as a field and/or movement. Through inductive and deductive data analysis, major themes emerged that cut across all seven participants. Their sense of agency was influenced by structural components within the student-initiated community engagement program, including the program (1) being mission- and relationship-centered, (2) using particular pedagogical strategies, and (3) enrolling a critical mass of people of color in both student and student-staff roles. In turn, the participants’ sense of belonging in the program; awareness (including self-awareness, awareness of academic and career paths, and awareness for education access and equity); and their skill development were important factors in their development of a sense of agency. Trends in their sense of agency – named transformation, elevation, and frustration – illustrated some of the ways participation in student-initiated community engagement impacted them during the program and beyond. Ultimately, student-initiated community engagement can provide an important pathway for the development of agency, and offers lessons for all community engagement and service-learning programs, be them student-initiated or not.

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