(2015). Ways That Preservice Teachers Integrate Children's Literature into Mathematics Lessons. Teacher Educator, v50 n3 p170-186. Children's literature involving mathematics provides a common, natural context for the sharing of mathematics. To learn more about how preservice teachers included children's literature in their mathematics lessons, a study was conducted over two semesters during a required field experience component of an undergraduate teacher education program. The preservice teachers were required to use a children's literature book to explore a mathematical concept in three mathematics-focused lesson plans. The qualitative data analysis revealed that in planning mathematics lessons to incorporate children's literature, preservice teachers tended to focus on basic approaches. Specifically, the preservice teachers most often used a book as context for review, to develop a concept, or to use with manipulatives. As a result, it is important for teacher educators to provide the opportunity for preservice teachers to learn more about the various ways of integrating literature and provide the necessary… [Direct]
(2015). PDS Leadership Team as Community of Practice: Implications for Local School System and Higher Education Partnerships. School-University Partnerships, v8 n2 p41-52 Fall. Professional development school (PDS) partnerships have existed in one local school system (LSS) with three different institutions of higher education (IHE) for over a decade. Commonalities and distinctive features were noted between the partnerships. In an attempt to establish standardized and equitable policies from the LSS level, representatives from each IHE were invited to a shared leadership meeting. From this first meeting, focused on PDS logistics and LSS policies, has grown quarterly collaborative meetings which have yielded professional development for mentor teachers and site coordinators, professional training for LSS and IHE faculty, and program level information sharing. Content analysis of meeting minutes suggests that a community of practice (CoP) was formed unintentionally and may have facilitated the development of the "Nine Required Essentials for PDS" in the Leadership Team PDS network. Strategies for the intentional planning of CoP in a PDS are provided…. [PDF]
(2015). "Animals Don't Just Grow Feathers When They Want To…". Primary Science, n138 p18-21 May. The short view of inheritance is that it is about what every organism gets from its parents, one generation to the next. Young children appreciate that offspring have strong similarities with their parents. A longer perspective embraces the similarities and diversity in relatives' features; it includes the characteristics of predecessors within and beyond the extended family, to include members of a species going back thousands of generations. In this longer view, the slow but significant changes we call "evolution" make sense. Evolution connects ideas of inheritance from the pool of variation over "deep time" that give rise to evolutionary change as a response to shifting environmental circumstances. From this explanation emerges an elegant and complex way of understanding the world. This article is about the authors sharing some of their insight and research into teaching evolution and inheritance to younger students…. [Direct]
(2015). Mechanism of F2F Student Support in Open and Distance Learning System: Indian Experience. Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education, v16 n3 p61-73 Jul. Present paper seeks to analyse the system of face to face programme delivery adopted by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for its distance learners over a period of two and half decades. The paper also analysed that with the growth in student enrolment, new schemes of face to face programme delivery was developed and implemented and some of them have made significant contribution in developing a suitable network. However, the scheme originally launched on the philosophy of institutional networking, resource sharing, collaboration and convergence was highly successful and mainly responsibly for the growth of ODL in India. The schemes of learners support centres launched subsequent only supplemented the existing scheme. Attempt has also been made to critically analyse the pros and cons of each of the scheme offered for ODL learners for face to face interaction and how a particular scheme was more acceptable…. [PDF]
(2015). Advantages of Integrative Data Analysis for Developmental Research. Journal of Cognition and Development, v16 n1 p1-10. Amid recent progress in cognitive development research, high-quality data resources are accumulating, and data sharing and secondary data analysis are becoming increasingly valuable tools. Integrative data analysis (IDA) is an exciting analytical framework that can enhance secondary data analysis in powerful ways. IDA pools item-level data across multiple studies to make inferences possible both within and across studies and can be used to test questions not possible in individual contributing studies. Some of the potential benefits of IDA include the ability to study longer developmental periods, examine how the measurement of key constructs changes over time, increase subject heterogeneity, and improve statistical power and capability to study rare behaviors. Our goal in this article is to provide a brief overview of the benefits and challenges of IDA in developmental research and to identify additional resources that provide more detailed discussions of this topic…. [Direct]
(2015). Curriculum Visions: The Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA) and Dwayne Huebner Discuss Civics and Citizenship. International Journal of Christianity & Education, v19 n1 p38-56 Mar. This article considers the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority's (ACARA) plan for Civics and Citizenship, assessing the role of religions therein. Through a dialectical hermeneutic, ACARA is brought into a mutually critical conversation with the work of curriculum theorist Dwayne Huebner. Both of their distinct visions are found to make space for diverse religious identities, and to affirm students taking responsibility for what they make of this world. They clash, however, over the path to societal harmony and the place given to discussing our deepest differences in belief and practice. In this article it is argued that a constructive use of Sacred Texts in Civics and Citizenship may facilitate a synergy between ACARA and Huebner that is educationally viable and democratically profitable. This would require that curriculum content is decentred to serve a dialogical pedagogy built on the sharing of our foundational narratives as together we pursue the common… [Direct]
(2017). Seeking Common Ground: First-Year U.S. University Students' Experiences with Intercultural Interaction and Friendship in an On-Campus Residential Community. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles. The number of international students on U.S. campuses has increased more than 84 percent over the past decade (IIE, 2016). Although it has been well-established that interaction and friendship with local students is a key element for international student adjustment to a foreign university, few studies have grappled with how these intercultural relationships develop, and even fewer have studied intercultural relationships from the domestic students' point of view. This dissertation uses a qualitative case study approach to add to this small, but growing, body of literature. Grounded in a conceptual framework consisting of Allport's (1954) contact hypothesis and its more recent updates by Pettigrew, Tropp, Wagner, and Christ (2011), and the principles of social identity theory (Brown, 2000; Tajfel, 1981) this study sought to examine relationship development between domestic students and international students over the course of an academic year. Ten first-year domestic students with… [Direct]
(2016). Social Augmented Reality: Enhancing Context-Dependent Communication and Informal Learning at Work. British Journal of Educational Technology, v47 n3 p474-483 May. Our design proposal of social augmented reality (SoAR) grows from the observed difficulties of practical applications of augmented reality (AR) in workplace learning. In our research we investigated construction workers doing physical work in the field and analyzed the data using qualitative methods in various workshops. The challenges related to learning in the construction sites were: sharing of specific situation processes or details, need of direct communication channel over distance and support for social appraisal. The second result of the study is a prototype. SoAR is a design solution, an application for smart phones. The primary target for the SoAR design builds on the discoveries and idea that current AR developments in the area should focus on enhancing human-to-human interactions: messages, gestures, words and other small elements of communication. We present the current SoAR prototype that enhances video calls with overlaid drawings therefor SoAR is a tool for asking and… [Direct]
(2018). Experiential Learning in "Innovation for Sustainability": An Evaluation of Teaching and Learning Activities (TLAs) in an International Masters Course. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, v19 n7 p1204-1219. Purpose: The urgent challenges of sustainability require novel teaching methods facilitating different types of learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine the important role of experiential learning in higher education programmes relating to sustainability and to evaluate a number of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) that can be used to leverage this approach. Design/methodology/approach: Based on questionnaire surveys carried out for over seven years with students from a highly international master's-level course, this paper describes the utility of experiential learning theory in teaching around "innovation for sustainability". Drawing on Kolb's theories and subsequent modifications, the paper reviews and evaluates the TLAs used in the course that have fostered experiential learning in the classroom, including role-play seminars, case study-based seminars and sessions centred around sharing and reflecting on personal professional histories. Findings: The… [Direct]
(2022). Art, Emotion, and Reflection: Engaging with Social Issues in the Classroom. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, The University of Wisconsin – Madison. This study investigated three teachers and their students at International School in Guatemala as they engaged with social issues through and with art. Student and teacher experiences were examined using critical theory, concerned with ideological conflicts that shape the curriculum and how knowledge is legitimated within schools and communities (Anyon, 1978; Apple, 2004), and multiliteracies, concerned with the multimodal forms learners engage with mean-making visually, spatially, auditorily, and behaviorally (Berriz et al., 2019; Holloway & Gouthro, 2020; New London Group, 1996). Following a qualitative study approach, two secondary classrooms and one primary classroom were selected as they were already engaging with art and social issues in their classroom before the study. Over the semester, I conducted semi-structured interviews with participants, engaged with participant observations virtually, and analyzed student artwork. The first key finding indicates that art can be… [Direct]
(2022). Fostering the Support and Development of Resilience in Children of Alcoholics in the School Setting. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Texas A&M University. Over the last century, the expected role of the classroom teacher has shifted dramatically. We have begun to move away from someone whose main purpose is to provide rote instruction to students, to a shift that educators are facilitators of learning that work to meet the needs of the whole child and not just their academic growth. An increased amount of contemporary research has yielded results that identify the urgency to support the social and emotional demands of students in addition to their intellectual abilities. Children who live in households with alcohol abuse face challenges and obstacles outside of school that necessitate a need for additional social and emotional support within the classroom. The purpose of this multiple case study was to analyze the lived experiences of six self-proclaimed adult children of alcoholics in order to learn ways in which to help support current children of alcoholics in the elementary school classroom. Six adult children of alcoholics were… [Direct]
(2022). The Collegiate Black Space: Black College Students' Use of New Counter-Spaces for Support, Knowledge Production, and Organizing for Activism. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, University of San Francisco. Black collegians who attend historically white institutions continue to struggle with racism, microaggressions, feelings of alienation, minimal or improper advising, and an undue pressure to prove themselves (Bonner, 2010; Feagin & Sikes, 1995; Strayhorn, 2010). These barriers to success result in part due to a lack of support from the colleges and universities that they attend (Allen, 1992; Parker, Puig, Johnson & Anthony, Jr., 2016). With institutional benefits designed to benefit white students over students of color, Black students must find their own alternatives for collaboration and to provide support for their peers. Many Black spaces can be defined as third spaces (Bhabha, 1994), where Black people go to find community, share information, and get advice. Using a concept I developed called "the collegiate Black space," this dissertation argues that Black college students who attend historically white institutions have also turned digital spaces into Black… [Direct]
(2016). "Social Skills": Following a Travelling Concept from American Academic Discourse to Contemporary Danish Welfare Institutions. Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy, v54 n4 p423-443 Dec. The article traces the origin and development of the concept of social skills in first and foremost American academic discourse. As soon as the concept of social skills was coined, the concern for people lacking such skills started and has been on the increase ever since (now sharing public attention with related concepts such as self-control, emotional intelligence and empathy). After the analysis of the academic history of the concept follows an examination of the implementation of a range of assessment instruments and training programmes related to social skills (and lack hereof) in contemporary Danish welfare institutions (more specifically, day nurseries and schools, employment and penal services). The analysis forwarded in the article thus demonstrates how an intellectual idea may develop and travel–and on its journey connect to pre-existing cultural logics and societal concerns. The idea of social skills has through its development been made uncontroversial–everybody wants… [Direct]
(2019). Our Educative Reticence: A Grounded Theory of Instructors' Not Adopting Open Textbooks. ProQuest LLC, Ph.D. Dissertation, Clemson University. The Open Textbook Network (OTN)–an organization based out of the University of Minnesota and comprising over 1,000 postsecondary institutions–supports the open education movement by facilitating in-person workshops about, sharing training resources for, and curating a library of peer-reviewed open textbooks. Its efforts are meant to build awareness of open education among attendees by teaching them about the positive potential of open textbooks in addressing the rising costs of attending college, waning public investment in higher education, increasing pedagogical dependence on the course materials of commercial publishers, and curbing other barriers to affordability, access, and equity in higher education. While many instructors who have attended OTN workshops went on to review and adopt open textbooks in their course or, at least, leave the experience with an intent to explore open textbook use in the future, a small population (n = 76) openly admitted to having no interest in… [Direct]
(2018). An Investigation of Principals' Perceptions about the Use of Social Media to Build Trust, Transparency, and a Greater Sense of Community. ProQuest LLC, Ed.D. Dissertation, Sage Graduate School. Communication practices have changed over the years. Therefore, the way school leaders connect with its stakeholders should align with these changes. Social media is one way to meet this shift. However true this may be, there are some leaders that will not engage with these online platforms. In contrast, those leaders that utilize social media seem to reap benefits. Through the use of qualitative methodology, this study investigated the perceptions held by elementary school leaders about the use of social media to build trust, transparency, and a greater sense of community. The research examined belief systems held by the participants with respect to social media and its role in communicating and connecting with stakeholders. Findings indicated that school leaders believe there are benefits and consequences with social media, social media requires too much time; therefore, a point person is needed to maintain the platforms and communicating via social media requires training…. [Direct]