Anticipating the Audience: An Ethnographic Study of a French-as-a-Foreign-Language Class Creative Wr
This study compared the creative-writing processes of native English speakers
(NES) composing for a real audience in two conditions: one group composing in their
native language (NL) and the other group composing in French as a foreign language
(FFL). Both groups wrote children’s fiction and were aware that children in the
community would read their stories.
Participants were observed while composing and interviewed about their writing
background, composing behaviors, and the texts produced
Peer Response Practices Among Writers in a First-Year Residence Hall: An Ethnographic Study
This ethnographic study examines peer response sessions among writers in a first-year residence hall. It explores how students practice extracurricular peer response and investigates the ways in which extracurricular peer response differs from traditional classroom peer response.
Because capturing peer response sessions occurring in a residence hall presents unique problems of access, the study’s research design includes the use of trained student recorders — first-year students residing
Randy Wayne White: An American Social Philosopher and Practitioner of Ecological Noir
This dissertation examines the Doc Ford series of mystery novels written by Randy Wayne White (1950-) along with his four volumes of essays. White’s literary output is largely unexplored; he is the subject of only one significant critical study, Maurice O’Sullivan’s “Ecological Noir,” a chapter in Crime Fiction and the Sunshine State (1997), a collection of essays about mystery writers who set their fiction in the state of Florida. With his graceful prose, intricate plots, skillful int
Child Caregiver Interaction Scale
Research on early brain development and early childhood demonstrates that the experiences children have and the attachments they form early in life have a long-lasting impact on their later development and learning. The link between high quality early childhood experiences and positive child outcomes is well documented. Quality child care is comprised of the combination of classroom environment and caregiver interaction. While there are measurement tools that adequately assess the environment of
Beyond Response: Transcending Peer Feedback Through Critical Collaborative Assessment
Composition has long recognized a rift between good classroom pedagogy for the
instruction of writing and the institutional necessity of summatively assessing writing for
a grade. While the former is student-centered, process-oriented, often collaborative, and
increasingly constructionist in its approach, the latter is typically authoritarian and
positivistic.
Several pedagogies, such as contract grading and portfolio assessment, have
emerged to address the rift between the two practices. By del
In Their Own Words: Korean Perspectives on Becoming English Interpreter/Translators
This interview study looks at the learning, life, and experiences of 15 professional Korean English interpreter/translators, exploring influences on their career choice, their education and upbringing, and their perspectives on their careers now. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What kind of background experiences led to these interpreter/translators’ interest in the field? (2) What kinds of language and cultural learning experiences have they had? (3) What experiences do
Case Study on social software in distributed working environments
This document outlines four different case studies on the use of Social Software in distributed working environments. While two case studies focus on the corporate world, two other case studies look at the use of Social Software in academic workplaces.
The concluding remarks identify some common benefits as well as issues with the use of Social Software and to derive some further research challenges from the different cases. The findings for future research need to be directed towards strategies
Case Study on social software in distributed working environments
This document outlines four different case studies on the use of Social Software in distributed working environments. While two case studies focus on the corporate world, two other case studies look at the use of Social Software in academic workplaces.
The concluding remarks identify some common benefits as well as issues with the use of Social Software and to derive some further research challenges from the different cases. The findings for future research need to be directed towards strategies
A Study of a Specific Language Arts and Mathematics Software Program: Is There a Correlation Between
The purpose of this study was to compare usage levels of CompassLearning Odyssey mathematics and language arts software among fifth grade students in order to determine the relationship between usage and achievement. While educational software designed by various companies is a regular part of daily instruction in most public schools across the United States, there remains a need for research-based evidence of the efficacy of specific programs. This study used a quantitative design to compare ac
Judging the Hate Crime Victim: Law School Student Perceptions and the Effects of Individual and law
The present study examines the effects of individual and law school factors on the
perceptions of African-American, gay, and lesbian hate crime victims for 283 law school
students from two schools in western Pennsylvania. Although research on the perceptions
of hate crimes and hate crime victims has increased over the last decade, research has
neglected to focus on this particular population of students. This population is important
because many of these law students will seek roles in the crimi
Some "Lessons Learned" on Social Software for Professional Learning
This deliverable's Conclusion lists some lessons learnt regarding the use of social software for professional learning. The conclusion is based upon experiences and insights reported by PROLEARN members, and also the following three recent items: A report about a workshop conducted at the European conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in Limerick, Ireland tackling the gap between CSCW and Social Software; a report about a track at the Professional Training Facts in Stuttgart, Germany
Reducing cognitive load and fostering cognitive skill acquisition: Benefits of category-avoiding exa
In this paper, we provide evidence against the common idea that worked examples should be designed to convey problem categories and category-specific solution procedures. Instead we propose that instructional examples should be designed in a way that supports the understanding of relations between structural problem features and individual solution steps, i.e. relations that hold below the category level. We illustrate in the domain of probability word problems how category-avoiding instructiona
The IRIS Shell: "How to Build ITSs from Pedagogical and Design Requisites"
The goal we pursue in our research is to build a shell for helping human instructors to develop intelligent teaching-learning systems in a wide range of domains. We aim to provide a system where a previously defined architecture can be adapted automatically into a new tutor using a set of instructor-generated requirements. Trying to provide a sound basis for this tool, we use a theory of instruction that integrates cognitive processes, instructional events and instructional actions within a thre
Using A Simulated Student for Instructional Design
In this paper, I describe how a cognitive model was used as a simulated student to help design lessons for training circuit board assemblers. The model was built in the Soar cognitive architecture, and was initially endowed with only an ability to learn instructions and prerequisite knowledge for the task. Five lessons, and a total of 81 instructions for teaching expert assembly were developed by iteratively drafting and testing instructions with the simulated student. The resulting instructions
Structural Awareness for Collaborative Learning Environments
In this paper we propose a peer-to-peer support approach that we call structural awareness support. The structural awareness aims to support the communication that takes place in virtual learning communities. Its emphasis is on revealing the group structure to its participants in order to promote collaborative interactions. This support has been implemented on a forum type tool called Mailgroup. It has been tested twice in different contexts, obtaining initial feedback of its pertinence accordin
The Competence of Learning Companion Agents
One recent approach in developing computer-based learning environments advocates the idea of creating a social context inside the computer. It is claimed that when the learner is engaged into a meaningful dialogue with the software actors his/her learning will benefit. In this paper we concentrate on the collaboration with artificial social actors as peer learners. How äableä should the learning companion agent be in order to maintain the motivation of the human learner to collaborate? It has
Internet Scout Project
The Coalition of Essential Schools (CES) seeks to "create and sustain equitable, intellectually vibrant, personalized schools and to make such schools the norm of American public education." CES schools enact the CES Common Principles -- emphasizing equity, personalization, and intellectual vibrancy - to create "schools that will nurture students to reach their fullest potential." The CES schools are expected to serve as models to other schools and demonstrations to the public about what is poss
The Changing Role of Arabic in Religious Discourse: A Sociolinguistic Study of Egyptian Arabic
This study examined the language situation in the religious discourse in Egypt. It investigated the switch from Classical Arabic to Egyptian Arabic in the religious domain in one of the most renowned preachers in Egypt, Amr Khaled. In order to investigate the phenomenon, I chose to examine and analyze the instances of codeswitching from Classical Arabic to Egyptian Arabic in ten recordings of religious speeches delivered by Khaled, focusing on the phonological, syntactical, and morphological fea
Lecture 18 - 11/30/2010
Lecture 18
Rural Adolescent Perceptions of the Availability and Accessibility of Substance Abuse Treatment
The prevalence of substance abuse among rural adolescents has equaled or surpassed rates in urban youth, but rural substance abusers go untreated at rates twice that of urban populations. Cultural norms adverse to help-seeking, and low availability and accessibility of substance treatment in rural areas may effect treatment utilization. The primary purpose of this study was to assess rural adolescents’ substance problem recognition and perceptions of substance abuse treatment availability and
