Online Posters
Adaptive Learning Environment for EFL Students
Virtual Poster Carol Anne Ochoa
This research study was carried out in order to contrast online activities designed in an adaptive platform called Smartsparrow, created by a research group at the University of New South Wales, Australia, as an alternative way to incorporate ICT tools in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) courses. This research involved 30 elementary and pre intermediate level students from different faculties at a private Colombian University named Santo Tomás, focusing on EFL and some adaptive features based on students´ interests, learning styles and needs. In this way, action research was used to develop this study. The implementation of the online world mentioned above sought to promote autonomous work through activities in a online platform. The research was developed in 2 phases of implementation and the results showed how students worked autonomously, taking advantage of tutoring spaces.
Meeting the Needs of the Foster Child: Perceptions of the K-6 Teacher
Virtual Poster Misty LaCour, Penny McGlawn, Misty LaCour
A growing number of children are entering the foster care system every year. The trauma experienced by these children negatively impacts them. There has been limited research relating to teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of foster children’s needs. This study sought to further research by determining current teachers’ perceptions of foster children through a survey study. The survey results indicated the necessity for increasing awareness among teachers regarding foster children’s unique needs and challenges. This study has brought a heightened awareness of the teachers’ perceptions towards this growing population of students relative to the challenges facing foster children. Teachers must be aware of the issues these students face while providing adequate interventions to meet the needs of these students. This amplified awareness can influence professional development offerings to ensure teachers are supplied access to information to help them become more capable of providing more accurately guided treatments, strategies and interventions so that these children can have improved attachment capabilities, and thus break the foster care cycle. Examining the perceptions of teachers can also inform higher education institutions of what content needs to be added to teacher education preparatory programs.
Indigenous Perspectives at the Cultural Interface: Researching the Interventions
Virtual Poster Yatta Kanu
Success in school continues to elude Indigenous students in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, USA, and many other countries. One response to this critical problem has been the ongoing calls to integrate Indigenous knowledges and perspectives into schools and classrooms. Such calls have produced studies on pertinent questions such as: the specific aspects of Indigenous cultural knowledge which teachers can integrate; the most effective ways of integrating such knowledge into schools and classrooms; and the critical elements of instruction that produce school success. Findings and theoretical abstractions from these studies are being used to inform various school and classroom initiatives as interventions to increase success for Indigenous students in Canada. The purpose of my ongoing research is to examine what takes place inside these interventions to understand the specific mechanisms by which outcomes for students are accomplished. For example, what happens at the cultural interface when teachers and school administrators (mainly non-Indigenous, largely uninformed about Indigenous cultures, knowledges, and issues, and with identities and histories vested in the existing social norms and school structures)attempt to integrate Indigenous perspectives into their classrooms? In twelve high schools in urban Western Canada, we are documenting the characteristics of each school, conducting school and classroom observations of practices in integration, and conducting focus groups and interviews with students, teachers, school administrators, parents, and Indigenous collaborators for their insights and views about integration.
Organizational Improvement Plan Addressing the Absence of Leadership Education and Preparation in the Early Year’s Curriculum
Virtual Poster Elena Merenda
Early childhood educators are recognized as leaders who have an important role in improving the quality of services for children and families. This research proposes an Organizational Improvement Plan addressing the absence of leadership education and preparation in the early year’s curriculum. “Change- a hallmark of contemporary society- impacts greatly on early childhood services, making leadership- which is a necessary condition for effective change- worthy of greater attention…” (Rodd, 2013). Therefore, I am developing an Organizational Improvement Plan (OIP) to address the absence of leadership education and preparation in the early year’s curriculum for the Early Childhood Studies. Adopting a collegial model that values instructor knowledge and experience is crucial for developing my OIP because the instructors have relevant and current experiences in the field, that can be combined with their understanding about the objective of the institution, to revise and provide the best curriculum for the students. Furthermore, collegiality is a key aspect of instructor professional growth and development. Collegial communities create a cooperative environment that allows for shared learning and increases innovation and enthusiasm among faculty (as cited in Shah, 2012; as cited in Massy, Wilger, & Colbeck, 1994). The professional growth that happens as a result of collegiality can support instructors to recognize the benefits of being heard, being a part of the decision-making process, and feeling valued. Therefore, they exemplify transformational leadership skills such as, being aware of their effect on students, being attentive to student’s needs, supporting students in seeing different perspectives, and inspiring students to achieve their goals. They support students in developing their own self-awareness and model for students what it means to be a caring and supportive early childhood professional (Merenda, 2017).
Preschool Curriculum-based Screening for Pre-referral Support
Virtual Poster Panagiotis Varsamis, Anastasia Gkouvatzi, Andromachi Nanou, Ioanna Ntarilli, Magdalini Simeonidou
Curriculum-based approaches for educational assessment and pre-referral support are continuously gaining attention as being more meaningful to school communities, than classic psychometric approaches. Consequently, curriculum-based evaluation provides a common language, which is sufficiently comprehensive to students, teachers, parents, counselors and specialists (e.g., therapists). Thus, it directly facilitates a common ground for educational and instructional decisions. The purpose of the present study was to examine preschoolers' participation in curriculum-derived activities. In accordance with the Greek preschool curriculum, pupil's participation is being evaluated in five core axes, namely play, explorations, class routines, daily situations, and learning. Teachers rated contents of these axes (in total, 40 items) using a six point rubric, which highlights pupil performance and teacher enrollment. Subsequently, teachers judged, if each pupil was to be referred a) to a pre-referral intervention program, b) to an educational diagnosis process, or c) not to be referred at all. Our sample consisted from 160 pupils, with modal ages of five and six years, who attended mainstream kindergartens. Classification And Regression Tree (CART) analyses of the data revealed that teachers' ratings could correctly predict pupils' group membership. Depending on the group targeted, the prediction accuracy varied from 90% to 100%. Curriculum axes and items had different statistical significance to group predictions. Results are being critically discussed on the basis of economically screening new pupils and planning intervention programs, where needed.
Student Transition and Success
Virtual Poster Chinny Nzekwe-Excel
This study expands the idea of curriculum alignment to include not only modules and programmes, but also to ensure alignment across sectors, from Further Education (FE) Institutions (schools and colleges) to Higher Education (HE) Institutions/ Universities. This study is a continuation on the study on 'Curriculum Alignment: Opportunities for Cross Sector Collaborations' by Ladwa and Nzekwe-Excel (2017), where the authors identified perceived and actual students' problems to learning in their HE study and possible strategies to addressing the identified problems. Outcomes suggest that there is a lack of awareness of what academic preparation pupils from schools and colleges have before commencing their HE study. Students with vocational qualifications struggle in particular with transition into HE study. Over 80% of the identified perceived problems to learning were 'Guidance-related and Personal ; Social-related. Most of the actual identified problems to learning in HE study were Academic-related. Therefore, this study stresses the idea of raising awareness and promoting a better understanding of educational standards and provision across sectors. The study essentially promotes collaboration across sectors (FE and HE Institutions) for the purpose of adequately equipping students academically and enabling them transit seamlessly into their HE study. This study further propose that collaborative courses or teaching sessions between FE and HE staff may be tailored to meet the requirements of specific students just before they transit into higher education.
Stress Levels and Timely Graduation of Community College Students Receiving Medical or Mental Health Care
Virtual Poster Christine B. Kleinpeter, Marilyn K. Potts, Martha Ranney, Sharon Chen
This exploratory study compares the College Student Stress Scale scores of 35 students who received mental health services, 36 students who received medical services, and a comparison group of 42 students who were enrolled in a college 100 class. Females were in the majority in both the medical and mental health groups, men had a slight majority in the classroom sample. The average age was similar in all groups, between 21-23. The predominant ethnic groups were non-Hispanic white in the medical and mental health groups, and Asian in the classroom group. Results indicated that nearly three-fourths in each group reported a later than expected graduation. Student Stress Scale scores were in the moderate range in total. The individual item with the highest score was academic matters, followed by financial matters, and meeting personal goals. Students who were receiving mental health treatment had higher stress level scores than medical patients or the classroom sample. Females scored higher than males in overall stress level. Students with higher stress levels were more likely to report a delayed graduation. Work and financial issues were reported most often as reasons for delayed graduation. Implications and areas for future research are outlined.
Coloured Hearing Pseudo-synaesthesia as a Potential Lever to Teach and Learn Languages
Virtual Poster Emilie Magnat
Among the different approaches for language learning, some old ones rely on the plurality of our sensorial resources (eg. Gattegno, 1978; Borel Maisonny, 1996) and can be particularly interesting when it comes to the improvement of the phonemic repertoire and the processes of learning to speak, read and write. Considering the dual-coding theory (Paivio, 1969) and the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005), if an association between sound and colour is made, a sound might recall a colour and seeing a colour might bring back to memory a sound. This is close to natural coloured hearing synaesthesia. This theoretical presentation aims at presenting to what extend coloured hearing pseudo-synaesthesia might be a lever to teach and learn languages. From the large existing literature, we will start by clarifying what natural coloured hearing synaesthesia is. Then, we will present to what extend we can teach pseudo-synaesthesia thanks to new media. Finally and to go further from the actual state of the art, we will emphasize on the potential of pseudo-synaesthesia for language learning. To be more precise, we will explain how giving materiality to phonemes thanks to colour might help to learn new sounds, to read and write (according to the Dual route and connectionist models of reading). Thanks to the precious feedback from colleagues, we would progress on this project. Results might lead to the development of a wide scope of free and open source learning material solutions and guidelines for first and second language learning.
Effect of Entrepreneurship Pedagogy on Health Education among Urban Community College Students: Impact on Attitudes, Knowledge, Job Readiness and Skills Acquisition
Virtual Poster Gloria McNamara
This research study uses an educational model known as health entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurship education refers to a pedagogical process that involves the stimulation of entrepreneurial activities, behaviors and mindsets. Although entrepreneurship education is recognized as important, relatively few empirical studies have been conducted regarding its impact on community college students in general and non-business majors in particular. This study plans to stimulate learning among health education students by developing an industry-engaged learning model that will generate subject interest, reinforce academic values, increase motivation, facilitate knowledge acquisition and foster entrepreneurial competencies. This learning environment is particularly effective in tying academic learning to real world practices and increasing job readiness.This study uses a quasi-experimental design with a convenience sample (N=60) for which the experimental health class (n=30) will be exposed to entrepreneurship pedagogy (EP) and the comparison class (n=30) will not. This study, using written surveys, will examine the impact (pre- and post-intervention) on the dependent variables of health knowledge, entrepreneurial attitude, self-efficacy, intent, and perceived behavioral control. Data will be examined using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and multiple regression statistical procedures and be supplemented by qualitative data collected via focus groups. It is hypothesized that students in the entrepreneurship pedagogy (EP) class will demonstrate greater gains in the dependent variables. Findings from this study may contribute to the field of health education and further be generalized across curricula to stimulate intrinsic and sustained learning. Community college administrators may embrace this model as it may improve retention and graduation rates.
Value-based Curriculum : Toward Value-driven Educational Environment Creation
Virtual Poster Sandrita Skeriene
To date, a generally accepted definition of curriculum is lacking due to individual conceptual positions of researchers. As a result, different perspectives as well as types of curriculum are highlighted. The agreement among researchers is found that the rationale of curriculum must find balance between value-driven sources concerned with learner, society, and knowledge. These sources encompass cognitive, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of learning in a broader sense. Over the past few decades, the research has tended to focus on cognitive dimension of learning reflected outcome-based approaches to curriculum. Emphasizing learning as an key item of the educational process and the interplay between teacher and learner, the necessity for both emotionally-based and spiritually-based features of learning process arises. Few researchers have reported the possibilities of the integration and development of cognitive, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of learning across curriculum, but in religious education. Several attempts have been made to apply such possibilities to secular education. Each of dimensions pursue their own values messages that must be orchestrated across curriculum. Significant challenges arise trying to convey value messages in curriculum‘s implementation through educational environments. However, little attention has been paid to that curriculum is more concerned with „an ideal plan“, while educational environments represents momentous reality of that plan. Trying to answer the research question - how should the values whose education is aimed at while defining the objectives of the curriculum should manifest themselves in educational environments? - the conceptual framework is introduced.The research method is based on the literature analysis.
Developing Teacher Candidates' Cultural Sensitivity through Short-term Study Abroad Experiences
Virtual Poster Lydia Kyei-blankson
College of Education (COE) teacher candidates’ study abroad experiences and how they influenced their thinking and plans to implement culturally responsive and relevant pedagogy in their instruction and interaction with diverse student populations and families was explored. The data for this study included reflections and one-on-one semi-structured interviews pre-departure and post-arrival. The data gathered from the study were transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed for themes. The findings showed that the study abroad experiences caused the participants to learn more about other cultures which made them more open and knowledgeable about working with children and families from backgrounds different from their own.
The Northern Train on the Southern Track: Confucius Institutes in Australian Universities
Virtual Poster Shen Chen
The establishment of the Confucius Institutes at Australian universities has contributed to the promotion of teaching Chinese language and culture, while some controversial issues of political and cultural concerns have raised in terms of relationship between the host Australian universities and Confucius Institutes located on their campus. The political concerns are whether the academic freedom at Australian universities would be affected by the Confucius Institutes. The cultural and education concerns are in relation to curriculum, pedagogy and organization. This paper reports on a case study of two Australian universities. In spite of the limitation of two participate universities, there are three important conclusions drawn from this research. The initial results of this research have confirmed an urgent need of a comprehensive and interdisciplinary research to investigate the performance of existing Confucius Institutes in Australia. In addition, the contradictory findings amply demonstrate that Australian academics are deeply divided on Confucius Institutes and their roles and functions. Moreover, a systematic analytical framework should be established to investigate the Confucius Institutes’ linguistic, pedagogical, organizational, political and economic impacts in a nation-wide scope.
Instructed Heritage Speakers of Spanish : What Happens after Secondary School?
Virtual Poster Sharon H. Ulanoff, Sandra L. Pucci
This study examines the heritage (Spanish) language maintenance and/or loss of nine young adults (age 18-25) who graduated from a small urban high school with a Latino-centric curriculum aimed at promoting biliteracy/bilingualism. Research with heritage speakers has been highly compartmentalized. Many studies investigate the sociolinguistic reality of heritage languages (He, 2010), while linguistic-oriented research provides more specific detail on the “systems” of heritage speakers. This research is invaluable; however, the vision of heritage speakers as “primarily naturalistic, often illiterate learners” (Montrul, 2010) fails to take into account the much wider variation, both in terms of experiences and competence. In the present study, we try to bridge this divide by looking at an understudied population: “Naturalistic” heritage speakers who are also “instructed,” and literate in Spanish. This study uses phenomenological and narrative methods (Clandinin & Huber, 2010) to address the question: What are the lived persistent experiences of naturalistic heritage speakers who are also instructed in Spanish? Data were collected through semi-structured, phenomenologically-based recorded interviews (Englander, 2012). Transcripts were analyzed using domain analysis, seeking to elicit meaning from the data (LeCompte & Preissle, 1993), rather than codify and compute it. Results highlight the role of Spanish usage in daily life, maintenance of and/or changes in social networks influence Spanish maintenance and use, and engagement with Spanish texts or other reading materials. All participants used Spanish consistently with family members, although this was most often with parents and grandparents and more difficult with younger siblings.
Student Wellness: An Investigation in a Small Canadian Post-Secondary Institution
Virtual Poster Brent D. Bradford
Student wellness is critical for student success all educational levels. In the increasingly diverse and complex world, students require the skills, knowledge, and attitudes to navigate and flourish through life challenges. The purpose of this study was to investigate student wellness in a small Canadian post-secondary institution. Although wellness relates to various dimensions (e.g., physical, mental, social, environmental, emotional, occupational), student wellness was operationalized through the physical and mental dimensions. The poster will outline the online survey results stemming from 212 participants (i.e., 10% of the student body), such as; 39.6% of participants perceive their lives to be “quite stressful,” 29.7% of participants have been “diagnosed with a mental illness by a medical doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist." Emerging themes related to student wellness included: time of the year; weather; and work load. Although it is critical for "student wellness" researchers to strive toward helping university-level students effectively deal with stressors that lead to mental health issues, it is of equal importance for researchers to disseminate the findings to all educational stakeholders at every educational level. The knowledge shared in this poster may help strengthen student wellness in all educational levels.
Principle Components Analysis versus Implicative Statistical Analysis in Validity Evaluation of a Language Certificate
Virtual Poster Chrysanthi S. Tiliakou, Sophia Anastasiadou
The evaluation of validity of a language certificate is of major importance in the field of language testing. Thus the present study evaluates the validity of the Greek state certificate of English language proficiency (KPG) via two different statistical methods which are Principal Components Analysis and Implicative Statistical Analysis. There were 141 candidates’ responses analysed. A comparison of the results is discussed and the advantages and disadvantages of each method are evaluated. Implications for testing methods and future validation methodologies and issues are also considered. The application of the two distinct methods allows data analysis and designates different aspects of the results. Consequently, their combination offers a more detailed and a more complete analysis and data investigation, contributing thus to more detailed conclusions being drawn.
Identity Narratives Of Mexican American Women in Counselor Education Doctoral Programs
Virtual Poster Tamara Hinojosa
Due to the underrepresentation of ethnic minorities as doctoral students and faculty in Counselor Education and Supervision (CES), the focus of this study was on the identities of Mexican American women as they pursued CES doctoral degrees in the United States. Anzaldúa's Borderlands theory implements metaphor and Mexican histories to highlight the complexity of cultural ambiguities and was used to foster a multicultural framework of identity. Narratives Inquiry was used to explore both narrative content and narrative style of each participant. Therefore, data analysis included two-phases: exploring stylistic features of narratives (i.e., contradictions and turning points) and searching across different fields of experience within narratives (i.e., intrapersonal interactions, interpersonal interactions, and language use). Findings demonstrate that Mexican American women in CES doctoral programs grapple with conflicting cultural expectations as well as a sense of isolation during their doctoral programs. Participants also expressed a strong desire to give back to their communities and often used their research to forge a connection between their academic identities and their ethnic identities. Implications for promoting multiculturalism in higher education include developing culturally empowering mentorship and professional development opportunities that enable Mexican American women students to feel more connected during their doctoral programs.
