This study addresses the question of whether or not pre-service teachers are ready and prepared to use and teach the highly-specialized language of each discipline. The disciplinary languages present teaching and learning challenges due to their lack of parallels in the daily language (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Additionally, the languages of the disciplines are rarely taught and are commonly acquired through an isolated representation of words without a situated meaning within the theory (Gee, 2002). The knowledge of the particular ways of reading, writing, listening to, and talking in the content areas provides opportunities for students’ apprenticeship within the disciplines required for success in higher education contexts (Dobbs, Ippolito, and Charner, 2017). Moreover, this study addresses the question of how future teachers develop disciplinary knowledge and skills. The purpose of this case study was to investigate how mathematical literacy is shaped and defined by the experiences, language, and disciplinary practices of pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics. This overall aim was unfolded by three guiding research questions: 1) What do the Experiences of Pre-Service Teachers and Experts in Mathematics Reveal about their Understanding of Mathematical Literacy? 2) RQ 2. How do pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics use language when solving mathematical problems? and 3) What literacy practices do pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics utilize when presented with modules that require mathematics problem-solving? To structure the elements of analysis for the participants’ responses, I adopted the theoretical support from the emerging disciplinary literacy framework, the novice-expert paradigm, and the tenets of M. K. Halliday’s functional linguistic theory (i.e., Systemic Functional Linguistics; [SFL]). Four faculty in the Department of Mathematics and four pre-service teachers in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at a large Midwest university agreed to participate in this case study. For the data collection, I asked the participants to participate in two sessions. In the first sessions, the participants responded to a semi-structured interview. Afterward, in a second session, the participants solved modules of mathematical problems following three protocols: a think-aloud, a silent-solving, and an oral-explanatory. The results of the participants’ responses to the semi-structured interview and the three protocols indicated that their experiences as learners and teachers of mathematics are tied to their definitions of literacy and disciplinary literacy. The SFL analysis showed that for the experts of mathematics, mathematical problem-solving is a more abstract and cognitive practice. The pre-service teachers’ registers indicated that mathematical problem-solving is experienced as more concrete and real practice. The unique literacy practices that these participants displayed showed the strong connection between language, literacy, and mathematical thought.The implications of this study are discussed in terms of the importance of language and disciplinary literacy in preparation for future teachers as they progress in their course of study within their teaching education programs.

Denna undersökning har syftat till att undersöka hur AI anses kunna påverka undervisningen i skolan och samhällskunskapsämnet. Studien baseras på den diskurs som råder inom ämnet. Undersökningen baseras på material i form av tidningsartiklar, en intervju med en forskare och en fokusgruppsintervju. Materialet har analyserats genom en kvantitativ respektive kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Undersökningen utgår från uppfattningen att samhällskunskapsundervisningen bör sträva efter att utveckla så kallad AI-literacy hos eleverna. Resultatet bekräftade inte att detta genomförs i undervisningen. Områden som undervisning, fusk, examination och bedömning behandlades i större utsträckning än AI-literacy, AIED (AI in education) och AI&ED (AI and education).  Resultatet antyder att AI-utvecklingen kommer leda till nya examinationsformer och möjligen AI-assistenter som kompletterar lärare. Samhällskunskap som undervisningsämne omnämndes knappt i materialet även om vissa områden som kan relateras till samhällskunskap förekom som källkritik och demokrati. AI-literacy relaterat till samhällskunskap förekom några enstaka gånger. Detta resultat påvisar viken av att utveckla AI:s roll i samhällskunskapsundervinsingen för att möjliggöra säkra studier av ämnet i skolan, samt vikten av att fortsätta forska om AI och utbildning och AI och samhällskunskap. / This survey aims to investigate how AI is considered to influence teaching in school and the social studies subject. The survey is based on the discourse on the subject of AI and education. The survey is based on material from online news articles, an interview with a researcher and a focus group interview. The material has been analyzed through quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods. The survey is based on a theory that claims that social studies teaching should strive to develop students so-called AI-literacy. The survey results did not confirm this theory. Categories such as teaching, cheating, examination and assessment were covered in the material to a greater extent than AI literacy, AIED (AI in education) and AI&ED (AI and education). The results suggests that the development in AI may lead to new forms of examination and possibly AI assistants as a supplement to teachers. Social studies as a teaching subject was barely mentioned in the material, although certain areas that can be related to social studies appeared such as source criticism and democracy. AI literacy related to social studies appeared a few times. This result demonstrates the importance of further research about AI and social studies education to and to enable safe methods to study the subject in schools. It also emphasizes the importance of continued research on AI and education as well as AI and social studies.

As a way of extending perspectives of writing and learning, this thesis explores everyday literacy activities and their role in function in shaping people's activities. Taking up an autoethnographic approach to studying the mundane literacies of everyday life, this thesis offers a fine-grained analysis of the processes and practices involved in two specific literate activities I have engaged in over the two years: creating a mixtape for a friend and streaming my participation in online video games. As key findings, the analysis of these everyday literate activities suggests that the interactions between people and social contexts figure prominently in the production and use of everyday texts, that everyday life is profoundly mediated by digital literacies, and that everyday literacies are often central to people's academic and professional lives. Ultimately, these analyses point toward the need for further inquiry into digital literacies, and to the potential pedagogical benefits of encouraging students to examine the mundane literacies at play in their everyday lives.

Att behärska literacy är en nödvändighet för att fullt ut kunna ta del av vårt samhälle. Att lära sig att behärska skriftspråket är en lång resa som börjar redan i förskolan. Det här arbetet har som syfte att belysa i vilka situationer under dagen som barn är delaktiga i literacyhändelser. Detta har gjorts med hjälp av frågeställningar som behandlar när literacyhändelser sker, hur de ser ut, vad de innehåller och vem som initierar dem. I studien anläggs ett sociokulturellt perspektiv på literacy. Empirin har samlats in genom observation med skuggningsteknik på en förskola. Observationerna utfördes med hjälp av videokamera och fältanteckningar. Empirin har sedan tematiserats för att analyseras utifrån det sociokulturella perspektivet. Resultatet visar på att literacyhändelser kan involvera både barn och vuxna, ske både inom- som utomhus i spontana och planerade aktiviteter under alla olika tillfällen under dagen. Hur de ser ut är beroende av flera olika komponenter. I slutsatsen redovisas dessa komponenter och sätts i förhållande till den tidigare forskning vi redogjort för. Avslutningsvis diskuteras de slutsatser som frambringats i förhållande till förskollärarens yrkesroll. Resultatet pekar på att literacyhändelser kan te sig på många olika sätt i en förskolekontext och att de kan inträffa i olika sammanhang. Vidare visar resultatet på att en lärande literacyhändelse inte sker isolerad utan är beroende av meningsskapande och samspel.

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This project describes the piloting of a family literacy curriculum developed for use in a community ESL course. The purpose of this curriculum was to teach family-literacy-oriented English to students in the community ESL courses that are part of Brigham Young University's TESOL Teacher Training Course (TTTC) held at the University Parkway Center on BYU's campus. Students in BYU's TESOL Graduate Certificate program are required to complete a one-semester teaching practicum in the TTTC program. This program regularly offers English courses that enroll approximately 100 ESL students from the local community who are non-native speakers of English. These ESL students have an oral proficiency interview before classes begin and are placed in an appropriate level according to their ability to communicate in English. Graduate students (hereafter referred to as teachers) design their own course and syllabus and teach classes in pairs. Classes last for approximately ten weeks. The TTTC administration allowed the author of this study, a student in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at BYU, to design a family literacy curriculum for the teachers to implement for two weeks of their classes. This report relates the preparation of the curriculum, the needs analysis of the students, the needs analysis of the teachers implementing the curriculum, the situational analysis of the TTTC program, the design of the curriculum, and its implementation and evaluation. In addition, this report describes the instruments used to evaluate the curriculum. Finally, it draws conclusions about the worth of the curriculum, and it gives suggestions for future work in family literacy curriculum development for speakers of other languages.

Home renovation workers have historically belonged to the blue-collar workforce. Their jobs are often stereotyped as less cognitively complex than those belonging to their white-collar counterparts. While prior research has revealed the cognitive complexity of such work, there is still a gap in research investigating the literacy practices of “blue-collar” workplaces. Through the lenses of New Literacy Studies and activity theory, this case study examines the texts used in a room remodel, the literacy practices surrounding the texts, and the sociocultural implications of these practices. Through document-based and retrospective interviews, the primary participant is given a voice in identifying and describing the practices and values associated with the texts in his workplace. Literacies identified during interviews are examined in context through observations. The findings indicate the importance of texts not just for facilitating the renovation work, but for developing the social relationships necessary for working together. Influenced by the work of Brandt and Clinton, this study looks beyond the limits of the local to examine how the literacy practices of home renovation workers shape and are shaped by globalizing forces. By situating home renovation work within the larger network of the Information Age, this study questions the extent to which new workplace literacies are blurring the line between knowledge work and manual labor.

Background: Adolescents need to develop health literacy skills to participate in making decisions about their health care. Organizational health literacy facilitates patient understanding of health information, care access, and self-management. Methods: A literature review and qualitative case study were conducted to explore adolescent health literacy within an organizational context of an adolescent scoliosis program. Results: Adolescent health literacy is more nuanced than numeracy and reading levels. Yet, little is known about how organizations (including clinicians) support adolescent health literacy. Interviews with health care professionals in a pediatric tertiary hospital related health literacy to scoliosis patient education but did not address other factors associated with adolescents’ ability to navigate health systems. Organizational documents did not adequately support healthcare professionals in promoting the health literacy of adolescent scoliosis patients. Conclusion: Organizational supports are needed to build health literacy capacity amongst adolescents receiving scoliosis care and clinicians need help to leverage the supports that are in place.

No description available.