Master of Arts / Department of Modern Languages / Douglas K. Benson / Students have opportunity to reach learner autonomy and achieve real world applications utilizing communicative competence, a learner centered environment and comprehensible input, incorporated into a unit for student success. The acquisition of language and culture is facilitated in the classroom environment with low affective filters and comprehensible input combining different learning strategies. The activities in this cultural thematic art unit engage student’s interest and activate his or her background knowledge, making meaningful connections with the unit content and their personal lives. Literature, paintings, grammar and vocabulary enable students to build communicative competence in L2. Language learners collaborate and engage in the target language while simultaneously learning about literature, history and culture and learning how artists and writers represent empathy for others as they process words by various Spanish speakers. Additionally, authentic texts and the use of technology enhance students’ linguistic performance. The unit begins with my teaching philosophy followed by a sequence of activities that allow students to process language while they study the consequences of war on those who are affected by it, and a brief section on potential learning outcomes for those who participate in the activities.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Charles R. Oaklief / This ex post facto research was conducted using parametric and non-parametric analysis to determine if the mass retirement of community college presidents between 2001 and 2007 had precipitated a diminution in educational qualifications, a reduction in pre-presidential community college experience, or a change in presidential career paths of first time community college presidents by era (before and after 2001). Seven hundred eighty-five currently serving presidents of comprehensive community colleges were surveyed. The overall return rate of the survey was 53.25%: the useable return rate was 49.30%. Parametric (independent samples t-test) and non-parametric (Mann-Whitney and chi square) tests were used to determine if there were significant differences in educational qualifications, pre-presidential community college experience, and presidential career paths of first time community college presidents by era (before and after 2001). The study found: - A diminution of the educational qualifications after 2001 with fewer presidents holding doctorates at the time of their first presidential appointments compared to presidents appointed before 2001; - A significant increase in pre-presidential community college experience of presidents appointed after 2001 at the time of their first presidential appointments compared to presidents appointed before 2001; - A significant difference in presidential career paths by era. Specifically, presidents appointed after 2001 were significantly less likely to have entered the community college system from K12 or from non-educational management positions. Presidents appointed after 2001 were also significantly less likely to have served as a community college Chief Academic Officer and significantly more likely to have served as a community college Primary Academic Officer, Chief Students Affairs Officer, or Vice President.

En 2015, la Fédération des cégeps du Québec soulignait que la santé mentale des cégépiens constituait une inquiétude croissante : l’anxiété liée aux évaluations, les symptômes dépressifs et la préoccupation à l’égard de la réussite scolaire touchent une proportion inquiétante d’étudiants. Conséquemment, le but de la présente étude était d’explorer le rôle modérateur et potentiellement protecteur de l’adaptation au cégep, sous les angles de l’adaptation sociale et de l’attachement institutionnel, au sein des relations entre l’anxiété liée aux évaluations, les symptômes dépressifs et le rendement scolaire. Des étudiants en première année du Cégep régional de Lanaudière à Joliette (n = 513; 63,5% de filles) ont complété, aux sessions d’automne 2016 et d’hiver 2017, des questionnaires autorapportés sur leur niveau d’adaptation sociale, d’attachement envers l’institution scolaire, d’anxiété liée aux évaluations, de symptômes dépressifs et de rendement scolaire. Les résultats ont indiqué que l’anxiété liée aux évaluations en première session ne prédit pas la cote R en fin de première session ni les symptômes dépressifs à la session d’hiver. Toutefois, les symptômes dépressifs à la première session prédisent négativement la cote R en fin de cette même session. Aussi, une cote R plus faible à la session d’automne influence l’augmentation de symptômes dépressifs à l’hiver. Enfin, malgré le fait que l’attachement institutionnel ne joue pas un rôle modérateur sur les relations étudiées, l’adaptation sociale, quant à elle, présente une interaction significative dans les relations bidirectionnelles entre l’anxiété et le rendement. Des implications sur les plans théorique et pratique en lien avec les résultats sont discutées. / In 2015, the Fédération des cégeps du Québec noted that the mental health of cegep students as a growing concern: test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and worry about academic success affects a disturbing proportion of students. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to explore the moderating and potentially protective role of cegep adjustment, from the angles of social adaptation and institutional attachment, within the relationships between test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic performance. First-year students at Cégep régional de Lanaudière in Joliette (n = 513; 63.5% female) completed self-reported questionnaires in the fall 2016 and winter 2017 semesters on their level of social adjustment, attachment to the institution, test anxiety, depressive symptoms, and academic performance. Results indicated that test anxiety in the first semester did not predict R score at the end of the first semester nor depressive symptoms in the winter semester. However, depressive symptoms in the first semester did negatively predict the R score at the end of the first semester. Also, a lower R score in the fall semester influenced the increase in depressive symptoms in the winter. Finally, although institutional attachment did not play a moderating role on the studied relationships, social adjustment shows a significant interaction in the bidirectional relationship between anxiety and performance. Theoretical and practical implications related to the results are discussed.

Des établissements du réseau collégial ont aménagé depuis plusieurs années des locaux appelés classes d’apprentissage actif (CLAAC) (CLAAC.org, 2014; Kingsbury, 2012). Ces aménagements relativement coûteux comparés à des classes traditionnelles sont réalisés dans le but de favoriser le recours aux pédagogies actives et l’utilisation des TIC. Bien que ces deux concepts populaires soient présents en abondance dans la littérature scientifique en éducation, les connaissances sur les effets des CLAAC et leurs causes en particulier sont encore limitées. Plusieurs établissements du réseau s’intéressent de près aux effets de ces classes sur l’apprentissage des personnes étudiantes et à l’accompagnement du personnel enseignant qui les utilise. Chez les établissements partenaires, le fait qu’un grand nombre de personnes enseignantes issues de disciplines variées utilisent ces locaux pour la première fois constitue une occasion d’explorer, à travers des cas dans plusieurs disciplines d’enseignement, le processus d’adoption d’une CLAAC par des personnes enseignantes du postsecondaire et les liens avec la motivation des personnes étudiantes. À partir de cet objectif principal, cette thèse se décline en trois objectifs spécifiques. Le premier s’intéresse aux caractéristiques des personnes enseignantes qui débutent un tel projet, le deuxième aux facteurs qui aident ou nuisent à l’adoption d’une CLAAC et le troisième tisse des liens entre, d’une part, les caractéristiques des personnes enseignantes et étudiantes qui utilisent une CLAAC et d’autre part deux indicateurs de la motivation des personnes étudiantes. Parmi les résultats saillants, on note l’intérêt élevé des cas pour la collaboration, des profils d’entrée variés, des effets sur la motivation qui varient selon au moins deux populations étudiantes et une surcharge de travail importante au point où certains aspects de l’utilisation du local ont été repoussés à plus tard. L’approche d’enseignement s’est aussi révélée une variable d’intérêt à deux reprises : sur les profils d’adoption d’une innovation par les personnes enseignantes et sur les indicateurs de motivation des populations étudiantes. / Several institutions in the college network in Quebec invest in special classrooms designs called active learning class (ALC) (CLAAC.org, 2014; Kingsbury, 2012). These relatively costly arrangements compared to traditional classes aim to promote the use of active pedagogies and the use of ICT. Although these two popular concepts are present in abundance in the scientific literature in education, knowledge on the effects of ALC and their causes are still limited. Several institutions in the network are taking a close interest in the effects of these classes on student learning and in supporting the teachers who use them. For partner institutions in this project, the fact that many teachers from various disciplines are using these premises for the first time is an opportunity to explore, through cases in several teaching disciplines, the process of adopting an ALC by post-secondary teachers and the links to student motivation. From this main objective, this thesis is divided into three specific objectives. The first focuses on the characteristics of teachers who start such a project, the second on the factors that help or hinder the adoption of an ALC and the third attempts to establish links between the characteristics of people who use an ALC (teachers and students) and two indicators of student motivation. Among the salient results, we note the teachers' high interest in collaboration, various entry profiles, effects on motivation that vary according to at least two different student populations and a significant workload overload to the point where certain aspects of use of the classroom have been hindered. The teaching approach (approach to teaching model) also proved to be a variable of interest on two occasions: on the profiles of adoption of an innovation by teachers and on student motivation indicators.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / Margaret G. Shroyer / The goal of this research study was to identify the factors that influence community college students’ educational attainment as future teachers. In this naturalistic case study, three forms of data collection were used to answer the research question: 1) documents and reports; 2) student surveys; and 3) student interviews. The case for this study was the teacher preparation program at a mid-sized community college, Butler Community College (Butler), in El Dorado, Kansas. The population of the study included 83 elementary education majors enrolled in the teacher preparation program at the community college. Document and report analysis provided a detailed description of the teacher preparation program at Butler Community College, to include Butler’s role in teacher education. Survey analysis provided a demographic profile of the research population, as well as the barrier and support factors that influenced the educational attainment of these elementary education students. Interviews were conducted with a select group from the population (22 students) who had completed all of the education courses at Butler Community College and were ready to transfer to a four-year teacher education program. Interview analysis provided a detailed demographic profile of participants, as well as a more detailed description of the specific barriers and supports elementary education students experienced while attending Butler. The barriers and support factors were categorized as: 1) institutional barriers or supports; 2) instructional barriers or supports; and 3) personal barriers or supports. The greatest barriers students experienced were personal barriers, such as time management and financial issues. The major institutional barrier was lack of staff support, primarily advising support. Instructional barriers, such as the irrelevance of general education curriculum or problems with a specific course curriculum, were only minor barriers for students. The greatest overall support students experienced at the community college was in the form of instructional support, both faculty support and practical education coursework with accompanying field experiences. The major institutional support was staff support, namely, advising. Family support was cited as the major personal support.

This dissertation interrogates the deficit assumptions about English proficiency of skilled immigrants who were recruited by Canadian governments between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through the lens of literacy as social practice, the eighteen-month ethnographic qualitative research explores the sequential experiences of settlement and economic integration of seven well-educated Chinese immigrant professionals. The analytical framework is built on sociocultural approaches to literacy and learning, as well as the theories of discourses and language reproduction. Using multiple data sources (observations, conversational interviews, journal and diary entries, photographs, documents, and artifacts collected in everyday lives), I document many different ways that well-educated Chinese immigrants take advantage of their language and literacy skills in English across several social domains of home, school, job market, and workplace. Examining the trans-contextual patterning of the participants’ language and literacy activities reveals that immigrant professionals use literacy as assistance in seeking, negotiating, and taking hold of resources and opportunities within certain social settings. However, my data show that their language and literacy engagements might not always generate positive consequences for social networks, job opportunities, and upward economic mobility. Close analyses of processes and outcomes of the participants’ engagements across these discursive discourses make it very clear that the monolithic assumptions of the dominant language shape and reinforce structural barriers by constraining their social participation, decision making, and learning practice, and thereby make literacy’s consequences unpredictable. The deficit model of language proficiency serves the grounds for linguistic stereotypes and economic marginalization, which produces profoundly consequential effects on immigrants’ pathways as they strive for having access to resources and opportunities in the new society. My analyses illuminate the ways that language and literacy create the complex web of discursive spaces wherein institutional agendas and personal desires are intertwined and collide in complex ways that constitute conditions and processes of social and economic mobility of immigrant populations. Based on these analyses, I argue that immigrants’ successful integration into a host country is not about the mastery of the technical skills in the dominant language. Rather, it is largely about the recognition and acceptance of the value of their language use and literacy practice as they attempt to partake in the globalized new economy.

This dissertation interrogates the deficit assumptions about English proficiency of skilled immigrants who were recruited by Canadian governments between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Through the lens of literacy as social practice, the eighteen-month ethnographic qualitative research explores the sequential experiences of settlement and economic integration of seven well-educated Chinese immigrant professionals. The analytical framework is built on sociocultural approaches to literacy and learning, as well as the theories of discourses and language reproduction. Using multiple data sources (observations, conversational interviews, journal and diary entries, photographs, documents, and artifacts collected in everyday lives), I document many different ways that well-educated Chinese immigrants take advantage of their language and literacy skills in English across several social domains of home, school, job market, and workplace. Examining the trans-contextual patterning of the participants’ language and literacy activities reveals that immigrant professionals use literacy as assistance in seeking, negotiating, and taking hold of resources and opportunities within certain social settings. However, my data show that their language and literacy engagements might not always generate positive consequences for social networks, job opportunities, and upward economic mobility. Close analyses of processes and outcomes of the participants’ engagements across these discursive discourses make it very clear that the monolithic assumptions of the dominant language shape and reinforce structural barriers by constraining their social participation, decision making, and learning practice, and thereby make literacy’s consequences unpredictable. The deficit model of language proficiency serves the grounds for linguistic stereotypes and economic marginalization, which produces profoundly consequential effects on immigrants’ pathways as they strive for having access to resources and opportunities in the new society. My analyses illuminate the ways that language and literacy create the complex web of discursive spaces wherein institutional agendas and personal desires are intertwined and collide in complex ways that constitute conditions and processes of social and economic mobility of immigrant populations. Based on these analyses, I argue that immigrants’ successful integration into a host country is not about the mastery of the technical skills in the dominant language. Rather, it is largely about the recognition and acceptance of the value of their language use and literacy practice as they attempt to partake in the globalized new economy.