<p>In an era of widespread automation—from grocery store self-checkout machines to self-driving cars—it is not outrageous to wonder: can teachers be automated? And more specifically, can automated computer teachers instruct students how to write? Automated computer programs have long been used in summative writing evaluation efforts, such as scoring standardized essay exams, ranking placement essays, or facilitating programmatic outcomes assessments. However, new claims about automated writing evaluation’s (AWE) formative educational potential mark a significant shift. My project questions the effectiveness of using AWE technology for formative educational efforts such as improving and teaching writing. Taken seriously, these efforts portend a future embrace of semi, or even fully, automated writing classes, an unprecedented development in writing pedagogy.</p><p>Supported by a summer-long grant from the Purdue Research Foundation, I conducted a small-<i>n </i>quasi-experiment to test claims by online college tutoring site Chegg.com that its EasyBib Plus AWE tool can improve both writing and writers. The experiment involved four college English instructors reading pairs of essays comprising one AWE-treated and untreated version per pair. Using a comparative judgment model, a rubric-free method of writing assessment based on Thurstone’s law, raters read and designated one of each pair “better.” Across four raters and 160 essays, I found that AWE-treated essays were designated better only 30% of the time (95% confidence interval: 20-40%), a statistically significant difference from the null hypothesis of 50%. The results suggest that Chegg’s EasyBib Plus tool offers no discernible improvement to student writing, and potentially even worsens it.</p><p>Finally, I analyze Chegg’s recent partnership with the Purdue Writing Lab and Online Writing Lab (OWL). The Purdue-Chegg partnership offers a useful test case for anticipating the effects of higher education’s embrace of automated educational technology going forward. Drawing on the history of writing assessment and the results of the experiment, I argue against using AWE for formative writing instruction. In an era of growing automation, I maintain that a human-centered pedagogy remains one of the most durable, important, effective, and transformative ingredients of a quality education.</p>

This case study investigates how teachers’ and school librarians’ attitudes towards L2 reading in years 1-4, as well as their perceived book access and teacher-library collaboration, influence the use and reading of English children’s literature in two Swedish primary schools. This study is motivated by the importance the English language has in Sweden for higher education, the previous research proving powerful language benefits of extensive L2 reading, as well as the recent proposition to strengthen the school library’s role in Sweden. The data collected through qualitative, semi-structured interviews suggests that the participants’ attitudes affect book access, teacher-library collaboration and finally the pupils’ reading of English children’s literature at school. The results show that a confident and positive attitude towards early L2 reading appears to result in more reading, whereas more hesitant attitudes result in less reading. Despite the positive attitudes towards L2 reading in general, most teachers still displayed ambivalent attitudes toward dedicating ample class time to the reading of English children’s literature in the earliest years, often perceiving such reading as too difficult for their pupils. This ambivalence negatively affects the teacher-library collaboration, the inadequate access to physical books catering for the youngest pupils, as well as these learners’ early exposure to English reading. The results indicate that the interpretative nature of the English syllabus has teachers perceive the urgency of reading English children’s literature differently, consequently resulting in different reading practices. In a macro perspective, an unwelcome consequence for Swedish pupils may be an unequal reading preparation for the increasing English demands ahead.

<p>   </p> <p>Motivated by the lack of research that has explored the rhetorical structure of research articles in the humanities, this dissertation analyzes professional philosophical discourse using move-analysis as an approach. A corpus of 60 research articles was compiled from some of the leading philosophy journals. The articles were selected from three sub-disciplinary areas: (a) metaphysics and epistemology, (b) the history of philosophy, and (c) ethics. To analyze the articles, a move analysis codebook was developed, which identified the rhetorical functions (i.e., moves and steps) that different text segments played. The codebook was then applied to the entire research article structure of the 60 research articles. Linguistic features of certain functional units were also identified via corpus analysis techniques. The results of the study show that rhetorical structure of philosophical writing is distinctive compared to other fields and disciplines. On one hand, at the macro level, philosophical writing uses a problem-solution structure rather than the IMRD (intro-methods-results-discussion) structure, common in the social and natural sciences. At the move and step level, philosophical writing heavily relies on evaluation to critically analyze solutions to philosophical problems. Finally, the dissertation found systemic rhetorical functions that permeated the entire research article. Most notably, philosophers heavily qualify and outline their arguments throughout the text. </p> <p>  </p>

This study investigates which English variety teachers in Sweden learned, which they use now and whether this has changed over time. The study included the two major varieties of English, namely British English and American English.  The hypothesis for this paper is that British English will have played an important part in the teachers’ schooling but American English will have had a strong influence in their day-to-day lives and will likely have hanged how they use English. Data was collected in the form of questionnaires filled in by 294 teachers who teach English at primary, secondary and upper secondary schools in Sweden.  The results support the thesis of the paper that teachers mainly learned British English at school while American English becomes more common for teachers under the age of 40. However, the majority of participants were found to use a variety which has features of both British and American English - it is referred to as Mid-Atlantic English in this paper.

A trending national concern is the increasing number of English language learners (ELL) who are being reclassified as long-term English language learners (LTELL) instead of progressing to the general education classroom. This trend is a local problem for the study elementary schools. Guided by sociocultural learning theory that outlined ESL best instructional practices, the purpose of this case study was to examine the instructional practices of elementary ESL teachers. Ten ESL teachers from each grade level from 1st to 5th grades were interviewed and observed. Analysis and organization of the data through its transcription and coding led to the emergence of 5 themes: sociocultural best practices, sociocultural deficiencies, other practices, district ESL program, and teacher needs. Findings included that the district ESL program was not executed with fidelity, there was a need for teacher think-alouds during instruction, and teachers were not consistently implementing decoding strategies with ESL students. A white paper was developed to share the findings with district leaders regarding maintaining fidelity of the ESL program by training teachers, providing necessary resources and other factors related to student success. Increasing the learning and language acquisition of the ESL students within the district may produce an overall positive social impact on society by increasing students' ability to contribute in their communities.

Golgi apparatus protein 1 (GLG1) est une protéine transmembranaire de 160 kDa qui interagit avec l’apolipoprotéine B100 (apoB100), le récepteur des lipoprotéines de basse densité (LDLR) et la proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). Cependant, son mécanisme d’action et sa régulation post-traductionnelle sont inconnus. Des études ont montré que GLG1 subit deux clivages résultant en fragments solubles secrétés de 150 kDa et 55 kDa. Dans cette étude, notre premier objectif est d’identifier les enzymes responsables de la protéolyse de GLG1 ainsi que l’effet du clivage sur sa fonction dans le métabolisme des lipides. De plus, les résultats de nos collaborateurs montrent que les souris adultes déficientes en GLG1 ont un plus grand nombre d’adipocytes mais de taille plus petite que les souris de type sauvage. Notre deuxième objectif est de mesurer la variation de l’expression ainsi qu’identifier l’effet de GLG1 lors de la différentiation des fibroblastes en adipocytes. Pour le premier objectif, les cellules HEK293T surexprimant GLG1 ont été soit transfectées avec des convertases de proprotéines (PCSK) soit incubées avec différents inhibiteurs d’enzymes. Les milieux et les lysats cellulaires ont été analysés par immunobuvardage à la Western. Il n’y a pas eu de nouveaux fragments générés en présence des PCSK. Cependant, en présence d’inhibiteurs des sérines protéases apparentées à la trypsine soit AEBSF et Gabexate mesylate, il y a eu une réduction de la formation du fragment de 55 kDa. Pour identifier la métalloprotéase responsable du clivage de l’ectodomaine générant le fragment de 150 kDa, GLG1 a été transfectée avec les Tissue Inhibitor of Metalloproteinase (TIMP 1-4). Nos résultats ont montré que TIMP3 empêche la relâche de l’ectodomaine de GLG1 dans le milieu de culture. Finalement, nos analyses de plasma de souris par immunobuvardage à la Western ont montré la présence des fragments de 150 kDa et 55 kDa de GLG1 in vivo. Pour le deuxième objectif de l’étude, les fibroblastes préadipocytaires de souris 3T3-L1 ont été différenciés en adipocytes. Des lysats cellulaires et l’isolation d’ARN ont été effectués aux jours 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 et 10 de la différenciation. Des immunobuvardages à la Western ainsi que des RT-qPCR ont été réalisés pour analyser l’expression de GLG1 au cours de la différenciation. Nos résultats ont montré que l’expression de GLG1 augmente durant la différenciation. Bref, nos résultats démontrent que des enzymes trypsin-like clivent GLG1 et génèrent le fragment de 55 kDa. L’inhibition du clivage de l’ectodomaine de GLG1 par TIMP3 suggère que les ADAMs sont impliquées dans la relâche du fragment de 150 kDa. De plus, nous avons montré que l’expression de GLG1 augmente au cours de la différenciation adipocytaire. / Golgi apparatus protein 1 (GLG1) is a 160 kDa transmembrane protein interacting with apolipoprotein B100 (apoB100), low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) and proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). However, the protein’s posttranslational regulation and mechanism of action are poorly understood. Previous studies showed that GLG1 is cleaved resulting in two fragments of 150 kDa and 55 kDa secreted at the cell surface and in the extracellular matrix. The first objective of this study is to identify enzymes responsible for GLG1 proteolysis and the effect of cleavage on its function in lipid metabolism. Furthermore, our collaborators showed that mice with GLG1 knockout have a higher number of adipocytes, but those cells are smaller in size compared to those in wild type mice. Therefore, the second objective of the study is to measure the variation of GLG1 expression during adipocytes differentiation and to identify the effects of GLG1 knockout on adipocytes differentiation. For the first objective, HEK293T cells overexpressing GLG1 were either transfected with basic amino acid-specific proprotein convertases (PCSK) or treated with enzyme inhibitors. Media and cell lysates were analyzed by Western blot. No new fragments were detected in media of PCSK-transfected cells. Cell treatment with trypsin-like serine proteases inhibitors, AEBSF and Gabexate mesylate, reduced the secretion of the 55 kDa fragment. To identify the metalloproteinase responsible for GLG1 shedding, GLG1 was co-transfected with Tissue Inhibitors of Metalloproteinase (TIMP1-4). Our results showed that TIMP3 inhibits shedding of the 150 kDa fragment. Finally, wild-type mouse plasma was analyzed by Western blot and showed the presence of both fragments in vivo. For the second objective of the study, fibroblasts 3T3-L1 cells were differentiated into adipocytes and GLG1 mRNA and protein expression were measured at day 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 by qPCR and Western Blot. Our results showed that GLG1 expression increased during differentiation and a peak was observed at day 4. To conclude, in the first objective of our study, our results showed that trypsin-like enzymes cleave GLG1 and produce a 55 kDa fragment. Shedding of GLG1 is inhibited by TIMP3, which suggests that ADAM10 or ADAM17 are involved in the release of the 150 kDa fragment. In addition, both 55 kDa and 150 kDa fragments were found in normal mouse plasma supporting the relevance of our findings in vivo. In the second objective of our study, GLG1 expression increased during adipocyte differentiation suggesting a role in adipose tissue development and/or morphology. In conclusion, our study will help elucidate how proteolysis of GLG1 impacts its role in the regulation of apoB and PCSK9 secretion and lipid metabolism and how can GLG1 expression affect adipocytes differentiation.

The problem. Research indicates that Latino English language learners in California are placed in special education classes at a higher rate than other states. The factors that determine placement of Latino English learners such as language barriers, transiency, poverty, and teacher training may create challenges for Directors of Special Education. Purpose. This study examined the factors that may contribute to the placement of Latino English language learners in special education as perceived by Directors of Special Education. Research questions. This study answered two questions: (1) Do Directors of Special Education in California believe that there is an overrepresentation of Latino English language learners in special education? (2) What do Directors of Special Education perceive are the factors that lead to the placement of Latino English language learners in special education classes? Methodology. This study used a non-descriptive design and surveyed Directors of Special Education in California districts with an average daily attendance (ADA) of 10,000 or more students. Data for this study was analyzed using percentages, frequencies, mean, and Chi-Square. Ninety-eight Directors of Special Education in districts of ten thousand or more ADA were emailed a questionnaire through SurveyMonkey, and twenty-seven responded. Significant findings. The results suggest that Directors of Special Education do not believe that there is an overrepresentation of Latino English language learners in special education. The results of the survey found six factors that exhibited a significant proportion of positive responses. Recommendations for practice and future studies are also included.

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