Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Advisers: Erica McClure; Wayne Dickerson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-183) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> As student learners become exposed to more technology, they drive change in their learning environments. The United States Department of Education and Georgia Department of Education responded with national and state technology plans to better support the Digital Natives of this century. Local school districts and schools equipped educators in this study through portable and mobile tablet/laptop carts, student response devices, data/video projectors, and/or interactive TVs/white boards. In this multisited, multiple case study, three middle grades English/Language Arts educators honored connections between content, pedagogy, and technology. Through narrative vignettes, within-case and cross-case analysis of data, and interpretation and implications of findings, the researcher described how technology-based learning impacts the learning environment of student learners and their educators in middle grades English/Language Arts instruction and how those experiences impact learner autonomy. The researcher desired the findings to be of value to educators and others whose decisions regarding professional development, instructional practices, and instructional resources influence the learning experiences for educators and their student learners.</p>

Increasing interest in the quality of undergraduate education has led many U.S. institutions of Higher Education to focus their attention on the qualifications and careful preparation of Teaching Assistants (TAs) in general (Thornburg et al, 2000) and International Teaching Assistants (ITAs) in particular (Tang & Sandell, 2000), especially since the number of nonresident aliens in the graduate population has been rising steadily (Pae, 2001). This dissertation reports the findings of a study which investigated the proposition that when international graduate students are appointed International Teaching Assistants (ITAs), they need specific kinds of mentoring and support that differ from that of their counterparts, American Teaching Assistants (ATAs) because the issues applicable to ITAs encompass more than developing appropriate and efficient teaching behaviors. ITAs must also attend to their competencies regarding the English language, the American culture, and pedagogy, since their ability to communicate their knowledge as both graduate students and teaching assistants is sometimes limited by their competencies in the L2 language, culture, and pedagogy. This multi-case study evaluates the impact of an ITA Program on twenty-three ITAs as graduate students and teaching assistants, and offers an emic perspective on the teaching behaviors and communication skill changes ITAs experienced after participating in the optional semester-long ITA Development Program at the University of Arizona. This research study also provides an emic perspective on how ITAs see themselves in the different roles they perform, and it explores the ITAs' definitions and perceptions of teacher "effectiveness" together with those of their undergraduate students. The results of the analyses of data obtained via quantitative and qualitative methods indicate that the participants received positive benefits from the ITA Development Program and significantly improved their language, cultural and teaching competencies in L2. In addition, the findings show that upon completion of the program, ITAs felt more confident and better prepared to fulfill their multiple roles due to the customized support they received, which provided them with reassurance and encouragement throughout the mentoring process.

This teacher-researcher study examines the experiences of secondary students in a unique Upward Bound program exclusively for Native Americans. The study followed the reading and writing experiences of these students during a 2-year period. The focus of the dissertation is on the literacy experiences of students as they were exposed to a rich writing program that used culture as the invitation to literacy. The investigation follows both teacher researcher and students during the emergence of a transactional curriculum that closely followed the Indian Nations at Risk Task Force recommendations for Native American learners. The study enlisted 20 Native American students who were already participating in the Upward Bound program. This program was chosen because it was the only such program in the United States exclusively for Native American students. These students attended public high schools in Tucson, Arizona, or high schools on the Tohono O'odham reservation outside Tucson. The curriculum focus is on transactional literacy experiences and inquiry. These focuses and the concept of teacher as researcher provide the theoretical framework. This framework illuminates curriculum as it attempts to transform the educational experiences of Native American adolescents immersed in writing experiences rooted in Native American ways of viewing the world. This analysis of one distinctive writing class suggests that the often documented institutionally-produced factors that contribute to Native American adolescent failure and discontinuity in secondary writing settings can be overcome when Native American culture is not only valued, but embraced as the focus of literacy in school. This dissertation provides insights into the uniqueness of Native American school experiences and extends the current body of literature on Native American education by considering culture as the invitation into literacy and the teacher as change agent. This study also asks others to pick up the torch. Finally, teacher researcher generated recommendations provide an opportunity for teachers themselves to begin the process of changing the discontinuity of learning often felt by Native Americans in their own classrooms. These recommendations include five conditions for an emerging curriculum: (a) creating space for transactional dialogues, (b) sharing responsibility, (c) trusting inquiry, (d) using multiple sign systems, and (e) accessing personal and social ways of knowing. We need not wait for institutional change to make a difference. As has often been stated in educational research, the teacher makes the difference.

This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores analytic and experiential teaching strategies that lead to engaged student participation and increased learning opportunities in German and French first grade language arts and math classes. The data were collected from two successful public elementary immersion schools in Milwaukee where English-speaking children learn the school curriculum through a second language (German or French) starting from kindergarten. The data in this study were collected in a seven-month time period by using data collection methods such as field notes, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews. The constant comparative method, based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and enumerative techniques were used for data analysis. The data have shown that the first grade immersion teachers used analytic and experiential teaching strategies in learning contexts in order to promote oral second language use and content learning in language arts and math classes. Analytic teaching strategies focus on specific features of the target language, such as syntactic structures, pronunciation, and vocabulary, whereas, experiential teaching strategies focused on the use of the target language in a meaningful and contextualized way. This study also suggests that teachers' learning and teaching philosophies are reflected in their actions and behaviors, and analytic and experiential teaching strategies are the reflections of the teachers' belief systems and their instructional practices. The knowledge gained from this study may form a solid background for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs by demonstrating the needs of immersion teachers, and also recognizing the challenges of immersion education.

The purpose of this qualitative teacher research study was to explore the characteristics of literature circles with preservice teachers and children. Drawing on Vygotsky's (1978) sociocultural theory and Rosenblatt's (1938) transactional theory, this study focuses on the talk of preservice teachers in literature circles with children and the perceptions of preservice teachers about these literature circles. The study was conducted in a fourth grade classroom and a university children's literature course in the southwestern United States over one academic year. Thirty children and 27-28 preservice teachers participated in three to five literature circles each semester. A total of 47 literature circles were tape recorded, transcribed and analyzed. Other sources of data included a teaching journal, free writes from participants and interviews with some preservice teachers. The methods of analysis included coding, visual markers and constant comparison. These literature circles were investigated through a detailed description of the data. There were certain characteristics to organizing the discussions such as selecting books, developing the discussion strategies, planning the circles, producing free writes and reflecting on the experience. This study focuses on how the talk of preservice teachers in literature circles with children evolved over time. The results indicate that the preservice teachers initiated and facilitated discussion, asked and answered questions, dominated discussion, listened, supported and explored children's talk, and shared personal connections and responses as a reader. In addition, the study explores preservice teachers' perceptions of literature circles with children. Three major themes were found: The preservice teachers learned about children in the literature circles, how to do circles and the value these circles for children. Finally, the findings illustrate how the literature experience with preservice teachers influenced the children. According to the data, the children had significant relationships with young adults, managed the literature circles, considered different perspectives in the discussions, gained confidence in their ability to talk, gained perspectives on college and acquired personal advocates. This study shows the importance of partnerships between universities and elementary schools. The preservice teachers were given opportunities to experience reading, writing, learning and teaching with children. The college students were able to observe children learning and to reflect on these experiences.

Astronomical images are found on monumental structures and decorative art, and metaphorically in seasonal myths, and are documented by calendars. In Israel and the southern Levant, images of the sun, the moon, and the stars were common decorating motifs. They were found on walls, pottery, and seals and date to as early as the Chalcolithic period; for example, the wall painting of a star at Teleilat Ghassul (North 1961). This dissertation establishes that the people of the Levant were aware of the apparent movement of the sun, and this will be discussed in Chapter 4. They began recording through representation drawings, astronomical phenomena no later than the Chalcolithic/Early Bronze Age and continued to do so late into the Middle Bronze Age. The argument moves beyond the simple use of symbols to the use of images to represent constellations, with the focus on the constellation Leo in Chapter 5. Furthermore, the use of astronomy as a power and political tool is also suggested in Chapter 6. Nonetheless, the primary purpose that is addressed here is the tendency in Syro-Palestinian archaeology has been to attribute technological evidence found in the northern and southern Levant as diffused from Egypt or Assyria, particularly astronomy. This dissertation firmly establishes that astronomy was used in the southern Levant before any significant contact with the civilizations of Egypt or Assyria.

Recent trends in immigration to the German speaking countries have contributed to a new multi-cultural demographic in the "culture boxes" of L2 German textbooks. A close analysis of their content, however, reveals a racist discourse that promotes and reinforces a power-based, hegemonic majority culture at the expense of minorities, as well as materials that reinforce U.S. American cultural values at the expense of German ones by imagining a community of German speakers that meets U.S. national identity needs. Utilizing tools from the fields of semiotics, critical discourse analysis and cultural studies, the dissertation demonstrates how both racism toward the German "Other" and U.S. American ethnocentrism are promoted by discourse strategies including but not limited to: narration, indexicality, myth, metaphor and metonym. This dissertation views and comments on the L2 German textbook from the perspective of text itself, the culture therein represented, and the users of the materials, proposing that "reading" the L2 German textbook from a Cultural Studies perspective effectively addresses current theories about culture teaching and disciplinarity while bringing basic language learners into a much-advocated arena of critical thinking about the self and others. Such activities align basic language instruction more closely with beliefs about the responsibilities and goals of Humanities and General Education teaching in the United States.

This study is an investigation of issues of language planning and education in Aruba and how these might facilitate effective change on the island. The questions for this study were. (1) What are the predominant language varieties in Aruba, and to what uses are they put? (2) What is the official plan the Aruba government has put into place for educational change? (3) What generalizable implications for language planning and education surface from an in depth look at the context in Aruba? Major findings are the following: (1) The four predominant languages in Aruba are Papiamento, Dutch, Spanish and English. Papiamento is the indigenous language of the island used at home and as the lingua franca for island business. Dutch is the language of all official government documents and is the medium of instruction in the schools. Spanish language is utilized in homes of Aruban immigrants from Spanish speaking homelands and is commonly spoken among tourists and businesses catering to tourism. English is the vernacular language used at home for many Aruban families living in the San Nicolas geographic area of Aruba and is the language that dominates the tourism business. (2) The Aruban Department of Education has developed various plans for innovative change for their education system and is working in conjunction with several other agencies to bring systematic change to education in Aruba. These plans address language issues among others and are being implemented as legal strides are made. (3) In the context of Aruban culture and language, (a) education professionals have a responsibility to explore the ideological foundations of their theories and practices, (b) a commitment to structural equality is necessary, and (c) commitment to language planning in Aruba, and in any nation, requires a commitment to the struggle for language rights. Aruba's current political efforts are focused on initiating change for educational practice and theory. Aruba is in a position of unlimited possibilities to plan, design, and implement a new revised educational system that will change the culture of schooling in Aruba.

The purpose of this dissertation was to explore a situated technology integration professional development experience from the perspective of six university-level foreign and second language teachers as they engaged and participated in a best practices professional development model. Assuming variability in development based on contextual and individual factors, the study aimed to (1) illuminate the underlying issues by exploring how and why each teacher-learner experienced the professional development; (2) investigate the similarities and differences among the cases in order to more fully understand what was involved in advancing the development process, and (3) locate patterns among the cases that provide insight into what constitutes successful and effective technology integration professional development. This dissertation took a comparative multi-case study approach to achieving these research goals and employed a variety of interview, observation, and document data collection techniques. These included pre- and post-questionnaires that focused on the teacher-learners' technological, pedagogical, curricular, and development attitudes, beliefs, and goals; pre- and post-inventories measuring technology integration familiarity, use, and interest; six formative questionnaires by which the teacher-learners measured their own progression; group, pair, and individual interviews examining the teacher-learners experiences at different points; participatory and semi-participatory observations of the teacher-learners' participation in the various events that made up the model, including workshops, one-on-one consultations, collegial presentations, and in-class technology integration implementations; and document evidence in the form of the model's help sheets and lesson plans, as well as the syllabi and curriculum records kept by the teacher-learners themselves regarding their technology integration efforts. The resulting data were analyzed using a constant comparative method, quantitative visual display, and a grounded theory approach to coding for process. The study's findings supported the originally assumed development variability among the six technology integration professional development cases. Such variability was shown to be a product of the teacher-learners' own agency, which was revealed to exist in the individualized and contextualized ways they responded to and, thereby, shaped their experiences. The effectiveness vs. ineffectiveness of these means to advance the development processes support language teacher-learners undertaking situated cognition-based dialogic and reflective learning scenarios infused with self-directed learning and transformative learning opportunities.