For teachers of freshman English composition, the most time-consuming aspect of teaching is responding to student papers (Anson, 2012; Straub, 2000b). Teachers respond in various ways, but most teachers agree that they should offer written feedback to students (Beach & Friedrich, 2006). However, little research has been conducted to determine how teachers’ written feedback practices reflect their beliefs about the purpose of such feedback. This qualitative study explores the relationship between English composition teachers’ beliefs about written feedback and their actual written feedback practices. The participants were a sample of four instructors of freshman English composition at a mid-sized metropolitan public university. Interviews, classroom observations, course documents, and samples of teachers’ written comments were analyzed to determine teachers’ written response practices and their beliefs related to the purposes of freshman writing and their roles as writing teachers. Results suggest that teachers were aware of their beliefs, and their written response practices were consistent with their beliefs. Teachers utilized different approaches to respond to student writing, but those approaches are consistent with current recommendations for responding to student writing. Three major themes emerged from the study. First, teachers must be given the opportunity to reflect about and articulate their beliefs about written response so they will know why they respond in the way they do. Second, teachers work within the boundaries of their specific writing program to organize their written responses to student writing. Third, teachers must respond to student writing from varying perspectives as readers of the text. The findings support studies which indicate that written response is a sociocultural practice and teacher beliefs are just one aspect of the complex nature of teacher written response. The study should add to the fields of response theory and the formation of teacher beliefs.

Thesis advisor: Diana Pullin / Parents are the primary educators of their children and the consistent teachers throughout their lives. However, with raised expectations through curriculum state standards and high stakes testing for students, teachers and schools, families are being left behind. A particular turning point in students' education is during the middle school years when intellectual, character, social and emotional transitions occur and habits are formed. Therefore, this qualitative, single case study uses data sources of interviews, observations and artifacts to determine the appropriate role of parents at the middle school level as perceived by administrators, teachers with administrative duties, teachers and parents. Additionally, this research sought to determine the unique factors that impede more effective partnerships between home and school and analyze the current situation using the sociocultural theory to determine if beliefs and values match the social structures in place at this particular school and provide implications for practice. Findings reveal the parent role is defined by consistent communication between home and school for unified adult expectations. Unique factors impeding parent participation at this level are based on this particular age of the students. Using sociocultural theory, it is evident that the school community culture prevails over individual beliefs and is impeded by two underlying sub cultures of rationalizations and assumptions, which allow participation to remain infrequent. There are additional overarching issues discussed that go beyond sociocultural theory. Finally, recommendations for practice are made for this particular school and the middle school level. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Given the fundamental role beliefs play in guiding what individuals think and do, it is important to understand teachers' beliefs and their development in order to facilitate professional growth, which in turn has the potential to promote effective teaching and learning. While research efforts have been devoted largely to investigating teachers' beliefs, it is surprising that, despite its significance, there is little published data concerning vocabulary teaching, not to mention how professional training contributes to teachers' change in relation to the language area. This thesis, therefore, seeks to investigate teachers' epistemological and pedagogical beliefs about vocabulary development, understand their relationship with actual practice, as well as exploring how they develop through a dialogic approach which emphasises interaction and self-reflection. The study reported herein is situated in the context of Hong Kong, where problems relating to the teaching and learning of English vocabulary have been repeatedly highlighted in the literature. It mainly involves six frontline teachers of English as a second language in a local secondary school selected using purposeful sampling. Of these six teachers, four participated in a teacher development programme which focused on dialogic reflection on beliefs and practices regarding vocabulary teaching, whereas the remaining ones did not. Adopting a case study research strategy, the research draws on four major sources of data, including lesson observations, semi-structured interviews, teachers' professional dialogues and reflective writing, to illuminate issues regarding vocabulary teaching and the process of change. The findings of the study reveal the need to promote teacher professional development regarding vocabulary teaching and develop teachers' awareness of their own and alternative beliefs and practices. They also provide empirical support for the notion that dialogic reflection helps foster teachers' change, and enable us to arrive at a better understanding of the complicated nature of teachers' cognitive and behavioural development. These shed new light on sociocultural theory, generate original insights into how dialogic interaction can be used as a mediational tool to facilitate and understand teacher change in beliefs and practice, as well as providing implications for second language education and teacher professional development.

abstract: The purpose of this action research study was to measure the transactional distance of computer science students who participated in an online virtual community after completing a college preparation program. Using data and results generated from previous cycles of research I developed and moderated an online virtual community designed to lessen transactional distance using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods research design. This study addressed the following research questions: 1. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and course content? 2. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and their instructors/teaching assistants? 3. How and to what extent will participation in a virtual community influence the transactional distance between students and other students in the same courses? The participants for this action research study included approximately 200 students enrolled in six online sections of an entry level computer programing course from various locations around the world. Also participating in the community were the online instructors who taught the course, teaching assistants, advisors, and the action researcher. Using the sociocultural, transactional distance, self-determination, and adult learning theories as a framework, the virtual community provided occasions for students and instructional team members to share experiences and support each other academically and socially. The community was designed to enable students to give and receive frequent feedback, increase autonomy and their sense of belonging, and provide additional opportunities for them to learn from each other. Through a descriptive analysis of the transactional distance survey results, I was able to determine that transactional distance between students and their teachers, and students the course content slightly increased, while the transactional distance between students and their classmates somewhat decreased. There was also an increase in average final grade and pass rate and a decrease in student withdrawal rate. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2018

Historically, disabled people have not been viewed as innovators of humor because disability is associated with tragedy. My dissertation challenged the association of disability with tragedy by positioning disabled comedians as educators and ambassadors of disability rights. I reviewed the literature on disability and humor as well as disability oppression, which disability humor challenges. I used phenomenology as well as culturally responsive methodologies to examine what disabled comedians are achieving with their humor and what nondisabled audience members learned from attending their performances. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory of learning was used to examine learning outcomes for audience members. I examined historical and contemporary Black humor, which is much older than disability humor in order to investigate what may be the future of disability humor.

Due to recent developments in Web 2.0 technologies, computer-mediated collaborative writing has captured the growing attention of second language researchers and instructors. The affordance of wikis for collaborative writing has been hailed, but few studies have explored the nature of wiki collaboration and interaction during small group writing using wikis. This dissertation investigated dynamic group interactions in wiki-based collaborative writing tasks in an English for Academic Purposes (EAP) course at a southeastern public research university in the U.S. A total of twenty-nine English as a Second Language graduate students collaboratively worked on two writing tasks within small groups in Wikispaces sites. By adopting a multiple-case study approach, I closely examined four small groups that had diverse L1 background composites and presented a comprehensive picture of students' wiki-based collaborative writing. Informed by sociocultural theory, particularly the notions of scaffolding and zone of proximal development, I explored small group interactions to derive how they negotiated writing tasks, co-constructed writing, and mutually scaffolded wiki writing processes. I also examined what factors mediated the dynamic interactions, and in what ways the interactions influenced wiki writing products and connected with students' reflections about wiki collaborative writing. The triangulated data sources included archived wiki "Discussion," "Comments," "History," and "Page" records, pre-task and post-task questionnaire surveys, post-task and follow-up interviews, students' reflection papers, instructors' assessment of students' wiki group writing, and my research logs. In terms of the data analysis, I mainly conducted qualitative procedures using constant comparative method and content analysis, supplemented with descriptive analysis. The results revealed that the four small groups demonstrated four characteristic patterns of interaction. The patterns were not static across two wiki writing tasks. Mixed patterns were found in Group 1 (Collective-- Active/withdrawn) and Group 3 (Dominant/defensive-- Collaborative). Group dynamics were also evident in Group 2 (Expert/novice) and Group 4 (Cooperating in parallel). These patterns were featured with language functions that small groups performed while negotiating writing tasks, writing change functions that they performed while constructing joint texts, and scaffolding strategies that they applied throughout collaborative writing processes. In addition, multiple factors mediated small groups' wiki interactions: motives/goals, agency and emotion, and prior experiences in such aspects of cultural background, small group work, and technology use. Moreover, the group interactions had influences on joint wiki writing products and also connected with students' reflections about wiki affordances and their learning experiences. This study bridged the gap in computer-mediated collaborative writing research, and also shed new light on the networked writing pedagogy in the EAP context.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the actions of online language learners from an activity theoretical perspective. It also attempted to explain how the students' learning outcomes evolved from their online learning experiences. This explanation placed an emphasis on the learners' previous experiences, defining their activity systems, the use of mediational tools, and the resolution of contradictions. Within this activity theoretical case study a background survey, four interviews, and three field observations were conducted with seven foreign language students of an online Spanish course. The students' on-screen actions were recorded and subsequently documented in a video episode log. This log, the background survey, and the interview transcripts were coded for the a priori categories established in the research questions and for emergent themes. Seven mediational tools were identified, including a widespread use of online dictionaries and translators. The students attempted to use the mediational tools to gain control over their online language learning; however, as exhibited by the students' varying levels of regulation, some students were unable to reach or maintain self-regulation while using computer-based tools. In addition, the nature of the mediational tool use appeared to be influenced by the variety of linguistic backgrounds. Three levels of contradictions were identified including: conflicting-object contradictions, inter-activity contradictions, and technology-related contradictions. The findings of this study indicated that contradictions may be invisible to the subject of the activity. Furthermore, it was noted in this research that some students may have the capacity to identify the contradiction, yet they may not have the desire or motivation required to make the necessary change to further learning and development within the activity. Thus, contradictions may not always be resolved even when they are visible.

This study investigates the development of a community of learners by observing the changes in teachers' and children's participation in four Year 3 / 4 classrooms. The study also explores the teachers' and children's perspectives of learning and teaching and the impact of these on the development of a community of learners. Factors enabling and constraining this developmental process are also identified. These research foci respond to a synthesis of research revealing the importance of teachers and children learning together in cohesive learning communities (Alton-Lee, 2003); a sociocultural approach that is uncommon in New Zealand primary classrooms.Sociocultural theory also informs the generation, analysis and presentation of data. Participant observations, sustained conversations and interviews with the teachers and target children were used to generate data across three cycles of collaborative action research over one school year. Analyses of these data were made by observing the teachers' and the children's transformation of participation through Rogoff's (2003) personal, interpersonal and institutional lenses. The results of this analysis process are presented according to the lens through which the transformation was observed.The findings showed a community of learners as comprising reciprocal connections across cognitive, social, emotional, spiritual and physical dimensions. Transformations of the teachers' and the children's participation in these five reciprocal connections were observed as evidence that a community of learners was developing. These new forms of participation in the classroom shaped, and were shaped by, new identities as learners and teachers, new perspectives about learning and teaching, as well as new culturally authorised values and practices for learning together. Multiple factors constrained the development of a community of learners. The most pervasive constraint was the persistence of teachers' and children's traditional perspectives that prevented understanding of the reciprocity and responsivity of shared activity. A range of factors also enabled the development of a community of learners. The opportunity for professional dialogu in this collaborative action research most enabled the teachers' to develop a community of learners in the classroom: the opportunity for guided participation with teachers and peers in shared classroom activity most enabled the children to learn together.These findings reveal the demanding, complex and mutually constituting nature of developing a community of learners in a primary classroom. The transformation of participation observed in this study provides evidence of the positive contributions sociocultural theory can make to both teachers' and to children's learning. Implications based on these findings are considered for teachers, children, researchers and education providers who together share responsibility for developing and sustaining a community of learners as accepted instructional practice in primary classrooms.

Since the mid 90s, an increasing number of researchers have adopted a sociocultural theory (SCT) of mind to investigate the social and cognitive functions of language during learner-learner interaction (Lantolf & Thorne, 2007). Researchers from an SCT perspective have identified that first languages (L1s) serve important cognitive functions (Alegría de la Colina & García Mayo, 2009; Storch & Aldosari, 2010). Swain and colleagues (Swain, 1995; Swain & Lapkin, 1995, 1998) have also illustrated that languaging, a form of verbalization, facilitates the completion of complex linguistic tasks which leads to second language (L2) development (Swain, Brooks, & Tocalli-Beller, 2002). Moreover, researchers have found that task type impacts language development (Storch & Aldosari, 2010; Storch & Wigglesworth, 2003; Swain & Lapkin, 2001). Due to the growing number of multilingual learners in the world today (Hammarberg, 2010), researchers need to expand the scope of the research to include the role(s) of native and nonnative languages on third language (L3) development. Thus, the purpose of the current multiple case study was to investigate the specific mediating functions of multilingual learners’ languages during four types of collaborative tasks and to explore the relationship between languaging and L3 development. A 16-week classroom-based study was conducted in a university French as a foreign language classroom in Mexico with four focal participants. The language produced during learner-learner interaction was examined using three types of analysis: (1) each turn was coded for language and for their specific functions; (2) each Language-Related Episode (LRE) was coded for type and for resolution; and (3) accuracy on individual tailor-made posttest items. Findings uncovered a complex picture of task type effects on the specific mediating functions of language as well as complementary functions of L1 and L3 mediation. Results from the analysis of LREs show that task type impacts the occurrence and resolution of LREs. Accuracy scores from the posttests suggest that L1 and L3 mediation promotes L3 development. Findings are in line with the focal participants’ beliefs. The findings that languages serve various social and cognitive functions during task completion are discussed in light of current ideas from an SCT perspective.

“IF I AM LOSING THEM, I’M GOING TO CHANGE. SO THAT’S WHAT WE DID!”: THIRD GRADE TEACHERS CONTEMPLATE THE LITERACY NEEDS OF DIVERSE STUDENTS WITHIN A TEACHER STUDY GROUP by Megan A. Nason According to Birchak, Connor, Crawford, Kahn, Kaser, Turner, & Short (1998), Fang, Fu, & Lamme (2004), Kennedy & Sheil (2010), and Wiliam (2008), teacher study groups can provide a supportive and collaborative professional development environment. The purpose of this study was to examine the professional development experiences of three third grade teachers working with culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) students in a high-needs school as they participated in a teacher study group. The adoption of national standards and pressures for all students to achieve high standardized test scores in math and reading due to Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (2001) resulted in increased stress, anxiety, and uncertainty for the teachers participating in this study. The following research questions guided this qualitative, ethnographic case study: (1) In what ways does participation in a teacher study group impact elementary teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and understandings when teaching culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse students in a high-needs school? (2) In what ways do teachers’ literacy practices shift as a result of engaging in teacher study groups focused on issues related to culturally, linguistically and economically diverse student populations? Bronfenbrenner’s (1979; 1994) ecological models, Vygotsky’s (1978; 1986) sociocultural theory, and Ruddell and Unrau’s (2004) sociocognitive reading model served as theoretical frameworks that informed this naturalistic inquiry. Through constant comparative analysis (Glaser and Strauss, 1967) of data collected through pre- and post-interviews, bi-weekly teacher study group meetings, and classroom observations, the teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, and understandings about how culturally, linguistically, and economically diverse (CLED) students learn and develop literacy skills were explored. The findings of this study demonstrate how teacher study groups can provide teachers with a safe space to build trusting relationships so that they can discuss school and classroom-related uncertainties, vulnerabilities, frustrations and successes. Shifts in enacted curriculum, instruction, and beliefs occurred as the teachers in this study attempted to negotiate their beliefs about how CLED children learn through engaging in conversations related to integrated curriculum, higher-order thinking, inquiry-based learning, literacy instruction, literacy development, and the diverse needs of their students.