Beyond the Spoken Word: Examining the Nature of Teacher Gesturing in the Context of an Elementary Engineering Curriculum for English-Learner Students

Our research team performed an exploratory analysis of teacher gesturing via a case study of an elementary teacher. We focused on gesturing, a practice found to support both bilingual English learner students’ linguistic development and mathematics achievement, during the teacher’s engineering and science lessons. The research team systematically analyzed teacher video data using McNeill’s gestural dimensions framework and found variation of gesturing types and rates when comparing engineering and baseline science lessons. Additionally, specific types of teacher-gestures appear to be associated with either behavioral or classroom management practices, procedural instructions, and discussion facilitation. We suggest that teacher-gestures such as these have the potential to facilitate bilingual English learners’ language acquisition, while also developing their STEM literacy in general and engineering capacity in particular. Further exploration of teacher-gestures in elementary engineering curricula could lead to an integrated STEM pedagogy that incorporates gesturing as a fundamental teaching strategy, bridging STEM instruction with linguistically responsive instructional practices.Educatio

Making sense of science in the reception class

In the context of growing awareness of young children’s capabilities, and debates about the nature of their reasoning in science, this study set out to explore the ways in which reception children make sense of classroom experiences in science. A particular challenge of the study was to develop appropriate and productive approaches to investigating young children’s developing thinking. The first phase of research, reported in this paper, concentrated on the topic of electricity. A series of case studies was undertaken to examine children’s learning in a classroom context. Classroom sessions were video recorded and transcribed to examine the development of children’s practical competence in circuit making, and interviews were carried out to elicit children’s views about electric circuits. Analysis of the classroom sessions revealed children’s growing competence in circuit making through their self-directed efforts. The interviews prompted predictions and explanations that were not offered spontaneously. Responses indicated a range of models of the circuit and forms of explanation for what was happening in the circuit. The relationship between children’s practical competence, predictions and explanations was not straightforward. Analysis revealed marked differences in models of the circuit and forms of explanation in children with the same levels of practical competence. This has important implications for the ways in which children’s views are assessed

Toward a Phenomenological Pragmatics of Enactive Perception

The enactive approach to perception is generating an extensive amount of interest and debate in the cognitive sciences. One particularly contentious issue has been how best to characterize the perceptual experiences reported by subjects who have mastered the skillful use of a perceptual supplementation (PS) device. This paper argues that this issue cannot be resolved with the use of third-person methodologies alone, but that it requires the development of a phenomenological pragmatics. In particular, it is necessary that the experimenters become skillful in the use of PS devices themselves. The "Enactive Torch" is proposed as an experimental platform which is cheap, non-intrusive and easy to replicate, so as to enable researchers to corroborate reported experiences with their own phenomenology more easily

Violence and Violence Prevention Among African American Middle School Children

This study contributes to school-based violence prevention programs by describing typical violent interactions. The findings come from the content analysis of transcribed interviews with 58 African-American middle school students who reported their participation in 121 violent incidents. The most frequent opening moves were offensive touching, interfering with possessions, hurtful play (including teasing), backbiting, requests to do something, and insults. About half the incidents occurred in school and a quarter took place at home. Respondents who acted violently often interpreted the situation as one in which they were being attacked or threatened. Other interpretations were that antagonists thought they had done something wrong, or that antagonists were engaged in offensive behavior. In about half the incidents, violent respondents stated that the goal of their violence was retribution, and in a quarter, compliance. Most of those interviewed accepted responsibility for deliberately deciding to be violent. They justified their actions by saying they were acting rationally by retaliating for harmful behavior done to them, punishing others for offensive behavior, or defending themselves, their friends, or their relatives. Incidents often escalated as older family members joined the transaction. Nonviolent responses were discouraged by the bad public image they presented. The paper lists recommendations for school-based conflict resolution that follow from these research findings

Sexual harassment perceptions among Puerto Rican female former athletes.

Sexual harassment is a prominent social issue across cultures and in all segments of society, including sport. However, there is little research on sexual harassment in different cultures. Specifically, the lack of sport research within the Hispanic-Caribbean culture limits the understanding about sexual-based behaviors occurring in sport settings. In this study six female former athletes were interviewed regarding their sexual harassment experiences and coping responses within the Puerto Rican sport culture. The group analysis found that verbal harassment (e.g., jokes, sexual remarks) was more expected and socially tolerable than physical harassment. The narratives also revealed individual differences based on situations and relationships with the harasser. Athletes' harassment coping responses included avoidance, social support, verbal confrontation, resistance, and advocacy seeking. Interestingly, these former athletes consistently connected the incidents of sexual harassment with “the typical Puerto Rican macho culture” as the root of the phenomenon, separating their experiences from other cultures

Nurses' lived experience of caring for long-term mechanically ventilated patients in intensive care units : a phenomenological study

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-129)

PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF BANGKA MALAY LANGUAGE, TOBOALI DIALECT, IN SOUTH BANGKA REGENCY

The factors that led to the extinction of a regional language dialect are the absence of inputting the vocabulary into a dictionary, recording the phonological system to academic articles, and the absence of language enthusiasts or linguists who want to maintain the existence of a dialect in a community. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the phonological system in the Toboali dialect as the variant of the Malay language in the South Bangka Regency. The research is triggered by the decreasing use of regional languages in society and it purports to identify and describe the phonological system of the Toboali dialect. To do that, this study uses a qualitative method in which the researchers firstly collected data, then analyzed and classified the data, and finally drew a conclusion. The Swadesh list which consists of 250 vocabularies was utilized during the interview. The researchers obtained the Toboali dialect words by gesturing or pointing to objects and images so the informants were able to pronounce the words and then the phonetic transcription could be written. Thus, the data obtained are accurate because the language obtained was not delivered in Indonesian but is purely pronounced in the Toboali dialect. The results of this study indicate that there are 7 vowels: [?], [e], [o], [i], [?], [?], [a] and 19 consonants are found in the Toboali dialect: [b], [c], [d], [f], [g], [h], [j], [k], [l], [m], [n], [p], [r], [s], [t], [w], [y], [z], and [?]

Taboo in the Classroom: Sex Education Experiences of 4 Adults having Intellectual Disabilities

A thesis presented to the faculty of the College of Education at Morehead State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts by Natalie M. Peterson on April 20, 2009