Survey of some pupil, parent, and teacher factors affected by the single session day in the Malden elementary schools.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston Universit

Finding innovation and imagination in a bag of loose parts

© 2018, Routledge. All rights reserved. Classroom-based research encourages teachers\u27 creative thinking as they seek ways to stimulate children\u27s exploration. Such stimulation can be achieved with simple items that elicit children\u27s imagination, innovative thinking, and desire to explore

Teachers and Language Learning in Primary Schools: the Acquisition of Additional Languages in the Early Years

This study set out to explore teachers’ attitudes towards home language maintenance among children acquiring English and Irish as additional languages in the early years of primary school and to explore the experiences of mainstream teachers who are working with these children. The study includes a consideration of the pedagogical issues involved in teaching young English and Irish language learners and an examination of the support that the whole school community provides for the teachers and the children. Data were gathered using a mixed methods approach, bearing in mind the rights of children to use their home languages and learn additional languages in an age-appropriate manner and the complex linguistic ecologies that form part of the environment of these children. Phase I of the research involved four focus group interviews carried out with teachers of Junior and Senior Infant classes. This served to inform parts of Phase II of the research, a nationwide postal questionnaire administered to teachers of Junior Infants. It was found that teachers do have positive attitudes towards the maintenance of home languages among these newcomer children, and that while attitudes inform practice, practical application of home language inclusion was rare. It was also found that while documents exist to support teachers in this endeavour, they are most often not consulted due to lack of training and lack of awareness. Classroom observation which focussed on teacher interaction with three newcomer children in one Junior Infant classroom was carried out during Phase III. This observation highlighted not only a variety of strategies for interactional scaffolding appropriate to facilitating newcomer children in the mainstream classroom but also the importance of environmental scaffolding. Positive results regarding children’s English and Irish language skills were found during all phases of the research. Overall the study has shown many positive aspects of an education system that advocates for children speaking home languages other than English in the early years of primary school. However, this system requires a more consistent approach to support and training for the mainstream class teacher who is ultimately responsible for implementing policies and practices at the micro level

Free Reading Interests of The Pupils In The Seventh and Eighth Grades

A concise statement of the problem of the thesis is “To discover the Free Reading Interests of Seventh and Eighth Grade Boys and Girls.” More specifically the study is for the purpose of discovering the amount, the character, and nature of the voluntary reading done by seventh and eighth grade pupils now enrolled in the public schools of Hays, Kansas

An exploration of linguistic Neo-Colonialism through educational language Policy-An Irish perspective

© 2016, Institute for Education Policy Studies. All Right Reserved. In this paper, educational language policy is explored through the lens of linguistic neo-colonialism in Ireland in the case of learners of English as an Additional Language. The perspective of Ireland as a decolonized nation may have an impact on current language policy. Arguments for an additive approach to language and identity, language maintenance and the preservation of linguistic human rights make the case for avoiding subtractive bilingualism as a form of linguistic neo-colonialism. Social class and racism can lead to linguistic oppression that must be addressed critically by all stakeholders and policy makers at macro and micro levels. A transformation in linguistic oppression has potential to address these issues within communities. It is therefore essential that all children are afforded the opportunity to develop their language skills to the fullest extent possible, in order to gain maximum access to education and the structures and norms that constitute the society of their new community in addition to, not instead of, their home community

Action research as professional development: Its role in education reform in the United Arab Emirates

© 2018, Western Australian Institute for Educational Research Inc. All rights reserved. This paper is concerned with exploring the microsystem of teachers’ experiences with education reform within the action research (AR) model for professional development (PD). Within the macrosystem of current major education reform in the UAE, it is timely to explore teachers’ experiences of AR as PD to improve pedagogy. The process of engaging in AR for PD is explored through a pragmatic lens, insisting on treating research as a human experience based on the beliefs and actions of practitioners. The paradigm of critical pragmatism acknowledges the interpretive cycle but at the same time does not limit the research methods which may be used. In this study, a survey has been used to gather data. The study found that more individual support should be given to teachers during the AR process, that teachers should be allocated more in-school time to work on classroom-based research and that, where applicable, more academic research materials need to be made available in languages other than English

The experience of co-teaching for emergent Arabic-English literacy

© 2019: Anna M. Dillon, Kay Gallagher, and Nova Southeastern University. In this paper we explore teachers\u27 experiences of co-teaching within a new bilingual (Arabic/English) model in public Kindergarten schools in the United Arab Emirates. The main objective was to understand teachers\u27 experiences with intercultural teaching for biliteracy in this context. We interviewed six pairs of co-teachers. These co-teachers represent six of the nationalities of teachers working in public Kindergartens in Abu Dhabi, thereby representing a cross-section of the cultural context of teaching in the reformed public schools. The data highlight teachers\u27 varied co-teaching practices and point to aspects such as classroom management and translanguaging as aspects of classroom practice which are enhanced by co-teaching. Teachers\u27 experience of co-teaching and well-formed co-teaching relationships can contribute to the development of sound pedagogical practices while a lack of administrative support can create conditions which are not conducive to co-teaching. The data also show that supportive bilingual scaffolding and flexible translanguaging are seen as effective components of co-teaching to support emergent biliteracy

Mothers’ accounts of attending to educational and everyday needs of their children at home during covid-19: The case of the UAE

From March 2020 until July 2020, the UAE implemented mandatory distance learning due to COVID-19, which meant that children had to continue their learning remotely at home. Though schools concerted exemplary efforts to ensure that children received all that was necessary through advanced technology platforms and interfaces, the duty of ensuring that children continued to engage in successful learning fell solely on parents. This paper is based on a self-report study conducted during this first period of distance learning where parents were invited to anonymously complete a survey and then be interviewed. The paper relies on interviews as its main data source. Interview transcripts once transcribed were thematically analysed. One recurring theme in the data was gender differences in domestic and other duties as well as attending to the educational needs of children. Mothers, irrespective of cultural or educational background, disproportionately seemed to be the caretakers of the home and of children’s educational needs. Mothers spoke of their mental health concerns, pressures of time management, and negative effects on their own work. This paper makes an original contribution by exploring parental experiences of emergency remote learning and what these reflect about parental ethnotheories in the UAE