Second language learning and cultural identity

The importance of the teaching of Louisiana Regional French language and culture as an academic subject has been debated by many scholars for decades. While some see it as a necessary dimension of a French course offered in the state of Louisiana, others see the dialect and culture as unreal, non-existent, and less prestigious than Parisian French. This article presents a rationale for offering Louisiana Regional French courses as equivalents to Parisian French in the post-secondary core curriculum in Louisiana colleges and universities

Curriculum, Instruction, and Leadership as a Practice of Reflexivity in World Language Education: A Systematic Review of Literature

This article presents the findings of a systemic review of research published by Robert C. Lafayette. Lafayette was a French teacher and teacher educator who worked to revolutionize the teaching of world languages through his articles, books, textbooks, grants, conference presentations, and other scholarly work. To uncover the value of his work in today’s language schooling, this study examined 17 of his articles and book chapters. Using content analysis methodology, the findings of this study concluded that his work contributed mainly to our understanding of curriculum, instruction, and leadership in world language education. His scholarship also provides world language teachers, teacher leaders, department heads, and other stakeholders with effective methods for improving the quality of world language programs and realigning them to 21st-century needs

Students’ Attitudes Toward Project-based Learning in an Intermediate Spanish Course

Contemporary foreign language education is a state of disarray. Because of the advancement of technology within the past 10 years alone, there is a constant questioning of proper methods for teaching a foreign language. Using culturally relevant andragogy (Parker, 2019) as a framework, this study sought to understand students’ attitudes toward the usage of project-based learning as a curriculum approach in higher education. After experiencing such a curriculum, students were surveyed. Results of the survey indicated that students generally liked project-based learning but felt that there were certain drawbacks with its measuring of success and implementation

An Investigation of Principled Negotiations as It Applies to Contract Negotiations in the Public Schools

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of principled negotiations in contract negotiations between teachers and Illinois public school district boards of education. The study examined three questions from both the union president\u27s perspective and the superintendent\u27s viewpoint. The first question was If superintendents and teacher union leaders had the opportunity to become familiar with the principled negotiations model, to what extent did they perceive themselves interested in using this model for negotiations? The second question was Why has principled negotiations not been used as a model more often in Illinois public education contract negotiations? The third question was What were the perceptions of superintendents and union presidents of the outcomes of using a collaborative bargaining model, rather than an adversarial bargaining model? To obtain data to address these three questions, the researcher developed a survey with 25 questions. The survey was mailed to 150 Illinois public school superintendents and 150 local presidents of the Illinois Education Association. Most of the questions on the survey were multiple choice, however, the last seven questions called for a response on a Likert Scale. Eight questions requested responses about the demographics of the district. The requested demographic information included the financial status of the district, the bargaining history of the district, and the administration\u27s relationship with the union in addition to the more common demographic information concerning size and environment. The rest of the survey was devoted to soliciting information to address the three research questions. There were five survey questions that addressed the first research question, four survey questions that addressed the second research question, and eight survey questions that addressed the third research question. The results of the survey show that many superintendents and the union presidents stated a willingness to use collaborative bargaining in negotiations. In particular, there was a strong interest stated to use the model of principled negotiations described in the survey. Sixty-two percent of the superintendents indicated interest in using principled negotiations, while only eight percent indicated no interest. Fifty-seven percent of the union presidents indicated interest in using principled negotiations, while only 11% indicated no interest. The other respondents were undecided. The responses indicated that a lack of familiarity with the model, a perception that collaborative models took more skill, and a perception that there was greater personal risk to the negotiator who used a collaborative model were all possible factors that inhibited the more frequent use of principled negotiations. In particular, only 43% of the superintendents and 48% of the union presidents indicated that they had read about principled negotiations. Furthermore, 67% of the superintendents and 77% of the union presidents felt that it took more skill to use a collaborative model than the traditional model. Thirty-seven percent of the superintendents and 41% of the union presidents perceived that there was more personal risk in using a collaborative model. As a prelude to the discussion of principled negotiations, this study identified the origins of collaborative bargaining from conflict resolution. The reasons for the emergence of collaborative bargaining and the creation of principled negotiations as a subset of those collaborative models were also presented. The definitions of principled, positional, concessional, and win-win negotiations were included in concise form to provide easy comparisons and contrasts between models. The researcher\u27s personal experiences with principled negotiations were presented. The evolution of bargaining in the Community Unit #2 School District, Mattoon, Illinois, were presented as an example of the historical background of teacher contract bargaining in Illinois

The results of administering various levels of Ralgro implants to yearling beef steers

The data collected in this study were from 49 Hereford steers (Trial 1) and 75 Angus X Hereford steers (Trial 2). To simply the dis-cussion, the 49 Hereford steers fed whole shelled corn for 114 days will be referred to as Analysis 1 and the 75 Angus X Hereford steers, of which 50 were fed whole shelled corn 78 days and the remaining 25 for 105 days, hereafter referred to as Analysis 2, Previously, the variances in the two analyses were determined to be homogenous; thus, the data on the two groups of steers were pooled into one group here after referred to as Analysis 3. The treatments in this study were: (1) no implant, (2) implanting with 36 mg. of Ralgro on day 56 of a 150 day feeding trial, (3) implanting with 36 mg. of Ralgro on day 1 of a 150 day feeding trial, (4) implanting on day 1 and day 56, totaling 72 mg., of a 150 day feeding trial, (5) implanting 72 mg, on day 1 of a 150 day feeding trial. The variables average daily gain on hay, average daily gain on corn, feed conversion, carcass weight, fat thick ness, kidney, pelvic and heart fat, yield grade, rib eye area, and carcass grade were subjected to a least squares regression analysis as dependent variables to detect differences between treatments. The independent variables in this study were treatment, replication and trial. Treatment had a significant (P \u3c .05) effect on average daily gain on full feed and percent kidney, pelvic and heart fat in Analysis 3. Carcass grade showed significant effects (P \u3c .05) of treatment In Analyses 2 and 3. Average daily gain on hay was signifi-cantly affected by treatment in Analysis 1. Analysis 3 showed that treatment 2 had the highest least squares mean for average daily gain on corn, 3.38 lbs./day. Treatment 2 was .09 lbs./day superior to treatment 3, .15 lbs./day superior to treat-ment 4, .25 lbs./day greater than treatment 5, and .39 lbs./day superior to treatment 1, the control group. Analysis 3 showed that treatment had a significant effect on kidney, pelvic, and heart fat. The least squares means by treat-ment for Analysis 3 showed that carcasses from treatments 2 and 5 had 2.46 percent kidney, pelvic and heart fat. Thus carcasses from those two treatment groups were .10 percent lower in fat than those in treat-ment 3, .14 percent lower than carcasses in treatment 4, and .24 percent lower in fat than carcasses from treatment 1. Carcass grades were significantly affected (P \u3c .05) by treatment in Analyses 2 and 3. Significant differences among treatments were found in the orthogonal contrast of treatment 4 vs. treatment 5 in both Analyses 2 and 3. Treatments 2 and 5 had the highest least squares mean for carcass grade, 11.93 in Analysis 2. This was .73 units higher than treatments 1 and 3, and .93 units higher than treatment 4. Analysis 3 showed that treatment 2 had the highest least squares mean, 12.18. This was .08 units higher than treatment 5, .55 units higher than treatment 1, .67 units higher than treatment 3, and .79 units higher than treat-ment 4. Average daily gain on hay also showed a response to treatment in Analysis 1, Although these steers were on poor quality roughage and losing weight, treatment 5 showed an average daily gain of -0,28. This was .25 lbs,/day superior to treatment 2, .39 lbs./day over treatment 4, .44 lbs./day over treatment 1, and .68 lbs./day over treatment 3. The implanting of 72 milligrams of Ralgro lowered carcass grades in the treatment 4 group in Analysis 3, and improved average daily gain on hay in Analysis 1, compared to the 36 milligram levels. Reimplanting decreased carcass grades significantly in Analysis 3 (P \u3c ,05); but had no effect on carcass weight, fat thickness, rib eye area, yield grade, average daily gain on hay, and average daily gain on corn as compared to the other implanted cattle. This research is in agreement with that of previous experiments with the exception of the lowering of carcass grades on the reimplanted group of steers. From these data one could conclude that implanting with a growth stimulant is of little value unless the gains are in excess of .75 lbs./day. Further these data indicate that implanting with 36 mg. of Ralgro at the beginning of full feed phase was most beneficial. Implant-ing with dosage levels could have some detrimental effects on carcass grades

Challenges of Leading During Covid-19: A Qualitative Study of K-12 Administrators

This research discusses the impact of environmental and social crisis events, ho

Suicide in Oklahoma: A Study of Rate Validity

The object of this study is to investigate the process by which medical examiners label deaths as suicides. Particular attention is given to the social factors which may influence this labeling process. A conceptual and sociological definition of suicide is developed and applied to 812 cases of death in the state of Oklahoma, for the years 1972 and 1973. Comparison of information contained on medical examiner reports for cases of death which are differentially classified by the conceptual definition is done as a means of evaluating the validity of the suicide rate.Sociolog