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Keith, Karin. "Creating a Community of Learners: Connecting Learners in the Classroom." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2011. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1029.
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Countryman, Kemba Chambers Witte Maria Margarita. "A comparison of adult learners' academic, social, and environmental needs as perceived by adult learners and faculty." Auburn, Ala., 2006. http://repo.lib.auburn.edu/2006%20Spring/doctoral/COUNTRYMAN_KEMBA_41.pdf.
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Rice, Cheryl. "Perspectives among Successful Adult Learners in Two Diploma Completion Programs." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/6099.
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More than 24,000 U.S. high school students drop out each year, contributing to the approximate 1.1 million U.S. adults who have not earned the high school diploma or General Education Development. This failure in educational attainment contributes significantly to the lack of economic and workforce development opportunities as well as the standard of living for more than 10% of the statewide population of a midwestern state. In response to this problem, the state entered into model programming in 2015 with 2 new approaches for adult education to diploma programs. The purpose of this basic qualitative interpretive research study was to better understand the experiences of 9 adult learners who successfully completed 1 of 2 high school diploma completion programs. The conceptual framework for this study integrated the learning theory perspectives of Bruner and Bandura and the aspects of lifelong learning and its influence on the motivations and values of the adult learner. The codes and themes that emerged from the analysis of the interview process were the participants' connection to the program, extrinsic and intrinsic motivations, challenges that were experienced through the program, strategies for success that fostered the completion process, suggestions for program improvements, and the advice the participants would give to prospective students who are considering an adult diploma option. These results may contribute to a better understanding of success factors for adult students enrolled in diploma completion programs and support positive change and program effectiveness in the future.
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Ferguson, Dennis Edward. "A community of learners in an elementary school recorder collegium." Thesis, Boston University, 2014. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/10990.
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Thesis (D.M.A.)--Boston UniversityThe purpose of this study was to explore how students learned in an elementary school Collegium that consisted of SATB recorders. Using Rogoffs Theory of Community of Learners, an examination ofthe experiences of the students, the researcher, parents, classroom teachers, and the principal ofthe school occurred during one academic semester of instruction. The primary question that guided this study was: How did the students, instructor, teachers, and parents work together as a Community of Learners? The research questions for this study included: 1) What were the background conditions that led the students to audition for and take an active role in the Collegium ensemble?; How do the students engage with members ofthe community?; 3) How do the students engage in shared endeavors? Data collection included individual interviews, focus group interviews, journals, observations, and artifacts. Data was coded during the analysis process and revealed the following themes: Foundations ofthe Community uncovered influences from family members, as well as early pre-Collegium experiences; Entry points into the Collegium explored the initial interest by the participants, as they voiced their intentions to be a part ofthe ensemble and spoke oftheir attitudes regarding practice and learning processes; Experiences in the Collegium demonstrated perspectives on rehearsing together, self-preparedness, work attitudes, listening and concentration issues, group awareness, interdependence, learning together, and various issues ofmanaging the ensemble work with other academic commitments. Findings from this study indicated that close interactive behavior developed among the participants within the constructed environment, influenced by several factors, including foundational and educational backgrounds, exposure to the recorders, and an encouragement of a collaborative Community of Learners approach. The study concludes with a consideration ofthe author's role in the community, implications, and need for further study. Implications for the profession include establishing a learning environment that promotes collaborative learning, providing opportunities for students to engage with each other, and using the surrounding community of parents and teachers to assist with teaching students, which can lead to an improvement in the level of performance skills in an ensemble.
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Ban, Ruth. "Community of practice as community of learners : how foreign language teachers understand professional and language identities." [Tampa, Fla] : University of South Florida, 2006. http://purl.fcla.edu/usf/dc/et/SFE0001637.
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Raza, Nadia. "Pedagogies of Repair: Community College and Carceral Education for Adult Learners." Thesis, University of Oregon, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/1794/24178.
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This dissertation examines the relationship between community colleges and prisons as similar institutions that absorb and manage displaced workers, economic refugees, and dispossessed adult populations. Based on interviews with adult learners in two community college settings, I discuss how these two seemingly distinctive institutions work together to subvert individual and collective desires for self-determination through policies and pedagogies that institutionalize discouragement and emotional management. Specifically, I am concerned with what it means for working-class adults to participate in higher education in the context of precarity and incarceration-literally and figuratively. Drawing from the growing field of scholarship that underscores the consolidation of practices and interdependency between academia and incarceration (Chatterjee, Davis, 2003, 2005, Meiners, 2007, Sojoyner 2016), the contexts I have chosen for this project are two institutions where students gather each week to participate in the project of higher education. Carrying past and present traumas related to schooling, many participants viewed community college as the one remaining institution deigned to help them remake their lives. This study asks how participants made sense of their lives, choices, and sacrifices to participate in higher education and how these factors structure their expectations of what college might provide them. Utilizing critical race theory, this dissertation offers a theoretical framework pedagogy of repair, which I define as the interpretive structures and stories used by non-traditional students to make sense of their past and potential futures amidst the normative neoliberal structures of precarious labor, vulnerability, social abandonment and debt.
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Sokenu, Julius Oluwasola. "Motivations among at risk students in rural community colleges." Thesis, Boston University, 2004. https://hdl.handle.net/2144/32834.
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Thesis (Ed.D)--Boston UniversityPLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you.
Is it possible for at-risk students attending a rural community college to succeed in attaining their stated academic goals if exposed to a retention program customized to suit the needs of students attending their type of institution? What role does a student's motivation to succeed play in his or her decision to pursue achievement behavior in college? Are academically at-risk learners aware of behaviors that limit their success in the classroom? If so, what affective and cognitive variables determine individual success and to what extent can these variables be screened for on entrance? To address the above questions, the LASSI and Trice Locus of Control inventory were administered to 45 students enrolled in the Opportunity For Success program, a retention effort for at-risk 17-21 years old students at Quinebaug Valley Community College in Connecticut. Using SPSS, a multiple regression analysis was performed by entering the 10 variables of the LASS I and the GP A for the subjects. Also, two 90- minute, in-depth interviews were conducted of 26 of the 45 students. Faculty and advisors of these students were asked to rate their performance. The findings support the literature on student success and college student attrition. At-risk learners are aware of behaviors that limit their success. Successful at-risk students possess a variety of strategies to cope with academic challenge while low achieving students often do not. Instead, the low achieving students develop theories to explain their failure to succeed. Similarly, this research illustrates that failure, like success, is a habit learned over time and context dependent; the high school experiences of underachieving subjects demonstrate that they are often unmotivated to succeed in the classroom because they lack the interest to invest in academic endeavors. Low achieving students in this study continued this pattern in college, while those who became high and moderately achieving adopted multiple strategies to ensure success. Participants were motivated to perform in classes they considered "fun" and relevant to their future goals. The findings also show that educators should assist at-risk students to overcome their fear of failure by increasing their ability to self-regulate learning, set goals, and evolve healthy self concept. This study concludes that the desire to persist, information processing, and attitude towards learning play a major role in the learner's decision to pursue achievement behavior.
2031-01-01
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Shelton, Andrea D. "Adult learners' level of satisfaction with campus services at a community college district /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 1998. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9924923.
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Farnsworth, Megan. "Exploring the Changing Identities of English Language Learners in a Kindergarten Classroom Community." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195766.
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In this dissertation, the participation of 5-year-old Spanish speaking children in a kindergarten classroom community was explored. The school was located in a working and middle-class community in Southern Arizona, where pursuant to state law; the language of instruction was English. Student participants spent four hours every day in an English Language Development classroom, segregated from their native-English speaking peers.The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore factors that affected the participation of kindergarten English Language Learners (ELLs) in knowledge construction in their classroom community. Research questions were addressed by examining ways teacher questioning strategies and evaluation responses enabled or constrained the participation of ELLs in mathematics, as well as the role ofpeers in the classroom. Data were analyzed through participant frameworks, whichilluminated the process of identity negotiation through positioning strategies. Questions were investigated through the theoretical framework of communities of practice, in which learning as apprenticeship in knowledge distribution among experts and novices is emphasized.Results indicated that teachers apprenticed ELLs into academic language in three ways: (a) using predictable, consistent language; (b) using choice and process elicitations in questioning strategies; and (c) repairing communication by revoicing student responses. In math table groups, ELLs participated by talking about resources,procedures, and initiating and extending topics. Results also showed how English-proficient peers apprenticed ELLs into negotiating inclusion and exclusion requirements, which were necessary to build an argument.
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Smith, Melissa L. "Creating classroom community with diverse learners : ELL+SPED+TAG+ADD+"Average"=A class /." Click here to view full-text, 2006. http://sitcollection.cdmhost.com/u?/p4010coll3,304.
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Slutsky, Ruslan. "Technology and professional development in two socially constructed Head Start community of learners /." The Ohio State University, 2001. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1486474078048244.
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Poswa-Nolisi, Julia Nomahlubi. "Investigating strategies to improve reading levels of learners in an Eastern Cape community." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/4496.
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Literacy does not develop in a vacuum. Reading is taught and learnt within a social context. The school and teachers are a central part of this context, Pretorius and Machet (2003). The purpose of this study was to investigate the strategies to improve reading in an Eastern Cape community. To realise this aim, I first looked for strategies that are currently used by teachers. Then I focussed on additional strategies that could be of use in improving reading levels. This study observed the practices and accessed perceptions of teachers in two primary schools regarding literacy accomplishments in order to come up with relevant strategies to improve reading levels. My study is a qualitative case study focussed on Foundation and Intermediate Phase literacy. The two schools used in this study have different language policies. The one uses English as the language of learning and teaching and the other school uses isiXhosa. The home language of most of the learners in both schools is isiXhosa. I observed and interviewed teachers to get deeper understanding of the problem in the two schools. The Four Resources Model of Freebody and Luke (1990) proved to be a strategy that could be used to support the development of reading from the early years and on into the high school years. This model was found to articulate well with the official school literacy curriculum. In-school reading strategies could be well supplemented by assisting learners to engage with the four roles of Code Breaker, Text Participant, Text User and Text Analyst. In my investigation I found out that there is a problem in our schools in both home and additional language contexts. There is a great need for both in-school and out-of-school strategies to improve the situation. An Asset Mapping strategy revealed the range of existing and potential strategies available to a particular Eastern Cape community to raise reading levels and thereby improve learning.
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Spitzig, Janet. "The Relationship Between Student Engagement and Student Retention of Adult Learners at Community Colleges." Franklin University / OhioLINK, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=frank1620213209704112.
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Brook, Ellen. "INVESTIGATING THE ADULT LEARNERS’ EXPRERIENCE WHEN SOLVING MATHEMATICAL WORD PROBLEMS." Kent State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=kent1394513871.
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Farris, Ann R. "Are we building community or just having more meetings? : teachers of English language learners and the professional learning community process /." ProQuest subscription required:, 2003. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=990270761&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=8813&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Wiebe, Ruth Falk. "Reworking the soil: early literacy intervention policies and the community participation of all learners /." Burnaby B.C. : Simon Fraser University, 2005. http://ir.lib.sfu.ca/handle/1892/2428.
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Robertson, F. LaShell. "Demographics, Self-Autonomy, and Relationships as Predictors of Substance Use Among Community College Learners." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5649.
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Abuse of prescription and over-the-counter substances other than alcohol is becoming a prevalent issue; therefore, it is important to identify factors that may help predict risk for this abuse. Some demographic and situational factors have been identified for traditional 4-year college students. However, less is known about community college students, who enter college less academically prepared and may be still enmeshed with family and peer groups from high school. In this correlational study, predictors of substance abuse other than alcohol were explored among a convenience sample of 118 students from an American community college. The research question was developed based on previous research such as Bandura's social learning theory and Arnett's theory of emerging adults. The question explored how well gender (male, female, other) and 2 dimensions from the Ryff scale of psychological well-being (sense of autonomy and positive relationships with others) predict substance use among the community college sample. Use of substances other than alcohol was measured using the Drug Abuse Screening Test-10. A multiple linear regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. Although gender was not related to substance use, higher autonomy and more positive relationships scores were statistically significant predictors of higher use of substances other than alcohol among this sample. These findings were consistent with characteristics of emerging adulthood that may present risk factors for this group of college students. Findings support positive social change as they may be considered by stakeholders when considering possible prevention or intervention activities to address substance use issues on community college campuses.
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Peña, Jacqueline. "Engagement Experiences of Hispanic Generation 1.5 English Language Learners at a Massachusetts Community College." FIU Digital Commons, 2010. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/337.
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Hispanic Generation 1.5 students are foreign-born, U.S. high school graduates who are socialized in the English dominant K-12 school system while still maintaining the native language and culture at home (Allison, 2006; Blumenthal, 2002; Harklau, Siegal, & Losey, 1999; Rumbault & Ima, 1988). When transitioning from high school to college, these students sometimes assess into ESL courses based on their English language abilities, and because of this ESL placement, Hispanic Generation 1.5 students might have different engagement experiences than their mainstream peers. Engagement is a critical factor in student success and long-term retention because students’ positive and negative engagement experiences affect their membership and sense of belonging at the institution. The purpose of this study was to describe the engagement and membership experiences of Hispanic Generation 1.5 students’ at a Massachusetts community college. This study employed naturalistic inquiry within an embedded descriptive case study design that included three units of analysis: the students’ engagement experiences in (a) ESL courses, (b) developmental courses, and (c) mainstream courses. The main source of data was in-depth interviews with Hispanic Generation 1.5 students at Commonwealth of Massachusetts Community College. Criterion sampling was used to select the interview participants, ensuring that all participants were native Spanish speakers and were taking or had taken at least one ESL course at the institution. The study findings show that these Hispanic Generation 1.5 students at the college did not perceive peer engagement as critical to academic success. Most times the participants avoided peer engagement outside of the classroom, especially with fellow Hispanic students, who they felt would deter them from their English language development and general academic work. Engagement with ESL faculty and ESL academic support staff played the most critical role in the participants’ sense of belonging and success, and students who were required to engage with faculty and academic support staff outside of the classroom were the most satisfied with their educational experiences. While the participants were all disappointed with some aspect of their ESL placement, they valued the ESL engagement experiences more than the engagement experiences while completing developmental and credit coursework.
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Almon, P. Catherine. "English Language Learner Engagement and Retention in a Community College Setting." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2010. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/84590.
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CITE/Language ArtsEd.D.
This multi-method study explored English Language Learner (ELL) enrollment and engagement in a community college to address a dearth of research on ELL retention in this context. Quantitative analyses were performed on four fall semester transcripts of ELLs (N = 161) and on samples of ELLs and non-ELLs (n = 139) matching in age, enrollment status, and race/ethnicity. Quantitative analyses were also performed on The Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) instrument for another set of ELLs (N = 45) and matched samples of ELLs and non-ELLs (n = 34). Qualitative analyses of interviews with a third set of ELLs (N = 28) were also conducted. Results suggest that ELLs overall do well as implied by their high GPAs and engagement scores, yet most do not persist long enough to complete the ESL program or graduate. GPAs were well above the minimum for graduation (2.00) and significantly higher (p < .05) than the non-ELLs. ELLs scored higher than the nation in all five benchmarks, and significantly higher than the non-ELLs in the support for learners benchmark. However, even though the majority of ELLs expressed that they wanted an associate's degree, only 43% successfully exit the ESL program and 13% graduate from the college. The graduation rate is significantly less (p < .05) than college (23%) and nation (25%).To explain, certain groups presented higher risk. Students who began in lower levels of ESL were five times less likely to complete the ESL program (p < .05). Nontraditionally aged ELLs had lower GPAs, persisted fewer fall semesters, and graduated less than their counterparts (all significant at p < .05). Also found were risk factors to which students attribute their leaving college: lack of finances, full time work, and family obligations. Interviews revealed implicit risk factors of linguistic challenges and their ELL status at the college, both of which affected their engagement, as well as a lack of procedural knowledge for navigating US colleges that could enable their retention. Students who persist, graduate, or transfer attribute this success to seeking tutoring and investing extra effort. Implications for practice and research are given.
Temple University--Theses
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Van, Wyk Jeremy Mark. "The post-literacy perceptions of newly literate adult learners at a rural community learning centre." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/20274.
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Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2012.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Literature suggests that post-literacy (PL) is a seriously under-researched field in most African countries including South Africa. From the literature, it also became evident that, if PL is not viewed as a government priority, a gap will continue to exist between what PL programmes offer, and what the newly literate adults may need. Various authors emphasise the importance of PL to prevent relapsing into illiteracy, the applicability of PL in enhancing everyday private and occupational life, as well as the potential contribution of PL to poverty reduction, social, economic and political development and in sustaining communities. The aim of this study was to identify the PL perceptions of newly literate adults in the PL programme at the Simondium Community Learning Centre (SCLC) in the Western Cape of South Africa. A basic qualitative research approach to collect data was undertaken. During the data production ten semi-structured interviews were conducted, with the individual participant as the unit of analysis. All interviews were recorded digitally (using a tape recorder) and transcribed verbatim. Data analysis was done using the HyperQual computer programme to identify, retrieve, isolate and regroup data. The results and conclusions of data based on the literature studied and findings of the study indicate a learner-centred PL programme is required which focuses mainly on non-formal and vocational programmes for sustaining communities and economic development.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Literatuur dui daarop dat nágeletterdheid (NG) is ’n ernstig onder nagevorsde gebied in die meeste Afrika-lande wat Suid Afrika insluit. Vanuit die literatuur het dit duidelik geblyk dat, as die regering nie NG as 'n prioriteit beskou nie, 'n gaping sal bly voortbestaan tussen dit wat nuutgelettterde volwassenes moontlik kan benodig en dit wat die program bied. Verskeie skrywers benadruk die belangrikheid van NG om 'n terugval na ongeletterdheid te voorkom, die toepaslikheid van NG om alledaagse private en beroepslewe te bevorder, asook NG se potensiële bydrae tot armoedeverligting, maatskaplike, ekonomiese en politieke ontwikkeling en by die volhoubaarheid van gemeenskappe. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die NGpersepsies van nuutgeletterde volwassenes in die NG-program by die Simondium Gemeenskapleersentrum (SGLS) in die Wes-Kaap van Suid-Afrika te identifiseer. ’n Basiese kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering is gebruik om data te versamel. Tydens die data versameling is tien semi-gestruktureerde onderhoude gebruik met die individuele deelnemer as die eenheid van analise. Alle onderhoude is digitaal deur 'n bandopnemer opgeneem en verbatim getranskribeer. Data-analise is gedoen deur gebruik te maak van die HyperQual-rekenaarprogram om data te identifiseer, te herroep, te isoleer en te hergroepeer. Die resultate en opsommings van data gabaseer op literatuur wat bestudeer is en die bevindinge van die studie, dui aan dat 'n leerder-gesentreerde NG program wat hoofsaaklik fokus op nie-formele en beroepsgerigte programme vir die volhoubaarheid van gemeenskappe en ekonomiese ontwikkeling, mag nodig wees binne die bestudeerde konteks.
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Bertrand, Julie A. "New Brunswick approach to Comprehensive School Health: Healthy learners in schools and the community school." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28173.
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In this thesis, a multiple case study methodology and semi-structured interviews are used to identify and describe the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a Comprehensive School Health (CSH) initiative, Healthy Learners in Schools (HLS), in two elementary schools within the same Francophone school district in New Brunswick, Canada. The first article in this thesis identifies five categories of factors that influence the implementation of HLS in the two schools. The second article provides evidence that another initiative, the Community School, is an effective way of implementing the CSH approach in schools. Overall, there was found to be large differences pertaining to school health promotion in the two schools involved in this study; many refinements of the implementation process are necessary if the provincial government's goals are to be met.
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Smith, Zeporia N. "Culturally and Linguistically Diverse/Exceptional Learners in Community College| Perceptions of a First Year Experience Program." Thesis, The George Washington University, 2016. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10196061.
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The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand and describe how culturally and linguistically diverse students who also may have exceptionalities in a Middle Atlantic community college perceive first year experience programs. This study explores the experiences of first year culturally and linguistically diverse community college students who also may have exceptionalities through a social constructivist lens (Creswell, 2007, 2013) and the theory of culturally relevant pedagogy (Ladson-billings, 1995, 2006, 2014). The methodology for this study was qualitative and the method was qualitative interviews to give voice to CLD/E learners to share from their perspectives of their experience in a formal first year experience program. Sampling was purposive (Lincoln and Guba, 1985; Maxwell, 1996; Seidman, 2006) with a focus on 10-12 CLD/E adult learners, 18+ years of age, male and females, who have completed one –two semesters of the first year experience program in a community college, and one semester of a credit bearing course. The results of the study yielded eight emergent themes. These eight themes can be examined in two groups: the first group of themes referenced learning and developing an understanding of higher education and the second group of themes revealed issues of individual growth and change.
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Roche, Sharon. "Exploring educators' experiences of their interactions with learners in the Foundation Phase / S. Roche." Thesis, North-West University, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/9691.
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The interactions between educators and learners in the classroom have been proved to be pivotal in learners’ academic performance and social interactions. Furthermore, positive interaction impacts on both the educators’ and learners’ emotional wellbeing. With this in mind, this study aimed to explore educators’ experiences of their interactions with learners in the Foundation Phase. The theoretical underpinning of this study, namely community psychology and systems theory states that interaction is a dynamic process between two individuals and that people must always be considered in context, taking into mind their family, community and social environment.
This qualitative study used a case study design, utilizing a focus group discussion in two public schools to gather data. Ten female educators participated, six from the one school and four from the other. They were all English speaking and all had been teaching for more than five years. The discussions were directed by one main question, namely: “Tell me about your experiences of the interactions with the learners in your classroom”. Additional probing questions were also utilized. These two schools were chosen as one is well resourced and the other school is underresourced, and so they provide a different perspective on the subject being explored in this study.
Thematic analysis was utilized and revealed the following main themes. Firstly, the educators reported being very aware of both the educational and emotional needs of the learners, as well as the impact of the family background on the learners’ behaviour. Furthermore, the experiences of the educators in relation to the learners were mostly negative, reporting often feeling frustrated, hopeless and angry. They did, however, have some positive experiences. As a result of the learners’ needs and their experiences, the educators employed various strategies to meet the identified needs of the learners, to manage the classroom environment and regulate themselves.
These findings are considered in the light of international and South African research and found to concur with this literature, in that educators use interaction to achieve the tasks required by the curriculum, to manage classroom discipline and structure and to meet the emotional needs of the learners. Additionally, the difference in the two schools was revealed in the influence of external factors. The educators from the less resourced school experienced much frustration and stress in contending with the learners’ particularly challenging home lives, as well as the inefficiency of the education department, in matters such as assessing learners or placing them correctly, according to their needs.
In the light of these findings, the researcher recommends further studies to determine whether what was reported by the educators in this study, can be generalized to all educators in the Foundation Phase. If this is indeed so, educators could be empowered to be more effective in their interactions with the learners in their class, which could, in turn, result in better academic performances for the learners and a more positive experience for the educators.Thesis (MA (Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2013.
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Moore-Roberts, Kelly A. "A Comparative Analysis of Levels of Importance, Satisfaction, and Engagement among Adult Learners and Tennessee Reconnect Recipients at two Community Colleges." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2021. https://dc.etsu.edu/etd/3938.
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This primary goal of this study was to compare the levels of importance, satisfaction, and perceived engagement between adult learners and Tennessee Reconnect adult learners at two Tennessee community colleges. A two-group comparison research design using existing data from two survey instruments was used for this study. The data was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics based on the scales and subscales of the two surveys: Adult Learner Inventory (ALI) and Survey of Entering Student Engagement (SENSE). Because Tennessee Reconnect is a new program, very little literature has been conducted targeting this specific population. Therefore, this study attempted to add to this body of literature and fill the gap in literature in regard to the Tennessee Reconnect population. Sixteen statistically significant differences in importance and six statistically significant differences in satisfaction were found between adult learners and Tennessee Reconnect adult learners. These were found over all subscales, except learning process. In all these differences Tennessee Reconnect adult learners had higher mean importance and satisfaction levels. These findings show changes that have been implemented since Tennessee Reconnect (i.e., professional advisors, career counselors, extended hours of operation for student services, etc.) have led to an increase in the mean satisfaction rate among Tennessee Reconnect adult learners. Statistically significant differences were also found between adult learners and traditional college students in the areas of perceived engagement with student services and faculty. Adult learners showed higher mean scores for engagement with faculty inside the classroom and with student services such as tutoring and skills labs. However, adult learners also showed the lowest mean satisfaction scores with these same student services. These findings show there are areas that need improvement to better serve the Tennessee Reconnect population, including changes to tutoring services and skills labs. This study provides support for literature findings that adult learners are a different population of students with different needs and requiring different or modified accommodations for success.
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Stone, Kathleen. "Exploring Online Community College Course Completion and a Sense of School Community." ScholarWorks, 2015. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/1288.
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Researchers have found low online course completion rates to be a complex problem in higher education. Meanwhile, theory on adult learners' online persistence highlights the importance of a sense of school community. At the small, rural focus community college (FCC) for this study, general education online course completion rates are lower than the national average. FCC has not addressed the low online course completion rates. Using Rovais' composite persistence model as the conceptual framework, this instrumental case study examined how students' experiences and perceptions of a sense of school community contribute to their ability to complete online general education courses. Semistructured interview data were gathered with a purposeful, criterion-based, sample of 9 adult online students taking online general education courses. The inductive data analysis utilized case and cross-case analysis, marking, cutting, and sorting of text until 4 themes emerged: interaction, sense of belonging, support, and educational values. The results led to a white paper recommending an orientation and community space, asynchronous video technology, and an online curriculum instructional designer. This study contributes to positive social change by providing FCC with program and policy change recommendations that support the colleges' goals of increasing access and success. Increased educational access and success for the local adult population creates informed citizens, contributes to economic growth, and provides a higher quality of life for the community.
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Cruz-Johnson, Celia. "Success and persistence of learners in a blended developmental reading course at an urban community college." CAPELLA UNIVERSITY, 2012. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3495139.
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Ojimba-Baldwin, Peace. "Aligning local provision with the needs of migrant female learners : a case study in community education." Thesis, UCL Institute of Education (IOE), 2011. http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/19974/.
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Greene, H. Carol. "Theory Meets Practice in Teacher Education: A Case Study of a Computer-Mediated Community of Learners." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2003. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/28209.
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This research investigated the uses of computer-mediated communication in providing an online field experience in an educational psychology course for pre-service teachers at a large research university in the southeastern United States. Twenty-seven pre-service teachers in one section of a Psychological Foundations of Educational Psychology course for pre-service teachers, eight practicing teachers, and eight university professors participated in this study. The participants viewed CD-ROM based video case studies as part of an online field experience component and communicated electronically through chat rooms and threaded discussion lists. Data sources included transcripts of all chat room and threaded communication, surveys, field notes, observations, and student tasks and reflections, as well as interviews with the pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, university professors, and one technical support person. The methodology involved a mixed method approach. A template organizing approach with the constant comparative method was used in order to develop patterns and themes. Content analysis was applied to the content of the chat transcriptions. Finally, a quantitative component was included in the analysis of the thread transcripts with a measurement of the development of the pre-service teachers' reflective comments over time using an analysis of variance test of within subjects effects. This document reports the findings concerning the nature of the conversations among the participants as they developed across time; the learning outcomes of the students, teachers, and professors; how a computer-mediated learning environment supports reflection; the benefits and challenges of using computer-mediated communication to study and learn about educational psychology and teaching; and the benefits and challenges of creating and maintaining such a learning environment.Ph. D.
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Green, Cheryl. "Supports and Services Helpful to Working Adult Nursing Students." ScholarWorks, 2018. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5712.
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The United States has experienced historically low graduation rates in public and private 2-year, degree-granting institutions. Many of these institutions are community colleges, which account for 60% of all student enrollment. This study was conducted to explore supports and services that may be helpful to working adult students over the age of 25 enrolled in a 2-year associate degree nursing program in a community college. Tinto's interactionalist theory of student persistence and retention and constructivist theory were the conceptual frameworks for this qualitative case study. The two guiding questions were focused on the types of support that would be helpful for degree completion and service improvements that would most effectively assist students to graduate. Data were collected using semistructured interviews and observations with 10 participants who volunteered from a bound system. Requirement for participation included being over the age of 25 and enrolled in the 2-year associate degree nursing program. Data were analyzed using a phenomenological reduction process and cross-sectional analysis to identify convergent and divergent themes in the data. The findings of this study highlight 5 overarching themes as described by the participants: support system, barriers to education, effect of work, engagement in school services, and recommendations for college improvement. The findings of this study could be helpful to administrators and policy makers in developing supports and services that promote retention and degree completion of students in the 2-year associate degree nursing programs. Completion of a 2-year associate-degree nursing program promotes financial viability and meets the workforce needs of the community.
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Kissell, Loretta L. "High Hopes and Current Realities: Conceptual Metaphors and Meaning for English Language Learners at the Community College." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/193692.
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Community colleges play a particularly valuable role in providing both immigrant students and international visa students the opportunity to participate in higher education at affordable rates and thereby, the means by which to achieve academic success in the university system and economic success in the market. Thus, community colleges bear the profound task of developing language skills and creating positive academic experiences for all students who are learning English.This phenomenological inquiry examines how English language learners constitute meaning from their experience of learning at a large community college in the southwest United States. The researcher conducted group and individual interviews with English language learners from 13 different countries of origin and 10 different first languages. Participants included international visa students and immigrant students.Cultural capital theory, including linguistic competence, was used to explain how the perceptions of linguistic competence affect the academic experience of different English language learners. The findings suggest that although some students may possess cultural capital that advantaged them in their home countries, without commensurate linguistic competence, academic literacy, and a new cognitive model for learning that cultural capital may not be rewarded with academic success in the United States. Additionally, the findings suggest that cultural capital theory may need to be adapted to explain how it manifests itself in this student population. A second theory, conceptual theory of metaphor, specifically Lakoff & Johnson's (1999) Event Structure Metaphor, provided a cognitive linguistic framework to the analysis of the language used by participants as they described their academic experience. Using the event structure metaphor, this analysis provides some support for the universal nature of metaphorical thought.
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De, Vos Mariana. "The experiences of Grade 5 learners of an enriched Natural Sciences curriculum." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/62914.
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The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of Grade 5 learners after being taught Natural Sciences by means of an enriched curriculum in the Win-LIFE (Wellness in Lifestyle, Intake, Fitness and Environment intervention) project. My focus thus fell on learners’ voices and perceptions, and more specifically with regard to the knowledge and skills that they gained in the Natural Sciences subject, as a result of a health-promotion intervention. For this purpose, I relied on Bronfenbrenner’s Bio-Ecological model (2005) as theoretical framework, and explored the learners’ experiences in a specific sub-system, being the Natural Sciences classroom and curriculum. I furthermore aimed to gain insight into how this can potentially be applied to other systems such as their home environments and personal lives. I used the interpretivist paradigm as meta-theory and followed a qualitative approach. I selected a case study design, applying Participatory Reflection and Action (PRA) principles, thereby aligning my study’s design to the broader research project for data generation and documentation I relied on multiple data generation sources, such as PRA-based workshops/discussions, observation, field notes, visual data documentation techniques and reflective journals to generate and document data. Following inductive thematic analysis three main themes and related subthemes emerged. Firstly, the experiential learning approach that was followed when implementing the intervention had positive outcomes in terms of learners’ attitudes toward learning, their commitment and self-confidence to make contributions in class, and their experiences of the learning process. Secondly, learners gained the necessary knowledge and skills of the Grade 5 Natural Sciences curriculum, and valued the practical experiences they acquired. In addition to their newly gained knowledge and skills being retained after a year, they finally also transferred the content to their parents, caregivers and family members, and reportedly applied what they had learned at home in their personal lives. Based on the findings of the study I can conclude that the learners experienced the enriched Natural Sciences curriculum in a positive manner and that their experiences resulted in positive outcomes and benefits for themselves and also those in their immediate environment.Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017.
Educational Psychology
MEd
Unrestricted
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Muramatsu, Chie. "Portraits of second language learners: agency, identities, and second language learning." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/4885.
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This study is a qualitative examination of second language (L2) learning processes by four advanced learners of Japanese in the community of a summer intensive full-immersion program in the United States. Using L2 socialization theory as a theoretical framework, this study conceives of L2 learning as a process of social participation in a community of practice and examines L2 learning processes by four learners, focusing on the dynamic interplay between the affordances of the social community and the agency of the individual learners. The purpose of this study is twofold: (a) It investigates the ways in which the four learners exercise their agency to pursue their goals of learning Japanese and (b) it documents how the different ways in which the four learners exercise agency form different trajectories of learning and create different experiences of L2 socialization.
This study has adopted an ethnographic case study approach to the investigation of research inquiries. Through the analyses of data obtained from multiple sources, including interviews with the four learners, observations of their engagement in the community of practice of the summer intensive full-immersion program, their audio-recorded conversations with other members of the community, and various artifacts, this study explores the role of L2 learner agency in the process of L2 socialization and describes in depth their experiences of learning Japanese from their emic perspectives.
The case studies of the four learners have highlighted the different ways in which they engaged in the community of practice, understood their tasks of learning Japanese, interpreted the affordances of the social community, negotiated the meaning of their participations, defined and redefined their sense of self, and eventually achieved their L2 learning goals.
The findings suggest that the richness and effectiveness of a social environment are not characterized by the physical and academic affordances of a social community alone; rather they are constructed in a dynamic relation between the affordance structure of a social community and the L2 learners' agency in the pursuit of the joint enterprise of making L2 learning happen.
With regard to the role of L2 learner agency, the study has foregrounded the important role of the aspirations of the four L2 learners for personal transformation and negotiation of the meaning of self of the past, the present, and the future. The findings suggest that L2 learners' diverse and complex social and personal desires for learning an L2 may not be able to be explained using the notion of investment (Norton, 1995, 2000) alone.
Since the SLA debate initiated by Firth and Wagner (1997, 2007), SLA research has begun to reconceptualize L2 learners as socially situated beings with diverse needs, wants, and identities. This study presents four portraits of L2 learners who engaged in the enterprise of learning Japanese, as a means of contributing to this reconceptualization, and explores for these four learners what it meant to learn Japanese in the summer of 2010.
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Sanchez, Erin M. "Scientific discourse in early childhood reading aloud and responding to nonfiction in a kindergarten community of learners /." Columbus, Ohio : Ohio State University, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=osu1132755939.
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Watkins, Kathryn Anne. "Identifying Language Needs in Community-Based Adult ELLs: Findings from an Ethnography of Four Salvadoran Immigrants in the Western United States." BYU ScholarsArchive, 2020. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/8526.
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The United States is home to hundreds of thousands of refugees and immigrants who desire to learn English. In contrast to academically-focused English language learners (ELLs), or international students, refugee and immigrant ELLs are often dealing with the stresses of poverty and/or a precarious immigration status, giving them a diverse and complex set of needs that are often not adequately met by ESL programs. Building off a foundation of Activity Theory, Sociocultural Theory, and Language Ecology, which emphasizes an approach to language learning and teaching that does not separate language from the authentic contexts from which it arises (Van Lier, 2002; Leather & Van Dam, 2003; Pennycook, 2010; Swain & Watanabe, 2012; among others), I seek to uncover and address these needs in-context through an ethnography of six Spanish-speaking immigrant ELLs in the western United States. I detail the results of an in-depth analysis of 116 hours of participant observation with these women, paying special attention to their daily routines and how, where, and why they employ English or Spanish. I show how the women's daily routines and participation in Latinx communities curtail much of their need for daily English, how they employ various strategies to get by when they do need English, and how their expressed motivations to learn English are often thwarted by their current life circumstances. I end by summarizing key observations about the ELLs in the study and making general recommendations to ESL programs for how to apply these observations.
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Nthulana, Ipfani. "Challenges faced by Tshivenda-speaking teachers when instructing Grade 4 learners in English." Diss., University of Pretoria, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/2263/60971.
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The South African Constitution promotes multilingualism while acknowledging the maintenance of home languages. Meanwhile the language-in-education policy (Department of National Education, 1994) declares that every learner has the right to receive education in the language that he/she understands best where this is practicable. According to programme requirements of the Intermediate Phase (Grades 4 6), two official languages must be selected by a learner of which one should be the home language and the other one used as a first additional language. One of these languages will serve as the language of learning (Department of Basic Education: Programme and Promotion Requirements, 2011) This study outlined the challenges that Grade 4 teachers in the monolingual rural area of Niani face when teaching through English. This case study was designed as a qualitative research underpinned by Krashen's theory of second language acquisition (1982), which underlines the importance of interaction.
The literature reviewed showed how teachers developed strategies to cope when a second language is used as the medium of instruction in monolingual societies. The participants of the study include six Grade 4 teachers who are mother tongue speakers of Tshivenda and two curriculum advisors of Niani in Limpopo province. Data were collected via classroom observations and interviews in order to establish the challenges teachers face when they switch from using Tshivenda to English once the learners move to Grade 4 and how these teachers cope. The findings indicate that teachers in rural monolingual communities in Niani find it difficult to meet the curriculum demands in terms of the medium of instruction. Grade 3 learners move to Grade 4 with little English vocabulary and this makes teaching problematic. Teachers spend most of their time translating the lessons into Tshivenda, a strategy which further limits both teachers' and learners' English exposure. Teachers too' were found not to be sufficiently proficient in English. The significance of the study relates to the educational issues of rural schools that are ignored by officialdom, including the fact that teachers are not adequately prepared to teach in English. In addition, learners transitioning to the medium of English are not sufficiently supported. Hence, policies need revision and interventions to address linguistic shortcomings of teachers and learners ought to be designed and implemented if English remains the medium of instruction.Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Humanities Education
MEd
Unrestricted
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Delahunty, Geniene P. "Untold Stories: Perspectives of Principals and Hispanic Parents of English Language Learners." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2011. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1307323283.
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Barden, Pollie. "Older people and digital technology : from digital learners to digital leaders through participatory design with community-based organisations." Thesis, Queen Mary, University of London, 2017. http://qmro.qmul.ac.uk/xmlui/handle/123456789/31709.
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It is predicted that there will be more people over the age of 65 than under 5 by 2050 in developed countries. In recognition of the needs of an ageing population, there is a growing field of research in HCI focused on engaging older people with digital technologies. This thesis contributes to the field of ageing in HCI through a community-based participatory design investigation into the challenges and opportunities for older people to engage with digital tools in their everyday lives. We demonstrate how the commitments, practices and values of participatory design can be used to better understand and foster engagement between digital tools and older people through the support of community-based organisations. This is achieved through two case studies. The rst study with a traditional computer class at a local day centre. The second with a London-based intergenerational running club. The research reflects on and examines the details and decisions of the learning and adoption process across these two studies. We expand our view beyond the digital tools to the influences and situations that contribute to older people's attitudes and usage. Through the lens of participatory design and communities of practice we discuss the considerations of values, problem-solving, and identity that can potentially be transferred to other non-traditional digital learning environments for older people. We provide recommendations and reflect on our challenges to serve as guidance for other researchers engaging in similar participatory work `in-the-wild'.
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Maine, Malefane Kenneth. "An exploration of socially constructed meanings within a community of learners in changing academic and social contexts / M. Kenneth Maine." Thesis, North-West University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10394/1538.
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Gao, Shuting. "Learner support for distance learners : A study of six cases of ICT-based distance education institutions in China." Doctoral thesis, Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för pedagogik och didaktik, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-82487.
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This thesis focuses on learner support in Chinese distance education. It draws a picture of Chinese modern distance education, covering the major issues in the field of learner support, and small group work as peer support. The aim of the study is to find out whether or not the learner support, that distance students at university level obtained, has the tendency to support students’ deep learning. The aim has been achieved by examining learner support in six institutions of ICT-based distance education in China. Three other sources of learner support are investigated. The main objectives of the study are: 1) to describe the distance students’ characteristics; 2) to examine their learning habits, learning organizations, and their interactions; 3) to investigate the student support provided by the institutions; family support; societal support; and peer support in the form of small group work. The purpose of this study is to define current practices of learner support in the six distance education institutions, determining the extent of similarities and differences on learner support services among these institutions. The study is applying a case-study approach, using qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate the six Chinese distance education institutions. During the first stage, several field visits were conducted in different research sites with on-site participant observation, non-participant observation and interviews for obtaining knowledge of Chinese distance education. In the second stage, a survey with a student questionnaire was distributed to students present and others online, in total 587. In addition, semi-structured interviews with staff members (administrators, instructors and tutors), individual students, and student focus groups were performed. The present research is one of the few in-depth case studies that focus on the relation between learner support system and different approaches to learning. On the basis of these research findings, the importance of a well-designed learner support system for the distance learner, a system for fostering creative, critical or independent thinking skills, or deep learning, in line with Chinese cultural and social conditions, is underlined.
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Yah, Veronica. "Una cadena de esperanza| How Latino male English language learners use community cultural wealth in challenging negative educational experiences." Thesis, California State University, Long Beach, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3574905.
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Latino males from an English Language Learner (ELL) background are not successfully graduating from high school and going to college. This study seeks to understand this phenomenon through narratives of young Latino males in the Los Angeles area. Guided by Yosso's theory community cultural wealth theory, this qualitative study examines the challenges experienced by Latino males in their high school English Language Learner programs, and how these challenges were met. community cultural wealth theory provides six tenets of capital that communities of color possess: aspirational, familial, linguistic, social, navigational, and resistance. These types of cultural wealth exist in the lives of students and can assist students in attaining successful educational outcomes. Interviews with 16 Latino male ELLs between the ages of 18 to 25 were conducted over a 2-month period. The 16 Latino male ELLs were divided into groupings of high school graduates in college, high school graduates, high school students finishing their diploma requirements, and high school dropouts. Along with these interviews, four parent interviews were also conducted in order to gain a holistic perspective of the Latino males' experiences. Latino male ELLs illustrated the utilization of multiple forms of community cultural capital in their narratives; forms of social, linguistic, and navigational capital made a difference in Latino male ELLs that reported not only finishing high school, but also attending college. Conclusions of the study will be used to make recommendations for improvements in counseling services, assisting newly arrived ELLs to high school, and specific changes to policy.
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Julé-Lemke, Allyson Mary. "Christmas is your guru's birthday, practices which build a community of learners in a Punjabi-Sikh grade-one classroom." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1998. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0015/MQ37561.pdf.
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Spivey, Rosalyn Dubose. "Strategic reading instruction in the upper elementary grades leading and supporting a community of learners : a mixed methods study /." Birmingham, Ala. : University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2007. http://www.mhsl.uab.edu/dt/2007p/spivey.pdf.
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McIntyre, Janis. "Learning lifelines : a study of learners' perceptions of participation in and progression from community based adult learning in Scotland." Thesis, University of Strathclyde, 2011. http://oleg.lib.strath.ac.uk:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=15496.
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Makgato, Lephai Irene. "Perceptions of learners in selected rural secondary schools towards mental illness : the case of Ga-Dikgale Community, Limpopo Province." Thesis, University of Limpopo, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10386/3362.
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Thesis(M.A.( Psychology)) -- University of Limpopo, 2020The growing number of young people in schools presenting with mental illness is increasingly becoming a disconcerting issue locally and globally. This qualitative study sought to explore the perceptions of mental illness by learners drawn from four secondary schools in Ga-Dikgale rural community (Limpopo Province). Twenty-seven learners (males = 14; females = 13) were selected through purposive sampling and requested to participate in the study. Semi-structured individual interviews and focus group discussions (n = 2) were conducted. The following three themes emerged from the data: a) Knowledge of mental illness, its causes and symptoms b) Knowledge on the management and types of interventions needed for mental illness c) Challenges associated with mentally ill people. The themes and sub-themes emerging suggested deep seated Afrocentric cultural perceptions which tended to shape learners’ views and understanding of mental illness. Some paradoxical explanations with regard to mental illness also emerged. Based on the findings of the study, it is recommended that mental health literacy campaigns be conducted in schools
VLIR-UOS
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Chung, Kim Chung Marie Michelle Gilberte Tow Yin. "Voice, hope and identity : educational journeys of adult learners of the first open community school for adults in Mauritius." Thesis, Liverpool Hope University, 2016. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.722168.
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Medhurst, Nigel Stephen. "Uses and meanings of multiliteracies in a community of learners : student responses and practices in an online teaching module." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2009. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.518765.
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Abrahams, Byron. "Teachers’ experiences in implementing habits of mind which promote mathematics learners’ relational understanding, while operating within a community of practice." Thesis, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11838/2498.
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Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.Current insights into the South African education crisis suggest that emphasis needs to be placed on developing teachers’ mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKfT) through ongoing professional development. Aiming to provide insight into teacher professional development, this research describes an initiative undertaken by a group of Mathematics teachers who formed a Community of Practice at their school. Through the implementation of Habits of Mind that promotes Relational Understanding, these teachers attempt to improve the teaching and learning of Mathematics at their school, and further their professional development. A qualitative phenomenological design of inquiry was conducted to describe the teachers’ experiences when implementing Habits of Mind in their teaching. Group interviews, individual interviews and documentary sources were used to gain a rich description of the lived experiences of these teachers during the research period. To analyse the data a combination of Giorgi’s phenomenological model and the interconnected model of professional growth was used. Results indicate three insights into teacher professional development: (1) Communities of Practice promote the sharing and development of MKfT though the mechanism of collaboration; (2) Teachers are challenged when implementing intervention strategies as firstly their learners are challenged in their literacy ability which limits their articulation in Mathematics lessons, and secondly they are faced with time constraints imposed by workload demands; (3) The attempt to implement intervention strategies within a Community of Practice, despite being challenging, encourages reflective practice which informs individuals’ professional practice and supports ongoing professional development.
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Horton, Dianne Wahl. "Comparisons of the Needs of Adult Learners by Faculty Student Services Staff and Adult Students at a Selected Community College." Thesis, North Texas State University, 1985. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc331762/.
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The problem with which this study is concerned is assessing the relationship between the expressed needs of adult community college students and their needs as perceived by selected faculty members and student services staff members at a metropolitan community college. The population of the study was 201 adult students and 77 faculty and student services staff members who took the Adult Learner Needs Assessment Survey, a publication of the American College Testing Program. The data results were analyzed statistically using one-way analysis of variance and the Scheffé multiple comparison procedure. Data were considered statistically significant at the .01 level on all eight hypotheses. Based on the data findings, the following conclusions appear to be warranted. 1. The Adult Learner Needs Assessment Survey seems to provide useful needs assessment information in a convenient format for large scale research. 2. The instrument seems to provide a useful tool for gathering data on the perceptions of the needs of adult learners from community college employees. 3. Both faculty and student services staff groups seem to perceive adult students as needing more assistance with educational and personal needs than is reported by adult students. 4. Both faculty and student services staff groups perceptions of the needs of adult learners, when compared to the needs reported by adult students, appear to be less accurate for those needs for which a lesser degree of assistance is needed and more accurate for those needs for which a greater degree of assistance is needed. 5. The perceptions of the needs of adult learners by both faculty and student services staff groups appear notably similar. 6. This research, using a more rigorous level of significance, validates the general findings of similar research. 7. The research methodology and the use of analysis of variance and Scheffé test as statistical procedures proved to be useful in comparing perceptions of adult learner needs by faculty and student services staff groups to the stated needs of adult students.
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Ayouby, Kenneth Kahtan. ""Speak American"! or language, power and education in Dearborn, Michigan: a case study of Arabic heritage learners and their community." Thesis, University of Port Elizabeth, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/369.
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This study examines the history and development of the “Arabic as a foreign language” (AFL) programme in Dearborn Public Schools (in Michigan, the United States) in its socio-cultural and political context. More specifically, this study examines the significance of Arabic to the Arab immigrant and ethnic community in Dearborn in particular, but with reference to meanings generated and associated to Arabic by non- Arabs in the same locale. Although this study addresses questions similar to research conducted on Arab Americans in light of anthropological and sociological theoretical constructs, it is, however, unique in examining education and Arabic pedagogy in Dearborn from an Arab American studies and an educational multi-cultural perspective, predicated on/and drawing from Edward Said’s critique of Orientalism, Paulo Freire’s ideas about education, and Henry Giroux’s concern with critical pedagogy. In the American mindscape, the "East" has been the theatre of the exotic, the setting of the Other from colonial times to the present. The Arab and Muslim East have been constructed to represent an opposite of American culture, values and life. Through the agency of conflation, Arab (and Muslim) Americans are accordingly lumped together with people from abroad, making for their status as permanent outsiders. Thus, if the American Self represents an ideal, the inhabitants of this oppositional world of Arabs and Islam (an Anti-world) represent an Anti-self. A source of fear and object of hate and prejudice, this Anti-self is the object of derision and anything connected with it (e.g. language, customs, religion, etc.) becomes suspect and is devalued by association. This document has two objectives: First, to present an historical account of this context, and, secondly, to shed light on how and why things that are associated with Arab Americans in Dearborn are devalued. This is achieved by addressing the developments of meanings (of actions and symbols) in their American context, and how they have shaped (and still shape) the local culture's depiction of and understanding of Arab (and Muslim) Americans. Therefore, Arab American issues of language, culture and societal interactions should be understood as constituting a stream of American life, which represent a dimension of the total American experience, past and present, that is best understood through the paradigm of American studies. Viewing this experience as a cultural whole rather than as a series of unrelated fragments (e.g. immigration waves and settlement patterns, religious and state affiliations, assimilation and preservation debates), Arab American culture and issues begin to shine through as an organic and holistic experience whose characteristics are shared with other groups, suggesting research on this community is equally generalisable to others. ii As an academic work, this document promotes an understanding of the Arab American experience from an interdisciplinary point of view through focusing on the phenomenon of language in the community with emphasis placed on the AFL experience at school. Therefore, it is a broadly-framed outlook that permits, in an introductory way, a view of the richness of the Arab American experience, particularly in Dearborn, Michigan, as part of the American experience. Data were collected using two surveys, one for AFL students at a high school, and another was administered to adults in the community—in Dearborn. In addition, an action-research-based effort, individual personal interviews and focus groups were conducted with stakeholders in the community: parents/community members, teachers/school personnel and students, utilising personal involvement in understanding and analysing the data. Also, the study referred to archival and documentary evidence available in the school system. Four hypotheses regarding importance/significance and utility of Arabic were offered and tested by means of qualitative, interpretive analysis. Findings included: (1) Arab Americans valued Arabic as an emblem of their community in Dearborn, suggesting its employment as an indicator of political empowerment. (2) Conversely, in the non-Arab community Arabic was observed as a mark of the Other, and an artefact of ethnic retrenchment and rejection of assimilation. (3) Interestingly, however, development of English language competence emerged as a major concern in the community, outweighing Arabic language preservation. (4) While, language maintenance efforts in the community were observed as minimal, especially at the organisational level, and support for such programmes was marginal to nil. (5) Additionally, Arabic, while not the object of a desire to master as a medium of communication, was observed to signify a special symbol of heritage for Arab American youth in the Dearborn community, who may have rejected their parents’ ideas about learning Arabic, but had developed their own. (6) What is more, Arab American youth were observed developing a viable hybridised identity, whose mainstay is being “Arabic”, despite the dominance of English and Euro-Anglo cultural norms. (7) At the institutional level, Arabic was observed devalued in the school setting due to its association with Arabs, Islam, Arab Americans, and immigration. (8) Moreover, relations between Arab Americans and non-Arab Americans in the school system seems to have been equally impacted by this process of devaluation, furthering the cause of stigmatisation, prejudice and racism.
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Mnisi, Thoko Esther. "Digital storytelling to explore HIV- and AIDS- related stigma with secondary school learners in a rural community in KwaZulu-Natal." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/d1018717.
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This study explores, through digital storytelling, the experiences of HIV- and AIDS-related stigma of rural community secondary school learners. HIV- and AIDS-related stigma is seen as an impediment to a proficient response to HIV and AIDS in communities, also rural communities, and requires addressing. The rural community in which the research is undertaken is particularly hard hit by HIV and AIDS. Learners’ experiences of HIV- and AIDS related stigma could therefore inform how school and community could engage with HIV- and AIDS-related stigma and how they could address it in a constructive way. The study attempts to respond to two research questions: What can digital storytelling reveal about secondary school learners’ experiences of HIV- and AIDS-related stigma in schools in a rural community? How can digital storytelling enable secondary school learners in school in a rural community to take action to address stigma? This qualitative study is positioned within a critical paradigm, and employs a community-based participatory research strategy. Twelve Grade 8 and 9 male and female learners aged 15 to 18 years, from two secondary schools in rural Vulindlela district of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, who experienced, witnessed or heard about HIV- and AIDS-related stigma participated. Digital storytelling, a visual participatory method, was used to generate the data, and this was complemented by group discussion and written pieces completed by the participants in reflection sessions. The thematic analysis of the data made use of participatory analysis: the analysis of the digital stories was done by the participants while the overarching analysis was done by the researcher. This study, located in the field of the Psychology of Education, is informed by the theoretical framework of symbolic interactionism. In terms of the experienced stigma, it was found that living with HIV and AIDS and the related stigma is perceived as a ‘hardship’. The stigma is experienced on many levels: in the family, at school, and from friends and members of the community. It has an impact on the individual on an intrapersonal and interpersonal level. The young person is caught up in a vicious cycle of silent suffering since there are no reliable and trustworthy people with whom he or she can share these challenges. Some so-called traditional beliefs and customs such as not talking about sex, and practices like virginity testing, also fuel HIV- and AIDS-related stigma. The use of derogatory terms and the severe criticism of early sexual debut along with the gossiping which is used to spread the stigmatising statements further complicate the hardship experienced by young people. Digital storytelling was found to not only enable the learners’ voices to be heard but also to enable their taking charge of the stigma and thus create the space for critical participation in this research. The implications for the study are that the pervasive stigma that young people experience should be addressed at every level of the community. The stakeholders such as the families, school, educators, the King (Inkosi) and Chiefs (Indunas) of the area, relevant departments with that of Education taking the lead, must work hand-in-hand with the affected young people. Such collaboration may allow for the identification of the problem, for reflection on it, and also for the addressing of it. HIV- and AIDS-related stigma, while it has changed since the emergence of HIV, still is an issue that many HIV-positive individuals have to contend with. This stigma is, however, contextual and how the individual is stigmatised fits in with the language, meaning and thought that a community constructs around stigma. While digital storytelling enables the uncovering of particular stories of stigma that learners experience in the context of a school in a rural community, the digital storytelling in and of itself enables a change in the language, meaning and thought around stigma in its drawing on the specifics of the stigma as experienced in the community. Also, digital storytelling is about sharing stories about, and experiences of HIV- and AIDS-related stigma and how these stories can be used as part of the solution. If such stories can be told, people can spread them just as gossip is spread, but in this case such spreading would work towards positive social change. I claim that in order to confront the challenges raised by the perpetuation of stigma, efforts must involve the communities and must tap into their own experiences of perpetuating or enduring stigmatisation. Suggestions by the very same people from the community who are at the front line of perpetuating and /or suffering the stigma must be considered. This may also become one way of instantly communicating the research findings back to the community involved in the research. Using digital storytelling can ensure getting self-tailored, contextual, specific views on how HIV- and AIDS-related stigma is experienced but also how it could be addressed.