Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2759
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Item Factors that Influence Preservice Teachers' Planning and Leading of Text-Based Discussions(2021) Hogan, Erin; Dreher, Mariam Jean; O'Flahavan, John; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Text-based discussions are defined as the process of collectively building high-level comprehension of text among a group of students who use each other and text as sources of meaning. Teachers’ role in this process is two-fold: first, they ask questions that require extended exploration of text ideas and go well beyond literal, surface level understandings. Second, they support students as they do the heavy lifting of engaging deeply with the text and with each other by helping students link their ideas and those conveyed in the text together. Nearly 40 years of empirical research offers support for text-based discussion as an instructional technique with the potential to break persistent patterns of basic-level student reading achievement (Applebee et al., 2003; Murphy et al., 2009; Nystrand, 1997; Soter et al., 2009). However, this same research identified text-based discussions as infrequently used in classrooms, which suggests there is something preventing more teachers from utilizing them in the classroom. This two-study dissertation sought to identify and intervene on factors that influenced preservice teachers’ learning about and ultimately using discussion. I identified three factors: the ability to analyze text (i.e., to determine main ideas of text as well as text features that potentially facilitate or hinder students’ understanding of the main ideas); experiential knowledge gained from repeated cycles of planning, leading, and reflecting on discussions; and epistemological beliefs. Study One was an exploratory multiple case study of seven senior preservice teachers all enrolled in their capstone literacy methods class and working in their field placements. This study took a holistic look at the ways in which epistemological beliefs, instruction in text analysis, and repeated cycles of planning, leading, and reflecting on text-based discussions affected PSTs’ leading of discussions with students in their field placements. Results indicated that PSTs’ epistemological beliefs affected both their learning about and leading text-based discussions, they lacked specialized knowledge needed to analyze text and use this information to help students negotiate text meaning in the text-based discussions, and some gained experiential knowledge in the form of specific moves they could make to shift interpretive authority to students. These findings informed the design of study two. This study was quasi-experimental and situated in two pre-existing sections of a reading methods course for first-semester senior preservice teachers. One section served as a business-as-usual control group while the other section received a semester-long intervention into text analysis. Participants in the intervention section received direct instruction on text analysis including text structures and their common features, how to evaluate text complexity, and how to decipher main and supporting ideas. They also received instruction on how to use this knowledge to support students in text-based discussions. Results of ANCOVA analysis suggests intervention led to statistically significant improvement in participants’ ability to analyze text. Exploratory analyses shed light into the mechanisms behind the intervention’s effect: participants’ ability to monitor and respond to students improved significantly. Taken together, the findings from these two studies have implications for teacher educators seeking to create learning experiences that lead to preservice teachers taking up text-based discussions.Item BEYOND BENCHMARKS: ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ VISIONS FOR USING DIVERSE FAMILY LITERACY PRACTICES TO GUIDE CLASSROOM READING INSTRUCTION(2017) Albro, Jennifer; Turner, Jennifer D; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Many preservice teachers are entering the field of teaching feeling unprepared to to collaborate with families to foster the growth of students (Caspe, Lopez, Chu, & Weiss, 2011); further, they are less prepared to engage families from various cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and other diverse backgrounds (Patte, 2011). Given that using vision has been shown to help to prepare preservice teachers for their future classrooms (Duffy, 2002; Turner & Mercado, 2009), this study examined the visions of elementary preservice teachers and how they envisioned the role that families and their diverse literacy practices will play in their future reading instruction. Using qualitative research methods and a sociocultural lens, this dissertation investigated the visions of 34 elementary preservice teachers. Throughout the semester, the preservice teachers participated in two course assignments: a.) they attended a local family literacy event hosted by Ethiopian American parents who wanted their children to maintain their Ethiopian culture, and b.) the preservice teachers chose one family member of one of their students to interview to learn more about their family literacy practices. Seven of the 34 preservice teachers were selected to participate in individual interviews and one focus group to further examine their visions. Through the review of their vision statements, course assignments, interviews, and the focus group, I examined their visions through a “funds of knowledge” (Gonzalez, Moll, & Amanti, 2005) lens. Additionally, I created a Funds of Knowledge Rubric to assess whether their visions were “emerging,” “developing,” or “advancing” toward using diverse family literacy practices to guide their classroom reading instruction and to what extent that they held a “funds of knowledge” perspective. Findings illustrated that the majority of the preservice teachers envisioned families as supporters of the literacy learning that occurs in the classroom by extending the learning at home. Only five of the 34 preservice teachers had visions of using diverse family literacy practices to guide their classroom instruction. Suggestions for supporting preservice teachers’ vision development and strengthening teacher education initiatives around preparing teachers to learn about families and integrating their literacy practices into instruction are discussed.Item BUILDING BLOCK OF THE WORLD, BUILDING BLOCK OF YOUR IDENTITY: MULTILINGUAL LITERACY SOCIALIZATION OF HERITAGE LANGUAGE LEARNERS(2017) Tigert, Johanna; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates multilingual literacy socialization of Finnish heritage language learners (HLLs) in homes and a Finnish heritage language (HL) school in the United States. Participants included eighteen parents, fifteen students, and three Finnish HL teachers. Five HLLs aged 5 to 11 were chosen as focal cases. This study used ethnographic and microethnographic methods, with language socialization as the major theoretical lens and new literacies as a complementary theory. The study conceptualizes language and literacy socialization in an HL context as manifesting in three processes: family and classroom language policies, translanguaging practices, and language and literacy practices across languages and media. Additionally, the study considers HLLs’ construction of multilingual identities. Field notes and videos of language and literacy events in the two contexts, literacy-related artifacts, vocabulary and reading assessments in English and Finnish, and background survey and interview data were considered to understand participants’ language and literacy practices. The study demonstrates that parents and teachers engaged in similar socialization strategies: setting strict Finnish-only policies, curbing students’ translanguaging, and engaging children in traditional, print-based literacies in Finnish. Contextual factors, such as students’ English-medium schoolwork and non-Finnish parents’ lack of Finnish proficiency restricted these efforts. HLLs influenced these socialization processes by renegotiating family and HL classroom language policies, translanguaging in their interactions, and engaging in literacy practices, especially digital literacies, that promoted English at the expense of the HL. Such influences often ran counter to the parents’ and teachers’ efforts. Findings also indicated that learners constructed fluid, multilingual identities within different contexts and situations. The study contributes to socialization research and HL education research by examining a less commonly taught HL, Finnish in the United States. The study corroborates recent scholarship on language socialization, which has begun to uncover children’s strong influence and agency in socialization processes. The study also highlights the importance of digital literacies in young HLLs’ lives. The need for teacher education and P-12 educators to recognize HLLs as part of linguistic diversity in schools, and ways for parents and teachers of HLLs to support HL maintenance while recognizing HLLs’ multilingual, multinational identities are discussed.Item THE IMPACT OF INSTRUCTION INCORPORATING CONTENT AREA READING STRATEGIES ON STUDENT MATHEMATICAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A COMMUNITY COLLEGE DEVELOPMENTAL MATHEMATICS COURSE(2011) Rust, Amber Heller; Campbell, Patricia F.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)When a student is not successful in mathematics, teachers frequently assume the difficulty lies within the student's mathematical ability or negative disposition towards mathematics, but the difficulty may lie with the student's reading comprehension (Draper, Smith, Hall, & Siebert, 2005; Kane, Byrne, & Hater, 1974). Many post-secondary students enter classrooms with limited knowledge, skills, or disposition for reading, and this can impact comprehension of their textbooks and other school reading materials (Snow, 2002). This is especially important since college-level work requires students to assume responsibility for independent learning by reading their textbook. Students have difficulty reading and comprehending the text in mathematics textbooks due to the textbook's unique structure, density, and vocabulary (Barton & Heidema, 2002; Idris, 2003). Incorporating content area reading strategies into classroom instruction may be a vehicle through which teachers can facilitate students' ability to learn from their mathematics textbooks (National Reading Panel, 2001; Siebert & Draper, 2008; Snow, 2002). This study utilized a quantitative control-treatment design to investigate whether the incorporation of reading strategies into the instructional practices of a community college's prealgebra developmental mathematics course would effect students' overall mathematics achievement in the course as measured by standardized course assessments and the course passing rate. Participants were 179 community college students enrolled in a prealgebra developmental mathematics course during a spring semester (13 instructors; 16 sections). Student demographic data, as well as instructor professional and demographic data served as control variables. Observations of selected treatment- and control-class meetings, and interviews with instructors informed qualitative context. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed no statistically significant difference in performance on standardized measures or course passing rate between students in the treatment and control sections. The qualitative observations and interviews indicated limited fidelity of implementation of the reading strategies across treatment sections. HLM results suggest a difference in student performance between levels of implementation. Weaker implementation of the reading strategies was associated with lower student performance, as compared to that of high treatment implementation or control sections. These findings indicate that organized professional development is necessary if community college faculty are expected to incorporate reading strategies into their instructional practices.Item Positioning and Identity in the Academic Literacy Experiences of Elementary English Language Learners(2011) Hickey, Pamela J.; Martin-Beltran, Melinda; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigates the academic literacy experiences of elementary English Language Learners (ELLs) in first grade, fourth grade, and sixth grade. Participants included students as well as their reading/language arts mainstream teachers and their English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) teachers. Informed by both cross-sectional cross-case study and narrative inquiry methodology, this study used positioning theory and identity theory as complementary analytic lenses. Students' positionings, both reflexive self-positioning and interactive positioning by others, were identified and named through analyses of their interactions in academic literacy events during reading/language arts. In order to consider the ways that students' positionings may afford or constrain their access to and engagement with academic literacy events, the researcher created an analytic framework naming student positions. Additionally, positions were considered in light of the ways that they mediated students' levels of engagement as literacy events unfolded. To investigate the construction of students' literate identities, the researcher examined students' patterns of positioning during literacy events and considered interview data from students and teachers as well as field notes that documented conversations with participants. The researcher also gathered two self-portraits from student participants, including one self-portrait showing the student engaged in an academic literacy task at school and one showing the student engaged in a fun activity outside of the school context. The study demonstrated that students' positionings, both positive and constraining, may work to construct and re-construct students' literate identities even as students' literate identities may inform the ways that students take on and negotiate positions in a recursive process. The study also found that students with strong literate identities bridging home and school contexts took on more positive positions thus engaging more deeply with academic literacy tasks than students with striving literate identities. Students with striving literate identities often took on positions of constraint in strategic moves that allowed them to get through literacy tasks without engaging deeply. Finally, this study demonstrated the powerful ways that teachers may support students' deep engagement with literacy tasks through positive positioning and following through on their lesson implementation by offering opportunities for re-positioning and the use of scaffolds.Item Plagiarism, Textual Borrowing, or Something else?: An L2 Student's Writing-from-sources Tasks(2008-08-26) Suh, Soo Jung; VanSledright, Bruce; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)To date, L2 students' plagiarism has been attributed primarily to cultural differences or L2 proficiency. Bringing a novice, L2 writer's perspectives and struggles to the fore using a Bakhtinian framework, I adopt a broad approach that demonstrates that learning how to cite sources may be the result of a complex, contextualized interplay of cultural, linguistic, educational, disciplinary influences, and developing L2 writing competence. This exploratory case study reports on the textual borrowing practices of a novice, Korean student in a TESOL program at a U.S. university, including how and why she incorporated source texts into her writing by examining the products and processes of her retrospective and concurrent writing-from-sources tasks. Data analyses entailed triangulating data from (1) semi-structured interviews on her academic literacy experiences, (2) textual analysis of an authentic, course-related research paper in terms of the amount and nature of textual borrowing by source text type, (3) retrospective interviews on her research paper, (4) performance on Deckert's (1993) modified Plagiarism Identification Questionnaire, (5) textual analysis of an ensuing paraphrasing task, and (6) a post-questionnaire interview on previous instruction on plagiarism. Findings revealed that her lax criteria of textual ownership of words came from centripetal and centrifugal forces, that is, authoritative and internally persuasive discourses from her previous and current contexts, including addressivity to her professor's words to use her own words. Patchwriting occurred at the intersections of a coping, procedural display, and learning strategies to appropriate disciplinary content and academic discourse. Different patterns of textual borrowing manifested by source text type, suggesting that, despite transgressive textual borrowing, her source texts also served as sources of input and models of how to write a research paper. At times, the textual boundaries between borrowing of content and imitation became hazy when the surrounding contexts in which her patchwriting occurred was examined. I conclude by offering implications that address aspects of discursive, perspectivial, and pedagogical tensions that have been relatively overlooked at the expense of ethical tension.Item How Six Fourth Graders Experienced and Understood Literacy Events During One Year in a Quality School Library(2006-08-23) voelker, anita nedzel; Chambliss, Marilyn J; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this one year study, I employed a "childist" lens (Hunt, 1991) to discover how six fourth grade students experienced and understood literacy events in a quality school library program. To locate a quality setting, I sought experts' suggestions, reviewed resources, interviewed librarians, and visited four sites. Of these four sites, I chose the quality setting with the highest percentage of racial diversity within the student population. In response to Snow, Burns, and Griffin's (1998) call for more research on fourth grade students, I focused this study on students in this grade level. Using data from Terra Nova scores, teacher ranking, and a Title Recognition Test, I selected six fourth graders, who represented diversity in reading ability, reading experience, race, and gender. Using a sociocultural perspective (Gee, 2001) and Halliday's (1980) "social-functional approach" (p. 37), I defined literacy for children as learning existing, new, and evolving language and language systems in text and technology; learning about language and language systems in social and cultural settings that are meaningful to the community of learners; learning through language and language systems by understanding the power of words in text and technological contexts. With this established literacy definition, I selected the literacy event as a unit of analysis. Collecting and analyzing data were reciprocal processes. During the academic year, I collected data via observations and interviews. There were three distinct types of interviews: post literacy event, with artifacts, and with a library model. I employed an emic perspective to view the literacy events through the experiences and understanding of the participants. Using an etic lens, I applied my understandings of literacy research to analyze the child's perspective. To crystallize the findings from the analysis, I created literacy portraits for each participant that aligned with the subsidiary questions. In summarizing the literacy portraits, I found a paradox: Although literacy events were ubiquitous in this quality school library, literacy was rare. Drawing on Swales (1990) theory of discourse communities, I argue that the contradiction may stem from differences in the school library and literacy discourse communities, as well as complexity in defining literacy.Item "Showing Them Who I Am": Identity, Place and Performance in Seventh Grade Literacy Discussions(2006-05-15) Smith, Ann Marie; Koziol, Stephen; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this study, I explored the ways that a seventh grade teacher and her students interpreted literacy discussions in a multicultural school in Virginia. I examined influences of school culture and place on literacy learning and discussions, along with how teachers and students interpreted school culture and place. I used ethnographic methods to study the teachers, students and school culture. Data sources included observations of language arts and reading classes from November 2003 through May 2005. I also interviewed students and teachers and collected instructional materials and state curriculum guides. The language arts teacher structured group discussions and other literacy activities for efficiency; however, whole class discussions included open, analytical discussions about texts. Through modeling and literacy discussions, the teacher demonstrated her belief that writers must consider audience to produce effective texts. The teacher did not perceive that place affected literacy discussions; however, the teacher believed students' home lives or lack of reading experiences could inhibit students ability to analyze texts in discussions. The students perceived place and community as disconnected from school and literacy discussions. Although this study pointed out possibilities for critique through literacy discussions, research is needed on how teachers and administrators encourage a spirit of resistance to hegemonic conditions that exist in schools and society. The theoretical implications of this dissertation include a need for literacy researchers to investigate place and school culture as part of teachers' and students' constructions of identity and literacy learning.