College of Education
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Investigating the Stories of Success of Students who are African American and Male in AP English(2019) McArdle, Erin E; Turner, Jennifer D; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Students who are African American and male living in the United States have been marginalized from gifted and talented and Advanced Placement (AP) classes in public education. Students who have enrolled in specifically AP English and have taken an AP English exam have been shown to outperform other types of students in college (Barnard-Brak, McGaha-Garnett, & Burely, 2011; Cech, 2008; Chajewski, Mattern, & Shaw, 2011; Hargrove, Godin, & Dodd, 2008; Keng & Dodd, 2008; Mattern, Marini, & Shaw, 2013; Mustafa & Compton, 2017; Patterson & Ewing, 2013). Attending college and earning a collegiate degree offers a multitude of benefits; however, “college entrance and matriculation for African America students remains critically low,” especially for males (Curry & Shillingford, 2015, p. 14). This research study examined how students who are African American and male came to enroll in an AP English course, how they maintained their success in an AP English course, what and who influenced them along the way, and what later impact AP English had on their lives, especially as collegiate scholars. The researcher was the participants’ high school AP English teacher and relied on her personal experiences in teaching AP English to frame her research. The participants attended a high school where the ethnicity demographics of students closely mirrored the ethnicity percentages of the U.S. population. The school is well-funded, well-staffed and serves a middle class socio-economic population. Despite this, African American male students who attend this school continue to be underrepresented in AP English courses and in completing and passing AP English exams. Using a cross-comparison of eight distinct case studies following qualitative research protocol, the researcher was able to interview and create narratives of the participants’ experiences in AP English. This dissertation analyzes and synthesizes findings from the interviews to establish how the participants enrolled in AP English and maintained success. Additionally, the study focused on the influences on their success and the later impact on their lives. The findings from this study suggest that for the participants, college acceptance and completion as a “nonnegotiable” significantly influenced their conviction for taking AP English. The participants determined that AP English would influence college acceptance, which is part of the “educational game” students are aware of when attempting to market themselves for college enrollment. Teachers, family members, and peers in G.T. and AP classes were described as influential on enrollment and success. This study led to the discussion of how to include more students who are African American males in AP English class. It also contributes to educational policy that continues to weigh the pros and cons of offering AP English courses.Item Living in the Constellation of the Canon: A Phenomenological Study of African American Students Reading Great Books Literature(2017) Prather, Anika Prather; Hultgren, Francine; Wiseman, Donna; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this phenomenological study, I take a journey into the lived experiences of African American students reading Great Books literature. The research question that guides my study is “What are the lived experiences of African American students reading Great Books literature?” In order to unpack the enlightenment gained through this study on the students’ lived experiences, I call upon the phenomenological writings of Martin Heidegger, Hans George Gadamer, Max van Manen, Edward Casey, John O’ Donohue, and David Abram. African American educators and philosophers speak into the journey, such as Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. DuBois, Marva Collins, Anna Julia Cooper, Gloria Ladson-Billings, James Baldwin, and others. My research path follows the methodological guidance of Max van Manen. Years ago, I taught a Great Books literature class for 6 years at a small private school in Southern Maryland. Twenty-two African American students came through my class years ago and 5 of those students were able to participate in this study where I explore their lived experience reading Great Books literature. For this study, we all met around a table, just as we did years ago for the Great Books class that I taught. The five former students who participated in this study and I went away for a weekend retreat to engage in conversation about their lived experiences. Upon careful review of the transcripts from these conversations I identified themes that reflected their progression through the course. The themes are the following: The Flickering Light, When the Flame Catches, Being in the Light, and The Lived Experience Shining into the Present. These themes reveal how students started out struggling with embracing and internalizing the books, but then progressed to transformative insights they brought forth—even allowing the lived experience of reading the literature to affect their current lives as adults. As a culminating event, the participants created and performed a play, entitled “The Table,” which provided a visual representation of their lived experiences reading Great Books literature. They chose the title “The Table” because as we all reflected on the lived experience, they realized that my classes were only taught around a table and from the unity created around the discussions at the table, something happened to their inner selves. The play was performed at St. John’s College during President’s Day weekend and Frederick Douglass’ birthday. After the play, the former students responded to questions from the audience, expressing their journey into reading Great Books literature and also provided insight as to how teachers can help African American students engage in the literature. This was included as a part of my study as well, in order to bring to the light how the students’ present lives were affected by their lived experience reading Great Books literature. The insights gained from this study are a guiding light for me as I move forward as an educator of primarily African American students, especially in the area of literacy education (literary and cultural literacy). The school I opened is a way for me to put into practice the insights gained in this study. In addition, my interests in forming multi-age Great Books literature circles of all races, backgrounds, etc.; round table discussions with educators, parents, etc. on these matters; and teacher training sessions where these insights can be shared, have become more illuminated for me.Item ACADEMIC SPOKEN ENGLISH STRATEGY USE OF NON-NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKING GRADUATE STUDENTS(2011) Ma, Rui; Sullivan, Denis F; Oxford, Rebecca L; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Currently there is a lack of investigation into the language learning and language use strategies of non-native English speaking students at the graduate level. Existing literature of the strategy use of the "more successful" language learners are predominantly based on student data at the secondary school or college levels. This dissertation research project will use a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods ("mixed-methods" research) to examine academic English listening and speaking strategy use patterns of non-native English speaking (NNES) graduate students and also to investigate those students' relevant metacognitive thinking and its impact on their strategy use. First, this research project will investigate what kinds of strategies are being employed and how they are being employed to help those students achieve communicative competence in oral academic English. Descriptive statistics based on a large-scale database of questionnaire responses will be provided. Secondly, this project will investigate what factors have significant effects on the strategy use of this particular student group. Statistical tools such as the multiple regressions and path analysis are used to determine the effects of gender, academic fields, regions of origin, degree level, and other factors. Thirdly, this project examines students' metacognitive thinking and how it impacts their strategy use. The guiding theory related to this line of investigation is that students' metacognitive thinking is closely related to their strategy use patterns. Finally, this project also aims to validate a new assessment tool (a questionnaire) for investigating non-native graduate students' academic English listening and speaking strategy use. Results of the study are expected to eventually help build a descriptive model of listening and speaking strategy use of NNES graduate students and will inform learner-centered instructional design and curriculum development. The ultimate benefit will also be to help many NNES graduate students achieve at a much higher level in graduate school because of their improved English listening and speaking skills.Item The Effects of Metaphor and Blending Theory-Centered Instruction on Secondary English Students' Ability to Analyze Shakespearean Sonnets(2009) McHugh, Thomas Edward; Slater, Wayne H.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of metaphor and blending theory-centered instruction on Secondary English students' ability to comprehend and analyze Shakespearean sonnets. Students in three intact British Literature and Composition classes located in a high school in a suburban county received an Advanced Placement (AP) pretest poetry prompt. The treatment class received instruction in metaphor and blending theory applied to Shakespearean sonnets. The comparison groups received two variants of instruction in the language arts model, a standard and accepted curriculum focused on textual, thematic, and cultural contexts for the Shakespearean sonnets. After the three intact classes completed the instruction, students completed an AP poetry posttest. Results suggest that the inclusion of metaphor and theory-centered instruction may have positive effects on secondary students' abilities to understand complex figurative language, infer theme, and respond effectively to AP-style prompts. These results, however, will need to be validated by further research that allows for randomization and other sample treatments.Item Metaphor Instruction in One English Teacher's Classroom: His Understandings, Instructional Practices, and Attitudes(2008-07-02) Schugar, Jordan T.; Slater, Wayne H.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this case study, I describe one high quality English teacher's understandings, instructional practices, and attitudes towards explicit and direct metaphor instruction. In this study I focused on ecological validity because the participating English teacher, and his classroom, have been studied under real-world and authentic circumstances. The participating English teacher was selected based on a pre-existing set of established criteria. Specifically, the participating English teacher was state licensed in English teaching, has demonstrated a commitment to the field of English education through promotions and recommendations, and had a willingness and the time to allow his pedagogy, and those variables that influence his pedagogy to be studied. An independent school was selected as the site for this study because of the particular heavy emphasis on reading literature and for convenient research access. This research has the potential to make two important contributions to the research and theory of metaphor instruction. First, by studying a high quality English teacher's understandings, instructional practices, and attitudes I am able to describe some of those variables that have influenced the students' comprehension of literal and figurative language in this particularly rich literature environment such as learning critical reading skills. Second, using, applying, and understanding metaphors is more than just simply comparing two unlike things, and by contrasting current metaphor theory to the prevailing definitions English teachers have been using in their classrooms, I am able to make recommendations regarding needed research and practice in this important line of inquiry.Item The relationship between phonological awareness and reading ability of Thai students in English and Thai in primary schools of Thailand(2005-07-14) Wei, Youfu; Oxford, Rebecca L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Reading is the most fundamental skill in modern societies and acquiring the ability to read is one of the most important goals of the early school years. In addition, reading English as a foreign language is important not only for academic success but also for professional development. The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between phonological awareness and reading ability in English and Thai of primary school Thai students in their native country. Furthermore, I investigated whether there is any transfer of phonological awareness from Thai to English among primary school Thai students. Participants were 424 Thai primary school students in nine provinces in the Lower Northern part of Thailand. Measures administered in both English and in Thai included phonological awareness (subtests for Initial Sound Detection, Final Sound Detection, Rhyme Task and Phoneme Deletion) and reading ability (Real Word Reading and Pseudoword Reading). Measures in both English and Thai were administered to all 424 participants with all directions given in the Thai language, in January 2005. The results showed that all four English subtests predicted English Real Word Reading: English Final Sound Detection, English Rhyme Task, English Phoneme Deletion and English Initial Sound Detection. Three English subtests predicted English Pseudoword Reading: English Phoneme Deletion, English Rhyme Task and English Final Sound Detection. The results also showed that three Thai subtests predicted Thai Real Word Reading: Thai Final Sound Detection, Thai Phoneme Deletion and Thai Initial Sound Detection. Three Thai subtests predicted Thai Pseudoword Reading: Thai Phoneme Deletion, Thai Final Sound Detection and Thai Initial Sound Detection. The transfer test showed that three subtests of Thai phonological awareness predicted English Real Word Reading: Thai Rhyme Task, Thai Phoneme Deletion and Thai Initial Sound Detection. Two subtests of Thai phonological awareness predicted English Pseudoword Reading: Thai Phoneme Deletion and Thai Rhyme Task. The conclusions are that English phonological awareness is significantly related to English Reading and that Thai phonological awareness is significantly related to Thai Reading. Furthermore, there is strong evidence that there is a transfer of phonological awareness from Thai to English among Thai primary school students.