Matching Items (4)
Filtering by
- Creators: School of International Letters and Cultures
- Creators: Almatard, Abdulmajeed Mohammed
- Creators: Armfield, Jessica Ann
- Status: Published
Description
There is a serious need for early childhood intervention practices for children who are living at or below the poverty line. Since 1965 Head Start has provided a federally funded, free preschool program for children in this population. The City of Phoenix Head Start program consists of nine delegate agencies, seven of which reside in school districts. These agencies are currently not conducting local longitudinal evaluations of their preschool graduates. The purpose of this study was to recommend initial steps the City of Phoenix grantee and the delegate agencies can take to begin a longitudinal evaluation process of their Head Start programs. Seven City of Phoenix Head Start agency directors were interviewed. These interviews provided information about the attitudes of the directors when considering longitudinal evaluations and how Head Start already evaluates their programs through internal assessments. The researcher also took notes on the Third Grade Follow-Up to the Head Start Executive Summary in order to make recommendations to the City of Phoenix Head Start programs about the best practices for longitudinal student evaluations.
ContributorsArmfield, Jessica Ann (Author) / Duggan, Mary Anne (Thesis director) / Dumka, Larry (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate a tool used for assessing games for design features that teach players a basic understanding of systems. In order to prepare for my evaluation of both the games and the rubric, I researched multiple articles about the effectiveness of games in teaching, the concepts of systems thinking, and the importance of systems thinking. I evaluated five different games, following the rubric for whether the five games met the specific criteria laid out in each section and suggested improvements for how the games can meet any criteria that they fell short in. I then evaluated the rubric itself for ease of use, clarity, and effectiveness and suggested improvements on how to make the tool more clear and understandable. I conclude that the tool is indeed useful and does achieve its purpose of helping game designers and developers understand the criteria needed to teach a basic understanding of systems, but the rubric could be improved in order to make it more useable.
ContributorsMorrow, Rachel Elizabeth Kaye (Author) / Hayes, Elisabeth (Thesis director) / Gee, James (Committee member) / Siyahhan, Sinem (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of English (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2013-12
Description
A research project turned creative project focusing on the narrative of the student's perspective in the Next Generation Service Corps scholarship program. Using survey results from the program members, narratives of their experiences were compiled to offer insight and direction for the growth of the program.<br/><br/>A video of the defense can be found at this link: https://youtu.be/O63NRz0z1Ys
ContributorsJanezic, John Henry (Author) / Hunt, Brett (Thesis director) / Smith, Jacqueline (Committee member) / College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
Description
Language Textbooks often play a major role in English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) classrooms, not only to provide information but also to help students construct their identities. Several studies showed that identity and language learning are inseparable, due to the simple fact that every learner has his/her own identity aspects like race, gender, social class, and speaker status (i.e., native speaker vs. non-native speaker of the target language). These aspects should be acknowledged because providing the students with limited identity options might cause the students to resist learning the language or be less invested in this practice (Norton & Toohey,2011).
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
However, there is limited support for teachers who wish to examine identity in ESOL textbooks. Several scholars attempted to evaluate the range of identity options offered in ESOL textbooks, but they all used either Critical Discourse Analysis or Content Analysis which can be effective; however, these procedures require training and can take a long time, so they may not be practical for teachers. This suggests that there is a need for a less complicated evaluation tool that can be easily used by teachers.
The purpose of this thesis is to develop a teacher-friendly identity-focused checklist for ESOL textbooks, and the thesis is guided by the following questions: (a) what would an evaluation checklist for identity in ESOL textbooks look like?; (b) what can this checklist reveal about ESOL textbooks? The purpose of this thesis was achieved by developing a qualitative checklist that covers, race, gender, social class, and speaker status, and demonstrating how to use it on a collection of five adult ESOL textbooks. The checklist revealed similarities and differences between the textbooks, including important shortcomings, and that kind of information can be useful for the teacher to make decisions about the textbook he/she uses.
ContributorsAlmatard, Abdulmajeed Mohammed (Author) / James, Mark (Thesis advisor) / Matsuda, Aya (Committee member) / Prior, Matthew (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019