(2017). Welcoming Linguistic Diversity and Saying Adios to Remediation: Stretch and Studio Composition at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Composition Forum. In this program profile, we describe the stretch/studio program recently implemented at the University of New Mexico. This program responds both to an institutional move away from remediation and to the large number of linguistically and racially diverse students at our institution. In this profile, we describe the new program's curriculum, which focuses on and values the linguistic and cultural diversity of our students. We also share the initial results of our assessment of the program and our plans for the future. We offer this profile as a successful model for adaptation by other writing programs that are also implementing stretch/studio courses and/or that have a growing number of linguistically and culturally diverse students on their campus. [More] Descriptors: Hispanic American Students, Institutional Characteristics, Profiles, Remedial Instruction
(2017). The Mechanical Waves Conceptual Survey: An Analysis of University Students' Performance, and Recommendations for Instruction, EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science & Technology Education. The Mechanical Waves Conceptual Survey (MWCS), presented in 2009, is the most important test to date that has been designed to evaluate university students' understanding of four main topics: propagation, superposition, reflection, and standing waves. In a literature review, we detected a significant need for a study that uses this test as an assessment tool and presents a complete analysis of students' difficulties on the test. This article addresses this need. We administered the MWCS at a private university in Mexico to 541 students. In this article, we present a complete description of these students' performance on the test, a description of their main difficulties, an elaboration of these main difficulties in terms of students' inappropriate conceptions, and recommendations for instruction based on the results obtained by the test. Our analyses may be used by instructors and researchers who intend to use the MWCS or create new instructional material. [More] Descriptors: College Students, Scientific Concepts, Science Tests, Foreign Countries
(2017). Characteristics and Pedagogical Behaviours of Good EFL Instructors: The Views of Selected Southeast Asian and Mexican SLTE Students, RELC Journal: A Journal of Language Teaching and Research. This article reports on the views of selected Southeast Asian and Mexican second language teacher education students regarding the characteristics and pedagogical behaviours of good EFL instructors. A total of 116 participants from Mexico, Brunei, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, and Vietnam took part in the current investigation. These countries have all been characterized as pedagogically conservative and slow to adopt educational innovations. Data was gathered using the repertory grid technique and was subjected to content, cluster, and principal component analyses. Results foregrounded the importance placed on teachers' positive personality traits. Most significantly, findings indicated a preference for modern teaching approaches among the research participants, despite the pedagogic conservatism of their home countries. [More] Descriptors: Teacher Characteristics, Teaching Methods, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction
(2017). "We Don't Talk about Undocumented StatusÉ We Talk about Helping Children": How School Leaders Shape School Climate for Undocumented Immigrants, International Journal of Educational Leadership and Management. The racial/ethnic tensions, policies, and practices in society can be mirrored in spaces and institutions like schools. In schools, sociopolitical discourses can be reproduced and protected in institutional policies. One way K-12 leaders can initiate change and limit marginalization of students is by creating a school environment that accepts and integrates students regardless of legal status. This study investigates how K-12 school leaders influence the school climate to enhance receptiveness for undocumented students and the children of undocumented immigrants. Study findings come from a Conversation/Talk Analyis (CTA) of nine school leaders in K-12 schools in two urban districts in Texas along the U.S.-Mexico border. Findings demonstrate that leaders acted to increase students' performance, sense of belonging at school, and their integration and participation in school as paths to producing a welcoming school climate. Leaders' talk revealed they used practices and strategies to reduce barriers between home and schooling cultures. [More] Descriptors: Undocumented Immigrants, Educational Environment, Elementary Secondary Education, Urban Schools
(2017). Data-Mining Techniques in Detecting Factors Linked to Academic Achievement, School Effectiveness and School Improvement. In light of the emergence of statistical analysis techniques based on data mining in education sciences, and the potential they offer to detect non-trivial information in large databases, this paper presents a procedure used to detect factors linked to academic achievement in large-scale assessments. The study is based on a non-experimental, cross-sectional design and a sample of 18,935 high school students from 99 educational institutions in Baja California state (Mexico). The information was collected from ENLACE tests and context surveys given to students in Baja California. Decision trees were used to apply classification techniques, and the results indicate that personal factors are most indicative of academic performance, followed by school-related and social factors. In conclusion, the paper discusses the similarities between the results obtained and those shown in literature, highlighting how simple decision trees allow a greater explanation and interpretation than other models and techniques. [More] Descriptors: Foreign Countries, Data Collection, Statistical Analysis, Evaluation Methods
(2017). Translanguaging in Bilingual Teacher Preparation: Exploring Pre-Service Bilingual Teachers' Academic Writing, Bilingual Research Journal. Translanguaging, or the complex, dynamic, and integrated linguistic practices of bilinguals have been recently identified as a pedagogical strategy to facilitate learning in bilingual classrooms. Given its potential implications for teacher preparation, a qualitative case study was conducted at a university on the Texas-Mexico border to explore translanguaging practices of pre-service bilingual teachers in academic writing. Findings showed that Latina pre-service bilingual teachers creatively leveraged their Spanish and English linguistic repertoire to produce meaningful Spanish writing. Moreover, pre-service teachers created translanguaging spaces through writing in multiple ways, showing the potential of translanguaging as a practice in action and a pedagogical tool to defy the monolingual tradition prevailing in bilingual teacher preparation. [More] Descriptors: Bilingual Teachers, Bilingual Education, Teacher Education, Academic Discourse
(2017). Promoting Emotional Well-Being While Learning through Online Mentoring in a Hispanic Female Pre-Service Teacher Population, Education. Subjects were undergraduate online learners (Hispanic females) who responded to and requested to participate in mentoring at the University of Texas at El Paso, a border university located within two blocks of Mexico. Many requests for help came from the pre-service teachers who lacked confidence, were fearful, feeling isolated and stressed taking online classes. This led investigators to look at emotional well-being in addition to further uses of mentoring. The purpose of this final study was to examine emotional well-being and academic mentoring as well as perceptions about mentoring influencing ninety-three Hispanic females. Chi Square statistics indicated some significant associations between or among certain categories worth noting when teaching this population. [More] Descriptors: Online Courses, Undergraduate Students, Females, Hispanic American Students
(2017). The Development of Preschoolers' Living Kinds Concept: A Longitudinal Study, Child Development. Given limitations in the integrative scope of past research, basic questions about the organization and development of preschoolers' living kinds concept remain open to debate. This study was designed to address past limitations through use of a longitudinal design, extensive stimulus set, and alternate indices of understanding. Thirty-five English-speaking 3-year-olds from middle-class families in Albuquerque, New Mexico participated in four testing sessions over 1¬ year. Indices of understanding included statements that preschoolers generated about various living and nonliving objects, biological properties they attributed to the objects, and their characterization of objects as "alive" or not. Results reveal a multifaceted picture of developmental change in preschoolers' living kinds concept involving both the construction and elaboration of a core biological understanding. [More] Descriptors: Longitudinal Studies, Preschool Children, Biology, Developmental Stages
(2017). Down by the Bay, Science and Children. The Pelican's Nest, located near Mobile Bay in the Gulf of Mexico, is a science center supported by a local educational foundation. Programs are geared toward marine wildlife and the coastal habitat with an emphasis on hands-on learning for students in grades K-6. The director of the science center conducts daily classroom labs and discovery trips to the bay with students from the surrounding area. This article describes an indoor/outdoor experience entitled "Down by the Bay." Second-grade students explored water salinity and various species of marine organisms that exist in the local ecosystems. Through experiences such as this in their community and at school, students gain a deeper understanding of Mobile Bay, its wildlife, and their impact on the environment. [More] Descriptors: Science Course Improvement Projects, Science Activities, Marine Biology, Marine Education
(2017). Print Knowledge in Yucatec Maya-Spanish Bilingual Children: An Initial Inquiry, International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. This study serves as an initial inquiry regarding the early print knowledge of emergent bilingual preschool-age children living in an Indigenous community in Mexico. In this research, we examine various dimensions of print knowledge with Yucatec Maya-Spanish bilingual children for whom one of their languages (Yucatec Maya) is seldom seen in print forms in mainstream classrooms and curricula. A total of 84 emergent bilingual children were assessed in their Yucatec Maya and Spanish on measures of alphabet knowledge (i.e. letter names and sounds), name writing, and concepts of print. Results were analyzed and compared between languages, showing that the children demonstrated modest levels of print knowledge on all measures. Whereas the emergent bilingual children in this study performed significantly better in Spanish than Yucatec Maya on all indices of print knowledge, this investigation provides insights into how these children may concurrently develop print-related skills in interrelated ways across languages. Implications of these findings are outlined. [More] Descriptors: Prior Learning, American Indian Languages, Spanish, Bilingualism
(2017). Latino Immigrant Parents' Financial Stress, Depression, and Academic Involvement Predicting Child Academic Success, Psychology in the Schools. The current study examines Mexican-heritage immigrant parents' financial stress, English language fluency, and depressive symptoms as risk factors for parental academic involvement and child academic outcomes. Participants were 68 Latino immigrant (from Mexico) third and fourth graders and their parents. Results from a structural equation model analysis indicated that Latino parents who reported greater financial stress also reported higher levels of depressive symptoms; this, in turn, was related to lower parent-reported levels of engagement in the monitoring and transmission of implicit and explicit valuing of academics. Parental monitoring of academics was positively associated with children's success in mathematics and transmission of implicit and explicit valuing of academics was positively associated with children's success in language arts. The current study extends support for the Family Economic Stress Model by demonstrating connections between parental stress, emotional well-being, and child academic outcomes, through parental involvement in children's academics in a Latino-heritage sample. [More] Descriptors: Mexican Americans, Immigrants, Stress Variables, Well Being
(2017). Teaching Practices, School Support and Bullying, World Journal of Education. Research in recent years indicates that schools, and in particular teaching practices, play an essential role in preventing bullying. This study's aim is to investigate the direct and indirect relationships between permissive and direct intervention teacher practices, school support and bullying. In a non-probabilistic way, 386 (58.1%) boys and 278 (41.9%) girls from 30 primary schools were selected in a city in the northwest of Mexico. The average age of students was 10.4 years (SD = 1.3 years). From the results of the calculation of a model of structural equations, it is inferred that permissive teaching practices are directly related positively to bullying, whereas direct intervention does it in a negatively. It is seen that both types of practices are indirectly related to bullying through its effects on school support. These findings confirm the role of the teacher in the prevention of bullying. [More] Descriptors: Educational Practices, Bullying, Intervention, Teacher Role
(2017). Adult Education and the Health Literacy of Hispanic Immigrants in the United States, Journal of Latinos and Education. Discussion on the advantages of integrating health literacy into adult education has primarily been theoretical and conceptual. There is a need for studies that assess the impact of adult education on health literacy. This study implemented a quasi-experimental design to explore whether basic adult instruction may constitute a venue for improving health literacy among Spanish-speaking immigrants. Participants included adults in a High School Equivalency program in a US-Mexico border community who received either a standard GED curriculum or a GED curriculum enhanced with health literacy content. The Short Spanish TOFHLA was used to measure health literacy. While S-TOFHLA scores and health literacy levels improved in all participants, no statistically significant differences were observed across groups. Results are consistent with recommendations supporting adult education as a strategy for improving health literacy. [More] Descriptors: Adult Education, Health, Hispanic Americans, Health Education
(2017). Stretch and Studio Composition Practicum: Creating a Culture of Support and Success for Developing Writers at a Hispanic-Serving Institution, Composition Studies. This course design describes a 3-credit, two-week intensive Stretch and Studio Practicum course at the University of New Mexico (UNM). Because the Stretch and Studio composition curriculum is designed to help students who may be at greater risk of not succeeding, instructors are required to complete the practicum before teaching in the program. The learning outcomes for the practicum ask instructors to (1) become familiar with the theory and pedagogy of basic writing, multilingual writers, metacognition, and reading instruction; (2) develop best practices in writing instruction for students who traditionally have been marginalized in higher education; (3) recognize students' existing skills and literacies as resources and strengths that can be built upon; and (4) develop activities and assignments to help Stretch and Studio students progress toward and reflect on the learning outcomes for first-year composition (fyc). [More] Descriptors: Practicums, Success, Hispanic American Students, Writing (Composition)
(2017). The Role of Bilingualism in Shaping Engineering Literacies and Identities, Theory Into Practice. In this article, we demonstrate ways in which teachers, working within the context of rapidly changing demographics in our country, can create inclusive classroom environments that promote the development of engineering literacies and identities, particularly among bilingual students. We draw on our experience working with two projects funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Minority Science and Engineering Improvement Program (MSEIP) at a large public university on the U.S.-Mexico border to show how educators can create educational spaces that encourage bilingual students to use their full communicative repertoires in developing engineering discourses and identities. In so doing, we highlight the relationship between bilingualism and disciplinary literacy development; describe how hybrid language practices such as translanguaging can contribute to engineering learning; and highlight the role of identities in disciplinary discourses. The practices illustrated in this article have implications not only for college instructors, but also for teachers at the secondary level. [More] Descriptors: Bilingualism, Self Concept, Code Switching (Language), Role