Announcements & Reminders

Thank you  Tom. We have learned a lot from you.

Happy holidays

Rachida

Hello class! My grades are due today, but I have not yet finished with written feedback on your final projects. Let me assure you that I have read your final projects (or heard them), and I am most impressed! You deserve careful, constructive feedback, which simply takes time. Thus, I will send feedback to you via your email address. I should have this ready before the end of the week.

Thank you all for a truly wonderful class (from my perspective). You are each fascinating people, and you have a lot of potential as researchers within your chosen areas. Happy holidays!

Tom

Hi, All, 

I posted the class photos.

Please go to Fall 2011 Class Photos 

Have a wonderful winter break.

Rachida, Weiwei, Po 

Finals week

Please post your final projects in our wiki. Go to the Final Projects page and upload the file

November 14 - December 5

• Please remember that we will meet again on December 5. We will not have class on the 21st (Thanksgiving) or the 28th (TPA training for faculty).

• In our next class we will hear from Mohamed. Recall that the article that he chose for us is Egbert (2003).

• We will have time in class to work on our final projects.

November 7 - November 14

• We will hear from Amal, Wei Wei and Suda in class next Monday. The first article is by Walker (2010), and the second article is by Ting and Qian (2010). They have created a reading guide for you as well.

• In class on Monday, we talked about the final project. You have the option of either doing written work or a presentation. Please see the syllabus for details on the final project. In our next class, I'd like to know which format you prefer so that I can plan our final classes accordingly.

• You will find many examples of previous students' final projects in the Summer 2010 folder and the Spring 2011 folder. I hope that the models are helpful to you as you plan out your own work. 

• We will have a class visitor on Monday. Connie Beecher will talk to us briefly about her PhD research, which she successfully defended this past summer.

October 31 - November 7

• This is the Magazine article (about using iPad in classrooms) I mentioned in my presentation today. Enjoy it! Thank you.

• Po and Mohamed will facilitate our class on Theoretical Frameworks this Monday. The first article is by Egbert (2003) related to Flow Theory. The second article by Kenney is related to technology and language learning. Please click here to see the reading guide for this article.

• Nov. 3 updated by Po: Here is  the latest reading guide for Lauren Kenney's research article. Thank you.

October 24 - October 31

• We will begin class on Monday with Abdul's facilitation of the article on Special Education in Saudi Arabia. 

• Please read the chapter on Theoretical Frameworks for Monday's class. I will facilitate the discussion. In preparation for class, please look carefully at Figure 5.1. I will model my thinking in this figure. Be prepared to work with this figure for your own research :-)

October 17-24

• Here are two articles for the next facilitation of "theory". The first article is "Teaching the Immigrant Child: Application of Child Development Theories" by Onchwari and Keengwe, and the second article is "Special Education in Saudi Arabia: Challenges, Perspectives, Future Possibilities" by Alquraini.
• Please keep in mind the reading guide during reading the articles.
• Thanks to our facilitating group for posting the articles and reading guide. I have a few suggestions for modifying the reading guide a little bit:
• Which theories are you already familiar with? Which are new? Are you familiar with research using any of these theories?
• Can you identify paradigms that these theories fit within?
• Try to evaluate the theories based on our class definition. Specifically, identify how the theory presents the following: 
• Reasonable explanation
• Systematic explanation
• Investigable explanation
• Modifiable explanation
• Observable facts and phenomena
• Ways to predict outcomes based on the theory
•  Rate each category on a scale of 1-3 (with 3 being the highest).
• 1=does not fit the definition at all
• 2=fits the definition somewhat but questionable
• 3=clearly fits the definition  
•  Based on your experience in teaching and research, along with your evaluation of the theory, how strongly do you agree with this theory (not at all, somewhat, agree, strongly agree)? 

October 10-17

• I'm a bit behind this week in updating our wiki. Sorry about that. I will cover the class tomorrow on Theory. Be thinking about the theories that you know related to your area of research.

October 3-10

• Next week on October 10 we will hear from Rachida and Yu Wen. They have posted two articles for us to read. The first is by Nelson (2011) and the second by Yang, Miller and Bai (2011). Look for their reading guide this week Reading guide.docx .
• PPT for the facilitation of chapter three: Paradigm.pptxyoutube.docx    
• Dana provided us with a very good summary of epistemologies. I have scanned it to the Additional Resources Folder
• Thanks to the groups for sharing with us your Venn Diagrams on Paradigms. I have scanned these to the Additional Resources Folder. 
• Abed sent me the following link to a Summit on Global Education in Washington State. 
• I have posted the PowerPoint presentation on Paradigms in the PowerPoint folder.
• Remember to consider the major paradigms in your specific areas of research. We will come back to these next week. 

September 26

• Our first facilitation will be with Ying and Dana. Congratulations to them both for uploading the files and linking them :-) Simply click on their names to find the two articles to read before class on Monday. Link of reading guide:Dana&Ying's Reading Guide.docx

•  I have uploaded three supplemental readings on epistemology. The chapter by Crotty is a more detailed presentation of Constructionism. The chapter by Higgs & Trede develops some common epistemologies. The Bowden & Green chapter explores the myth of objectivism.

September 19

• Tom will lead class today in our discussion of Epistemology

• You will find PowerPoint presentations from last week's class and this week's class in the PowerPoint Presentations Folder.

• Next Monday, September 26, is our first facilitation.

• In class today we will confirm the facilitating groups and dates.

August 29 & September 5

• Remember that there is no class on September 5 because of the Labor Day holiday

• By September 12, please have read the two articles that I uploaded. First read Boyd & Goldberg (2009). Then read Wulff, et al. (2009). Use the reading guide that I have developed to help focus your reading.

• I will post electronic class materials in the PowerPoint Presentations Folder. You will find the presentation from Monday's (Aug 29) class in there.

August 21

• Please click here to download the Egbert and Sanden (in press) text. You can also find the file under Pages & Files > Egbert & Sanden (in press).

• You will find the Fall 2011 Syllabus for our course by following the link. 

• We will work from the folder titled Fall 2011. There are folders for 2009, 2010 and Spring 2011. Here you will find student work and student posts from previous versions of this course.

• Please find the folder for student-assigned readings. There is a sub-folder to post reading guide questions.

• Also find the folder for teacher-assigned readings and a folder for other documents such as the syllabus, rubrics, etc.

• Click here to let us know if you cannot come to class or if you are going to be late.  

• Please find a partner with whom to choose readings (student-assigned readings) and facilitate a class. I will enter this information on the Facilitation Schedule.

• Get access to the wiki and explore!

• By September 12, please have read the two articles that I uploaded. First read Boyd & Goldberg (2009). Then read Wulff, et al. (2009). Use the reading guide that I have developed to help focus your reading.

• There is a vocabulary page for you to enter words and concepts from the readings that you do not understand.

• There is a Discussions page for us to continue our class discussions.

• There is a Student Contacts page for you to include your name, telephone number and email address.