A Qualitative Examination of Korean ESL Students' Writing Development

Soo Eun Chae, Joshua Magda & Patricia A. Alexander

This study aims to investigate how Second Language (L2) college students develop their writing in a technical writing course. The theoretical model for interpreting that development is the Model of Domain Learning (Alexander, 1997). Using a qualitative case study method including interviews, observations, and focus groups, we examined five Korean students' experiences in a writing course for L2 students. The data collection was completed. An analysis and paper writing is in process.

Identifying the Play Interests of Young Children

Jan Jablonski & Patricia A. Alexander

Individual interests are a natural base on which to build other learning, and may be a base on which to predict certain academic skills. While other researchers have examined the interests of young children in particular domains (eg., cars, dinosaurs), this project examines preferred play activities which are not domain-specific. Four methods for identifying preferred play activities are being evaluated for a group of 38 four and five-year olds. The methods are direct observation during free play at school, and interviews of children, parents, and teachers. Results will be subjected to quantitative and qualitative analysis in order to evaluate the reliability of each method as a way to identify preferred play activities.

Visual cognition: Revealing art cognitive processes in elementary-and middle-school age students

Sandra M. Loughlin, Patricia A. Alexander, Daniel. L. Dismore, Claudine M. Costich

Philosophers and educational theorists have suggested that visual art experiences are cognitively demanding and rich in opportunities for thinking and learning. Cognitive processes associated with viewing and interacting with visual art may include reasoning, making connections to background knowledge, questioning, and elaborating. Despite the apparent potential of art to foster and impact educationally-relevant cognitive processes, there is little evidence in the educational psychology literature to support these assumptions. This research attempts to uncover the underlying cognitive processes used by elementary- and middle-school age students during observation and interpretation of two fine art paintings through think aloud protocol.

Liliana Maggioni

This study focuses on the relation between teachers’ epistemic stances and students’ epistemic cognition in high-school history classrooms. In particular, it explores whether and how teachers’ pedagogical moves may influence students’ conceptions about the nature of history and the warrants of historical claims. In so doing, the study considers the influence of teachers’ goals and interest on their pedagogical choices and the relation between teachers’ epistemic stances and their goals. In addition, the study investigates students’ attitudes and responses to teachers’ interventions that may, in turn, affect teachers’ epistemic stances or influence the effectiveness of teachers’ pedagogical moves. Three history teachers and their students will participate in the study. The methodology of the research project is mainly qualitative, with data collected throughout one semester. A plurality of measures, including quantitative ones, is used to aid in comparisons across case studies and to corroborate data obtained through observations and interviews. Increased awareness of the processes that foster or hinder epistemic development in general and historical thinking in particular may help making informed pedagogical choices in the history classrooms, in teacher education and professional development programs, and in curriculum development.

Peer Collaboration In The Science Classroom: The Role Of Questions And Regulatory Processes In Conceptual-Knowledge Learning

Patricia Alexander & Fielding Winters

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role conceptual questions and regulatory processes play in students’ conceptual-knowledge learning as they use a computer-based multimedia learning environment to learn about the circulatory system. We employ quanitative and qualitative data analyses in this study, in an effort to determine the effects of questioning and collaboration on learning processes as well as products.