Acquiring Excellence in Learning

Toastmaster Ramblings

2009-06-18T15:32:00.000-07:00

I joined toastmasters approximately five months ago, not really because I needed assistance with public speaking, but because I wanted to branch out and meet new people, and I wanted to relearn organizing my thoughts. So far, it has been very beneficial. I have met some wonderful people from all walks of life, and probably the most important thing is that it has encouraged me to wake up earlier on Thursdays!

This morning, however, there were only three of us, and instead of conducting a regular meeting, we got into a discussion on education and financial aid -- two of my specialties! Perhaps the one thing that struck me as the most important topic of discussion was education's financial support.

Now it isn't news to me that communities are often asked to vote to support or reject an educational levy, but one thing I hadn't stopped consider is that people's vote on any referendum is subjective. I know for me, I don't often vote for transportation levies simply because the majority of them don't serve my neighborhood. If it doesn't benefit me, why vote for it? But do people actually do the same thing when it comes to education? The common sense answer is yes. Unless you have a vested interest in the public education system (i.e., you have a child or grandchild in school, or like me you are an educator, educational administrator, or educational researcher), why would you vote to pay more of your money for education?

The more I thought about that idea, the more I considered the fact that some schools are very well financed whereas others are not. Sometimes it is because the community cannot financially support its school system. But sometimes it's because the community is not interested. In this discussion was one lady who was born and raised in Germany. She explained to us that the government and not the individuals controls the education. There are no referendums to vote for, no levies to support or reject. As far as teachers' pay and students' supplies are concerned, there is never a real need or complaints over the differences between schools.

It makes me wonder if we wouldn't be better served with such a standardized system of education. Now, I know "No Child Left Behind" has been a dismal failure, and I'm not suggesting it be revisited or that it be my definition of a standardized system of education. You cannot require schools to meet the same specific standards and then not provide them similar means of reaching those standards. But, what if all schools were provided the same amount of resources? I know there will be those who will argue with me about the amount of taxes we may have to pay nationwide for such an endeavor, but let me also present this argument:

Educational researchers are constantly faced with debates and rebuttals about their research. What works for one school doesn't work for another. Subjectivity is one bias that plagues all researchers; however, how can one educational researcher be expected to generalize his research to other educational environments when other educational institutions are not on an even plain? To provide one example, what if bilingual education succeeds in one school and not another because of variances in teacher pay, student supplies, and the amount of financial support given to one school and not another? Demographics vary by location, indeed, but resources ought not.

Just food for thought.

Let's Get This

2009-06-01T14:42:00.000-07:00

Those closest to me know that I am a devoted supporter of the New Kids on the Block. If I have an opportunity to bring my favorite band and education together, I will definitely share that here with you at Acquiring Excellence. Thanks to Joe McIntyre, I have that chance.

In May 2009, Joey McIntyre started his "Let's Get This" Foundation, started principally for people coming together to learn how, in even the smallest ways, we can make the world a better place.

The first goal of this foundation is literacy, and in meeting that goal, the Let's Get This foundation has partnered with First Book and New Kids on the Block fans to organize a book drive. In one of Joey McIntyre's blogs about this endeavor, he explains, "There is an enormous lack of age appropriate reading material for the kids". I completely agree that early reading is so incredibly crucial.

As a New Kids on the Block fan, I intend to set up a collection spot for brand new childrens' books at my local library, Key Center Library during the next two weeks, but for those readers who are not local to me, I would encourage you to make a donation of $5 or more at Let's Get This' First Book site. You can make a donation with a credit card or paypal, and for each $2 you donate, one brand new children's book is purchased.

Even if you are not able to support First Book, I would encourage you to seek out your local library and ask how you can best support early literacy!

Thank you!

Gaining Confidence

2009-02-22T23:01:00.001-08:00

I have completed reading the problem statement and the literature review of the dissertation listed below. I attempted to find an email address of the author, but so far I haven't been able to find any contact information. In my defense, the dissertation was written in 2002, and here we are 7 years later. I can't be sure if she is still in Florida or has moved somewhere else. A search for the author's name and "school psychologist" resulted in quite a few school psychologists with her name. So, at this point I'm going to consider this author as someone I won't be able to contact.

My concerns are again that she only included fifth graders in a study of English and Math while she indicates that math becomes a lower interest subject in later grades. She could have said more about the Flow theory. She does touch on engagement and even lists Csikszentmihalyi as a reference, but I think more could be said, and it might even redirect the focus of my dissertation.

I have researched the Peninsula School District for all elementary and middle school students. What is troublesome is I have population data accurate for February 2009; however, the demographic data is only accurate up to 2005. In 2005, it appears that there were more students enrolled, and obviously ethnicity can change in a span of four years. For now, I can only consider what I guess could be said the average ethnicity percentages of the students I want to study.

I'm also concerned about my sample size. The dissertation I'm reading only sampled 150 students. I'm looking at over 2000 fifth, sixth, and seventh graders in this school district. Based on a sample size calculator, it appears I should sample 241 fifth graders, 252 sixth graders, and 248 seventh graders for a total of 741 students. That's a lot of data and considerably more than this original dissertation upon which I would like to base my study. Of course, these numbers are based on a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of +/- 5. I'm not clear on the confidence interval, so I may have selected too low of an interval.

I have requested articles and books on the Flow Theory, and I have saved other articles based on motivation and elementary school students. It is my hope that I will have my MRF completed soon.

Thinking Out Loud

2009-02-19T19:52:00.000-08:00

I've decided to take on this "muddling through the dissertation" phase in chunks. It is just too overwhelming if I don't. In recent weeks I was pondering doing either a dissertation on trauma and learning theories or one on learning strategies and motivation. I'm leaning more toward the second idea incorporating the theories of Flow and Achievement Goal. I did post on my classroom's site my interest in this second idea and that I'm moving slower than I first intended.

I'm a third of the way through the dissertation which first sparked my interest:
Watson, M. L. (2002). Role of social academic goals in relationships among fifth-graders' interest, achievement goals, and academic outcomes. Dissertation Abstracts International, 63(6), 2138. (UMI No. 3056794)

Her study involves only 5th grade students as she explains that 5th graders are reliable participants based on past research, it is the first time that students' interest in reading begins to diminish, and adaptive learning strategies become more apparent. However, she also mentions further in her problem statement and literature review that while interest in reading diminishes in 4th and 5th grade, interest in math doesn't show a decrease until the 6th and 7th grades. I intend to ask this author why she didn't include 6th, and 7th graders, but in the meantime, I'm considering my own study to include 5th through 7th graders.

So far, after reading a third of this dissertation, I have written down a few articles to look up (Wentzel, 1998, Wigfield 1997, Alexander 1997, Scheifele & Csikszentmihalyi, 1994, Pintrich & De Groot, 1990, Scheifele, 1991, Scheifele & Csikszentmihalyi, 1995, and Midgley, 1993). I have also found information on the populations of area schools and whether they are considered urban or rural schools. In total, there are eleven elementary and middle schools in the area which comprise of 2129 5th, 6th, and 7th graders. Urban schools comprise of 1141 of these students while the rural schools comprise of 988 of the total. 2000 is a lot of students. Even if I were to get 50% of the population, I would still be looking at 1000. I think I need to investigate further the average response for these studies and whether 1000 students are too many for my dissertation study.

My next step is to find these articles and to request a couple of books by Csikszentmihalyi on the Flow theory. It is my belief that when I better understand the Flow Theory and the Achievement Goal Theory I will be prepared to begin my MRF.

Sigh...

2009-02-10T17:36:00.001-08:00

I suppose it is a good thing that I never truly completed my methodology review form. After posting on my class's page about the idea below, I found a dissertation that I really love. Of course I haven't read through the whole thing yet. One thing I learned at my last colloquium is to read the abstract, and if you like it, read the implications for further research. I've read both, and I'm very interested. I should also mention that the author of the dissertation was also in an educational psychology program, which means I can be assured that any ideas I glean from her study would probably be approved by my department.

What I like most about her study is that it keeps with my interest of learning strategies. My only considerations would be the age group and my measure. For the dissertation I'm reading, the author used a standardized test, and there I am at a loss. I did look at the Washington superintendent of school's website and read about his changes to the standardized testing in Washington. It appears that this will be the last year the WASL is used, and it will only be for this spring. Obviously, I have no hope of being prepared to conduct a study that soon, and even if I did, the test is only being offered once. The new test will be offered in the spring of 2010. I could potentially use the new test that is being offered to either 3rd through 8th graders or the high school proficiency test offered to high school seniors.

The dissertation that I found was conducted with urban fifth graders. I know for a fact that my students would be rural, so that in itself could be interesting for comparison. Her study was also done in Florida, so opposing sides of the country could also prove interesting.

I would just really need to clarify my measure. The author speaks in her dissertation that for most researchers looking at learning strategies, they use GPA, so there's always that. For right now, I really just need to read through her 100+ pages to see exactly what she did. Then I think I will ask around to figure out what age group I should use, and if her implications for future study are feasible and beneficial for my purposes.

I might have found a new dissertation idea

2009-02-06T15:28:00.000-08:00

Now I follow blogs everywhere, but most of my friends are either on blogger or live journal. I had joined live journal after a conversation with a friend a few years back, but it's mostly foolishness for a better word of what I type over there. At any rate, in all my foolishness, I joined groups related to educational psychology among others and somehow ended up communicating with another woman who was also studying at Capella. We finally met in person at my track three colloquium in Chicago in 2008. While she isn't specializing in educational psychology, she still seems pretty connected to all fields in psychology. She recently finished all of her coursework and will be starting her comprehensive exams, so I've been able to provide her feedback on my experiences.

We hadn't spoken in a while. In fact, it had almost been a year since either she or I blogged on livejournal. But about two weeks ago, I saw a blog from her commiserating on her job search. We got back in touch, and I told her about my tribulations over the past six or so months, including my recent lack of a dissertation idea.

And, she gave me a fabulous one to pursue. I suppose I should say I'm glad we're not in the same specialization. We can offer advice to one another without fear that one might steal the other's idea!

At any rate, her idea was to do a study on high school students who are currently enrolled in self-directed transformative education. How do their perceptions and maybe actions change due to a trauma that occurs in their life? Now, there would be a lot of work involved with this topic. I have contacted two virtual academies approved to offer public education in Washington state. But the more I think about it, my study could encompass any state that allows for public virtual education. I would simply need to mail them information, and it may take a bit longer to do my study, but it would give me a greater pool of participants and perhaps be more interesting to see how students in different environments react.

Right now, though, I need to do some research on why a student would pursue self-directed education in the first place. Both schools that I contacted offer this self-directed education to students as young as five years old. Certainly, they are not the ones who make the choice. It could mean, then, that some students who are currently enrolled in these high schools have been conditioned from an early age to embrace virtual education. I would need to find out how long virtual education has been sanctioned in a particular state.

I will update soon.

It's been a while

2009-02-01T00:55:00.000-08:00

I apologize for not posting in such a long time. I did pass my comprehensive exams on the first try, but I had a series of health and other setbacks which prevented me from getting very far on my dissertation.

At the present, I have no dissertation idea. I haven't heard from Shelly since early November, and due to some circumstances beyond my control, I have reason to believe she will no longer be assisting me with my dissertation. In addition, the WASL will no longer be offered in Washington thanks to the election of a new superintendent of schools who was elected last November. So, my wonderful idea of looking at learning strategy awareness and standardized testing seems to have been blown out of the water.

I am currently looking at Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's theory of Flow and the Goal Achievement Theory as possibilities to guide me toward a new dissertation topic.

Wish me luck!

I'm published! Really!

2008-04-25T09:14:00.000-07:00

They finally published the spring edition of the Western Association of Financial Aid Administrators' newsletter online, and I'm on page 9!

Take a gander -- WASFAA Newsletter.

Oh, but keep in mind, they did their own editing to the piece, so while I tried to keep with APA, they decided that their own formating was better.

The Measure

2008-04-04T09:09:00.001-07:00

I'm almost to my comprehensive exams. The "class" starts on Monday, and as everyone has told me I need to put dissertation talk out of sight/out of mind until I finish those. But, before I do, I wanted to make one last comment on my thoughts around my latest dissertation idea.

I think learning strategy awareness will be a good topic. I feel confident that I can get it approved. My concern is deciding what my measurable variable will be. Initially, I did want to focus on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning. But, in conversations with school district employees, I have learned that the WASL is in the process of being revamped, to the point that it might not be a valuable measure for me. They are already instituting interventions to help students with the math section, and the date that a passing score would be required has been pushed back. I'm also concerned about my assumption with this study -- that learning strategies are somehow related to standardized testing. I'll need to do some research to see if this assumption is correct, or if it has even been studied.

So, if I decide to discard the WASL as my measurable variable, I think I'm left with only one other option -- well, only one other easy option, I should say: GPA. And, it is my belief that I would have an easier time requesting GPAs than requesting WASL scores.

My last thought is which schools I will pursue with this study. Keeping with my interest in second language learning, it could be interesting to study learning strategy awareness with bilingual or international schools. There is one such school in Bellevue, WA, but it is considered the one of the top schools in the nation. Who would really care if a successful school was even more successful?

Well, I will continue to ponder this until I am engrossed in my exams. I probably won't post again, though, until after I pass.

Research Idea, continued

2008-03-23T00:10:00.000-07:00

I heard back from my friend, Shelly. Not only was she supportive of my idea, but she shared with me that she was hoping to do a similar study on a much larger scale. I am more than excited now about the prospects of completing this research. Plus, my professors are in full support of my idea. I still need to speak to some high school principals and/or some school psychologists, but I hope I can get the go ahead.

Now is the difficult part. I am required to attend three in-person seminars as part of my educational program with Capella University, and they all must be completed before I can move on to my comprehensive exams and my dissertation. At this last seminar, there were nine classes on how to write the dissertation in addition to many statistics classes. I took all of them. While they were extremely informative, I must now put all that information on the back burner so that I can focus on my comprehensive exams. So, they got me all excited about doing research, and I can't do research! I think they should have one more seminar after we finish the comprehensive exams, completely focussed on the dissertation, but it's too late for such a decision to affect me.

So, on to the comps. At Capella University, we have the ability to nominate a mentor who will stay with us through the comprehensive exams and onto the dissertation. I selected my mentor based on my initial idea to conduct research in second language learning. Though I don't plan to look at second language learning now, I still think I made a good choice. I found out at the seminar that this faculty member had the current chair of the Educational Psychology department as his mentor when he was doing his dissertation. I think that is pretty cool. Add to that, this faculty mentor I chose was apparently the most published student when he was completing his course of studies. As it is my intention to publish, I truly believe he will provide me excellent guidance.

The comprehensive exams consist of two weeks of preparation, four weeks of intense writing -- answering 3 questions in a maximum of 50 pages (not including title page and references -- and then waiting to find out if I passed. If I fail any section, I have two more weeks to revise. If I don't pass a second time, I am out of the program. It's a scary thought, but I was told that 90% of the students pass the first time, and of the 10% who must revise, 95% of them pass the second time. I'm really hoping I won't have to revise at all!

Inspiration Strikes Again

2008-03-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

Here I sit at my last seminar of my doctoral program. In two weeks, I start my comprehensive exam, a concentrated quarter of two weeks prep, four weeks writing, and four weeks hoping that I'll pass and can move on to dissertation.

I've been shakey about my research idea over the past couple of weeks, but at the same time, I couldn't think of anything else. I was hoping for clarity once I arrived in Chicago, and perhaps, I found it.

There were a couple of people at this seminar who I had met at one of the last two seminars. At those seminars, I was sure I would be doing a research project on massage and critical thinking skills. Imagine their surprise when I told them I abandoned the idea of massage as a dissertation topic and now wanted to focus on second language learning. I was able to discuss my new idea -- iconic gestures and second language learning for the kinesthetic learner -- with quite a few people, but it wasn't until my appointment with the career center director that something clicked. He asked me what would it mean if my research confirmed the hypothesis that kinesthetic learners did learn a foreign language better with iconic gestures than without. Well, the answer is simple, I suppose: kinesthetic learners should have the opportunity to have instruction in such a manner. But how does the teacher know who is kinesthetic, or rather, whether there are any kinesthetic learners in his class? Good point.

That made me think about the benefit of giving students a learning styles assessment. I know it has done wonders for the students at Cortiva. I hear rave reviews not just from me, but from many students who had no idea what learning strategies could be helpful to them. A general study on the benefits of learning style awareness doesn't say much. What would the measurable variable be? GPA? Another test? And, then it dawned on me . . . What about the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (AKA the Washington state proficiency exam)?

In the current state of things, public/private high school students in Washington state are now required to pass the WASL in order to graduate. In last year's assessment, approximately 70% of the students who took the test DID NOT pass the math section. The requirement was then slightly changed. Students are required to pass the writing and reading sections of the WASL, but not the math section. If students fail the math section, though, they must take a math class their senior year, pass that math class, and take the math section of the WASL one last time. Here might be my research project.

I plan to present the following at my poster session on Thursday:

Title: Learning Strategy Awareness and the Washington Assessment of Student Learning

Research Question: To what extent does learning strategy awareness increase students‘ performance on the math section of the WASL?

General Method: A quantitative quasi-experimental design using a control and experimental group. Students will be selected from high school juniors in the Seattle School District who have previously failed the math section of the WASL. It is hoped that 200 students will be selected from a larger population. All students will complete a demographic questionnaire and complete a checklist of current learning strategies used. These 200 students will be randomly assigned into two groups -- experimental and control. The experimental group will receive an overview of the TIPP(TM) Learning Styles and Temperament Assessment, an online password to take the assessment, and a review session which will explain learning strategies tied to a specific learning style strength and/or temperament. The control group will be offered already established study materials from the Washington School District website, but no opportunity to participate in the learning styles and temperament assessment. The experimental group will also receive the study materials provided by the district website. When students retake the math section of the WASL (3 to 4 months later), a between groups T-test and a within groups T-test will be performed to evaluate whether there is a significant difference in the scores and to evaluate to what extent learning strategy awareness has affected students’ performance.

*The null hypothesis is there will be no significant difference between the old and new scores both for students who participated in the learning styles and the students who did not participate. A second null hypothesis is there will be no significant difference between the control and the experimental group.
*The alternative hypothesis is there will be a significant difference between the old and new scores both for students who participated in the learning styles and temperament assessment and the students who did not participate. A second alternative hypothesis is there will be a significant difference between the control and the experimental group.

Of course, nothing is set in stone. My next steps are to talk to the TIPP(TM) developer. I have sent her an email and am currently waiting to hear her response. I will also need to talk to a few high school principals to see if this idea is even feasible. What kind of red tape will hinder my progress?

But, despite not being 100% sure, I am looking forward to this Thursday to see what my professors might have to say.

Dissertation Topic and High School Debate

2008-02-29T23:53:00.000-08:00

I'm still deciding whether I want to pursue my current dissertation topic idea of investigating iconic gestures as a language learning strategy. My biggest concern is how to decide that the gestures are a learning strategy? How would that be measured? The current plan is to teach using gestures and assess by asking the student to translate into the target language using both the gesture and the word. But, is this sufficient to say that iconic gestures are a possible language learning strategy? I could certainly look at the relationship between the number of words/gestures recalled and the identified learning style, but again, does this answer my question?

Second, is it significant? I'm reminded of my high school debate class and the formulation of a standard debate case. We were taught that to make a succinct argument, we must show significance, harms, inherency, topicality, and solvency.

The significance, in this case, is the need for improved foreign language learning. But, harms? The only thing I could think of in this area is the apathy most students have toward learning foreign languages, the difficulty involved in learning non-germanic or non-latin languages, and the perception that foreign languages are not important to US students. (All of this is making me think that I should direct my dissertation study toward children/adolescents rather than adults, but that's a subject for another blog!) Can I make a case to show that these harms are really that horrible? That could be subjective. The inherency also poses a problem. Inherency would say that something is not already being done. In truth, gestures are being used in foreign language classes. But, they're being used within Total Physical Response (TPR) formats. There are multiple curricula that promote the use of TPR, but none (as far as I know) that look specifically at kinesthetic activities by themselves. While I can find research that shows that kinesthetic instruction is not as prevalent as auditory and visual instruction, I can find even more research that promotes the use of instruction toward all three learning strengths. So, I have to wonder if it's just as harmful, or more harmful, to restrict my instruction to one learning style. Am I no better than those teachers who only use auditory and/or visual instruction? Topicality is the easiest area to address, in my mind. If I propose to investigate learning strategies or the relationship of a learning strategy to a learning style, my goal is to not stray. Solvency isn't as important as the others. Whether I prove or disprove my hypothesis, the important piece is the quality of my research. In other words, if I hit the other components, I should be able to present a quality dissertation.

In March, I attend my final colloquium. It will be my last opportunity to receive feedback from my classmates and faculty members on my proposed dissertation topic. My mentor won't be there, which is disappointing, but there will be faculty members there with whom I've spoken before, and I feel confident I will receive good feedback from them.

Internship or Post-Doctoral Fellowship?

2008-02-29T23:42:00.001-08:00

Yesterday, I started contemplating what I will do after graduation, in the event that I am not working in research prior to graduation.

At one point, I thought about pursuing a post-doctoral fellowship. There are certainly multiple opportunities for this lasting from 3 months up to 5 years. A shorter fellowship would be ideal as I could apply for one anywhere in the country, find temporary housing, and then return home at the conclusion of the fellowship. However, upon further investigation, I fear that I wouldn't be qualified for a fellowship. Most, if not all, require a certain amount of prior research experience of which I have none. It's possible that I could impress the selection committee with the work of my dissertation, but I think they want to see more than that. With the work involved in preparing an application for a post-doctoral fellowship, it almost seems that I would be wasting my time.

On the other hand, internships don't necessarily require that the candidate have a wealth of experience in the field. Simply, they're looking for someone with academic preparation and an interest in the field in which he desires to intern. Of course, there has to be a catch: Every single internship I've looked at require that the applicant be a current student. I couldn't pursue an internship while I'm still a student. For one, once I start the comprehensive exam phase, if I stop for any reason, I'm out of the program. Another thing is that I couldn't justify leaving my current position for a short period of time and then returning and looking for a short-time job until graduation. To me, that just doesn't make sense.

So, I'm left with the question, do I pursue a post-doctoral fellowship when I feel I would be one of the last people an organization would accept? Or, do I pursue an internship when while I would qualify with my limited credentials, I might not be eligible?

The good news is that there is still time to make my decision. Life could present its own obstacles and windows to my future career. For now, I think I will contact organizations which offer internships in my area of interest. If I can find a contact, perhaps I could inquire whether he would accept a recent graduate of a doctorate program.

Social Networking

2008-02-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

To date, I have joined 9 social networking sites:

LinkedIn
Biznik
Translator's Cafe
Language 1 2 3
Peek You
Facebook
MySpace
Friendster
Tapped In

It would seem I have my bases covered. If anyone could suggest additional networking sites that might be of interest to me, please let me know!

Thinking out loud

2008-02-21T22:27:00.001-08:00

Last night, I attended the Seattle chapter of the American Women in Science's (AWIS) monthly meeting, where the vice president of the University of Washington spoke on the differences between men and women when thinking about science.

To be honest, I expected a more academic speech on the given topic, but given the time constraints (and I think the interests of the audience), Phyllis Wise spoke anecdotally about how factors in her life contributed to where she is now. She emphasized a need for quality mentoring and said given the chance to do it over again, she would still pursue a career in science.

Before and after the speech, we had opportunities to network with the people around us. I felt like I stood out like a sore thumb. Yes, I am a member of AWIS, and I feel I belong there with my interests in the social sciences, but all of the women present at this meeting worked in some type of biological science or engineering field. Nevertheless, I heard one woman talk about her work on brain malformations in children. Remembering that the study of language acquisition gets its best information where there are speech problems, I took my cue to introduce myself and probe her for details. We didn't talk long, but it was enough for her to mention that I should make some contacts with those who work with autistic individuals. There is such a place about three blocks from my work called ASTAR, Autism Spectrum Treatment and Research Center. My hope is that I can schedule a lunch meeting with one of the individuals who works there and pick his/her brain. I have taken at least one step to contact an individual through LinkedIn who lists herself as an autism advocate.

The overall experience last night, though, left me feeling unsettled: This is what I do know: My entire adult life, I have flip-flopped between working in sales or higher education administration. Each job has been something I fell into, not necessarily what I loved -- but what I could do well. But, my passion has always remained wanting to learn more about learning. Now, that's a broad statement, I realize, but what I mean is I want to know how people learn; I want to help people learn better; I want to find ways to help struggling learners find strategies they can use to be and feel successful in the classroom. I'm also interested in language learning. While I'd like to say is I'm mostly interested in second language learning, I'm realizing more and more what interests me is how people learn language (whether that be a first or second language).

What I don't know is how to take all of these ideas that are swirling in my brain and formulate a career plan. In the broadest terms, I want to be involved in research.

It is my hope that in talking to more people, something will resonate and sound just perfect to me. Networking is key, and right now, it's the only path I know to take.

Asked to write a review

2008-02-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

At the end of last week, amid all the fun with the primary caucuses, I received an email from the research chair of the Western Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators. I am on the research committee, but thus far, I haven't done anything aside from listen to a conference call. In the email, the chair was asking if I'd consider writing a review of a research project looking at the relationship of default to school quality.

It was a nice break from the homework for my current class, ethics and multicultural issues in counseling, so I said yes.

I finished the article last night, and it's been approved. Now, I'm just waiting to see it in publication. When the newsletter is posted, the link will be WASFAA Spring Newsletter. You'll have to do a search for my name.

It's nice to see my talents recognized!

Project Glad

2008-02-02T23:17:00.000-08:00

Today I attended a seminar entitled, "Best Practices in Language and Content Instruction". It was a free presentation held in Seattle, sponsored by Seattle Public Schools and John Stanford International School, funded by the State Innovations grant to the Washington State Coalition for International Education.

The goal of the presentation was to give teachers an idea of Project GLAD (Guided Language Acquisition Design). I was probably the only one there who wasn't a teacher! But, I still enjoyed the presentation. My initial purpose for attending was to network. I do desperately need to get to know educational professionals in the second language acquisition field. I'm sure it must look strange, though, for a financial aid director to want to break into a teaching field but not want to teach!

This workshop was set up such that two teachers each at John Stanford International School gave a presentation on how they used one piece of the Project GLAD in their classroom. Each model appeared to incorporate all three learning styles (visual, auditory, kinesthetic), and I felt that each lesson plan was very engaging. We moved from classroom to classroom after each 40-minute demonstration.

At the end of the 3-hour workshop, I was left to ponder my research idea. Yes, it is good to look at a connection of actions and language, but how do I separate that in an instructional environment? Or rather, how can I say that learning took place solely because of the gestures when I will obviously need, at the very least, an auditory component in my instruction. I will need to talk some more with my friends who are certainly more adept at research than I. Perhaps they will have some suggestions that I have not yet considered.

Contemplating my dissertation

2008-02-02T22:46:00.001-08:00

I can't believe it's only been a little over a year since I started my doctorate program. In April, I will take my comprehensive exams, and in July, I start the dissertation process which should take a year's time.

When I started my doctorate program, I was set on a research study that involved massage and critical thinking skills. My thinking was a bit skewed, but I had hoped to look at whether kinesthetic learners could improve their critical thinking skills by receiving massage. After much contemplation and input from friends such as Shelly Loewen, I came to the realization that these kinesthetic learners would be receiving a kinesthetic activity (massage), and if anything, I could measure how the massage practitioners may benefit from performing the activity. This is not to say that learners wouldn't benefit, but it might be more related to the fact that their stress levels are reduced and have no tie to their learning style, whatsoever.

In October, I reconnected with a friend I with whom I went to college.
Claire Vallotton has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health for her work with infant language. As we talked, she impressed upon me the connection of actions and language. As my initial passions were tied to language learning, she had me well engaged. At her suggestion, I changed my research idea all together, departing from massage but not from cognition. I now wanted to look at how actions, or rather iconic gestures, are tied to language learning.

Also, in October, I was enrolled in advanced research methods. This course helped me to solidify my ideas to the point that I felt confident in a bare-bones proposal:

One area that is receiving much attention in the field of educational psychology is learning strategies. This term encompasses learning styles and multiple intelligences. It is particularly of importance to the area of second language acquisition as researchers seek to better understand how a second language is learned, and in the United States, to best assist those students whose first language is not English.

One such learning strategy could be iconic gestures. Iconic gestures are defined by Pika, Nicoladis, and Marentette (2006) as those "which are related to their referent by virture of some actual physical resemblance between the two, for instance, drawing a circle in the air to signal the sun" (p. 320). Donovan, McDevitt, and Kelly (2006) performed a study to look at whether iconic gestures aided in the semantic learning of Japanese. Within their study, they observed whether movement in general (termed mismatched gestures), iconic gestures (matched gestures), speech, or repeated speech had the the most positive relationship with written recall of the foreign language. They discovered in their short term study that foreign language learning was aided with the instruction via iconic gestures. There were some limitations to their study, however. Donovan, McDevitt, and Kelly (2006) reported only "twenty-seven adults" as participants taking part in "a 30-minute instructional session on 12 novel Japanese verbs". Further Kelly, McDevitt, and Esch (2007) reported that recall was measured through writing the English translation for each spoken Japanese word (p. 9). While this study does appear to indicate that instruction with iconic gestures is helpful, there is no indication that the students used gestures as a learning strategy for recall.

As gestures have been shown to be tied to spoken language (Pika, Nicoladis, and Marentette, 2006), it may be useful to observe whether there is a relationship between iconic gestures and second language learning when considering for learning styles and strategies.

The proposed study would involve fifty adults who have previously taken the TIPP™ learning styles and temperaments assessment. The TIPP™ Learning Styles assessment has been normed for “ adult men and women, ages 18-72, with face validity results of 98.9%” (Adams, 2001). After obtaining consent to access the results of the assessment for the individuals, they will be randomly assigned to two groups, making sure that there is an equal number of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual students in each group. One group will be taught vocabulary from either the Japanese or Chinese language through auditory and visual instruction. The second group will be taught the same words using iconic gestures. The instruction will take place over two weeks. It is not known at this time how many words will be taught. Nor is it known the exact details of the instruction. At the end of the instruction, the participants will be tested for recall immediately and then after a delay of one week and then two weeks to determine retention. Students will be asked for the English translation verbally and/or the iconic gesture for the learned vocabulary. Data will be gathered from each individual on how many gestures, words, and words plus gestures were made in response to the foreign word.

Two repeated measures ANOVA's will be calculated with the results of this study. The first will determine if and what kind of relationship exists between the ability to recall and the use of iconic gestures. A second will include the participant's learning style as a covariate. The hypothesis is that, in general, the facilitation of iconic gestures has a positive relationship with semantic language learning. A second hypothesis is that the facilitation of iconic gestures has a positive relationship with semantic language learning by those learners who have kinesthetic learning strengths.

Adams, W. (2001). TIPP™ Assessment: Scale and sub-scale blind-test retest reliability study. George Fox University, Portland, OR.

Donovan, K., McDevitt, T., & Kelly, S. D. (May, 2006). Iconic gestures help children and adults learn and remember foreign verbs. Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science (APS) conference, New York, New York.

Kelly, S. D., McDevitt, T., & Esch, M. (2007). Brief training with iconic gestures lends a hand to word learning in a foreign language. Manuscript submitted for publication.

Pika, S., Nicoladis, E., & Marentette, P. F. (2006). A cross-cultural study on the use of gestures: Evidence for cross-linguistic transfer. Bilingualism: Language and cognition, 9(3), 319-327.