Closing the summer learning gap for vulnerable junior kindergarten students

Under current academic calendars across North America, summer vacation creates a significant gap in the learning cycle. I t has been argued that this gap actually decreases student achievement levels over the course of the summer. In a synthesis of 39 studies Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay, & Greathouse (1996) indicated that summer learning loss equaled at least one month of instruction as measured by grade level equivalents on standardized test scores whereby children's test scores were at least one month lower when they returned to school in the fall than scores were when students left in the summer. Specifically, Cooper et aI., (1996) found that the summer learning loss phenomena may be particularly troublesome for less advantaged children including those with speech and language delays, children at-risk for reading disabilities, children from lower socio-economic backgrounds, and children learning English as a second language. In general, research illustrated clearly that the summer learning gap can be particularly problematic for vulnerable children and furthermore, that literacy skills may be the area of achievement that is most affected. A foundational pillar to this research project is including primary caregivers as authentic partners in a summer literacy program designed to support their children's literacy needs. This pillar led the research team to use the Learning Begins at Home: A Research-Based Family Literacy Program Curriculum designed by Antoinette Doyle, Kathleen Hipfner-Boucher, and Janette Pelletier from the Ontario Institute for the Studies of Education. The LBH program is designed to be flexibly adapted to suit the needs of each individual participating family. As indicated by Timmons (2008) literacy interventions are most powerful when they include authentic family involvement. Based on this research, a requirement for participating in the summer literacy program was involvement of a child and one of their primary caregivers. The participating caregiver was integrally involved in the program, participating in workshop activities prior to and following hands-on literacy work with their child. By including primary caregivers as authentic partners, the research team encouraged a paradigmatic shift in the family whereby literacy activities become routine within their household. 5 Participants in this study were 14 children from junior kindergarten classrooms within the Niagara Catholic District School Board. As children were referred to the program, they were assessed by a trained emergent literacy specialist (from Speech Services Niagara) to identify whether they met the eligibility requirements for participation in the summer program. To be eligible to participate, children demonstrated significant literacy needs (i.e. below 25%ile on the Test of Preschool Early Literacy described below). Children with low incidence disabilities (i.e. profound sensory impairments, severe intellectual impairments, developmental disabilities, etc) were excluded as participants. The research team used a standard pre- and posttest design whereby all participating children were assessed with the Test of Preschool Early Literacy (Lonigan et aI., 2007), and a standard measure of letter names and sounds. Pretests were administered two weeks prior to the commencement of the program and the first set of posttests was administered immediately following the program. A second set of posttests was administered in December 2009 to measure the sustainability of the program. As a result of the program, all children scored statistically significantly higher on their literacy scores at the post-program assessment point immediately following the program and also at the Dec-post-program assessment point. These results in general indicated that the summer family literacy program made an immediate impact on the emergent literacy skills of participating children. All participating children demonstrated significant increases in print and phonological awareness as well as their letter sound understanding.

L’influence d’activités en arts plastiques sur l’expérience d’appréciation musicale d’élèves de sixième année du primaire

Depuis 2001, le Programme de formation de l’école québécoise impose l’enseignement de la compétence « apprécier » dans les quatre disciplines artistiques. Ce mémoire s’intéresse à l’influence que peuvent avoir des activités intégrant les arts plastiques à la musique sur l’expérience d’appréciation musicale d’élèves de sixième année du primaire. Plus spécifiquement, elle vise à rendre compte des différentes dimensions présentes dans la description que font les élèves de leur expérience d’appréciation ainsi qu’à comprendre de quelle façon les activités d’appréciation intégrant les arts plastiques à la musique affectent la verbalisation que font les élèves de cette expérience. La recherche prend la forme d’études de cas réalisées auprès de cinq élèves de sixième année du primaire. Ces élèves, ainsi que tous les élèves de leur classe, ont participé à une activité d’appréciation musicale intradisciplinaire ainsi qu’à deux activités d’appréciation interdisciplinaires. Après chacune des activités, ces cinq élèves ont été rencontrés individuellement. Au cours d’entrevues semi-dirigées, il leur était demandé de rendre compte de leur expérience d’appréciation. Quatre grandes tendances ont émergé de l’analyse des propos des élèves, soit le sentiment de mieux s’approprier l’œuvre entendue, une verbalisation plus précise des éléments perçus, une verbalisation plus précise des sentiments ressentis et enfin, une forme de distraction par rapport à l’œuvre entendue. Au terme de cette étude, il semble que l’utilisation d’activité d’appréciation intégrant les arts plastiques à la musique, sans faire l’objet d’un usage systématique, pourrait constituer une forme de différenciation pédagogique qui serait utile à certains types d’apprenants.

Confluence : Arts plastiques, élèves à risque et système proprioceptif

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

L’influence de l’apprentissage des arts sur le développement de l’intelligence émotionnelle d’élèves du primaire

Dans les écoles primaires québécoises, les cours d'arts font partie des domaines d’apprentissage obligatoires. Toutefois, les effets de l’apprentissage des arts sur les jeunes élèves demeurent mal connus puisque d’une part, l'art est fréquemment perçu comme une discipline de deuxième ordre et d’autre part, des programmes à volet artistique voient encore le jour dans certaines écoles. L’objectif de l’étude est de déterminer si les élèves de 4ième, 5ième et 6ième années fréquentant une école à volet artistique développent davantage d'habiletés particulières liées directement à leur intelligence émotionnelle (IE) comparativement à des élèves fréquentant une école à programme régulier. Une méthodologie reposant sur un devis quasi expérimental avec groupe témoin non équivalent est privilégiée. Les scores d’IE ont été mesurés à l’aide de questionnaires complétés par les élèves, leur enseignant ainsi que leurs parents afin de trianguler les données. Dans un premier temps, les résultats obtenus auprès de l’ensemble de l’échantillon montrent que selon la perception des enseignants, les élèves suivant des cours d’art en parascolaire ont une IE plus élevée que les élèves qui n’en suivent pas. Toutefois, la fréquentation d’une école proposant un programme artistique ne semble pas avoir d'incidence sur le développement de l'IE puisque les résultats obtenus dans le cadre de cette étude montrent que les élèves inscrits à une école à vocation artistique ont une IE inférieure à celle des élèves provenant d’un programme régulier. Ces résultats contradictoires à l’hypothèse de départ sont discutés à la lumière de la littérature scientifique disponible, ainsi que des forces et des limites de la présente recherche.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences Book of Abstracts 2010

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents the eighth issue of the Book of Abstracts, which highlights the work conducted by students in collaboration with faculty mentors. This collection of abstracts represents many hours of scholarly activity in which students further developed their research, critical thinking, and writing skills and engaged in learning well beyond the classroom.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2011 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences Book of Abstracts, our ninth annual issue documenting the work conducted by students in collaboration with their faculty mentors. As you will see by the depth and variety of the projects, these students successfully used their research, critical thinking, and writing skills to produce scholarship that has been recognized by the larger scholarly community.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2008 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences, our sixth Book of Abstracts that features the scholarship conducted in the college by our students in collaboration with faculty mentors. In the above quote, Ralph Waldo Emerson goes on to say the following: “The wise instructor accomplishes this by opening to his pupils precisely the attractions the study has for himself.” Indeed, the high level of scholarship reflected in this book is a testament to the students’ development as scholars and the effective mentorship provided by the Winthrop faculty as they share in the practice of their disciplines.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences Book of Abstracts 2009 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents the seventh Book of Abstracts, highlighting the undergraduate scholarship conducted by students in collaboration with faculty mentors. This collection of abstracts represents many hours of scholarly activity in which students further developed their research, critical thinking, and writing skills and engaged in learning well beyond the classroom. We congratulate the students and their faculty mentors for the quality of their work and their willingness to share it with the academic community through publications in refereed journals and presentations at regional, national, and international meetings. We also thank Evan Adams for editing the abstracts and Chris Richter, a visual communication design major, for designing the cover and producing the book.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2003 Book of Abstracts

On behalf of the faculty, staff, and students in the College of Arts and Sciences, I want to thank you for your interest in this collection of abstracts of undergraduate research for 2003. This collection is the first we have published, and we expect it to be number one in a long and increasingly impressive series. The importance of this collection is what it represents. These abstracts are the results of untold hours of hard work by students and faculty. Through that work, students have learned much about the research process, developed important critical and analytical thinking skills, improved writing abilities, and deepened relationships with faculty mentors. Many students have presented their research in classes, through seminars, and at professional meetings. In this work, faculty have been challenged to push students to do the best they can, to let them flounder as they struggle to solve the problems at hand, to hold them to deadlines, and to know how to encourage and when to scold. I know from personal experience that working together on meaningful research is a powerful way to build lasting relationships between students and faculty members.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2004 Book of Abstracts

In his work entitled The Advancement of Learning (1605), Francis Bacon expresses the need for students and their teachers to push beyond current knowledge by testing accepted theories, developing new paradigms, and discovering new information. The abstracts in this booklet are clear examples of how students and faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences are advancing knowledge in a variety of disciplines. From the analysis of particular proteins to the examination of various literary themes, the students whose scholarly endeavors are represented in this booklet pursued research projects that have explored new ideas; and their teachers have helped them to achieve their goals by providing expert guidance in the field of study, by challenging students to excel, and by encouraging them as they developed their ideas. Students and faculty should be very proud of the work reflected in these abstracts. These individual efforts and collaborations reveal what is best about Winthrop University as a learning community.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2006 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents our fourth issue of Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences: Book of Abstracts, which highlights the work conducted by students in collaboration with faculty mentors. This collection of abstracts represents many hours of scholarly activity in which students further developed their research, critical thinking, and writing skills and engaged in learning well beyond the classroom.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2007 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents our fifth Book of Abstracts that highlights the undergraduate scholarship conducted in the college by students with their faculty mentors. As the quote by James Russell Lowell implies, the pursuit of knowledge involves more than acquiring facts; it requires posing relevant questions, critically examining information, and clearly communicating conclusions. The high level of scholarship reflected in this book is a testament to the students’ development as scholars and the effective mentorship provided by the Winthrop faculty.

Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences 2005 Book of Abstracts

The College of Arts and Sciences proudly presents Undergraduate Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences, the third issue in our annual book of abstracts, containing the work conducted by students in collaboration with faculty mentors. As you will see by the depth and variety of the projects, these students successfully used their research, critical thinking, and writing skills to produce scholarship that has been recognized by the larger scholarly community. In fact, these collected works illustrate the students’ ability to communicate at a professional level; in many cases, these students have presented and defended their scholarship to the greater academic community at regional, national, and international meetings. We congratulate all the students and faculty mentors who are represented in this collection for their dedication to learning. This book is also the first designed and edited by Winthrop University undergraduate students. For their good work, we thank Kristen Jeffords for editing the abstracts, Paul Jones for creating the cover art, and Stephanie Sheldon for the book design and layout.

AAC&U's Integrative Liberal Learning and the CAS Standards: Advising for a 21st Century Liberal Education

The Association of American Colleges and Universities presented and promoted integrative liberal learning as a collaborative goal that all institutions of higher education must strive to achieve. The similarities between the goals of integrative liberal learning and the Standards for Academic Advising by the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education are discussed with emphasis placed on the critical role that academic advising plays in support of an integrative liberal learning education, and in turn, future success for all students.

Educating...for what?: Livelihood and Vocation

Higgins School of the Humanities/Difficult Dialogues: Video Recording from 10/18/2011 event featuring Lynn Pasquerella and David Angel titled "Livlihood and Vocation" Event Description: Some of the most vocal challenges to higher education imply that a liberal education does not have direct vocational application. What good is it? the critics ask. Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg didn’t finish college. What is the responsibility of a college or university in ensuring that students have membership in an economy? And what actually best prepares them to do so? How do we define economy? Is the best preparation for a career the same or different than preparation for a discerning and meaningful life? In what ways do the humanities contribute to all these kinds of development? How can we better assist our students in joining their work with their ideals? Our guests for a conversation on livelihood are Lynn Pasquerella, President of Mount Holyoke College, and David Angel, President of Clark University.