Public discourse concerning STEM has an increasing influence on mathematics education, yet the exact role that mathematics plays in STEM is hard to define. I compare STEM to numeracy to investigate how mathematics is repositioned in these two discourses. Each is analysed in terms of rhetorics that argue for the worth of mathematics education.…

Academic history has begun only relatively recently to study films as historical sources, and thus far it has focused principally on feature films to the exclusion of nonfictional cinema, despite the use of educational films for propaganda as early as the interwar period. This essay examines the extent to which educational films of this period…

This dissertation conducts rhetorical criticism of the public controversy prompted by higher education reforms proposed by Texas Governor Rick Perry in his 2008 "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" packet and summit. The analysis begins by exploring "topoi," or commonplace arguments, raised during the argumentation between Perry and…

Although several studies have investigated the self-assessment (SA) of writing skills, most research has adopted a cross-sectional research design. Consequently, our knowledge about the longitudinal development of SA is limited. This study investigated whether SA instruction leads to improvement in SA accuracy and in second language (L2) writing.…

Many empirical findings of previous studies have suggested a connection between motivational factors and L2 writing. Nonetheless, the impact of motivational factors on the genre-based L2 writing has not gained much attention. The present study explored the extent to which the characteristics of two writing tasks involving different genres interact…

This study explores how syntactic complexity and lexical complexity vary in argumentative essays written by L2 learners of English at B2 and C1 CEFR proficiency levels. We approach both syntactic complexity and lexical complexity from a multi-dimensional perspective, examining syntactic complexity at different levels (i.e., global, clausal, and…

Fall 2020 presented myriad challenges for teachers trying to plan curricula to meet students' social-emotional and learning needs following an unprecedented spring and summer of isolation and loss due to the pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2 (Rivera and Wallace 2020). The result of creative planning and adjusting of curricula for remote instruction…

Challenges of English for specific purposes (ESP) course development and instruction have still been reported in a number of studies. They could affect ESP teachers' belief and confidence in their ability to do such tasks. This qualitative case study explores the development of self-efficacy, along with source information concerning challenges in…

Analytical reading and writing are embedded in a disciplinary approach to history instruction and present opportunities to extend students' literacy practices. U.S. educators and researchers have come to rely on the Document-Based Question (DBQ) to assess and develop students' historical knowledge and argument writing. However, this task has been…

Democracy is based on individuals' ability to give their opinions freely. To do this, they must have access to a multitude of reliable information sources (Dahl, 1998), and this greatly depends on the characteristics of their media environments. Today, one of the main issues individuals face is the significant amount of disinformation circulating…

The current study presents the findings of a pre-test/post-test design to explore the efficacy of a genre-based approach to teaching argumentative essay writing during synchronous classes. The study is conducted with the participation of a group of freshman and junior year student teachers of English Language Teaching enrolled at the course of…

In this paper, we describe the design for PurpleState, an internship simulation that applies the epistemic game model for informed civic learning. PurpleState places students in the role of interns at a political media firm and asks them to design a media campaign on a state level policy issue. Unlike the use of these models in STEM education,…

Since the reform of Upper Secondary School in 2005 in Denmark, genre writing has been mandatory in the L1 subject. In the predefined genres, argumentative reasoning, textual analysis and disciplinary knowledge are given high priority, whereas creative or narrative reasoning and writing are not part of the curriculum. In this article, the writer…

With the implementation of the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy, as well as the onset of the C3 framework from the National Council of Social Studies, social studies teachers are tasked with integrating content and writing instruction in thoughtful and relevant ways. A middle school social studies teacher…

Secure accommodation provides extreme forms of control and support for a small minority of society's most vulnerable children. Within such environments it is unclear how children exhibit or develop self-regulation when external controls affect every aspect of day-to-day life. This study provides an insight into self-regulation by examining…