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Micronesian Educator #27 1 Micronesian Educator #27 Micronesian Educator #27 TINALO' 2019 A Journal of Research, Theory, and Practice in Guam and Micronesia Editors: Evelyn Doman Christopher Schreiner Book Review Editor Christopher Schreiner Editorial Board: Mary Jane Miller Donald Rubenstein Michelle Santos Jason Vest David Gugin Production Assistant: Matthew Raymundo Design and Layout: Pascual Olivares Published by: The School of Education, University of Guam UOG Station Mangilao, Guam 96923 1 Micronesian Educator #27 2 Micronesian Educator #27 Micronesian Educator Volume 27 Editors’ Introduction Welcome to the 27th volume of the Micronesian Educator, published through the School of Education at the University of Guam. We are excited to bring you many interesting and thought-provoking articles this semester! As you flip through the pages of this volume, you will see that we have a range of articles from university professors to graduate students who all share the same passion – education and how to improve the way we educate our learners! In March 2019, the biennial TEAM (Technology, Education, Assessment, and Management Conference was held at the University of Guam. As an interdisciplinary conference, participants came from all over the world to participate. Most participants were from our neighboring country of the Philippines, where we alternate hosting the conference every other year. In commemoration of this year’s TEAM Conference, several papers have been published on themes that were presented during the 2-day event. In addition, we are excited that some of our outstanding graduate student papers are included in volume 27. In a course titled ED690 Special Project in the School of Education, students were to implement and monitor an action research project in an educational setting. They were to research literature on their chosen subject, design a project that could be assessed, and collect data over an extended period of time. The students then analyzed data and used outcomes to draw conclusions and determine whether their hypotheses were supported or not. Five of the papers from this course are published in this volume. Volume 27 is divided into four sections. Section One consists of research papers by professors at various universities. Section Two consists of five papers from university graduate students enrolled in ED690 Special Project. Part Three consists of critical essays written by a variety of authors from Guam, New York, and Canada. Part Four consists of book reviews written by local critics. Section One of this volume contains three research articles by professors in the region. The first research paper by Dr. Yukiko Inoue-Smith titled “Enhancing College Students’ Basic Skills in Quantitative Analyses of Research Data: A Case Study” provides an introduction to quantitative research that is taught to master’s level teacher education students in the School of Education at the University of Guam. By using a student-centered language approach, Dr. Inoue-Smith details four specific steps involved in the research-based course: (1) statistical language enhancement through reading analytically; (2) survey plan and instrument development; (3) data collection, processing, and analysis; and (4) project oral presentation and written reflection. A survey that was given to students after the data collection and analysis process reveals that many students do not really learn statistics until they start analyzing data from their own research. “Preparing ESL Students for Autonomy: A Case Study in Macau” by Dr. Evelyn Doman is the second research article in this volume. For this study, Dr. Doman administered a pre-test questionnaire followed by interviews to English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers at the University of Macau regarding the independent learning (IL) skills of their students and found that teachers think that students are not prepared for independent learning and that they as teachers must first be trained before they can prepare their students for autonomy. Using these results, Dr. Doman engaged teachers in professional development workshops on independent learning where they were involved in: 1) creating guidelines to provide to students about IL; 2) developing assessments through journals, blogs, online and paper-based reflections, and self-evaluation rubrics; and 3) analyzing the ELC’s current IL resources through a SWOT analysis. Results of the treatment showed that teachers felt more comfortable with including independent learning in their curriculum after participating in these training workshops. Additionally, Dr. Camarin Meno and Dr. Iain K.B. Twaddle’s article titled “Historical Images of Women in CHamoru Culture” is our fourth article in this issue. In order to understand Guam’s high rates of violence against women, this article looks at historical images of women within CHamoru culture. By using various resources including Spanish historical records, CHamoru folklore and legends, academic scholarship, and biography, a trend could be seen in the strength of women within CHamoru culture dating back to the pre- 3 Micronesian Educator #27 colonial era, the authors say. Drs. Meno and Twaddle propose that Guam’s high rates of violence against women reflect a diminishing of women’s power resulting from patriarchal social structures associated with Spanish and American colonialism. By providing explanations for why this trend in violence against women is increasing, the authors challenge members of society to break these terrible patterns. Section Two of Volume 27 consists of five research papers written by graduate students in the School of Education at the University of Guam. The first by Thelma Soriano titled “The Effects of Immersion Teaching in an Elementary CHamoru Classroom” discusses the need to explore and apply teaching strategies that improve student achievement and enhance second language acquisition in the learning of the CHamoru language in the Guam elementary schools. The second paper by Christine Velasco titled “Effects of Literacy Learning Centers in Increasing Sight Word Recognition among First-Grade Students in a Public School on Guam” discusses whether or not the use of learning centers in a first-grade classroom increases students’ reading skills through improving sight word recognition. The third article by Sara Manibusan titled “Establishing a Classroom Job System and the Impact it has on Student Classroom Behaviors” examines the impact a Classroom Job System has on student behaviors in a first-grade classroom on Guam by using a behavior checklist. Melissa Meno provides our fourth article in this section titled “Chronic Absenteeism in a Second Chance School: What are the Root Causes and How Do We Mitigate It?” in which documented and undocumented reasons for absenteeism are reviewed in order evaluate the interventions provided for every student procedurally and to identify improvement points for the interventions that are beneficial for solving this problem. The final article in this part of Volume 27 is given to us by Carla Santelli. In her study titled the “Impact of Mathematical Learning Centers in a Fourth Grade Class on Guam” Santelli focused on finding the effects of small group student learning centers in a fourth-grade math class on Guam. By using games, interactive materials, and group learning to encourage mathematical skills refinement, she sought to increase student participation and performance during formal mathematical assessments. Section Three of Volume 27 consists of five critical essays. C. S. Schreiner, a professor of English at the University of Guam, writes “Stieglerian Meditations,” a series of critically informed depictions of various consumers and their situations within digital culture. The essay Professor Schreiner published in Micronesian Educator Volume 26, “Song of the Waif: Heterology of the Bereft,” was read by the author at McGill University in Montreal on June 5, 2019. John Currie, a poet and teacher from Rochester, New York, writes reader response criticism about the experience of “Returning to Kurt Vonnegut.” Michel Pharand, who was for many years editor of the journal Shaw Studies and curated the Disraeli Archive at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, writes about his experience as an editor. Paulette Coulter, a local author and teacher, compares two different pedagogies and learning strategies in “A Tale of Two Classrooms.” Section Four of Volume 27 consists of three book reviews. Christina Lee, reviews Sayak Valencia’s Gore Capital (Semiotexte/MIT Press, 2018). Via Justine de Fant reviews Jenny Hval’s novel, Paradise Rot (Verso Books, 2018). C. S. Schreiner reviews James C. Scott’s Two Cheers for Anarchism (Princeton UP, 2012). Thank you for reading this semester’s volume of the Micronesian Educator, and feel free to submit an article for consideration for Volume 28 which will be released in January, 2020. Best, Dr. Evelyn Doman Dr. Christopher Schreiner 4 Micronesian Educator #27 TABLE OF CONTENTS Section One: Research Articles Enhancing College Students’ Basic Skills in Quantitative Analyses of Research Data: A Case Study Dr. YUKIKO INOUE-SMITH pp. 7-15 Preparing ESL Students for Autonomy: A Case Study in Macau Dr. EVELYN DOMAN pp. 16-30 Historical Images of Women in CHamoru Culture CAMARIN G. MENO and IAIN K. B. TWADDLE pp. 31-36 Section Two: Action Research The Effects of Immersion Teaching in an Elementary CHamoru Classroom THELMA SORIANO pp. 38-49 Effects of Literacy Learning Centers in Increasing Sight Word Recognition among First- Grade Students in a Public School on Guam CHRISTINE VELASCO pp. 50-57 The Impact of a Classroom Job System on Student Classroom Behaviors SARA MANIBUSAN pp.58-67 Chronic Absenteeism in a Second Chance School: What are the Root Causes and How Do We Mitigate It? MELISSA C. MENO pp. 68-80 Impact of Mathematical Learning Centers in a Fourth Grade Class on Guam CARLA SANTELLI pp. 81-92 Section Three: Critical Essays Stieglerian Meditations C. S. SCHREINER pp. 94-106 On Returning to Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five JOHN CURRIE pp. 107-111 Confessions of a Copyeditor MICHEL PHARAND PP. 112-113 A Tale of Two Classrooms PAULETTE COULTER pp.