Digital Commons Network^™

[Manuscript | English] Supporting The 21 St Century Learner: Building The Multimedia Production Center At The University Of Massachusetts Amherst, Sarah Hutton

Sarah C Hutton

At the University of Massachusetts Amherst, instructors are increasingly utilizing active,group, and participatory teaching methods and are offering students opportunities to opt into more creative assignments requiring the use of advanced technologies in support of multimedia projects. Traditionally, video projects would be expected from discourses such as Film Studies, Journalism and Communications students; the insurgence of this type of multimedia project has come to subjects from Anthropology to History, and the incoming required Freshman Writing course now has a built-in unit which specifically invites writing and research in a variety of technological media outside of the traditional research paper. The …

A House Divided: The Incompatible Positions Of The Centers For Disease Control And The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission On Obesity As A Disability, Kent Kauffman

Kent D Kauffman

The question whether obesity was a covered disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was inconsistently answered by the federal courts. But the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA) revised the federal government's position on obesity as a disability, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has, as a result, taken a more assertive role in this area of disability discrimination. The difficulty with the EEOC's position is that is disregards the reality that obesity presents in the workplace, one of ever-burgeoning and unsustainable costs. It is also a stance that is antipathetic to …

The Changing Distributions Of New Ph.D. Economists And Their Employment: Implications For The Future, Ronald Ehrenberg

Ronald G. Ehrenberg

[Excerpt] Academic careers are no longer the be-all and end-all for economics Ph.D. students, and the findings and background provided by Siegfried and Stock help to explain why this is so. The median age at which individuals receive economics Ph.D.'s in the Siegfried and Stock sample is 32. While they are somewhat surprised at this finding, it parallels the experiences of many other fields. Increasingly, students are working before proceeding to doctoral studies. Often Ph.D. students in economics enter their programs after having spent several years working for government agencies or research consulting companies—work that has whetted their appetites for …

Integrating Engineering Science And Design: A Definition And Discussion, Benjamin Linder, Woodie Flowers

Benjamin Linder

An important goal of an undergraduate engineering curriculum is to facilitate students' development of an integrated understanding of engineering. Although attempts have been made to integrate engineering science and design curricula, many students are not developing knowledge and skills that synthesize the subjects covered by these two curricula. A few observations of student performance are provided that suggest this lack of integration. A definition of integration is proposed and used to discuss possible reasons why engineering science and design curricula are not well integrated. The definition is based on the observable outcomes and behavior students produce while engaged in learning …

When In China, Do As The Chinese Do? Learning Compliment Responding In A Study Abroad Program, Li Jin

Li Jin

近年来中国大陆吸引了越来越多以英语为母语的留学生。留学生在中国留学期间是否学习到并在语言行为上体现中国文化的礼节方式是个很值得研究的话题。本文使用定性分析方式研究了美国大学生在中国上海暑期语言学习期间（八周）所习得的汉语称赞答复方式及学习称赞答复的过程。考察对象为四名在美国中西部一所私立大学学习汉语，以英语为母语的学生。其中两名二年级学生，两名三年级学生。数据来源为学生参加暑期学习班初期的问卷调查，每周一次的单独采访（一共六次），学生每周的博客，及本文作者的现场观察记录。分析结果发现四名学生学习到不同的称赞答复方式，称赞答复方式的学习过程复杂并受到个人在暑期学习期间社会经历的影响。本文并讨论了影响以英语为母语学生在中国短期留学期间学习称赞答复方式的各种社会及文化因素。 Recent years have witnessed an increasing number of English-speaking students studying abroad in China. Whether these students can learn and reflect in their behaviors certain uniquely Chinese-style speech acts during their sojourn in China merits investigation. This paper reports on a case study investigating what and how four American university-level students developed knowledge and skills of compliment responding in Mandarin Chinese when they were participating in an 8-week intensive summer language program in Shanghai. Among the four participants, two were from a 2nd-year Mandarin Chinese class and two from a 3rd-year class. The qualitative data were collected from one …

Aln Business Models And The Transformation Of Higher Education, Gary Miller, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

The ways institutions have structured their initial innovation with online learning vary greatly. Initial business model decisions present different challenges in terms of how institutions will integrate online learning. This paper looks at several common business models and the opportunities and challenges that each presents to institutions that want to fully integrate online learning.

Business Models For Online Learning: An Exploratory Survey, Karen Vignare, Christine Geith, Stephen Schiffman

Stephen Schiffman

Despite the rapid growth in the adoption of online learning, there is a dearth of detailed information on effective business models, business strategies and effective practices on which to build sustainable online education programs. A survey instrument was developed as an initial attempt to define business models and business strategies for online learning. The survey results yielded some interesting data about which online learning financial models seem to have more or less "control" of which business functions. The sample was a convenience one and as such will require further filtering of data. It is also clear that more needs to …

'Kinetic Sculptures': A Centerpiece Project Integrated With Mathematics And Physics, Yevgeniya Zastavker, Jill Crisman, Mark Jeunnette, Burt Tilley

Yevgeniya V. Zastavker

An integrated set of courses, or Integrated Course Block (ICB), developed for incoming first-year students at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, is presented. Bound by a common theme of `Kinetic Sculptures', the individual courses in this ICB are mathematics (single variable calculus and ordinary differential equations), physics (kinetics and dynamics of linear and rotational motion, thermodynamics and fluids), and an open-ended engineering project. The project part of the ICB allows students to explore the motion through the design of kinetic (moving) sculptures while utilizing the mathematics and physics concepts learned in the accompanying courses. This paper considers the …

Statistical Methods Used In Gifted Education Journals, 2006-2010, Russell Warne, Maria Lazo, Tami Ramos, Nicola Ritter

Russell T Warne

This article describes the statistical methods used in quantitative and mixed methods articles between 2006 and 2010 in five gifted education research journals. Results indicate that the most commonly used statistical methods are means (85.9% of articles), standard deviations (77.8%), Pearson’s r (47.8%), χ2 (32.2%), ANOVA (30.7%), t tests (30.0%), and MANOVA (23.0%). Approximately half (53.3%) of the articles included reliability reports for the data at hand; Cronbach’s alpha was the most commonly reported measure of reliability (41.5%). Some discussions of best statistical practice and implications for the field of gifted education are included.

An Australian Based Study On The Readability Of Hiv/Aids And Type 2 Diabetes Clinical Trial Informed Consent Documents, Laura Buccini, Donald Iverson, Peter Caputi, Caroline Jones

Don C. Iverson

The aims of this study were to measure the readability of Australian based informed consent documents and determine whether informed consent readability guidelines have been established by Australian human research ethics committees (HRECs). A total of 20 informed consent documents, 10 HIV/AIDS and 10 type 2 diabetes, were measured for readability using the Simple Measure of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and Gunning Fog Index (Fog). Published guidelines and policy statements of the two local HREC who approved the 20 clinical trials under study where examined to identify whether they had any formal policies/guidelines on the readability of informed consent documents. The two …

The Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network: Background Progress Report, Lori Lockyer, R Futcher, F Ashbury, Don Iverson

Don C. Iverson

The Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network (SCRN) was established in 1994 by the National Cancer Institute of Canada (NCIC) with funding from the Canadian Cancer Society (CCS). The network was created to facilitate the development of behavioural science studies that would contribute to a fuller understanding of the cancer experience, from prevention through detection, treatment and post treatment (including palliative care). This article describes the nature of network research, the development and organization of the Sociobehavioural Cancer Research Network and the challenges it faces.

Assessing Clinical Trial Informed Consent Comprehension In Non-Cognitively-Impaired Adults: A Systematic Review Of Instruments, Laura Buccini, Don Iverson, Peter Caputi, Caroline Jones, Sheridan Gho

Don C. Iverson

This systematic review identifies and critically evaluates instruments that have been developed to measure clinical trial informed consent comprehension in non-cognitively-impaired adults. Literature searches were carried out on Medline (Ovid), PsycInfo, CINHAL, ERIC, ScienceDirect, and Cochrane Library for English language articles published between January 1980 and September 2008. Instruments were excluded if they focused on consent onto paediatric trials, the construct under study was primarily capacity or competency, or the instrument was developed specifically for psychiatric or cognitively-impaired populations. Instruments selected for review were evaluated against the following criteria: (1) method of item generation; (2) type and format of test …

What Factors Influence Children's Activity?, Anne-Maree Parrish, Kenneth Russell, Heather Yeatman, Donald Iverson

Don C. Iverson

The school environment has an essential role in encouraging children to exercise. This study explores variables which may contribute to increased activity levels on the playground.

Pictorial Map Effects On Learning How To Summarize, Richard Desoiza

Rick DeSoiza

Inadvertent plagiarism among college students is caused by misunderstanding the rules and expectations about how to summarize source passages. Visual instruction in the form of a pictorial map is one way to address this problem and to teach students how to properly restate source text. Sixty-six college students from two universities participated in a quasi-experimental study in which an experimental group used a pictorial map instructional strategy and a control group used an underline/circle text instructional strategy to write summaries. The results showed that students in the pictorial map group wrote significantly better quality summaries for both high-interest politics passages …

The Research Critique Approach To Educating Sociology Students, Rachel Filinson, Darek Niklas

Darek Niklas

In recent years, instructors of methods courses have made a repeated plea in pedagogical journals for teaching students research techniques through "doing" or simulating a real project (Ballard 1987; Cutler 1987; Irish 1987; Ransford and Butler 1982; Stoddart 1987; Takata and Leiting 1987; Weiss 1987). Approaches are varied; they include individual, group, or class research projects that generate data for class-specific projects, collect data for external consumption, or use existing data. It is argued that the disembodied knowledge of scientific inquiry presented in the classroom must be supplemented concurrently by an exposure to the actual process of research. Only by …

Challenging Mobile Learning Discourse Through Research: Student Perceptions Of Blackboard Mobile Learn And Ipads, Shelley Kinash, Jeffrey Brand, Trishita Mathew

Trishita Mathew

Many university academics disagree with the rationale that we should pursue mobile learning because 21st century students are apparently demanding it. We argue that the only defensible rationale for making mobile learning part of pedagogy is because it enhances student learning. This presentation shares results from research with 135 students engaged in mobile learning over two semesters. It addresses the question of whether Blackboard Mobile Learn made a perceived difference to their learning. Results revealed that in-class, students used their mobile devices for Blackboard Mobile Learn to the same extent as they used them for searching the web for study, …

Challenging Mobile Learning Discourse Through Research: Student Perceptions Of Blackboard Mobile Learn And Ipads, Shelley Kinash, Jeffrey Brand, Trishita Mathew

Jeffrey Brand

Many university academics disagree with the rationale that we should pursue mobile learning because 21st century students are apparently demanding it. We argue that the only defensible rationale for making mobile learning part of pedagogy is because it enhances student learning. This presentation shares results from research with 135 students engaged in mobile learning over two semesters. It addresses the question of whether Blackboard Mobile Learn made a perceived difference to their learning. Results revealed that in-class, students used their mobile devices for Blackboard Mobile Learn to the same extent as they used them for searching the web for study, …

Pre-Teen Alcohol Use As A Risk Factor For Victimization And Perpetration Of Bullying Among Middle And High School Students In Georgia, Monica Swahn, Volkan Topalli, Bina Ali, Sheryl Strasser, Jeffrey Ashby, Joel Meyers

Monica H. Swahn

Objective: We examined the association between pre-teen alcohol use initiation and the victimization and perpetration of bullying among middle and high school students in Georgia.

Methods: We computed analyses using data from the 2006 Georgia Student Health Survey (N=175,311) of students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12. The current analyses were limited to students in grades 8, 10 and 12 (n=122,434). We used multilogistic regression analyses to determine the associations between early alcohol use and reports of both victimization and perpetration of bullying, perpetration only, victimization only, and neither victimization or perpetration, while controlling for demographic characteristics, other substance …

Test Candidates’ Attitudes And Their Relationship To Demographic And Experiential Variables: The Case Of Overseas Trained Teachers In Nsw, Australia, Judith (Judie) L. Cross Dr, Jill C. Murray Dr, Mehdi Riazi Assoc. Prof.

Judith (Judie) L Cross

One measure of the impact of a high-stakes test is the attitudes that test takers hold towards it. It has been suggested that positive attitudes produce beneficial effects while real or anticipated negative experiences can result in the development of attitudes that erode confidence and potentially impact negatively on performance. This study investigated test taker attitudes by exploring the opinions, beliefs, and feelings of a group of overseas trained teachers preparing for a professional gate-keeping test, and examining correlations between attitudes and demographic and experiential factors. The participants were 105 candidates who were enrolled in a preparation course for the …

Democratic Education Only For Some: Secondary Schooling In Northern Uganda, Philip Kelly, Stephen Odama

Philip P. Kelly

This article analyzes the effects of the political, social and cultural contexts of secondary education in northern Uganda. Specifically, the authors examine interactions between several factors with the schooling system, including

• post-colonial curriculum,
• centralized examination system,
• several decades of war and instability,
• poverty, and
• intra-national and inter-tribal prejudice and discrimination.

Informing the analysis is the fact that Uganda is a democracy and thus has certain democratic responsibilities to its children and students. To explore these issues, the lenses of democratic theory and critical theory are employed.

Teacher Preparation For Inclusive Education: Increasing Knowledge But Raising Concerns, Chris Forlin, Dianne Chambers

Dianne J Chambers

The role of the generalist teacher is now affirmed as being an important component in the success or otherwise of inclusive education practice. Issues about the effectiveness of teacher preparation for working in inclusive classes have arisen. An evaluation of pre-service teachers' perceptions regarding their preparedness for inclusion had some interesting findings. The study found that increasing knowledge about legislation and policy related to inclusion, and improving levels of confidence in becoming inclusive teachers, did not likewise address their concerns, or perceived stress, about having students with disabilities in their classes. As universities re-evaluate their teacher preparation courses, a range …

Interpreting Inclusivity: An Endeavour Of Great Proportions, Richard G. Berlach, Dianne Chambers

Dianne J Chambers

Commencing with a historical account of how special needs education has informed the inclusivity debate, the authors consider the knotty problem of what is meant by inclusivity. An examination of the characteristics of inclusivity is then undertaken, and a functional school-based inclusivity framework – a three-faceted model – is proposed. The model commences with a philosophical underpinning designed to generate a number of emphases to be determined by the school. Once agreed upon, these are then operationalised for classroom practices. It is contended that the model is a defensible way of facilitating the development of an inclusivity ethos within the …

Relationship Of Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors Of Primary Caregivers With A History Of Sexual Abuse And Perfectionism In Their Sexually Abused Children, Alyssa Lundahl, Tiffany West, Elaine Martin, Christopher Campbell, Jayci Vanderbeek, David Hansen

David J. Hansen

Childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is associated with many short- and long-term sequelae including obsessive-compulsive behaviors (OCB) and perfectionism. Research suggests that the expression of child perfectionism may be influenced by caregivers’ OCB and CSA history. Caregivers with a CSA history may engage in dysfunctional parenting styles associated with child perfectionism, while children of caregivers with OCB may exhibit increased perfectionism due to genetics and/or the internalization of their parents’ perfectionist tendencies. However, given the high prevalence of OCB among those with a CSA history, the relationships among caregivers’ expression of OCB, caregivers’ CSA history, and child perfectionism is unclear. Thus, …

Videopoetry: Integrating Video, Poetry And History In The Classroom, James Armstrong, Peter Lutze, Laura Woodworth-Ney

James Armstrong

VideoPoetry integrates video and poetry to explore historical or geographic subjects. VideoPoetry is both a process and a product. This paper will use a short VideoPoem, "Mary Hallock Foote at Stone House," to demonstrate how students of all educational levels can become engaged in creating VideoPoetry. Each VideoPoem offers students a cross-disciplinary experience that involves research, analysis of information, imaginative writing and video composition leading to a classroom presentation of the final product. As a process VideoPoetry requires the investigation of a subject, in this case, Mary Hallock Foote, artist and illustrator of the Western United States. Based on the …

Developing A Culture Of Reclamation: Integrating History, Poetry And Video, James Armstrong, Peter Lutze, Laura Woodworth-Ney

James Armstrong

Culture of Reclamation (Armstrong, Lutze, & Woodworth-Ney, in progress) is a sequence of "videopoems" about Idaho, integrating poetry, historical photographs, music and videography in a video presentation, which also includes historical narrative. Three Idaho scholars in the fields of history, literacy education, and communication—the historian (Laura), poet (Jamie), and videographer (Peter)—collaborated on this cross-disciplinary project to reclaim a portion of the history of this state in a creative and engaging medium. Culture of Reclamation expresses a response to the culture of the early irrigated settlement communities along the Snake and Boise rivers. Between 1894 and 1920, a land rush to …

Videopoetry: Historical Photography In The Desert Garden, Peter Lutze, James Armstrong, Laura Woodworth-Ney

James Armstrong

This paper presents an integration of poetry, history and photography through the video medium to convey a cultural history of the irrigated desert in southern Idaho, USA, around 1900. The VideoPoetry project is an investigation of cultural history that employs video and poetry to make it come alive. This social history is revealed through the lives of Clarence E. Bisbee and Jessie Robinson Bisbee of Twin Falls, Idaho. Their marriage focused on their photography business that involved documenting the transformation of the desert into farms, towns, and cities. This project brings out for public view a selection of historical photographs …

Strategies For Hope And Sustainability, The Beginning Principal: Needs And Challenges, Debra Sayce, Shane D. Lavery

Shane D Lavery

Since the 1990s, educational leaders in developed countries have experienced significant change across all educational systems. To date, this momentum for rapid change has continued unabated. Political pressures on schools continue to increase as short term governments expect improvements in educational outcomes in shortened periods of time. Public expectations of performance by schools are intensifying. School effectiveness dominates professional discourse. Learning technologies have expanded. Family contexts have changed and the nature of the educational workforce is dictated by society s economic and social situation. Catholic school principals, in addition to coping with such issues, are also regarded as leaders within …

Employing Critical Reflection In An Online Emergency Services Course, R Maxfield, John Fisher

Dr. John R. Fisher

Non-traditional students in an online course in Homeland Security used the DEAL model of critical reflection to describe (a) what they learned, (b) how they learned it, (c)why it matters, and (d) what they will do with what they learned. Online discussion of readings proved to be the most effective learning technique used in the course because it incorporated reflective practices and allowed application of real-life experiences.

Editorial: Social Inclusion--Are We There Yet?, Kimberley Mcmahon Coleman, Alisa Percy, Bronwyn James

Alisa Percy, PhD

This special edition of the Journal of Academic Language and Learning arose out of a Forum titled Critical Discussions about Social Inclusion held at the University of Wollongong, Australia in June 2011. It was organised by academic language and learning educators from five different universities: Ingrid Wijeyewardene from the University of New England, Helen Drury from the University of Sydney, Caroline San Miguel from the University of Technology Sydney, Stephen Milnes from the Australian National University, and ourselves from the University of Wollongong. Initially funded by a grant from the Association for Academic Language and Learning, this funding was later …

The Effect Of Different Active Learning Environments On Student Outcomes Related To Lifelong Learning, Susan Lord, Michael Prince, Candice Stefanou, Jonathan Stolk, John Chen

Jonathan Stolk

Calls for educational reform emphasize the need for students to develop a capacity for lifelong learning. Lifelong learners may be characterized as curious, motivated, reflective, analytical, persistent, flexible, and independent—traits that are critical for success in today’s globalized economy. Stakeholders in engineering education recognize that students’ development of the capacity for lifelong learning is vital for their success and that instructors play a critical role in influencing such outcomes. However, there is a critical lack of research in this area. This research investigates how instructor choices of active learning pedagogies affect student outcomes related to their development as lifelong learners …