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2007

Georgia Southern University

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Infant Mortality Trends Among Georgia Residents, 1995-2003: Targeting Healthy People’S 2010 Goals, Diana Sturges, Laura Gunn, Padmini Shankar, Shrikrishna Shroff Oct 2007

Infant Mortality Trends Among Georgia Residents, 1995-2003: Targeting Healthy People’S 2010 Goals, Diana Sturges, Laura Gunn, Padmini Shankar, Shrikrishna Shroff

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

Population-based trends in infant mortality among Georgia Residents between 1995 and 2003 were assessed on characteristics such as race, birth weight, neonatal and post-neonatal periods, and cause of death. A statistical analysis was conducted to show that the Georgia infant mortality rate (IMR) remained constant throughout the study period and averaged 8.67 per 1,000 live births. The analysis revealed racial disparities, with an IMR ranging from 6.03 in white infants to 13.76 in black infants, with less than one percent (0.86%) change, on average, among the differences between black and white mortality rates across the nine-year period. The disparities were …


Learning The Art Of Curriculum Deliberation: One Professor’S Story, Don Livingston Oct 2007

Learning The Art Of Curriculum Deliberation: One Professor’S Story, Don Livingston

Georgia Educational Researcher

This paper uses narrative methodology and theoretical sources found in the field of curriculum studies to tell the story of the author, who, while in his doctoral program, dismissed learning about the practical aspects of the field as being insipid time wasting activities. During this time, he chose to concentrate only on the theoretical aspects of the curriculum field in his doctoral studies. Yet, when he found himself in charge of two major efforts to change his department’s curriculum as well as reconceptualize a college-wide seminar program for first year students, those aspects of the field once perceived as insipid …


Unearthing The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In Self And Practice, Lorraine S. Gilpin Jul 2007

Unearthing The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning In Self And Practice, Lorraine S. Gilpin

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Bringing the principles and characteristics of the scholarship of teaching and learning into my university classroom has helped me support the development of teaching as scholarly activity for my students while cementing my own commitment in this regard. These students are preservice teachers, who have the opportunity to conduct peer observations and provide feedback to one another establishing a learning commons of sort. While engaged in an initial practicum experience, preservice elementary teachers observe and provide feedback on each other’s teaching. This paper will describe and analyze this peer observation and feedback activity as part of the cycle of the …


An Exploration Into The Use Of Manipulatives To Develop Abstract Reasoning In An Introductory Science Course, Heidi Fencl, Angie Huenink Jul 2007

An Exploration Into The Use Of Manipulatives To Develop Abstract Reasoning In An Introductory Science Course, Heidi Fencl, Angie Huenink

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Classical physics has a long history of using demonstrations and experiments to develop ideas in introductory courses. The purpose of this exploration is to examine the effectiveness of a desk-top activity for helping students develop abstract reasoning. In the pilot exploration, students in three laboratory sections of a single physics course were given different supplemental instructions on development of free body diagrams: standard instruction, system schemas, and a new approach building physical models of those schemas. Students using the physical models avoided common errors made by the other two groups. More importantly, their discussion with a student researcher about developing …


Qualitative Research On What Leads To Success In Professional Writing, Margaret Walters, Susan Hunter, Elizabeth Giddens Jul 2007

Qualitative Research On What Leads To Success In Professional Writing, Margaret Walters, Susan Hunter, Elizabeth Giddens

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This article examines the experiences of advanced students and of graduates in a non-traditional MA in professional writing program to discover how faculty may assure student success in professional writing occupations. The study investigates the knowledge domains and habits of mind that foster student success in writing. The research is the collaborative effort of three rhetoric and composition specialists. Their research discovered that successful writers (1) define success as gaining a response from readers; (2) master six knowledge domains—genre, writing process, rhetorical, subject matter, discourse community, and metacognitive knowledge; (3) put their knowledge into action through eight similar habits of …


Assessing The Gains From Concept Mapping In Introductory Statistics, David J. Doorn, Maureen O'Brien Jul 2007

Assessing The Gains From Concept Mapping In Introductory Statistics, David J. Doorn, Maureen O'Brien

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

In an effort to improve active learning in introductory statistics, we introduce the use of concept mapping techniques as part of the course. While previous papers have touted the use of this and other interactive teaching methods in statistics education, we add to this literature by providing additional assessment of its efficacy. This comes through an experimental design that involves a single instructor teaching two sections of the same statistics course over the same semester. Both cover the same material in the same way with the exception that concept mapping is used in one section, but not the other. Assessment …


Value Drivers In Business Course Design: A Student Stakeholder Perspective, John Knight, Daniel Tracy Jul 2007

Value Drivers In Business Course Design: A Student Stakeholder Perspective, John Knight, Daniel Tracy

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

As one of the important stakeholders in the academic process, students and their preferences should be considered when the instructor selects the various course design features. Although students are not the only stakeholders in the academic process, their receptiveness to classroom instruction is clearly a central focus of that process. This paper examines a large sample of business student data on their preferences with respect to fourteen controllable course design features. The preferences are examined in light of their relative ranked importance and relative intensity. Additionally, the data is examined in light of potential differences in student preferences relative to …


Using Autoethnography In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: Reflective Practice From ‘The Other Side Of The Mirror', Fernanda P. Duarte Jul 2007

Using Autoethnography In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: Reflective Practice From ‘The Other Side Of The Mirror', Fernanda P. Duarte

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Borrowing concepts from autoethnography – a writing genre in which the researcher ‘becomes’ the phenomenon under investigation – this essay is based on my reflections and recollections of important events and insights that occurred during my participation in a professional development project. This experience has significantly altered my outlook on teaching and learning, as it forced me to reflect more critically on why I teach the way I do, and look at my pedagogical practices anew. The first part provides a brief introduction of autoethnography as a reflexive writing genre; the second part presents the broad narrative – that of …


Cognitive Computer Tools In The Teaching And Learning Of Undergraduate Calculus, Nathan Borchelt Jul 2007

Cognitive Computer Tools In The Teaching And Learning Of Undergraduate Calculus, Nathan Borchelt

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of a cognitive computer tool by undergraduate calculus students as they worked cooperatively on mathematical tasks. Specific attention was given to levels of cognitive demand in which the students were engaged as they completed in-class labs with the assistance of MathCAD. Participants were assigned to eight heterogeneous working groups consisting of four students each. One group was chosen as the focus of the case study. Data included student questionnaires, individual interviews, assignments, audio transcriptions of student discussions, and video recordings. Open and axial coding was used to analyze the data. …


Teaching Ourselves: A Model To Improve, Assess And Spread The Word, Laura Levine, Carolyn R. Fallahi, Joan Nicoll-Senft, Jack Tessier, Cheryl Watson, Rebecca Wood Jul 2007

Teaching Ourselves: A Model To Improve, Assess And Spread The Word, Laura Levine, Carolyn R. Fallahi, Joan Nicoll-Senft, Jack Tessier, Cheryl Watson, Rebecca Wood

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This paper presents a model for small, interdisciplinary groups of faculty to work together to improve their teaching while engaging in research that provides evidence of improved student learning. In doing so, we have developed a four-step process of faculty-driven scholarship of teaching and learning: Genesis, Organization, Implementation and Dissemination. We illustrate this model by describing our use of Fink’s (2003) concepts of course design to reshape our courses and assess the effectiveness of these changes through examination of student learning. We describe how others may follow this approach with a variety of applications.


Developing And Assessing Undergraduate Students’ Moral Reasoning Skills, Karen Hornsby Jul 2007

Developing And Assessing Undergraduate Students’ Moral Reasoning Skills, Karen Hornsby

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

"What does deep ethical understanding look like and how can we measure the progression of this aptitude?" Qualitative and quantitative data collected from students in Contemporary Moral Problems courses over two successive semesters revealed that the development of moral reasoning skills is a slow process. The progression of moral reasoning does not occur in a linear fashion nor is there a point at which a person will have satisfied all of the necessary and sufficient conditions for good moral reasoning. Student artifacts collected present moral reasoning skills as more of an ebb and flow, a type of coherence model with …


Clinicians’ Perception Of Inmates’ Satisfaction With Mental Health Services, Jerry B. Daniel, Wynne S. Korr Apr 2007

Clinicians’ Perception Of Inmates’ Satisfaction With Mental Health Services, Jerry B. Daniel, Wynne S. Korr

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

A growing body of literature addresses the mental health needs of prison inmates; however, very little research has examined mental health services among this population. Based on the Behavioral Model of Health Services Use (Andersen Model), the current study examined clinicians’ perception of inmates’ satisfaction with mental health services. The study’s main objective was to identify the effect of three major groups of predictor variables (predisposing, enabling, and need) on clinicians’ perception with inmates’ satisfaction with mental health services. The study utilized an exploratory, survey methodology. Although only a few variables were found to be statistically significant in the multivariate …


Relationship Of Fruit And Vegetable Servings And Self-Reported Diabetics In The Southeast And Northeast, Marylen Rimando, Faye Lopez, Haritha Battula Apr 2007

Relationship Of Fruit And Vegetable Servings And Self-Reported Diabetics In The Southeast And Northeast, Marylen Rimando, Faye Lopez, Haritha Battula

Journal of the Georgia Public Health Association

According to the American Diabetes Association, most diabetic patients are not consuming the recommended 3-5 servings of vegetables and 2-4 servings of fruits a day. This study examined fruit and vegetable servings of self-reported diabetics (N=35,407) in select southeastern and northeastern states using Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) 2005 data. The estimate for both fruit and vegetable servings and self-reported diabetes was determined using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for sociodemographics and geographic region. The results indicated a significant difference between fruit and vegetable servings for diabetics and non-diabetics (p<0.0001). A higher percentage of diabetics in the northeast consumed more than three servings of fruit and vegetables when compared to diabetics in the southeast. Respondents in the northeast were 21% more likely to consume five or more servings of fruit and vegetables and 16% less likely to be diabetic than those in the southeast after adjusting for age, race, sex, and geographic region. In conclusion, diabetics in the northeast consumed more servings of fruit and vegetables than did those in the southeast. Multiple factors influence fruit and vegetable consumption and diabetes and should be considered when developing targeted nutritional interventions. Diabetes educators, nurses, and physicians can encourage diabetic patients to consume more fruit and vegetables and motivate them to continue eating fruit and vegetables.


Histoire(S) De Catherine M.: Echoes Of “O” And The Difference Of “I” In La Vie Sexuelle De Catherine M., Adrienne Angelo Mar 2007

Histoire(S) De Catherine M.: Echoes Of “O” And The Difference Of “I” In La Vie Sexuelle De Catherine M., Adrienne Angelo

The Coastal Review: An Online Peer-reviewed Journal

This article compares Catherine Millet’s La vie sexuelle de Catherine M. (2001) to another work of erotic “fiction:” Pauline Réage’s Histoire d’O (1954). The scandal surrounding the publication of both works focused on the taboo subject of sexuality, and more significantly, on the role of the female author in writing such a graphic work. While Réage’s fictional account of one woman’s sexual experiences is told through a third-person narrator, Millet describes her own experiences in the first-person. However, the continual multiplication of this first-person narrator complicates a reading of her work that would presuppose that one is reading an autobiographical …


Dialogic Communication In Collaborative Problem Solving Groups, Robert B. Innes Jan 2007

Dialogic Communication In Collaborative Problem Solving Groups, Robert B. Innes

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Discourse, especially dialogic communication between students in collaborative problem-solving groups, plays a central role in educational reforms informed by learning science. This study examined the quality of discourse in problem-based learning groups in a university course. The study found a low incidence of high quality dialogue (dialogic communication, elaboration and co-construction of ideas, productive disciplinary discourse) in 12 one-hour planning meetings. The most competent students took leadership in groups and made the majority of the conceptual contributions. Although there was a reasonable amount of time spent connecting theories to cases, there was little time spent in high-level analysis and very …


Allowing Not-Knowing In A Dialogic Discussion, José Alfonso Feito Jan 2007

Allowing Not-Knowing In A Dialogic Discussion, José Alfonso Feito

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Inspired by Bakhtin’s and Vygotsky’s theories of learning, this project explores how “allowing not-knowing” is enacted within collaborative student-led seminar discussions. Earlier research on student reflections (Feito, 2002) suggested that in successful seminars, participants regularly acknowledge their lack of understanding, offer partial understandings, and collectively develop new meanings. This project tracks these phenomena within actual classroom discourse. A detailed discourse analysis of a small “Great Books” seminar session (N=16) describes how students construct a learning environment conducive to not-knowing and the open-ended construction of meaning. The students used discourse markers and sequencing to invite the recursive manipulation of ideas by …


Powerpoint Presentation Handouts And College Student Learning Outcomes, Illene C. Noppe Ph.D. Jan 2007

Powerpoint Presentation Handouts And College Student Learning Outcomes, Illene C. Noppe Ph.D.

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

This investigation sought to determine if supplementing lectures using Microsoft PowerPoint slides with handouts of the slides enhanced test-taking performance in an undergraduate Human Development course. In the first study, one section of the course (N=50) was given handouts for one exam and a final; the other (N=50) received handouts only for the final. No significant differences in test performance occurred across sections. The second study, conducted the following semester for two sections of the same course, assessed whether the receipt of PowerPoint handouts was moderated by learning styles. Learning styles were not predictive of improved test performance as a …


Effects Of Information Distributions Strategies On Student Performance And Satisfaction In A Web-Based Course Management System, Margaret C. Lohman Jan 2007

Effects Of Information Distributions Strategies On Student Performance And Satisfaction In A Web-Based Course Management System, Margaret C. Lohman

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The effects of three information distribution strategies in a course management system (CMS) on student performance and satisfaction were investigated. Analysis of the data found that the distribution of instructional materials in class resulted in significantly higher student performance on an end-of-the-semester technical knowledge test than when instructional materials were available to students via a CMS either at the beginning of the semester or one week before each of the class sessions in which the materials were to be covered. However, no significant differences were found among the three information distribution strategies on total points earned in the course or …


Factors That Influence Faculty Actions: A Study On Faculty Responses To Academic Dishonesty, Terry Coalter, Chi Lo Lim, Tekle Wanorie Jan 2007

Factors That Influence Faculty Actions: A Study On Faculty Responses To Academic Dishonesty, Terry Coalter, Chi Lo Lim, Tekle Wanorie

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

Persistent academic dishonesty has perplexed researchers who focus their studies on why students cheat. There are limited studies regarding the faculty perspective of this issue. This study explores factors that influence faculty action when faced with dishonesty or evidence of dishonesty. A questionnaire consisting of thirty-five items was sent to all 242 faculty members of a mid-size state university in the United States . The results of the study indicated that a majority of the respondents agree that dishonesty is a major problem, and they agreed that it is critical to take proactive measures to deter dishonesty; however, the respondents …


The Kennesaw State University Mathematics Methods Model, Angela L. Teachey Jan 2007

The Kennesaw State University Mathematics Methods Model, Angela L. Teachey

Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators

Kennesaw State University’s comprehensive, nine-credit-hour, methods course integrates general and mathematics-specific pedagogical training with a structured four-week field experience prior to student teaching. This course blends essential units on conceptual understanding of mathematics, lesson planning, assessment, classroom management, and diversity with mathematics-specific methods. All topics are aligned with National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards and Georgia Performance Standards. Throughout the course, students complete a variety of assignments that require them to practice the skills highlighted in class readings and discussions, and they adapt and generalize those skills during their field experiences. Students have numerous opportunities in class and in …