Education Commons^™

Development And Evaluation Of A Model For Secondary Evolution Educators’ Professional Development Needs, William L. Romine, Ellen Barnett, Patricia J. Friedrichsen, Aaron J. Sickel

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Professional development (PD) efforts have improved acceptance and pedagogical practice related to the theory of evolution in high school biology teachers. However, these teachers express need for more PD related to evolution. It therefore becomes necessary to understand teachers’ PD needs prior to structuring PD efforts.

Methods

We formulated and validated a model to explain secondary teachers’ PD needs using data from a survey of 276 secondary biology teachers who reported teaching evolution.

Results

In addition to reliable subscales, we found that obstacles to teaching evolution, school and community support for evolution instruction, confidence in evolution instruction, and prior …

Impact Of A Diversity Conference On University Curriculum, Recruitment, And Accreditation Efforts, Christine M. Wilson, Autumn M. Palmer, Judith Puncochar

Conference Presentations

Diversity of students, faculty, administrative staff, community, and curriculum is an asset thought to strengthen and enrich students’ academic experiences. Responding to a charge from a Northern Michigan University president to place diversity at the center of a University Strategic Plan, members of a diversity advisory council proposed a plan to prepare the university and its students for a future in an increasingly diverse and globalized society. Integral to this plan was a diversity conference, UNITED (Uniting Neighbors in the Experience of Diversity), which went from an annual September event to an integral part of the university's academic fabric. Our …

Successive Study Of Diversity Conference Evaluations Of Presenters By Race, Gender, Sexual Orientation, And Disability, Autumn M. Palmer, Christine M. Wilson, Judith Puncochar

Conference Presentations

A Midwestern university’s annual diversity conference hosts about 1,500 attendees from a campus of 9,000 students. Using a successive independent samples design, a series of cross-sectional surveys were conducted to answer the research question, how does a presenter’s race, gender, and ability/disability affect participant responses on conference evaluations. A review of the literature has determined that our research represents the largest and longest empirical study of a higher education diversity conference in the United States. The research is a comparative study of evaluation trends of conference attendees toward diversity conference presenters based on race, gender, and disability over eight years …

Self-Assessment Of Employability Skill Outcomes Among Undergraduates And Alignment With Academic Ratings, Denise Jackson

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Despite acknowledgement of the benefits of self-assessment in higher education, disparity between student and academic assessments, with associated trends in overrating and underrating, plagues its meaningful use, particularly as a tool for formal assessment. This study examines self-assessment of capabilities in certain employability skills in more than 1000 Australian business undergraduates. It evaluates the extent to which student self-assessments differ from academics, in what ways and the influence of certain individual and background characteristics - such as stage of degree, gender and academic ability - on rating accuracy. Explanations for documented disparities are presented, in addition to implications and strategies …