Education Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Transactional Distance In Asynchronous Telecourses At A Community College Using The Group Embedded Figures Test, Roger J. Brenner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Asynchronous distance education telecourses are the technological version of traditional correspondence courses. Students in asynchronous telecourses receive videos and printed material but they may not have any contact with the instructor or other students. This study analyzed the academic performance of 154 Southwest Virginia Community College students enrolled in 27 different telecourses during one semester. The purpose of this study was to determine if students' cognitive styles impacted their achievement in distance education courses. Students were given the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) which categorized the students as field dependent or field independent. A field dependent's cognitive style is one …

How Does The Teacher Know? One Teacher's Search For Authenticity In The Classroom, Ellen Catherine M. Eberly

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

The author, a master teacher of secondary language arts, shares her reflections on how she uses CCT skills to synthesize her insights and observations of her own learning, teaching, and investigative experiences - past and present -- in order to make VALID choices about what is worth knowing and teaching in a classroom preparing students for the 21st Century. In general, the thesis emphasizes the importance of AUTHENTICITY in determining whether a curriculum or teacher's instructional methodology is VALID for today's students. AUTHENTICITY is determined by the degree of personal connectivity experienced by both student and teacher with the subject …

Using Hands-On Manipulatives To Teach Problem Solving, Cynthia A. Greenwood

Critical and Creative Thinking Capstones Collection

As educators we share a link with the classic story of the "Velveteen Rabbit", as we also seek what is real. In education "real" is what holds meaning for the students and connects their world to the world of the classroom. As teachers we continually ask for the students' active participation, involvement and commitment to the learning task, but too often we teach only from the textbook. Classroom tasks that do go beyond textbook mastery may spark the students' interest, but sometimes appear to have no link to the reality of the students' world. Cognitive research reminds educators of the …

Meanings Underlying Student Ratings Of Faculty, Carolyn Ridenour, Stephen J. Blatt

Educational Leadership Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to examine how undergraduate students interpret the items on a faculty evaluation instrument. Most research on faculty evaluation is quantitative (Marsh and Bailey 1993). Our first study was also quantitative. After we produced a profile of quantitative ratings of faculty by students across all departments in our university in an earlier study, we wanted to go beneath the numbers to their meaning. We designed the present qualitative study to investigate what the items on that form meant to students.

Grading Teaching: An Evaluation Of Teaching Techniques Used By California Community College Introduction To Sociology Instructors, Lynette Ann Osborne-Estes

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Research on teaching techniques used in higher education report that instructors who use a mixed repertoire of styles promote optimal student learning. However, previous research also indicates that many college professors continue to use the less effective traditional lecture instead of implementing more student-centered methods of instruction. This thesis investigates two general research questions. (1) To what extent do community college instructors utilize teaching techniques that have been shown to promote optimal student learning? (2) What factors, if any, increase the probability of an instructor using the teaching techniques that promote optimal student learning? In order to address these questions …

Volume 09, Number 02, Richard F. Welch Editor

Reaching Through Teaching

Full text of Volume 09, Number 02 of Reaching Through Teaching.

A Comparison Of The Learning Styles Of Community College Versus Four-Year College And Male Versus Female College Students, Michele M. Booth

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the learning styles of community college versus four year college General Psychology students and male versus female college students from the combined groups, to ascertain if differences in learning style existed between the groups. The study identified David Kolb's Learning Styles Inventory elements that were important to the males/females and community college/four-year college students.

The sample included 16 General Psychology students from Salem Community College, and 29 General Psychology students from Rowan College. There were 27 female and 18 male students who participated from Salem Community College and Rowan College combined.

All …

Management Education: Valuing 'Differences' In The Classroom, Gloria Gordon Phd

Gloria Gordon PhD

In this paper a discussion is presented for the inclusion of the valuing of 'differences' between people as the cornerstone of hospitality management education curricula using a three-pronged approach. The models advocated for achieving this aim are 'identity development' (Myers, 1991), Action Learning (Revans, 1969) and Awareness and Competence (Howells, 1982). It is argued that the nature of the hospitality industry and the global environment which it serves demands such educational processes if self-aware, critical and ethical managers are to be developed. Empowerment of students through the development of critical thinking skills will enable them to become aware and reflective …

Honoring Exemplary Teaching In Research Universities, Mary Deane Sorcinelli, Barbara Gross Davis

Mary Deane Sorcinelli

Faculty surveys and interviews suggest that such elements as input from faculty, administrators, and students and the provision of varied awards for good teaching are important to the success of recognition programs at research universities.

Never In A Class By Themselves: An Examination Of Behaviors Affecting The Student-Professor Relationship, David J. Walsh, Mary Jo Maffei

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

We conducted a survey designed to assess the extent to which students and faculty viewed particular professor behaviors as enhancing or detracting from the student-professorrelationship. It was necessary to develop our own survey instrument, because although there are scales assessing related concepts such as immediacy, there is, to our knowledge, no existing instrument capturing the student-professor relationship broadly construed and with specific, behavioral items. Importantly, our survey instrument asks respondents for their views on the consequence of particular behaviors for the student-professor relationship, and not for a rating of professors in terms of the frequency with which they actually display …

Active Learning Beyond The Classroom, Edward Neal

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Attending class is akin to regular religious observance: The ritual or sermon is less important for what it teaches directly than for its motivational impact on what believers do between services. Lowman, 1984, page 165

Even carrying a full course load, students spend a relatively small proportion of each week in class, typically about 15 hours, and research has shown that most undergraduates spend only a few hours a week studying outside of class. How do they occupy their time? According to a national survey of college students (Boyer, 1987), almost 30 percent of full-time students work 21 or more …

Attacking Ideas, Not People: Using Structured Controversy In The College Classroom, Barbara L. Watters

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

In my version of structured controversy. students choose a controversial issue related to the course in which they are enrolled. prepare pro and con arguments based on course material. debate the issue formally in class, and engage in small-group discussions to discover common values and solutions. Although I have used structured controversy only with college students in psychology courses, it could be adapted easily for other age groups and academic subjects (Johnson and Johnson, 1979; Johnson and Johnson. 1987; Johnson. Johnson, and Holubec, 1993). Using structured controversy involves three steps: preparations, argumentation, and collaboration.

Integrating Research And Undergraduate Teaching, Anne Bezuidenhout

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

I would like to describe some of the benefits and difficulties I have encountered in my attempt to integrate my research and teaching in an introductory logic course. My introductory logic students work in groups on semester-long research projects. The research that these students are involved in belongs to the scholarship of integration, rather than the scholarship of discovery (Boyer, 1990). It is highly unlikely that most instructors will ever teach a student who will break new ground in their field. However, what most students can begin to do is to think about what role one body of knowledge or …

Teaching With Style: The Integration Of Teaching And Learning Styles In The Classroom, Anthony F. Grasha

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Teaching with style demands that instructors explore "Who I am as a teacher?" and "What do I want to become?" The integrated model provides one vehicle for doing so. The payoff is that we move away from blindly teaching as we were taught or simply repeating how we taught the course the last time. Instead. instructional strategies become grounded in a conceptual base of knowledge about teaching and learning styles. Like scholarly methods in our disciplines, instructional strategies then begin to serve broader philosophical, theoretical, and conceptual goals.

Students' Reactions To Performance-Based Versus Traditional Objective Assessment, Anthony L. Truog

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

In summary, the struggle to obtain more performance-based evaluation goes on. The results to date support the idea that more student involvement is better. The issue of cost-benefit analysis must be continually addressed, while not losing either the vision to make assessment intrinsic to the learning process, nor the efficiency of objective detachment. The really exciting aspect will be the personal growth of the students and their instructor.

Transactional Analysis Of The Creative Process, Donna Glee Williams

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Teachers of the creative process understand intuitively that different types of students need different types of teaching. The art students who splash paint with abandon over miles of canvas but have no interest in craftsmanship or self-evaluation need a different sort of intervention than the young artists who are so bullied by their own self-criticism that they can hardly bear to make a mark. The music students who by dint of excessive practice produce music-box accuracy--completely without fire--need a different sort of help than their sloppy but passionate colleagues. Our task as instructors is to understand our students’ needs and …

Honoring The Process For Honoring Teaching, Laurie Richlin, Brenda Manning

Professional and Organizational Development Network in Higher Education: Archives

Few ideas are as appealing on the surface as encouraging professors to gather and reflect on materials that best represent their teaching excellence. Indeed, developing a teaching portfolio, or dossier, has become a popular faculty development activity in many departments and on many campuses. To create a portfolio, faculty select syllabi, tests, student work, and student evaluations about one or more courses, and add a reflective statement, usually called a teaching philosophy, about their teaching goals. In almost all cases, reports from the field state that professors find reaffirming the teaching portfolio process and the opportunity to reflect on their …

Birthday Surprise, Hal Charles

Charlie Sweet

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Teacher Organization/Preparation And Teacher Skill/Clarity On General Cognitive Skills In College., Ernest Pascarella, Marcia Edison, Amaury Nora, Linda S. Hagedorn, John Braxton

Linda Serra Hagedorn

Controlling for such factors as precollege cognitive ability and academic motivation, ethnicity, gender, exposure to college, work responsibilities, and the pattern of courses taken, students reporting that the first-year instruction they received was well organized and prepared tended to demonstrate greater general cognitive development than their peers who reported receiving less organized and prepared instruction. Implications for student affairs are discussed.