Education Commons^™

Becoming Part Of The Conversation Through Assessment Of Undergraduate Library Internships, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn Martin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Any recent attendee at an academic library conference would likely note the large number of panels, posters, presentations, and roundtables that focus on libraries partnering and collaborating with other campus stakeholders, such as admissions, international student services, the writing center, and so on. Our library is no different.

Gettysburg College is a four-year liberal arts institution located in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, with an enrollment of 2,600 students. Musselman Library serves its campus population with thirteen librarians and nineteen staff members. In a small college environment, collaborating with other campus stakeholders is not only desirable, it is essential if the library wants …

Final Portfolio - Sparc Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, Christopher A. Barnes

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Final portfolio of work completed for the SPARC Open Education Leadership Program, 2017-18, including the Capstone Project Final Report, the Community Resource entitled “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs: A Practical Guide for Librarians,” and the blog Opening Up Liberal Arts Colleges (linked). “Piloting Faculty OER Grant Programs" is also available separately in The Cupola.

College Students’ Personality Traits In Relation To Career Readiness, Shelby R. Overacker, Carly E. Kalis, Francesca Coppola

Student Publications

This study examined sixty-one Gettysburg College juniors and seniors (31 males, 30 females) to measure how the Big Five personality traits, and whether a student has Type D characteristics, determines if a student is career ready. We collected data through an in-person survey, with questions about personality traits, ambition, career readiness, and demographics. Regression was used to statistically analyze our first hypothesis. The results found that there is a significant positive association between conscientiousness and career readiness, but there is no significant association between extraversion and career readiness. For the second hypothesis, a mediation model was used. We found that …

Books Or Baskets: Compromising The Education And Future Of Black Student-Athletes, Jessica L. Laemle

Student Publications

In this paper, I discuss the challenges and inequalities that Black male athletes face while playing college sports, particularly basketball and football at PWIs. I explore how this focus on sports pushes these individuals to focus on athletics rather than academics, as they are there on scholarships and are focused primarily on representing their schools and becoming professional athletes. I discuss multiple factors that play into these student-athletes' idea that athletics are more important than academics. Using multiple studies, I give information and statistics on the outcomes of these athletes. I also provide limitations of the studies I use so …

Do We See Eye To Eye? Moderators Of Correspondence Between Student And Faculty Evaluations Of Day-To-Day Teaching, Kathleen M. Cain, Benjamin M. Wilkowski, Christopher P. Barlett, Colleen D. Boyle, Brian P. Meier

Psychology Faculty Publications

Students and instructors show moderate levels of agreement about the quality of day-to-day teaching. In the present study, we replicated and extended this finding by asking how correspondence between student and instructor ratings is moderated by time of semester and student demographic variables. Participants included 137 students and 5 instructors. On 10 separate days, students and instructors rated teaching effectiveness and challenge level of the material. Multilevel modeling indicated that student and instructor ratings of teaching effectiveness converged overall, but more advanced students and Caucasian students converged more closely with instructors. Student and instructor ratings of challenge converged early but …

Connecting Over Coffee: Extending Library Services For Students Through New Campus Partnerships, Kevin Moore, Meggan D. Smith

All Musselman Library Staff Works

One meeting with potential partners on campus can turn into a new, exciting initiative to reach underrepresented and first-generation college students. Librarians at a small, private liberal arts college will share how they collaborated with the Office of Multicultural Engagement on their campus to provide reference services to students outside of the library. Emphasis was focused on serving first year students from underrepresented groups, however, the service was open to and used by students from a variety of backgrounds and class years. The speakers will share lessons learned, plans for future development, and assessment strategies.

“Lattes With A Librarian”: Collaborating With Campus Partners To Offer Reference Services, Kevin Moore, Meggan D. Smith

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Librarians met with colleagues in the Office of Multicultural Engagement (OME) to discuss new opportunities to support student initiatives. Lattes with a Librarian was proposed as a way to provide reference services for students outside of the library. Six dates during the fall semester were selected where a librarian would offer reference services for an hour in the College Union Building.

More Than “Just An Intern”: Undergraduate Internships In Academic Libraries, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn S. Martin

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation reports on the findings of a 2016 assessment of undergraduate internships at Musselman Library. The presentation will include the impact of these high-impact experiences on previous interns’ development of career goals, acceptance to and preparation for graduate education, and their early career.

Innovating Peer Research Programs Together, Tatiana Pashkova-Balkenhol, Mallory R. Jallas

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This presentation provides details about two distinctive and unique peer learning programs at Gettysburg College and Millersville University. It also highlights how our collaboration sparked new initiatives to advance each of our peer research programs.

Allison Singley, Director Of Parent Relations, Musselman Library, Allison C. Singley

Next Page

In our new Next Page column, Allison Singley, Director of Parent Relations, shares with us the three books she is currently reading and why it might take her a while to finish them, her two desert island books (one of which inspired her doctoral dissertation), how she maintains a habit of reading poetry daily, and why she doesn’t write in books anymore — or feel the need to finish one!

Support And Care For The Mental Health Of Collegiate Athletes, Brynn C. Griffith

Student Publications

While college is often one of the best times of a person’s life, it is also often one of the most challenging. College students are under immense pressure to succeed in all of their activities while still doing well in their classes and graduating within four years. This especially holds true for collegiate athletes. Student-athletes are under constant pressure to succeed in both the classroom as well as the athletic field. Balancing these challenges can be overwhelming for athletes to handle. Stress from academics and the new social structure is tough but when athletics are added, sometimes it gets to …

Teach Your Students Well: This Land Is Their Land, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Most people know Woody Guthrie as the author of the song that's often called our second national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land." Not everyone knows that it's a protest song. In the winter of 1940, Guthrie was hitchhiking his way east to New York City at the invitation of Will Geer, an actor best known later in his life for playing Grandpa Zebulon Tyler Walton on the show "The Waltons." At the time, Geer was a stage actor and political activist who saw something in Woody Guthrie that he wanted to share with the rest of the world. Guthrie, …

Bringing Stories To Life By Sharing Archival Material, Christina M. Noto

Student Publications

Last summer I researched the experiences of women at Gettysburg College during the pivotal decade 1965-1975 with the support of a college grant, the Koble Fellowship, a ten-week humanities based faculty-mentored research project. I tracked women's experiences at the college during this period and designed a digital scholarship project to share their stories. As a history major and as a feminist, a project about the history of women and their activism on campus nicely complemented by interests. (excerpt)

Peer Research Mentors At Gettysburg College: Transforming Student Library Jobs Into High-Impact Learning Experiences, Clinton K. Baugess, Mallory R. Jallas, Meggan D. Smith, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Research and Instruction librarians at Gettysburg College developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program for undergraduate students. The program is designed to empower a group of student employees to work in partnership with experienced librarians in order to increase a PRM’s own research skills and support other student researchers more effectively. The program focuses on student training, reference service, and outreach to other students. The authors share the development of the program; describe their approach to training, supervision, and assessment; and offer insight about how to operate and sustain a similar program with limited resources.

Customize Your Course Content With Open Educational Resources, Janelle Wertzberger

All Musselman Library Staff Works

This half day workshop provides an overview of the current open textbook and OER landscape, including information about copyright, fair use, open licensing, strategies for identifying open content, and models for compiling open content for class use. We will also devote time to hands-on exploration of existing open resources that could be used in your course or discipline. If you have been thinking about reworking your required readings and are leaning toward more open materials, this workshop is the perfect time to explore the possibilities. You will get the most out of this workshop if you come with a specific …

No, Education Isn't The Civil Rights Issue Of Our Time, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

George W. Bush said it as he warned us about "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Barack Obama said it. So did Mitt Romney, Arne Duncan, and John McCain.

And now Donald Trump is saying it, too. In his first joint-session address to Congress, President Trump promised that "our children will grow up in a nation of miracles" and added the familiar kicker: "Education is the civil rights issue of our time." He said it right before he announced his plan to ask Congress to pass new legislation supporting school choice. His idea of a school reform "miracle," apparently, is …

Looking For A Cure For Educationl Exhaustion, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Whoa, folks! An entire month got away from me there. Ever had that happen to you? If you're a teacher I'm guessing it probably has. I wish I could say that there was a good reason I hadn't written anything at all on this blog in the past few weeks, but the sad truth is that I haven't really been any busier than usual. Every semester becomes a slog at some point—that right there might be a topic for another post soon; maybe I could write two in a month!—but that hasn't stopped me before. I had some extra responsibilities …

In Solidarity, Musselman Library, Salma Monani, Sarah M. Principato, Dave Powell, Brent C. Talbot, Charles L. Weise, Bruce A. Larson, Scott Hancock, Mckinley E. Melton, David S. Walsh, Jennifer Q. Mccary, Kristina G. Chamberlin

Next Page

This edition of Next Page is a departure from our usual question and answer format with a featured campus reader. Instead, we asked speakers who participated in the College’s recent Student Solidarity Rally (March 1, 2017) to recommend readings that might further our understanding of the topics on which they spoke.

‘Community Of Schools’: A Case Study Of Development, Participation And Integration In Cato Manor Township, South Africa, Anthony L. Wagner

Student Publications

By the end of the twentieth century, a subfield of anthropology known as critical development studies emerged - in large part due to the work of James Ferguson and Arturo Escobar - as a critique of post-colonial development programs and NGOs of the West that were at work in much of the developing world - most notably sub-Saharan Africa. Development was largely panned by these early researchers as a means by which Western powers habituated problems in the developing world so as to create a profitable industry of development. Contemporary anthropological inquiries have called for an increasingly field-based approach to …

Why Is Mulvaney Opposed To Feeding Poor Kids At School?, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Folks, you've got to get a load of this guy Mick Mulvaney. Just looking at his name conjures images of a character from a gangster novel set during Prohibition, but he's actually the Trump White House's director of the Office of Management and Budget. That means he's the hatchet man—the guy responsible for making sure everything Trump wants to cut gets cut. And it means he's a real human, too. Allegedly.

Case in point: Mulvaney has been producing amazing sound bites lately to explain the contents of Trump's proposed federal budget. [excerpt]

Should We Give Betsy Devos A Chance? I Don't Think So, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Jennifer Steele, who teaches at American University, has made a heroic attempt to convince us that Betsy DeVos actually deserves a lot more credit than she's been getting for her performance as secretary of education so far. While I appreciate the sentiment—everybody deserves a fair shake, and should be judged on what they actually do, not what we think they might do—I have to say I'm not convinced. [excerpt]

Some Things You Can Do To Support Public Education Now, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Yesterday a group of students here at Gettysburg College, where I teach, organized a Solidarity Rally. It consisted largely of teach-ins designed to start conversations, and hopefully it will the first of many events that bring people together to think more carefully about how we should respond to things going on outside of our college and town. [excerpt]

Funding The Arts And Humanities Is Worth Fighting For, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

There’s an old story about Winston Churchill that is not true but is worth repeating. When approached about cutting funding for the arts so the money could go to the war effort during World War II, Churchill supposedly replied: “Then what are we fighting for?”

As far as we can tell Churchill never actually said this, but you can be forgiven for being taken by the sentiment. This apocryphal quote still makes the rounds because it suggests that even in times of war art can help us realize what it is, exactly, that’s worth defending. [excerpt]

Maybe It's Time To Put Betsy Devos In 'Receive Mode', Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

By now you have probably heard about Betsy DeVos' big day out recently. She tried to visit a middle school in Washington but found the front door blocked when she showed up. This led, of course, to the publication of an already-infamous cartoon suggesting that DeVos is actually a modern-day Civil Rights warrior, and to the suggestion that protesters blocking DeVos at the schoolhouse door was the functional (if not moral) equivalent of preventing black children from attending segregated schools in the 1950s and '60s. It's an argument that is morally wrong, historically stupid, and patently offensive. [excerpt]

Betsy Devos Is No Ruby Bridges, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

So maybe you saw this cartoon that was drawn by Glenn McCoy for the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat under the headline "Trying to Trash Betsy DeVos." If you didn't, take a look.

In the cartoon, of course, you see little Betsy DeVos walking to school, book in hand, surrounded by faceless men who are there to protect her. It seems to barely be working: there is profanity scrawled on the wall ("NEA"!; "Conservative"!; an anarchy symbol) and what appears to be a really juicy, nasty tomato thrown against the wall. For context, you might also be interested in looking at this …

And What If Devos Is Confirmed?, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

So today is the big day: the Senate is expected to finally vote on Betsy DeVos's nomination to become the next U.S. Secretary of Education, and Vice President Mike Pence is poised to break an expected tie in her favor. I doubt very much that aything other than the expected result is going to happen. After all, we live in an age when too many politicians pick their voters, not the other way around. My bet is that Collins and Murkowski were allowed to announce their votes against DeVos because the leadership had already conducted a tight whip count …

What If Betsy Devos Is Not Confirmed?, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

After her disastrous turn in front of the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions last week, the odds of Betsy DeVos not being confirmed as secretary of education have to at least be a lot higher than they used to be. It seems like no stretch to say that she is no slam dunk, if she ever was. [excerpt]

Betsy Devos Fails The Test, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Mitt Romney said: "Betsy DeVos is a smart choice for education secretary." The Wall Street Journal said DeVos "knows how to fight and how to make the moral case for reform." Andrew Rotherham called her "a pretty mainstream pick." Rick Hess, purveyor of "straight talk" on education issues, informs us that DeVos is a "solid pick" who is "smart, thoughtful, and committed to doing what she thinks is best." It's too bad none of that was on display yesterday when DeVos in the hearing yesterday to determine if she should become the next U.S. Secretary of Education. …

Undergraduate Library Internships At Musselman Library, Gettysburg College, Clinton K. Baugess, Kathryn S. Martin, Qin Zhang, Katherine Mattson

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In 2015-2016, Musselman Library at Gettysburg College participated in Cohort 3 of the Association of College and Research Libraries’ Assessment in Action program. This report outlines an assessment completed of former undergraduate library interns in order to explore the impact their internship experience had on the development of career goals, acceptance to and preparation for graduate education, and their early career. Through an online survey (n= 45) and six semi-structured telephone interviews, respondents reported a positive impact on the above areas.

Obama's Legacy For Education Policy, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

Last night Barack Obama delivered his farewell address to a raucous crowd in Chicago. This morning, Donald Trump delivered his first press conference as president-elect in front of a surprisingly raucous crowd at Trump Tower in New York. The difference between the two, in tone as well as substance, could not have been more stark. [excerpt]