Education Commons^™

Fulbright Magic: The Alchemy Of An Intentional Experience Abroad, Chloe Ruff, Christopher R. Fee

Education Faculty Publications

The Fulbright program is designed to facilitate cultural exchange and understanding, and Fulbright’s Group Projects Abroad allow small, focused cohorts of American teachers and scholars to travel and to learn together. In June 2017, a number of Gettysburg College faculty and K-12 teachers from South Central PA traveled to China to study points of similarity and disparity between the American and Chinese educational systems. Our program was crafted in a way to help us to understand Chinese culture and the realities of Chinese life; we were given the opportunity to view our experiences from the perspectives of our hosts and …

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.

Students At Kansas Newspaper Prove Democracy Isn't Dead Yet, Dave Powell

Education Faculty Publications

In May of 1897, Mark Twain was in London finishing up an around-the-world speaking tour he had started two years earlier. He got there right after his cousin, James Ross Clemens, who had fallen ill while visiting London a couple of weeks earlier. In a letter he wrote on May 31, Twain addressed rumors saying that he had fallen deathly ill and had even died. "I can understand perfectly how the report of my illness got about," he said, adding: "I have even heard on good authority that I was dead." It was his cousin's illness that was ascribed …

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]

Lincoln’S Legacy And A New Generation Of Leadership, Janet M. Riggs

From the Desk of President Riggs

One hundred fifty-three years ago our nation was adrift, embroiled in a civil war and grappling with questions about our future. Many had lost hope. In November of 1863 here at Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln called upon our nation to rededicate itself to the unfinished work before us—the work of equality, the fulfillment of our democracy, a new birth of freedom. [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. …

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]

Teachers’ Nascent Praxes Of Care: Potentially Decolonizing Approaches To School Violence In Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Zero tolerance, punitive and more negative peace-oriented approaches dominate school violence interventions, despite research indicating that comprehensive approaches are more sustainable. In this article, I use data from a longitudinal case study at a Trinidadian secondary school to focus on the role of teachers and their impact on school violence; I show that institutional constraints are not fully deterministic, as teachers sometimes deploy their agency to efficacious ends. In combining Noddings’ postulations on care and Freire’s notions of praxis as a symbiosis of reflection and action, I explicate the nascent praxes of care of six teachers at this school, as …

Extending Invitations, Becoming Messmates, Alison M. Reynolds, Brent C. Talbot

Sunderman Conservatory of Music Faculty Publications

As music educators we can model proactive advocacy among community members to prevent individuals' reactive violence in response to intolerance for differences. We can offer music-learning tables as safe spaces in which community members openly and collaboratively learn to know each other as individuals with diverse identities and interests. As messmates around the table, we can identify ways that researching, questioning, and being musical together can eradicate fears and the damaging effects of homophobia.

Lingering Colonialities As Blockades To Peace Education: School Violence In Trinidad, Hakim Mohandas Amani Williams

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

Book Summary: Bringing together the voices of scholars and practitioners on challenges and possibilities of implementing peace education in diverse global sites, this book addresses key questions for students seeking to deepen their understanding of the field. The book not only highlights ground-breaking and rich qualitative studies from around the globe, but also analyses the limits and possibilities of peace education in diverse contexts of conflict and post-conflict societies. Contributing authors address how educators and learners can make meaning of international peace education efforts, how various forms of peace and violence interact in and around schools, and how the field …

Facilitating Peer Learning In The Library: Crafting The Perfect Batch Of Undergraduate Peer Research Mentors, Clinton K. Baugess, Mallory R. Jallas

All Musselman Library Staff Works

Librarians at a college library developed a Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program for undergraduate students in order to facilitate peer learning and expand the library's formal instruction program beyond the traditional reach of the library and librarians. The presenters will discuss recruiting the initial cohort of eight PRMs, strengthening PRMs' research skills through an intensive training curriculum, and an overview of the various instructional outreach projects that have been designed and implemented by PRMs for other students. The presentation will discuss program assessment methods, share findings from the current cohort, and outline plans for the program's development.

Teaching Students To Fish: Creating A Sustainable Student Peer Research Program, Mallory R. Jallas, Meggan D. Smith

All Musselman Library Staff Works

A Peer Research Mentor (PRM) program was developed at Musselman Library, Gettysburg College to augment traditional reference services and expand library outreach. Goals included enhancing these students’ information literacy skills helping them become better researchers, as well as sharing that knowledge with peers. This poster will highlight the initial and on-going training, their involvement at the reference desk, and outreach projects to date.

Language Of Harry's Wizards: Authentic Vocabulary Instruction, Divonna M. Stebick, Constance N. Nichols

Education Faculty Publications

This study was the result of a year long action research project within a middle school language arts classroom. The students showed improvement in their vocabulary skills due to this instruction using Harry Potter as a context.

The Professional Learning Motivation Profile (Plmp): A Tool For Assessing Instructional Motivation, Barbara A. Marinak, Divonna M. Stebick, Mary Paxton

Education Faculty Publications

This article chronicles the collaboration of administrators from six districts and three college professors as they assessed professional learning during the first year of teaching. The examination led to the development of a Professional Learning Motivation Profile. Results from the profile indicated a traditional model of professional development was not effective in growing the professional learning motivation of beginning teachers. Anecdotal data shared includes how administrators used the data to inform conversations designed to support teachers in their journey toward courageous, effective instruction.

Fearless Friday: Kirsten Crear, Kirsten Crear

SURGE

Even in her last semester here at Gettysburg, Kirsten Crear ’14 is fearlessly working to make changes for the future of the campus community. This semester, Kirsten introduced a STEMinists club on campus that will give female students who are STEM (an acronym for Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics) majors the opportunity to come together and create a community, share and discuss the difficulties they face as women in their fields of study, and support and mentor each other as they prepare to enter their fields.

Kirsten is passionate, driven, and determined, taking the initiative to bring this group of women together on campus …

An Open Letter To The Class Of 2013, Center For Public Service

SURGE

Upon graduation I will have received no honors. After four years of college, thirty-seven courses, ten labs, two sets of major requirements and several almost complete minors, I have won the ultimate consolation prize: a diploma. I know that not everyone has the privilege of going to college and I also know that those who start college do not always make it to the end, some not even through the first week. However, in the world of academia, students are pushed to strive for the best grades. Even at Gettysburg College where global awareness, critical thinking and an integration of …

The Gettysburg Experience, Robin Wagner

All Musselman Library Staff Works

In February 1994, Gettysburg College launched an ambitious experiment that joined computing and the library into a new organization known as Information Resources. Gettysburg College, one of the first liberal arts colleges to undertake such a merger, sought, along with only a handful of other institutions, a level of integration so complete that all vestiges of the traditional library disappeared. This is the story of that merger and why it failed despite the best efforts of many. [excerpt]