Education Commons^™

A Classroom Activity For Teaching Kohlberg’S Theory Of Moral Development, Cheryl L. Carmichael, Anna M. Schwartz, Maureen Coyle, Matthew H. Goldberg

Publications and Research

In two studies, we demonstrate an engaging classroom activity that facilitates student learning about Kohlberg’s theory of moral development by using digital resources to foster active, experiential learning. In addition to hearing a standard lecture about moral development, students watched a video of a morally provocative incident, then worked in small groups to classify user comments posted in response to the video according to Kohlberg’s six stages. Students in both studies found the activity enjoyable and useful. Moreover, students’ scores on a moral development quiz improved after completing the activity (Study 1), and students who completed the activity in addition …

Comics, Questions, Action! Engaging Students And Instruction Librarians With The Comics-Questions Curriculum, Stephanie Margolin, Mason Brown, Sarah Laleman Ward

Publications and Research

In a four-session Summer Bridge programme, we experimented with new curricular and pedagogical ideas with a group of incoming freshmen. We developed the Comics-Questions Curriculum (CQC), which melds students’ question asking with a focus on comics. The purpose of this paper is to describe the rationale for and ongoing development of the CQC as well as the ways the CQC fosters engagement of students and librarians, builds upon students’ existing skills but propels them forward toward college-level work, and positions librarians as partners in students’ college work. Although it was designed for a specific purpose initially, the CQC in its …

La Comunicación Lingüística En Español Y Sus Barreras En El Sistema De Salud De Los Estados Unidos, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

La enseñanza del español con fines médicos en los Estados Unidos ha experimentado un crecimiento exponencial en las dos últimas décadas. Sin embargo, los pacientes de origen hispano se encuentran desprotegidos ante las barreras lingüísticas que impone el sistema de salud estadounidense en muchos contextos monolingües y bilingües. Esta investigación descriptiva muestra como, por un lado, los malentendidos producidos por la comunicación ineficiente desarrollada por intérpretes e intermediarios (familiares, enfermeras con conocimientos de español, facultativos con una preparación lingüística deficiente, etc.) tienen serias repercusiones para la salud en el tratamiento de los casos. Por otro lado, el estudio da cuenta …

Between Paralysis And Empowerment: Action In Mathematics For Social Justice Work, Lidia Gonzalez

Publications and Research

In this article, I focus on my experiences teaching a seminar in critical pedagogy and the math for social justice (MfSJ) work that grew from of my students’ reflections as to how they might promote change towards justice. The course was designed to acquaint students with the research literature in critical pedagogy as we explored the social, political, cultural, and economic realities around our system of public education. Yet there came a point where students questioned the value of such exploration as they genuinely considered what to do next. I, too, struggled both to support the students I was working …

How Songbirds Learn To Sing Provides Suggestions For Designing Team Projects For Computing Courses, Ashwin Satyanarayana, Radhika Natarajan, Lior Baron

Publications and Research

Understanding how our brain works and how we learn is perhaps one of the greatest challenges facing twenty-first computer science. Songbirds are good candidates for trying to unravel some of this mystery. Over the last decade, a large amount of research has been made to better understand how songbirds learn complex songs. The Canary (Serinus canaria) and the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) have been widely used bird models to study these brain and behavior relationships. Like songbirds, we humans are vocal and social learners. In such learners, the development of communication is initially steered by social interactions with adult tutors. …

Johnson Practices, Teaches The Art Of Journalism, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

“While studying abroad in Tanzania, I was fascinated by wildlife, but I realized that I don't really have the temperament to be a scientist. So I decided to come back to the U.S. and become a journalist.” That’s how Emily Johnson settled on what her profession would be.

Johnson is a native of Providence, Rhode Island. She received her bachelor’s degree in English and animal behavior from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania and a master’s in arts and international reporting from the City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism. Today she is an assistant professor in the Department of …

"Our Stories" Of Becoming A College Student: A Digital Writing Project For First Year Students, Philip Kreniske, Karen Goodlad, Jennifer Sears, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

This blogging assignment serves as a low-stakes activity that encourages students to make sense of the social, emotional, and bureaucratic challenges in their transition to college, and to simultaneously develop digital literacy.

Continuing The Gender Equity In Academia Conversation: Recommendations And Next Steps, Maria J. D'Agostino, Nicole Elias

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Place-Based Learning Across The Disciplines: A Living Laboratory Approach To Pedagogy, Karen Goodlad, Anne E. Leonard

Publications and Research

Faculty participants in a fellowship designed to engage students at an urban commuter college of technology in their general education curriculum evaluated and redesigned their courses to include place-based learning (PBL) using the Living Laboratory model of pedagogy. Focused on faculty perception of the relationship between PBL and its influence on general education, the study illustrates how faculty from across disciplines apply PBL techniques to revitalize general education learning outcomes. Findings include the influence of the fellowship on the design of PBL activities and perceived levels of student engagement, especially when compared to more traditional classroom instruction.

Let’S Never Forget: Extinction Is Forever, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

For many, the conservation of nature is seen as an essential component of human wellbeing. Its value is oftentimes referred to in relation to the four “Es”: economic, environmental, esthetic and ethical values.

From an economic viewpoint, we know that the entire pharmaceutical industry is built upon known natural substances we find in plants and animals, as are the varieties of many domesticated animals we use for food. On the environmental front, we know how essential it is for human health to have an abundant availability of clean water and air.

Esthetically speaking, natural areas represent one of the major …

Generating The Pipeline: Addressing Bias In Recruiting And Hiring, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In past articles of this column we have reported data that show that women in general find more barriers than their male counterparts in getting into academic careers. Further, female college professors earn on average 10 percent less in salaries than their male colleagues.

If you are a woman in academia and aspire to an administrative job in order to substantially improve your earnings and make them more in par with the males around you, you should think twice.

Losing Protection From Predatory Colleges, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Two weeks ago, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made an announcement that can have serious implications for students registering for classes at for-profit institutions of higher education in particular, and colleges and universities in general.

In a written statement posted on the Department of Education’s website, DeVoss announced plans to eliminate the so-called gainful employment rule created during the Obama administration in 2011. That rule was aimed at holding for-profit and career college programs accountable for graduating students with poor job prospects and overwhelming debt. The rule penalized programs if their graduates had student loan payments that exceeded a specific percentage …

Adviser Nomination Spurs Questions, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

After a 19-month delay, the Trump Administration has nominated someone to be the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, or as is more colloquially known, the science adviser to the president.

Congress established the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 1976. President Gerald Ford, a Republican, signed the act creating the agency into law. That took place after President Nixon disbanded the then-called “President Advisory Committee” in 1973.

The mandate for the agency is to provide the president and others within the Executive Office of the President with advice on the scientific, engineering, …

Rankings Can Be Bad For Colleges’ Health, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In previous columns I have reported how a number of external factors, such as funding, demographics, politics and the like have been hurting higher education. In many other cases – overblown athletic programs, misguided marketing, and plain bad leadership – the injuries have been self-inflicted. To these cases we can now add the race for the rankings.

I have argued in this column in the past that rankings like the ones by U.S. News & World Reportand its copycats make little sense. To begin with, many of the things they claim to measure, such as athletics, facilities, and “reputation,” …

Hyper-Selectivity, Racial Mobility, And The Remaking Of Race, Van C. Tran, Jennifer Lee, Oshin Khachikian, Jess Lee

Publications and Research

Recent immigrants to the United States are diverse with regard to selectivity. Hyper-selectivity refers to a dual positive selectivity in which immigrants are more likely to have graduated from college than nonmigrants in sending countries and the host population in the United States. This article addresses two questions. First, how does hyper-selectivity affect second-generation educational outcomes? Second, how does second-generation mobility change the cognitive construction of racial categories? It shows how hyper-selectivity among Chinese immigrants results in positive second-generation educational outcomes and racial mobility for Asian Americans. It also raises the question of whether hyper-selectivity operates similarly for non-Asian groups. …

The Black Legend Of Higher Education, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The concept of “fake news” is not new by any stretch of the imagination. Over centuries people have invented stories of all types and dimensions. From dragons to the “fake” moon landing, from the Masons behind every political conspiracy to the Jews trying to control the world, there have been complex stories that try to indict entire peoples or nations with all kinds of atrocities. One of the most famous is the “black legend” (or leyenda negra), according to which Spain has been the culprit for everything bad that happened in the western hemisphere for centuries.

As Alfredo Alvar …

Uncertain Futures For Private Colleges, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Although we hear a lot about problems at public colleges and universities – budget cuts, enrollment issues, political interference – private colleges also have their share of concerns.

Of the more than 4,600 institutions of higher education in this country, a little more than 3,000 (almost two-thirds of the total) are private. Although there are a few exceptions, they tend to be small, at around 2,000 students or fewer.Yet they represent a significant number of the overall number colleges and universities. Obviously not all are created equal. Some of them have large endowments and can a word to be very …

Trade Wars Are Bad For Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the last few weeks we have heard a lot about trade wars (taking place or looming) between the U.S. and virtually every economically important nation in the world. This is surprising in today’s world where the tendency has been over the past few decades to eliminate trade barriers.

Mainstream economists have pointed out for years the benefits of free trade: international economic growth, improved financial performance of investments, lowered business risks, more competition that lowers prices while increasing choices for the consumers, and diversification of revenues. Although there are some risks associated with free trade, such as the environmental …

Big Questions Surrounding Gender Equity In Academia And The Field Of Public Administration, Maria J. D'Agostino, Nicole Elias

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Justice Kennedy’S Exit And Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The recent announcement of the July 1 retirement of Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court Anthony M. Kennedy has already created a political storm about many issues ranging from reproductive rights to LGBTQ issues. What effects can we expect on higher education from his departure and the potential appointment of a new justice by President Trump? Plenty. Let’s begin by examining those decisions in which Kennedy participated that directly affected colleges and universities.

Higher Education And Immigration, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the latest scandal-du-jour of the Trump administration, the policy of separating children from their parents at the border with Mexico has brought widespread condemnation not only across the political spectrum but also across society. Religious, business, and civic leaders have also raised their voices and the Trump Administration backed down from this policy, although it is not clear what it is going to happen to the children who have already been separated from their families and dispersed across the country. But how has higher education responded to this crisis? In many interesting ways.

In unusual responses, leaders of both …

The Problem Of Sexual Harassment, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

In the last few months, the media have been inundated with news about sexual harassment of women. The cases with the most notoriety have been those of celebrities or associated with the entertaining industry, but they have not been the only ones. This attention to the issue has generated what is called the “Me Too Movement” (or “MeToo”). With sexual harassment and assault occurring in every segment of society, it is important to ask how this issue is seen on college campuses, which have been accused of too much “political correctness” in the past.

A new study published last week …

Not All College Faculty Are Equal, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Despite the fact that college faculty seem to lead very public lives because they show up in front of audiences on a regular basis, the fact of the matter is that most people – even faculty themselves –don’t know how much time they spend doing the different aspects of their jobs. A new study helps us better understand faculty by grouping them according to the way they spend their time.

A team of researchers from the Center for Postsecondary Research at Indiana University at Bloomington just published a report based on the analyses of responses to the center’s survey of …

Stranger-Making As Difference: Childhood Memories Of Belonging And Exclusion By Undergraduates Of Color, Debbie Sonu, Marissa Bellino

Publications and Research

In this article, we draw from the notion of stranger-making to focus on how undergraduates of color at one large university in New York City recount their subjective experiences with inclusion and exclusion at the borderlands of educational spaces. We use narratives to evoke the unfolding of life events and to destabilize categories of difference that are all too often based on a politics of perception rather than an ethical gesture to know. This paper presents four selected vignettes that demonstrate the instability of being a racialized human and draws attention to how belong- ing, or socially felt memberships, is …

No Time For College? An Investigation Of Time Poverty And Parenthood, Claire Wladis, Alyse C. Hachey, Katherine Conway

Publications and Research

Postsecondary outcomes are significantly worse for student parents even though they earn higher G.P.A.'s on average. This study used institutional records and survey data from a large urban U.S. university to explore whether time poverty explains this trend. The results of regression and KHB decomposition analysis reveal that students with preschool-aged children have a significantly lower quantity and quality of time for college than comparable peers with older or no children, and that time spent on childcare is the primary reason for this difference. Both quantity and quality of time for education had a significant direct effect on college persistence …

Authoritarians Don’T Like Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

History is always a good source to help us understand today’s problems and tomorrow’s challenges. In the last few years we have been witnessing mounting attacks on higher education. Detractors contest its value, accuse it of brainwashing people, and call it a waste of taxpayers’ money. And all this is taking place in an environment in which facts are distorted, people seem less educated about reality, and ideological leanings are more important than critical thinking. In other words, a world that seems to be moving more and more towards mediocrity and authoritarian-ism. Are there historical precedents to what we are …

For-Profit Colleges Impact Democracy, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The for-profit sector of higher education in this country has accumulated a long list of denunciations in its relatively short history. Those admonitions range from low quality education, much higher cost (including when com- pared with private, non-profit schools), generating a long-time debt burden for their users, deceptive advertising, and stigma when trying to get a job while saying that you graduated from one of those schools.

In their defense, these institutions say that they provide opportunities for people who do not havethe minimum qualifications to enter most public institutions or because of their work schedule they can only go …

Iran Deal Will Impact Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

On May 8, President Donald Trump announced that the United States was pulling out of the 2015 deal with Iran and other countries to limit the Iranian nuclear program. This deal was designed to slow anddelay Iran’s efforts to build anuclear weapon by lifting economic sanctions on that country in exchange for a number of actions aimed at shutting downits uranium enrichment e ortsand related programs.

The decision by the Trump Administration seems to have been prompted more by demagoguery and hatred towards anything President Barack Obama did, than by reason. In fact, America’s European allies tried everything in their …

A Catch-22 For Illinois Higher Ed, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

The 1951 novel “Catch-22” byJoseph Heller describes its own title as a situation from which you cannot escape because of contradictory rules, such as “How am I supposed to gain experience to get a job if I’m constantly turned down for not having any experience?” The troubles for public higher edu- cation in Illinois, which have attracted much national atten- tion, seem to be a clear example of a Catch-22 situation. And it seems that the last few weeks have been nothing but full of bad news for Illinois higher ed.

First, we have the case report- ed by “The …

Sports Scandals Cost Higher Education Ed Big, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

Last week in this column I summarized some studies showing that most athletic programs at colleges and universities are run at a financial loss. I also addressed how other aspects of some athletic programs have become liabilities in other ways, including the seemingly never-ending scandals that take place around those programs. But do scandals result only in a bad image for the institutions, or are there also financial consequences to them?

In a study just published titled, “Universities Behaving Badly: The Impact of Athletic Malfeasance on Student Applications and Enrollment,” several researchers from Appalachian State University and Seton Hall University …