Education Commons^™

Conceptions Of Heroic Leadership In Civil Society, Theresa A. Thorkildsen

Heroism Science

While nations face multiple disruptions to civil society, individuals in late adolescence and early adulthood are overlooked for heroic leadership opportunities in some cultures. An underestimation of individuals’ abilities is sometimes fostered by biological definitions of human development that align competence with physical changes in the brain (Blakemore, 2012). Prolonged exposure to such disregard can encourage individuals to restrict the information they notice, fostering distortion in the intentions that support leadership readiness (Pratkanis, 2007). Studies of individuals’ conceptions of how the world operates can improve leadership readiness if such evidence is used to verify that individuals notice essential information. Using …

Reacting To The Past As Education For Leadership, Javier S. Hidalgo

Interdisciplinary Journal of Leadership Studies

How can courses on leadership effectively cultivate students’ leadership skills? This reflective essay explores how one form of role-playing called Reacting to the Past can promote students’ leadership skills and deepen their understanding of leadership. Reacting to the Past is a series of immersive role-playing simulations that are set at key moments in history and that require students to play the part of historical actors over the course of several weeks. I argue that Reacting to the Past encourages students to practice leadership skills in an authentic context, improves students’ understanding of leadership by allowing them to observe and participate …

Transformative Education: How Can You Become A Better College Teacher?, Joe Hoyle

Bookshelf

Transformative Education presents a comprehensive approach to college teaching that stresses both the presentation of topical coverage AND the development of critical thinking skills. The book focuses on several key points in the learning process such as student preparation for class, student engagement during class, and student review and organization of the material after class. The book discusses the urgent need for more and better high-quality college education, a goal that can be achieved by a methodical approach to gradual teaching improvement.

Patriotism And Democratic Education, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

Whether patriotism has a valuable part to play in the educational system of a democratic society is now a highly contentious matter. This chapter argues that it does, principally because such a society is a kind of cooperative practice that requires its members to enact, enforce, and – in most cases – obey the laws that govern their self-governing polity. Democracies rely on rules, and especially the rule of law, to provide the reasonably clear expectations necessary to coordinate public activities and to overcome collective-action problems. By encouraging citizens to set aside personal advantage and play a cooperative part in …

Localizing Content: The Roles Of Technical & Professional Communicators And Machine Learning In Personalized Chatbot Responses, Daniel L. Hocutt, Nupoor Ranade, Gustav Verhulsdonck

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This study demonstrates that microcontent, a snippet of personalized content that responds to users’ needs, is a form of localization reliant on a content ecology. In contributing to users’ localized experiences, technical communicators should recognize their work as part of an assemblage in which users, content, and metrics augment each other to produce personalized content that can be consumed by and delivered through artificial intelligence (AI)-assisted technology.

Valuing Community Engagement Throughout The Faculty Recruitment Process, Lynn Pelco, Derek Miller, Todd R. Lookingbill

Other Publications

Department chairs and search committees play critical roles in recruiting community-engaged scholars to higher education institutions. This report summarizes some of the benefits of hiring community-engaged scholars across disciplines. The report also provides concrete strategies departments can use to both plan and execute a faculty search process that results in the hiring of a community-engaged scholar who brings the skills and experiences needed to succeed in the position and thrive in both the university and community.

Logos And Ethos: Heroism And Social Bildung In China, Jiarui Bai

Heroism Science

This article explores how heroism is constructed in China’s sociocultural context of values. It identifies a sociocultural novel, film, and heroic TV program as a mechanism for producing heroism for Chinese society. Furthermore, it explores the heroic principles that are generated by these media and how they inform expected actions in China. The article thus argues that the construction of Chinese heroism embodies specific representations of the expectations of humankind, a kind of “governing by worth” in heroism science. The function of these representations, forming heroic idols, could therefore help individuals become heroes with logos and ethos in pathos, subsuming …

Teaching With Data In The Social Sciences At The University Of Richmond, Samantha Guss, Ryan Brazell

University Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

From Spring 2020 through Fall 2021, a team from UR participated in a multi-site study called “Teaching with Data in the Social Sciences” led by Ithaka S+R, a research and strategy organization that focuses on scholarly communication and libraries in higher education. Samantha Guss (Boatwright Library) and Ryan Brazell (Faculty Hub) interviewed 14 UR faculty, all of whom teach in social sciences disciplines or use social data, to learn more about faculty needs as they help their students build data literacy skills. The primary objective for participating in this study was to better understand UR faculty needs so that the …

The Case For The Moral Rationale Of Diversity, Will Walker Jr.

Honors Theses

Although there is much literature highlighting the instrumental benefits of diversity (Gurin et al., 2002; Gurin et al., 2004; Hurtado,2006; Jayakumar,2008), little research focuses on the effects of diversity that arise because of moral rationales for diversity. Expanding into the question of diversity rationale’s effect, we in this study measured the relationship between institutional rationales for diversity and undergraduate students’ perceived feelings of belonging. Using one-tailed multivariate analysis of variance (N=257), our results show that the moral rationale for diversity has more beneficial outcomes for undergraduate students, regardless of their race or ethnicity. More specifically, our analyses show that undergraduate …

Venturing Into Virtual: A Study Of The Impact Of Virtual Alumni Engagement On The Alumni- Alma Mater Relationship In Higher Education, Leah B. Downey

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Nonprofit Studies Capstone Projects

The arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States prompted an unanticipated change in the fundamental ways in which alumni relations offices at higher education institutions engage their alumni populations. It necessitated a transition into virtual programming and engagement efforts. The impact of this shift into operating almost exclusively online is relatively unknown, with little scholarly research currently existing on the topic. Following a comprehensive review of the existing literature, this study compared the five-year historical trends in alumni engagement at a small, private liberal arts institution to survey feedback provided by alumni volunteers. Seeking to understand the impact …

Past, Pandemic, And Future: Adaptations And Innovations In Student Engagement At Collegiate Art Programs, Jessie H. Buford

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Nonprofit Studies Capstone Projects

This research paper will focus on student engagement programs associated with collegiate performing arts centers and art programs and how these programs engage and support students prior to and during the Covid-19 pandemic. It will look at the ways arts administrators identify and evaluate the barriers and motivations related to participation within arts programming. Lastly, this research will explore the ways in which these programs have adapted to the pandemic and how these innovations and adaptations might continue, post-pandemic, in order to better support faculty, staff, and students. Data was gathered through interviews with six student engagement professionals who work …

How Other Countries Reopened Schools During The Pandemic – And What The Us Can Learn From Them, Robert W. Spires

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

As American school officials debate when it will be safe for schoolchildren to return to classrooms, looking abroad may offer insights. Nearly every country in the world shuttered their schools early in the COVID-19 pandemic. Many have since sent students back to class, with varying degrees of success.

I am a scholar of comparative international education. For this article, I examined what happened in four countries where K-12 schools either stayed open throughout the pandemic or have resumed in-person instruction, using press reports, national COVID-19 data and academic studies.

Do Education System Characteristics Moderate The Socioeconomic, Gender And Immigrant Gaps In Math And Science Achievement?, Katerina Bodovsk, Ismael Munoz, Soo-Yong Byun, Volha Chykina

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

Using data from the 2011 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study for 45 countries, we examined the size of socioeconomic, gender, and immigrant status related gaps, and their relationships with education system characteristics, such as differentiation, standardization, and proportion of governmental spending on education. We find that higher socioeconomic status is positively and significantly associated with higher math and science achievement; immigrant students lag behind their native peers in both math and science, with first generation students faring worse than second generation; and girls show lower math performance than boys. A higher degree of differentiation makes socioeconomic gaps larger …

Another Kind Of Education: The Gruner School, Kelab Zewedu Zewedu, Maria Perry, Tracy Santizo, Fernanda Vasquez, Susanna Getis, Kay Johnson, Elisabeth Gruner

SSIR Presentations 2020

Believing in the limitless potential of the next generation, The Gruner School prepares students to be academically, socially, and mentally strong and excel in life beyond high school through a rigorous program rooted in the intersection of academia and the workforce.

Project Description: The project was the result of the Spring 2020 course, IDST 290: Education in Fiction and Fact Seminar, a continuation of the fall SSIR (Sophomore Scholars in Residence) course, Education in Fiction and Fact. The project was to design an ideal school.

Zeroing In On Heroes: Adolescents’ Perceptions Of Hero Features And Functions, Elaine L. Kinsella, Alison English, Jennifer Mcmahon

Heroism Science

Recent research has revealed that having a personal hero can offer psychological resources to adults, particularly during challenging times. Yet we know little about the role that heroes play in the lives of adolescents – a period of human development when challenges are plentiful, and adolescents are increasingly open to the influence of others outside the family unit. In the present study, adolescent perspectives were sought on types and characteristics of heroes, and the psychological and social functions provided by heroes for young people. Four focus groups were conducted with adolescents (N = 22) aged 15 to 17 years at …

[Introduction To] Writing Centers At The Center Of Change, Joe Essid, Brian Mctague

Bookshelf

Writing Centers at the Center of Change looks at how eleven centers, internationally, adapted to change at their institutions, during a decade when their very success has become a valued commodity in a larger struggle for resources on many campuses.

Bringing together both US and international perspectives, this volume offers solutions for adapting to change in the world of writing centers, ranging from the logistical to the pedagogical, and even to the existential. Each author discusses the origins, appropriate responses, and partners to seek when change comes from within a school or outside it. Chapters document new programs being formed …

What’S In Your Gifted Education Online Teacher Professional Development? Incorporating Theory- And Practice-Based Elements Of Instructional Learning Design, Matthew J. Edinger

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This paper examined six theory- and practice-based elements of instructional learning design in online teacher professional development (oTPD), how these elements were implemented into Edinger’s (2017) PACKaGE model of gifted education oTPD, and how teachers evaluated each element. Elements were based on Berge’s (1995) instructor roles model theory and gifted education research. Each element was evaluated by teachers (N=184) who completed oTPD designed from the PACKaGE model. Self-report survey findings suggest that teachers considered most elements, such as asynchronous discussion board and article review assignments, to be useful to a great extent to their gifted education learning and pedagogy. However, …

Generalized Self-Efficacy Of Youth In The New Territories: A Community Survey Conducted By A Hong Kong Ngo, Robert W. Spires, Eric Howington, Jay Rojewski

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Youth are both key participants in debate and a central theme in the discourse on social issues in Hong Kong. Youth are often problematized in the contemporary media and political discussion as lacking in the work ethic, confidence and social skills necessary to be successful. Hong Kong youth are framed as pathologically shy, anti-social, lazy and entitled and these characteristics are used to present an image of Hong Kong youth as having individual characteristics that lead to their challenges in the job market and their characteristics as political rogues. This study approaches the characterization of Hong Kong youth with an …

Beyond The Campus: Heroism As A Case Study For Extending Researchers' Influence Through K-12 Lesson Plans, Ari Kohen, Andre Solo

Heroism Science

As a result of their training, college professors are subject matter experts who have the task of conveying ideas to students and to the public at large. They accomplish this, in large measure, through their research and their teaching. In this article, we consider an important alternative way in which professors can broaden their reach by creating lesson plans for students beyond their own classrooms—at very little time investment. We use as a case study our own lesson plan on heroism, which draws on expertise in political theory and psychology, in order to demonstrate the way in which such a …

Learning Effects Of The Flipped Classroom In A Principles Of Microeconomics Course Running Header: Flipped Principles Of Micro, Erik Craft, Maia K. Linask

Economics Faculty Publications

The authors of this article estimate the learning effects of the flipped classroom format using data from 16 sections of principles of microeconomics over a 4-year period. The experimental design is unique in that two treatment and two control sections were taught during the fall semester in four consecutive years. Further, the instructor switched the time of day when the treatment and control sections were taught each year. Controlling for gender, ACT score, a normed high school GPA, Pell Grant award, time of day, and initial knowledge of economics, the authors find no evidence of increased learning using end-of-semester measures …

Setting An Agenda For The Future, Sam Allgood, Kimmarie Mcgoldrick

Economics Faculty Publications

Anniversaries are a time for reflection and planning for the future. The fiftieth year of the Journal of Economic Education motivated us to invite those who have been intimately involved with the Journal to provide reflections, which appear within this symposium. In addition to providing a wealth of information about the past, they set the stage for initiatives that support the path forward.

Switching Majors – Into And Out Of Economics, Tisha L. N. Emerson, Kimmarie Mcgoldrick

Economics Faculty Publications

Using student transcripts from six institutions over a 23-year timespan, the authors investigate the movement of students into and out of the economics major. Considerable movement between majors occurs with 83 percent of economics graduates switching in after their first principles course. These eventual majors come from a variety of sources, but primarily from business, engineering, science & math. In an absolute sense, weaker students (as measured by cumulative GPA) switch into economics. However, students appear to move to disciplines of relative academic strength (as indicated by relative grades). While females from other majors are less likely to switch into …

What Should We Teach In Intermediate Macroeconomics?, Dean D. Croushore

Economics Faculty Publications

The major focus of a course in Intermediate Macroeconomics is building and understanding macroeconomic models and how they work. The course is the most analytical course in the curriculum and should lead students to embark on deep thinking about models and equilibrium. Students learn the essentials of a model and develop the concept of how to simplify a model to understand key concepts. Once the core of a model is developed, additional model features can be added to increase realism. Perhaps the most important macroeconomic concept in the course is that of general equilibrium—students learn to go beyond examining initial …

50 Years Of Economic Instruction In The Journal Of Economic Education, Gail M. Hoyt, Kimmarie Mcgoldrick

Economics Faculty Publications

With 2019 marking the fiftieth year of publication of the Journal of Economic Education (JEE), it seems fitting to examine the evolution of economic instruction as portrayed in the Journal. Born of the American Economic Association (AEA), and first edited by members of the AEA’s Committee on Economic Education (Saunders 2012), it is not surprising that the Journal’s focus as chronicler, proponent, and outlet for economic education activity reflects the educational component of the American Economic Association’s mission. The creation of the Journal signaled a self-awareness in the discipline that we needed to be more deliberate in …

Teaching Courses In Macroeconomics And Monetary Policy With Bloomberg Analytics, Dean D. Croushore, Hossein S. Kazemi

Economics Faculty Publications

In this article, the authors illustrate the use of Bloomberg for analyzing topics in macroeconomics and monetary policy in economics and finance courses. The hands-on experience that students gain from such a course has many benefits, including deeper learning and clearer understanding of data. The authors describe goals and learning objectives, then compare Bloomberg with Federal Reserve Economic Data (FRED). In addition, they provide examples of how to use Bloomberg in the classroom, describe how to have students perform sector analysis, show how Bloomberg tools are useful for analyzing monetary policy, discuss how to use Bloomberg to analyze the financial …

[Introduction To] Constructing The Adolescent Reader In Contemporary Young Adult Fiction, Elisabeth Rose Gruner

Bookshelf

This book examines the way young adult readers are constructed in a variety of contemporary young adult fictions, arguing that contemporary young adult novels depict readers as agents. Reading, these novels suggest, is neither an unalloyed good nor a dangerous ploy, but rather an essential, occasionally fraught, by turns escapist and instrumental, deeply pleasurable, and highly contentious activity that has value far beyond the classroom skills or the specific content it conveys. After an introductory chapter that examines the state of reading and young adult fiction today, the book examines novels that depict reading in school, gendered and racialized reading, …

[Introduction To] Teaching Britain: Elementary Teachers And The State Of The Everyday, 1846-1906, Christopher Bischof

Bookshelf

Teaching Britain examines teachers as key agents in the production of social knowledge. Teachers claimed intimate knowledge of everyday life among the poor and working class at home and non-white subjects abroad. They mobilized their knowledge in a wide range of mediums, from accounts of local happenings in their schools’ official log books to travel narratives based on summer trips around Britain and the wider world. Teachers also obsessively narrated and reflected on their own careers. Through these stories and the work they did every day, teachers imagined and helped to enact new models of professionalism, attitudes towards poverty and …

[Introduction To] Yesternight: A Story For Those Whose Days Cannot Contain All Their Dreams, Linda B. Hobgood

Bookshelf

Recent release Yesternight from Covenant Books author Linda Hobgood is a fascinating story designed to celebrate the potential of imagination, to treasure childhood dreams and remember them for a lifetime.

With this compelling book, the author seeks to persuade readers of all ages that even morning cannot quell our dreams so long as we keep recalling with joy each “yesternight.”

Creating More Integrated Schools In A Segregated System: A Window Of Opportunity, Genevieve Siegel-Hawley, Kim Bridges, Thomas J. Shields, Brian Koziol

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

The city of Richmond is changing. Over the past decade, an influx of young, white professionals and families has fueled population growth. And increases in the residential population of white families have very slowly translated into increases in the enrollment of white students in Richmond Public Schools (RPS). These shifts come on the heels of decades of intentional division of and disinvestment in majority black urban communities, offering renewed opportunities for neighborhood and school integration, along with a stronger tax base and increases in school funding. But changing demographics also bring challenges. Both the opportunities and challenges have been on …

Glocalizing The Composition Classroom With Google Apps For Education, Daniel L. Hocutt, Maury Elizabeth Brown

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

Composing practices in a digitally networked world are inherently intercultural, and situate local needs and constraints within global opportunities and concerns. Global technologies like Google Apps for Education (GAFE) allow students to compose collaboratively across place and time; to do so, students and teachers must navigate a complex local network of institutional policy, learning outcomes, situational needs, and composing practices while also being aware of the global implications of using the interface to compose, review, edit, and share with others. The chapter describes using GAFE in locally situated composition classes. Using such technologies requires a focus on glocalization and an …