Education Commons^™

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (Wels) Baseline Survey Of Transfers Entering Western In The Fall, 2012, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark, Peter Felt, Beth Hartsoch, John M. Krieg

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The WELS Baseline Survey of Transfers Entering Western in the Fall, 2012 (Transfer Survey) is the companion survey to the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) survey of incoming freshmen. Together, these surveys elicit information from students prior to the start of their Western academic careers and provide an initial contact in a longitudinal survey design that follows students through graduation and into their initial years as alumni. The Transfer Survey is designed with three purposes in mind: (1) to provide baseline observations of students prior to the Western experience that can be used to forecast and enhance student success; (2) …

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (Wels) Baseline Survey Of Freshmen Entering Western In The Fall, 2012: Descriptive Statistics, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark, Peter Felt, Beth Hartsoch, John M. Krieg

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The Fall 2012 Baseline Survey of Freshmen Entering Western (Freshmen Survey) continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) efforts to collect information on all students prior to the start of their academic careers at Western Washington University. This survey represents the initial contact in a longitudinal process that makes inquiries of students at the end of their sophomore year, when they graduate from the university, and one to two years after graduation. The Freshmen Survey is designed with three purposes in mind: (1) to provide baseline observations of students prior to their Western experience which can be used to forecast …

Spring 2012 Follow-Up Survey Of Freshmen Who Entered In The Fall Of 2010: Descriptive Statistics, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark, Beth Hartsoch, John M. Krieg

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The Spring 2012 Follow-Up Survey of Freshmen Who Entered Western in 2010 (2nd Year Survey) is part of a longitudinal effort to survey students with a goal to improve educational programs and provide self -assessment data. Together with the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, the Office of Survey Research (OSR) designed this survey in an attempt to shed light on the efficacy and satisfaction with first year and GUR programs. This particular survey also received input from other campus offices which provides opportunities for these offices to address their specific needs. The 2nd Year Survey consists of a mixture of …

Klipsun Magazine, 2012, Volume 43, Issue 02 - Fall, Marissa Abruzzini

Klipsun Magazine

Standing on the front row bleachers at the fairgrounds, I could smell acrid gasoline pluming from the exhaust pipes of 10 demolition cars about 500 feet away. My older brother aimed his camera at the line of cars, which looked like colorful beetles from where we stood.

“I can’t see anything from here,” he said. “Let’s go.”

We made our way down to the security tent nudged between the audience and the demolition ring. A man in aviators and a bright blue security jacket stood at the entrance with his arms folded.

“You can’t come back here,” he said. My …

Klipsun Magazine, 2012, Volume 43, Issue 01 - Fall, Brian Corey

Klipsun Magazine

I’m done, checked out. I graduated. Talk about a pivotal moment.

While I write this it is time for myself and many others receiving their diplomas to step into roles as accountants, engineers, teachers and such, but when this hits stands another group of students will be entering their first year. It’s a simple cycle of coming and going. Each person will create his or her own path through college and into the professional world. Sort of like a choose-your-own- ending book. This story, while individually exciting, is very common. The stories within these pages are a bit more out …

The Planet, 2012, Fall, James Rogers, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Window: The Magazine Of Western Washington University, 2012, Volume 05, Issue 01, Mary Lane Gallagher, Office Of University Communications And Marketing, Western Washington University

Window Magazine

No abstract provided.

Exit Survey Of Undergraduate Students Completing Degrees In Summer 2011, Fall 2011, Winter 2012, And Spring 2012: Descriptive Statistics, John M. Krieg, Beth Hartsoch, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark, Peter Felt

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The Exit Survey of Undergraduate Students Completing Degrees in Summer, 2011 through Spring of 2012 (Exit Survey) is the fourth survey of graduating students conducted at Western Washington University. This survey is designed to illuminate departmental-, college-, and university-level information on student satisfaction, barriers to success, experiences in upper division courses, and postgraduation plans. The exit survey also includes questions submitted to the Office of Survey Research (OSR) by the Division of Enrollment and Student Services, University Residences, and the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education. The Exit Survey consists of a mixture of open-ended, multiple-choice and numerical response questions. This …

Listening To Children: Perceptions Of Nature And Biophilia At Mountain School, Donald J. Burgess, Jolie Mayer-Smith

Secondary Education

This exploratory study investigates children’s perceptions and experiences of nature during a residential outdoor environmental education program and contributes to an understanding of how nature experiences arouse biophilia, a love of life and all living things.

How can we promote a responsible attitude and caring view of the earth and its inhabitants among young people? Limited research suggests that contact with the natural world, especially during middle childhood, occupies a surprisingly important place in a child’s emotional responsiveness and receptivity.

Scaling-Up And Rooting-Down: A Case Study Of North-South Partnerships For Health From Tanzania, J. Hope Corbin, Maurice B. Mittelmark, Gro Th. Lie

Woodring College of Education Faculty Publications

Background: North-South Partnership (NSP) is the mandated blueprint for much global health action. Northern partners contribute funding and expertise and Southern partners contribute capacity for local action. Potential Northern partners are attracted to Southern organizations that have a track record of participating in well-performing NSPs. This often leads to the rapid ‘scaling up’ of the Southern organization’s activities, and more predictable and stable access to resources. Yet, scaling up may also present challenges and threats, as the literature on rapid organization growth shows. However, studies of the impact of scaling up within NSPs in particular are absent from the …

Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D.

Mark I. Greenberg

Undergraduate research (UR) programs attract highly motivated students who often continue on to graduate/professional schools but may lack necessary information literacy skills. Collaboration with UR programs provides librarians new opportunities to help students develop these skills and work with specialized collections in the context of a research experience. In this webinar, librarians and UR administrators share their experiences in forging collaborations based on UR and library training resources, explain how information literacy skills programming has been embedded into UR, and demonstrate how this partnership has led to greater visibility of library services, collections and UR among all undergraduates.

Undergraduate Research Programs And The Academic Library, Nancy Cunningham, Richard Pollenz Ph.D., Drew Smith, Mark I. Greenberg Ph.D.

Western Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

Undergraduate research (UR) programs attract highly motivated students who often continue on to graduate/professional schools but may lack necessary information literacy skills. Collaboration with UR programs provides librarians new opportunities to help students develop these skills and work with specialized collections in the context of a research experience. In this webinar, librarians and UR administrators share their experiences in forging collaborations based on UR and library training resources, explain how information literacy skills programming has been embedded into UR, and demonstrate how this partnership has led to greater visibility of library services, collections and UR among all undergraduates.

Klipsun Magazine, 2012, Volume 42, Issue 07 - Spring, Brian Corey

Klipsun Magazine

Dear reader, “Jump!” “Do it! Go!” “Jump!” She jumped. The river was flowing slowly about 50 feet below. In the brief instance of free fall before she splashed into the water she was free from all havoc, just herself and the summer breeze. Then she hit the water, and the rocks just below the surface.

In a jump she had made numerous times before she made one little error and landed in an area quite a bit shallower than the usual splash zone. Both of her legs broke on impact. Friends were able to pull her from the river. As …

Klipsun Magazine, 2012, Volume 42, Issue 06 - Spring, Elysia Nazareth

Klipsun Magazine

“Time is of the essence” “A Wrinkle in Time” “Times Like These” “Killing time” Whether in contract law, classic literature, pop culture or everyday idiomatic expression, it cannot be denied – time is ever-present.

Commonly used as a measuring system to sequence events and to quantify rates of change, the passing of time can vary from person to person and situation to situation.

For me, with 10 days until graduation, the saying “time flies when you’re having fun” could not be more true. It’s times like these that I can’t help but think about the different events in our lives …

Integrating Language Diversity Into Teacher Education Curricula: Teacher Candidates' Developmental Perspectives And Understandings, Jeasik Cho, Francisco Rios, Allen Trent, Kerrita K. Mayfield

Woodring College of Education Faculty Publications

This study took place at the University of Wyoming, located in the rural mountain West. The University of Wyoming, with approximately 13,000 students, is the only four-year university in the state.The teacher education population of the College of Education is about 600, and demographically, this population is about 90% White, predominately female, and from rural communities across the state and other states that border Wyoming. Likewise, most school districts in the state of Wyoming are less diverse (ethnically, racially, and linguistically) than the national averages. Given this context, the College of Education has tried to address issues of diversity at …

The Planet, 2012, Spring, Becky Tachihara, Huxley College Of The Environment, Western Washington University

The Planet

No abstract provided.

Window: The Magazine Of Western Washington University, 2012, Volume 04, Issue 02, Mary Lane Gallagher, Office Of University Communications And Marketing, Western Washington University

Window Magazine

No abstract provided.

Lummi Youth Riparian Education Program, Kirsten Moore

WWU Honors College Senior Projects

Lummi Youth Riparian Education Program, an Honors project by Kirsten Moore. It is a series of educational activities to be performed at Marietta Slough in order to fulfill the educational component of the grant written by Lummi Natural Resources.

As defined by the grant, "Lummi Youth" includes students grades 3-12. The following lesson plans are aligned to the Washington State Learning Standards for grades 3, 4-5, and 6-8, with the intention of involving students grades 9-12 in leadership/mentor roles. The lesson plans are similar from grade level to grade level, primarily varying in topics and depth of discussion. My hope …

Diversity Climate Report: 2010-2011 Heri Faculty Survey, Western Washington University. Equal Opportunity Office

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

To further Western’s commitment to supporting diverse faculty, and in response to the priorities of campus groups, including the Faculty Senate, Minority Employee Council, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Advocacy Council, Western contracted with the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) at UCLA to conduct their nationally recognized Faculty Survey. Western selected HERI due to its highly respected work developing and administering campus surveys and its ability to provide benchmark data from peer institutions who participated in the 2010-2011 Faculty Survey. Western’s Equal Opportunity (EO) Office facilitated the HERI Faculty Survey and served as the primary point of contact …

Staff Engagement And Diversity Climate Survey Report, Fall 2012, Western Washington University. Equal Opportunity Office

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

BACKGROUND In order to continue to improve Western’s campus climate and employee engagement and to enhance the University’s commitment to diversity, President Shepard facilitated the distribution of a Staff Engagement and Diversity Climate Survey (Staff Survey) on October 31, 2012. Western had conducted similar studies for faculty and students, and it was critical that the views and opinions of classified and professional staff also be collected in order to identify areas in need of improvement, work on those areas, and ascertain progress. The Human Resources Office developed a 49 item survey instrument addressing issues of staff engagement. The Equal Opportunity …

Mythology, Madness And Laughter: Subjectivity In German Idealism – Book Review, Andrea Gogrof

Global Humanities and Religion

No abstract provided.

Western Educational Longitudinal Study (Wels): Baseline Survey Of Freshmen Entering Western In The Fall, 2011, Linda D. (Linda Darlene) Clark, Beth Hartsoch, John M. Krieg, Keiran Seaman

Office of Institutional Effectiveness

The Fall, 2011 Baseline Survey of Freshmen Entering Western (Freshmen Survey) continues the Office of Survey Research’s (OSR) efforts to collect information on all students prior to the start of their academic careers at Western Washington University. This survey represents the initial contact in a longitudinal process that makes inquiries of students at the end of their sophomore year, when they graduate from the university, and one to two years after graduation. The Freshmen Survey is designed with three purposes in mind: (1) to provide baseline observations of students prior to their Western experience which can be used to forecast …

Klipsun Magazine, 2012, Volume 42, Issue 05 - Winter, Elysia Nazareth

Klipsun Magazine

It is in our nature as humans to assume that weakness, in its most literal form, insinuates disadvantage or fault; almost instinctively, our minds seem to formulate the dichotomy between weakness and strength.

We each have our own intellectual, physical and emotional attributes that define our personal singularity. Varying connotations of the word “weak” stand as one such example of our uniqueness and variety, yet despite these different interpretations, we all experience weakness in one way or another.

In this issue of Klipsun, you’ll read that for some, weakness is indulging in our guiltiest pleasures – which may mean secretly …

An Education For Personal Autonomy In An Era Of Standards-Based Reform, Josh Corngold

Journal of Educational Controversy

In 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan’s National Commission on Excellence in Education released a report called A Nation at Risk, which as the name would suggest, painted a grim picture of education in America. The report opened ominously: “Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.” And the dismal tone only intensified as the report’s authors placed the blame for the nation’s troubles squarely at the foot of its educational institutions:

We report to the American people that while we can take justifiable pride …

The Hypocrisy Of Racism: Arizona's Movement Towards State-Sanctioned Apartheid, Augustine F. Romero

Journal of Educational Controversy

Recently, my colleagues and I have been called racist because we encourage our students to ask questions about the impact of race and/or racism upon their social condition, their impact on the history of our country, and their potential impact upon our future. The irony and hypocrisy are that our racist state, its racist superintendent of public instruction, its racist attorney general, the racists within its state legislature, and the racist nature of its legal representation are saying that my colleagues and I are racist because we illuminate their acts of white privilege, their acts of oppression, and their acts …

Creating A School Meant For Children: A Multi-Media Presentation, Susan Donnelly

Journal of Educational Controversy

During the past decade, we have been involved in an ongoing process to articulate our beliefs about education, to ground those beliefs in current research about learning, children, and brain development, and to develop a coherent set of practices informed by those beliefs that encompass all aspects of the school program. This has been a very complicated process that has frequently challenged us to uncover and re-examine long-held assumptions, to re-orient our relationships, and to work collaboratively across age levels and disciplines to make changes in the midst of all the activity and busy-ness of a school full of energetic …

Author Paul Shaker Responds To The Video Review Of His Book, Reclaiming Education For Democracy, Paul Shaker

Journal of Educational Controversy

Thank you and specifically the reviewers for your close attention to our book, Reclaiming Education for Democracy: Thinking Beyond No Child Left Behind (RED) (Shaker & Heilman, 2008), and for the fair and sensitive reading that you gave the book. As you can imagine, such academic attention is deeply gratifying. I have been invited to respond to the video review in print and I choose to do so in an informal manner, without footnotes, and by giving my individual reaction. At the same time I wish to acknowledge my co-author, Professor Elizabeth E. Heilman, of Michigan State University.

Literacy With An Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children In Their Own Self-Interest By Patrick J. Finn, Rosalie M. Romano

Journal of Educational Controversy

When Literacy with an Attitude: Educating Working-Class Children in their own Self-Interest (1999/2009) was published, Patrick J Finn framed his argument for teaching powerful literacy to poor, working-class children as a matter of justice. Powerful literacy is the education our children deserve because it fosters critical thinking about complex ideas and prepares young people to consider multiple perspectives and their own interests as they make life decisions. Finn exposed disparities in the aims and means of educating students according to their social class. Poor, working-class students received functional literacy that taught compliance, while students from privileged backgrounds were taught powerful …

Original Minds Directed By T. Weidlinger, Tracy Thorndike

Journal of Educational Controversy

Original Minds paints a poignant and thought-provoking portrait of what it’s like to learn and think in ways different from those valued and supported in typical classrooms. The film centers on the stories of five teenagers, all of whom have been classified as learning disabled, as they participate in a semester-long special class designed to teach them how the brain works and help them gain insight into their unique patterns of strengths and weaknesses. Parents, teachers, and other adults weigh in with their own perspectives, but the teens’ own first person accounts of their frustrations with learning and schooling, and …

The Death And Life Of The Great American School System By Diane Ravitch, Chris Ohana

Journal of Educational Controversy

Cleaning your office can be a surprisingly cathartic experience. Diane Ravitch, once a darling in the Bush administrations, was preparing her office to be painted. As she sifted through decades of work, she experienced what she called an intellectual crisis. She began to doubt more than just the impact of various reforms that she had once embraced. She also challenged the very assumptions on which they were based. The result of this cleaning crisis was her book, The Death and Life of the Great American School System.