Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Higher Education Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 31 - 53 of 53

Full-Text Articles in Higher Education

The Right Stuff: Inquiry Training, Teaching & Transfer For Content Mastery In The Sciences, Alice Coe, Ruthanne Thompson Jan 2010

The Right Stuff: Inquiry Training, Teaching & Transfer For Content Mastery In The Sciences, Alice Coe, Ruthanne Thompson

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The standardized testing movement has inadvertently placed pressure on elementary and secondary instructors to teach to the test. Primarily this is manifested through memorization and testing skills training and less on developing content mastery and problem solving. Hands-on activities (also referred to as inquiry learning) are lauded by the literature as an effective methodology in the development of content mastery (Akerson, V., Hanson, D., & Cullen, T.; NSF, 2010; Smith, T., Desimone, L., Zeidner, T., Dunn, A., Bhatt, M. & Rumyantseva, N., 2007). Nevertheless, administrators often see the inquiry method as an ineffective use of classroom and training time diverting …


Book Review: Challenges Of Sustainable Democracy In Nigeria. Ibadan: John Archer, Segun Oshewolo Jan 2010

Book Review: Challenges Of Sustainable Democracy In Nigeria. Ibadan: John Archer, Segun Oshewolo

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Ojo’s edited book accommodates brilliant essays that focus analytically on the hurdles to Nigeria’s democratization process. The book takes the readers into an interesting, but academically cogent, theme, Nigeria’s democratization process: the odds and socio-politically expedient coping strategies. The foreword, excellently written by a Nigerian professor of political science, J. A.A. Ayoade, will no doubt ignite readers’ interest in the book. Apart from projecting Nigeria as a continental and global force, which necessarily elicits great enthusiasm from democracy observers locally and internationally, it also, precisely and concisely, chronicles Nigeria’s tortuous march to democratization. In the preface of this twenty-five chapter …


Illuminating Adolescent Voices: Identifying High School Students’ Perceptions Of Teacher Caring, Ruben Garza, Gail Ryser, Kathryn Lee Oct 2009

Illuminating Adolescent Voices: Identifying High School Students’ Perceptions Of Teacher Caring, Ruben Garza, Gail Ryser, Kathryn Lee

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The purpose of the current study was to identify teacher behaviors that secondary students perceived as demonstrating caring. The questions that guided this inquiry were (a) what teacher behaviors do high school students perceive as caring? and (b) what teacher behaviors do high school students perceive as the most important aspects of caring? Whereas previous studies clearly have documented the power and influence of caring teachers on adolescents’ success, we posit that knowing what students perceive as caring behaviors can be used as a springboard to shape the context of caring for all students, especially those who are marginalized, feel …


Quality Assurance In Education Through Quality Circles – Global And Indian Context, Uma Devi, R.S. Mani Oct 2009

Quality Assurance In Education Through Quality Circles – Global And Indian Context, Uma Devi, R.S. Mani

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Since Independence, the education, particularly the higher education in India has undergone a unique transformation from elitist to egalitarian group. There has been the expansion of higher education facilities in India since independence. We can see the expansion of higher education with increasing speed day by day in the context of globalization, liberalization and privatization. But a big question in front of us is whether the quality is ensured or not. It is saddening to note that 128 universities who got themselves accredited by the NAAC only 32 per cent could get ‘A’ or above level of rating while another …


What Is Rigor?: A Qualitative Analysis Of One School’S Definition, Heather Bower, Joelle Powers Oct 2009

What Is Rigor?: A Qualitative Analysis Of One School’S Definition, Heather Bower, Joelle Powers

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

In an era of increasing accountability, school administrators and faculties often find themselves amid a plethora of best practices and strategies aimed at improving students’ academic achievement. In the midst of these discussions, school culture is often hailed as the key to creating effective schools because it defines how people within a particular school are to behave and what they are to value (Stolp & Smith, 1995). Furthermore, it allows administrators to draw attention to some of the culture’s most important aspects: its values, beliefs, and assumptions that create the school’s vision for excellence (Stolp & Smith, 1995). Malloy (2005) …


Douglas Mcgregor’S Theoretical Models: Their Application In Assessing Leadership Styles, Kwasi Dartey-Baah Oct 2009

Douglas Mcgregor’S Theoretical Models: Their Application In Assessing Leadership Styles, Kwasi Dartey-Baah

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Douglas McGregor (1960) a thinker, leader, management and leadership theorist postulated over three decades ago that every leader has core assumptions about human nature and these assumptions influence the style of leadership practiced by the leader. McGregor’s views on leadership are important because he was the first to apply behavioural science findings to the world of business and leadership. He postulated the core leadership assumptions (Theory X and Theory Y) to assist leaders question their underlying assumptions and perceptions about people.


Fewer Women Than Men In Educational Leadership, Mahshid Pirouznia Jul 2009

Fewer Women Than Men In Educational Leadership, Mahshid Pirouznia

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The purpose of this study is to explore the possible obstacles in women’s pathway to a principalship; and examine if these obstacles have changed over the past two decades because of women’s changing roles.


The Organization And Administration Of A Deficit Curriculum: The Dominant Operating Core Curriculum Of A Hispanic Serving Educational System, James Satterfield, Lesli Gonzales, Stephanie Zelanek Jul 2009

The Organization And Administration Of A Deficit Curriculum: The Dominant Operating Core Curriculum Of A Hispanic Serving Educational System, James Satterfield, Lesli Gonzales, Stephanie Zelanek

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The demographic face of the United States is quickly changing as the Hispanic population approaches majority minority status. The changing demography brings with it many implications as far as the general condition and functionality of society is concerned. Especially important are educational practices and the construction of public education policies as the public schools are traditionally relied upon as an institution of socialization, as a common denominator to Americanize the young, the poor, the marginal, and the immigrant populations (Tyack and Cuban, 1995). These categorical descriptions, one could say, largely characterize the Hispanic population, which in fact represents the youngest …


Preparing Students For The College Experience, Stefanos Gialamas, Peggy Pelonis Apr 2009

Preparing Students For The College Experience, Stefanos Gialamas, Peggy Pelonis

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Preparing students for College life and most importantly for life beyond high school is a key challenge for many educators and secondary education institutions. Above all, today more than ever, educators must prepare students for the unknown and the unpredictable; careers not yet known to us, opportunities that we can not imagine, and for a world so different that we have no idea what it will look like in thirty or forty years. Hence some of the questions that arise are as follows: what shall we teach our students? What skills do we expect them to develop; and which processes …


The Impact Of Leadership On Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction, Jaime Kleim, Becky Takeda-Tinker Apr 2009

The Impact Of Leadership On Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction, Jaime Kleim, Becky Takeda-Tinker

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Technical colleges are experiencing high levels of annual turnover and retirement among faculty, staff, and administrators. Job satisfaction among employees in these institutions is therefore of vital importance to leadership that must increasingly work to understand and address factors of job satisfaction and turnover.


Effects Of Case-Based Learning On Preservice Secondary Teachers’ Multicultural Attitudes: A Mixed Methods Study, Kathryn Lee, Emily Summers, Rubén Garza Jan 2009

Effects Of Case-Based Learning On Preservice Secondary Teachers’ Multicultural Attitudes: A Mixed Methods Study, Kathryn Lee, Emily Summers, Rubén Garza

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

As our society changes, so must our teacher education practices. In the past decade, the Southwestern U.S. has been transforming into a majority minority region (U.S. Census Bureau 2005), which must in turn reframe the underpinnings of teacher education in this area of our country. As teacher educators, we have known that many preservice teachers lagged in their preparedness to teach students who are culturally, ethnically, and linguistically different from themselves. Teacher education increasingly is being criticized as having inabilities to instruct teacher candidates in ways that produce greater K-12 student learning; diversity awareness will be a cornerstone if we …


Web-Based Course Content: An Emerging Consideration For Authenticity From A Learner Perspective, Laurie Bedford Jan 2009

Web-Based Course Content: An Emerging Consideration For Authenticity From A Learner Perspective, Laurie Bedford

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

More organizations and instructors are incorporating authentic learning strategies into the instructional paradigm of the classroom. One advantage of this ideology is that the diversity of individual learners can be capitalized upon through a dialogue consisting of multiple perspectives. In these contemporary classrooms, the curriculum becomes a more fluid, personal entity based on experience, prior knowledge and individual expertise (Bedford, Wiebe, and Tschida, 2008). At the same time, a plethora of information which draws upon multiple perspectives is also more readily available and accessible though electronic venues—primarily via the Internet. The abundance of available information provides opportunities for learners to …


Challenges And Opportunities To Enhance The Clinical Reasoning Skills Of Medical Students: Lessons Learned From The Advanced Clinical Transactions Pilot Program, Latha Chandran, Frederick Schiavone, Maryam Navaie, John Chen Jan 2009

Challenges And Opportunities To Enhance The Clinical Reasoning Skills Of Medical Students: Lessons Learned From The Advanced Clinical Transactions Pilot Program, Latha Chandran, Frederick Schiavone, Maryam Navaie, John Chen

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Medical school faculty must foster high-quality patient care while simultaneously assessing the clinical skills and reasoning of students in order to promote their independent functioning in the clinical setting. A growing concern noted across medical faculty is that students may complete their undergraduate medical studies without sufficient understanding of how simple clinical tasks are done with real patients. These concerns have been validated by results from numerous studies that have reported many medical students express a lack of confidence and competence to critically evaluate patient needs based on data, a factor that has been linked to problems in performance and …


Emergence Of Strategic Human Resource Management Historical Perspective, Nadeem Malik Jan 2009

Emergence Of Strategic Human Resource Management Historical Perspective, Nadeem Malik

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Organization today, by necessity have become more focused on exploiting sources of competitive advantage in the face of rapid environmental, technological and global economic changes. According to Pfeffer (1994:14), as other sources of competitive success have become less important, what remains a crucial, differentiating factor is the organization, its employees and how they work. Additionally, he states that the current recognition among strategic management researchers is that sustained competitive advantage arises more from a firms internal resource endowments and resource deployments particularly its human capital that are imperfectly imitable than from a firm’s product market position. These “people” issues used …


Peer Mentor Leadership Training: Theory And Implementation, James Rubin Jan 2009

Peer Mentor Leadership Training: Theory And Implementation, James Rubin

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

College is a time of major transition for young adults. It presents a unique opportunity as decisions regarding a wide variety of options unfold for the first time without being under the guidance and eye of a guardian. Chosen paths offer a glimpse into the inner motivations behind one’s character and the interest that many students have shown for peer mentoring exemplifies traits of benevolence and leadership. In addition to providing peers with a positive role model, there are opportunities for mentors to expand on many interpersonal qualities that are important for success in a multitude of contexts. Integral to …


Absenteeism And Lateness Among Secondary School Students In Nigeria: Profiling Causes And Solution, Enamiroro Oghuvbu Jul 2008

Absenteeism And Lateness Among Secondary School Students In Nigeria: Profiling Causes And Solution, Enamiroro Oghuvbu

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Absenteeism is major and continuous administrative problem among secondary school students in developing countries. Since the problem is to 70% student home based, there is need for the student/parent to help identify and proffer solutions to this quality disturbing problems that could lead to students’ dropout from school.


New Perspectives On Academic Leadership Moving The Research Agenda, Sabine Hotho, Jim Mcgoldrick, Alastair Work Jul 2008

New Perspectives On Academic Leadership Moving The Research Agenda, Sabine Hotho, Jim Mcgoldrick, Alastair Work

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

The purpose of this paper is threefold: 1. to expand the theory base underpinning academic leadership and HRD; 2. to expand theoretical frameworks to challenge prevailing myths about the ‘unwilling academic manager’; 3. to open up new research avenues and questions which have a better chance of constructively supporting HRD practice in HE.


Teacher Expectations And Urban Black Males’ Success In School: Implications For Academic Leaders, Terrell Strayhorn Apr 2008

Teacher Expectations And Urban Black Males’ Success In School: Implications For Academic Leaders, Terrell Strayhorn

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Over 50 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, the American educational system is fraught with separate and unequal opportunities for historically underrepresented and underserved populations. However, unlike the 1950s when race was the single most important predictor of educational disparities, most contemporary scholars agree that it is a convergence of multiple factors that shapes the circumstances in which America’s neediest students exist. For example, in 2005 (the most recent year in which data are available), women represented the majority of college entrants at 2- and 4-year institutions. Yet, African American women represented a smaller proportion of the total population …


Fuzzy And Research Paradigms Relationship: A Mutual Contribution, Devood Salmani, Mohsen Akbari Apr 2008

Fuzzy And Research Paradigms Relationship: A Mutual Contribution, Devood Salmani, Mohsen Akbari

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Fuzzy sets were introduced by Zadeh in 1965 to represent manipulate data and information possessing non-statistical uncertainties. It was specifically designed to mathematically represent uncertainty and vagueness and to provide formalized tools for dealing with the imprecision intrinsic to many problems. However, the story of fuzzy logic started much earlier. Fuzzy system is an alternative to traditional notions of set membership and logic that has its origins in ancient Greek philosophy. Research paradigms are rooted in philosophy paradigm, determine the direction of researches; how the researches reach to the reality, how they answer the questions of the seeking mind … …


Mystic Inspiration Of Effective Habits?, Dennis Mcdougall, Rhonda S. Black, Garnett J. Smith, James Skouge Oct 2007

Mystic Inspiration Of Effective Habits?, Dennis Mcdougall, Rhonda S. Black, Garnett J. Smith, James Skouge

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Although numerous and diverse publications address professors’ writing and research productivity, exceedingly few empirical studies report findings for interventions designed and implemented to increase professors’ research productivity. This study used an innovative mixed methods design with a concurrent triangulation strategy and methods from two research traditions that investigators rarely integrate – quantitative single-case interventions and qualitative inquiry. Processes and findings from this study illustrate how researchers can combine these methods to illuminate the how and why of changes in performance in participant-interventionist studies. In this study, university professors used goal setting and behavioral self-management techniques to increase their daily research …


Critical Thought Analysis: Bridging The Gap Between Academia And Business, Heidi Gregory-Mina Apr 2007

Critical Thought Analysis: Bridging The Gap Between Academia And Business, Heidi Gregory-Mina

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Critical thought has been taught to students in varying degrees over the years, but employers believe that critical thinking skills are still lacking in employees (Braun 2004). Some of the barriers between employer expectations and academia concerning critical thought arise from a lack of congruity regarding the meaning of critical thought. However, nearly all researchers agree teaching critical thinking skills is a desirable aim of education (Hemming, 2000). According to Cheung (2002), critical thinking covers four dimensions: (1) cognitive, (2) motivational, (3) ideological, and (4) behavioral. However, other definitions of critical thought range from critical thinking originating from the left …


Lead Is An Action Verb, Kathy Dale Apr 2005

Lead Is An Action Verb, Kathy Dale

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

An article discussing the difference between dialog and discussion.


Leading Community College Distance Education, John Adams Apr 2005

Leading Community College Distance Education, John Adams

Academic Leadership: The Online Journal

Technological, demographic, and competitive changes in distance education (DE) pose complex leadership and strategic issues for community colleges. Leaders must establish institutional and academic objectives, develop financial and technological strategies, and organize, market, and evaluate DE initiatives. Their objectives and strategies should anticipate and help shape the developing competitive environment in which their colleges operate. This qualitative case study examined DE administrative and staff leadership roles, organization structures, and strategies at three Midwestern community colleges with expanding DE programs. Leadership teams were small. New roles and organizational structures were evolving, and the colleges were maintaining strong video delivery while developing …