Digital Commons Network^™

Janet E. Williams-Guest, Md

African American Funeral Programs

No abstract provided.

Broadening Conceptions Of What Constitutes Knowledge And Evidence In Sotl, Sharon Thomas

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

In the two decades since the publication of Boyer’s (1990) seminal work, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has earned an increasingly venerable reputation as a legitimate area of scholarship. What remains contentious, however, is the form that such scholarship takes. Despite the publication of numerous books and articles lauding alternative epistemologies, SoTL advocates regularly have to defend their approaches. The purpose of this essay is to encourage higher education practitioners to broaden their conceptions of what constitutes knowledge and evidence in SoTL. An epistemological discussion, it aims to provide a strong theoretical framework within which SoTL practitioners can …

Keeping The Scholarship In The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning, Heather Kanuka

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

As the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) increases in recognition for its contributions to teaching and learning in higher education, it also becomes increasingly important that those wishing to make contributions, and whose area of expertise falls outside of the field of education, make themselves aware of how to conduct educational research. In this essay I question what scholarship means in SoTL and provide a discussion about what is considered to be a scholarly contribution within the educational research community.

Inquiry Learning: Level, Discipline, Class Size, What Matters?, Susan Vajoczki, Susan Watt, Michelle M. Vine, Rose Liao

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Inquiry learning is a pedagogical approach that focuses on the processes and skills required to conduct research. It is a pedagogical approach that has been demonstrated to have positive learning outcomes. McMaster University has been committed to this form of learning for more than ten years in three of the faculties on campus (i.e., Humanities, Science and Social Sciences). This commitment has been in the creation of stand-alone, small class size first year inquiry classes. The current research, involving document analysis of 545 course outlines from the Faculty of Social Sciences demonstrates that inquiry learning is concentrated in first and …

Preparing Medical Students To Undertake A Cultural Immersion Experience: Introducing Frameworks For Preparatory And Post-Immersion Activities, Donna B. Mak, Rashmi Watson, John Hadden

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Recruiting and retaining practitioners to rural and remote locations is a challenge for many industries including health and education. The medical, nursing and teaching professions have utilized immersion experiences for trainees and students to better prepare them and to address workforce shortages in cross-cultural and underserved areas. This paper describes the steps taken to improve an immersion experience for medical students and evaluates the impact of these improvements.

The University of Notre Dame’s School of Medicine requires all second year medical students to undertake the Kimberley Remote Area Health Placement Program (hereinafter the ‘Program’). The Program provides opportunities to learn …

Business As Usual: Business Students' Conceptions Of Ethics, Anna Reid, Paul Taylor, Peter Petocz

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

There is continuing debate about how best to teach ethics to students in business, that is, how best to help them to develop the ethical aspects of their future profession. This debate has covered whether to teach ethics, what to teach and whether it has any effect on students' views or future behaviour. For the most part, the views of the students themselves are in the minority. Yet it seems likely that the most effective pedagogical approaches would be those based on students’ own ideas of the nature of ethics and the role of ethical considerations in their studies and …

Window Shopping: Fashioning A Scholarship Of Interdisciplinary Teaching And Learning, Colleen M. Tremonte

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This essay proposes the practice of window shopping, systematically switching between various modes of inquiry to understand and evaluate evidence of student learning in interdisciplinary courses. Because interdisciplinarity by nature is epistemologically flexible and often yields fluid subject matter content, it can complicate (and dissuade) scholars from undertaking SoTL. This essay addresses this problem, particularly in respect to the issue of ‘novice-stry’. In addition, it offers window shopping as a practice that can support instructors grappling with what constitutes actual ‘data’ of substantive interdisciplinary learning intimately connected to local contexts and pedagogic reasoning.

Examining Classroom Negotiation Strategies Of International Teaching Assistants, Gwendolyn M. Williams

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

From a constructivist point of view teacher identity evolves as the teacher interacts and negotiates with others. However, before negotiation can occur, instructors must establish their own teacher identity as a starting position. This narrative study analyzes how international teaching assistants negotiated with their American undergraduate students. Twenty participants engaged in two individual interviews and a videotaped classroom observation where the negotiation strategies were discussed and observed. Findings revealed that although experience improved their negotiation skills, many international teaching assistants struggled with negotiating with students because they did not understand the students’ background. Furthermore, cultural norms influenced how participants approached …

Know Thy Audience: Helping Students Engage A Threshold Concept Using Audience-Based Pedagogy, Rebecca Pope-Ruark

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Students are experts at sizing up instructors, but many do not extend this analysis to non-instructor audiences, which can reduce their effectiveness in new communication situations. Audience, therefore, is a crucial threshold concept not only in Rhetoric and Composition, but in any discipline that values communication skills. How can instructors help students develop a deeper understanding of audience in the disciplines and begin to cross the threshold? In this article, I describe how a group of Professional Writing and Rhetoric students engaged the audience threshold through a semester-long, client-based project. Drawing on data collected via reflections and portfolios, written deliverables, …

2011 Georgia Southern University Softball Media Guide, Georgia Southern University

Women's Softball Records

• Schedule/ Table of Contents

The Power Of Fiction: Reading Stories In Abnormal Psychology, Adrian Janit, Georgina Hammock, Deborah Richardson

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

We compared the instructional efficacy of a narrative text (i.e., a story) and an expository text (i.e., a textbook excerpt). Students enrolled in Abnormal Psychology classes read about the disorder, dissociative fugue from a story, a textbook, or both. The story contained literary elements that increased transportation into the story world. We predicted that this would facilitate memory encoding and improve subsequent test performance. Students who read the story achieved higher quiz scores and evidenced greater free recall about the disorder than those who read the textbook. They also reported greater transportation into the discourse. The combined reading conditions were …

Developing A Statistically Valid And Practically Useful Student Evaluation Instrument, Jeffrey S. Skowronek, Bruce K. Friesen, Heather Masonjones

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The current article presents the findings on the development of a student evaluation instrument in which course evaluation is directly tied to student learning outcomes. With a committee consisting of instructors from six distinct disciplines brought together as part of a working group for this purpose, the instrument was developed utilizing research on the components of effective teaching and how these components impacted student learning. The instrument was tested at two time points, once via pen and paper (n=340 students) and the other online (n=2636 students). Factor Analysis resulted in one latent factor both times. The instrument also had high …

Exploring The Variation In First Year Undergraduates' Induction Into Their Academic Disciplines, Min Yang, Beverly Joyce Webster, Michael Prosser

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This study explored qualitative variation in first year undergraduates’ induction into the discipline in four dimensions: (1) induction into disciplinary knowledge, (2) induction into disciplinary research, (3) integration of learning from different courses, and (4) induction into disciplinary skills. Data were drawn from focus groups with students from different disciplines at a university in Hong Kong. Phenomenographic analysis identified four categories about induction into disciplinary knowledge and disciplinary research, and three categories regarding integration of learning. The categories were described in terms of the referential (aspects of the dimension discerned by students) and structural components (how students explained the aspects). …

The Influence Of Tech-Savvyness And Clicker Use On Student Learning, Jennifer Zapf, Adolfo Garcia

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The purpose of the study was to investigate the influence of technology proficiency and clicker use on students’ perceptions of clickers, engagement and class grade point average. Four hundred five students completed a questionnaire that measured Student Technology Proficiency (STP; Garcia and Zapf, in press), and participated in the validation of two new dependent measures: perception of clickers and student engagement. Class GPA was collected after the semester ended. A 2x2 MANOVA experiment was conducted and yielded no differences between students enrolled in a clicker class versus not, but there were several findings between STP groups. Students high in STP …

The Potential For Teaching Quantitative Reasoning Across The Curriculum: Empirical Evidence, Nathan D. Grawe

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Educational theorists have argued that effective instruction in quantitative reasoning (QR) should extend across the curriculum. While a noble goal, it is not immediately evident that this is even possible. To assess the feasibility of this approach to QR instruction, I examine papers written by undergraduates for submission to a sophomore writing portfolio. I distinguish papers in which QR is central to the main thrust of the argument (“centrally relevant”) from those in which QR would strengthen the argument by providing context, enriching description, or presenting background (“peripherally relevant”). I find extensive potential for QR instruction across the curriculum. In …

Going To The Balcony: Two Professors Reflect And Examine Their Pedagogy, Linda Searby, Jenny Tripses

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The purpose of this essay is twofold. First of all, we want to emphasize the value of taking time to reflect on the effectiveness of our teaching practices, especially when we sense that teaching and learning processes have become ‘stale.’ Heifetz and Linsky (2002) equate reflection with “going to the balcony from the dance floor” to view our actions from a different perspective, and this is what we attempted to do. Secondly, we want to highlight the professional and personal satisfaction that can result from collaboration with a colleague when investigating elements of the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). …

Feature Essays: The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning: A Personal Account And Reflection, Lee Shulman

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Excerpt: One of my favorite stories about teaching recounts the conversation between an aging Jewish schoolteacher in Poland (a"melamed" in Yiddish) and his wise wife. It is late in the evening and they are sitting quietly before bedtime. "Sarah, I've been thinking about something really interesting. Do you realize that if I were the Czar, I would be richer than the Czar?" Sarah, having lived with his ruminations for many years, sighs....

Gera Conference Program [2011], Gera

Georgia Educational Research Association Conference

Conference program for 2011.

Breaking Through "The Wall": An Examination Of Elite Rowers And Their Experience Of Conquering Their Mental Boundaries, Nicole Jordens

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Throughout sports, elite athletes have faced mental boundaries in pursuit of their success. These mental boundaries, often referred to as "The Wall", have typically been investigated in endurance sports. Within the sport of rowing, Baltzell (1999) found that elite rowers coped with their mental boundaries by using; mental preparation, goal setting, social support and psychological well-being. However even though rowing is a sport where athletes experience "The Wall" frequently, modest research has been done to further understand this phenomenon. The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experience of elite rowers when challenged with "The Wall". The study …

The Role Of The Elementary Principal In Building Relational Trust With Low-Income Families, Amy W. Mcclure

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Students in schools across the country are failing to meet academic standards. School leaders are responsible for solving the problem and must search for ways to help all students learn and improve academic achievement. Although copious studies have been devoted to exploring the benefits of and barriers to family involvement and engagement in schools, very few have deconstructed the direct role of principals in family involvement in school. The purpose of this study was to explore how elementary principals in low income, elementary schools in the southeastern U.S. use elements of relational trust in family involvement efforts. Grounded in cultural …

Miscellany, Shelby Childs, Amanda Gibson, Alessandra Dzuba, Shanna Goodwin, Jimmy Guo, Lauren Howard, Brittany Kolar, Sheila Boarman, Jose Gil, Lindsey Rowland, Michael Hendley, Tavidee Hoskins, Christopher Kessler, Michael Hendley, Axel Wright, Spencer Lenaway, Christopher Hiers, Chad Sanderson, Jimmy Guo, Kaela Mcneil

Miscellany

• Art
• Writing

Investigating Peer Review As An Intentional Learning Strategy To Foster Collaborative Knowledge-Building In Students Of Instructional Design, Jennifer M. Brill, Charles B. Hodges

Leadership, Technology & Human Development: Faculty Publications

Peer review has been advocated for as an intentional strategy to support the knowledge and skill attainment of adult learners preparing for professional practice, including those students preparing for instructional design and technology practice. The purposes of this article are to discuss the practical application of peer review as an instructional strategy by articulating its use in both face-to-face and online Instructional Design courses and to formulate directions for future research on the use of peer review in instructional practice. Findings from a literature review of student-to-student peer review and the authors' experiences with the use of peer review in …

Barbershop Communications On Prostate Cancer Screening Using Barber Health Advisers, John S. Luque, Brian M. Rivers, Clement K. Gwede, Maisha Kambon, B. Lee Green, Cathy D. Meade

Community Health: Faculty Publications

Objective: The authors report the outcomes of a community-based, barber health adviser pilot intervention that aims to develop customized educational materials to promote knowledge and awareness of prostate cancer (CaP) and informed decision making about prostate cancer screening (PCS) among a predominantly African American clientele.

Method: First, the authors implemented a series of learner verification processes with barbershop clients (n=15) to adapt existing CaP health promotion materials. Following intervention implementation in the barbershop, they conducted structured surveys with barbershop clients (n=40) to evaluate the intervention. Results: Findings from the posttest showed both a significant increase in barbershop clients' …

Undergraduate Catalog, Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate And Graduate Catalog [2010-2011], Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

2011-2012 Undergraduate Catalog, Armstrong Atlantic State University

Armstrong Office of the Registrar: Undergraduate Catalogs (Archived)

Academic catalog for Armstrong Atlantic State University.

Southern Educator, Georgia Southern University

College of Education: News & Publications (2003-2023)

• J. C. Hunter Memorial Scholarship
• Jack Miller Faculty Awards
• Georgia Power New Teaching Assistant Grants
• Looking Inward and Looking Forward
• Welcome New Faculty
• International Student Teacher Exchange
• The College of Education’s iPad Project
• COE McNair Scholar
• Graduate Academic Services Center Coming Spring 2012
• Taiwan Exchange
• Library of Congress Institute
• New COE Staff
• Southern Educator Class Roll

Faculty Handbook, Georgia Southern University

Faculty Handbooks

Faculty Handbook for Georgia Southern University for the 2011-2012 academic year. The Faculty Handbook is published online by the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs and archived in Digital Commons@Georgia Southern.

2011 Georgia Southern University Men's Soccer Media Guide, Georgia Southern University

Men's Soccer Records

• Georgia Southern Men's Soccer

2011 Georgia Southern University Women's Soccer Media Guide, Georgia Southern University

Women's Soccer Records

• 2011 Georgia Southern Women's Soccer Media Guide