Education Commons^™

Creating Faculty-Student Interaction, Lindsay Roberts, Jessie Salmon

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Creating a thriving community is a challenge for any honors program or college, especially for a program in transition like the Honors College at Towson University. The Honors College has approximately nine hundred students out of about sixteen thousand undergraduate students, and within the past three years it has undergone major curricular and structural changes. To keep honors students and faculty connected and invested in their honors experience through this transition period, the Honors College has focused on establishing a tighter bond between faculty and students, one that is unique to the college and recognized by the university as a …

Sweden In The Summer: Developing An Honors Study-Abroad Program, Gayle Levy

Honors in Practice Online Archive

I want to begin this paper by making a claim with which, at first, not everyone might agree. Any good study abroad experience can be considered an honors experience. This short sentence raises any number of questions, which I cannot fully answer in this space, nor is it the primary topic of my essay. It is, however, a way to contextualize our one-month honors study abroad program at University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The Senior Honors Thesis: From Millstone To Capstone, Jim Lacey

Honors in Practice Online Archive

When I became director of a small college honors program, many students perceived the senior honors thesis to be a millstone. Even worse, the word was being bruited about that students didn’t really have to complete the thesis, that the only penalty was not being listed in the separate section for honors scholars in the graduation program. Although the discussion below is about redeeming the thesis process in a small program, some of the strategies should be applicable to large programs as well.

Honors In 2025: Becoming What You Emulate, Craig Cobane

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Predicting the future is always difficult and fraught with many dangers; just ask your local weather forecaster. The process of looking into the future, even if the predictions are in error, is nevertheless an important tool for honors faculty, staff, and administrators; it is part of the strategic planning process that helps develop new and interesting ideas. The goal of this essay is to look over the horizon, make some predictions about what honors education will look like in the year 2025, and encourage people to think about the future of honors. My predictions will most likely seem naive to …

Using External Review In The Honors Project Process, Joyce W. Fields

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Understanding the competitive nature of applications to graduate programs, Ferrari and Davis (2000) surveyed psychology faculty to discover their level of awareness of resources for undergraduate research publication. They found that most of the psychology faculty members they surveyed were unaware of such resources. Their finding made me curious about how many honors directors, faculty, and advisors are aware of such resources for their students not only in psychology but in all disciplines across the curriculum. Most of us realize the importance of helping our students become competitive for graduate work, and we know that publication and/or presentation of research …

Editorial, Volume 4 - 2008, Ada Long, Dail Mullins

Honors in Practice Online Archive

Table of Contents:

Editorial Policy

Submission Guidelines

Dedication to Elizabeth C. Beck

Editor’s Introduction by Ada Long

Determining the Significance of Honors by Katherine E. Bruce

Portable Widgets and Techie Tattoos: Honors of the Future by Rosalie C. Otero

Honors in 2025: Becoming What You Emulate by Craig T. Cobane

Honors 2025: The Future of the Honors College by Richard Ira Scott and Philip L. Frana

Majoring in the Minor: A Closer Look at Experiential Learning by Bernice Braid

Cultural Studies as the Foundation for an Honors Program: Documenting Students’ Academic and Personal Growth by Sara E. Quay and Amy …

Ethical Guidelines For Educational Developers

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Ethical guidelines for educational developers prepared by Mintz, Smith, & Warren, January 1999. Revised March 1999, September 1999, and March 2000.

Evaluating Teaching: A New Approach To An Old Problem, L. Dee Fink

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The approach to evaluating the quality of teaching described in this chapter starts by developing a Model of Good Teaching. This model is then used to create a set of evaluation procedures based on four key dimensions of teaching: design of learning experiences, quality of teacher/student interactions, extent and quality of student learning, and teacher’s effort to improve over time. The challenges and benefits of using these procedures are discussed.

Grounded Theory Research In Faculty Development: The Basics, A Live Example, And Practical Tips For Faculty Developers, Michael Sweet, Rochelle Roberts, Joshua Walker, Stephen Walls, John Kuscera, Shana Shaw, Janet Riekenberg, Marilla Svinicki

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

While autobiographical narratives and case study reflections remain vital to faculty development research, we must also make substantive efforts to build theory in our field. Researchers making claims about collective meanings of observed behaviors and the mechanisms that underlie them (i.e., theoretical claims about social behavior) must be disciplined in how they identify and organize the evidence they use to support those claims. Such systematic, inductive theory-building in the social sciences is called “grounded theory” research. This chapter presents the basics of grounded theory research, describes a grounded theory research program currently being executed by faculty developers, and offers practical …

Supporting The Scholarship Of Teaching And Learning At Liberal Arts Colleges, Dolores Peters, David Schodt, Mary Walczak

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although the liberal arts college, with its traditional focus on teaching, may seem like a natural environment for the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL), few such institutions participate in national SoTL initiatives. Our associates’ experience since 2001 suggests a model for supporting SoTL in teaching-intensive contexts based on faculty ownership, a focus on general education, and some emerging rules of engagement. Because faculty reward systems must validate SoTL if it is to become part of the institutional culture, we also describe one department’s efforts to reform its review criteria in order to define scholarly activity broadly.

Marketing Plans For Faculty Development: Student And Faculty Development Center Collaboration For Mutual Benefit, Victoria Mundy Bhavsar, Steven J. Skinner

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Our faculty development center engaged senior-level business students as consultants to help us inform instructors about our resources. The students argued that organizational and marketing tasks are critical to our pedagogical work as they create opportunities for the pedagogical work to occur. This chapter describes the collaboration, the students’ recommendations, and the center’s response. Engaging students, our ultimate clients, in setting priorities for our center was a powerful learning experience for both us and them. Other centers may wish to use our experiences as impetus to collaborate with students on their campuses.

Thawing The Chilly Climate: Inclusive Teaching Resources For Science, Technology, Engineering, And Math, Katherine A. Friederich, Sherill L. Sellers, Judith N. Burstyn

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Although universities are aware of the need to promote diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), this awareness has not translated into significant changes in classroom environments. Many STEM instructors would like to offer equal opportunities for success to all of their students, but they are not sure where to begin. We describe an effective group of teaching tools that can empower STEM faculty and graduate students to modify their courses to address diversity at their own pace. These resources extend from awareness exercises to recommendations for action and have been useful tools for course design, teaching assistant training, …

Co-Teaching As A Faculty Development Model, Andrea L. Beach, Charles Henderson, Michael Famiano

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Co-teaching is a promising and cost-effective approach to promoting fundamental research-based instructional change. In this chapter, we discuss the theoretical underpinnings of co-teaching and describe our initial experience with it. A new instructor (MF) co-taught with an instructor experienced in physics education research-based reforms (CH). An outsider (AB) conducted separate interviews with each instructor and observed several class sessions. Results include immediate use of research-based instructional practices by the new instructor and a significant change in teaching beliefs over time. Recommendations are made for implementing co-teaching as part of a faculty development program.

Promoting Learning–Focused Teaching Through A Project–Based Faculty Development Program, Susanna Calkins, Greg Light

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter describes how we incorporated project-based learning into a yearlong faculty development program at a research-intensive private university located in the Midwest. This inquiry-based approach fosters critical reflection on teaching and promotes learner-focused teaching in a manner that encourages deeper student approaches to learning. We use case studies, drawn from critical accounts of faculty projects, to illustrate a model that depicts how faculty understand improvement in their teaching and to identify key program elements that facilitated the adoption of learning-focused teaching practices by our participants.

Preparation And Opportunity, Marilyn Grady

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Following is the text of the speech I delivered as the recipient of the 2008 Living Legends Award at the annual meeting of the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration in San Diego. The truth is, I've acquired a certain taste for anonymity when I speak to groups. Unfortunately, in this room this evening, I may not have that luxury. I expect I will not be able to embellish as many details tonight. I get to talk this evening because I have stood in the same spot long enough to have observed a few aspects of being a professor …

Obituary: Terry Lamon Yates, 1950-2007., Robert J. Baker, David J. Schmidly, Joseph A. Cook, Jorge Salazar-Bravo, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

On December 11, 2007, the science of mammalogy lost one of its most valued and influential leaders. Terry Lamon Yates succumbed to complications of treatments for an aggressive form of brain cancer after a brief but courageous fight. He was born on March 17, 1950, in Mayfield, Kentucky, the older son of Ellen Wanda Byrd and William Hanley Yates. Terry’s only sibling was a brother, Johnny. He is survived by his wife Nancy Fennell Yates, his two sons, Brian Christopher and Michael Ryan, and daughter-in-law Laura Manchéno Macia.

Food Insecurity And Maternal Depression In Rural, Low-Income Families: A Longitudinal Investigation, Catherine Huddleston-Casas, Richard Charnigo, Leigh Ann Simmons

Nebraska Center for Research on Children, Youth, Families, and Schools: Faculty Publications

Objective: The purpose of the present study was to examine the relationship between household food insecurity and maternal depression in a rural sample to determine whether food insecurity predicted mothers’ depression over time or vice versa.

Design: The study employed a prospective design using three waves of data from ‘Rural Families Speak’, a multi-state study of low-income rural families in the USA. Food insecurity was measured using the Core Food Security Module and depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale. A structural equation model was fit to the data using the AMOS software package.

Setting: Sixteen states …

Short-Term Memory, Working Memory, And Executive Functioning In Preschoolers: Longitudinal Predictors Of Mathematical Achievement At Age 7 Years, Rebecca Bull, Kimberly Andrews Espy, Sandra A. Wiebe

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study examined whether measures of short-term memory, working memory, and executive functioning in preschool children predict later proficiency in academic achievement at 7 years of age (third year of primary school). Children were tested in preschool (M age = 4 years, 6 months) on a battery of cognitive measures, and mathematics and reading outcomes (from standardized, norm-referenced school-based assessments) were taken on entry to primary school, and at the end of the first and third year of primary school. Growth curve analyses examined predictors of math and reading achievement across the duration of the study and revealed that …

Addressing Research Gaps In The Intersection Between Homophobia And Bullying, Dorothy L. Espelage, Susan M. Swearer Napolitano

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Bullying, aggression, and peer victimization among adolescents are significant public health concerns. Recent research has demonstrated that bullying and peer victimization sometimes include homophobic epithets directed at heterosexual and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. It appears that being at the receiving end of homophobic banter generally contributes to worse outcomes among youth. This article highlights methodological issues in conducting research with LGBT youth, and stresses the importance of using theoretically and empirically supported definitions, including youth who are sexually questioning, focusing on multiple social and cultural contexts, and examining how support networks serve as buffering agents with regard …

Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: Use And Perceived Use In Non-Athlete College Students, Joseph M. Berning, Kent J. Adams, Mark Debeliso, Bryant A. Stamford, Ian Newman

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Objective: The authors investigated the use and perceived use of anabolic androgenic steroids (AAS) among nonathlete college students. Participants: The authors surveyed a sample of 485 nonathlete college students at a major metropolitan university. Methods: They administered a survey on use and perceived use of AAS to the students. Results: Forty-two participants (9%) reported using AAS (37 men, 5 women). Seniors were the most likely to use AAS (36%), and freshman the least likely (7%). Thirty-four percent of nonusers and 41% of users indicated they knew between 1 and 5 AAS users. Of the total sample, 36% perceived that 5% …

The Design And Implementation Of An Intensive English-As-A-Second-Language Program, Georgina Arguello

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the design and implementation of an intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program to help students with limited English proficiency improve their English skills and obtain a passing score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). How the ESL course set high expectations for English-language learners and supported them by linking TOEFL courses with academic content was explored.

The researcher developed and facilitated in her workplace an intensive 6-week ESL program for adult students with an intermediate to intermediate-advanced level of English proficiency and assessed the effectiveness of the program that utilized the immersion …

Evaluating The Effects Of A Trust-Building Intervention On Employee Trust, Travis O. Davidson

Theses and Dissertations

This quasiexperimental study investigated the effects a trust-building intervention had on employee trust specifically in such areas as transparency, responsiveness, understanding and caring, sincerity, and trustworthiness. Specifically, this study addressed the research questions about whether a trust-building intervention with supervisors led to improved working relationships with nonmanagement employees and whether improvements in the working relationships persisted and remained detectable for 6 weeks following the intervention.

Preintervention and postintervention questionnaires were administered to nonmanagement experimental and control groups to measure the dimensions of transparency, responsiveness, understanding and caring, sincerity, and trustworthiness. The results indicated that the trust-building intervention had a positive …

Restructuring A Secondary Business Curriculum For The 21st Century, Eric Springer

Graduate Research Papers

This paper reviews what secondary business educators can do to restructure a business curriculum for the 21 st century and how they can do it effectively. It was written to describe today's workplace, the skills that employers are expecting workers to have, the current trends and reform evolving in high school business education, and the projects, strategies, and tools that can be used by business teachers to prepare students for success in the workplace. The literature review discusses the state of Iowa's 21 st century skills curriculum that was established in recent years. The skills curriculum includes employability skills, financial …

Going Beyond Cookbook Labs : Computer-Based Laboratory Tools In The High School Physics Classroom, Jennifer A. Strohbehn

Graduate Research Papers

Physics education is currently undergoing a face lift. The lecture should no longer be the primary mode of instruction because students are not actively participating. For effective learning to occur, the students need to be engaged, not passive listeners (Knight, 2005). Student-centered classrooms are becoming more common, but there is still work to be done. For a student-centered classroom to be effective, the students must construct their own understanding with the teacher acting as a 'guide. Physics instructors are responsible .for .making the classroom a user friendly environment for students to explore the basic concepts of physics and to develop …

A Vision For Leading And Learning : A Reflective Essay, Todd M. Werner

Graduate Research Papers

It was my junior year of high school when I first started thinking about becoming a teacher. That year Williamsburg High School had hired a new Government teacher who was also the assistant boy's basketball coach. He was a first year teacher but he came out and really tried to make a difference from the start. I vividly remember how he tried to consistently challenge us in the classroom and in the gym. He worked hard at what he did and he expected the same in return. Even when he was pushing and challenging, he treated everyone with respect and …

Digital Storytelling As A Literacy-Based Intervention For A Sixth Grade Student With Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Exploratory Case Study, Brent A. Daigle

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This study investigates the use of Digital Storytelling as an intervention to improve the academic performance and social interactions of a sixth grade student with High-Functioning Autism. Qualitative methodology, using an inductive approach informed by grounded theory, was employed throughout this exploratory case study. Three separate data sources, consisting of document analysis, interviews, and participant observation, contributed to the findings of this study. Triangulation of inquiry methods enhanced the validity and rigor of this investigation. The findings from this inquiry indicate that Digital Storytelling was beneficial to the participant in this exploratory case study. Engaged student processes and critical analysis …

A Follow-Up Study Of Marketing Education Graduates From Old Dominion University 2001-2007, Meghan Dowd

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The problem in this study was to evaluate graduates of the marketing education program at Old Dominion University to determine the program's effectiveness in preparing them to enter the teaching profession.

Business And Industry Training Employment Opportunities, Christie Callahan

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

The purpose of this study was to determine employment opportunities for entry-level business and industry trainers within the Hampton Roads area.

A Follow-Up Study Of Technology Education Graduates From Old Dominion University 2002-2006, Johnny F. Mack

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

Through this follow-up study, survey data were collected toward fulfilling the following objectives: Determine whether graduates of Old Dominion University's Technology Education undergraduate program were adequately prepared to assume teaching positions; Determine what improvements can be made to the undergraduate curriculum at Old Dominion University based upon graduate's feedback; and Determine whether the standards established through the Standards of Technological Literacy framework were being attained.

Career Placement Of Graduates Who Received A Bachelor Of Science Degree In Training Specialist, Latrey E. Myrick

OTS Master's Level Projects & Papers

To determine career placement of college graduates who received a Bachelor of Science degree from Old Dominion University in the training specialist major, the following research objectives were analyzed: Determine whether Old Dominion University graduates were currently working within the training career field; Determine whether Old Dominion University graduates accepted lower occupational status positions and/or lower pay than often provided in their major; and determine whether Old Dominion University graduates were facing unemployment following a year of degree completion.