Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Creating Engaged Departments: A Program For Organizational And Faculty Development, Kevin J. Kecskes, Sherril B. Gelmon, Amy Spring

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Portland State University encourages faculty participation in service-learning by providing faculty with individual incentives to support and reward them. Now, in recognition of this central role of the department in higher education, administrators interested in creating sustained civic engagement initiatives on campus are looking to the department as a strategic leverage point for change. This chapter investigates a yearlong engaged department initiative and finds that a collective approach can (re)connect individual faculty to their initial motivations for engaging in the profession, to a community of scholars, to their students, and also to their surrounding community.

Promoting Intellectual Community And Professional Growth For A Diverse Faculty, Dorothe J. Bach, Marva A. Barnett, José D. Fuentes, Sherwood C. Frey

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Minority faculty retention is key to increasing faculty diversity at most colleges and universities. Because retention depends on individual faculty choice and administrative tenure decisions, institutions need to help junior faculty develop a tenurable profile and enhance their desire to remain at their institution. This chapter examines a fellows program that supports beginning faculty in developing successful long-term careers, taking into account research on helping diverse faculty members thrive. It also presents strategies for establishing viable peer support networks and partnerships with senior consultants and for creating programming that ensures new faculty successfully transition into teaching, research, and the university …

Helping Faculty Learn To Teach Better And “Smarter” Through Sequenced Activities, Barbara J. Millis

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Faculty developers can help faculty learn to intentionally sequence assignments and activities to promote greater learning when they understand the convergent research—with its practical implications for teaching—on how people learn, on deep learning, and on cooperative learning. Such a sequence includes a motivating out-of-class assignment (homework), in-class “processing” that includes active learning and student interactions, and feedback and assessment, often given in multiple ways. This approach is modeled through two examples using graphic organizers.

Exploring The Application Of Best Practices To Ta Awards: One University's Approach, Laurel Willingham-Mclain, Deborah L. Pollack

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This chapter explores how to adapt best practices from the general literature on teaching awards in higher education to graduate student teaching assistant (TA) awards. Although most criteria apply, they must be fitted to the career stage and aspirations of TAs. The Duquesne University Graduate Student Award for Excellence in Teaching serves as a case study demonstrating how these practices can be modified to both recognize excellent teaching and promote the professional development of graduate student instructors.

Expeditionary Learning: A Low–Risk, Low–Cost, High–Impact Professional Development Model, Chris Carlson-Dakes, Alice Pawley

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

We describe a low-risk, low-cost, high-impact professional development program to help faculty, instructional staff, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students create space in their lives to explore the diversity of their campus community and reflect on beliefs about teaching and learning in higher education. Along with small group discussions, participants have “expeditions” onto campus to explore learning situations and academic life in ways that they have never before experienced. We describe our theoretical model, programmatic and evaluation structure, and some participants’ insights into why they participated and what they learned from our first implementation.

Learning Communities For First–Year Faculty: Transition, Acculturation, And Transformation, Harriet Fayne, Alice Ortquist-Ahrens

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

To enhance new faculty members’ chances for teaching and career success, Otterbein College piloted a yearlong learning community program and encouraged first-year faculty to participate. Four new faculty members took part in opportunities designed to enhance their teaching, to orient them more fully to a new institution and student body, to foster collegial community, to encourage reflective practice, and to introduce them to the scholarship of teaching and learning. This qualitative case study tracks their developmental trajectory, which led them from an initial concern with self and survival to an eventual focus on student learning.

Building It For Them: Faculty–Centered Program Development And Emanagement, Bonnie B. Mullinix

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

This article documents the effectiveness of a responsive, multilevel, web-based system for identifying and responding to faculty interest and needs for training and development. A case-based description illustrates the advantages of using a web-facilitated approach to schedule sessions according to faculty interest and availability. From needs assessment survey, to session design and scheduling, to registration, communication, and monitoring of participation, to evaluation and feedback, this integrated system has proven effective in engaging faculty. Data collected over two years of program implementation is shared and implications for the design, facilitation, and evaluation of such approaches are considered.

Introduction. Volume 24 (2006), Sandra Chadwick Blossey

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

Introduction to volume 24 (2006) of To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development, by Sandra Chadwick Blossey of Rollins College.

A Theory–Based Integrative Model For Learning And Motivation In Higher Education, Chantal S. Levesque, G. Roger Sell, James A. Zimmerman

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The shared mission of higher education institutions is to develop educated persons who are able to make connections and build on knowledge acquired across disciplines and fields and through various life experiences. This chapter offers a theory-based model that can be used by researchers and practitioners to enhance academic learning and motivation. Educators can create learning environments that move students from external regulation to self-determined forms of motivation. This model is used to describe conditions that enhance/restrict learning. It also has the potential to be used to interpret research on teaching and learning in higher education.

Communicating Applied Mathematics: Four Examples, Daniel E. Finkel, Christopher Kuster, Matthew Lasater, Rachel Levy, Jill P. Reese, Ilse C. F. Ipsen

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Communicating Applied Mathematics is a writing- and speaking-intensive graduate course at North Carolina State University. The purpose of this article is to provide a brief description of the course objectives and the assignments. Parts A–D of of this article represent the class projects and illustrate the outcome of the course:

• The Evolution of an Optimization Test Problem: From Motivation to Implementation, by Daniel E. Finkel and Jill P. Reese

• Finding the Volume of a Powder from a Single Surface Height Measurement, by Christopher Kuster

• Finding Oscillations in Resonant Tunneling Diodes, by Matthew Lasater

• …

Colby College Catalogue 2006 - 2007, Colby College

Colby Catalogues

Colby College Catalogue: September 2006 - August 2007

Efficient Learning For The Poor : Insights From The Frontier Of Cognitive Neuroscience, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

This book integrates research into applications that extend from preschool brain development to the memory of adult educators. In layman's terms, it provides explanations and answers to questions such as: Why do children have to read fast before they can understand what they read? How do health, nutrition, and stimulation influence brain development? Why should students learn basic skills in their maternal language? Is there such a thing as an untrained teacher? What signs in a classroom show whether students are getting a quality education? How must information be presented in class so that students can retain it and use …

Student Achievement Through Early Truancy Reduction, Nanette K. Jackson, Susan Taylor

Perspectives In Learning

Truancy is a concern for all grade levels of all schools. According to Capps (2003) the average student misses thirteen days of school each year. Many students entering middle school have already accumulated 180 days of questionable absences, the equivalent of a full year of school. Studies of school dropouts show students begin distancing themselves from school at an early age. These students are absent more often than other students as early as the first grade (Epstein & Sheldon, 2002). There is a pattern of increasing absenteeism throughout a student’s entire school career. It is not too early to begin …

The Trouble With Ed Schools: A Book Review, Justin M. Finney

Perspectives In Learning

American schools of education, whose two primary objectives are to prepare highly qualified teachers and to conduct valid and reliable education research, are often decried as “weak institutions” by many in academia and society in general. American schools of education are very often scorned by scholars and academia as intellectually inferior, referred to by teachers in the field as the “ivory tower” and considered to be out of touch and completely unrelated to what really transpires in schools, perceived by political leaders at all levels to be a primary contributing factor to the substandard state of contemporary public education. These …

Support Groups For Children Whose Parents Have Deployed To Iraq, James Blount

Perspectives In Learning

Findings among army researchers, many of whom have published their work on Army Knowledge Online (AKO), have consistently shown that children are affected negatively by the deployment of their parents to Iraq or, for that matter, any war. This is cause for great concern as the War on Terror could go on for many, many years to come. However, since it is known in general what the negative effects on children are, strategies and techniques have been formulated to offset the damage done to children. Some of the questions that remain to be answered follow: At what ages are children …

Ec06-219 2006 Nebraska Swine Report, Duane Reese

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

The 2006 Nebraska Swine Report was prepared by the staff in Animal Science and cooperating Departments for use in Extension, Teaching and Research programs. This publications deals with research on swine reproduction, breeding, health, nutrition, economics, and housing.

Ec06-103 Fall Seed Guide, 2007, Lenis Alton Nelson, Robert N. Klein, Bruce Anderson, P. Stephen Baenziger, Jerry Nachtman

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This circular is a progress report of variety trials conducted by personnel of the Agronomy Department, West Central and Panhandle Research and Extension Centers and their associated agricultural laboratories and the South Central Ag Laboratory. Conduct of experiments and publications of results is a joint effort of the Agricultural Research Division and the Cooperative Extension Service.

Ec06-155 Nutrient Management For Agronomic Crops In Nebraska, Richard B. Ferguson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Nebraska is blessed with fertile soil and vast supplies of groundwater which combine to create an environment well-suited to the production of corn, wheat, grain sorghum, alfalfa, edible beans, and other agronomic crops used for human or animal consumption.

This manual is a guide to nutrient use from all sources for the production of Nebraska's major agronomic crops: corn, winter wheat, grain sorghum, oats, alfalfa, dry edible beans, soybean, sugar beets, popcorn, sunflower, millet, potatoes, and cool and warm season grasses for hay and pasture. Part I of the manual contains information focusing on basic principles of soil fertility for …

G06-1033 It's Snack Time, Linda S. Boeckner, Karen Schledewitz

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Snacks are the foods we eat outside of a more structured meal setting. Snacking can be a part of a healthy eating plan or it can be a harmful habit. The difference between harmful and healthy snacking is up to you. Think about what, when, how often and how much you eat snacks.

In this NebGuide, learn how snacks affect your overall diet and how to select healthful snacks that meet your dietary needs.

2006 Beef Report Summaries, James Gosey

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Reports on recent beef research are briefly summarized in this publication. Summaries of the research featured in the 2006 Beef Report appear here. Topics include cow-calf, growing, finishing and beef products.

2006 Nebraska Farm Custom Rates - Part I, H. Douglas Jose

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

Every two years a survey of custom operators is conducted to determine the current rates charged for specific machinery operations. The survey is divided into two parts: Part I includes spring and summer operations, including planting and small grains harvest, and in Part II information about fall and miscellaneous operations.

G1279 Drinking Water: Nitrate-Nitrogen, Paul J. Jasa, Sharon O. Skipton, David L. Varner, Delynn Hay

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This NebGuide discusses practices recommended to manage nitrate-nitrogen in a domestic water supply. Nitrogen is essential for all living things as it is an essential component of protein. Nitrogen exists in the environment in many forms and changes forms as it moves through the nitrogen cycle. However, excessive concentrations of nitrate-nitrogen in drinking water can be hazardous to health, especially for infants and pregnant women. This publication encompasses sources of nitrate in drinking water, indications of nitrate, potential health effects, testing and interpreting test results, and options for treatment.

2006 Beef Cattle Report, Dennis R. Brink

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This publication was prepared by the Animal Science staff, research technicians, unit managers, and crew involved in research programs at various locations across Nebraska. It deals with the results that were done in cow/calf, growing, beef feedlot (finishing) and beef products research.

2006 Guide For Weed Management In Nebraska, Mark L. Bernards

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

2006 Guide for Weed Management in Nebraska. Includes special sections on weed control in corn, soybean, wheat, other small grains, sorghum, turfgrass, and alternative crops. Also includes sections on integrated weed management, classificationof herbicides by mode and site of action and chemical family, herbicide application and sprayer recommendations, weed response ratings to specific herbicides, herbicide hazards, herbicide safety and herbicide resistance, weed management in herbicide-resistant crops and Nebraska noxious weeds.

G06-806 Chinch Bug Management, Robert J. Wright, Barbara P. Ogg, Stephen D. Danielson

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

The life cycle and control of the chinch bug is discussed with descriptions of possible management options in the 2006 NebGuide.

Ec06-783 Watermark Granular Matrix Sensor To Measure Soil Matric Potential For Irrigation Management, Suat Irmak, Jose O. Payero, Dean E. Eisenhauer, William L. Kranz, Derrel Martin, Gary L. Zoubek, Jennifer M. Rees, Brandy Vandewalle, Andrew P. Christiansen, Dan Leininger

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

This 2006 Extension Circular defines soil matric potential and describes principles and operational characteristics of one of the electrical resistance type soil moisture sensors for irrigation management. Examples show how soil matric potential can be used for irrigation management.

G06-1212 Child Care Furnishings Safety Checklist, Shirley Niemeyer

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension: Historical Materials

A child's environment should allow for exploration, experiences and learning; however, it must be safe too. Accidents are the leading cause of death in children ages 1 to 14, and the leading cause of disability in children older than 1 year of age, according to the Centers for Disease Control,

This publication presents information about the selection and evaluation of children's furniture for safety features. Use the following checklist when evaluating potential new or used children's furniture purchases, donated items or existing furnishings for children.

Assessment Of Emotional Competencies In Educational Leaders: Applying Daniel Goleman’S Work In Emotional Intelligences As A Means Of Evaluating Dispositions Related To The Work Of The School Leader, Paul T. Hackett, James W. Hortman

Perspectives In Learning

The study of best practices related to educational leadership is an emerging area for universities with programs training leaders in school improvement. Practices taught in educational leadership programs have long been related to the technical issues of school operations with emphasis in the areas of finance, law, organizational theory, and strategic planning. More recently, educational leadership programs have begun to focus on the skills required of a leader of instruction (Hallinger, 2003; Jason, 2001). Among areas of concentration for the instructional leader are assessment, collaboration, professional development, and curriculum design. Although the focus of educational leadership programs has changed, the …

Introduction To School Counseling Services Articles, Lisa Shaw

Perspectives In Learning

Introduction to School Counseling Services Articles

Piecing Together The Diversity Puzzle, Rochelle Ripple, Jose' Villavicencio

Perspectives In Learning

Current literature focuses on the importance of listening to students’ voices and the insights they have on their experiences. According to Dewey (1916/1944), having interactions with other groups helps in the process of democratic growth because one is better able to understand other perspectives. Freire (1985) added another layer of richness to Dewey’s ideas about reflection and experience. He believed that people exist “in and with the world.” Fraser (1994) describes the need for different voices and different views in educating children in a public sphere of critical inquiry and multiple voices (different genders and people of all colors). In …