Higher Education Commons^™

Quality Assurance In Gp Training, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

An annual survey is collecting information about the postgraduate training experiences of General Practice registrars across Australia.

Visionaries, Architects And Pioneers: Conceptualising Smu, Pin Pin Yeo, Patricia Meyer

YEO Pin Pin

The Singapore Management University (SMU) Library was tasked with documenting the early history of SMU by the chairman of its board of trustees. An oral history project to interview the pioneers involved in the formation of the university began in 2011. The project team included the Library, the Information Technology department, and a researcher/interviewer who was familiar with SMU. It was a steep learning curve for the team. As they conducted and processed the interviews, they learned about and made decisions on interviewing, recording, transcribing, storage, website design, discoverability, usability, and sustainability. The resulting oral history website presents the interviews …

Exploring The Student Experience Across Different Systems: Understanding Context And Assisting Benchmarking, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

This paper explores the adaptation of the Australian University Experience Survey for use in Japanese universities. The project aims to increase knowledge within Japan of the experiences and engagement of students and offer comparative analyses with Australia using a ‘common’ instrument. The paper discusses the processes of adapting the survey for Japanese context to ensure comparability of data across systems, and provides insight into contextual differences for consideration in interpreting and benchmarking such data. The project demonstrates the importance of high quality survey instrumentation for benchmarking, and reflects on the use of survey outcomes to actively improve the student experience.

Social Media And The Good Life: Do They Connect?, Mark Herring

Mark Y. Herring

Social media have accelerated communication, expanded business horizons and connected millions of individuals who otherwise would never have met. But not everything social media touch turns to gold—much of it is brass. Social networking sites are used by scammers, criminals and sexual predators, and many people now self-diagnose illness based on misinformation shared online. Businesses make great claims about social media as a marketing tool but few show any real returns. We communicate through social media but are we really saying anything? Is social media doomed to be a conduit of narcissism or can it become a channel for responsible …

Engaging Students In Wicked Problems: Strategies For Inspiring And Preparing Students To Tackle Messy, Place-Based Challenges, Danielle Lake

Danielle L Lake

Bridging The Distances: Women Writers Exploring The Nightmare Of Vietnam, Christina Triezenberg

Christina Triezenberg

This essay seeks to challenge the now-common practice of excluding Vietnam-era antiwar verse from contemporary literary anthologies by exploring the works produced by professional and amateur female poets who, in many cases, had witnessed the war firsthand and reflected on their experiences in verse that depicts the often harsh realities of this still-contested conflict. By exploring poetry written by women who served in a variety of capacities during the war, this essay underscores the repeated attempts made by women writers to bridge the distances between the home front and the battlefront and offers a compelling argument about the importance of …

Academic Freedom And Tenure: The University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign, Henry Reichman, Joan Scott, Hans Tiede

Hans Joerg Tiede

No abstract provided.

Work Integrated Learning: A Lesson In Good Wil, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

Successful and sustainable work integrated learning programs share a number of key elements, as Daniel Edwards explains.

Mat-Rix-Toe: Improving Writing Through A Game-Based Project In Linear Algebra, Adam Graham-Squire, Elin Farnell, Julianna Stockton

Elin R Farnell

The Mat-Rix-Toe project utilizes a matrix-based game to deepen students’ understanding of linear algebra concepts and strengthen students’ ability to express themselves mathematically. The project was administered in three classes using slightly different approaches, each of which included some editing component to encourage the improvement of the students’ mathematical thinking and writing. Differences in the implementation of the project illustrate the benefits and drawbacks of various methods of editing in the mathematics classroom and highlight recommendations for improvements in future implementations of the project.

Cause For Hope Despite Today’S Perceived Higher Ed “Crisis”, David Donnelly

David Donnelly

Making The Work Interesting: Classroom Management Through Ownership In Elementary Literature Circles, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner's contribution to "Breaking the Mold of Classroom Management: What Educators Should Know and Do to Enable Student Success".

Addressing The Research/Practice Divide In Teacher Education, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

Educational scholars often describe a research/practice divide. Similarly, students in teacher education programs often struggle to navigate the differences between university coursework and expectations they face in field-based placements. This self-study analyzes one researcher's attempt to address the research/practice divide from the position of a teacher educator. Teaching in a university-based mathematics methods course during the academic year and an elementary classroom during the summer recess provided opportunities to make connections between research and practice. This article examines the effects this study had on the researcher's instruction at the university level. Specifically, the article suggests ways for teacher educators to …

Agency Through Teacher Education: Reflection, Community, And Learning, Ryan Flessner, Grant Miller, Kami Patrizio, Julie Horwitz

Ryan Flessner

Agency through Teacher Education: Reflection, Community, and Learning addresses the ways that agency functions for those involved in twenty-first-century teacher education. This book, commissioned by the Association of Teacher Educators, relies on the voices of teacher education candidates, in-service teachers, school leaders, and university-based educators to illustrate what agency looks like, sounds like, and feels like for people trying to act as agents of change. These examples take the form of narratives, theoretical explorations, formal research studies, and reflective essays. Agency through Teacher Education does not seek to establish one definition for agency, but rather to conceptualize it from three …

Politics And Action Research: An Examination Of One School’S Mandated Action Research Program, Ryan Flessner, Shanna Stuckey

Ryan Flessner

Action research has been shown to empower educators, create lasting changes in schools, and have an impact on student learning outcomes. Given these positive results, many school leaders are beginning to mandate the use of action research within their schools. While some in the field have warned against mandating action research, there is little research examining the effects of doing so. This study examines the mandated school-wide action research program at Fieldstone Elementary. While some results align with the action research literature (importance of collaboration, necessity of time to conduct action research, etc.), this article also examines the political tensions …

Creating Equitable Classrooms Through Action Research, Cathy Caro-Bruce, Ryan Flessner, M. Klehr, K. Zeichner

Ryan Flessner

Despite the best intentions of reform efforts, educational inequity continues to exist in public schools. Creating Equitable Classrooms Through Action Research confronts this challenge head-on and shows educators how they can use action research confronts this challenge head-on and shows educators how they can use action research to both raise student achievement and strengthen instruction leadership. Ideal for both a first-time action research endeavor or one already in progress, this practical guidebook helps practitioners formulate specific research questions, collect and analyze data, and communicate their findings. Invaluable for school district leaders, teachers, professional development schools, and preservice teachers, this resource …

Pushing The Field Of Practitioner Research: Utilizing ‘Reflective Third Spaces’ To Explore Educational Practice, Ryan Flessner

Ryan Flessner

For decades, literature in the field of education has been rife with descriptions of the divides between theory and practice, research and implementation, and universities and public schools. Beginning with an examination of these divides, this chapter explores the ways that teacher educators can capitalize on their positioning in order to better understand educational practice. Following a brief introduction, an examination of third space theory and its usefulness to teacher educators— especially those engaged in practitioner research— ensues. Building on the work of early theorists in fields such as literature and cultural geography, third space theory has typically been used …

The Rationale For And Use Of Assessment Frameworks: Improving Assessment And Reporting Quality In Medical Education, Jacob Pearce, Daniel Edwards, Julian Fraillon, Hamish Coates, Benedict Canny, David Wilkinson

Julian Fraillon

An assessment framework provides a structured conceptual map of the learning outcomes of a programme of study along with details of how achievement of the outcomes can be measured. The rationale for using frameworks to underpin the targeting of essential content components is especially relevant for the medical education community. Frameworks have the capacity to improve validity and reliability in assessment, allowing test developers to more easily create robust assessment instruments. The framework used by the Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration (AMAC) is an interesting and relevant case study for the international community as it draws and builds on established processes …

The Rationale For And Use Of Assessment Frameworks: Improving Assessment And Reporting Quality In Medical Education, Jacob Pearce, Daniel Edwards, Julian Fraillon, Hamish Coates, Benedict Canny, David Wilkinson

Dr Jacob Pearce

An assessment framework provides a structured conceptual map of the learning outcomes of a programme of study along with details of how achievement of the outcomes can be measured. The rationale for using frameworks to underpin the targeting of essential content components is especially relevant for the medical education community. Frameworks have the capacity to improve validity and reliability in assessment, allowing test developers to more easily create robust assessment instruments. The framework used by the Australian Medical Assessment Collaboration (AMAC) is an interesting and relevant case study for the international community as it draws and builds on established processes …

Completing University In Australia: A Cohort Analysis Exploring Equity Group Outcomes, Daniel Edwards, Julie Mcmillan

Julie McMillan

This briefing paper provides initial analysis of national data on university enrolments, tracking students from commencement to completion of university. The Research Briefing focuses on the completion of university among key equity groups in higher education, offering new insight into the outcomes for a number of groups underrepresented in the higher education sector. This work is part of a larger project funded by a research grant from the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE). The project explores the outcomes of equity groups using complex administrative data that allows for the tracking through university of all undergraduates enrolled …

International Student Guide, Jo Doyle

Jo Doyle

University Completions And Equity, Daniel Edwards

Dr Daniel Edwards

University students from disadvantaged groups have a lower completion rate than their more advantaged peers, but most disadvantaged students do complete their degrees, research reveals.

Digital Commons @ Colby: Best Practices For Undergraduate Research, Susan Cole, Martin Kelly

Martin F Kelly III (Marty Kelly)

Colby College's contribution to the bepress sponsored webinar. From bepress' description:

Undergraduate research initiatives are cropping up at institutions across the country, highlighting the need for undergraduate publication venues. Colleges and universities are finding that publishing undergraduate work not only completes the research cycle for emerging scholars; it also showcases the quality of an institution’s student work to prospective students and their parents, as well as to prospective faculty members.

At Colby College, Suzi Cole, Scholarly Resources & Services, Sciences Librarian, and Martin Kelly, Assistant Director for Digital Collections, collaborate with the Environmental Studies program to publish the Colby Environmental …

High School To College Transition Research Studies (2015) By University Press Of America, Inc., Editors Terence Hicks And Chance W. Lewis, Terence Hicks

Terence Hicks, Ph.D., Ed.D.

It Takes A University To Build A Library, Dane Ward

Dane Ward

Academic libraries are rapidly changing, but the process requires campus-wide involvement. It will take a university community to shape a future library that meets the specific institutional needs of learning and research.. This transition is not just about libraries. It is about how colleges and universities come together to solve a collective challenge.

A Comparison Of The Mystery Motivator And The ‘Get ’Em On Task’ Interventions For Off-Task Behaviors, Elisabeth Kraemer, Susan Davies, Kelli Arndt, Sawyer Hunley

Susan C. Davies

Attending to instruction is a critical behavior for academic success. Many elementary school teachers, however, identify disruptive and inattentive classroom behaviors as key barriers to students' successful educational performance. This study examined the impact of two class-wide positive behavior support programs. The Mystery Motivator and Get 'Em On Task interventions were implemented in an alternating treatments design with fifth grade participants to decrease off-task behaviors. Results indicated that both interventions effectively decreased off-task behavior at the class-wide level. Implications and suggestions for future research on evidence-based behavioral interventions are discussed.

Self-Management And Peer-Monitoring Within A Group Contingency To Decrease Uncontrolled Verbalizations, Susan Davies, Raymond Witte

Susan C. Davies

This study examines the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve the classroom behavior of children identified with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The intervention entailed training a class of third-grade students, including four students diagnosed with ADHD, to use self-management and peer-monitoring strategies embedded within a group contingency to decrease inappropriate verbalizations during class time. Findings indicated that the self-monitoring/group contingency intervention substantially decreased inappropriate talking-out behavior in all four subjects along with their matched controls. Implications as well as limitations within the study are discussed.

At-Risk Students In After-School Programs: Outcomes And Recommendations, Susan Davies, Lindsay Peltz

Susan C. Davies

No abstract provided.

Traumatic Brain Injury Interest Group, Susan Davies, Paul Jantz

Susan C. Davies

No abstract provided.

Effects Of A Self-Monitoring Intervention On Children With Traumatic Brain Injury, Susan Davies, Kevin Jones, Mary Rafoth

Susan C. Davies

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a self-monitoring intervention on teachers’ direct behavior ratings of 3 students with traumatic brain injury. The authors used a multiple-baseline-across-participants design to evaluate the effect of the strategy on each child's classwork and classroom behavior. The self-monitoring strategy included 3 components: self-ratings, matching self-ratings and teacher ratings, and teacher feedback. Results indicated that the strategy improved performance for all three children, as well as self-monitoring accuracy. The authors discuss the implications for future research, including the need for a component analysis of self-monitoring treatments.

Concussion Awareness: Getting School Psychologists Into The Game, Susan Davies

Susan C. Davies

Concussions have been called a "silent epidemic" because symptoms can be subtle and covert (Langolis, Rutland–Brown,& Thomas, 2006). However, several high–profile concussion cases involving professional athletes have turned media attention to concussions. Those stories, coupled with stories on the more than 300,000 troops who have sustained concussions during recent combat (Hoge, Goldberg,& Castro, 2009), have helped to increase our awareness of the potential impact of concussions. However, in the sports world, it is not just NFL football players sustaining concussions: It is school–age athletes knocking heads in soccer, knocking helmets in hockey, getting slammed to the mat in wrestling, and …