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Jovsa: Editorial, Marc E. Gillespie

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Vincentian Universities are engaged in service at so many levels and in so many ways, yet it is easy to move through our day unaware of the herculean efforts that our students and colleagues are engaged in. The Vincentian Universities seem rooted in the idea of service. For us, service is not another trend that we adopted, but rather it has always been part of our constitution. The work presented in this issue provides two direct examples of how we can better serve.

Cover Page

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

No abstract provided.

Call For Manuscripts!

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Call For Manuscripts!

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities (JSESD)

The Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities is a multi-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal with an international focus on providing information on science education for students with varying types and levels of disabilities. We aspire to publish the best of theoretical research and practical application and we review articles by both special and general educators. Interesting topics have included innovative curricular ideas, instructional adaptations, research-based modifications, best practices, and management issues in science education.

Copyright Statement

Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities

Publication rights to works is granted to Journal of Science Education for Students with Disabilities, however, full copyright for works published in this journal is retained by the author(s). The author(s) may post their works online in an institutional repository, on their University departmental website, or on their own personal websites

Scriptural Foundations For Academic Disciplines: A Biblical Theme Approach, Michael E. Cafferky

Faculty Works

This article presents the thesis that major themes of the Bible can form the biblical foundation for academic disciplines as taught in Christian primary schools, secondary schools and undergraduate and graduate studies in higher education. The Bible is not a comprehensive encyclopedia of knowledge; however, its perspective offers a deeper theological and philosophical basis for any academic discipline.

This article is reproduced/used/uploaded with permission from The Journal of Adventist Education®.

Rhetoric As Inquiry: Personal Writing And Academic Success In The English Classroom, Erica E. Rogers

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Holistic and critical pedagogy, an approach to learning and teaching, integrates the everyday realities students live, with the systemic and institutional objectives of education itself. Working with theories from composition, rhetoric, feminist studies, and cognitive psychology from a teacher-researcher perspective, this dissertation explores and theorizes holistic, critical pedagogy within the composition classroom while outlining the use of personal writing as a means to develop critical consciousness. Student study participants kept “Inquiry Notebooks,” semester-long personal writing projects that served as receptacles for practical and theoretical engagement with a variety of texts and ideas, then interviewed after the course to discuss their …

The Experiences Of University Faculty Expected To Implement Edtpa Within A Teacher Preparation Program, Lance Kilpatrick

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of university faculty expected to implement a teacher performance assessment called edTPA within a teacher preparation program. This study synthesized the experiences university faculty members have when preparing and implementing the edTPA. A deep examination of 12 university faculty members who teach in teacher preparation programs in a Midwestern state where the edTPA is required for licensure offer their experience through a questionnaire, an individual interview, and a focus group interview. The data were collected, organized, and analyzed by employing transcendental phenomenological systematic data analysis procedures positioned to …

Writing For An Authentic Audience – One Teacher-Writer’S Narrative Journey, Danielle L. Defauw, Melissa Smith

Teaching/Writing: The Journal of Writing Teacher Education

The research literature shows many universities do not require elementary pre-service and in-service teachers to take a writing methodology course, yet elementary teachers must be prepared to teach K-8 writing. This qualitative case study highlights a beginning elementary in-service teacher’s experiences enrolled in a K-8 writing methodology course designed to strengthen her teacher-writer voice for authentic purposes using the writing workshop framework. Using narrative inquiry’s critical event approach to analyze and compare the teacher’s and her peers’ data (writer’s notebook, reflections, surveys, interviews, written selections, field note journal), this research article details her case study as a critical incident to …

Learning: It's Personal, Angela Atwell

Publications

If you have any questions about this presentation or would like a copy of the handout, please contact Angela Atwell. Her information can be found at the end of the presentation.

Contrary to popular belief, teaching and learning in an online environment is not easier or less work than a traditional classroom. It takes intentionality, discipline and commitment from both the instructor and the student. However, the flexibility offered by online programs makes this option increasingly appealing. With this growing demand, online instructors must think critically about the content, strategically plan activities and align outcomes with diverse student goals. All …

An M-Learning Maturity Model For Universities And Higher Educational Institutes, Luiz Fernando Capretz, Muasaad Alrasheedi, Arif Raza

Electrical and Computer Engineering Publications

An m-learning maturity model is put forward in this research to assess the mobile technology adoption rates in universities and higher educational institutes. The model is derived from Capability Maturity Model (CMM), which has been widely used in organizations to gauge the adoption of various new processes. Five levels of m-learning maturity are specified including preliminary, established, defined, structured, and continuous improvement. Each of these maturity levels is gauged through nine critical success factors (CSFs) in assessment questionnaires. The CSFs used in measuring instrument of the model are adopted from three of our previous empirical studies. Using an assessment questionnaire …

How To Peel A Prologue: Sensory Reading In Practice In Two 90-Minute Lessons, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

This essay provides rich examples of sensory reading in practice. It provides strategies for peeling a prologue, a methodology that engages developmental readers through active reading and writing examples. The strategies can be built on and extended to larger pieces of work. The essay is also a good example of scaffolding and using graphic organizers in a developmental writing community college classroom.

Teaching Nonlinear Dynamics To Biology Freshmen Improves Math Interest And Physics Performance, Jane Shevtsov, Alan Garfinkel, William Conley, Kevin Eagan, Erin Sanders, Blaire Van Valkenburgh

Annual Symposium on Biomathematics and Ecology Education and Research

No abstract provided.

Building Interdisciplinary Learning Partnerships, Zachary B. Pyers, Kevin P. Foley, Rachel M. Janutis, Sarah L. Sams

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

Capital University Law School & Grant Medical Center partnered to provide training on medical malpractice to law students and medical residents. The course utilized a unique, interdisciplinary approach to skills training & professional development. The course attempts to meet several needs: (1) Increase experiential learning opportunities to develop professional skills and judgment; (2) Provide authentic, experiential learning that is cost-effective and accessible to all law students, including non-traditional and part­time students; and (3) Promote interdisciplinary education.

Capital University Law Mock Trial: Mock Trial Provides Law Students Real World Challenges, Zachary B. Pyers, Keona Padgett

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

Capital University Law School's Mock Trial program provides students practical training, which is difficult to receive as a student outside of an academic setting. The Mock Trial program offers students the opportunity to compete on an inter-school basis, utilizing neutral fact patterns in a variety of practice areas to test the students' advocacy skills. The Mock Trial program concludes with a trial competition, where students participate in every aspect of a civil jury trial before judges and litigators. In recent years, there has been an increased call by clients, employers, and the American Bar Association to increase experiential learning. The …

I'M Engaged! Maximizing The Online Learning Experience, Joanna Williamson, Matthew Barclay, Jacinta Banks

Learning Showcase 2016: A Celebration of Discovery, Transformation and Success

How do we engage learners online? In this poster, we present design and teaching solutions to help engage students in online learning.

What Makes An Excellent Teacher?, Steven M. Fettke

Selected Faculty Publications

Everyone who attends any place of education on any level wants an “excellent” teacher; however, is that word —“excellence”— ethereal, mystical, or just entirely subjective? In this essay I wish to propose a definition of what excellent teaching entails by referring to the spiritual and social formation of the teacher. Central to my thinking is how the work of the Holy Spirit affects “excellence.” Reflecting on my long years of experience teaching in a Pentecostal college/university and as someone in pursuit of “excellence” in my own teaching, I think I have something to say about it which involves teachers, students, …

Funeral In The Classroom: A Failed Teaching Practice?, Nicola Blake

Publications and Research

The author introduces the idea of performative annotation as a powerful teaching tool to engage students in a shared experience of reading and understanding a piece of text. Orality and performance are shared constructs that provide opportunities for students to demarcate moments in a text that resonated with them. The nature of this activity is called into question because of the deeply emotional responses students have towards the experiential learning activity of recreating a funeral in the classroom. This article assesses what went wrong with the activity and offers suggestions on how to make space for performative annotation prior to …

University Rankings: Evidence And A Conceptual Framework, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jacob Fowles, H. George Frederickson

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated …

Principles And Practices Fostering Inclusive Excellence: Lessons From The Howard Hughes Medical Institute’S Capstone Institutions, Patricia Marten Dibartolo, Leslie Gregg-Jolly, Deborah Gross, Cathryn A. Manduca, Ellen Iverson, David B. Cooke Iii, Gregory K. Davis, Cameron Davidson, Paul E. Hertz, Lisa Hibbard, Shubha K. Ireland, Catherine Mader, Aditi Pai, Shirley Raps, Kathleen Siwicki, Jim E. Swartz

Publications and Research

Best-practices pedagogy in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) aims for inclusive excellence that fosters student persistence. This paper describes principles of inclusivity across 11 primarily undergraduate institutions designated as Capstone Awardees in Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s (HHMI) 2012 competition. The Capstones represent a range of institutional missions, student profiles, and geographical locations. Each successfully directed activities toward persistence of STEM students, especially those from traditionally underrepresented groups, through a set of common elements: mentoring programs to build community; research experiences to strengthen scientific skill/ identity; attention to quantitative skills; and outreach/bridge programs to broaden the student pool. This paper …

Quizmastery: Students As Bloggers And Testers In Pursuit Of Grammatical Competence, Sue Norton, Odette Gabaudan

Articles

This article considers the challenges confronted by instructors of composition and writing skills in higher education. Identifying key aspects of grammar, syntax, and punctuation, it argues that a grammatically informed terminology is helpful to learner-writers endeavouring to improve the clarity of their written assignments. To aid assimilation of this terminology, and the concepts it signifies, e-learning tools can be integrated into the curriculum so that students can consolidate knowledge through their own construction of it. As they create blogs and peer to peer quizzes, they become more theoretically and practically informed about the basis of effective writing practices.

Quantitative Literacy At Michigan State University, 3: Designing General Education Mathematics Courses, Samuel L. Tunstall, Vincent Melfi, Jeffrey Craig, Richard Edwards, Andrew Krause, Bronlyn Wassink, Victor Piercey

Numeracy

In this paper, we describe the process at Michigan State University whereby we have created two courses, Math 101 and 102, designed to foster numeracy and alleviate mathematics anxiety. The courses--which are not sequential--provide a means of satisfying the University's general education requirement without taking college algebra or calculus, among other options. They are context-driven and broken into modules such as "The World and Its People" and "Health and Risk." They have been highly successful thus far, with students providing positive feedback on their interest in the material and the utility they see of it in their daily lives. We …

The Explorations Program: Benefits Of Single-Session, Research- Focused Classes For Students And Postdoctoral Instructors, Jeremy L. Hsu, Anna M. Wrona, Sarah E. Brownell, Waheeda Khalfan

Biology, Chemistry, and Environmental Sciences Faculty Articles and Research

We present an update to Explorations, a program at Stanford University that allows undergraduates in an introductory biology course to explore specialized topics in the biological sciences while providing graduate students and postdoctoral scholars the unique opportunity to develop and teach single-session, research-focused classes. We provide an assessment of eight iterations of the program, using program attendance, student and instructor evaluations, senior exit surveys, course grades, and completion of undergraduate honors theses to assess the impact of our program on students and instructors. Students rated their experiences highly, and most reported that the program had a positive impact on their …

Can Library Research Be Fun? Using Games For Information Literacy Instruction In Higher Education, Jennifer Young

Georgia Library Quarterly

Collectively, the world's population spends about 3 billion hours a week playing video games. To reach game-playing audiences of all ages, educators, including library instructors, are embracing game-based learning to engage and motivate students the same way that games do. In looking at the collective wisdom on what makes a good game, and providing concrete examples of library gaming projects, this paper discusses the best practices for creating virtual and virtual-reality hybrid games for bibliographic instruction. The author explores the literature on gamification and games used for teaching information literacy in higher education, and provides recommendations gleaned from existing research …

"Is This Something We Can Do?": Exploring The Possibilities Of Faculty/Librarian Collaboration, Patrick Wohlmut, Kena Avila

Faculty & Staff Presentations

The Jereld R. Nicholson Library’s teaching focus follows a strong introductory model, being well integrated in the first-year seminar classes and introductions to the major, though not necessarily across the upper division classes. This presentation tells the story of a collaboration during the course of an upper division education class at Linfield College in the fall of 2016. In addition to presenting some of the research on departmental faculty/librarian collaboration, Patrick Wohlmut and Kena Avila discussed the unique factors that made this collaboration one that was fulfilling, useful, and educational for both the teachers and the students. Though the class …

Carrying On With Wayward Sons, Erika Simpson, Henrik Lagerlund

Political Science Publications

With their brains not maturing until their mid-20s, it's time to use a different approach to life and learning with our young men.

Semester At Sea Impact Service-Learning Scholarship Program, Lindsay B. Parise

Capstone Collection

Service-learning has become a highly popular approach to increasing experiential learning, expanding study abroad, and supporting the trend in the internationalization of higher education. There are many challenges arising around the use of service-learning in international study abroad contexts. There is no agreed upon definition of service-learning, which makes it difficult to distinguish it from other forms of international education, volunteerism, community service or charity.

International service-learning by its very nature takes place in fragile communities and with people who need assistance or service, due mostly to poverty. There is limited research and assessment of how international service-learning programs impact …

When Meaningful Writing Reflects Vincentian Values, Michele Eodice, Anne Ellen Geller, Neal Lerner

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

In The Meaningful Writing Project – our study of over 700 seniors at three universities – students describe how education values are embodied in writing projects in and out of school. In brief, our results show that students find meaning when they are invited to tap into the power of personal connection, see what they are writing as applicable and relevant to the real world, imagine their future selves, immerse themselves in what they are thinking and writing about, and experience research for learning. In many cases, the experiences students reported are aligned with Vincentian values for higher education, namely …

Summary Report Of A Faculty Colloquium Held On The Encyclical Letter Laudato Si’ Of The Holy Father Francis On Care For Our Common Home, Mark C. Kiley

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

The Papal Encyclical, issued in summer of 2015, elicited the attention of ten faculty members in St. John’s College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. All but two of the participants were faculty members based primarily in Staten Island. What follows is a collection of highlights from the formal presentations.

Development Of A Mission-Aligned Campus-Community Partnership Model: The Urban Institute Flu Vaccine Initiative For The Indigent Of Nyc, John M. Conry

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

Despite its position as a powerful country which offers the opportunity for state-of-the-art high-quality patient-centered care, many people within the U.S. do not have access to or cannot afford health care. The Urban Institute of the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University was successful in developing a community outreach initiative that provided free flu vaccines to an underserved indigent patient population in New York City in an effort to decrease their risk for flu-related morbidity and mortality.

English Language Instruction, Student Engagement, And Sustainable Practices In Rural Ecuador, Pablo J. Sanchez, Morgan R. Zajkowski

Journal of Vincentian Social Action

St. John’s University’s Vincentian Institute for Social Action aims to develop student commitment to social justice through required coursework, international travel, and community service. A strong theoretical foundation ensures that administrators and students are consistently reflecting on the dynamics of power and engaging with community members in an ethical manner. Our framework should continue conversations with the community about the value of foreign language education in their particular regional and global context and encourage students to see themselves as part of a sustainable process. Where many universities and organizations provide volunteer experiences similar in theory, we hope to improve on …