Book Review

Abstract

Following incorporation all further education, tertiary and sixth form colleges became independent from their respective local authorities and are now required to manage the health and safety of staff, students and visitors. A questionnaire was sent to colleges in England and Wales to establish the measures in place for measuring health and safety including the provision of a safety policy, a health and safety adviser, how performance is measured and inspection by the Health and Safety Executive. The survey concluded that the provision in sixth form colleges is much less well developed. In particular, they are less likely to have union representation on the safety committee, have a designated safety adviser, or have had a recent inspection by the HSE.     

Comparison of Community College Students’ Sexual Health Dimensions

ABSTRACT

Sexually active college students in the United States have alarming rates of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections. Varying degrees of sexual health knowledge and attitudes among college students are an outcome of sexuality education in the K-12 school systems with abstinence-only or comprehensive focus. Community college students (n = 737) aged 18–24 years, 57% from a college in an abstinence-only sex education state and 43% from a college in a comprehensive sex education state, both in the Mid-Atlantic region, took the Sexual Health Survey in October 2016, which measures sexual health knowledge and attitudes. Gender and ethnicity differences, as well as other sources of sexuality information were evaluated. Students from the comprehensive sex education state, New Jersey had higher sexual health knowledge and attitude scores than the students from the abstinence-only sex education state, Pennsylvania. Male students in New Jersey scored significantly higher in sexual health knowledge compared to male students in Pennsylvania, while female students in New Jersey had higher sexual health knowledge scores compared to the male students. Analysis of ethnicity revealed the New Jersey college sample had healthier sexual attitudes as compared to the Pennsylvania college sample, with notable distinction among Black students. The Internet, friends, and personal experiences were chosen by 75% of all students across both colleges as the top reported sources of sexuality information. In addition to advocating for comprehensive sex education, recommendations are made for sexual health initiatives in community colleges to provide sexual health instruction and support.     

Community Colleges: Rethinking STD Prevention for the Nontraditional College Campus

ABSTRACT

As increased attention and proposed funding are being directed toward community colleges, it is important to consider the sexual and reproductive health care needs of this growing population. Existing data suggest there are significant sexual health needs among this population and often insufficient provision of services. Some community college students are more likely than students at 4-year colleges to test positive for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Given resource constraints, creative solutions are required. These may include campus-wide policies addressing STD/HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) prevention, referral systems to connect students to care in the community, and partnerships with local health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers, or community-based organizations to assist with the provision of services. Colleges have the unique opportunity to provide students with valuable information about sexual health and services. Community colleges, in particular, are uniquely positioned to reach at-risk community members for STD testing and sexual health care who might otherwise be lost to care. More research is needed on the sexual health needs of community college students, especially on factors such as geographic location, how embedded the school is into the community, social norms around sexual health on college campuses, and health services offered. New and innovative ways to promote linkage to care for testing and counseling could offer potential health benefits to this growing at-risk population.     

Approaching Parental Guilt,Shame, and Blame in a Helping Relationship: Multiple Methods for Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT

Social workers often feel ill-prepared to effectively engage parents in conversations about guilt, shame, and blame related to their children’s mental health or substance use challenges. To address that problem, we suggest that specific content should be integrated into social work courses to teach students how to acknowledge and sensitively manage these issues in their practice with families across cultures and family forms. Content, activities, and assignments are offered, built around three learning strategies (enhanced lecture, case-based learning, and experiential learning) to help students build therapeutic relationships based on a deep appreciation of parents’ emotional experiences.     

Campus Recruiting: What the Recruiters Are Looking For

ABSTRACT

This article reviews findings from a survey of 111 campus recruiters concerning their perceptions and practices of campus recruiting activities. The results show that campus recruiters seem to agree that the interview is the most important method for their selection practices; verbal communication skills as well as character, work experience, and academic performance are the most important personal characteristics for selecting applicants. Campus recruiters of the present study also indicate that work-related expectations and attitudes are the most significant deficiency in applicants. These findings will enable placement and employment centers of colleges and universities to market their students effectively in the competitive labor market.     

Community College Developmental Writing Programs Most Promising Practices: What the Research Tells Educators

ABSTRACT

Students at community colleges are being placed into developmental writing classes at significantly high rates, as high as 80% at some colleges. Many of these students are students of color, and the need to help them persist and succeed is of increasing importance. The purpose of this study was to investigate the most promising practices by community college developmental writing programs. This article presents a review of more than 245 publications from over 450 authors, synthesized down to 36 validated studies with the goal of informing scholars and practitioners of the current state of the field. Themes emerging from these studies and a conceptual model through which findings can be viewed are presented. The analysis, with a focus on the structural, curricular, andragogical, and relational domains, documents only validated studies about the most promising practices. This article supports, challenges, and recommends how to better serve students in the developmental writing context. This author hopes to change how colleges implement developmental writing practices so that practitioners will be given the best tools to help all students succeed.     

A comprehensive approach to managing school safety: case studies in Catalonia,Spain

Background: Schools should be safe spaces for students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff. For the concept of ‘safety’ to be meaningful, it must be interpreted broadly to encompass well-being in its widest sense. A common challenge for schools and educational authorities is, therefore, to manage school safety appropriately not only to prevent physical accidents and incidents, but also with the purpose of creating an environment that promotes physical, emotional and social well-being, both individually and collectively.

Purpose: The aim of this research paper is twofold: (a) to explore the concept of safety as it is interpreted by schools and analyse the extent to which schools are committed to the goal of creating safe and healthy school environments; and (b) to identify organisational and management practices that promote the safety of school staff and users.

Design, sample and methods: The research was carried out from a qualitative perspective, based on a study of multiple cases carried out in Catalonia, Spain. The case studies (N = 9 schools) were selected by means of a purposive sampling process in order to obtain a selection of schools covering different education stages and under different types of ownership. The data collection process involved carrying out semistructured interviews (N = 39) with school principals, health and safety officers, teaching staff and non-teaching staff; focus groups with families (N = 2) and a review of general documentation and specific safety documents (N = 58). The data collected were completed and verified by means of interviews with experts (N = 3). The interviews, focus groups and notes arising from the document review were transcribed literally and analysed thematically, following a cross-case analysis structure.

Results: The data analysis indicated that creating safe and healthy environments was not always an explicitly endorsed principle or goal for schools. However, all members of the educational community were involved in ensuring adequate levels of school safety; and diverse management and organisational actions and measures were implemented to ensure physical, emotional and social safety.

Conclusions: We conclude that according to a broad interpretation of safety, which encompasses well-being in its widest sense, a comprehensive school safety management approach had not been fully adopted by schools in the studied sample. Whilst involvement in safety practices was evident, many actions appeared to be carried out without full consideration of the wider promotion of school safety. The study suggests the importance of training and awareness activities for education professionals in order to build and promote safety culture and to facilitate the introduction of a comprehensive school safety approach in the day-to-day management of schools.     

Study of Extended Opportunity Programs and Services in California Community Colleges

Abstract

A two-phase study of Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) in California Community Colleges, involving comprehensive questionnaire surveys in 93 EOPS-funded colleges and site visits at 12 colleges, reveals that EOPS has proven successful in providing assistance to many who would not otherwise have been able to attend college. However, existing resources are not sufficient to meet the financial needs of many students in the colleges and many more potential students in the communities. The survey concludes that the colleges are successfully balancing the competing demands of financial assistance, to enable students to attend school, and services and assistance, to help students once they get to school.     

民办高校学生宿舍安全管理工作研究——构建“人防、物防、技防、协防”四位一体的运行机制

宿舍,是学生进行学习、生活和情感交流的重要场所;每天,每个学生将有1/3以上的时间在宿舍里度过。宿舍的安全稳定直接影响着高校学生的身心健康发展;直接考验着一所高校的管理水平并最终制约着其生存发展。民办高校由于其自身固有的特点,在学生宿舍安全管理方面存在着不同程度的问题,本文试图从构建＂人防、物防、技防、协防＂四位一体的运行机制出发,为学生提供一个安全舒适的宿舍环境。     

What Do We Know About Online Coursetaking,Persistence, Transfer,and Degree Completion Among Community College Students?

ABSTRACT

Surprisingly, and despite the vast literature on the subject, there is little agreement on the most vital issues surrounding online learning in community colleges. While some studies report that community college students are hampered by online course enrollment, others have found that community college students who take online courses are more likely to persist and succeed in the long term. With this in mind, the present essay will review and synthesize the empirical research literature in order to establish what is known about online coursetaking and the effects on community college students with regard to course completion, persistence, transfer, and degree completion.     

Teachers and students’ perception of competence-based education in the agricultural higher education system (Case of a student cooperative in Iran)

Purpose: This quantitative study sought to investigate the perceptions of teachers and students regarding competency-based education (CBE) principles at the College of Agriculture at Razi University.

Design: This research is a comparative analysis of two groups. The first group consists of undergraduate and graduate students majoring in agriculture who are members and non-members of student cooperatives (n?=?256). The second group consists of agricultural faculty members (n?=?59).

Findings: The results of this study show that students and teachers have different views with regard to the extent to which CBE principles are practiced in the College of Agriculture. Moreover, students with different learning patterns had different perceptions regarding the extent to which CBE is practiced, whereas teachers with different teaching patterns had the same perception of the application of CBE principles in the College of Agriculture.

Practical implications: This study has practical implications for agricultural higher education in general and colleges of agriculture in particular. Colleges of agriculture across Iran could encourage their students to establish and engage in student cooperatives so that the ‘what’ and ‘how’ aspects of CBE are put into practice.

Theoretical implications: This study has theoretical implications for CBE principles. For example, student cooperatives can be utilized by faculty members as one of the main strategies for developing CBE in agricultural colleges.

Originality/value: This study is original in that it moves from theory to practice when considering CBE.     

Autobiographical Counternarratives from the Community College to the PhD

ABSTRACT

Historically, community colleges and those they serve have been relegated to the margins of academe. Community colleges’ critics argue that students starting at two-year institutions are less likely to earn bachelor’s degrees and have lower student outcomes. This CCJRP Exchange Article draws upon counternarratives in highlighting multiple truths of the community experience through use of scholarly personal narratives (SPN) of those that moved in, through and out the community college to the PhD. The faculty member and doctoral students reflect on how their community college experiences influenced their career trajectories. Further, implications for community college practice, policy, and research are shared as the authors make a case for applying SPN in an effort to see community colleges as sites of deep growth that have lasting effects on the personal and professional lives of their students.     

Doing it the Community College Way: Community College-Specific Programming

ABSTRACT

Community colleges are often boxed into university models despite the unique nature of their institutional missions and student populations. We believe community colleges need to develop their own models, rooted in their distinctive missions, to encourage student success. We illustrate this through our experience with a short-term research assistantship program. The program created a brief, but important, way to enhance the student–professor relationship and engage students in applied research practices. It also provided a resource to assist community college faculty in conducting their own, original research. We hope others will not only develop similar programs, but perhaps more importantly, that this article will spur bottom-up, creative thinking to engage time-constrained, community college students in meaningful ways.     

高职院校心理健康教育探新

本文针对高职院校心理健康教育工作中存在的问题进行了分析,并提出了加强和改进高职院校心理健康教育的建议和意见。     

Taking the Helm: Physical Educators Managing Change through Professional Learning Communities

ABSTRACT

Change in education is inevitable. Physical educators are being positioned to effectively manage change and control their own destiny. In order to manage and facilitate positive change, physical educators should clearly embrace and accept physical education as a public health tool, understand the educational change process in schools, and know how to manage change through the strategic utilization of Professional Learning Communities. Physical educators can shape the culture of schools by increasing physical activity levels for students in physical education while facilitating physical activity opportunities for students and faculty across the school day. Given that physical education is a subsystem of the larger school system, each physical educator must understand the nature of change in schools and how to successfully influence it. Professional Learning Communities provide a structure for physical educators to take the helm by influencing positive and systemic change, shaping culture, and advocating for increased physical activity in schools.     

Cross-Cultural Differences in Student Expectations

ABSTRACT

International students represent a growing market segment for colleges and universities in the U.S. As universities begin to target international students, it will become imperative that university administrators and faculty understand what these students expect once they arrive on campus. The present study, utilizing 686 U.S. and 338 Australian business students was designed to explore university service expectations from a cross-cultural perspective. Results indicate that expectations of Australian students are greater than those of U.S students on three dimensions of service quality. Implications for university administrators and faculty, along with future directions, are discussed.     

Revising a College 101 Course for Sustained Impact: Early Outcomes

ABSTRACT

In response to strikingly low completion rates in public 2-year colleges, including for students who are well-prepared academically, most community colleges across the country offer student success courses as one approach to improving outcomes for students. Some colleges have begun to revise these courses in response to research indicating that their impact fades over time. This article examines Bronx Community College’s efforts to restructure their student success course into a First Year Seminar (FYS) that integrates college orientation activities, disciplinary content, and academic success skills. The course emphasizes student-centered pedagogies in order to encourage learning that persists beyond the semester of participation. We use mixed methods to assess the early outcomes of students in FYS courses and understand whether and why the course’s impact has the potential to be sustained. Using propensity score matching to compare 1,138 FYS participants to 1,138 similar nonparticipants, we find early evidence that the FYS approach leads to positive outcomes, including higher grade point averages (GPA) and earning more credits. Using classroom observations (N = 40), instructor interviews (N = 10), and interviews with participants (N = 27), we find that FYS appears to facilitate student-centered, contextualized, and applied learning, thereby helping students apply their FYS-related skills in future courses. This study has implications for reforming student success courses in a way that achieves long-term positive student outcomes.     

Marketing Colleges to Home-Schooled Students

ABSTRACT

One emerging but relatively untapped market of traditional age colleges students is children who have been home schooled. The National Center for Educational Statistics estimated that 1.1 million children were being home schooled in 2006 (Conlin, 2006). This non-empirical paper examines issues related to the home school movement as they apply to colleges and universities hoping to attract these students to their institutions. It explores the unique characteristics of home-schooled students who apply to colleges and universities. Recommendations are made to institutions of higher education for attracting more home-schooled students.     

Texas Hold ‘Em: An Exploration of the Divergent Perspectives of Texas’s Campus Carry Law

One of the most pressing concerns on college campuses today is student safety. To date, nine states have passed Campus Carry legislation and more states may follow. Texas was the eighth state to pass Campus Carry legislation. Specifically, in the 2015 Legislative session, the Texas Legislature voted to allow License to Carry (LTC) holders to carry concealed weapons on college and university campuses. This law, Senate Bill 11 (SB 11), took effect in the fall 2016 at four-year universities and, a year later, took effect on two-year college campuses across Texas. At the heart of this debate, are questions that will affect college campuses across this nation: will this law make colleges safer, or more dangerous and how practical is it to allow or prevent guns on campus? This article employed a case study approach to explore the perspectives held by faculty, staff and students at a Texas community college, which is currently implementing this new law. While the vast majority of Higher Education institutions opposed this new law, its passage in the Texas legislature was swift. At the onset of this study, the researcher speculated that the Campus Carry Law would be vigorously opposed by the faculty, staff and students, but surprisingly this research revealed dramatically different perspectives held by the stakeholders mostly centered around one issue: perceptions of safety. This research also seeks to outline policy considerations for institutions in states with similar pending legislation.     

The application of Gestalt to organizational interventions in universities

Abstract

This paper will outline the Gestalt cycle, (Perls, 1947) used as the basis for modelling the process of Gestalt therapy and counselling. Then we will go on to describe how it (Gestalt) can be used as a way of understanding organizational processes and culture. For staff developers to be effective in influencing the organizations in which they work they have to be able to make appropriate interventions. The necessary skills and attributes required of a staff developer operating in a Gestalt role will be discussed. Gestalt offers one model that can help the staff developer decide what interventions are appropriate when and why.

The paper will then move on to look at what happens if an organization gets stuck at any point in the Gestalt cycle and what this will feel like for employees and students. We will then offer intervention strategies for moving the organization on round the cycle.

Finally we will draw some general conclusions about how staff developers have a key role in helping universities cope, manage and adapt in these times of rapid change in Higher Education.