A Cross-Discipline Modeling Capstone Experience

The Mathematical Association of America (MAA) and the American Statistical Association (ASA) have both updated and revised their curriculum guidelines. The guidelines of both associations recommend that students engage in a “capstone” experience, be exposed to applications, and have opportunities to communicate mathematical and statistical analysis, among other recommendations. In this article, we describe a mathematics and statistics capstone course, implemented at a small liberal arts college. We provide evidence that this course accomplishes the goals set forth by the MAA and ASA. We include guidance for other institutions on implementing a similar course.     

Dual Enrollment Participants’ Attainment of an Associate’s Degree from the College in which they Participated in Dual Enrollment as Compared to Nonparticipants’ Attainment

Community college graduates from all disciplines seek the opportunity to earn a four year degree. No longer do these potential transfer students earn their associate degree studying the traditional “transfer program.” Unfortunately, transfer for many of them means the loss of credit and being required to complete more than two years of additional full time collegiate study.

Many colleges and universities provide no special access programming for associate degree holders transferring to baccalaureate degree programs. Where access has been addressed, it often means an articulation agreement has been drawn up between two institutions. However, in a few cases “plus two” or “capstone” programs have been created which provide access to the holders of any associate degree without loss of credit. At question is whether such programs actually provide access to a four year degree with the completion of an additional two years of full time study. This research study addresses that concern.     

Rethinking School Leadership Programs: The USC Ed.D. Program in Perspective

The Ed.D. program at the University of Southern California focuses on leadership in urban education. The article describes the rationale and guiding principles for the program and its design in terms of core knowledge, inquiry, signature pedagogy, concentrations, and capstone experiences. The article concludes with an assessment of our contributions to date and a set of challenges that will direct our efforts in the near future.     

Developing a generic review framework to assure capstone quality

Within the higher education context, capstone units can be viewed as a significant means of assuring intended learning outcomes for programmes. They provide students with the opportunity to consolidate and apply prior and new disciplinary learning, as well as employability skills and graduate attributes. This paper describes the first stage of an initiative in a regional, Australian university to develop a capstone quality review framework that can be applied across disciplines. A deductive, thematic analysis of relevant literature, guides and institutional strategic documents using a constant comparison method was used to develop a collectively agreed upon set of capstone quality domains and related criteria. These would enable reviewers to assess whether capstone curricula were fit-for-purpose. Capstone domains and criteria were validated and revised using a multi-stage, moderated review of 10 capstone units. This validation process affirmed that to avoid issues with reviewer inter-rater reliability, future use of our framework should emphasise calibrating reviewer interpretation to ensure greater levels of shared understanding of underlying concepts. It further suggested the desirability of incorporating aspects of teacher self-assessment, teacher feedback and student results. Provided these findings are accounted for, we conclude that the proposed capstone review domains and criteria could be used for quality review and enhancement, or capstone benchmarking processes, regardless of discipline area.     

“全人译者教育法”综述与反思

香港浸会大学谭载喜教授结合西方和香港某些高校所倡导的“全人”培养教育理念,提出了翻译教育中的两个重要概念,即“全人”翻译教育和“翻译教育金字塔”,并运用图表和阐释的方式对其进行描述。这一教育方法使“以人为本”的教育理念在翻译教学中得到充分彰显。     

THE BASIS OF JAMES W. FOWLER'S UNDERSTANDING OF FAITH IN THE RESEARCH OF WILFRED CANTWELL SMITH: AN EXAMINATION FROM AN EVANGELICAL PERSPECTIVE

This article focuses on the influence of Wilfred Cantwell Smith's presentation of the nature of faith on James W. Fowler's faith-development paradigm. Smith contended that, in the pre-modern era, terms translated by the English words “faith” and “believe” denoted a personal allegiance that did not require assent to any objective assertions. Two difficulties with Smith's research are highlighted: 1) In the premodern era, the terms translated as “faith” and “believe” denoted both personal allegiance and objective assent. 2) Although “faith” and “believe” primarily indicated personal allegiance in the premodern era, the primacy of personal allegiance within faith does not preclude the presence or the necessity of objective assent. The author suggests that, although Christian faith and Fowlerian stage-development are two distinct phenomena, the reality to which Fowler referred as “faith” describes the psychical context for Christian faith. The article concludes by reflecting on the implications of this concept, suggesting that Christian faith emerges from Fowlerian stage-development, but that the content and development of both phenomena remain essentially distinct.     

Portfolio assessment in an American Engineering College

Estimates indicate that as much as 80% of an engineer's work time is spent on communicating. Studies done by the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of Arizona show that engineering firms, as well as ECE graduates, rank writing ability as the most important skill in determining engineers’ success, even above the much more obvious technical skills that are the focus of much engineering education. Arizona's ECE Department began teaching its senior-level capstone design courses as “writing emphasis” courses to assist students in developing their writing skills prior to graduation, as well as to link communication skills and coursework to create graduates proficient in both written and oral communication. This paper describes a portfolio assessment that has been developed specifically for this context and population, and argues that this portfolio assessment demonstrates several advantages frequently called for in theory but rarely made operational. This program has provided an unusually rich practical application, showing how portfolio assessment changes assessment from a mere rating of limited and often costly tests to a continuous, integrated, and appropriate activity directly related to learning itself, while at the same time, developing the data about student.     

Meeting the Capstone Challenge in Postgraduate Food Science Education

Project work and work placements can help prepare tertiary food science students for the workplace. Programs in the curriculum should support the development of transferable skills such as communication, problem‐solving, and planning. This paper describes a case study of a new capstone project for Masters of Food Science students based on a work integrated learning model. Students were engaged to develop a HACCP plan for a cheesemaker. They interacted with a peer group, academics, and with professionals from the food industry. Two iterations of the project were completed. Staff and student feedback from the first iteration informed modifications in the subsequent iteration. Industry partners and an authentic work task were key components of the project. The model could apply to a broad range of programs that require a capstone project in the curriculum.     

Invited to academia. Recruited for science or teaching in Education Sciences

In the context of higher education in Sweden, we see how major policy change is forming the field of Education Sciences. This change has promoted an increased focus on competitiveness, while reducing inefficiencies in mass-education. It has given legitimacy to specific recruitment strategies and career paths, but can also explain what determines how career capital is accumulated. The aim of the present study is to describe how academics experience recruitment and positioning processes in their career. How do academics gain career capital and symbolic value in career and use it to gain recognition? The results illustrate three career paths, identified as “the invited”, “the useful” or “the uninvited”. Thus, the present article describes a Matthew effect in recruitment, where young PhD students are positioned early on as either promising researchers, teachers, or as substitutes who are sorted out from both research and education.     

Scientific “Laws”, “Hypotheses” and “Theories”

Science describes the world of phenomena in terms of scientific “laws”, “hypotheses” and “theories”. There appears to be a widespread confusion about the precise meaning and significance of the three terms. This article attempts to ascertain the meanings of the terms by examining their actual use in scientific literature.     

A capstone mathematics course for prospective secondary mathematics teachers

This article describes an innovative capstone mathematics course that links college mathematics with school mathematics and pedagogy. It describes how college juniors in a secondary mathematics teacher preparation program engage in leadership experiences that enable them to learn mathematics for teaching while developing student-centered pedagogical and assessment strategies. Examples show how students teach the class, complemented by excerpts from student journals containing students?? perceptions of their learning. Preliminary research indicates the effectiveness of this course for preparing future mathematics teachers.     

《远离尘嚣》的精神生态解读

在《远离尘嚣》中,哈代从人的精神生态入手,对韦特伯里人心灵的"拜物化"、精神的"真空化"、行为的"无能化"、生活风格的"齐一化"、存在的"疏离化"等精神病症进行逐一刻画,揭示其产生的根源:人类中心主义思想中所导致的人与自然的二元对立,以及消费文化观、欲望动力论等工业文明思想所造成的人际关系的坍塌、精神价值的消解和自我的迷失。哈代的思想具有比较深远的现实生态学意义。     

清末厦门土白音系研究——以《(亻自)兮救主耶稣基督兮新约》为例

以厦门土白圣经《亻自兮救主耶稣基督兮新约》(1898)的音系分析为基础,归纳一百年前厦门话的声、韵、调系统。通过与厦门话和《汇音妙悟》中"鸡""关""箴""箱"等几个比较有代表性的韵类例字进行音读对比,得出《亻自兮救主耶稣基督兮新约》的音系基础是同安话,并兼有其他闽南次方言特征的结论。     

晏几道小令话人生

晏几道是小令这一词体的忠实捍卫者与传承人。独特的生活经历及狷介狂放的性格,使他在词作中呈现出独特的艺术风貌。笔者以1055年、1074年为界,将晏几道的一生大致分为前、中、后三期;同时,结合《小山词》中的部分作品及代表性词句,从内容及艺术特色两方面对小山词作分析,并简要探讨其成因。总之,《小山词》是晏几道一生心路历程的形象再现,也是其性情的真实书写。     

Teaching Information Systems Management Skills: Using Integrated Projects and Case Studies

University courses in Computer Science (CS) and Information Systems (IS) are often criticized by industry for concentrating on conceptual learning while failing to provide their students with experience and grounding in managerial skills. This paper describes and discusses an innovative course In this paper the term “course” will be used to refer to a single integrated unit of study. In New Zealand such units are often referred to as “papers”. These courses can be combined together, according to various rules, to form a “course of study” which will lead to a qualification. At Massey University, a degree is comprised of 24 such courses.structure which has been developed in order to ground the teaching of IS management theory in its local context by interlinking practical projects and case studies in local organizations. The student projects are used to generate a large “cross-sectional” case study which describes several IS management problems that are occurring simultaneously in the same organization. Students are required to integrate their analysis of the problems and to recommend an appropriate series of responses which will tackle all the situations. The paper describes the rationale and organization of the course, the results of an evaluation of its effectiveness, and discusses some of the problems that were encountered during its implementation.     

The World Tomorrow

Drawing on the author's experience as director of a long-lived school—university partnership, this essay describes how one such organization can “do it right” and enhance the development of teacher leadership in schools. It also provides a cautionary tale about how that same organization can “do it wrong” and achieve the opposite effect. “Doing it right” requires having a set of core beliefs that are enacted through key social practices. “Doing it wrong” violates those core beliefs and practices.     

Revisioning Philosophy of Education Instruction in Competency-Based B. Ed. Programs

This article concerns the relationship between classroom assessments that are aligned with “competencies-based” teaching in Teacher Education programs on the one hand, and on the other hand, the challenge of offering authentic “philosophy of education,” “education theory,” or “education foundations” courses for student–teachers who are enrolled in a professional degree and on the way towards certification. Briefly, administrative and accreditation concerns with developing and demonstrating core “competencies” when teaching is considered strictly as a “profession” do not align with more ancient understandings of teaching as a “way of life”—especially when that life is led in some relation to philosophy, or “the pursuit of wisdom.” This article examines the disjunction between these two conceptualizations of teaching; it encourages readers to think about how this disjunction problematizes their pedagogy as “philosophers of education.”     

How are we doing? “Best of ISPI” Appreciative Inquiry member survey

The International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Board of Directors undertook a study to uncover the “best of ISPI” to enhance their strategic planning. The approach used Appreciative Inquiry methods, which emphasize discovering “what's working.” This article describes the study and concludes with some thoughts on how to use this information to enrich member experiences and provide new benefits.     

美国顶峰体验课程对我国高校实践教学改革的启示

作为一种新型课程,顶峰体验课程自开设以来,就得到了欧美高校、学生和用人单位的普遍欢迎,在高等教育课程改革中产生了重大影响。探讨了顶峰体验课程的内涵和教学目标,并以美国密歇根州立大学电气与计算机工程系的顶峰体验课程"ECE480"为例,介绍了顶峰体验课程的教学模式、特点和实际效果。美国研究型大学的顶峰体验课程的成功经验对中国高校实践教学改革,具有重要意义和实用价值。     

The Game of Tai Sai

In this article Ann-Lee Wang describes a gambling game that many Malaysians engage in. often illegally. The game is called “Tai Sai” which literally means “Big Small” in Chinese. There are two versions of the game, both of which provide interesting problems for teachers of introductory courses in probability. Both versions use three dice.