Scientific Teaching Targeting Faculty from Diverse Institutions

We offered four annual professional development workshops called STAR (for Scientific Teaching, Assessment, and Resources) modeled after the National Academies Summer Institute (SI) on Undergraduate Education in Biology. In contrast to the SI focus on training faculty from research universities, STAR''s target was faculty from community colleges, 2-yr campuses, and public and private research universities. Because of the importance of community colleges and 2-yr institutions as entries to higher education, we wanted to determine whether the SI model can be successfully extended to this broader range of institutions. We surveyed the four cohorts; 47 STAR alumni responded to the online survey. The responses were separated into two groups based on the Carnegie undergraduate instructional program categories, faculty from seven associate''s and associate''s-dominant institutions (23) and faculty from nine institutions with primarily 4-yr degree programs (24). Both groups expressed the opinion that STAR had a positive impact on teaching, student learning, and engagement. The two groups reported using techniques of formative assessment and active learning with similar frequency. The mix of faculty from diverse institutions was viewed as enhancing the workshop experience. The present analysis indicates that the SI model for training faculty in scientific teaching can successfully be extended to a broad range of higher education institutions.     

现在我明白

每个人都有远行出走的冲动,一半是为了更好的生存,否则别无选择;另一半是为了逃避已经很好的生活,他们的选择恰恰太多。     

A Theology of Inferiority: Is Christianity the Source of Kinesiology's Second-Class Status in the Academy?

What influence has Christianity had on kinesiology and physical education's status in the Academy? Conventional wisdom within kinesiology often seems to argue that the influence has been quite negative. These critics allege that Christianity is a fundamentally dualistic religion. They allege that, at its best, Christianity is suspicious of the body and that, at its worst, Christianity openly proclaims that the body is evil. Despite the popularity of such assertions, there is abundant evidence in both historical and contemporary theology to show that Christianity is a religion in which corporeality plays a central, defining, and positive role. From Saint Paul to Saint Augustine, from Saint Aquinas to the present day, it has been a central doctrine of Christianity that the human body is good and, furthermore, that corporeality plays a vital role in salvation. Consequently, any blanket assertion that Christianity is the source of physical education and kinesiology's ills is fundamentally misleading and mistaken.     

The Role of Extended Time and Item Content on a High‐Stakes Mathematics Test

The premise of a great deal of current research guiding policy development has been that accommodations are the catalyst for student performance differences. Rather than accepting this premise, two studies were conducted to investigate the influence of extended time and content knowledge on the performance of ninth‐grade students who took a statewide mathematics test with and without accommodations. Each study involved 1,250 accommodated students (extended time only) with learning disabilities and 1,250 nonaccommodated students demonstrating no disabilities. In Study One, a standard differential item functioning (DIF) analysis illustrated that the usual approach to studying the effects of accommodations contributes little to our understanding of the reason for performance differences across students. Next, a mixture item response theory DIF model was used to explore the most likely cause(s) for performance differences across the population. The results from both studies suggest that students for whom items were functioning differently were not accurately characterized by their accommodation status but rather by their content knowledge. That is, knowing students' accommodation status (i.e., accommodated or nonaccommodated) contributed little to understanding why accommodated and nonaccommodated students differed in their test performance. Rather, the data would suggest that a more likely explanation is that mathematics competency differentiated the groups of student learners regardless of their accommodation and/or reading levels.     

THE ROLE OF COMMUNITY COLLEGES IN THE TRAINING AND EDUCATION OF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND CORRECTIONS PERSONNEL: A CURRICULUM FOR THE 21st CENTURY

Community colleges are in a unique position to meet the education and training needs of law enforcement and corrections personnel for the next century. The nature of the community college allows the proper blend of vocational and formal education in the design of a common curriculum to meet the needs of law enforcement. Location and cost also become factors as agencies attempt to stretch their training budgets. The community colleges have the flexibility and the resources to meet the needs of law enforcement for a practical, affordable, quality, and achievable education for employees in pre‐service, academy, and in‐service status.