Online learning: Are subjective perceptions of instructional context related to academic success?

This study explored the extent to which students' thoughts, feelings, and actions are associated with the nature of an online course and how that course relates to them personally. Following completion of an online course in aviation physiology, service academy undergraduates (N = 481) completed a survey that assessed several motivational, emotional, and behavioral outcomes. Consistent with expectations, results from a logistic regression analysis revealed that students who said they were planning to become aviators upon graduation were more likely to report greater perceptions of task value and greater use of metacognitive control strategies than their non-aviator counterparts. On the other hand, after controlling for the other variables in the model, aviators were actually less likely to report being satisfied with the online course, an unexpected finding. Taken together, these results partially substantiate the social cognitive notion that subjective perceptions of the learning environment ultimately shape students' motivational and behavioral engagement in that environment. Implications for the theory and research of online learning are discussed.     

Empirical assessment of college student-athletes' persistence in e-learning courses: A case study of a U.S. National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) institution

In recent years, the application of Information Technologies (IT) has fostered a tremendous growth in e-learning courses at colleges and universities in the United States. Subsequently, some colleges and universities have reported dropout rates of over 60% in e-learning courses. This research investigated persistence in e-learning courses of 187 college student-athletes. To predict the persistence of college student-athletes enrolled in e-learning courses, a conceptual model was proposed and assessed based on students' factors. The factors investigated included students' attitude toward computers, students' intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, students' perceived satisfaction, and students' previous academic performance measures (high school grade point average (GPA) and Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score). These factors have previously shown tendencies toward persistence in e-learning courses. Results of this study indicate that students' high school GPA was a significant predictor of e-learning course persistence for college student-athletes.     

The equity impact of public finance of private education provision in Côte d’Ivoire

The equity effects of public subsidization of private schools in Côte d’Ivoire are analyzed. The subsidy per student in private (and public) schools increases as one goes to higher household per capita expenditure groups. Students from families in the highest expenditure quartile receive twice the subsidy received by students from families in the lowest quartile, compared to four times more in the case of students attending public schools. However, the subsidy system is relatively progressive in the case of private school attendance as there is a clear tendency for the share of family education expenditure covered by subsidies to decline as one goes to higher quartiles.     

Faculty Hiring at Top-Ranked Higher Education Administration Programs: An Examination Using Social Network Analysis

Using network analysis we investigated faculty hiring at 21 U. S. News top-ranked programs in higher education administration. Our research questions were as follows. Do top programs hire from each other? Are faculty from the “outside” finding positions at top programs? Mixed results hint at implications for the “health” of the hiring network. Closed systems in higher education may produce unintended consequences as graduate programs look to expand into new global markets.     

Responses and Clarifications Regarding Science and Worldviews

This article responds to the other 10 papers in this thematic issue on science and worldviews and it clarifies some of the points in my lead article. The Bayesian framework provides helpful structure for worldview inquiries by recognizing and integrating both public and personal evidence. Drawing upon the other 10 papers, six kinds of potential evidence or considerations are identified: the problem of evil, evolution, miracles and prayer, the Anthropic Principle, religious experience, and natural theology. The thesis is defended that considerations informing worldview convictions include public evidence from the sciences and the humanities and personal evidence from individual experience. Additional topics addressed briefly include scientific realism, the tentativeness of scientific knowledge, science’s presuppositions, the relationship between natural science and natural theology, the nature of religious faith, and the importance of philosophy in science education. Seven questions are posed for which further leadership from the AAAS and NAS would benefit the scientific community.     

Science, Worldviews, and Education

Whether science can reach conclusions with substantial worldview import, such as whether supernatural beings exist or the universe is purposeful, is a significant but unsettled aspect of science. For instance, various scientists, philosophers, and educators have explored the implications of science for a theistic worldview, with opinions spanning the spectrum from positive to neutral to negative. To delineate a mainstream perspective on science, seven key characterizations or “pillars” of science are adopted from position papers from the world’s largest scientific organization, the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Based on those pillars and an examination of scientific method, I argue that the presuppositions and reasoning of science can and should be worldview independent, but empirical and public evidence from the sciences and humanities can support conclusions that are worldview distinctive. I also critique several problematic perspectives: asserting that science can say nothing about worldviews and the opposite extreme of insisting that science decisively supports one particular worldview; weakening science so severely that it lacks truth claims; and burdening science with unnecessary presuppositions. Worldview-distinctive conclusions based on empirical evidence are suitable for individual convictions and public discussions, but not for institutional endorsements and scientific literacy requirements.     

“Brothers Gonna Work It Out:” Understanding the Pedagogic Performance of African American Male Teachers Working with African American Male Students

Drawing from ethnographic data, this paper explores how African American male teachers working with African American male students performed their pedagogy. This paper highlights how teachers’ understanding of African American males social and educational needs shaped their pedagogical performance. Interestingly however, teachers’ performance was contingent on the diverse ways they imagined African American males should engage within their social and political worlds. These findings suggest then that African American male teachers’ pedagogic performances were both complex and multifaceted.     

Teaching the process of molecular phylogeny and systematics: a multi-part inquiry-based exercise

Three approaches to molecular phylogenetics are demonstrated to biology students as they explore molecular data from Homo sapiens and four related primates. By analyzing DNA sequences, protein sequences, and chromosomal maps, students are repeatedly challenged to develop hypotheses regarding the ancestry of the five species. Although these exercises were designed to supplement and enhance classroom instruction on phylogeny, cladistics, and systematics in the context of a postsecondary majors-level introductory biology course, the activities themselves require very little prior student exposure to these topics. Thus, they are well suited for students in a wide range of educational levels, including a biology class at the secondary level. In implementing this exercise, we have observed measurable gains, both in student comprehension of molecular phylogeny and in their acceptance of modern evolutionary theory. By engaging students in modern phylogenetic activities, these students better understood how biologists are currently using molecular data to develop a more complete picture of the shared ancestry of all living things.     

SYMBIOSIS: Development,Implementation, and Assessment of a Model Curriculum across Biology and Mathematics at the Introductory Level

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.”Alan Cohen (Used by permission. All rights reserved. For more information on Alan Cohen''s books and programs, see (www.alancohen.com.)

With the support of the East Tennessee State University (ETSU) administration and a grant from Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the departments of Biological Sciences, Mathematics and Statistics, and Curriculum and Instruction have developed a biology–math integrated curriculum. An interdisciplinary faculty team, charged with teaching the 18 curriculum modules, designed this three-semester curriculum, known as SYMBIOSIS. This curriculum was piloted to two student cohorts during the developmental stage. The positive feedback and assessment results of this project have given us the foundation to implement the SYMBIOSIS curriculum as a replacement for the standard biology majors curriculum at the introductory level. This article addresses the history and development of the curriculum, previous assessment results and current assessment protocol, and the future of ETSU''s approach to implementing the SYMBIOSIS curriculum.