Creating a Teaching and Learning Environment in Criminal Justice Courses that Promotes Higher Order Thinking∗

Active learning techniques have long been shown to increase the extent to which students are able to think critically about problems and solutions to them. The extant research suggests that efforts to engage students in higher order thinking should extend beyond the typical setting in which the more advanced students are introduced to active learning techniques. White and Frederiksen (2000 White, B. Y. and Frederiksen, J. R. 2000. “Metacognitive Facilitation: An Approach To Making Scientific Inquiry Accessible to All.”. In Inquiry into Learning and Teaching in Science, Edited by: Minstrell, J. L. and Van‐Zee, E. H. 331–70. Washington, DC: American Association for the Advancement of Science.  [Google Scholar]) have found that most students, regardless of achievement levels, can reach a higher order thinking level when they are encouraged to do so. This paper explores several issues associated with active learning techniques in the general sense and then uses examples to demonstrate how such techniques can and are being used on the criminal justice classroom. The pros and cons of using active learning techniques are also discussed.     

Considerations for Faculty Preparing to Develop and Teach Online Criminal Justice Courses at Traditional Institutions of Higher Learning

Criminal justice programs at traditional institutions of higher learning have been moving toward offering courses online and, in some cases, placing entire programs online for the better part of the past decade. In competition with for‐profit institutions, many traditional colleges and universities have expanded their distance education programming to include online courses and programs to attract students. As a result, the number of criminal justice students has increased, as have the profits for home institutions. With this growth in the online education market, the criminal justice faculty member has been thrust, willingly or unwillingly, into the world of online teaching—a method of instruction foreign to many instructors. From the authors’ experience at their current (and in the case of the lead author a second) institution, this paper addresses many issues that must be considered by faculty members before embarking on this type of time‐intensive initiative.     

Reviews

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Guidelines for Preparing Proposals: A Manual on How to Organize Winning Proposals. Roy Meador. Chelsea: Lewis, 1985. 116 pp.     

Social and cognitive effects of professional communication on software usability

We designed and piloted a technical communication course for software engineering majors to take concurrently with their capstone project course in software design. In the pilot, one third of the capstone design course students jointly enrolled in the writing class. One goal of the collaborative courses was to use writing to improve the usability of students’ software. We studied the effects of writing on students’ user‐centered beliefs and design practices and on the usability of their product, using surveys, document analyses, expert reviews, and user test results. When possible, we compared the usability processes and products of teams who did and did not take the writing class. Our findings suggest that the synergy of this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user‐centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.     

Ethical Issues Affecting Human Participants in Community College Research

Reverse transfer students, those students who matriculated at four-year colleges and then transferred to two-year colleges, have been enrolling in community colleges since at least the 1960s. Consisting of both undergraduate reverse transfers and post-baccalaureate reverse transfers (individuals who already have at least a bachelor s degree), these students represent at least 16 % of community college enrollments nation-wide. A concern about the admission of reverse transfers is that they may take enrollment spaces, particularly in selective programs, at the expense of potential students with no previous college experience and with weaker academic backgrounds. Analysis of documents written about reverse transfers indicates that their enrollment has been justified under a variety of rationales, including providing a second chance for these individuals in school and in the job market.     

Individualized Instruction: Extent of Use and Model for Assessing Effectiveness in Community Colleges/Technical Institutes

Abstract

Purposes of the study were to (1) determine the extent to which occupational education instructors in postsecondary institutions in North Carolina used individualized instruction; and to (2) develop a model, evaluative measures, and guidelines for use in assessing individualized instruction approaches. An Individualized Instruction Inventory was designed to determine demographic data, practices, and attitudes of occupational education instructors. The sample consisted of instructors who had rated themselves as moderately to highly individualizing instruction. Inventories were returned by 77% of the 354 instructors in the sample. A discriminant analysis was used to determine demographic variables that differentiated (1) between instructors with high and low attitude scores; and (2) among instructors with high, average, and low practice scores. The four components of the model developed were (1) delineate information, (2) plan for data collection, (3) obtain information, and (4) provide information for decision making. Tasks to be completed within each phase were specified, and guidelines for use of the model were written. Evaluative measures appropriate for collecting the desired data were either selected or developed.     

Learning Styles of ESL Students in Community Colleges

This study investigated the learning styles of adult English as a second language (ESL) students in Northwest Arkansas. Learning style differences by age, gender, and country of origin were explored. A total of 69 northwest Arkansas adult ESL students attending 7 adult-education centers were administered the VARK Learning Styles Questionnaire. Most participants came from Mexico and El Salvador, their ages ranged from 23 to 45, and females were an average of 10 years older than males. Note taking was chosen by 1/3 of participants as their favorite learning style, 20% favored aural modes, 15% favored kinesthetic, 4% favored visual, and 15% chose combinations of learning styles. Females chose auditory and multimodal learning styles, while males favored note taking. Students differed by level of English proficiency, beginning-intermediate favoring aural learning styles more than advanced students. ANOVA results indicated that participants were significantly less visual and more read-write than either aural or kinesthetic, but males and females differed significantly in their choice of aural learning. Hispanic males chose note taking and kinesthetic learning styles significantly more than visual or auditory modes of learning. Hispanic females chose note taking, aural, and kinesthetic learning styles significantly more than visual. Asian males favored note taking and aural learning. Correlation was found between age and learning styles with subgroups exhibiting a negative correlation between age and kinesthetic learning, with Mexican males and females exhibiting the strongest negative correlation. Males showed a low positive correlation between age and note taking.     

Building as We Go: Secondary Schools,Community Colleges,and Universities in Partnership – The Early College High School Initiative

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of key informants about the processes of institutional change and collaboration involved in the development of three early college high schools (ECHS)s over a 4-year period. The 15 study participants were members of early college high school councils and included high school principals, counselors, community college administrators, and school district administrators. Participants were located at two early college high schools located on community college campuses, and one was located on a school district site. This mixed methods study used a survey and structured interviews, both based loosely on case studies from Not so easy going: The policy environments of small urban schools and schools-within-schools (Raywid & Schmerler, 2003) and factors identified by the Wilder Collaboration Inventory (Mattessich & Monsey, 1992) as critical to successful collaboration. The findings of the study showed that the ECHS partnership, according to the majority of its members, exhibited (a) indicators of institutional change in policy and attitude toward collaboration; and (b) the success factors of history of collaboration, favorable political climate, appropriate cross section of members, collaboration seen in self interest, sharing a stake in process and outcome, shared decision making, concrete attainable goals and objectives, and shared vision. Success factors not showing a majority response were adequate resources, mutual respect, open and frequent communication, clear roles and policy guidelines, and sufficient funds.