Employing Noncognitive Variables in Admitting and Advising Community College Students

ABSTRACT

As community colleges have more applicants, more programs have turned to selective admissions. Additionally, good postmatriculation advising requires more useful assessments than have been possible employing such measures as prior grade-point average (GPA). A variety of problems have been identified in relying on GPA. A series of noncognitive variables, as measured by the Noncognitive Questionnaire (NCQ), were included in a study of 263 community college students in health sciences programs at a western community college. NCQ scores were related to college grades using Pearson correlation and multiple regression. Results showed modest but statistically significant relationships with community college grades. The NCQ scales of Community, Leadership and Strong Support Person contributed most to multiple-regression Equations predicting college grades. NCQ scales tended to correlate highest with early and late community college grades. While students in the study had mean NCQ scores similar to normative samples, they tended to be lowest on Community, which was most predictive of their performance. It is recommended that a predicted GPA generated from NCQ scores be added to the admissions criteria for health programs at the college, and that pre and postmatriculation advising programs include use of noncognitive variables.     

Building community in academic settings: the importance of flexibility in a structured mentoring program

Academic mentoring is increasingly being used by many universities as a tool to enhance the quality of research‐led teaching, promote cross‐faculty collaboration and encourage a mentoring culture and community. This article reports on a pilot project established to investigate the benefits of building flexibility into a structured academic mentoring program at the University of Sydney. Twenty‐six academics from the Faculty of Business and Economics and the Faculty of Education and Social Work participated in the program. The mentors ranged in position from lecturer to professor and the mentees from associate lecturer to senior lecturer. Flexible arrangements were shown to be important in a variety of ways, from the pairing of mentor with mentee, to focussing on issues of work survival and life balance, research outcomes and career advancement. The project highlighted the lower number of male academics involved in formal mentoring, which merits further exploration. All participants reported positive outcomes, although refinement of the pairing process was recommended. A variety of unanticipated outcomes was reported by mentees.     

Average acceleration and intensity gradient of primary school children and associations with indicators of health and well-being

ABSTRACT

Average acceleration (AvAcc) and intensity gradient (IG) have been proposed as standardised metrics describing physical activity (PA) volume and intensity, respectively. We examined hypothesised between-group PA differences in AvAcc and IG, and their associations with health and well-being indicators in children. ActiGraph GT9X wrist accelerometers were worn for 24-h·d^?1 over 7days by 145 children aged 9–10. Raw accelerations were averaged per 5-s epoch to represent AvAcc over 24-h. IG represented the relationship between log values for intensity and time. Moderate-to-vigorous PA (MVPA) was estimated using youth cutpoints. BMI z-scores, waist-to-height ratio (WHtR), peak oxygen uptake (VO₂peak), Metabolic Syndrome risk (MetS score), and well-being were assessed cross-sectionally, and 8-weeks later. Hypothesised between-group differences were consistently observed for IG only (p < .001). AvAcc was strongly correlated with MVPA (r = 0.96), while moderate correlations were observed between IG and MVPA (r = 0.50) and AvAcc (r = 0.54). IG was significantly associated with health indicators, independent of AvAcc (p < .001). AvAcc was associated with well-being, independent of IG (p < .05). IG was significantly associated with WHtR (p < .01) and MetS score (p < .05) at 8-weeks follow-up. IG is sensitive as a gauge of PA intensity that is independent of total PA volume, and which relates to important health indicators in children.     

Sports as a passport to success: life skill integration in a positive youth development program

Background: Sport-based youth development (SBYD) programs aim to teach life skills to youth within a physical activity context. An explicit objective of most SBYD programs is that youth learn to apply, or transfer, life skills beyond the sports program. Limited research has been conducted on the cognitive processes that help youth understand how life skills apply within and beyond sports.

Purpose: This study uses a conceptual framework on transfer of life skills to examine the role of life skills in an SBYD program. Research questions include: (1) how does the SBYD program integrate the teaching of life skills, (2) how do youth participants experience the life skills in the boxing program, and (3) how do youth participants perceive the life skills impact them beyond the program.

Methodology: This research took place at three community boxing academies in New Zealand. The three academies were selected because they are affiliated with a boxing program that is committed to implementing a life skills framework called the Passport to Success. Forty-one youth (31 boys, 10 girls) across the three sites participated in focus groups interviews about their experience in the program. Additionally, observations of program implementation documented the daily routines of each boxing academy. Using a qualitative case study design, inductive analysis and constant comparative methods were used to identify emergent themes.

Findings: Youth participants perceived life skills to be a foundational component of the boxing program. The life skills were presented to youth through the ‘Passport to Success’, a document featuring eight key life skills. The coaches focused on the Passport to Success in several ways, including setting an expectation that youth memorize the life skills to demonstrate their commitment. Several youth participants discussed learning valuable lessons around the life skills. Finally, youth were able to describe scenarios which demonstrated how the life skills connected with other areas of their lives.

Conclusion: Life skills implementation was guided by the Passport to Success and an expectation that youth develop positive relationships in the gym. A routine strategy for memorizing the Passport to Success provided a clear example of youth learning the meaning of life skills in the context of sports. The youth participants demonstrated cognitive connections in their explanation of the value of life skills beyond the boxing program. Using the conceptual framework on transfer [Jacobs and Wright 2018. “Transfer of Life Skills in Sport-Based Youth Development Programs: A Conceptual Framework Bridging Learning to Application.” Quest 70 (1): 81–99] helps to explain the cognitive connections youth participants make between life skills in a sports program and their application beyond sports.     

Perceptions of the authority of health information. Case study: digital interactive television and the Internet

As part of a Department of Health funded project nearly 2000 people were surveyed as to their use of two digital health information services, one on the Web and the other on digital interactive television (DiTV). The website was of a commercial company-Surgerydoor-and the DiTV service NHS based. This paper concentrates on the issue of trust in digital health information. Two of the main findings were that advertising was found to have an effect on trust, though the quality and type of advertising will impact in different ways on trustworthiness. DiTV subscribers who had either used the Living Health channel which carried NHS branded health information or had heard of the service, were more likely to say that the NHS was a symbol of trust for them compared with DiTV subscribers who had not used the service.     

Building a bioinformatics community of practice through library education programs

This paper addresses the following questions:What makes the community of practice concept an intriguing framework for developing library services for bioinformatics? What is the campus context and setting? What has been the Health Sciences Library's role in bioinformatics at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Chapel Hill? What are the Health Sciences Library's goals? What services are currently offered? How will these services be evaluated and developed? How can libraries demonstrate their value? Providing library services for an emerging community such as bioinformatics and computational biology presents special challenges for libraries including understanding needs, defining and communicating the library's role, building relationships within the community, preparing staff, and securing funding. Like many academic health sciences libraries, the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill Health Sciences Library is addressing these challenges in the context of its overall mission and goals.     

A better IDEA: best practice and outcomes‐oriented remedies in public impact litigation for students with disabilities

Class action lawsuits filed in violation of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) raise questions for those concerned with improving the education system for students with disabilities. First, do the lawsuits result in changes that can be directly linked to improved student outcomes? Second, do these lawsuits and the ‘consent decrees’ that settle them refer to best practices in educating children with disabilities? To date, no study has examined the remedies ordered as a result of these lawsuits in the disability education context, or proven how different types of remedies can impede or facilitate progress for students with disabilities. Class action lawsuits under IDEA filed in large, urban school districts between 1990 and 2011 and the remedies ordered under the final agreement were reviewed. This review suggests that the lawsuits against large, urban school districts tend to result in remedial activities that focus more on planning, supporting and monitoring than on outcomes or evidence‐based practice.