Theorizing the Self: Digital Storytelling,Applying Theory,and Multimodal Learning

This article discusses the use of digital storytelling, a pedagogical tool, to enhance student learning and meaning-making. During the process of creating and sharing their digital stories, students engaged in self-reflexivity and demonstrated the ability to apply theories of student development to their personal experiences. Findings have implications for educators concerned with assisting students in making meaning of abstract theories and in connecting theory to practice.     

Understanding pedagogical design capacity through teachers’ narratives

Teachers need to develop the ability to adapt curriculum materials. Two elementary teachers, Maggie and Catie, were asked to write narratives about their use of and changes to particular reform-oriented science lesson plans. Maggie drew on her knowledge of and experiences with students, as well as other knowledge, experiences, and resources, to make productive changes to account for her students’ prior knowledge and abilities. Catie based her curricular adaptations on her learning goals—but these were not aligned with the learning goals of the curriculum materials. The paper discusses implications for teacher education, professional development, and educative curriculum materials.     

Preparing preservice English teachers and school counselor interns for future collaboration

The authors believe that by working together, teachers and school counselors can better support students and more effectively work for their success. In this article, we present our efforts in creating a collaborative class for preservice English teachers and school counselor interns. While offering an overview of English teachers and school counselors in their daily interactions with adolescents, we focus on the university preparation of both groups, specifically the preparation at our university, a large research institution in the Midwestern United States. We provide a look at the collaborative class created for the preservice English teachers and school counselor interns, offering examples of their interaction and feedback from the students. Lastly, we close with a consideration of the meaning of such collaboration at the university level for both English teachers and school counselors.     

Community Colleges and Market Responsiveness: A Conceptual Analysis and Proposed Model

In this article, we explore the functions of the traditional community college and its expanding mission in regard to its responsiveness to changing economic conditions and workforce development needs. To date, few researchers have specifically addressed market responsiveness in community college settings across the United States. In addition, we introduce a model in which a comprehensive framework of the components and dimensions that comprise a market responsive institution is provided. Examining dimensions that characterize market responsive community colleges helps to deepen the theoretical and practical understanding of market responsiveness in two ways. First, it helps educators gain a greater understanding about the internal and external contexts in which community colleges operate. Second, it helps educators better understand how core institutional internal and external dimensions interact to create a market responsive environment. The proposed Model of Market Responsive Institutions can be used by community college leaders as a guide for understanding their internal and external context. In addition, community college leaders can use this model in identifying factors that support their ability be responsive in a constantly challenging and changing environment.     

Multiplicity Control in Structural Equation Modeling: Incorporating Parameter Dependencies

When structural equation modeling (SEM) analyses are conducted, significance tests for all important model relationships (parameters including factor loadings, covariances, etc.) are typically conducted at a specified nominal Type I error rate (α). Despite the fact that many significance tests are often conducted in SEM, rarely is multiplicity control applied. Cribbie (2000, 2007) demonstrated that without some form of adjustment, the familywise Type I error rate can become severely inflated. Cribbie also confirmed that the popular Bonferroni method was overly conservative due to the correlations among the parameters in the model. The purpose of this study was to compare the Type I error rates and per-parameter power of traditional multiplicity strategies with those of adjusted Bonferroni procedures that incorporate not only the number of tests in a family, but also the degree of correlation between parameters. The adjusted Bonferroni procedures were found to produce per-parameter power rates higher than the original Bonferroni procedure without inflating the familywise error rate.