A Framework for Student Projects in Computer Networks

This paper describes the delivery of a computer networks course with accompanying materials and software. The course is offered at the fourth-year undergraduate level, and has few formal pre-requisites, other than general programming skills. There is a substantial architectural and coding component to any practical course on networks, and it is important to challenge the experienced and knowledgeable students without making the material too difficult for the inexperienced students who have minimal experience in programming practical applications. Some students have an industrial background and are expecting to build practical working applications. At the other extreme are students with no exposure to operating system principles, and therefore lacking pertinent knowledge, such as concurrency concepts. Our programming framework provides an event-polling approach to avoid the complexity of more general concurrency techniques. Protocol layers are implemented with data types and use a finite state machine model to control their behaviors. The resulting course offers code structure and support to students with minimal background, without sacrificing pertinent concepts, and provides the ability to construct elaborate network applications using the coding structures introduced in the course.     

Grading leniency, grade discrepancy, and student ratings of instruction

The purpose of this study was to examine how grading leniency and grade discrepancy (the difference between expected grades and deserved grades) were associated with various dimensions of student ratings of instruction. A sample of 754 undergraduate college students completed a student ratings of instruction instrument and provided responses to a number of other questions on topics such as course difficulty and workload. A series of multilevel regression analyses were conducted and results showed that an instructor's grading leniency, as perceived by students, was positively associated with student ratings on 11 of 12 dimensions of instruction examined. This finding suggests that more lenient instructors tend to receive higher student ratings. The second finding shows that grade discrepancy was negatively associated with most dimensions of instruction. This supports the self-serving bias hypothesis under attribution theory (Gigliotti & Buchtel, 1990) in that students tended to punish instructors with lower ratings when expected grades were lower than students believed they deserved, yet little evidence of a pattern of rewards existed in student ratings when students expected grades higher than they deserved.     

Taking and teaching the test are not the same: a case study of first-year teachers’ experiences in high-stakes contexts

Background: Policymakers’ use of high-stakes exams to improve students’ academic achievement affects teachers and their tenure in the field at all levels of schooling. Novice teachers now being inducted into the field have been educated almost exclusively in these high-stakes learning environments. Yet, how their familiarity with these contexts combined with their experiences in their own classrooms affect novices’ induction into the field of teaching has not been fully examined. Aim: This article presents findings from an investigation into the experiences of two first-year teachers who were educated and trained to be teachers in the same high-stakes education system in which they taught. It examines how these first-year teachers viewed policymakers’ reforms affecting their teaching and tenure in the field. Methods: This qualitative case study centers on the experiences of two first-year teachers working in the same high-stakes standards-based accountability teaching context in which they were educated – the case. This study provides insight into the issue of how novices’ familiarity with high-stakes reform combined with their experiences in their own classrooms impacts their conceptions of their teaching and their tenure in the field. Outcomes: The findings from this case study reveal how policymakers’ high-stakes reforms impacted the development of these novice teachers in significant ways. Not only did they have to learn how to teach as they taught, but they also had to ensure they were teaching all of their students to pass the high-stakes exams. Their varied experiences also demonstrate how these high-stakes exams can ‘test’ beginning teachers out of the classroom. Conclusions: These findings demonstrate that first-year teachers’ familiarity with policymakers’ high-stakes reforms is not enough to prepare them for the expectation that they immediately improve students’ academic achievement on high-stakes exams. Such findings not only challenge what it means to be a educator in these contexts, but they also shed light on how larger political and economic forces impact the teaching and tenure of novices. To support new teachers, teacher educators and mentors should rethink the education and induction processes while helping novices understand as well as prepare for the role context plays in their teaching and development as professionals.     

New Rules for Business in a Flat World: A Trustees Call to Action

As policymakers, community college trustees have a responsibility to help keep their communities strong. How they do this is by helping to give everyone a chance for higher education. Thomas Friedman says that John F. Kennedy's vision was to put a man on the moon. His vision is to put every American on a campus. To do this, trustees can use these 7 “New Rules of Business:” (a) having a renewed focus on higher education accountability, (b) continued anxiety over college affordability, (c) waning public support, (d) growing expectations, (e) increasing competition, (f) changing demographics, and (g) the growing leadership crisis.     

Student Success in Developmental Mathematics Courses

Mathematics is a particular stumbling block for community college students in developmental course work. The present study empirically investigated student-level and teacher-level factors that influence the success of community college students enrolled in developmental mathematics courses. Specifically, numerous variables in one statistical model were examined, which included student self-efficacy (SE) beliefs in various aspects of academic engagement, previous course difficulties, full-time teaching status, and class attendance policies. Multiple regression results show that attendance was the largest predictor for higher course grades, followed by repeating a mathematics course and students’ sense of SE. In the hierarchical line modeling (HLM) model, teachers’ full-time status was a significant predictor in the model, but when teaching status was controlled for, the remaining student belief variables in the model were not statistically significant except SE in Cognitive Strategies, Self-Regulated Learning, and Motivational Strategies. The results provide empirical support for increased communication between full- and part-time faculty members, implementation of attendance policies, academic interventions prior to students’ failures, and the need to address students’ sense of SE.     

The influence of experience on student teachers' beliefs about inclusion

Abstract

Teacher beliefs influence the implementation of inclusion practices in the classroom. Therefore, the importance of developing positive beliefs during the preservice years cannot be overstated. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of professional experiences on students’ beliefs about inclusion. This qualitative study was comprised of a series of interviews (group and individual) and analysis of reflective writings for six student teachers. Findings indicated that experiences both professional and personal contribute to the development of the students’ beliefs about inclusion. If these experiences were positive, the preservice teachers were more positively disposed to the concept of inclusion. Therefore, teacher training programs are afforded the opportunity to influence preservice teachers’ development of positive beliefs about inclusion which may ultimately affect the inclusion process.     

Relations Between Fantasy Orientation and Emotion Regulation in Preschool

Research Findings: Emotion regulation is a strong predictor of both short- and long-term peer relationships and social competence and is often targeted in preschool curricula and interventions. Pretense is a natural activity of childhood that is thought to facilitate the development of socialization, perspective taking, language, and possibly emotion regulation. This study investigated whether fantasy-oriented children, who engage in more pretense, demonstrate higher levels of emotion regulation. Prekindergartners (n = 103) and teachers were given a battery of measures assessing children’s emotion regulation, fantasy orientation, theory of mind, and language. Results from hierarchical regression analyses indicated that children’s proclivity toward fantastical play (their fantasy orientation) uniquely predicted 24% of the variance in their emotion regulation skills over and above typical predictors: age, theory of mind, and language skills. That is, children who participated in more fantasy pretense demonstrated better emotion regulation skills than their peers. Practice or Policy: The present study suggests that future research, curriculum, and interventions should focus on targeting fantastical pretense to assess causal mechanisms of emotion regulation development. Teachers and parents should encourage children’s fantastical pretense, as research suggests it may be an important contributor to the development of critical socialization skills such as emotion regulation.     

Minor Illnesses,Temperament, and Toddler Social Functioning

Research Findings: Minor illnesses, such as upper respiratory infections, stomachaches, and fevers, have been associated with children's decreased activity and increased irritability. This multi-method investigation of 110 day care–attending children examined whether experience with recurrent, minor illnesses and negative emotionality worked together to predict young children's social functioning. Minor illness experience was assessed via weekly health screenings conducted by nurses. Toddlers' negative emotionality and social behavior were assessed using mothers' and fathers' reports. The two dimensions of negative emotionality and minor illness experience operated in different ways to predict children's functioning. Toddlers rated as more temperamentally angry displayed less social competence, especially when they also experienced high proportions of minor illness. Temperamentally fearful children exhibited more externalizing problems when they experienced a higher frequency of illness, whereas fearfulness was not associated with externalizing problems for children who were not frequently ill. Practice or Policy: Children's frequent experience with minor illnesses combined with negative emotionality appears to place toddlers at a heightened risk for exhibiting behavior problems. These findings have implications for child and family well-being as well as interactions with child care providers and peers within child care settings. Interventions could be developed to target “at risk” children.