Children's Interpretations of Biblical Meal Stories: Ethnographic Intertextual Voicing as the Practice of Hospitable Pedagogy

Based on the ethnography conducted by Magrini in three midwestern United Methodist congregations, this article examines the development of “ethnographic intertextual voicing,” which describes multiple contexts and the ways in which these contexts influence representation of the participants and in turn, create in a community of learning. The ethnography studied children's interpretations of biblical meal stories, Eucharist experiences, and reflections on daily meal practices. Magrini's hospitable pedagogy approach was applied with 25 children ages 5 through 11. The hospitable pedagogy approach created a teaching and learning environment through which ethnographic intertextual voicing emerged. The author argues that ethnographic intertextual voicing is influenced by familial, ethnic, and faith contexts, as well as those of the researcher, and can create a community of learning as a result of the ethnographic research itself through the practice of hospitable pedagogy as a research methodology.     

Design lessons about participatory self-directed online learning in a graduate-level instructional technology course

This article reports on a case of participatory self-directed online learning within the context of a graduate-level instructional technology course. The course was about online learning environments and relied on both asynchronous and synchronous technologies. In this case, the instructor and students engaged in collaborative course design through one of the assignments where student teams and the instructor led one week’s worth of course activities and discussions. This article begins with a discussion of the literature on participatory self-directed online learning. Then, the article presents an overview of the course design, detailed discussion of the assignment that framed student participatory self-directed learning and two examples of student assignments. The framing question for organising this case was as follows: What lessons can a team of graduate students and the instructor learn about self-directed participatory online learning from a collaborative design project? The article ends with the overall lessons learned from the case and implications to future design of online activities.     

Lakota Undergraduates as Partners in Aging Research in American Indian Communities

Studies have established the beneficial role of engaging students in research at both the graduate and undergraduate level. Authentic research experiences serve as a tool for instruction where students are actively involved in the process of discovery, the scientific method, and advancing existing fields with scientific data. Further, students report that they enjoy such experiences, making them more likely to pursue and maintain active careers in the sciences. Engaging minority students as active partners in faculty research not only involves them in the scientific process, but also enables others to gain access to minority participants in a culturally-appropriate manner. This paper focuses on the mutually beneficial role of American Indian students as active partners in faculty research on aging, where they played a vital role in the development and completion of the project. The benefits for the students included high retention rates for a typically at-risk group of college students, a mentoring relationship with a faculty member, and opportunities to blend their cultural background with the college experience.     

Advice from Rural Elders: What it Takes to Age in Place

Older adults prefer to age in place (AIP), and there are psychological, physiological, and economic benefits in doing so. However, it is especially challenging to AIP in rural communities. AIP models have been tested in urban settings and age-segregated communities, but they are not appropriate for rural communities. This paper presents rural AIP variables identified in the literature as well as those described by 39 older adults in five focus groups.     

Student Motivation to Learn via Computer Conferencing

This study investigates why some university students appear motivated to learn via computer conferencing (CC) whereas others do not, exploring the correlations of three key aspects of student motivation—reasons for engaging in academic learning (goal orientation), beliefs that they can acquire the ability to use CC (self-efficacy), and beliefs that learning to use CC will help them learn the course material (outcome expectations)—with satisfaction and with the frequency of CC contributions. Participants (n = 79) came from 4 graduate-level face-to-face courses and 1 undergraduate DE course. The results suggest that students who believe that CC will help them learn the course material are more likely to express satisfaction and to be active online, that students who believe that they are capable of learning how to use CC are more likely to be active online, and that students who are concerned about their relative performance compared to others tend to send fewer messages to conferences where online activity is not graded. Practical implications for instructors and suggestions for future research are described.     

Benefits of Brief Counseling Training for Master's‐Level Trainees in University Counseling Centers

Little has been addressed in the literature about the advantages of brief counseling training for master's‐level trainees working in university counseling centers. This article discusses the benefits that time‐limited treatment affords trainees and offers implications for training and research.     

Literacy skills of welfare recipients

Illiteracy is considered to be a significant barrier to employment. Programs are being established to require literacy education and work programs of welfare recipients. The purpose of this study was to determine the literacy skills of a random sample of welfare recipients. One-hundred and six welfare subjects were administered theWoodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery and a comprehensive interview form. Using common criteria to separate the sample into the literate and functionally illiterate, the groups were found to differ significantly on intellectual capabilities. It was concluded that illiteracy is associated with subaverage intellectual functioning among persons on welfare. A number of recommendations were made pertaining to policy.     

How Language Supports Adaptive Teaching Through a Responsive Learning Culture

For students to learn optimally, teachers must design classrooms that are responsive to the full range of student development. The teacher must be adaptive, but so must each student and the learning culture itself. In other words, adaptive teaching means constructing a responsive learning culture that accommodates and even capitalizes on diversity to ensure that each student is learning optimally. There are 2 primary resources for accomplishing this, engagement and the classroom talk that the teacher orchestrates.     

Disseminating the Positively Aging® Teaching Materials: Results of a Controlled Trial

ABSTRACT

This study tested the effectiveness of 2 dissemination methods for the Positively Aging® teaching materials. In San Antonio, Texas, 4 middle schools participated in a 3-year controlled trial of dissemination via distance electronic support alone (control) compared to distance electronic support plus in-school support from study staff (intervention). Web site and classroom utilization of lessons were tracked. The results demonstrated that in-school staff support was necessary to disseminate these materials. Potential dissemination barriers included competition for instructional time with other curricula, teacher variability in teacher computer use, teacher and student turnover, and the effects of mandatory testing on the educational process.