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.     

Choosing a career in special education

Over the past three decades, the severe shortage of special education teachers has continued to pose a significant challenge for schools in several countries. This study investigated factors that influence an individual’s decision to choose a career in special education. Understanding more about the experiences of those entering the field of special education provides insight to assist in recruiting individuals to meet this demand. Nineteen graduate students enrolled in a university’s special education program in the United States completed a survey and participated in semi-structured interviews to examine factors that contributed towards their decision to choose a career in special education. Seven factors were identified: experiences with individuals with disabilities, degree program/career goals, a preference for special education, a desire to be an advocate, influence from others, other educational experiences, and personal reasons. In addition, the participants provided recommendations for teacher preparation programs to effectively recruit special education teachers. The recommendations included providing more information to others about what special education teachers do and the impact they make, and providing more exposure to individuals with disabilities.     

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.