Celebrating the Past,Creating the Future: 50 Years of Community College Research

The Council for the Study of Community Colleges (CSCC) celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2008. This article summarizes the establishment of the Council and sets it in the context of the development of the community college movement. Highlights of research conducted by CSCC members to address contemporary issues facing community colleges are described. A summary of insights offered by members during a 2008 plenary session, research presented at the 50th annual conference, and key community college leaders are described in the context of the historical evolution of community college research and future directions.     

Effects of High and Low Prior Knowledge on Construction of a Joint Problem Space

The participants were 4th-year medical students designing a clinical trial to test a new hypothetical anticancer drug. They worked with the computer simulation the Oncology Thinking Cap in facilitated groups that differed in terms of their prior knowledge. Both groups engaged in constructive activity and reached similar endpoints. The groups differed qualitatively in how they went about constructing and navigating the joint problem space. The high-prior-knowledge group used their knowledge to help them construct plans, evaluate their actions, and stay focused on the goals of the experimental design task. The low-prior-knowledge group searched through the data exhaustively and used them to generate their plans. They were unsystematic in their planning and interpretation. They used the computer representations in their reasoning and worked at mapping the connections between the representations. The computer scaffolding played an important role for both groups, but the facilitator played a greater role in the low-prior-knowledge group.     

SENIOR CISE : A PRINT EXERCISE INTERVENTION FOR OLDER ADULTS

This study was conducted to examine the efficacy of an inexpensive educational print exercise intervention based on the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) for older adults. Secondary objectives of this study were to examine the quality of the print intervention and possible ways to improve it through survey techniques. This was a posttest survey design. Information about the Senior cise booklet was distributed to senior housing communities and recreation centers throughout Rhode Island. One hundred thirty-three posters and 5,280 pamphlets with return postcards for ordering the Senior cise booklet were delivered over a period of nine months. Individuals who requested the booklet were contacted via telephone two weeks following mailing to assess the efficacy and quality of the booklet. Ninety-eight individuals requested the booklet and 61 participants completed the evaluation (mean age = 73 - 5.3 years; 77.1% female). The majority of participants found the booklet of good quality, stated that it created an interest, and said it inspired them to actually engage in physical activity. Survey participants cited only a few main good points and negative points about the booklet in general. The use of an inexpensive educational print intervention (Senior cise ) based on the TTM was well received and successful in engaging older adults to consider and participate in physical activity. The positive and negative points cited about the booklet will allow other researchers a better insight into what can make educational print interventions successful. Experimental research designs are recommended to evaluate more fully the efficacy of future exercise based print interventions.     

The Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS2): An exploration of primary grade teachers’ sensitivity to text structure in young children's informational texts

There has been no research reported about if or how well primary grade teachers can identify information text structures in children's authentic informational texts. The ability to do so accurately and reliably is a prerequisite for teachers to be able to teach students how to recognize and use text structures to assist them in comprehending informational texts. The authors report the development of the Informational Text Structure Survey (ITS²). Prior to training, primary grade teachers demonstrated low accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional expository text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts. Results after training with the ITS² instrument showed significant improvements in the teachers’ accuracy and reliability in identifying traditional informational text structures in well-structured children's grade level–appropriate informational texts after training with the ITS² instrument.     

The Relationship Between Students’ Perceptions of “Good Practices for Undergraduate Education” and the Paradigmatic Development of Disciplines in Course-Taking Behavior

Our study uses data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education to interrogate the affinity disciplines hypothesis through students’ perceptions of faculty use of six of Chickering and Gamson’s (AAHE Bull 39(7):3–7, 1987) principles of good practice for undergraduate education. We created a proportional scale based on Biglan’s (J Appl Psychol 57(3):195–203, 1973) classification of paradigmatic development (with higher scores on the scale corresponding to students taking a higher proportion of courses in ‘hard’ fields compared to ‘soft’ fields), our study tests differences by the paradigmatic development of the disciplines or fields in which students take their courses within the first year of college. Our findings suggest that as paradigmatic development increases (toward a higher proportion of courses taken in hard disciplines), student perceptions of both faculty use of prompt feedback and faculty use of high expectations/academic challenge decrease, while student perceptions of cooperative learning increase. Further, no statistically significant differences were found between the paradigmatic development of fields in which students’ take their courses and students’ perceptions of faculty use of student-faculty contact, active and collaborative learning, or teaching clarity and organization. This study replicates the findings from Braxton et al. (Res High Educ 39(3):299–318, 1998) using student-level rather than faculty-level reports of faculty use of good teaching practices.     

Using the Text Structures of Information Books to Teach Writing in the Primary Grades

Teaching children in the primary grades the text structures and features used by authors of information text has been shown to improve comprehension of information texts and provide the scaffolding and support these children need in order to write their own information texts. As teachers implement the English Language Arts Common Core State Standards (CCSS), they will need support and training on how to meet these increased curricular demands. In this article, we describe how children’s information books can be used as exemplars of well-structured text models to teach young students how to write selected discourse patterns required in the CCSS. As children in the primary grades learn to recognize and use well-structured example information texts as models for their own writing, they will be better prepared to deal with less well-structured, more complex text examples in their reading and writing in the years to come.     

Nameability supports rule-based category learning in children and adults

The present study tested the hypothesis that verbal labels support category induction by providing compact hypotheses. Ninety-seven 4- to 6-year-old children (M = 63.2 months; 46 female, 51 male; 77% White, 8% more than one race, 4% Asian, and 3% Black; tested 2018) and 90 adults (M = 20.1 years; 70 female, 20 male) in the Midwestern United States learned novel categories with features that were easy (e.g., “red”) or difficult (e.g., “mauve”) to name. Adults (d = 1.06) and—to a lesser extent—children (d = 0.57; final training block) learned categories composed of more nameable features better. Children's knowledge of difficult-to-name color words predicted their learning for categories with difficult-to-name features. Rule-based category learning may be supported by the emerging ability to form verbal hypotheses.     

Talking to children about science is harder than we think: characteristics and metacognitive judgments of explanations provided to children and adults

Adults modify the way they speak to children to support children’s learning across several domains. However, no previous research has studied whether adults change their language when explaining science to children. The current study examined if and how adults change the manner in which they talk about science when providing explanations to children vs. providing explanations to other adults. Participants (N = 81) were video recorded while explaining basic science concepts to children and adults. Recordings were later analyzed to determine if and how participants changed the quality and content of their explanations. The results confirmed that adults did change their explanations when talking to children about science by providing more potentially beneficial, but also disadvantageous, information. Participants perceived that they provided more accurate explanations to children, but appeared to be making metacognitive judgments largely based upon the changes made that could be beneficial to learning. Taken together, this work suggests that science may be a domain in which adults are not well equipped to modify and monitor their language to children.     

Fostering Authentic Problem Seeking: A Step Toward Social Justice Engagement

Because of these learners’ potential as future leaders, it is imperative that educators develop gifted students’ ability to identify and solve complex social justice problems. Nourishing students’ affective traits, including empathy for others, understanding of themselves, and the ability to connect to others in local and global society, will help students to recognize and seek out authentic problems. This article examines the nuances around the creative problem-solving process and how educators can infuse the curriculum with opportunities to develop and strengthen the skills students need to become engaged, real-world problem seekers, as we call it, and problem solvers. Through the combination of social justice issues and creative problem seeking, students can be motivated to engage with the community and promote positive change in the world.