The Constructivist Roots of Moral Education

The success of doctoral student mentoring is largely dependent upon faculty members, but structural and institutional obstacles compound deficiencies in the performance of all participants. University leaders must emphasize the value of mentorship in stimulating positive learning conditions and stress the importance of recognizing faculty members engaged in teaching beyond the classroom. Without organizational attention to a quality mentoring program and rewards for mentoring efforts, some faculty members perform as trainers, illusionists, tricksters, and escapists, potentially turning academia into a doctoral circus. If the quality of doctoral mentoring in today's academia is to improve, systemic change is crucial.     

2009国际天文年主题歌:站在巨人之肩

It was a calm and doudless night but itwas all still a blur 那是一个无风晴朗的夜晚     

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.     

A tool instead of a chore: Measuring student learning gains in order to improve instruction

Assessment is often treated as an unwelcome and time-consuming university or departmental requirement. This project proposes that assessment is actually an opportunity that communication faculty should embrace. Beginning with the end in mind, this study used stated course learning outcomes to construct a pre-/posttest instrument, administering those assessments in order to find out whether students were really learning what they were supposed to be learning. This article explains how the assessment instruments were constructed and administered, demonstrates clear and significant learning gains across three semesters, and identifies learning outcomes in need of instructional improvement. It also finds that by separating assessment from grading, pretests can identify concepts that need not be retaught, and posttests can reveal that an instructor’s perception of a successful instructional day does not necessarily match the reality of student learning for that day.     

Flying in a V formation: themes of (in)equity,reality, and togetherness in adult siblings’ narrative explanations of shared parental caregiving

Guided by communicated narrative sense-making, the present study explored the themes that characterize adult siblings’ stories about their experiences with sharing care of aging parents. Interviews with 20 adult siblings revealed the varied and emotional nature of their shared parental caregiving stories. Adult siblings primarily constructed meaning of their caregiving experiences by drawing upon three overarching narratives: (1) the narrative of (in)equity, (2) the narrative of ideal versus real, and (3) the narrative of interconnectedness. These findings highlight the need for adult siblings providing care for their parents to work together as a team, exercise empathy in their interactions, and express gratitude for one another’s contributions. Several practical applications are discussed that can help siblings manage and overcome the relational challenges associated with caring for a parent.     

Putting the U in carbon capture and storage: rhetorical boundary negotiation within the CCS/CCUS scientific community

This paper examines responses to a framing shift from carbon capture and storage (CCS) to carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) within science and engineering professionals’ communication. We argue that the framing shift is a breach in the rhetorical boundaries of the CCS professional community that calls forth negotiation through responses that proactively support, resist, or acquiesce. This study offers a heuristic for examining scientific framing in expert-to-expert internal scientific rhetoric. It also contributes to contemporary research on the intersection of rhetoric of science and science, technology, and society; the social dimensions of CCS; energy communication; and applied communicative practices in scientific communities.     

Kinematic and kinetic analyses of the toes in dance movements

Due to the significant amount of time dancers spend on the forefoot, loads on the metatarsophalangeal joints are likely high, yet vary between dance movements. The purpose of this study was to compare joint motion and net joint moments at the metatarsophalangeal joints during three different dance movements ranging in demands at the foot and ankle joints. Ten healthy, female dancers (27.6 ± 3.2 years; 56.3 ± 6.9 kg; 1.6 ± 0.1 m) with an average 21.7 ± 4.9 years of dance training performed relevés (rising up onto the toes), sautés (vertical bipedal jumps), and saut de chat leaps (split jumps involving both vertical and horizontal components). Metatarsophalangeal joint kinematics and kinetics in the sagittal plane were calculated. Total excursion and peak net joint moments during rising or push-off were compared between the three dance movements. Greater extension of the metatarsophalangeal joints was seen during relevés compared to sautés or saut de chat leaps, and the largest metatarsophalangeal net joint moments were seen during saut de chat leaps. The metatarsophalangeal joints frequently and repetitively manage external loads and substantial metatarsophalangeal extension during these three dance movements, which may contribute to the high rate of foot and ankle injuries in dancers.     

An ecological analysis of a preschool mastery climate physical education programme

Background: Previous studies of mastery motivational climates within physical education have reported that providing students with opportunities to become self-directed leads to a number of positive outcomes, including skill attainment and increased perceptions of ability. Nonetheless, within all of these studies, there has been no account of the teaching/learning process or the behaviour of the students and teachers within the various interventions.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to provide a micro-analysis of life in a mastery climate which was grounded in the classroom ecology paradigm.

Participants and setting: The participants in this study were 13 children (11 boys and 2 girls) all aged 4 years at the commencement of the programme. The children were attendees at a day-care centre that serves mostly African-American children from the local community who are environmentally at risk for developmental delay and poor health. The teacher in this study was a faculty member at the university where the programme took place. For 30 minutes each Tuesday and Thursday, the children participated in a programme of motor skill instruction that was based upon the key principles of a mastery-motivational climate. Selected station activities were designed to promote the acquisition of locomotor and object control skills.

Methods: A mixed-methods approach was taken, with data sources including interviews with the teacher, and an analysis of the ecology of the gymnasium using a modified version of the task structure system. Focus was placed upon the task goals, the teacher's accountability strategies, as well as task accomplishment in both the managerial and instructional task systems.

Findings: The key finding from this study was an appreciation of how time is a significant factor in the ways in which children initially responded to and eventually embraced the freedoms afforded to them in a mastery climate. Of particular note, the results show substantial differences in the children's lesson engagement not only across time, but also within lessons themselves. It is hypothesized that as they progressed through the programme, the children not only were more able to identify the demands of the task but were also able to filter out extraneous signals that might promote off-task or inappropriate behaviour.

Conclusions: The design of this study reinforced the value of adopting an ecological analysis of life in a mastery climate. Further, the results of the study showed the value of examining young children's engagement over a lengthy intervention. While such climates are expected to have lower levels of engagement and higher levels of off-task behaviour than more teacher-directed formats, by the end of the study the children were able to achieve levels of appropriate task engagement above 80% of lesson time.