Factors Influencing Completion and Noncompletion of Community College Online Courses

Abstract

This study investigated the differences between demographic, enrollment, academic, and self-directed learning characteristics of completers and noncompleters in online courses at one community college. The study also obtained students' self-reported reasons for not completing their coursework. No significant differences were found in the characteristics of age, gender, ethnicity, financial aid eligibility, grade point average, and total hours enrolled; significant differences were found in gender, academic readiness, and completers enrolled in more online courses than noncompleters.     

Teachers’ Understanding and Operationalisation of ‘Science Capital’

Across the globe, governments, industry and educationalists are in agreement that more needs to be done to increase and broaden participation in post-16 science. Schools, as well as teachers, are seen as key in this effort. Previous research has found that engagement with science, inclination to study science and understanding of the value of science strongly relates to a student's science capital. This paper reports on findings from the pilot year of a one-year professional development (PD) programme designed to work with secondary-school teachers to build students’ science capital. The PD programme introduced teachers to the nature and importance of science capital and thereafter supported them to develop ways of implementing science capital-building pedagogy in their practice. The data comprise interviews with the participating teachers (n?=?10), observations of classroom practices and analyses of the teachers’ accounts of their practice. Our findings suggest that teachers found the concept of science capital to be compelling and to resonate with their own intuitive understandings and experiences. However, the ways in which the concept was operationalised in terms of the implementation of pedagogical practices varied. The difficulties inherent in the operationalisation are examined and recommendations for future work with teachers around the concept of science capital are developed.     

Narrative understandings of a school policy: intersecting student,teacher, parent and administrator perspectives

In this article, we examine one school’s experience with policy, as a means of shedding light on the intersection of factors contributing to challenges of implementing policies to support the academic achievement and social adaptation of immigrant and minority students in their school context. We begin with the presentation of a ‘big fight’ between two students of different ethnic and racial backgrounds, and consider multiple perspectives of how the disagreement was addressed by teachers and administrators, to offer insight into how issues of race and policy might have been understood by members of the school community. We use a narrative inquiry approach to examine ways in which a policy designed to enhance student participation was interpreted by various members of this school community. This study reveals nuances of the intersection between culture and (hidden) curriculum as it relates to the implementation of policies aimed at creating and maintaining safe school communities.     

Perceived Social Support at School and Emotional and Musculoskeletal Complaints among Norwegian 8th Grade Students

Results from the present study indicate that a majority of Norwegian 8th grade students experience satisfactory support from teachers and relations with peers. However, about 6% of the sample reported being harassed on a weekly basis. Moreover, results indicate that there is room for improvement, especially regarding the teachers’ emotional support of students, as well as their ability to prevent students from being harassed. Twelve per cent of the sample reported more severe emotional complaints, whereas 10% of 8th grade students reported more severe musculoskeletal complaints. Results showed significant associations of teacher support and peer relations with emotional as well as musculoskeletal complaints (EM complaints). Exposure to harassment at school and a perceived lack of academic support from teachers showed the strongest associations with EM complaints. Associations were stronger for students reporting learning difficulties than for students not reporting learning difficulties. This was mainly due to stronger associations between exposure to harassment and EM complaints among students reporting learning difficulties.     

Athlete burnout in elite sport: A self-determination perspective

Abstract

The practice of exercise has shown to be beneficial to quality of life of individuals with HIV/AIDS. Thus, the present study analysed the effects of a combined exercise training in persons living with HIV/AIDS. Ten participants participated in the present study. The following variables were analysed: viral load and cell counts for TCD4+/TCD8; maximal oxygen consumption (VO_2max); total mass, absolute fat mass, relative fat mass, absolute lean mass, relative lean mass and body mass index; fasting glycaemia, fasting insulinaemia, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) index (insulin resistance – homeostatic model assessment (IR-HOMA)); total cholesterol, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL); superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase activities; thiobarbituric acid reactive substances. The combined exercise training consisted of resistance exercises plus aerobic training (60 min · session^?1, three times per week, during 20 weeks). The number of TCD4+ cells, absolute lean mass and relative lean mass, muscle strength for the 45° leg press, seated row and triceps extension, HDL-c levels as well as VO_2max increased post-training. The activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase enzymes and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances levels were diminished post-training. Finally, it can be concluded that combined exercise training is able to change positively several variables related to health of individuals with HIV/AIDS, mainly the immune system as well as antioxidant mechanisms re-establishment.     

Scapulohumeral kinematic assessment of the forward kayak stroke in experienced whitewater kayakers

By understanding the normal humeral and scapular kinematics during the kayak stroke, inferences about the relationship of kayaking technique and shoulder injury may be established. The purpose of this study was to describe scapular and humeral kinematics and to compare dominant versus non-dominant symmetry in healthy whitewater kayakers performing the forward stroke. Twenty-five competent whitewater kayakers (mean age: 34.1 ± 9.4 years, mean height: 1.768 ± 0.093 m, mean mass: 78.2 ± 13.0 kg) underwent humeral and scapular kinematic assessment, using an electromagnetic tracking device, while kayaking on a kayak ergometer. Paired t-tests were used to determine symmetry. Scapular and humeral kinematic means and standard deviations at six time points during the kayak stroke were described. Scapular and humeral kinematics were shown to be similar upon bilateral comparison. The greatest potential for injury during the forward stroke may be at thrust paddle shaft vertical when the humerus is maximally elevated in internal rotation and adduction as subacromial structures may be mechanically impinged. The relationship between scapulohumeral kinematics related to injury at other time points are also described.     

Power,pedagogies and lifelong learning: reading between the lines

The UK English subject benchmark statements express the discipline’s commitment to contribute to an ‘ideal of lifelong learning’. In this article, I consider what this commitment may mean for practice and explore why its attainment is complex and contentious. In doing so, I examine some of the ways in which lecturers’ professional identities are experienced and enacted in educational settings where students have their first introduction to higher education English Studies. I suggest that the pedagogic principles and practices which lecturers describe need to be seen as deeply embedded within networks of social and discipline-based discourses and social and institutional relations.     

My ill literacy narrative: growing up Black,po and a girl,in the hood

Hegemonic discourses authorise certain ways of being, knowing, and doing. We internalise or appropriate images, patterns, and words from the social activities in which we have participated. Race, gender, sexuality, age, education, class are among aspects of identity (social constructions) that affect our language and literacy acquisition, the way we make sense. Grounded in the field of New Literacy Studies and drawing on the tools of critical discourse studies, I analyse verbal and non‐verbal excerpts from a street literature memoir, tentatively titled ‘PHD 2 Ph.D.: Po Ho on Dope 2 Ph.D, The Ill Narrative of Dr. E’, to examine young Black women’s negotiation of raced, classed, gendered and sexual ideologies. My aim is to show that these ideologies work to constrain the possibilities for Black womanhood by ascribing negative meanings and identities to Black women, which render them ‘at‐risk’ for various sorts of disadvantage, that ‘at‐risk’ youth are not inherently so, and that educators and other youth workers should be aware of the ways that social literacies frame youth identity and sense making.