Establishing a Center to Support Faculty Research

This article describes the establishment in fall 2002 of a School of Education Research Center designed to support faculty in increasing productivity and quality in research. Details are provided about center goals, services, staffing, space, resources, and logistics during the first year of operation. In addition, data are shared about faculty usage of the Center, the level of faculty satisfaction with center services in the first year, and initial increases in faculty productivity. The article concludes with plans for continued data collection to monitor the impact of the Center, a discussion of lessons learned at this point in the Center's development, and possibilities for the evolution of the Center. All authors are at the University of Colorado, Denver. Laura Goodwin, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, is Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and continues to serve as a Faculty Research Associate. Elizabeth Kozleski, Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado, is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education. Lynn Rhodes, Ed.D., Indiana University, is the Dean of the School of Education. Rodney Muth, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School, is a professor of Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies in the school and chaired the Research Center Advisory Board. Kim Kennedy White, M.A., University of Oregon, was the original School of Education Research Center Coordinator and was responsible for collecting most of the data included in this study.     

Modular programming of curricula

A large scale modularisation of curricula in higher education based on relatively large modules is discussed. These modules are flexible courses and not the well known small instructional modules within a course. The idea of these so-called programme modules, together with some applications and implications are discussed in the context of the Dutch higher educational system which is quite similar to that in other Western European countries. One implication is a less static concept of what a curriculum is. This may affect students, teachers, curriculum planners and legislators in their thinking about what kind of education a university can offer (in the near future) to its potential clients.     

Electronic Databases for Technical and Professional Communication Research

Electronic databases provide access to resources in business, communication, education, applied science and technology, and the social sciences. This article identifies the databases that monitor the journals most frequently cited by technical and professional communication researchers.     

ADAPT<Superscript>IT</Superscript>: Tools for training design and evaluation

This article describes a set of computerized tools that support the design and evaluation of competency-based training programs. The training of complex skills such as air traffic control and process control requires a competency-based approach that focuses on the integration and coordination of constituent skills and transfer of learning. At the heart of the training are authentic whole-task practice situations. The instructional design tools are based on van Merriënboer's 4C/ID^* methodology (1997). The article describes a training design tool (Core) that supports the analysis and design for competency-based training programs and an evaluation tool (Eval) that supports the subsequent revision of this training design.     

The rewarding effects of number and surface area of food in rats

Visual cues have an important role in food preference for both rats and humans. Here, we aim to isolate the effects of numerosity, density, and surface area on food preference and running speed in rats, by using a forced-choice maze paradigm. In Experiment 1, rats preferred and ran faster for a group of multiple smaller pellets rather than a single large pellet, corroborating previous research (Capaldi, Miller, & Alptekin Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 15(1), 75–80, 1989). Further experiments tested the prevailing hypothesis that multiple food pieces are more reinforcing because they occupy a larger surface area. Experiment 2 controlled for numerosity by utilizing a continuous food: mashed potatoes flattened to cover a larger surface area or rounded into a ball. The rats preferred and ran faster for the flattened potatoes, suggesting surface area plays a role in quantity estimations. Finally, in Experiment 3, rats displayed no preference or difference in running speed between a group of scattered and clustered pellets when number of pellets were kept constant. Taken together, these results suggest that density has an important role in food perception—that is, the rewarding effect of higher numerosity or larger surface area is removed when the food does not fill out the entire space. Alternative explanations and implications for human diet are discussed.     

Sensory integrative therapy as an intervention procedure with Grade One “at risk” readers ‐‐ a three year study

The study was concerned with assessing the effectiveness of sensory integrative therapy as an intervention method on a group of grade one children ‐‐ predicted to be “at risk” for later reading failure. Following two half‐hour therapy sessions per week over twenty‐four weeks, the experimental group performed significantly higher than the control group on measures of reading ability. These gains were maintained over a two‐year non‐intervention period.     

Cheating or cheated? Surviving secondary exit exams in a neoliberal era

Cheating on exams is a rampant and highly developed practice among youth in the Arab world, often involving elaborate networks, advanced technology and adult authorities. Rather than viewing cheating as mere laziness or immorality, this article interrogates the social meanings of cheating by comparing the practices and discourses of cheating on high-stakes high school exit exams – the tawjihi in Jordan and the Baccalauréat in Morocco. Using informal networks to obtain higher grades, and thereby better futures, cheating is one way youth contest the putative meritocracy of the state to reclaim a sense of control over their lives. Ironically, cheaters develop twenty-first century skills of collaboration, networking and creativity outside the school in order to evade the nation’s formal system of educational sorting. We argue that cheating illuminates the declining effectiveness of the public school in the nation-building project and the simultaneous emergence of the outcomes-oriented ‘neoliberal student’.