Retracted Article: Management and academic practices to prevent higher education corruption — a case review of an international branch campus in Uzbekistan

Tertiary Education and Management - This paper discusses some of the academic integrity violation and education corruption issues that transnational faculty members and administrators may face in...     

Diversity Competencies within Early Childhood Teacher Preparation: Innovative Practices and Future Directions

With classrooms becoming increasingly diverse due to children’s various cultural backgrounds and varying abilities, early childhood teacher education programs face the challenge of how best to prepare the workforce. Various initiatives have been implemented in teacher preparation programs to prepare early childhood educators to become competent in relating to all children and families. Infusing components of diversity into all courses and field experiences and engaging in community–university partnerships, as well as unifying early childhood education (ECE) and early childhood special education (ECSE) program components, are promising practices for the field. An examination and evaluation of these initiatives are discussed in this article, as well as future directions for research and practice.     

Accurate Information and Reliable Statistics: Utilizing Microsoft SharePoint to Resolve Data Collection in an Academic Library

ABSTRACT

The Borough of Manhattan Community College Library is using Microsoft SharePoint as an all-encompassing intranet to streamline library operations, maintain quality, and enhance decision-making by organizing, sharing, and managing information. Digitization of collection data was deemed necessary to increase data speed and accuracy, and improve harmony between library departments. The new collection management plan is a good fit because it uses SharePoint's workflow capacity to insure an easy transition from paper-based methods and prevents fear of disruption and non-compliance.     

“与君话冷炎州月”——古典诗文中的新加坡

新华古典诗文中所隐藏的史料,很少为学者重视.以古典诗文作为切入点,通过古典诗文,考察与了解19世纪新加坡的历史、人文社会风貌及其与中国近代史的关系,这为学者们研究新华历史、研究华人社会文献,提供了一个新的尝试.     

College students’ credibility judgments and heuristics concerning Wikipedia

This study examined: (1) whether a peripheral cue and subject knowledge influenced the credibility judgments in the context of Wikipedia; and (2) whether certain factors affected heuristic processing in the context of Wikipedia. The theory of bounded rationality and the heuristic-systematic model serve as the basis of this study. Data were collected employing a quasi-experiment and a web survey at a large public university in the Midwestern United States in the fall of 2011. The study participants consisted of undergraduate students from nine courses whose instructors agreed to their participation. A total of 142 students participated in the study, of which a total of 138 surveys were useable. The major findings of this study include the following: a peripheral cue and knowledge influenced the credibility judgments of college students concerning Wikipedia. The effect of a peripheral cue on credibility judgments was not different between those with high versus low knowledge. Finally, perceived credibility was positively related to heuristic processing, but knowledge, cognitive workload or involvement in a topic was not. This study suggests that educators and librarians need to integrate heuristic approaches into their literacy programs, guiding students to effectively use and not blindly accept cues. Wikipedia needs to offer noticeable cues that can help Wikipedia readers assess the credibility of information. The role of perceptions in heuristic processing needs further investigation. Further, this study demonstrates the strength of a peripheral cue on credibility judgments, suggesting that further research is needed when cues lead to effective credibility judgments and when cues lead to biased credibility judgments. Finally, this study provides the suggestion of an integrated model of the theory of bounded rationality and the heuristic-systematic model that can enhance our understanding of heuristics in relation to credibility judgments.     

Understanding Preservice Teacher Skills to Construct Lesson Plans

This study examined preservice teachers’ (PSTs) capacity for lesson planning in a university-based teacher preparation program in the USA Participants (n?=?126) wrote lesson plans in three approaches: synthesis, creation, and modification. Findings indicate that PSTs who modified preexisting lesson plans produced better lesson plans than their peers and reported higher efficacy in their use of the lesson plan in their field experiences. This study supports the notion that the efficacy of first-year teaching lies more appropriately in the area of enacting curriculum than in the area of designing curriculum. With respect to career-long learning, PSTs’ abilities to do curriculum work are likely to improve, as they grow more familiar with students and existing excellent curricula over years. Although the study presents a snapshot of U.S. preservice teachers’ capacity for curriculum design, the findings may serve to inform the literature on the developmental aspect of curriculum design for teacher education systems across the world.     

A qualitative inquiry on sources of teacher efficacy in teaching low-achieving students

Developing a high level of efficacy can be challenging to teachers who work with low-achieving students. The authors adopted a pragmatic qualitative research design to investigate the sources of efficacy information reported by five high-efficacy teachers and four low-efficacy teachers of secondary low-achieving students in Singapore. The results show that the psychological sources of information postulated by Albert Bandura (i.e., mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experience, and physiological and emotional arousal), are valid but insufficient to explain high teacher efficacy. Three additional nonpsychological sources of information, including teachers' knowledge about students, rapport with students, and previous working experiences, also played significant roles in the creation of high teacher efficacy.     

Evaluating a bedside tool for neuroanatomical localization with extended‐matching questions

Neuroanatomical localization (NL) is a key skill in neurology, but learners often have difficulty with it. This study aims to evaluate a concise NL tool (NLT) developed to help teach and learn NL. To evaluate the NLT, an extended‐matching questions (EMQ) test to assess NL was designed and validated. The EMQ was validated with fourth‐year medical students and internal medicine and neurology residents. The NLT's usability was evaluated with third‐ and fourth‐year students, and the effectiveness was evaluated with an experimental study of second‐year students, using the EMQ as the outcome measure. Students were taught how to use both the NLT and textbook algorithms (control) to perform NL, then randomized into either group, and only allowed to use their assigned tool to complete the EMQ. Primary outcome was the difference in mean EMQ scores expressed as a percentage of total score. For EMQ validation, students (n = 56) scored lower than residents (n = 50) (76.7% ± 1.7 vs. 83.0% ± 1.6; mean ± standard error of mean, P < 0.009). The EMQ demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach's α 0.85) and generalizability (G‐coefficient 0.85). Third‐ (n = 77) and fourth‐year (n = 42) students found the NLT user‐friendly and helpful in their learning of NL. In the experimental study, scores were significantly higher for NLT group (n = 94) than for controls (n = 101) (42.5 vs. 37.0%, P = 0.014); the effect size (Cohen's d) was 0.36. The EMQ is validated to reliably assess NL and is generalizable, feasible, practical, and of low cost. The concise and user‐friendly NLT for NL was effective in aiding medical student performance of NL. Anat Sci Educ 11: 262–269. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.