Technology’s role in learning at a commuter campus: The student perspective

Patterns of technology ownership and usage, as well as skills with and preferences for various technologies, affect the college experience (Educause 2012). Students at a commuter campus of a large Midwestern public university were surveyed about technology and the learning process: 94% of the respondents believed that technology had the potential to benefit learning and 85% thought it was central to their academic success. Students credited technology-enhanced courses with increased and more effective communication with instructors, the ability to better manage course activities and expanded opportunities for practice and reinforcement. Students’ prior experiences with a course management system affected their perceptions of the role of technology and their subsequent beliefs about the benefits of its use in their university courses. Implications for administrators who make decisions about faculty development, student retention and funding for technology-enhanced course offerings are discussed.     

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.     

Relationships of attitude toward classroom environment with attitude toward and achievement in science among tenth grade biology students

The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship of classroom environment to attitudes toward science and achievement in science among tenth grade biology students. An attitude instrument was administered at three times during the school year to measure student attitudes toward science and the classroom environment. The classroom environment measures examined six areas: emotional climate of the science classroom, science curriculum, physical environment of the science classroom, science teacher, other students in the science classroom, and friends attitudes toward science. Student achievement in science was measured by teacher reported semester grades. The results of the study indicated: (1) student attitudes toward the classroom environment predicted between 56 to 61% of the variance in attitudes toward science, (2) student attitudes toward the classroom environment predicted between 5 to 14% of the variance in achievement in science, (3) student attitudes toward science and attitudes toward the classroom environment predicted between 8 and 18% of the variance in achievement in science.     

The Roles of Parental Support and Family Stress in Adolescent Sleep

The current study examines the association between parental support and adolescent sleep under varying levels of family stress. Participants included 316 adolescents (M_age = 16.40 years, 43% male) and their parents (M_age = 45.67 years, 91% mothers) from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Both adolescents and parents completed questionnaires and adolescents wore wrist actigraphs and completed self‐reports on their sleep for 7 consecutive days. Results indicated that under contexts of family stress, more parental support was linked to longer sleep duration, less sleep variability, and less time spent awake during the night. Findings suggest that under contexts of family stress, cohesive family relationships may provide a sense of stability and security that is necessary for healthful sleep.     

Record Values and Surviving Glacial Moraines

Estimating the number of glacial advances from surviving glacial debris can, amazingly enough, be cast as a records problem for which there is a substantial statistical literature. As a result, instructors may illustrate method of moments and maximum‐likelihood estimation techniques with an interesting problem in the physical sciences.     

Enhancing nursing home care for seniors: impact of a living classroom on nursing assistant’s education

ABSTRACT

Nursing Assistants (NAs) are the largest workforce in nursing homes, but often lack adequate preparation for their role. The Living Classroom (LC) is an integrated learning approach, whereby a NA program is delivered in a nursing home (NH) in collaboration with a community college. This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the LC. Mixed methods were used to gather data from 48 NA students, 5 faculty, and 42 NH staff over 30 weeks. Students, faculty, and nursing home staff described the LC as a positive learning experience. Students’ gerontological knowledge increased over time (p = .0012). Students reported very positive relationships with program mentors and NH residents. The LC provides a unique approach to prepare NAs to work in nursing homes. This model could expand to other educational programs with a gerontology focus.     

Opening classroom interaction: the importance of feedback

Efforts to encourage ‘interactive practice’ in the National Literacy (NLS) and Numeracy (NNS) Strategies in the UK, have led to an emphasis on teacher questions. Recent research into classroom interactions, however, indicate that the pattern of interaction remains largely unchanged since the introduction of these strategies in terms of the type and amount of questions teachers are asking, and the opportunities for extended pupil participation. This article uses evidence gathered from a large‐scale research project examining classroom interactions during literacy and numeracy lessons, and the researchers' critical reflections upon this process, to examine conceptions of interactive pedagogy. It is argued that in order to ‘open’ classroom interaction, emphasis should be less on the questions teachers ask, and more on the manner with which teachers react to pupils' responses to questions. Episodes of classroom interaction from video recorded literacy and numeracy lessons taken as part of the study are used to support this argument. They present evidence of teacher behaviours in reaction to pupils' responses which succeed in facilitating a more interactive learning environment. The implication that such behaviour will contribute towards a model of effective interactive practice is also discussed.     

Testing Accommodations and the Measurement of Student Academic Growth

Using two states’ grades 3 through 8 state assessment databases, this study documents the extent to which students were assigned testing accommodations for ELA or mathematics in only one of two consecutive years. The percentage of students with disabilities who were assigned accommodations in the current year only or in the prior year only in a given grade statewide was not trivial, sometimes exceeding 25%. The relationship between inconsistent assignment to any accommodations and both students’ prior proficiency level and aggregate growth is also documented. Group differences were observed at the state level. No practical differences were observed when covariates for inconsistent assignment were included in school value-added models, but very few schools had a substantial proportion of students with disabilities assigned accommodations inconsistently in a given grade. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

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.