Who Places into Developmental Education and Why

Having garnered national attention, high failure rates in developmental education present a significant barrier to state and national policymakers’ goals of increasing the percentage of adults who earn a college credential. However, a majority of the research fails to consider why students place into developmental education. This piece examines a sample of recent high school graduates in Texas who placed into developmental education with the goal of gaining a more nuanced understanding of why these students required remediation. We find that rather than simply blaming the students for their failure to learn basic skills, there are concrete and actionable steps that policymakers and practitioners can take to help students avoid remediation, important actions that would increase students’ chances of earning a postsecondary credential.     

Consultation With Professional Peers: A National Survey of the Practices of School Psychologists

There is an increasing need for education professionals to keep abreast of new research and developments in their fields. The peer support group, which is characterized by the sharing of expertise and knowledge, the provision of mutual support, and joint problem solving among professional colleagues, has been advanced as promising means of promoting professional growth and development. This article reports the results of an exploratory national survey of school psychologists' involvement in peer support groups (PSGs) that was undertaken to identify the potential contributions of such activities to improving professional practice. Nearly 64% of the respondents indicated involvement in a PSG at some point in their careers, with almost 50% currently participating in one. Several benefits were attributed to group membership, and it was suggested that further research efforts are needed to clarify the essential components that contribute to group effectiveness.     

Campus Book Delivery at the University of Oklahoma

Abstract

At the University of Oklahoma, we began campus or home delivery of items from our library as well as those from other libraries. We have added more services over the years in response to requests from our users. In doing so, we found room for improvements. This paper addresses some of the issues we encountered.     

感召力膜拜和世界一流大学

让我们从目前全世界所关注的话题,也就是所谓的世界一流大学谈起。它被人们如此频繁的提及,已成了陈词滥调。我要谈的是人们究竟期望这些学校取得什么样的成绩,但在此之前,我们需要先搞清楚为什么当今人们的期望会如此高。高度期望答案非常简单:在人类有历史以来,没有什么比教育更重要的了。每一个人都认同这一点,即良好的教育对学生个人的成功是非常重要的。同时良好的教育对一个国家的富强也是非常重要的。虽然这个观点存在很大的争议,但它仍被人们广泛接受。对于个人来说,学校教育是非常重要的。因为生活中机会的多少直接取决于个人的知…     

The formative and summative uses of a Professional Development Portfolio: a Maltese case study

The paper examines the rationale and the uses of portfolios in initial teacher education. This rationale is then applied to explore the development and implementation of the Professional Development Portfolio (PDP) as an integral part of the initial teacher education programme offered by the Faculty of Education, University of Malta. The paper considers the responses of students and lecturers to this mode of assessment; in particular, how the tensions between the formative and summative functions of portfolios were experienced and responded to at institutional level. The paper is the result of the debates and discussions among the three authors. Deborah Chetcuti and Grace Grima were directly involved in the development of the assessment innovation, Patricia Murphy was a visiting academic and external examiner during the period.     

A New Student Learning Focus for the Academic Library: From Geographical Proximity of the Learning Commons to Organizational Proximity within the Library

In 2015, student learning programs at the University of Saskatchewan moved organizationally to the university library. While these services resided physically in the library as part of the Learning Commons partnership, this recent change presents the library with a new focus and responsibility for broader student learning support and academic skill development. Highlighting examples of organizational integration of student learning support, this article uses a proximity perspective, suggesting that geographical proximity of services in the learning commons does not go far enough to achieve the deeper collaboration and integration necessary for holistic and integrated learning, and that organizational proximity is needed.