The development, validation, and application of the Doctoral Student Connectedness Scale

Student attrition from distance and limited-residency doctoral programs is significantly higher than that from traditional programs. The focus of this paper is the development and application of a survey instrument, the Doctoral Student Connectedness Scale, designed to identify students at risk of dropout. The study focused exclusively on students currently working on their dissertations with results indicating that low feelings of student-to-student and student-to-faculty connectedness in the learning environment may be predictive of departure from the program. This study supports the work of Lovitts (2001) and others who have also recognized connectedness as an integral part of the dissertation experience. Recommendations are made for addressing these issues through various initiatives that administrators, faculty, and students can support including the design and development of a doctoral student community of practice (CoP).     

Im perfect tools for a difficult job: colposcopy, 'colpocytology' and screening for cervical cancer in Brazil

The quasi-totality of social scientists who studied screening for cervical tumours identified such screening with a single method: the Pap smear (exfoliative cytology). This article explains that this method was not valid everywhere. The history of screening for cervical cancer in Brazil displays an alternative method for detecting cervical malignancies: a direct observation of the cervix with a specific instrument--the colposcope. The development of this method in Brazil in the 1940s and 1950s reflected a complex mixture of professional interests, government policies, and regional, local and charitable initiatives. While the use of colposcopy for cervical tumour screening was phased out in the 1970s and 1980s, the long lifespan and widespread diffusion of this method illuminates the irreducible contingency of specific developments in science, technology and medicine. Seen from the vantage point of Brazil, the Western model for preventing cervical malignancies no longer appears self-evident Alternative choices might have led to the development of different material and visual cultures of medicine, stimulated different patterns of medical specialization and division of medical labour, produced different links between malignancies, women, gynaecologists, epidemiologists and public health experts, and shaped different health policies.     

Evidence-based decision-making: awareness,process and practice in the management classroom

In an increasingly information rich environment, it is important to teach students decision-making alongside information gathering and management methods. This paper examines the implementation of evidence-based decision-making in a first year introduction to management course at a large university in the Midwestern United States. Students learned decision awareness, decision-making process creation and decision practice alongside areas of management and basic business principles. Students perceived increased skill in decision-making, both individually and in groups. This venture has implications for others looking to help students not only learn experientially, but also improve critical thinking in practice.     

THE RELIGIOUS VALUE OF BIBLE STUDY.

Teacher‐training programs for Jewish educators in the United States have de‐emphasized the Hebrew language as an essential element in their curricula. Research in the field of sociolinguistics points to the relationship of language, culture, and identity. It is the purpose of this paper to point out the intimate relationship between Hebrew language and Jewish culture and identity. The de‐emphasis of Hebrew‐language learning leads teachers to present a culture and religion which does not properly reflect the texts, culture, and practice that form the base of Jewish tradition. The need to transmit an authentic tradition effectively requires an awareness and understanding of the centrality of Hebrew in the training of Jewish teachers.     

Extending the Empathic Communication Model of Burnout: Incorporating Individual Differences to Learn More about Workplace Emotion,Communicative Responsiveness,and Burnout

This field study contributes to the literature on emotional communication in the human-services industry. Specifically, this study extends the empathic communication model of burnout by incorporating individual differences to predict workplace emotion and communicative responsiveness. This extension has important implications for both research and knowledge on responsiveness, burnout, and workplace practices. A questionnaire filled out by 159 caregivers from a moderately sized human-services agency explored the role of self-monitoring and emotional intelligence in enhancing caregiver performance. Results indicate that those caregivers who can control their expressive behavior and manage their moods to maintain a sense of optimism are in a better position to respond emotionally and communicatively to distressed clients and resist job burnout.     

An investigation of the knowledge structures of experts,intermediates and novices in physics

The literature on the role of models and theories in physics suggests that multiple models, abstract or concrete exist for a particular phenomenon. These models could be organized into hierarchies describing the entire physics domain (Giere 1994). Hierarchies of concepts have been used in other domains with success; however, criteria for a hierarchy of models in physics and theory's role are unclear. Therefore, research was conducted to describe the knowledge structures of experts, intermediates, and novices. A reiterative categorization task required subjects to sort and re-sort physics problems. The proportions of theory- and model-based categories created by the subjects were compared. Novices created hierarchies of model-based categories. Both intermediates and experts created theory-based categories at the highest, most abstract, level but combined model- and theory-based categories at middle and lower levels. These results support a representation of physics knowledge in which a hierarchy of models is organized by theory-based categories.     

Teachers’ performances during a practical dynamic open inquiry process

The research goal of this study was to determine whether teachers who participated in an inquiry-based course were able to internalize a dynamic open inquiry process. This study focused on 25 science teachers who participated in an annual inquiry-based academic course. Several teaching tools helped teachers employ an open inquiry process. We concluded that the teaching tools applied by teachers in documenting their inquiry processes enabled them to express dynamic inquiry characteristics. The results indicate consistency between the criteria most frequent in teachers’ inquiries and the criteria running through their reflections. In addition, teachers implemented the dynamic inquiry criteria in their classroom teaching.     

STEM Career Changers’ Transformation into Science Teachers

This study examines the transformation (professional growth) of career-changing women scientists who decided to become teachers. Drawing upon Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory, we tracked their transformation for 3 years. Our findings revealed multiple identities, disorientation, a perceived sense of meaninglessness, loss and eventual regain in confidence, gain in pedagogical knowledge and skill, and changed perceptions of the social roles of science teachers and scientists. Driven by personal choice or need (financial, intellectual), such transformations were achieved through active pursuit of meaning in one’s work, critical assessment of assumptions, planning, and trying on the unfamiliar role of a science teacher. It is argued that such transition entails complex changes in thinking about science teaching and identifying oneself as a science teacher.     

Fast Kids,Slow Kids,Lazy Kids: Framing the Mismatch Problem in Mathematics Teachers' Conversations

Abstract

This article examines the social nature of teachers' conceptions by showing how teachers frame the “mismatch” of students' perceived abilities and the intended school curriculum through conversational category systems. This study compares the conversations of 2 groups of high school mathematics teachers addressing the Mismatch Problem when implementing equity-geared reforms. Although East High teachers challenged conceptions that were not aligned with a reform, South High teachers reworked a reform mandate to align with their existing conceptions. This research found that the teachers' conversational category systems modeled problems of practice; communicated assumptions about students, subject, and teaching; and were ultimately reflected in the curriculum. Because East High teachers supported greater numbers of students' success in advanced mathematics, this study considers the relation between teachers' understandings of student learning and the success of equity-geared math reforms. In addition, this study contributes to the understanding of how teacher conceptions of students are negotiated and reified in context, specifically through interactions with colleagues and experiences with school reform.