Higher education recruitment in the United States: a chronology of significant literature

ABSTRACT

Given the absence of a chronology of the historical philosophies, perspectives, and practices of recruitment within the higher education institutions in the United States, the authors have assembled an overview of the material on recruitment strategies and ideologies of American higher education institutions. Literature from and about the past aids in illuminating the current context while helping to navigate the future of higher education recruitment. The authors have identified five general periods: prior to 1920, 1921 to the end of the Second World War, the post-War decade, mid-1950s through the 1970s, and 1980s to the present. Documentation for each period varies significantly in quality and amount, with the densest data found for the two later periods. Future researchers may explore how recruitment practices and language encourage or discourage under-represented populations in higher education. Further research in other areas of educational recruitment is also suggested.     

Sex equity in mathematics and science education: Research-policy links

Despite the accumulation of a large body of research concerning effective sex equity practices in math and science, the lack of change in educational procedures suggests the need to reexamine the role of research in policy and program planning. This paper reviews the current research on sex equity in mathematics and science education, focusing on research in the categories of educator-student interaction, instructional context, and macrolevel demographics. Existing applications of current research to mathematics and science education programs are examined at regional, state, district, and individual school levels. Recommendations for future directions in policy and research are made, emphasizing the gaps in knowledge on each side. The paper ends with specific suggestions for strengthening the links between research and policy in the area of sex equity.     

Windows into the mind

As faculty, our goals for students are often tacit, hidden not only from students but from ourselves as well. We present a conceptual framework for considering teaching goals – what we want our students to achieve – that encourages us to think more broadly about what we mean by achieving in our knowledge domains. This framework includes declarative knowledge (“knowing that”), procedural knowledge (“knowing how”), schematic knowledge (“knowing why”) and strategic knowledge (“knowing when, where and how our knowledge applies”). We link the framework to a variety of assessment methods and focus on assessing the structure of declarative knowledge – knowledge structure. From prior research, we know that experts and knowledgeable students have extensive, well-structured, declarative knowledge; not so novices. We then present two different techniques for assessing knowledge structure – cognitive and concept maps, and a combination of the two – and provide evidence on their technical quality. We show that these maps provide a window into the structure of students declarative knowledge not otherwise tapped by typical pencil-and-paper tests. These maps provide us with new teaching goals and new evidence on student learning.Based on an invited address, Facoltá di Ingegneria dell’Universitá degli Studi di Ancona, June 27, 2000. This research was supported, in part, by the Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (Grant R117G10027), and by the National Science Foundation (Nos. ESI 95-96080). The opinions expressed here represent those of the authors and not necessarily those of the funding agency.     

The personal librarian program: an evaluation of a Cushing/Whitney Medical Library outreach initiative

The Cushing/Whitney Medical Library (CWML) at the Yale School of Medicine has offered a "Personal Librarian" (PL) program to medical center students since 1996. This outreach program matches students to a professional librarian as they matriculate, a relationship that is maintained until the student graduates. PLs offer individualized assistance for almost anything-from interpreting library policies and procedures to helping locate materials to assisting with thesis research. The program requires nominal effort on the part of the librarians, making it possible to expand the program to include other student groups. A recent survey revealed that students are extremely satisfied with the program and would generally welcome more contact from their PL.     

Conservatism and the Underidentification of Students with Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Special Education

Underidentification of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD; emotional disturbance or ED in federal language) is a critical issue, perhaps explainable in part by causal attributions of problem behavior associated with conservatism. Conservatism in 58 counties in the state of California was measured by finding the percentage of voters in the county voting in favor or Proposition 8, a state constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, under the assumption that opposition to gay marriage is an indicator of conservatism. We conducted a series of hierarchical regression analyses in which conservatism, ethnicity, free/reduced lunch, and suspension/expulsion were used to explain county rates of ED, intellectual disability, and learning disability identification. The model for county identification of ED accounted for 45% of the variance from county to county, with conservatism being the strongest predictor (β = ?0.78, p < 0.001). More conservative counties had lower rates of ED identification. Other variables may contribute to under-identification, but causal attributions associated with conservatism may play a significant role.     

Collaborative knowledge building: A case study

What learning conditions are necessary to effectively support the knowledge-building enterprise in a learning community? To answer this question, the case-study method was employed to investigate collaborative knowledge building in a graduate level course designed to incorporate specific constructivist learning principles. These principles included (a) having a collective and authentic community goal to facilitate collaboration and engagement in the community, (b) using cooperative groups to provide for social negotiation and to promote multiple perspectives, (c) personally selecting of course readings and group decision-making to encourage ownership in learning, and (d) employing an integrated set of technology tools to archive the work of the community and facilitate communication. Results indicated that the instructional strategies designed into the course promoted collaborative knowledge building and the acquisition of key concepts through self-directed learning strategies. Results also pointed out the types of technological support required to implement an effective community of learners. A proposed set of guidelines is discussed to assist instructional designers in the design and development of collaborative, knowledge-building environments.     

Getting Ready to Learn—And Learning

Research Findings: The study examined children's recognition of emotion from faces and body poses, as well as gender differences in these recognition abilities. Preschool-aged children (N = 55) and their parents and teachers participated in the study. Preschool-aged children completed a web-based measure of emotion recognition skills that included 5 tasks (3 with faces and 2 with bodies). Parents and teachers reported on children's aggressive behaviors and social skills. Children's emotion accuracy on 2 of the 3 facial tasks and 1 of the body tasks was related to teacher reports of social skills. Some of these relations were moderated by child gender. In particular, the relationships between emotion recognition accuracy and reports of children's behavior were stronger for boys than girls. Practice or Policy: Identifying preschool-aged children's strengths and weaknesses in terms of the identification of emotion from faces and body poses may be helpful in guiding interventions with children who have problems with social and behavioral functioning that may be due in part to emotion knowledge deficits. Further developmental implications of these findings are discussed.     

From mountaintop to corporate ladder – what new professionals really really want in a capstone experience!

Capstone subjects are increasingly used in Universities worldwide to complete the undergraduate program experience and to transition graduates into the workplace. As such, capstones fulfil a large role consolidating one experience and traversing the gap to another. Yet, little is known or understood about their design, their implementation or evaluation. In this study we investigate the final-year experience from the student's perspective. We surveyed graduates from five Business Schools in Australia to identify perceptions of their final-year experience. Findings indicate that the transition experience of the student to professional is unique. In their liminal or intermediate state between student and professional they recognise the value of process skills, in particular the development of generic business skills related to application and the importance of opportunities for experiencing the application of theory in practice. The findings add a new understanding to the current literature which has not previously acknowledged the insight of the transitioning professional.