A Study of Faculty Perceptions of Summer Compressed Course Teaching

Students take summer and compressed courses for a variety of reasons and research indicates that learning outcomes in these courses are similar to those gained in traditional semester or quarter courses. This quantitative study was an attempt to clarify faculty perceptions about summer compressed courses. One hundred and fifty-one faculty members teaching at a large, multicampus institution completed a survey addressing teaching methodology, approaches to student assessment, and other pedagogical issues relating to such courses. It was determined that many faculty did make adjustments in teaching methods and approaches to student assessment. In addition, perceptions were different between experienced/tenured faculty and inexperienced/nontenured faculty.Mark Kretovics is an Assistant Professor of Higher Education Administration and Student Personnel at Kent State University. He received his Ph.D. from Colorado State University and his research interests include the assessment of student learning, business practices in higher education, distance education, and pedagogical issues in compressed courses. Mark had over 20 years of administrative experience within higher education before transitioning into his current faculty role. Alicia R. Crowe, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies at Kent State University. Her areas of interest and research include teacher education, social studies education, teacher learning, and technology integration. Eunsook Hyun, Ph.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Teaching, Leadership, and Curriculum Studies at Kent State University. Her area of research interests include teacher education, critical pedagogy, curriculum theorizing, and higher education curriculum     

Stress,Anxiety, and Depression Among Undergraduate Students during the COVID-19 Pandemic and their Use of Mental Health Services

Innovative Higher Education - The coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) has brought significant changes to college students, but there is a lack of empirical studies regarding how the pandemic has affected...     

Students’ confidence and perceived value for participating in cross-cultural wiki-based collaborations

An international wiki-based collaboration was integrated into a large introductory educational technology course enrolling 346 students, divided into 43 teams. Student teams participated in a 5-week project in which they created wiki chapters about the educational uses of specific Web 2.0 tools. Two to four international students, located in their home countries, participated on each team, collaborating via the evolving wiki, as well as other Web 2.0 tools. Using expectancy-value as our motivational framework, we gathered pre- and post-survey data, triangulated with focus group interview data, to examine changes in students’ confidence and perceived value for using these tools to facilitate international collaborations. Survey results showed significant changes in confidence and perceived value, while qualitative results provided insights into students’ perceptions of critical project components. We discuss students’ perceptions of project barriers as well as the strategies they implemented to achieve success.     

International students’ self-determined motivation,beliefs about classroom assessment,learning strategies,and academic adjustment in higher education

Higher Education - As an increasing number of international students are studying in English-speaking universities, there has been growing interest in exploring the factors and complexities that...     

Test Anxiety and Working Memory

In the present study, information processing of test anxiety is explained within the framework of the ACT* model. The author used the speed-accuracy tradeoff method to investigate the effect of test anxiety on each subsystem of working memory. The sample was made up of 119 college students enrolled in an educational psychology course. Test anxiety affected performance on the verbal-analogies task but not on the rhyming-judgment and visual-spatial tasks. The participants' subvocalization of the rhyming words may have drawn attention to the task itself and preempted the effect of test anxiety on task performance. Also, the activation processes for the visual-spatial tasks may have occurred in a different dimension or separate from the verbal processes of test anxiety.     

FACTORS THAT PREDICT ELEMENTARY EDUCATORS’ PERCEPTIONS AND PRACTICE IN TEACHING SELF‐DETERMINATION

Promoting self‐determination has been suggested as a means for students with disabilities to access the general curriculum. We surveyed 407 elementary educators to examine a) the effects of classroom setting and teaching self‐regulation strategies on the perceived importance and frequency of teaching self‐determination; and b) the severity level of student disability, teacher primary assignment, teaching experience, and classroom and school setting on self‐regulation instruction. Teaching experience and classroom setting predicted the use of self‐regulation strategies, but primary assignment, school setting, and student disability did not. Self‐regulation instruction predicted the frequency of teaching self‐determination, but neither it nor classroom setting predicted the perceived importance of teaching self‐determination. Limitations and implications of this study are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

How is young children’s intellectual culture of perceiving nature different from adults’?

How is young children’s intellectual culture of perceiving nature different from adults’? What types of linguistic and gender characteristics appear in that phenomenon? What should be considered in pedagogical practice for young children given this understanding? Based on field‐based vignettes collected from multiple sites and situations that are natural to young children’s living and learning environment, the exploratory paper presents two major social cultural characteristics: (1) there is a pattern of linguistic discourse that presents a mismatch between young children’s and adults’ perceptions of the natural environment; and (2) a stereotypical gender‐doing seems to be prevalent in the process of young children’s knowledge construction about their natural environment.     

How the second screens change the way people interact and learn: the effects of second screen use on information processing

The use of a second screen can enhance information processing and the execution of search tasks within a given period. In this study, we examined the learner's attentional shift (AS) between two screens and controlled secondary tasks (STs) in the media multitasking setting and its effect on the learning process. In particular, we analyzed how cognitive and emotional learning effects can be explored depending on the role of this setting. A between-subject experiment was conducted with 69 participants (simultaneous vs. sequential use of a second screen in terms of open versus closed STs). The findings showed that there was a greater difference in emotional learning effects than in cognitive learning effects for participants who used a second screen. In terms of estimated emotional learning effects of media multitasking, participants engaged in sequential use demonstrated lower anxiety levels and higher competence beliefs during learning compared to participants who were engaged in simultaneous use. Moreover, an interaction effect occurred in the AS between the two screens and in controlled STs of recognition memory. These results indicate that attentional change and controlled STs are key predictors of learning effects in the media multitasking environment.     

Integrating Research Proposals Into a Field Seminar: Feedback From Students

Teaching research to social work students continues to be the topic of an ongoing dialog within the profession. The literature suggests that some form of a “real-world” or “hands-on” learning opportunity has many benefits for teaching a subject that students often are reluctant to engage in. Using online survey methods, researchers gathered feedback from graduate students and their field supervisors about their experience of completing a field seminar that integrated an agency-based research proposal as part of the course requirement. Although there were limitations to this approach, many of the same benefits of actually implementing research were reported by students who completed only a proposal.