“It’s about respect!” college-athlete activism and left neoliberalism

This essay offers a critique of left neoliberalism with reference to certain tendencies in cultural studies, antiracist politics, disparity discourse, and college sports. Where the dominant tendency in cultural studies has been to produce complex analyses of identity-based oppression, this article insists on a conception of class politics that, on the one hand, calls for more attention to exploitation and, on the other, de-emphasizes the “working-class identity” model. By examining two recent episodes of athlete activism in college sports—namely, the much-admired “strike against racism” at the University of Missouri in 2015 and the widely condemned (and ultimately unsuccessful) effort by Northwestern University football players to form a union in 2014—the article contends that the commitment to eliminating racism and indifference to ending exploitation in these contexts reflects the broader commitments of a “left-wing” neoliberalism that devotes itself to ending inequality without redistributing wealth.     

What is Open Access Button? An interview with Joe McArthur

Articles published behind a paywall in commercial journals are often inaccessible to potential readers who are not affiliated with a subscribing institution. Open Access Button is an application that assists readers in finding Open Access versions of such articles. This service works in a completely legal fashion. This interview is with one of the co-founders of the service, Joe McArthur. Open Access Button is supported by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.     

Migrants and the language of instruction: Is the EU policy deficit driving new innovations in social inclusion?

Language learning has long been seen as an important tool for achieving European Union (EU) targets for social inclusion. However, “mainstream” policy instruments like the Action Plan on Promoting Language Learning and Linguistic Diversity and the European Charter for Minority Languages have been undermined in recent years by the effects of the global financial crisis, which has contributed to the widespread decimation of welfare budgets in many EU member states. This has been accompanied by the increasing influence of a “neo-liberal” discourse in welfare and social service policies and practices, leading to the delegation of responsibility for service provision from central, regional and local government to commercial enterprises, civil society and, ultimately, to citizens themselves. At the same time, the gaps in service provision that have resulted from this “financial crisis” have opened up new opportunities for social innovators. New kinds of organisations are beginning to develop and apply new approaches using language learning to deliver innovative services aimed, for example, at supporting the integration of immigrants in society. Using case study analysis, this paper explores how these new approaches have developed, what kinds of innovation are being delivered and the contribution these social innovations are making to broader EU social inclusion objectives.     

The global physical inactivity pandemic: an analysis of knowledge production

In July 2012, The Lancet announced a pandemic of physical inactivity and a global call to action to effect change. The worldwide pandemic is said to be claiming millions of lives every year. Asserting that physical inactivity is pandemic is an important moment. Given the purported scale and significance of physical inactivity around the world, this research examines how the pandemic is rhetorically constructed and how various solutions are proposed. We apply a governmentality perspective to examine the continuity, coherence and appropriateness of ideas about physical activity. The analysis demonstrates that within The Lancet, there is disunity about what is known about physical activity, problematic claims of ‘abnormality’ and contradictions in the proposed deployment of a systems approach to solve the problem. The article concludes by suggesting that as knowledge produced about physical activity grows, scholars need to beware of nostalgic conceptions of physical activity, account for the immense diversity of lived experiences which do not abide by idealistic recommendations and consider more rigorously contentious claims about physical activity programme effects.     

Seek and You Shall Find? An Observational Study of Music Students' Library Catalog Search Behavior

This observational study examined the strategies that music students used to locate scores and media items in an academic library's online public access catalog (OPAC). During a usability test, investigators tracked students' search strategies and behaviors, and measured their success in identifying appropriate items. Students experienced briefer, less complicated, and more successful queries for media items than for music scores (the latter of which they struggled to find and properly identify). Class standing, library catalog experience, and prior library instruction had no significant effect on positive outcomes. Searches for music scores were highly sensitive to variations in query wording, and students frequently struggled to revise their searches.     

Chronemics in Instructor–Student E-Mail Communication: An Experimental Examination of Student Evaluations of Instructor Response Speeds

Text-based computer-mediated communication (e.g., e-mail) lacks nonverbal cues afforded by traditional face-to-face interaction in the classroom. A lack of cues may cause students to place increased importance on elements that are still present, such as how long it takes an instructor to respond to a message. This study experimentally explored how instructor e-mail response speed and message content interact to influence student perceptions of instructor interpersonal attraction and credibility. Results (N = 385) suggested that the quicker an instructor responds to a student e-mail message, the more positively s/he is evaluated in terms of social attractiveness, task attractiveness, competence, character, and caring. However, the content of the message did not significantly influence student perceptions of the instructor. These findings offer practical implications for instructor e-mail communication in the classroom and extend what is known about chronemics in computer-mediated communication to the instructional setting.     

A modern and interactive approach to learning engineering mathematics

The challenges facing those charged with teaching mathematics to engineers are enormous. Faced with large groups of students possessing a considerable range of abilities, prior experiences, and motivations, it is incumbent upon the developers and deliverers of mathematics programmes to engineers to ensure that such programmes are as inclusive as possible and take into account the particular and often individual needs of the student. Often a mathematics lecturer is caught between the demands of an engineering department expecting students to know and apply advanced techniques, and the needs of groups of students who lack confidence, have serious gaps in their knowledge and sometimes lack ability in mathematics. This paper describes an innovative approach to these challenges which involves a mix of traditional and modern technologies and which has been used with some effect at Loughborough University, for the teaching of mathematics to first year undergraduate engineering students.     

College Classroom Environments: Disciplinary and institutional-type differences and effects on academic achievement in introductory courses

Using the College Classroom Environment Scales (CCES) and controlling for differences in class size, it was found that there were significant differences in students' perceptions of their classroom social climates depending on the type of collegiate institution they attended. Students at research universities perceived their classes as having more structure than did those at two year colleges and liberal arts colleges and they perceived less concern by instructors for their personal development and learning than did students at liberal arts colleges. Two-year college students perceived that their classes had higher academic standards than did their counterparts at liberal arts colleges. When comparing classes (and controlling for class size) in English composition, laboratory sciences, and behavioral sciences, it was found that students in English classes perceived them as being the most intellectually exciting and interesting, as being the most academically rigorous, as having the least amount of formal structure, and as promoting more friendships and cooperation among students (than in behavioral sciences classes). Laboratory sciences classes were perceived as having the most hostile and intimidating environments. Significant interactions of institutional type and academic discipline occurred on all scales of the CCES. It was found that perceptions of the classroom environment differentially affected students' course grades in each of the academic discipline areas.Mary E. Vahala is currently Associate Director of Student Activities and Centers at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse and teaches in the college student personnel program. She obtained an Ed.D. in counseling and student personnel services from the University of Georgia. Her research interests focus on environmental assessment. Roger B. Winston, Jr. obtained his Ph.D. in counseling and student personnel services from the University of Georgia. He is professor and coordinator of the student affairs administration specialty in the Department of Counseling and Human Development Services at the University of Georgia. His research interests include environmental and outcomes assessment in higher education and the psychosocial development of college students.     

The Effects of Cooperative Learning on Student Achievement and Motivation in a High School Geometry Class

In this study, the effects of a form of cooperative group instruction (Student Teams Achievement Divisions) on student motivation and achievement in a high school geometry class were examined. Eighty students were randomly assigned to either a control group receiving traditional instruction or one of two treatment groups receiving cooperative learning instruction. Geometry achievement was assessed using scores from the IOWA Test of Basic Skills and teacher-made exams. An 83-item questionnaire was used as a pretest, posttest, and post-posttest assessment of efficacy, intrinsic valuing, goal orientation, and cognitive processing. Students in the cooperative treatment groups exhibited significantly greater gains than the control group in geometry achievement, efficacy, intrinsic valuing of geometry, learning goal orientation, and reported uses of deep processing strategies. The implications for cooperative group structures and motivation theory are discussed.