Three Times a Study: Business Students and the Library

Revisiting a study performed 30 years ago, researchers at three institutions surveyed undergraduate and graduate students in marketing courses to determine their attitudes toward and knowledge of library services and collections. Results found that 21st-century students are more likely to believe in the importance of library research, to have had library instruction, and to use Web sites and Internet search engines to begin their research. However, they are less likely to read business periodicals. Faced with a list of information sources, they are generally able to pick out a useful resource, although not always the most efficient. Implications for library service to business students are discussed.     

MODES OF PHILOSOPHIC INQUIRY AND SPORT

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) broadcasts Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights in over 149 countries to nearly a billion households worldwide. In 2013, the UFC signed the first ever female fighter Ronda ‘Rowdy’ Rousey. In this essay, I argue that women’s participation in the UFC challenges traditional stereotypes of female physical passivity and Iris Marion Young’s claims about feminine spatiality. However, at the same time, UFC culture emphasizes traditional sexist views of femininity and submissiveness. In order to analyze how gender is constructed in the UFC, theories on women’s lived body experiences through participation in MMA are explored. Brian Pronger’s homosocial and homophobia framework is also applied to the phallocentric discourse that is part of the UFC.     

Athletic Courage and Heart: Two Ways of Playing Games

This essay develops a Kantian theory of sport which addresses: (1) Kant’s categories of aesthetic judgment (2) a comparable analysis applied to athletic volition; (3) aesthetic cognition and experience and athletic volition and experience; (4) ‘free’ and ‘attached’ beauty; (5) Kant’s theory of teleological judgment; (6) the moral concept of a ‘kingdom of ends’ and sportsmanship; (7) the beautiful and the sublime in sport-experience; (8) respect and religious emotion in sport-experience; (9) the Kantian system and philosophical anthropology; and (10) sport and self-knowledge.     

Ethnicity as a Moderator of the Theory of Planned Behavior and Physical Activity in College Students

Most college students do not meet physical activity (PA) guidelines, and ethnic disparities exist. The present study examined the utility of the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in explaining PA intentions and behavior in black and white college students and whether any TPB relationships were moderated by ethnicity. Black (n = 170) and white (n = 180) students completed a baseline TPB questionnaire and PA assessment 2 weeks later. Hierarchical latent variable regression analyses showed that affective attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC) were significant predictors of intention for both ethnic groups, whereas the PBC-intention relationship was significantly stronger for white students. Intention significantly predicted PA for both ethnic groups. Furthermore, common and ethnic-specific beliefs were identified.     

Are we serious about enhancing courses? Using the principles of assessment for learning to enhance course evaluation

A series of workshops with educators at Birmingham City University about enhancing student involvement in course evaluation prompted us to consider the principles of assessment for learning as an approach to enhancing the quality and value of this evaluative activity. We focus on student enhanced learning through effective feedback which is a model designed to support the integration of ‘feedback’ and ‘feed-forward’ as a social practice in higher education. In the same way that dialogue between student and educator is now viewed as an essential part of student development we suggest that this approach should apply equally to the development of courses. In this paper we outline the principles of the model – reflection, transparency and developmental dialogue, and set out the case for using the approach to facilitate greater collaboration between students and educators to create a framework to facilitate shared ownership of course enhancement.     

Teacher creativity within the current education system: a case study of the perceptions of primary teachers

This article reports on a case study that examined the views of primary teachers in one school about their ability to be creative practitioners within the current education system. This research was conducted following the recent emphasis that teacher creativity has been given in government debate. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 10 members of teaching staff. The main findings presented suggest that the pressures of the curriculum, and the targets and objectives laid down within it, severely restrict and constrain the creative practices that the teachers in this school feel able and willing to engage in. Perceptions of the relevance and value of teacher creativity are also discussed.     

Judgement-based performance measures of literacy for students with additional needs: seeing students through the eyes of experienced special education teachers

This article describes the development of judgement-based performance measures to support the instruction of students with additional learning needs. The focus of the research was the design of assessment materials and protocols to help teachers recognise and respond to students’ proficiency in foundational literacy skills. It drew on the expertise of special education teachers to provide all teachers with an evidence framework against which to observe their students’ learning. The assessment materials were trialled in 53 schools and used to monitor literacy learning for 547 students, who ranged in age from 3 to 18 years and represented children and young people with a wide diversity and severity of disabilities. The article reports a new approach to judgement-based performance measurement which directs teachers’ observations to meaningful shifts and transformations in foundational literacy skills for students with additional needs.     

Competencies Demonstrated by Municipal Employees During Adaptation to Climate Change: A Pilot Study

Since coastal communities are already subjected to the impacts of climate change, adaptation has become a necessity. This article presents competencies demonstrated by Canadian municipal employees during an adaptation process to sea level rise. To adapt, the participants demonstrated the following competencies: problem solving (highlighting components of the problem and identifying constraints), futures thinking, risk prediction, vulnerability analysis, local knowledge, planning, and communication. However, some competencies that could be potentially useful in adaptation were used less frequently by participants: developing solutions, knowledge of adaptation, math skills, hope, and self-efficacy.     

Exploring the Use of the Revised New Ecological Paradigm Scale (NEP) to Monitor the Development of Students’ Ecological Worldviews

Higher education institutions are interested in the impact that they and concurrent life experiences may have on students’ sustainability attitudes, but they lack formal processes to monitor changes. We used the NEP to monitor changes in students’ ecological worldviews. We were interested in what variation there would be in a multidisciplinary group, if the NEP could detect changes in students’ ecological worldviews over a limited time period, and to learn more about the NEP and its use. We conclude that the NEP is a valuable research instrument for this study and that monitoring students’ attitudes is a worthwhile precursor to debating the issues institutionally.