Effects of Exposure to Part-time Faculty on Community College Transfer

Over the past several decades, one of the most significant changes in the delivery of postsecondary education involves the dramatic increase in the use of contingent or part-time faculty. Although the increased use of part-time faculty within higher education makes sense from an administrative point of view, its use does not come without criticism. With community colleges representing a more convenient, affordable, and flexible educational option for a number of students, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, examining how exposure to part-time faculty relates to students’ academic goals represents an important area of inquiry. This study draws from social and human capital frameworks and uses hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) to examine how exposure to part-time faculty relates to community college students’ likelihood of transferring to a four-year college or university. Findings suggest that students tend to be significantly less likely to transfer as their exposure to part-time faculty increases.     

The role of socioeconomic status in Chinese word reading and writing among Chinese kindergarten children

Reading and Writing - The number of Chinese children living in poverty has risen steadily in Hong Kong, China. However, little is known on the longitudinal effects of family socioeconomic status...     

The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide

Where is your journey on the path to improvement taking you? Sometimes we need a new perspective to see the path more clearly. This book will help the reader focus on life's experiences that develop skills and promote improvement that will lead to future successes. Many resources are within reach in The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide, and the stories and experiences of others are rich in example and can help to parallel your own journey and professional improvement. The School Improvement Specialist Field Guide (2013; ISBN 978‐1‐4522‐4089‐3) is published by Corwin Press. $39.99. For a 15% discount, use code D13194 when you order a copy at http://www.corwin.com/books/Book238079?siteId=corwin‐press&subject=C00&qsupld=false&q=page&fs=1 .     

A Trial of the Five Es: A Referent Model for Constructivist Teaching and Learning

The science and technology education literature indicates that teaching within a constructivist paradigm is an effective way to promote student learning. Despite this, most primary school teachers do not use constructivist theoretical approaches because they are perceived as difficult and impractical to implement. To promote constructivist teaching and learning approaches in schools, teachers need access to models and strategies they can implement effectively and with relative ease. A unit of work was developed, based on the Five Es model (Engagement, Exploration, Explanation, Elaboration and Evaluation), and taught to a year 3 class. Ten students were participants in the study and became the sample. Data were analysed using two different methods to compare and validate findings. The unit of work, based on the Five Es model, was found to be interesting and fun by students, and motivated student learning and promoted student higher-order thinking.     

‘Active Citizens’: the case of school governors

ABSTRACT

This article reviews current and historical debates about active, participant citizens and related conceptions of citizenship. In particular it focusses on the prospects for the participation of citizens in the administration of public bodies. It discusses critically the notion of participative citizenship and active citizenship as articulated by Douglas Hurd (when Home Secretary) and also the version contained in the report of the Speaker's Commission on Citizenship. The article then draws upon research conducted for the Volunteer Centre, by the National Foundation for Educational Research and that by Brehony and Deem which is funded by an Economic and Social Research Council Grant (R000 23 1799), on voluntary activity and school governors, respectively. The applicability of the concept of active citizenship to the oversight of schools by school governing bodies is then considered alongside recent work in the United States. The article then considers the constraints upon active citizenship which prevent many governors from participating as much as the role demands and it ends with a reference to the tension between those who see governing bodies as an arena for democratic accountability and the active participation of citizens and those who view them principally as a means by which the local state is weakened and its functions increasingly transferred to the voluntary sector.     

MARGINALIZATION AND RENEWAL: EVANGELICAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

Abstract This article addresses three periods of evangelical Christian education development in the twentieth century. The early part of the century was a time of loss of influence and marginalization within the broader religious education movement. The middle part of the century saw an explosion of parachurch educational ministry efforts to assist the evangelical movement and renewed efforts to develop professional organizations and curricular resources for the church. The last part of the century has seen a growth of influence of evangelical educational writers, publishers, schools, and megachurches on the shape of Christian education today. Current assessment, hopes for the future, and gifts to the broader religious education community are reviewed.     

The role of stroke knowledge in reading and spelling in Chinese

The present study examined the types of orthographic knowledge that are important in learning to read and spell Chinese words in a 2‐year longitudinal study following 289 Hong Kong Chinese children from Grade 1 to Grade 2. Multiple regression results showed that radical knowledge significantly predicted children's word reading and spelling performance across the years. Stroke knowledge contributed both concurrently (Grade 1) and longitudinally (Grade 2) to children's spelling performance after controlling for rapid naming, phonological awareness, morphological awareness and radical knowledge. These findings support the significance of radical knowledge in Chinese reading and spelling and the specific role of stroke order knowledge in Chinese spelling. The findings have implications for the design of an effective curriculum for teaching children to spell Chinese characters.     

Bridge pressure flow scour at clear water threshold condition

Bridge pressure flow scour at clear water threshold condition is studied theoretically and experimentally. The flume experiments reveal that the measured scour profiles under a bridge are more or less 2-dimensional; all the measured scour profiles can be described by two similarity equations, where the horizontal distance is scaled by the deck width while the local scour by the maximum scour depth; the maximum scour position is located just under the bridge about 15% deck width from the downstream deck edge; the scour begins at about one deck width upstream the bridge while the deposition occurs at about 2.5 deck widths downstream the bridge; and the maximum scour depth decreases with increas-ing sediment size, but increases with deck inundation. The theoretical analysis shows that: bridge scour can be divided into three cases, i.e. downstream unsubmerged, partially submerged, and totally submerged. For downstream unsubmerged flows, the maximum bridge scour depth is an open-channel problem where the conventional methods in terms of critical velocity or bed shear stress can be applied; for partially and totally submerged flows, the equilibrium maximum scour depth can be described by a scour and an inundation similarity number, which has been confirmed by experiments with two decks and two sediment sizes. For application, a design and field evaluation procedure with examples is presented, including the maximum scour depth and scour profile.