A Comprehensive Faculty,Staff, and Student Training Program Enhances Student Perceptions of a Course-Based Research Experience at a Two-Year Institution

Early research experiences must be made available to all undergraduate students, including those at 2-yr institutions who account for nearly half of America''s college students. We report on barriers unique to 2-yr institutions that preclude the success of an early course-based undergraduate research experience (CURE). Using a randomized study design, we evaluated a CURE in equivalent introductory biology courses at a 4-yr institution and a 2-yr institution within the same geographic region. We found that these student populations developed dramatically different impressions of the experience. Students at the 4-yr institution enjoyed the CURE significantly more than the traditional labs. However, students at the 2-yr institution enjoyed the traditional labs significantly more, even though the CURE successfully produced targeted learning gains. On the basis of course evaluations, we enhanced instructor, student, and support staff training and reevaluated this CURE at a different campus of the same 2-yr institution. This time, the students reported that they enjoyed the research experience significantly more than the traditional labs. We conclude that early research experiences can succeed at 2-yr institutions, provided that a comprehensive implementation strategy targeting instructor, student, and support staff training is in place.     

Pushing Comfort Zones: Promoting Social Justice Through the Teaching of Aboriginal Canadian Literature

In this paper we highlight findings from a teacher inquiry group study designed to explore possibilities for teaching contemporary Canadian literature to promote issues of social justice in secondary classrooms. Drawing on Boler and Zembylas’s notion of a ‘pedagogy of discomfort’, our paper will focus on the experiences of two teachers in the group who, through the selection and teaching of two Aboriginal Canadian texts, moved away from well-established pedagogical practices. We explore the role of the inquiry group in supporting teachers in their attempts to problematize unquestioned assumptions and address the absences in their curricular practices and examine the potential of using Canadian literature to enhance students’ understanding of historical marginalizations and structural inequalities. In conclusion, we discuss the implications of our research for pre-service and in-service educators who face the challenges of teaching in increasingly diverse schools.     

PRECISION JOURNALISM AND THE 1988 US ELECTIONS

Democratic government has always assumed the need for an informedcitizenry, but modern polling methodology is giving citizensin the United States more information than they sometimes wantor expect. Contrary to popular opinion, this unexpected abundanceof information about the voters does not threaten the systemand may even help it work better. The need for information isespecially acute in the American two-party system where coalitionbuilding takes place in partisan activity before the electionrather than after as in the case of European multi-party systems.The weakening of the parties and the shift of some of theirfunctions to direct popular control only increases the needfor all kinds of information, ranging in scope from candidatesexual behaviour to public opinion data, and forces a new andnot always wanted role upon the mass media.     

Promoting gun trigger-lock use: insights and implications from a radio-based health communication intervention

A radio public service announcement (PSA) focusing on the danger to children from an unlocked and loaded gun was designed and aired 340 times on three radio stations in one Michigan county. At the end of the message, individuals were given a toll-free number to call to receive a free gun trigger-lock. Three surveys were used to assess the effectiveness of this intervention: a general population telephone survey, an automated telephone survey, and a follow-up mail survey. Approximately 20 percent of individuals in the general population heard the PSA. There was a significant increase in uncued knowledge of the locking-related gun-safety practices in the treatment county between time one and time two. Further, individuals in both counties had very high levels of self-efficacy and response efficacy, moderate levels of perceived severity, and very low levels of perceived susceptibility at both points in time. Seven-hundred and ninety-nine individuals called the toll-free number to receive a free gun trigger-lock; or approximately 17 percent of gun-owning households exposed to the message. The majority of callers were males who owned guns primarily for hunting purposes and who planned to use the lock themselves. Follow-up survey results indicated that individuals were using the gun trigger-locks, and that they believed using gun trigger-locks was an easy and effective way to prevent gun injuries. Insights and practical implications of these findings are discussed.     

The academically ‘at risk’ student: a pilot intervention programme and its observed effects on learning outcome

Previous research has indicated that there is a strong relationship between the approaches to studying adopted by individual students and their qualitative perceptions of the context in which learning takes place. This study identified students who were considered to be academically at risk and involved them in an intervention programme whose aim was to produce a qualitative change in perceptions of certain key elements of the learning context.The intervention programme consisted of five forty-five minute sessions in which the focus was on three elements of the learning context, namely, the teacher/student relationship, perceptions of textbooks and notes, and the nature and role of tests and examinations.Subsequent interviews indicated that most of the participating students had experienced a qualitative improvement in their perceptions of these contextual elements and that they perceived an attendant improvement in the quality of their learning. Quantitative analysis of the relative class positions before and after the intervention suggests that these changes were accompanied by improved performance. The implications of these findings for teaching practice in higher education are discussed.     

Early childhood professionals and children’s rights: tensions and possibilities around the United Nations General Comment No. 7 on Children’s Rights

Young children’s views are heard rarely in public debates and are often subordinated to adults’ views. This article examines how early childhood staff could support and enhance young children’s participation in public decision making. We argue that when early childhood staff use their expertise in young children’s physical, social and cognitive development to facilitate consultations with young children, they are likely to reinforce the view that young children are unable to form and express their own views. Whatever their intentions, this weakens the notion of children’s rights and undermines young children’s participation in public decision making. In contrast, when staff use their expertise in child development to collaborate with young children, new social structures can emerge in which everyone’s voice is heard. This approach reaffirms staff’s status as experts, but redefines their expertise. Instead of being experts acting on behalf of children, staff become equitable collaborators with children, advancing citizenship for all.