Pictures,patience, and practicalities: lessons learned from using photovoice in applied communication contexts

The unforeseen trials of arts-based research may suppress creative and innovative explorations. Photovoice, a visual method of investigation employing participatory photography, presents a host of apprehensions. Yet, photovoice is both a valid and rich methodology that can greatly expand the reach and scope of applied communication research. In this essay, we – three applied communication researchers – discuss the complexities of photovoice, highlighting areas of consideration that interested researchers should contemplate before utilizing this methodology. Briefly exploring three of our research studies and their varying topics (i.e. long-term cancer survivors, domestic violence organizational advocacy, male body culture), we discuss three broad areas of difficulty in photovoice research: analysis, control, and exposure. Despite the unique obstacles that photovoice presents, we argue that it, along with other forms of arts-based research, are profitable and definitely worth the challenge.     

Are We There Yet? Calculating Wait Time for Popular Digital Titles

E-books and audiobooks are becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Unfortunately, the supply of digital titles does not meet the demand. Library patrons must frequently wait for weeks to receive popular e-books. We examined the issue of wait time for e-book and audiobook titles using three public library patron accounts to gather data consisting of the average daily number of wait spots for each title, and days until the title was available. Based on our observations, we propose the Waiting Reduction Rate (WRR) formula to determine the average number of wait spots per title as a metric to help determine a better holds-to-copy ratio for electronic materials and reduce patron wait time.     

Examining Reasoning Practices and Epistemic Actions to Explore Students’ Understanding of Genetics and Evolution

Science & Education - This article focuses on students’ discursive moves and reasoning practices while engaged in a task that requires making explanatory links between sickle cell disease...     

中欧体育健康项目“健康儿童?健康社会”研究

“健康儿童?健康社会”（HCSC）是在欧盟体育健康发展准则下,构建由家庭、学校、体育组织、地区政府等诸多部门组成的复合体系,通过降低BMI值减少超重,改善运动能力,进而提高个人生活质量。主要通过对HCSC项目的历史发展进行论述,对HCSC的核心理念、组织构架、运作模式3方面进行剖析,并以中国实验学校为例,对实验干预前后学生的身体健康指标进行对比分析,旨为国内相关领域研究抛砖引玉。     

What’s your goal? The importance of shaping the goals of engineering tasks to focus learners on the underlying science

Instructional Science - Engaging in engineering tasks can help students learn science concepts. However, many engineering tasks lead students to focus more on the success of their construction than...     

The impact of collaborative online reading on summarizing skills

The aim of this study was to determine whether, as a result of collaborative-online reading of a chapter from a book of an academic nature, the quality of the collaborative summary that the readers would write would be higher than that written by readers who would both read the same chapter and write a summary in a face-to-face setting. In this study we examined the difference between the summaries written by participants from two groups, each group was divided into subgroups of 3 participants who had read collaboratively a chapter of a book, and collaborated on writing a summary. The participants of the experimental group read the chapter as it appeared in a website for collaborative reading built especially for this study and the participants were asked to summarize the chapter on a shared online digital document. The participants of the control group were asked to read the chapter face-to-face and to collaboratively summarize it in hand writing. The quality of the summaries was evaluated with a tool developed by Rivard (2001). This tool was developed to measure the quality of the summaries. In our study the main and secondary ideas that were supposed to be included in the participants’ summaries were identified by three literature teachers using ten different criteria and the summaries were analyzed by two other judges based on these criteria. The findings indicated that there were significant differences in the majority of the writing indicators being measured with the tool. The findings indicated that collaborative-online reading and writing produce a summary of a higher quality than one read and hand written collaboratively face-to-face.     

Education,Welfare Reform and Psychological Well-Being: A Critical Psychology Perspective

There are established links between education and well-being, and between poverty and education. This article draws on interviews with parents of school-aged children impacted by a policy in the UK commonly referred to as the ‘bedroom tax’. A critical psychology perspective to education is put forward, acknowledging the complex interrelationships between psychological well-being, sociopolitical factors and education.     

Establishing a Center to Support Faculty Research

This article describes the establishment in fall 2002 of a School of Education Research Center designed to support faculty in increasing productivity and quality in research. Details are provided about center goals, services, staffing, space, resources, and logistics during the first year of operation. In addition, data are shared about faculty usage of the Center, the level of faculty satisfaction with center services in the first year, and initial increases in faculty productivity. The article concludes with plans for continued data collection to monitor the impact of the Center, a discussion of lessons learned at this point in the Center's development, and possibilities for the evolution of the Center. All authors are at the University of Colorado, Denver. Laura Goodwin, Ph.D., University of Colorado at Boulder, is Interim Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs and continues to serve as a Faculty Research Associate. Elizabeth Kozleski, Ed.D., University of Northern Colorado, is the Associate Dean for Research in the School of Education. Lynn Rhodes, Ed.D., Indiana University, is the Dean of the School of Education. Rodney Muth, Ph.D., Claremont Graduate School, is a professor of Administrative Leadership and Policy Studies in the school and chaired the Research Center Advisory Board. Kim Kennedy White, M.A., University of Oregon, was the original School of Education Research Center Coordinator and was responsible for collecting most of the data included in this study.     

Parents of Traditionally Aged Community College Students: Communications and Choice

Five suburban community colleges in a metropolitan area collaborated on a survey to parents of high school graduates of the class of 2002 who attended the colleges in fall 2002. The study was undertaken to learn more about parents roles in their students selection of community colleges, to give insights and information about this important community college constituency, and to assist community colleges to shape more effective ways to foster positive and supportive opinions among parents of potential students. Parents want the community college to provide students with credits and grade point averages enabling transfer, overestimate their students academic skills as measured by course placement tests, engaged in a number of college-choice activities, and indicate that factors associated with lifestyle and money were major reasons for selecting the community college. Associations between parents social capital and perceptions of their students academic abilities were found for a number of dependent variables examined. The study also revealed important differences in how participating institutions record and calculate key measures such as credits earned and grade point averages.