Hope into action: How clusters of hope relate to success‐oriented behavior in school

Several studies have found that higher hope is associated with higher academic achievement. Although scholars have asserted that this association is the result of higher hope leading to an increased likelihood that students will engage success‐oriented behaviors (e.g., participating in class, completing homework assignments), very little empirical research has been done to test this assertion. In this study, cluster analyses yielded three clusters of hope (high, average, and low) in a high school sample (N = 447) and a college sample (N = 375). Differences among hope clusters were examined across three domains of indicators—engagement, disengagement, and motivational variables—associated with success‐oriented behavior in school. Results from both samples indicated that students with higher levels of hope reported higher engagement, higher motivation, and lower disengagement, with medium to large effect sizes. These results have implications for both hope research and scaling psychosocial interventions.     

Socio-scientific reasoning and environmental literacy in a field-based ecology class

The complex environmental challenges humanity faces require citizens who are scientifically and environmentally literate. Many environmental education programs are situated in the field where students are immersed in their learning. These field-based activities are engaging but may lack opportunities for students to develop critical thinking and reasoning skills necessary to be environmentally literate. We suggest a socio-scientific issue (SSI) based teaching approach can increase epistemic engagement and lead to student gains in scientific and environmental literacy. This study describes how we modified an existing field-based ecology course, framing the learning around a local environmental socio-scientific issue. We used a convergent parallel mixed-methods approach to examine the changes in socio-scientific reasoning (SSR) over time for high school students in this course as a measure of scientific and environmental literacy. Results indicate that a focused SSI field-based environmental education curriculum can support development of socio-scientific reasoning and environmental literacy competencies among high school students.     

Christian Higher Education in the United States: The Crisis of Evangelical Identity

The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities (CCCU) is the most successful higher education organization to emerge from the modern American evangelical movement. Especially within the context of the United States, higher education has been a key element of neo-evangelicalism since the 1940s. Rather than choosing between biblical truth and cultural outreach, post–World War II neo-evangelicals called the church toward a thoughtful approach to address the needs of the world. The early movement was focused not only on evangelistic ministry efforts, but also on education as a primary means for shaping the culture. As modern evangelicalism took shape in the 1950s, the movement struggled to find a consistent moral voice. From early challenges related to the civil rights movement to current debates over poverty and immigration, evangelicals have engaged with cultural issues, but with a wide variety of strategies and viewpoints. Political issues have brought evangelicals into public life, and some leaders have used elections as the primary means for promoting moral concerns. Consequently, the public may often view U.S. evangelicals as activists concerned with political voting rather than as sincere followers of Christ who are committed to social ethics. Yet, the Christian college represents a significant platform for sustaining evangelical thought in public life. Evangelicalism has suffered a fracturing in the last decade or so, and the term now carries a negative connotation in some circles. Many colleges in the CCCU are searching for a new way to describe their evangelical identity. The historical meaning of the term evangelical focused on gospel proclamation and social reform. A return to this emphasis, as well as an alignment with the international focus of evangelical movement, can provide a more accurate and consistent legacy for evangelical institutions.     

Changing minds or rhetoric? How students use their many natures of science to talk about evolution

Cultural Studies of Science Education - Recommendations for teaching the nature of science (NOS) are grounded in a deficit view of students and/or the public—wherein people accept...     

Effects of an Educational Film About Body Donors on Students' Empathy and Anxiety Levels in Gross Anatomy

While most German anatomy institutes provide only limited information about body donors and their lives, students have expressed a desire to learn more about these individuals, especially about their motivations to donate their bodies for the sake of medical education. In order to gratify this wish, as well as to further humanize body donors, an educational film was compiled, and a study designed to capture the film's effects on medical students. This is the first study using standardized, validated psychological tools to evaluate the impact of an educational film about body donors on students’ empathy and psychological stress levels. The study followed a longitudinal, controlled, and cluster randomized design, including 77 (48 females/29 males) participants who watched the video either before, midway, or after the dissection course. Questionnaires were completed at four points in time applying the Jefferson Scale for Empathy (JSPE-S) and the Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI) to measure empathy. Psychological stress levels were recorded by the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI). Overall, students recommended the film to be shown to all students (median 6.0; maximum on the six-point Likert scale). Viewing the film revealed no significant changes between study groups or over time in JSPE-S sum scores. All groups demonstrated a significant reduction of BSI values before the dissection course actually started and increased values during the course, but both developments appeared not to be associated with the intervention. Overall, the educational film did not correlate with any negative effects on students’ empathy and psychological stress levels, and it was strongly approved of by students, as it provided more humanizing personal information about body donors without violating their anonymity.     

Everyday Scientific Imagination

Science & Education - Imagination is necessary for scientific practice, yet there are no in vivo sociological studies on the ways that imagination is taught, thought of, or...     

Success in Consulting

Do you regularly reflect on the value you bring to your client? The act of reflection is something experienced consultants, both internal and external, consistently do in their practice. This article examines the ways in which Certified Performance Technologists (CPTs) define and recognize the success of their efforts, but most importantly, how they learn from engagements that do not always end with the desired outcome. You will hear from CPTs across several industries in their own words about what strategies they have employed to continue to improve their skill sets.