An Outreach Framework for Retaining Nontraditional Students at Open‐Admissions Institutions

The author discusses an outreach framework focused on retaining nontraditional students at small open‐admissions institutions. By using both campus and community resources, this approach integrates social work and counseling disciplines in an attempt to meet the needs of this population more effectively. Components of the program, implementation strategies, and limitations are also delineated.     

Building a metacognitive model of reflection

An increased value is being placed on quality teaching in higher education. An important step in developing approaches to better instruction is understanding how those who are successful go about improving their teaching. Thus, several years ago we undertook a program of research in which the concept of reflection provided the frame of reference. We envisaged reflection as a process of formative evaluation, and also saw links between reflection and metacognition. What we have documented and analyzed in detail are the reflective processes of six university professors in their day-to-day planning, instructing and evaluating of learners. The result is a metacognitive model and coding scheme that operationalize the process of reflection. Both provide a language for describing reflection and therefore a way to think about how to improve teaching. In this paper, we describe the research and the model and the contributions they make to our understanding of teacher thinking in higher education.     

The Past is Present: Responses to Infant Crying Among Mothers High in Attachment Anxiety

SYNOPSIS

This commentary explores potential mechanisms underlying the links between mothers’ attachment anxiety and levels of salivary alpha amylase in response to infant crying across levels of spouse support. The commentary argues that the current design cannot disentangle different explanations for the effects – whether they reflect general stress reactivity patterns or patterns occurring specifically in response to infant distress – and offers suggestions for ways in which to explore putative explanations in future studies. Understanding mechanisms is essential to identify risk factors for insensitive parenting.     

Predicting transition and adjustment to college: biomedical and behavioral science aspirants’ and minority students’ first year of college

The purpose of this study is to explore key factors that impact the college transition of aspiring underrepresented minority students in the biomedical and behavioral sciences, in comparison with White, Asian students and non-science minority students. We examined successful management of the academic environment and sense of belonging during the first college year. Longitudinal data were derived from the Higher Education Research Institute’s (HERI) 2004 Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) Freshman Survey and the 2005 Your First College Year (YFCY) Survey. Using a reformulation of the integration model (Nora, Barlow, and Crisp, 2005), we find concerns about college financing, negotiating family support and responsibility, and campus racial dynamics (perceived and behavioral) affect student adjustment and sense of integration in the first year. This study was made possible by the support of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, NIH Grant Number 1 RO1 GMO71968-01. This independent research and the views expressed here do not indicate endorsement by the sponsor.