Distance education plans: Course planning for online adult learners

TechTrends - There can be an untethered excitement connected with ever-expanding technologies and the vastness of educational opportunities that online learning generates. Yet, these new and...     

Shifting the Perspective of the Research Librarian: A CoResearch Paradigm

This article proposes the coresearch engagement model (CoRE), which addresses how the academic research librarian can become a coresearch partner with any patron. The CoRE model is an interpersonal process and is founded upon the concepts of mutual respect, collaboration, reciprocity, and empowerment. Grounded in Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences theory, Malcolm Knowles’ andragogical model, and guidelines from the Reference and User Services Association, CoRE has the potential to result in engagement for the librarian and patron. The CoRE model can be utilized in many ways including self-awareness and development for those who need and want to expand their abilities as a research librarian. It provides a theoretical framework and a knowledge base, in addition to giving a context for further development by expanding, comparing the related theories for further research, and implementing various applications suggested by this article.     

The Job Interview and Cognitive Performance: Does Structure Reduce Performance on Selection Batteries,and Can Explanation of Purpose Improve It?

Structuring job interviews is a method of decreasing bias and increasing the predictive validity of job performance, but research suggests that applicants can react negatively to structure (Chapman & Zweig, 2005) and that negative attitudes about selection tools can predict performance (Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas, 2004). The current exploratory study investigates how structuring the job interview in conjunction with priming the ethnicity and sex of the applicant, and in some conditions providing an explanation of the structure, affected post‐interview cognitive ability performance. Three levels of structure were randomly assigned. Those who experienced a structured interview without an explanation of its purpose scored lower than those who experienced an unstructured interview, but those who experienced a structured interview with an explanation of its purpose did not score lower than those who experienced an unstructured interview. Scores differed for females and Hispanics depending on the structure condition, but not in the same manner. Implications for recruitment, selection, and performance management are discussed.     

The Emergence of Basketball as an American National Pastime: From a Popular Participant Sport to a Spectacle of Nationhood

Invented in the USA in 1891, basketball immediately proved a popular pastime among those who played the game but it did not initially rank in the estimation of most American observers as a national pastime. By the twenty-first century, however, basketball had become acclaimed by the media and fans as one of a trio of team sports that stood as national pastimes, alongside baseball and American football. Promoters of basketball have since its invention promoted it as worthy of national pastime status but for much of the first century of its existence it did not quite meet that threshold. Beloved in certain regions and among certain groups, widely played but not as widely watched, basketball remained until the last quarter of the twentieth century outside of the boundaries that denoted national pastime status to most observers in the USA. Beginning in that era, however, a confluence of forces catapulted the game into national pastime status, a new eminence in American popular culture underscored by the debut of Michael Jordan and the ‘Dream Team’ at the 1992 Olympics.     

Integrating 3D printing into an early childhood teacher preparation course: Reflections on practice

This reflection on practice describes a case study integrating 3D printing into a creativity course for preservice teachers. The theoretical rationale is discussed, and the steps for integration are outlined. Student responses and reflections on the experience provide the basis for our analysis. Examples and resources are provided, as well as a discussion of lessons learned.     

Performativity,well‐being,social class and citizenship in English schools

A range of initiatives to promote well‐being and empowerment have been introduced into English schools. These ostensibly support the citizenship curriculum that seeks to foster a more active and engaged populace. Whilst children are being encouraged to view their own well‐being as a personal project (and as a badge of successful citizenship), this process is being undermined by an informal curriculum of citizenship, embedded within the culture of performativity, that is promoting a climate of misrecognition within schools. This form of “symbolic violence” (that affects working‐class families disproportionately) is encroaching into the private sphere, traditionally a potential refuge providing opportunities for the development of forms of well‐being that were not dependent on institutional endorsement. It is suggested that some of the counter‐hegemonic values developed in the face of marginalisation might usefully inform issues of citizenship and well‐being in schools in ways that would encourage genuinely empowered forms of citizenship.     

Harnessing technology to improve formative assessment of student conceptions in STEM: forging a national network

Concept inventories, consisting of multiple-choice questions designed around common student misconceptions, are designed to reveal student thinking. However, students often have complex, heterogeneous ideas about scientific concepts. Constructed-response assessments, in which students must create their own answer, may better reveal students' thinking, but are time- and resource-intensive to evaluate. This report describes the initial meeting of a National Science Foundation-funded cross-institutional collaboration of interdisciplinary science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education researchers interested in exploring the use of automated text analysis to evaluate constructed-response assessments. Participants at the meeting shared existing work on lexical analysis and concept inventories, participated in technology demonstrations and workshops, and discussed research goals. We are seeking interested collaborators to join our research community.