Maps and inventories: Anchoring efforts to track student learning

Opportunities for students to learn what we wish them to are tucked in nooks and crannies of their college experience as much as they are in the obvious places. The author presents two strategies for revealing all the corners where learning occurs and those where it should but might be missing.     

Instructor influence on reasoned argument in discussion boards

In this study, we explore the extent to which two instructional techniques promote critical discourse in an online class on educational standards and curriculum: instructor stance (challenging/nonchallenging) and topic level (higher order/lower order). Posts from 25 students, across four modules, were analyzed. These four modules constituted approximately one third of the course, and were selected because the professor was the sole facilitator for them. Results indicate that, regardless of topic level, a challenging stance by the professor had a positive effect on the percentage of student posts that referenced readings and theory. There was an interaction between level and stance on student use of reasoned argument. Lower order challenging forums were associated with a greater percentage of reasoned posts. This may be due to the abstractness of the professor's probes in higher order forums. Implications for future research include empirical investigations incorporating contextual variables and qualitative studies to ascertain how students engage with bulletin boards.     

Client Pretreatment Characteristics as Predictors of Outcome in Brief Therapy for Bulimia

An overview for college counselors of the literature on bulimia treatment outcomes is presented for purposes of screening, treatment, and referral. Pretreatment characteristics that seem amenable to success in brief therapy are outlined, as are those that do not lead to a positive outcome.     

Identifying paralogisms in two ethnically different contexts at university level / Identificación de paralogismos en dos contextos universitarios diferenciados étnicamente

Abstract

Although educational researchers have long tried to answer the question ‘Who reasons well?’, little has been done in regards to the influence of culture on argumentative reasoning quality. Among the factors that have been related with the construction of valid arguments, counterarguments and rebuttals by adults are: explicit argument training, task instructions and prior knowledge. No clear evidence exists regarding the influence of the ethnical background on the flaws or fallacies of reasoning. The present study applies the recent theory of paraschemes as a tool to identify university students’ paralogisms in a common argument-mapping task on everyday issues in two different cultural contexts: one European (Spain) and one Middle Eastern (United Arab Emirates). Our analysis showed that the influence of ethnical background was not statistically significant regarding the type and amount of paralogisms committed. On the contrary, the participants’ study major, being business or education, was shown to influence the production of argument fallacies. Implications of these findings for higher education are discussed.     

Guidelines for a creative drama program

Creative drama is a process of perceiving and communicating thoughts and ideas. It is a thoughtful and usually teacher-directed effort to retell a story in dramatic from (Schickendanz, York, Stewart, & White, 1990). Sometimes the story has been made up or read and reread by the teacher or students. Children may select roles for stories or use props (e.g., puppets, dolls, and everyday clothes) to dramatize the story.Jeffrey I. Gelfer is Associate Professor, Department of Instructional and Curricular Studies, and Peggy G. Perkins is Assistant Professor, Department of Counseling and Educational Psychology, both at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.     

Disaster Day! Integrating speech skills though impromptu group research and presentation

Courses: Disaster Day (DD) is a single-class activity designed for public speaking classrooms, but could also be applied to courses addressing small group communication.

Objectives: DD integrates fundamental skills of the basic speech course, fosters participation through group work, and introduces new concepts and skills. By the end of the activity, students should be able to (1) display fundamental speech skills by researching a topic quickly, organizing an informative speech, and delivering a presentation; (2) function effectively in a group by working cooperatively on a project with a tight deadline; and (3) understand basic elements of upcoming skills by creating an informative and visually appealing presentation for a mass audience before having visual aid instruction. DD has similar learning objectives to activities occurring later in the term (i.e., graded speeches) in order to introduce the students to expectations of future, more advanced assignments. As such, I do not treat DD as a graded activity, but rather a fun, low-risk, and useful practice opportunity.     

Building reading resilience: re-thinking reading for the literary studies classroom

This paper introduces the concept of ‘reading resilience’: students’ ability to read and interpret complex and demanding literary texts by drawing on advanced, engaged, critical reading skills. Reading resilience is a means for rethinking the place and pedagogies of close reading in the contemporary literary studies classroom. Our research was across four Australian universities and the first study of its kind in the Australian context. We trialled three working strategies to support students to become consistent and skilled readers, and to equip teachers with methods for coaching reading: ‘setting the scene’ for reading, surveying students on their reading experiences and habits, and rewarding reading within assessment. We argue that the nature and pedagogy of close reading has not been interrogated as much as it should be and that the building of reading resilience is less about modelling or outlining best practice for close reading (as has traditionally been thought) and more about deploying contextual, student-centred teaching and learning strategies around reading. The goal is to encourage students to develop a broad suite of skills and knowledge around reading that will equip them long term (for the university and beyond). We measured the effectiveness of our strategies through seeking formal and informal student feedback, and through students’ demonstration of skills and knowledge within assessment.     

The Media Diet Imbalance Score: A Measure of Aggregate Media Diet

As media options continue to expand in both quantity and variety and move to new media platforms, consumers’ media diets are becoming increasingly varied and complex. This complexity calls for a more nuanced method of quantifying media consumption that goes beyond the binary like-minded or cross-cutting categories currently used in studies of selective exposure. We develop a measure that captures the full diversity of content in an individual’s media diet, the media diet imbalance score, by adapting Brader, Tucker, and Therriault’s (2014) measure of sociodemographic cross-pressures. Our method allows for research on important aspects of the current media environment that are impossible with existing measures, and it is less labor intensive than previous strategies for measuring selective exposure.     

The local TV station as an organizational self: Promoting corporate image via Instagram

Television stations are increasingly using social media platforms for a variety of reasons. This study examined more than 4,300 visuals posted to the Instagram sites of 383 local TV stations in the United States. The analysis found that news and promotion were the top themes of the posts. Using Goffman’s (1959) presentation of self as a theoretical foundation, this study found that visuals coded as frontstage received more likes and comments than backstage visuals. Small market stations featured more promotion visuals than large and medium markets. Large market stations featured more lifestyle, community, and news posts than the other market sizes.