PARTICIPATION AND CONTENT IN COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE BOARD MEETINGS

This study examined meetings of North Carolina community and technical college boards of trustees, focusing on the participation and contributions to the content of those meetings by board members. The boards represented smallest to largest institutions, in the eastern, central and western regions of the State. They met morning, mid‐day, afternoon and evening on a monthly, bi‐monthly, and tri‐monthly schedule from August 1986 through February 1987. Attendance was high, with few late arrivals or early departures. All agendas, ranging from 6 to 18 items, were completed in 50 to 115 minutes, with limited comments or questions by trustees. Members initiated little during the meetings and provided little evidence of use of sources of information from other than their college personnel.

It is suggested that meeting at least monthly for at least 1 1/2 hours (mean for the study was 73 minutes) could encourage more initiating contributions by members. Boards should consider regular examination of the processes of their subcommittee and full board meetings to determine their effectiveness and member satisfaction with them. Orientation of new board members should stress the importance of members seeking relevant information to contribute or undergird their participation in board meetings.     

Age,Height, Weight,and Grip Strength

Abstract

This study recorded the age, height, weight, and grip strength of 299 healthy adult males, representing college students newly enrolled in a body conditioning class, college athletes, recruit policemen and policemen. Analysis of the data showed that for men in condition and within the limits of the study, grip strength is significantly related to weight but not to height or age.     

The Differential Impact of Curriculum on Aptitude Test Scores

A sample of 22, 923 students who had taken the SAT and the GRE General Test was classified by the four general undergraduate fields of study and by sex. The authors performed several analyses to determine the degree of differential impact that sex and field of study might have on GRE-Verbal, GRE-Quantitative, and GRE-Analytical scores after controlling on SAT-Verbal and SAT-Mathematical scores. They found, first, that the correlations of SAT-Verbal with GRE-Verbal scores and SAT-Mathematical with GRE-Quantitative scores were extremely high, .86 in the total sample and ranging from the low to middle .80s in the eight subgroups. The impact of curriculum and sex, after controlling on SAT scores, was found to be low on GRE- Verbal scores but relatively high on GRE-Quantitative scores, with students in heavily quantitative fields enjoying an advantage over their peers in less quantitative fields of study. The impact was moderate on GRE-Analytical scores. Further studies designed to "purify" the fields of study and include only clearly verbal fields and clearly mathematical fields showed small additional impact. An additional study indicated a generally slight effect of the institution attended on GRE-Quantitative scores after controlling for sex, major field of study, and initial ability.     

What is the role of constructivist teachers within faculty communication networks?

Using the biology faculty of one high school (n = 9) and the mathematics faculty of another (n = 16), this study tested the hypothesis that constructivist teachers play an active role within teacher communication networks (the constructivist‐teacher hypothesis). This hypothesis contrasts with the view that constructivist teachers operate alone and largely severed from communications among colleagues. Two types of representations of communication patterns among faculty members (i.e., sociographs) were created and analyzed for each faculty. One type of sociograph plotted communications concerning content/pedagogical issues while the other type plotted social/informal communications. Trained raters assessed constructivist‐teaching practices using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (RTOP). Positive relationships were found between constructivist‐teaching practices and the frequency and significance of communications within both faculties—more so for content/pedagogical issues than for social/informal communications. Importantly, peers sought out constructivist teachers more often than they did traditional teachers, presumably seeking advice regarding teaching practice. Results support the constructivist‐teacher hypothesis and indicate that constructivist teachers are not isolated from their peers. Instead, they appear to play an active role, particularly when colleagues are discussing issues related to content and pedagogy. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 490–505, 2007     

The effects of a problem solving strategy on the achievement of earth science students

A review of the stated goals for education reveals a consistent emphasis on problem solving. Problem solving is compatible with the investigative nature of science and with higher order thinking. Consequently, a problem solving strategy was developed to improve the achievement of eighth grade students enrolled in earth science. The sample consisted of 287 eighth grade students randomly assigned to fourteen sections taught by four teachers. This resulted in seven control sections and seven experimental sections. The students in the treatment groups received approximately six weeks of instruction with the experimental groups receiving a variety of problem solving activities. A forty item posttest consisting of four subtests was administered to all students. The results indicate that the problem solving approach was useful in improving the overall achievement of students. It was particular effective in facilitating application of earth science subject matter. This problem solving approach appears to be a feasible strategy to use in most secondary science classrooms.     

Student Evaluations of Grade Appeal Procedures: The Importance of Procedural Justice

Data from an experimental study involving 408 participants were used to test a structural model based on the procedural justice literature. The model posits that two independent variables (processes permitted in a grade appeal procedure and the ombudsman's grade recommendation) affect general attitudes toward the grade appeal procedure. The model further assumes that these effects are mediated by perceived conformity of the appeal procedure with six justice rules (Leventhal, 1980) and by perceived favorability of the ombudsman's recommendation for the student. In addition, the study assessed the psychometric properties of the measure of rule conformity and its six justice rule subscales. Results of structural equation modeling analyses supported the a priori model. As predicted, perceived favorability of the outcome for the student, which presumably was associated with perceived self-interest for our student respondents, had direct effects on perceived conformity of the appeal procedure with the justice rules and on general attitudes toward the procedure. These effects of self-interest are especially important because self-interest is often ignored in theories and research on fairness. In addition, analyses revealed that the measure of rule conformity and its six subscales had sufficiently good psychometric properties to warrant their use in future research on procedural justice. Implications of our findings for Leventhal's model and for educational institutions are discussed.