Service Learning and Criminal Justice Students: An Assessment of the Effects of Co-Curricular Pedagogy on Graduation Rates

Service learning courses provide meaningful community service for students in order to assist them with the integration of theory and practice. A partnership with local high schools allows students in a large criminal justice program on the west coast to serve as mentors for students who are referred to the program by school counselors and/or social workers. Data on student performance are used to assess whether the exposure to service learning improves matriculation. All criminal justice students who participated in the program were included in this analysis. The impact of this pedagogy is highlighted by using a randomized sample of criminal justice students who have not participated in this particular course. Findings from this program assessment indicate that race and gender are not strong predictors of graduation. Students with high GPAs and those taking service learning courses are more likely than their low GPA and no service learning course counterparts to obtain a degree.     

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2017年初,国际知名汽车品牌BMW发布了一系列广告宣传片,其中五名来自KPL的职业选手左斌(ID:辰鬼)、袁中直(ID:屿秋)、阮慧玲(ID:Rxy)、张宇辰(ID:老帅)和陈顺吉(ID:AT)的身影出现在了BMW 1系运动轿车的广告片里.各自代表五位不同英雄的选手,驾驶着BMW新推出的1系轿车,朝着虚拟的敌方水晶进...     

Organosilane deposition for microfluidic applications

Treatment of surfaces to change the interaction of fluids with them is a critical step in constructing useful microfluidics devices, especially those used in biological applications. Silanization, the generic term applied to the formation of organosilane monolayers on substrates, is both widely reported in the literature and troublesome in actual application for the uninitiated. These monolayers can be subsequently modified to produce a surface of a specific functionality. Here various organosilane deposition protocols and some application notes are provided as a basis for the novice reader to construct their own silanization procedures, and as a practical resource to a broader range of techniques even for the experienced user.     

Skills and knowledge needed by television production specialists in distance education

The purpose of this study was to examine what distance education-related skills and knowledge television production specialists had to learn in order to perform their jobs. The purposive sample for this study consisted of 12 full-time television production specialists who develop live, interactive, video-based educational programs at American universities. However, prior to employment at their respective universities, these television production specialists had no experience or educational background in the field of distance education. Qualitative methods were used to collect data. The analysis gave rise to the finding that television production specialists had to learn skills in two major areas—technical skills and personal/interpersonal skills—and knowledge of instructional design methods.     

Enacting feedback utilization from a task-specific perspective

Feedback is central to successful teaching and learning. Despite extensive research on the relationship between feedback, pedagogy and learning, there remain no conclusive answers as to how feedback can be effectively utilized by learners. Recently, there is emerging research exploring how feedback is conceptualized as dialogic processes to facilitate provision and uptake of feedback; and how feedback utilization is best supported by learner active involvement in the iterative feedback process for future learning. Drawn from this knowledge base, this article aims to review four aspects of feedback scholarship including nature, paradigms, issues and trends which serve as a theoretical basis, together with instructors’ interviews, to inform how five common assessment tasks in one social sciences faculty could be strategically revamped to promote feedback utilization. The article concludes with pedagogical insights to suggest three conditions wherein feedback could be made sustainable to support learning through a redesigning of conventional assessment tasks in the higher education contexts.     

Two portfolio systems: EFL students’ perceptions of writing ability,text improvement,and feedback

Research into portfolio assessment (‘PA’) typically describes teachers’ development and implementation of different portfolio models in their respective teaching contexts, however, not much attention is paid to student perceptions of the portfolio approach or its impact on the learning of writing. To this end, this study aims to investigate how two groups of Hong Kong EFL pre-university students (Groups A and B) perceived and responded to two portfolio systems (with each group experiencing one portfolio system either working portfolio or showcase portfolio) in one academic writing course. The case study approach was adopted and data sources included semi-structured interviews, student reflective journals, classroom observations, and analysis of text revisions. Findings indicated that students from the showcase portfolio group (Group B) were less enthusiastic about the effectiveness of PA, and queried whether it could promote autonomy in writing, while the working portfolio group (Group A) was more receptive to the experience, and considered that a feedback-rich environment in the working portfolio system could facilitate writing improvement. The paper concludes with a discussion of how PA can be used to promote self-regulation in the learning of writing.