New Faculty Roles in Learning Outcomes Education: The Experiences of Four Models and Institutions

Innovative models that focus on learning outcomes engage faculty in new ways of facilitating and assessing learning, while their institutions seek to support and reward their participation. Innovators from four different institutions provide an overview of their approaches to implementing principles of outcomes-based education, compare their models, and explore the changes that are precipitated in the roles, rewards, resources, structures, and models. While the four institutions and models differ on several significant variables, the innovators identify common key elements and issues that the academy must address in order to transform the educational experience and culture to a more learning-centered enterprise.     

A new normal? Competing national cultural discourses and workers’ constructions of identity and meaningful work in Norway

We examine how conceptions of identity and meaningful work are influenced by a nation's changing economic and political environment. We collected research in Norway – a country with a rich economy that has heavily relied upon oil production since the 1980s. Yet depleting oil resources are prompting an economic transformation. Twenty-seven interviews and a thematic analysis revealed how Norwegian workers safeguarded their traditional, collective workplace values, yet were simultaneously confronted with modern – more masculinized – workplace performances ushered in with the oil era. We contribute to theory by suggesting that work's meaningfulness is constructed by competing national cultural discourses that evolve over time. These discourses become narratives that citizens draw upon to evaluate work and to negotiate their personal and professional identities.     

Multidimensional assessment of resilience in mothers who are child sexual abuse survivors

OBJECTIVE: There has been relatively little attention given to positive adaptation following childhood sexual abuse (CSA), and typically such resilience has been explored primarily in the intrapersonal domain. This study explored questions about later resilience following CSA within a multidimensional framework by assessing resilience across intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intrafamilial domains. METHOD: This community sample consisted of 79 mothers with a history of CSA who had a child living at home with them. Participants completed four outcome measures (Center for Epidemiologic Studies--Depression Scale, Parenting Stress Index [PSI] Health Scale, PSI Parenting Competence Scale, and a measure of marital satisfaction). Risk and protective factors examined in relation to outcome included mother's age, socioeconomic status, severity of the CSA experience, coping strategy (avoidance, seeking social support, and problem solving), child characteristics, and spousal/partner support. RESULTS: Results indicated that when multiple adaptational domains were assessed, mothers showed discrepancies in how adequately they functioned across domains. While severity of the CSA experience was only weakly associated with outcome, use of avoidant coping emerged as a significant risk factor and was strongly and consistently associated with negative outcome across domains. Spousal/partner support was a strong protective factor and buffered the relationship between depressive symptoms and parenting competence. Difficult child characteristics were significantly associated with mothers' perceptions of physical health and parenting competence. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest the importance of comprehensive multimethod assessments of resilience and extend the knowledge of factors associated with positive outcome. The results highlight the need for further research exploring current contextual risk and protective factors associated with resilience in each domain.     

Relational Maintenance and Social Support in the Aftermath of Sudden and Expected Death

Bereavement is a state of grieving after the loss of a loved one. Past research has suggested that bereavement is particularly challenging, both physically and emotionally, in the aftermath of unexpected death. Here, we examine bereavement in which death occurred suddenly, compared to a chronic condition where death was expected, in terms of perceived social support and relational maintenance with the deceased in the form of imagined interactions and social media interactions. Results indicated that individuals experiencing sudden death bereavement were more likely to engage in both postmortem relational maintenance techniques and perceived less social support than individuals in the expected death bereavement group. Results are discussed in terms of previous findings.     

Bar and Pie Charts: Ideas for the Classroom

This article gives some ideas for the creation ofbar charts and pie charts, focusing onrepresentations of frequencies and proportions.     

A Comprehensive Model for Addressing Severe and Persistent Mental Illness on Campuses: The New Diversity Initiative

In response to the increase in severity and prevalence of student‐presented mental disorders on college campuses, a comprehensive campuswide identification and intervention program titled “The New Diversity Initiative” was developed to help college counselors and student personnel staff address students with severe mental disorders. Details of the program and recommendations for college counselors interested in implementing such a program are provided.     

Altered surfaces,taking the long view: Applications of ethnographic conservation practices to the conservation of contemporary art

While working together on tradition-based and contemporary works at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art (NMAfA) and in private practice, the authors found that their expertise in ethnographic conservation can be applied to the conservation of contemporary works. The treatment approach to ethnographic works has evolved over decades, shifting from alteration of original surfaces and heavy restoration to an emphasis on preserving the original integrity of the artwork through minimal intervention. This paper describes the evolution of ethnographic object conservation regarding surface alteration, while specifically focusing on African objects, and discusses applications of this approach to the conservation of contemporary art. The historical change in treatment attitudes is presented using examples from NMAfA's collections to underscore why the profession developed a minimal intervention approach and to argue for the relevance of this approach to related contemporary media.