Associations of Resource and Service Utilization, Risk Level, and College Outcomes

We tracked resource and service utilizations and first-year college outcomes for the entering first-year class (n = 1,534) at a traditional 4-year postsecondary institution. We grouped specific resources and services offered by the institution into four general categories (academic services, social resources, recreational resources, and advising sessions). We investigated the interrelation of risk, resource and service utilization, and first-year GPA and retention. We found that utilization of each resource/service category was positively associated with GPA and/or retention. Of particular interest, we tested whether the associations of resource and service utilization and outcomes were moderated by risk. We found that the associations of academic services and advising sessions with GPA were more pronounced for higher-risk students. We discuss the implications of the findings, including how the differential associations of resource and service utilizations and outcomes can affect intervention decisions with high-risk students. This research was a collaborative project between ACT and NAU. Steven Robbins, Jeff Allen, Alex Casillas, and Adaeze Akamigbo are members of ACT Research. Margot Saltonstall is Assessment Coordinator, Enrollment Management and Student Affairs, Rebecca Campbell is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology, and Eileen Mahoney is Director of the Gateway Student Success Center, all at Northern Arizona University. Paul Gore is Associate Professor of Educational Psychology at the University of Utah and former director of the Career Transitions Research Department at ACT.     

Conflicting logics of online higher education

Abstract

The advent of massive open online courses and online degrees offered via digital platforms has occurred in a climate of austerity. Public universities worldwide face challenges to expand their educational reach, while competing in international rankings, raising fees and generating third-stream income. Online forms of unbundled provision offering smaller flexible low-cost curricular units have promised to disrupt this system. Yet do these forms challenge existing hierarchies in higher education and the market logic that puts pressure on universities and public institutions at large in the neoliberal era? Based on fieldwork in South Africa, this article explores the perceptions of senior managers of public universities and of online programme management companies. Analysing their considerations around unbundled provision, we discuss two conflicting logics of higher education that actors in structurally different positions and in historically divergent institutions use to justify their involvement in public–private partnerships: the logic of capital and the logic of social relevance.     

Using children's literature to decrease moral disengagement and victimization among elementary school students

Previous research has suggested that moral disengagement is strongly associated with bullying and bystander behavior. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of a 5‐week classroom‐wide bullying intervention, The Bullying Literature Project‐Moral Disengagement Version (BLP‐MD), on moral disengagement and bullying among elementary school students. A quasiexperimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the BLP‐MD. A sample of 84 third grade students (M_age = 7.93 years, 53.6% female) from four classrooms and their teachers participated in this study. The results revealed significant time by treatment interactions for decreasing both victimization and moral disengagement in treatment classrooms compared to waitlist control classrooms. The program also resulted in improved perception of peer friendships and was rated as having high social validity for both students and their teachers. How to incorporate the BLP‐MD into the general language arts curriculum to decrease moral disengagement and bullying, and promote positive bystanding is discussed.     

Relationship between a 14-Day Recall Measure of Leisure-Time Physical Activity and a Submaximal Test of Physical Work Capacity in a Population Sample of Australian Adults

Abstract

This paper reports on the validity of a 14-day recall measure of leisure time physical activity (LTPA) in a sample of Australian adults (N = 986). Submaximal cycle ergometry was used to assess physical work capacity per kilogram of body mass (pwc75/kg). The self-report energy expenditure estimates were used to categorize respondents as vigorously active, moderately active, and low active/sedentary. Multiple regression analyses showed that pwc75/kg increased significantly across energy expenditure categories for adults aged less than 40 years; that the vigorous and moderate activity categories had greater mean pwc75/kg values than the low/sedentary category for 40 to 59-year-olds; and, that there were no differences in pwc75/kg between activity categories for those aged 60 years or older.     

Use of Social Emotional Learning Skills to Predict Future Academic Success and Progress Toward Graduation

This study evaluated the degree to which a range of social emotional learning skills—academic self-efficacy, academic motivation, social connections, importance of school, and managing psychological and emotional distress and academic stress— could be used as an indicator of future academic outcomes. Using a sample of 4,797 from a large urban school district, we found that high school students classified as performing in the lowest 25% of their grade reported lower social emotional skills than students classified in the top 25% of academic performers by the end of the 8th grade. Two variables, perceived importance of attending college and psychological and physical stress, accounted for nearly 26% of the variance in cumulative high school GPA after controlling for 9th-grade GPA. Finally, the results indicated that a combination of 5 social emotional learning subscales effectively discriminated between students making positive progress towards high school graduation and those identified as having dropped out of or failed more than 14% of their courses.     

An Australian view of the academic partner role in schools

The role of ‘academic partners’ working alongside teachers is an increasingly complex and sometimes controversial one. This article explores the role of academic partners in Educational Action Research, reporting on data from a larger study conducted in New South Wales, Australia. Schools involved in the study had received targeted government funding between 2006 and 2010 to conduct school-based action learning projects employing action research. As part of the funding, the schools had been provided with external support from university-based academic partners, who supported individual school teams in the completion of their projects. Here we focus specifically on the role of the ‘academic partner’. Data were obtained via semi-structured interviews with academic partners themselves, with the project’s state coordinators who oversaw the project, and with teachers who had worked with the academic partners over the course of their school-based projects. Participants in the study identified significant benefits for both teachers and academics engaging in co-inquiry, but findings also suggest that the role of academic partner is increasingly complex, multifaceted and sometimes under-supported. When there is ‘good fit’ between academic partners and schools and when structures are in place to support academic partners in their work, the academic partner role in schools can contribute to sustained educational change. In this article we discuss the crucial antecedents, enablers and constraints which ensure that academic–school partnerships enrich learning for both academics and teachers, building mutual capacity.