COMMUNITY COLLEGE MANAGEMENT IN TRANSITION: AN ASSESSMENT OF CHANGE

Community colleges tend to follow an authoritarian type of management, but many educational leaders are attempting to develop and implement a more open and participatory management system in these colleges. This is a study of one college in the process of making the change from an authoritarian system to one that would involve the faculty and staff extensively in the process of goal setting and decision making. In this case study, which relied heavily on semistructured interviews to assess the feelings of administrators and faculty toward organizational changes, it was found that the college was more open. Individuals appeared to be more receptive to change and innovations and to have increased willingness to participate in institutional governance. The faculty and administrators expressed the feeling that they had developed a broader view of the organization and a greater sense of trust. The results of the study suggest that the process might have been assisted by using even more in‐service training and by providing a fuller management structure.     

A Model for Developing a Parent Resource Center on Campus

This study describes the development of a parent resource center at a university child care center. The parent resource center is funded by a federal grant and is designed to provide support to low-income student-parents on campus. Early childhood education interns work in the center to learn how to build family relationships. The program has been beneficial to families and the early childhood education interns. Recommendations for creating parent resource centers on university campuses to support the learning of early childhood professionals are provided.     

Enhancing Self-Efficacy in Elementary Science Teaching With Professional Learning Communities

Emerging from Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, this study of in-service elementary school teachers examined the effects of sustained Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) on self-efficacy in science teaching. Based on mixed research methods, and a non-equivalent control group experimental design, the investigation explored changes in personal self-efficacy and outcome expectancy among teachers engaged in PLCs that featured Demonstration Laboratories, Lesson Study, and annual Summer Institutes. Significant changes favoring the experimental group were found on all quantitative measures of self-efficacy. Structured clinical interviews revealed that observed changes were largely attributable to a wide range of direct (mastery) and vicarious experiences, as well as emotional reinforcement and social persuasion.     

Growth of Cognitive Skills in Preschoolers: Impact of Sleep Habits and Learning-Related Behaviors

Research Findings: The present study used a longitudinal design to identify how sleep habits and learning-related behaviors impact the development of cognitive skills in preschoolers (ages 3–5). Sixty- seven children with parental report and cognitive skill assessment data were included. Scores on the Differential Ability Scales (C. Elliott, 1990 Elliott, C. 1990. Differential Ability Scales: Introductory and technical handbook. New York: Psychological Corporation..  [Google Scholar]) were obtained at ages 3, 4, and 5. A Sleep Questionnaire (D. Gozal, 1998 Gozal, D. 1998. Sleep disordered breathing and school performance in children.. Pediatrics, 192: 616–620.  [Google Scholar]) with 12 items from the Child Behavior Checklist (T. M. Achenbach &; L. A. Rescorla, 2000 Achenbach, T. M. and Rescorla, L. A. 2000. Manual for ASEBA preschool forms &; profiles. Burlington: University of Vermont, Research Center for Children, Youth, &; Families..  [Google Scholar]) related to children's attention and activity levels was administered at age 3. Growth curve changes in cognitive scores were estimated using hierarchical linear modeling. Parental reports of nighttime sleep duration predicted level of cognitive skills at 3 years. The effect of sleep duration on cognitive scores was constant across age. Practice or Policy: Sleep and learning-related behaviors distinguish the cognitive skills children bring to preschool programs and impact gains made in skills while in preschool.     

Fostering Supportive Teacher–Child Relationships: Intervention Implementation in a State-Funded Preschool Program

Research Findings: Banking Time is a set of techniques designed to promote positive, supportive relationships through 1-on-1 interactions between teachers and children. Web-based training resources were made available to 252 preschool teachers who received different levels of support as a component of a professional development intervention, and the purpose of this study was to examine teachers' implementation of Banking Time. Teachers with greater levels of professional development support were more likely to implement Banking Time with children in their classes. Teachers were more likely to choose to implement Banking Time with children who had lower social-emotional skills (e.g., more problem behaviors). Teachers developed greater relational closeness with children who participated in Banking Time than with children who did not participate. Practice or Policy: The implications of these preliminary findings for fostering supportive teacher–child relationships are discussed.     

Accommodations: staff identity and university space

Space has been of growing significance in social theory in recent years, yet, explorations of it in the scholarship of higher education have been limited. This is surprising, given the critical role space has in shaping staff and students' engagement with the university. Taking a practice-based approach and focusing on academic identities, this article analyses the spatial experience of an institution by defamiliarising spaces encountered in everyday work. We identify formative pressures upon institutional space, and how space then shapes experience: university spaces are designed for one purpose but come to be used for many, so that working within them can be a diverse and contradictory experience. The identification of academics with spaces is complex, and there are no simple experiences of belonging; rather, there is a constant project of identity-formation and change within mutable spaces.     

Preservice teachers perspectives and experiences teaching personal and social responsibility

ABSTRACT

Background: Pedagogical models have become an established component of physical education over the past several decades. One such model, the Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility model, has gained momentum in practice and research, though little is known regarding its use in preservice teacher training. The model follows a flexible format focused on teaching life skills (e.g. leadership) that can be applied in all lived ecologies. Occupational socialization theory provides insight into the pretraining and teacher education experiences of preservice teachers that shape their understanding and practice of physical education and associated pedagogical models.

Aims: The purpose of this study was to understand the influence of a sequence of methods courses and early field experiences on U.S. preservice teachers’ understanding and implementation of the teaching personal and social responsibility model with youth from a community affected by poverty.

Method: This study took on a phenomenological and social constructivist approach. Ten preservice teachers (9 males, 1 female) took part in the study. The participants were an average age of 22.10 years old (SD?=?4.38) and seven identified as White and three as Black. Each participant was enrolled in methods and early field experience coursework that provided scaffolded training in primary education in a community affected by poverty. Preservice teachers team-taught groups of 10–15 children twice a week along with one day committed to on-campus reflection. Data collection included autobiographical essays, critical incident reports, reflective journals, non-participatory observations and field notes, and semi-structured interviews. Data were analyzed deductively through the lens of occupational socialization theory, and inductively as theory divergent trends were sought. Open and axial coding was completed with member checking throughout, resulting in a final set of themes and subthemes.

Findings: The preservice teachers initially struggled to connect with their students due to conflicting backgrounds, but the teaching personal and social responsibility model guided the relationship-building process. As the model was continuously utilized, more empathy and care were shown towards the children. Preservice teachers felt there was a lack of progression in positive behaviors but were able to empower youth and felt that the model was culturally relevant. Overtime, the students began to appreciate the affective domain despite the challenge of working in a community affected by poverty through frustration towards the larger system limiting any potential progress was present.

Conclusions: Subjective theories transitioned to include relationship building and life skills learning, likely because of the extended field experience and faculty support. The preservice teachers desire to connect with and teach the students well displays the connection between models-based practice and positive relationships. Preservice teachers’ knowledge of their students was limited as it was based on secondhand knowledge of youth, teacher educators, and school staff. Evidence indicates some cultural responsiveness development though there were also elements of a deficit model due to white privilege and class differences. Further work explicitly integrating a culturally relevant approach and social justice in teacher education programming should occur.     

What do we see out of the corner of our eye? The role of visual pivots and gaze anchors in sport

ABSTRACT

The role and importance of peripheral vision have been discussed across various sports. Yet, its functionality remains unclear and the terms employed in the literature to characterize the use of peripheral vision are not well defined. We present a review of 29 studies focusing on the use of peripheral vision in sports. We focus on the methodological approaches employed to study its use and identify the mechanisms that may underlie the effective use of peripheral vision in sport. We define key differences between ‘gaze anchors’ and ‘visual pivots’ and introduce the concept of a ‘foveal spot’. All three gaze behaviors, while being characterized by a consistent, dynamically adjustable gaze location, have different functionalities. A gaze anchor is a cue-optimized position used for the monitoring of peripheral cues and avoiding the negative consequences of saccades (i.e. information suppression), especially under time pressure. A visual pivot is a distance-optimized location between relevant cues which allows athletes to optimally initiate saccades to those cues, especially if the costs of eye-movements are low. A foveal spot is primarily used for information processing via the fovea. Finally, we highlight suggestions for future research to improve our understanding of the functional differences between these gaze behaviors.