A Longitudinal View of the Liberal Arts Curriculum a Decade After Merger: A Multiple Case Study of Community Colleges in Connecticut,Kentucky, and Louisiana

This study is an examination of the state of the liberal arts curriculum in community colleges in three geographic regions of the United States. From a constructivist paradigm and using globalization theory as a theoretical framework, this multiple case study examined faculty work life and administrative processes related to curriculum change in merged community and technical colleges. Through an examination of research on globalization, mergers, and trends in the general education and liberal arts curriculum, a gap in the literature emerged in the studies of community college curriculums after merger. This study considers whether the focus on workforce development and decrease in the transfer mission has diminished the liberal arts courses in the college curriculum. Research on liberal arts courses identified them as courses that emphasize higher order thinking and the development of intellectual skills needed to engage in a democratic society. If students are not exposed to these skills, it may have a detrimental effect on a democratic society. Study findings suggested that the English and communication curriculums are narrowing and the mission is more toward workforce skill preparation. Also, the changing demographics of today[#x02019]s community college students, as well as the ongoing budget constraints, create challenges and frustrations for faculty members.     

Preschoolers' Attention to Print During Shared Book Reading

Seventy-six children ages 3 to 5 were individually read two storybooks that had been specially formatted to contain salient printed words within the text, and illustrations and text on left or right-facing pages. The reader pointed to each word while reading to half of the children. After each book, children were asked to recognize elements of the illustrations and the specially formatted text elements from among a set of foils. Videotaped sessions were coded for the time children spent looking toward the pages with print versus illustrations. Analyses showed that the percentage of time looking at print was less than 2% in the no-pointing condition but increased with age. Pointing to the words increased print-looking time for all age groups and print target recognition for 4-year-olds. After controlling for receptive vocabulary, visual memory, and maturation associated with these scores, emergent orthography and letter-word identification predicted time looking at print and recognition of the print elements.     

Decision Science and Applied Neuroscience: Emerging Possibilities

Recent neuroscientific research describes how the brain and extended nervous system make decisions. This article depicts current theory as it relates to decision‐making strengths, shortcuts, simplifications, biases, and serious data restricting habits of the brain. This information demonstrates that the brain, both individually and collectively, can be a deceptive guide for decision making in emergent situations when information is based on preexisting, subconscious frames of reference. Training is proposed to strengthen conscious information‐processing capacity.     

Personal inquiry learning trajectories in geography: technological support across contexts

Student engagement in the design and implementation of inquiries is an effective way for them to learn about the inquiry process and the domain being studied. However, inquiry learning in geography can be challenging for teachers and students due to the complexity of scientific inquiry and the diversity of pupils' and teachers' knowledge and abilities. To address this, the Personal Inquiry project has designed a tool kit that includes nQuire, a Web-based tool to support students through the inquiry process. Here, we identify when, across five lessons comprising an inquiry into microclimates, nQuire was used by a teacher and a case study group of her 12 to 13-year-old students, and the ways in which they adopted nQuire as a tool to facilitate the creation of a coherent and cumulative inquiry learning experience over time. We found that students' use of nQuire supported them in capturing and representing their evolving understanding of inquiry, in defining and supporting their progression through the process of inquiry and in resourcing their cognitive engagement in data interpretation and representation. nQuire supported the students in accumulating and integrating new understandings across contexts and over time. In this way, nQuire successfully resourced and supported the students' learning journeys or trajectories. We conclude that nQuire can be an effective tool for supporting teachers' and students' understanding of the nature of inquiry and how to design and implement inquiries of their own.     

How instructional design experts use knowledge and experience to solve ill‐structured problems

This study examined how instructional design (ID) experts used their prior knowledge and previous experiences to solve an ill‐structured instructional design problem. Seven experienced designers used a think‐aloud procedure to articulate their problem‐solving processes while reading a case narrative. Results, presented in the form of four assertions, showed that experts (1) narrowed the problem space by identifying key design challenges, (2) used an amalgam of knowledge and experience to interpret the problem situation, (3) incorporated a mental model of the ID process in their problem analyses, and (4) came to similar conclusions about how to respond to the situation, despite differences in their initial conceptualizations. Implications for educating novice instructional designers are discussed.     

Planning films that teach

Conclusion The viewing of an educational film anf the recall of this viewing should constitute a satisfying learning experience so that the film’s message will be incorporated into a useful store of vicarious experience and remembered facts. Such learning is most likely to occur when those who write, direct, and edit a film have a clear understanding of the nature of the film’s audience and of what the film is expected to do to this audience. Knowing these things and to present his subject matter in the most interesting and satisfying manner possible. Here a long-time writer of educational films and television programs presents some thoughtful ideas on the design of instructional films for specific cudiences. Ralph R. White is a scenario writer with the Army Pictorial Center.