Using restaurant reviews to teach how to write literature reviews

Courses: Any communication course requiring a literature review, including, but is not limited to, Communication Research Methods and Communication Theory.

Objectives: After completing this activity, students should be able to write better literature reviews by (1) locating a range of resources; (2) identifying a variety of relevant information (that directly relates to the question at hand) from within a popular social medium; (3) identifying relevant information from scholarly works and making informed judgments about what information should be used or discarded; and (4) synthesizing information from disparate sources, drawing appropriate inferences and conclusions from the available research to communicate a point clearly.     

The Effects of Age,Gender, and Economic Status on Generosity in the Presence of Exchange: A Pilot Study

In this field experiment, a confederate asked participants to provide a quarter for the confederate to make a telephone call. In the experimental condition, based on the concept of exchange, the confederate offered participants twenty-five pennies for the quarter. The researchers found that there was a significant difference in whether or not the confederate offered the pennies. Eighty-five percent of the participants complied when offered the pennies, while only 35 percent complied without the offer of exchange. Gender was not a factor. Participants over sixty-years-old complied more often than any other age group. Economic status was a factor in that those in the middle range tended to comply more often than those at either the low end or the upper end.     

Persuasive Speaking: It's Just a Game!

Objective: To enable students to understand the methodology and components involved in effective persuasive message creation and delivery

Courses: Public speaking and persuasion     

Pedagogical practices: examining preservice teachers’ perceptions of their abilities

Teachers routinely make decisions regarding the best pedagogical methods for altering students’ understandings about academic content. Such practices are at the root of teaching as persuasion, and have been shown to be related to academic achievement. Yet very little research has investigated the extent to which individuals learning to be teachers (i.e., preservice teachers) feel they are capable of performing the practices underlying teaching as persuasion. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which preservice teachers see themselves as capable of performing persuasive pedagogical practices compared to more general teaching practices as operationalized on well-researched measures of teacher efficacy. Results indicated that undergraduates enrolled in preservice teacher education courses perceived themselves as less capable of performing persuasive pedagogical practices than more generally accepted practices. In addition, preservice teachers perceived they were more capable of altering students’ knowledge about content than at modifying their beliefs about content. Implications for research and practice are forwarded.     

Identity and learning: The inextricable link

Decades ago, feminist theorists opened the possibility that learning is deeply entwined with gender. Kelli Zaytoun argues that the interface between learning and identities formed by race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and other individual contexts is not yet well enough understood. She offers a framework to help move the discussion forward.     

Parent perspectives on student IEP involvement

As key members of the Individualised Education Program (IEP) team and strong child advocates, parents play a critical role in special education. In this study, we sought to understand a crucial, yet underexamined, aspect of special education – parent perceptions regarding student participation in IEP development. Specifically, we asked parents how schools could better support student involvement in the IEP process, including IEP meetings. Participants included 646 parents of students with disabilities aged 5–21 years currently receiving special education services across the United States. Constant comparative analysis was used to code data. Qualitative coding revealed four major themes, including: (1) promoting an active student role, (2) supportive school staff, (3) making changes to IEP meetings and (4) considerations and concerns regarding student participation. Implications for practice and policy are discussed.     

A comparison of the mystery motivator and the Get 'Em On Task interventions for off‐task behaviors

Attending to instruction is a critical behavior for academic success. Many elementary school teachers, however, identify disruptive and inattentive classroom behaviors as key barriers to students' successful educational performance. This study examined the impact of two class‐wide positive behavior support programs. The Mystery Motivator and Get 'Em On Task interventions were implemented in an alternating treatments design with fifth grade participants to decrease off‐task behaviors. Results indicated that both interventions effectively decreased off‐task behavior at the class‐wide level. Implications and suggestions for future research on evidence‐based behavioral interventions are discussed. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Encouraging Primary Students’ Writing through Children’s Literature

Children benefit in many ways from actively engaging in high quality children's literature, and picture books provide a natural avenue to motivate and encourage students' writing. Shared book experiences in small or large group settings can lead to meaningful writing discussions and applications. Picture books serve as exemplars of the six qualities of effective writing (ideas, organization, voice, word choice, sentence fluency, and conventions) and provide a scaffold for students to incorporate these writing attributes in their original compositions. When primary students' writing is inspired by high-quality picture books and shared with peers, children benefit academically and socially.