Overcoming resistance to formal instructional development processes

The instructional development (id) process sometimes is perceived as being too time-intensive and as delaying instructional materials development. Course writers holding these perceptions may resist following a formalid process or give only cursory attention to early stages in the process. Such a situation can create conflict between course writers and instructional designers responsible for implementing a particularid model. This article describes a way instructional designers can overcome some of the resistance to following theid process.     

The Role of the School District in Student Discipline: Building Consensus in Cincinnati

The problem of student discipline disproportionately affects urban schools with large numbers of low income and ethnic minority students. Research over the past 35 years however has consistently shown that discipline policies that are understood and accepted by teachers, students, and parents and consistently enforced by school officials, correlate with lower levels of student disruption. The important role that urban school districts can play in building consensus in support of student discipline policies has not been well documented. But increased levels of student mobility in large urban areas, and increased diversity among the families served by urban districts, highlight the need for district-wide codes of behavior that provide schools with a range of discipline programs that serve the needs of their particular communities. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate how the process of developing and implementing a district-wide code of student behavior in Cincinnati played an important role in reducing disruptive behaviors leading to student suspension and expulsion. By involving all stakeholders in the development of its policies, and by responding to the concerns of all stakeholders in the range of programs it offered, the Cincinnati Public Schools was able to build consensus across socioeconomic and ethnic lines and make its code of behavior effective. On the basis of the evidence presented, it is argued that urban school districts can play a more active role in the area of student discipline. By developing and implementing district-wide codes of behavior that are understood and accepted by teachers, students, and parents, and consistently enforced by school officials, urban districts can lay the foundation on which schools can build healthy learning communities. Dr. Lionel H. Brown holds Bachelors, Masters, and Doctoral degrees from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Brown is retired from the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) where he served as a teacher, vice-principal, principal, and Deputy Superintendent. His responsibilities in the role of CPS Deputy Superintendent included the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, the Office of Student Discipline, and the Office of Student Affairs. Dr. Brown is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Educational Studies, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. His research and teaching interests include urban education, alternative education, and programs for Black males.Dr. Kelvin S. Beckett holds Bachelors and Masters degrees from the University of British Columbia, Canada and a Doctoral degree from the University of London, United Kingdom. He is an Adjunct Lecturer in the Division of Educational Studies, College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio. His teaching and research interests include urban education and alternative education.     

Latent Class Modeling with A Time-To-Event Distal Outcome: A Comparison of One,Two and Three-Step Approaches

Latent class methods can be used to identify unobserved subgroups which differ in their observed data. Researchers are often interested in outcomes for the identified subgroups and in some disciplines time-to-event outcome measures are common, e.g., overall survival in oncology. In this study Monte Carlo simulation is used to evaluate the empirical properties of latent class effect estimates on a time-to-event distal outcome using one, two and three-step approaches. Both standard and inclusive bias-corrected three-step approaches are considered. One-step latent class effect estimates are shown to be superior to the evaluated alternatives. Both the two-step approach and a standard three-step approach, where subjects are partially assigned to latent classes, produced unbiased estimates with nominal confidence interval coverage when latent classes were well separated, but not otherwise.

     

Institutional Expenditures and Student Engagement: a Role for Financial Resources in Enhancing Student Learning and Development?

The concept of student engagement is receiving increased attention from researchers, higher education leaders, and the general public in recent years. This increased attention represents a shift from the more traditional resource and reputation model of academic quality to a model that emphasizes institutional best practices and student experiences that enhance student learning and development. At the same time, institutions face rising operating costs and the public faces rising costs of attendance. However, relatively little effort has been made to explore the potential relationship between these two important research and policy areas. This study examined the relationship between institutional expenditures and student engagement based on data from 142 colleges and universities. The results of an OLS multiple regression model, including a factor for student engagement as the dependent variable, suggest that administrative expenditures are negatively related to student engagement. These results support further exploration of potential complex causal links between expenditures and engagement and may provide support for initiatives to reverse historical trends and adjust institutional spending.I would like to thank Ms. Cathy Statham for assistance in obtaining data for this study.     

Accounting for Model Uncertainty in the Prediction of University Graduation Rates

Empirical analysis requires researchers to choose which variables to use as controls in their models. Theory should dictate this choice, yet often in social science there are several theories that may suggest the inclusion or exclusion of certain variables as controls. The result of this is that researchers may use different variables in their models and come to disparate conclusions with respect to predicted effects and their statistical significance. In such cases one is uncertain of which particular set of regressors forms the model that represents the data. The approach used below accounts for uncertainty in variable selection by using Bayesian model averaging (BMA). Accounting for uncertainty, we demonstrate that BMA provides better out-of-sample prediction for university graduation rates than results based on alternative variable selection methods.     

Examining the Relationship Between Parental Involvement and Student Motivation

Parent involvement has a sound research base attesting to the many potential benefits it can offer in education. However, student motivation as an academic outcome of parental involvement has only recently been investigated. The purpose of this article is to show how parent involvement is related to students motivation. Studies of students from the elementary school to high school show a beneficial relationship between parental involvement and the following motivational constructs: school engagement, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, perceived competence, perceived control, self-regulation, mastery goal orientation, and motivation to read. From the synthesis of the parent involvement and motivation literature, we offer potential explanations for their relationship. Directions for areas of continued research are also presented.     

Distributional effects of educational improvements: Are we using the wrong model?

Measuring the incidence of public spending in education requires an intergenerational framework distinguishing between what current and future generations—that is, parents and children—give and receive. In standard distributional incidence analysis, households are assumed to receive a benefit equal to what is spent on their children enrolled in the public schooling system and, implicitly, to pay a fee proportional to their income. We show that, in an intergenerational framework, this is equivalent to assuming perfectly altruistic individuals, in the sense of the dynastic model, and perfect capital markets. But in practice, credit markets are imperfect and poor households cannot borrow against the future income of their children. We show that under such circumstances, standard distributional incidence analysis may greatly over-estimate the progressivity of public spending in education: educational improvements that are progressive in the long-run steady state may actually be regressive for the current generation of poor adults. This is especially true where service delivery in education is highly inefficient—as it is in poor districts of many developing countries—so that the educational benefits received are relatively low in comparison with the cost of public spending. Our results have implications for both policy measures and analytical approaches.     

Faculty development in medicine: A field in evolution

This article focuses on the evolution of faculty development in medicine. Of note, improving teaching in medical education is not a new concept. At a minimum, it was seriously discussed by pioneers like George Miller and Steve Abrahamson as early as the 1950s [Simpson & Bland (2002). Stephen Abrahamson, PhD, ScD, educationist: A stranger in a kind of paradise. Advances in Health Science Education Theory Practice, 7, 223–234]. By 2005, significant numbers of medical school faculty have participated in teaching improvement methods [Clark et al. (2004). Teaching the teachers: National survey of faculty development in departments of medicine of US teaching hospitals. Journal General Internal Medicine, 19, 205–14]. Yet, views of the importance and value of faculty development have evolved slowly. Fortunately, we are now in a more receptive era for program developers to assist faculty in their difficult roles.