The Use of Student Consulting Projects as an Active Learning Pedagogy: A Case Study in a Production/Operations Management Course

Active learning has attracted considerable attention in higher education in response to concerns about how and what students are learning. There are many different forms of active learning, yet most of them are classroom based. We propose an alternative to active learning in the classroom through active learning outside of the classroom in the form of student consulting projects. While the literature on student consulting has largely focused on projects to assist small business owners, this research demonstrates the potential for using student-consulting projects in the Production/Operations Management course. We use a case study to describe the use of a student-consulting project as an alternative to the other types of active learning described in the Operations Management education literature.     

Hemispheric laterality in music and math

Hemispheric laterality may be a useful concept in teaching, learning, training, and in understanding more about human development. To address this issue, a measure of hemispheric laterality was compared to musical and mathematical ability. The Human Information Processing Survey (HIPS) instrument, designed to measure hemispheric laterality, was administered to 101 participants who were then asked to provide a measure of their conceptual aptitude for mathematics and music. Scores were then compared through canonical correlation to test the hypothesis that perceived mathematical ability may be explained by left-brain hemisphere preference and musical by the right hemisphere. A relatively strong correlation was found between music ability and right-brain hemisphere preference. A relationship between math and left-brain hemisphere preference or integrated brain processing scores was found to be marginal. Ramifications to learning are discussed.     

The interaction of student and program variables for the purpose of developing a model for predicting graduation from graduate programs over a 10-year period

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there is some factor or set of factors which will predict the probability of graduation from doctoral programs. This study concentrated on two areas: (a) the factors available to the selection committee when the students apply for admission into graduate programs, and (b) those factors emerging after admission, resulting from the students' meeting program-imposed requirements for graduation. Data were collected from the file of each student admitted to the doctoral program in Educational Administration. The results of the study indicated that program variables are more important than admission variables in predicting graduation. and the technique of Path Analysis is highly recommended to study the problem of student progression through graduate departments.     

Examining Predictors of Counselor‐in‐Training Intentional Nondisclosure

This study explored factors that best predict intentional nondisclosure by counselors‐in‐training (CITs) during onsite supervision, including social judgment about one’s supervisor, the supervisory working alliance (SWA), and supervisee attachment styles. Stepwise regression in a sample of 146 CITs revealed that the SWA and supervisee attachment avoidance predicted 60% of the variance in intentional nondisclosure.     

Predicting university preference and attendance: Applied marketing in higher education administration

A multi-attribute attitude model, based on the efforts of Rosenberg and Fishbein, was used to determine whether a multicriteria scale can be used to predict student preferences for and attendance at universities. Data were gathered from 241 freshmen attending five state universities in Ohio. Responsents were asked to weight the importance of 18 selection criteria and evaluate seven universities using those criteria. These data were processed through the model, and the results were compared to the respondents' preference ordering of the universities. The results indicate a high level of predictability, particularly for highly ranked universities. Implications for the marketing of higher educational institutions are discussed.     

Outdoor projects

Springtime bringswarm sunny weather; children who may have been cooped up inside are ready and eager to get outdoors for lots of active play. Projects and art activities can also be moved out into the sunshine. You can set up shop in the playground or backyard, or even on a sidewalk, driveway or back porch. A sturdy picnic table will make aperfect setting for arts and crafts, or building projects and learning games.Carolyn Buhai Haas has written many creative activity books for parents, teachers, and childen. Her new book,Look at me: Activities for Babies and Toddlers is available for $6.95 plus $1.00 for postage and handling from CBH Publishing, Box 236-D, Glencoe, IL 60022.     

An afterschool intervention program for educationally disadvantaged young children

The research investigated the premise that if educationally disadvantaged children experience increased instructional time combined with an educational setting that is sensitive to their culture and that provides perceptions of control, enhanced achievement and interest in learning will result. The research setting was the Hilltop Emergent Literacy Project (HELP), an afterschool educational program serving poor, mostly African American five- to nine-year-olds (kindergarten to third grade) who reside in a subsidized apartment complex. A treatment group of 12 kindergartners was compared to a control group of 12 kindergartners. In the spring of kindergarten, the treatment group was outperforming the control group on standardized test scores, but both groups were below national norms. In the spring of first grade, the treatment group was still outperforming the control group and was above national norms in some areas. Report card data and qualitative indicators also provide evidence of the effectiveness of the program.We thank the Hilltop Emergent Literacy Project (HELP) head teachers Teresa Bunge and Diana Reamsnyder, the HELP students, and the many graduate and undergraduate students who have served at HELP. This program was partially funded through grants from the University of Toledo, Ohio Board of Regents, General Mills Foundation, and Toledo Public Schools.     

Object-naming deficits in developmental dyslexia

This paper reports two experiments which focus on the object naming deficits of dyslexic readers. In Experiment 1, dyslexic and normal readers were asked to name objects depicted by pictures or following their spoken definition. Ten-year-old dyslexics named fewer objects correctly than other children of a similar age, performing only as well as a younger group of 8-year-old normal readers. This was true irrespective of the modality through which they were tested. In terms of naming latency, however, they were similar to comparison groups. In Experiment 2, nine-year-old dyslexic and normal readers performed as well as each other in a receptive vocabulary test in which pictures had to be matched to spoken words. However, once again, on a picture naming test, the dyslexics did less well than controls. We argue that dyslexic children are subject to verbal naming difficulties which cannot be accounted for by generally low levels of vocabulary knowledge. Their problems are attributable not to difficulties in semantic representation but to difficulties with the lexical-phonological representation of spoken words they know. We propose that, in turn, these difficulties are related to their memory and reading problems.