Strengthening collaborative capacity: experiences from a short,intensive field course on ecosystems,health and society

A key capacity for engagement in the emerging field of ecohealth is the ability to work collaboratively. Between 2008 and 2010, the Canadian Community of Practice in Ecosystem Approaches to Health collectively designed and delivered three foundational, intensive, field courses. This paper presents findings derived from both quantitative and qualitative student course evaluation survey data. New insights arise around: the diverse opportunities for learning collaboratively in order to tackle complex socio-ecological issues, the social dynamics of collaborative relationships and learning, and the learning challenges that arise during intensive field courses. The lessons learned from these foundational years have enhanced understanding of the interrelated contributions to collaborative learning and relationship building and their relevance to addressing issues spanning ecosystems, health and society.     

Organizational Identification: A Mixed Methods Study Exploring Students’ Relationship with Their University

Organizational identification (OID) is the outcome of social construction processes in which individuals define themselves in terms of their organizational membership. Students’ identification with their university reflects value congruence with the institution and is reflected in communication. Drawing on social identity theory (SIT) and utilizing quantitative and qualitative data from students (n = 555), we found relationships between OID and construed external image of the university, trust in the university, satisfaction with the university, perceived interorganizational competition, and outcomes, including intended future involvement. Students were re-surveyed nine months later (n = 397, with 83 respondents matching Time 1 and Time 2) to assess their OID stability. Open-ended responses describe situations and events that strengthen/lessen OID. We offer implications for OID, SIT, and for organizational communication research and practice.     

Beyond the Black–White Binary of U.S. Race Relations: A Next Step in Religious Education

Abstract

Many if not most people in the academy as well as the public sphere tend to regard race and racism in the United States in terms of a default frame of reference (i.e., a paradigm): the black–white binary. Although this frame is constructive as well as compelling, it displays serious liabilities. This article outlines, for religious educators, nine expressions of the black–white paradigm—three variations of the binary, three approaches from black studies/theology, and three models that express efforts to transcend binary thinking. A concluding comparative exercise illustrates how participants may discern, address, and ideally revise the paradigm.     

Bringing Student Responsibility to Life: Avenues to Personalizing High Schools for Student Success

This study examines how school structures and policies shape school culture to ultimately influence student success in one urban high school. We develop a model that explains how caring and personalized connections between students and teachers, coupled with a focus on academic press and support, interact with teacher efficacy to influence student self-efficacy, student attachment to school, and ultimately greater student achievement. We collected data through focus group and individual interviews with students, teachers, and leaders, classroom observations, and school artifacts. Data were analyzed using the constant comparative method allowing for the emergence of important patterns. The data revealed several interrelated structures and processes that support teacher and student efficacy and ultimately instill in students a responsibility for their own learning. This case study highlights the need for administrators to develop buy-in from teachers around a cohesive vision in order for structural reforms to be effective.     

Analysis of Propagation Plans in NSF-Funded Education Development Projects

Increasing adoption and adaptation of promising instructional strategies and materials has been identified as a critical component needed to improve science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This paper examines typical propagation practices and resulting outcomes of proposals written by developers of educational innovations. These proposals were analyzed using the Designing for Sustained Adoption Assessment Instrument (DSAAI), an instrument developed to evaluate propagation plans, and the results used to predict the likelihood that a successful project would result in adoption by others. We found that few education developers propose strong propagation plans. Afterwards, a follow-up analysis was conducted to see which propagation strategies developers actually used to help develop, disseminate, and support their innovations. A web search and interviews with principal investigators were used to determine the degree to which propagation plans were actually implemented and to estimate adoption of the innovations. In this study, we analyzed 71 education development proposals funded by the National Science Foundation and predicted that 80% would be unsuccessful in propagating their innovations. Follow-up data collection with a subset of these suggests that the predictions were reasonably accurate.     

New Zealand Māori-medium teacher education: an examination of students’ academic confidence and preparedness

Little research has been concerned with gauging Māori–medium teacher education students’ academic confidence in bilingual settings making the development of appropriate curricula and broad policy a difficult task. Drawing on a convenience sample of 84 primary teacher education students on a three-year B.Ed Māori-medium program, this study uses self-reported measures to assess students’ academic confidence and preparedness in English and Māori. Results suggest that the students are less academically confident in Māori than in English, and that this discrepancy is most pronounced in academic speaking and reading. Consequently, it is proposed that curriculum developers place emphasis on the development of both Māori academic speaking and reading throughout the course of Māori-medium teacher education programs. Finally, it is argued that standardised assessments that track both confidence and preparedness, and the productive and receptive abilities of Māori-medium teacher education students throughout university would bolster the regeneration of Māori-medium education in New Zealand.     

Using Least-to-Most Assistive Prompt Hierarchy to Increase Child Compliance with Teacher Directives in Preschool Classrooms

Prompt strategies have been used to increase the compliance of preschool-aged children to teacher directives. This paper describes two experiments conducted to determine if classroom teachers could learn to use the LtM prompt hierarchy and if child compliance would increase in response to teacher behavior. This study builds on the current literature base by using prompting, specifically LtM with the additional requirement of teacher-child proximity and teacher-child eye level prior to beginning the prompt sequence, which is consistent with recommended practice in early childhood (Copple and Bredekamp, Developmentally appropriate practice in early childhood programs (revised edition), National Association for the Education of Young Children, Washington, DC, 2009). The participants consisted of 6 preschool teachers, with varying levels of education and experience, across 2 different early childhood classrooms. Teacher prompts and children's completion of teacher directives were measured during free choice center time. Results were consistent with previous research in that compliance to teacher directives increased in preschool children with the implementation of the LtM.     

Distress Tolerance and Emotion Regulation: Promoting Maternal Well-Being Across the Transition to Parenthood

Objective. This study examined the association between newborns’ daily crying and five measures of new mothers’ emotional states. Design. One hundred seven new mothers responded via a one-time, anonymous, online survey that assessed their stress, well-being, emotion regulation, frustration, and coping skills. Mothers also reported their infant’s daily cry duration. Results. Average daily crying was related to mothers’ emotional experiences, and relations also existed among the five mental health measures. Regression models indicate the strongest predictors of frustration were infant’s average cry duration, maternal well-being, and infant’s health status at enrollment. Conclusion. Mental health professionals can support families through the normative, but often stressful, experience of their infant’s cries. However, a re-evaluation of the clinical criteria for excessive crying is needed, as the results suggest that mothers whose infants cry considerably less than the widely used Wessel’s 3-hour-per-day criterion for excessive crying experience significant negative mental health.     

“I am in School!”: African American Male Youth in a Prison/College Hybrid Figured World

Educational programs are seen as a vehicle for improving the educational experiences and life outcomes for youthful offenders. In 1998 North Carolina started the Workplace and Community Transition Youth Offender Program (YOP). The program offers youth post-secondary educational courses. Our study examines 2007–2009 data from YOP youth participating in the program. Using students’ voices our study shows that YOP not only decreases recidivism drastically, but has a personal impact in the youth participants’ lives. YOP provides a space of change that is not prison or a traditional college. The hybrid figured world provides an opportunity for African American male youth to re/author themselves creating new hybrid identities. The youth author themselves as students versus inmates. These new identities and educational competencies have potentially long term benefits for youth offenders and for communities.