Substantial Integration of Typical Educational Games Into Extended Curricula

Much research focuses on what might be possible with digital games in the classroom. This study focuses on what is currently probable and typical. It uses a controlled quasi-experimental design to compare outcomes for students of 13 teachers in 10 diverse urban, suburban, and rural schools. The teachers integrated a set of 55 typical educational games into their curricula on Jacksonian democracy. Teachers reported strong engagement benefits for the game condition and a strong interest in using games of this type in the future in their surveys and interviews. Each teacher taught at least one classroom with the games and at least one classroom without the games. When the one teacher who reported a failed implementation was dropped from the analysis, the results showed significantly higher gains for the game condition in terms of multiple-choice factual outcomes, open-response factual outcomes, evidentiary depth, and student engagement outcomes. When the failed implementation was included, the game condition demonstrated improved scores for all outcomes, but only student engagement and evidentiary depth remained significant. Moderator analyses highlighted the role of teacher experience and student engagement in the efficacy of the game condition, indicating that game instruction was particularly beneficial for special education students.     

Trial and Error: How Student Affairs Staff in Community Colleges Learn to Supervise

Supervisory skills play an important role in individual staff development and the achievement of organizational objectives. These skills are vital to professionals in community college student affairs, who support a diverse student population and a wide array of programming. This study was conducted to describe the kind of supervisory training experience student affairs professionals received. Through interviews with community college student affairs professionals, we found that many experienced a lack of formal training and acquired supervisory skills over time on the job, through trial and error, and from workshops.     

Demographic profiling of British Olympic equestrian athletes in the twenty-first century

Analyses of the determinants for participation in specific sports have been neglected and the use of demographic profiling in equestrian sports is limited. The aim of this research was to compare demographic profiles of British Olympic equestrian athletes, across and within disciplines, and suggest implications for the national federation’s micro-level athlete development strategy. Data were collected about all Team GB equestrian competitors over the last five Olympic Games. Equestrian sports are not organised by sex segregation, however no female showjumping competitors have represented Team GB in the twenty-first century. Competitors ranged in age over five decades and support the unusual early start-late specialisation paradigm, introduced by the national federation in 2007. Horse ownership is unusual amongst competitors, although it is more common amongst male athletes. The inter-athlete variation and inter-discipline variation these athletes show post challenges to the single development strategy currently in use.     

Not Just the Hangars of World War II: American Aviation Museums and the Role of Memorial

Abstract In aviation museums throughout the United States, World War II aircraft have become crucial objects in shaping a narrative of memorial for millions of people. The museums' warehousing function allows them to be both the long‐term home of these wondrous and resonant airplanes, and the collective “hangar” of our commemorations. These museums offer reasons for serious study, since in many respects our mental images of World War II are constructed within aviation museums. This article explores the narrative of memorial through illustrations from four representative institutions, and examines one of the anomalies, the case of the Enola Gay.     

Generative Paradox in Learner-Centered College Teaching

The discussion identifies six contradictions that characterize the emergent learner-centered teaching role: (a) control/flow, (b) facilitator/evaluator, (c) teacher learning/student learning, (d) subject expert/teaching expert, (e) caring for students/caring for self, and (f) individual mentor/group leader. Key concepts are presented (conflict, compartmentalized paradox, and generative paradox) which represent points on a continuum of the degree to which college teachers have successfully integrated these fundamental contradictions in the learner-centered teaching role. This article extends an ongoing discussion of integrity in learner-centered teaching by providing a conceptual paradigm and examples for developing consistently productive responses to these six fundamental contradictions in learner-centered teaching.Douglas Reimondo Robertson (Ph.D., Syracuse University) is Assistant Provost for Professional Development Programs and Professor of Educational Leadership at Northern Kentucky University. His most recent line of research focuses on further developing the emergent concept and practice of learner-centered college teaching.     

ACTUAL AND PERCEIVED U.S. PUBLIC OPINION: THE SPIRAL OF SILENCE DURING THE PERSIAN GULF WAR

This study analyzes actual and perceived support for the PersianGulf War in the United States. Data were collected from 292residents of New Castle County, Delaware, during the 1991 GulfWar. Results show that support for the war was not the strongconsensus reported in mainstream media. In fact, 53.1 percentof the respondents fell within the neutral, disagree, or stronglydisagree ranges of a support for the war scale. Only 6.6 percentof the respondents were in the strong support range. However,responses were significantly higher on an item measuring perceivedsupport for the war. Consistent with Noelle-Neumann's spiralof silence theory, perceived public support for the war wasa significant predictor of support for the war even after 13variables were controlled. The alternative explanation thatsubjects were ‘projecting’ their own perceptionsonto the public, is discounted by the finding that liberals,moderates and conservatives did not differ in their perceptionsof public support.