IMPROVING THE PASS RATES OF COMMUNITY-COLLEGE STUDENTS ON CERTIFICATION EXAMINATIONS

ABSTRACT

Due to the implementation of a performance-based funding plan, community colleges in North Carolina must attain a minimum percentage of students successfully passing licensure and certification examinations. To meet this mandate, Catawba Valley Community College implemented a basic skills component, with minimum academic standards, to assist students in achieving success. This study found these measures significant in improving student pass rates on the EMT-Basic certification examination, despite nonsignificance related to student age or education levels.     

COURSE ATTRITION: A 5‐YEAR PERSPECTIVE ON WHY STUDENTS DROP CLASSES

This article describes results of an ongoing course attrition study conducted at 1 large, suburban community college. The study was designed to determine which classes were most often dropped, reasons students cited for deciding to drop classes, and other factors that may have impacted decisions to drop. The findings that indicate factors over which the college had little control were the most frequently cited reasons for dropping classes — work conflicts and personal problems. However, factors over which the college may have some control also appeared to contribute to decisions to drop classes in a substantial number ofinstances. The impact of findings from these studies and changes in methodology and survey design over time will provide institutional researchers with helpful suggestions for implementing similar studies at their institutions.     

Before Student Teaching: How Undergraduate Students in Early Childhood Teacher Preparation Programs Describe Their Early Classroom-Based Experience

Classroom-based experiences, alternatively known as practica, are an integral component of undergraduate teacher preparation programs, which provide students essential opportunities to apply knowledge in practice. Though much is known about student teaching, much less is known about students’ earlier classroom-based experiences. This qualitative study explores how early childhood care and education students describe their early classroom-based experience. Thirty-four students enrolled in a teacher preparation program participated in interviews, submitted journals, and responded to survey questions about their early classroom-based experience. Results are presented in terms of how students talk about their experiences—belonging or not belonging in the classroom—and what students talk about when discussing their experiences, including communication, support, freedom, new learning, and “the children.” These themes are discussed in terms of students’ experiences in the classroom and implications for undergraduate teacher preparation in early childhood education.     

Developing Teachers' Classroom Interactions: A Description of a Video Review Process for Early Childhood Education Students

This article describes a video review process for providing feedback to students and documents students' teaching practices using the CLASS in a practicum course and student teaching. Students videotaped themselves in their field-based settings and then met with the course instructors and classmates in small groups to review strengths and challenges of their teaching using the CLASS framework of teacher–child interactions. These videos were also coded by trained CLASS observers across 10 dimensions in the areas of emotional support, classroom organization, and instructional support. Results from preservice teachers' CLASS ratings indicate a pattern similar to national data sets using the CLASS, higher scores in the emotional support and classroom organization domains than in the domain of instructional support. Also, findings from the current study revealed that CLASS scores declined from students' practicum placement to the end of student teaching in the domain of emotional support and specifically in the dimensions of regard for student perspectives and behavior management. The process of using videos for providing feedback in field-based experiences is discussed as well as implications for teacher development in light of students' CLASS scores and changes in CLASS scores.     

Exploring Early Childhood Teachers’ Beliefs and Practices About Preschool Outdoor Play: A Qualitative Study

This qualitative case study explored how early childhood teachers’ beliefs and practices influence the function of preschool outdoor play. Teachers believed that supervision was paramount. They perceived that the physical design of the outdoor environment posed limitations for planning, preparation, and implementation. Teachers’ recollections of their own childhood outdoor activities provided a shared value of freedom during play. Yet, during outdoor play teachers displayed an adherence to rules or a “philosophy-reality conflict” (Hatch & Freeman, 1988, p. 158). Teachers believed that outdoor play is important to the development of young children; however, minimal knowledge of outdoor play and motivation to promote it was not evident.     

Assessing the contribution of collections of case studies to academic development in higher education

The purpose of this article is to provide a critical review of the motivating factors, processes and outcomes pertaining to learning‐centred curriculum reform in higher education. A case study example is provided from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia. Although academic units on university campuses tend to present many unique contextual challenges, and are at different stages in curriculum re‐design, useful lessons can be learned across settings without “re‐inventing the wheel,” or falling into similar implementation problems. A flexible framework, guiding principles and strategic approach to developing and implementing learning‐centred curricula are provided to assist academic developers. Curricular reform has implications for learning communities, planning, assessment and programming in higher education.     

Constitution

An ecological theory of health communication is offered that addresses how communications about health interdependently work together to influence health and/or health‐related behaviors. To explain how a multitude of variables work together in a synergistic manner, the present work borrows heavily from chaos theory. The use of chaos theory concepts represents a significant paradigm shift from previous, more reductionist, health communication perspectives. The present work (a) provides a definition of health communication, (b) offers an overall health communication framework, (c) introduces relevant chaos theory concepts into the health communication literature, and (d) illustrates how chaos theory concepts can be applied to the field of health communication in order to explain health‐related behavior. Specific operationalization procedures are suggested to test the theoretical ideas outlined.