Teaching-as-research internships: a model for the development of future chemistry faculty and the improvement of teaching in science,technology, engineering,and math

Over the past decade, the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UW-Madison) and Madison Area Technical College (Madison College) partnered to create an internship pathway for graduate students pursuing careers as future science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) faculty members. Since 2003, 10 doctoral students from the university completed teaching internship appointments with the technical college chemistry department. Interns benefited from a variety of teaching and educational experiences that helped lay the foundations for their future teaching careers. Following completion of their internships, many students secured employment in higher education as new instructors and enthusiastic members of the teaching profession. Intern projects also benefited veteran faculty mentors at Madison College, and the experience provided a rich forum for collaboration that generated curricular and instructional innovations in the classroom. Centered on the three pillars of teaching-as-research, learning community, and learning through diversity, the internship program created at UW-Madison and implemented at Madison College provides a model pathway for preparing future STEM faculty. This approach provides clear benefits not only for the future faculty who are trained, but also for veteran faculty mentors, for the host institution, and for the undergraduate students impacted by the educational innovations. This paper examines the key attributes of this program, with the hope that our experience may be disseminated and replicated to benefit others.     

Evolution of self-reporting methods for identifying discrete emotions in science classrooms

Emotion researchers have grappled with challenging methodological issues in capturing emotions of participants in naturalistic settings such as school or university classrooms. Self-reporting methods have been used frequently, yet these methods are inadequate when used alone. We argue that the self-reporting methods of emotion diaries and cogenerative dialogues can be helpful in identifying in-the-moment emotions when used in conjunction with the microanalysis of video recordings of classroom events. We trace the evolution of our use of innovative self-reporting methods through three cases from our research projects, and propose new directions for our ongoing development and application of these methods in both school and university classrooms.     

“I have to be three steps ahead”: Academically Gifted African American Male Students in an Urban High School on the Tension between an Ethnic and Academic Identity

This case study investigation of three Academically Gifted African American male high school seniors in a predominantly African American urban high school examines the interplay between their ethnic and academic identity. Using an embedded micro-ethnographic approach, we explore the extent to which these students value educational attainment, the extent to which they connect with their ethnicity, and those “significant others” who inhibit or dissuade the development of their ethnic and/or academic identity. Consistent with the conclusions of more recent educational literature, findings indicate participants in this investigation value the purpose and intent of schooling and the mobility associated with it, express “Blackness” is an essential component of their academic achievement and overall self concept, and credit people within their immediate social network for opening their eyes to social injustices within the world at an early age. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Pursuing their own learning agenda: How mastery-oriented students jeopardize their class performance

This study explored why mastery-based achievement goals often are unrelated to class grades despite promoting deep learning strategies and high course interest. We hypothesized that mastery-oriented students jeopardize their exam performance by allowing their individual interests to dictate their study efforts such that they neglect boring topics in favor of preferred ones. General Psychology students (N = 260) reported their achievement goals, interest in the course material, and usage of various study strategies. Supporting the hypothesis, path analysis showed that mastery-oriented students allocated their study efforts disproportionately to the personally interesting material, and this in turn predicted low grades in the class. Performance-oriented students did not show this pattern. Theoretical implications and new research directions are discussed.     

The utility of a standard composite for forecasting academic performance in several liberal arts colleges

In this study, one linear discriminant function of four admissions scores was found to exhaust more than 90% of their predictive power for separating 16 college/level-of-achievement groups — i.e., high- and low-performing freshman women at each of eight liberal arts colleges. Moreover, the corresponding discriminant score yielded validity coefficients vs freshman- and senior-level continuous grade-average criteria within each college comparable to coefficients yielded by group-specific, regression-weighted composites of the four scores in cross-validation samples. Results of the study suggest that multiple-discriminant analysis provides a rigorous and practical basis for adding an important and largely unexplored between-group dimension to studies in the prediction of within-group performance.     

The superior college teacher from the students' view

This analysis attempts a systematic synthesis of the rather large body of research on college students' views on teaching and their assessment of the effectiveness of various attitudes, behaviors, and pedagogical practices of instructors. Across studies, the following characteristics are consistently associated with superior college teachers or teaching (as determined in a variety of ways): stimulation of interest; clarity and understandableness; knowledge of subject matter; preparation for, and organization of, the course; and enthusiasm for the subject matter and for teaching. Friendliness (concern and respect for students), helpfulness (availability), and openness to others' opinions (encouragement of class questions and discussion) are characteristics that students say they prefer in teachers (especially when they freely describe their ideal or best teacher and the characteristics they see as important to good teaching). However, a teacher's standing on these characteristics appears not to be particularly important to students' global assessment of their actual teachers on teacher-evaluation questionnaires. Finally, relative to other characteristics, certain regulative activities of the instructor are typically and consistently lower in importance for superior teaching, at least by the several indicators used in the studies under review. The analysis concludes with interpretations and cautions.     

Humble and hopeful: Welcoming first‐generation poor and working‐class students to college

Students who are the first in their family to enter higher education join a rarified and often mystifying culture of rules, rites, and rituals. A first‐generation working‐class college student who became a faculty member offers his insights and recommendations after forty years in the academy.