Developing and Implementing a Moodle-Ares Integration for Physical and Electronic Reserves at a Small Liberal Arts College

Reacting to the popularity of reserves and as part of an ongoing merger of circulation, interlibrary loan, and reserves into a fully integrated access services department, DePauw University purchased and implemented Atlas Systems’ Ares reserves software. As part of that implementation, a campus programmer designed interface integration between Moodle, the campus course management software, and Ares. Despite setbacks and complications along the way, the implementation was successful; both faculty and students have provided positive feedback, and staff members are able to process material faster and more accurately. We hope to deepen Ares's integration with both Moodle and with our integrated library system and public catalog as time goes on.     

Questioning Questions: Elementary Teachers’ Adaptations of Investigation Questions Across the Inquiry Continuum

Questioning is a central practice in science classrooms. However, not every question translates into a “good” science investigation. Questions that drive science investigations can be provided by many sources including the teacher, the curriculum, or the student. The variations in the source of investigation questions were explored in this study. A dataset of 120 elementary science classroom videos and associated lesson plans from 40 elementary teachers (K-5) across 21 elementary school campuses were scored on an instrument measuring the amount of teacher-direction or student-direction of the lessons’ investigation questions. Results indicated that the investigation questions were overwhelmingly teacher directed in nature, with no opportunities for students to develop their own questions for investigation. This study has implications for researchers and practitioners alike, calling attention to the teacher-directed nature of investigation questions in existing science curriculum materials, and the need for teacher training in instructional strategies to adapt their existing curriculum materials across the continuum of teacher-directed and student-directed investigation questions. Teachers need strategies for adapting the teacher-directed questions provided in their existing curriculum materials in order to allow students the opportunity to engage in this essential scientific practice.     

Old books

The Orator's Assistant. By Alexander Thomas. “Worcester, Mass.: Alexander Thomas, 1797.

The Pious Instructor. By Daniel Cooledge. “Walpole, N. H.: Charter and Hale, 1806.

Le Maitre des Orateurs Populaires, Etude sur la prédication de Jesus. Par Auguste Bouvier. Paris: Librarie Fischbacher, 1892: pp. 88.     

Experimenting with global governance: understanding the potential for generational change

The appropriate role for the United Nations in international dispute resolution is a matter of high profile discussion and controversy. This paper begins with this ambivalence about the appropriate role for the United Nations in the world and examines several sets of issues that relate to the future of support for the UN within the US and the prospects for global governance more generally. First, we briefly review two thematic strands in previous and contemporary scholarship:(1) arguments for increased global governance in contemporary world affairs, driven by perceptions of the changing nature of the political, social, economic and military challenges in the contemporary world system. This debate is also put in the context of the relevance of public support for global governance institutions; and (2) why it is valuable to study how the current generation of adolescents perceive issues of global governance and the impact that their views may have on that nexus in the coming years. We then move to an analysis of data generated from an experimental study of American adolescents and their attitudes toward global governance.     

Two is the Beginning of the End: Peter Pan and the Doctrine of Reminiscence

This article considers J.M. Barrie’s satirical treatment of the Platonic doctrine of reminiscence in Peter Pan, and how Barrie’s work both honors and undercuts it. It will first analyze the Platonic notion of the doctrine of reminiscence in Wordsworth’s “Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood” (1807). It will then show its influence on Victorian literature in the depiction of the exalted perception and moral purity of children, and how Barrie satirizes these ideals by underscoring the ignorance and savage qualities of the children in Peter Pan. The essay will also explore the portrayal of the Eden of childhood in Wordsworth’s poem (as influenced by Plato), and how Barrie subverts this utopia by presenting a dystopic world where Darwinian principles rule. Like Darwin, Barrie argues for a natural rather than a divine origin of species and demonstrates the struggle for existence in a profoundly disturbing way. Finally, the essay will contemplate the subject of immortality and how, far from being an idealized condition as in Wordsworth’s poetry, it is a far more ambivalent state in Peter Pan.