Problems & Prospects Revisited: Bursik’s Mark on Chicago‐Style Criminology

It has been 20 years since Robert J. Bursik Jr. published his seminal article outlining some of the problems and prospects in the social disorganization perspective on crime and delinquency. In this study, we review the content of approximately 200 published articles that cite Bursik’s 1988 piece. These studies are systematically examined in terms of their efforts to overcome the problems and pursue the prospects that Bursik outlined. In addition to content analysis, we survey the authors who cite this work. That is, we gather data from the authors directly to assess the influence of Bursik’s article on their own published work. Our research finds that Bursik’s work played a significant role in the revitalization and expansion of social disorganization theory.     

WRITING ACROSS THE CURRICULUM PROGRAMS IN NEW JERSEY'S PUBLIC COLLEGES

Since 1976 in response to growing concern about college students’ writing abilities, faculty development programs on writing across the curriculum have arisen in a number of two‐ and four‐year colleges throughout the United States. This movement, for it seems to be one, has its roots in a similar movement that began more than 15 years ago in British secondary schools. This paper first reviews briefly the early history of the movement in England and compares the movement there to the one now under way in U.S. higher education. It then presents the results of a questionnaire survey of New Jersey's public two‐ and four‐year colleges undertaken in the spring of 1979. The purpose of the survey was to determine whether and to what extent New Jersey's public colleges had started or were planning to start development programs designed to bring groups of faculty together, across disciplines, to discuss problems relating to student writing performance and to develop specific interdisciplinary plans for solving these problems. In addition, information is presented about the nature of the steps taken in those institutions that reported having initiated such programs and about the efforts to evaluate the impact of these programs. Finally, conclusions are drawn about the state of writing across the curriculum programs in New Jersey public higher education and recommendations are made for further action in this direction.     

Results of a Pilot Study to Investigate Community College Student Perceptions of the Value of an Online Health-Risk Reduction Program

Health is associated with academic success. Universal, web-based interventions to reduce risks associated with alcohol and other drug use have been found to be effective at changing four-year college students’ health behaviors. An online health program may also be well-suited to a community college population, as it can reach students off campus and can be accessed at times that are convenient for students. The purpose of the current paper is to report the results of a community college student evaluation of a fully-developed, online health risk reduction program. One hundred and thirty four students evaluated the program. Students perceived the program to be successful at addressing college health and wellness issues, and they considered it a tool that could help students make a healthy adjustment to college. A universal, online, health-risk reduction program may have the potential to be a useful component of a community college's overall prevention strategy.     

The Teacher as Creative Artist: Harold O. Rugg: 1886‐1960

IN AN AGE OF MASS CONSUMPTION In our age of mass consumption, the ubiquity of commodification's many forms establishes and constitutes a significant fact of our everyday existence. A Starbucks on every corner. Between supermarket and superstore, supply almost never a problem. So much merchandise just a mouse click away. Nearly everything having its price. A product for every imaginable problem.     

Steps to Opening Scientific Inquiry: Pre-Service Teachers’ Practicum Experiences with a New Support Framework

This qualitative multiple-comparative case study investigates (1) The reported experiences and impressions of four pre-service teachers (PTs) on practicum placement in four different classrooms (grades 1–9) where a new Steps to Inquiry (SI) framework was being utilized to support students conducting open inquiry; (2) The relative dispositions of the PTs toward conducting open inquiry, as indicated by their core conceptions regarding science, the purpose of education, effective teaching, and the capacity of students. Findings indicate that (1) although there were differences in the experiences of the four PTs, all four had an opportunity to observe and/or facilitate students conducting open inquiry with the SI framework, and after the practicum, all of them reported that they would like to include open inquiry in their own classrooms in the future; (2) one PT already possessed core conceptions indicative of a favorable disposition toward open inquiry before the placement; another altered her core conceptions substantially toward a favorable disposition during the placement; a third altered her conceptions regarding the capacity of students; and one PT maintained core conceptions indicative of a disposition that was not favorable to open inquiry despite the pronouncements that she would like to conduct open inquiry with students in their own future classroom. Possible reasons for the differences in the responses of the four pre-services teachers to the practicum placement are discussed.     

Direct Behavioral Consultation in Head Start to Increase Teacher Use of Praise and Effective Instruction Delivery

Chronic disruptive behaviors during early childhood are associated with many poor developmental outcomes including, but not limited to, school dropout and conduct disorder during adolescence. Much is known regarding effective intervention procedures for disruptive classroom behaviors by preschool children. Unfortunately, evidence-based intervention procedures may not be implemented with integrity in applied settings. Direct behavioral consultation may increase teacher intervention integrity because of direct training procedures used with teachers and students during routine classroom activities. This study evaluated a nondisruptive direct training method for increasing Head Start teachers' use of praise and effective instruction delivery. Results indicated that the direct training procedure implemented during routine instructional activities resulted in increased use of praise and effective instruction delivery that maintained following training. Additionally, increased use of praise and effective instruction delivery resulted in reductions in children's disruptive classroom behavior.     

A New Disciplinarity: Communities of knowledge,learning and practice

The welcome new attention paid to subject teaching should have bridged the old divide between pedagogical and disciplinary research. But this paper argues that the focus on subject, rather than disciplinary communities is part of the commodification of higher education; that what is needed to re-energise both teachers and students is an inclusive new model of disciplinary education based on an engaged community's processes and practices. Each discipline, it is proposed, will model differently its practices, knowledge creation and dissemination, its writing, its community. The model may change received ideas about the focus and central concerns of the discipline, and in modelling disciplinary learning will change teaching and assessment. The model will be discipline specific and, as such, will resist generic and imposed 'skills and outcomes' frameworks. Evolving out of practice, rather than an external agenda, it should link disciplinary and pedagogical research so that they are mutually informing and transforming.     

Methods for assessing higher education research team collaboration: comparing research outputs and participant perceptions across four collaborative research teams

ABSTRACT

This article suggests that situations in which multiple research teams are convened under similar conditions present an opportunity to discover factors that lead to productive collaboration. It argues that social network analysis of research team outputs becomes more valuable when paired with data about research participant perceptions; and that any variables used as indicators of collaboration need to be calibrated using datasets from multiple studies with cross-team comparisons. The article provides an example of the kind of methodology needed to achieve this, describing a study with data from four research teams based at an Australian university campus, reporting their research performance over four years under conditions in which many variables were controlled and with results augmented by a survey of participant perceptions. Findings from the study indicate that there were exceptions to hypothesized associations between participant perceptions of collaboration and specific social network analysis measures over co-authorship data. The article suggests that, given the methodological challenges of studying research teams in the field, multiple datasets combining findings such as those in the present study are a path towards the development of indicators of productive higher education research collaboration.     

The relationship between behavioural integrity,competence, goodwill,trustworthiness, and motivating language of a principal

Utilising the oral language of a principal leading an inner-city at-risk elementary school in a large urban school district in the southwestern USA, the researchers tested behavioural integrity and the dimensions of source credibility (competence, goodwill, and trustworthiness) as antecedents to Motivating Language Theory and the ML Model. Teacher perception data at the Title I elementary school was used for this quantitative study. Over 95% of the teachers responded to a survey each year for a three-year period. Each year, there were statistically significant correlations between each of the antecedents and motivating language. The antecedents accounted for 66–75% of the total variance for motivating language depending on the year based on regression analysis. The results of this study extend the field of Motivating Language Theory and the ML Model, and further explain how the work of principals is accomplished.