Predictors of Self-Reported Likelihood of Working with Older Adults

This study examined the self-reported likelihood of working with older adults in a future career among 237 college undergraduates at a midsized Midwestern university. Although aging anxiety was not significantly related to likelihood of working with older adults, those students who had a greater level of death anxiety were less likely than other students to report a future likelihood of working with older adults. In addition, quality relationships with unrelated older adults were positively correlated with likelihood of working with older adults. Recommendations for future research and ideas for attracting college students to gerontology as a career are discussed.     

Not Another Trend: Secondary-Level Literacy Coaching

Literacy coaching on the secondary-level offers new strategies for teachers across academic disciplines. In their own words, teachers describe their experience with working with literacy coaches over a two year period in a Pennsylvania school district.     

Integration of Personal/Professional Self (IPPS) Through Reflective/Experiential Learning

This mixed-method in vivo exploratory study examines the learning strategies that prepare students for social work practice and shows that these strategies can make a measurable difference. Though many authors have called for self-awareness to promote cultural sensitivity, the concept of the integrated personal/professional self has not previously been defined, operationalized, or formally validated with any instrument. From 1999 to 2004, a total of 24 Title IV-E stipend students explored personal life issues through an individualized “SELF” course. Thematic analyses and t-tests of alumni data showed significant improvement in cognitive and ethical development, burnout reduction, and competency enhancement by participation in SELF.     

George W. Bush and the war on women. Turning back the clock on progress

The debate about access to higher education in Ireland has been linked to the debate about educational equality and socio-economic disadvantage. Most of the discussion so far has centred on mechanisms for gaining entry to higher education institutions - establishing access and foundation courses, increasing numbers of non-traditional entrants and generating modular and credit-based programs. The findings from research undertaken at both the National University of Ireland at Maynooth and Dublin, explored the experience of mature students returning to university. The findings indicate that questions of equality and disadvantage in the university are not only concerned with access, but also with accessibility - what happens to mature students when they arrive in college. This paper goes on to reconstruct the conflict between the common-sense knowledge of the returning student and the college knowledge of the academy in a way that identifies a collaborative and democratic discourse as providing a way of transcending the false dichotomies of common versus college knowledge. Habermas' ideal speech situation and theory of communicative action are identified as providing a framework for this task. In relying on this set of ideas the case is made for linking higher education and adult education with the quest for democracy and a more just and caring world.     

When enough is too much: Communication apprehension and employee information experiences

This study examines the relationships between supervisor communication apprehension, employee communication apprehension, and employees' reports of information received from their supervisor. Results indicated that supervisor communication apprehension was negatively related to employees' reports of information received. Employee communication apprehension and employees' reports of information received from supervisors were not significantly related. Supervisor communication apprehension was negatively related to the information load reported by employees. Finally, a positive relationship was identified between employee communication apprehension and the information load reported by employees.     

Willingness to communicate: Antecedents & consequences

Willingness to communicate (WTC) is examined at the trait and state levels, which are viewed as complementary. Measures of trait WTC, extraversion, emotional stability, self‐esteem, communication apprehension, and competence were administered to 226 male and female university students. A structural equation model examined the hypothesized antecedents to WTC and revealed a good fit to the data. Seventy of the participants also volunteered for a communication laboratory. Trait WTC was related to volunteering for the lab portion of the study and state WTC was related to initiating a difficult communication task. Also, state perceived competence predicted both time and number of ideas on an easy speaking task; state anxiety predicted time and number of ideas on a difficult speaking task.     

Peer communication relationships and psychological climate

This study examined the association between psychological climate and the types of communication relationships employees form with their peers. 194 teachers completed a questionnaire measuring psychological climate. They also reported their proportions of information, collegial and special peer relationships. Perceptions of the organization's climate were associated with the types of communication relationships employees form with their peers. These associations were moderated, in part, by gender, suggesting that men and women differ significantly in the ways they approach friendships at work. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Communications research and the rule of law: An opportunity for access to judicial decision making

This essay argues that students of communication should become more immediately involved in legal decision making by targeting behavioral research at topics under litigation and by pressing their studies as friends of the courts. The judiciary is the component of the American political system most receptive to institutional reform. Yet, communications research input is virtually non‐existent in at least two critical areas of First Amendment legal theory. The means whereby scholarship from our field can be brought to bear on the judiciary are easily attainable if the Supreme Court's long standing challenge is accepted.     

Graduate student/faculty mentoring relationships: Who gets mentored,how it happens,and to what end

Given the importance of mentoring in the academic context, this study proposed five objectives. Analyses of surveys from 145 students across 12 universities and diverse disciplines, revealed first of all, a demographic profile of the typical graduate student protégé and faculty mentor. Second, ten diverse communication strategies emerged that demonstrate how students initiate a mentoring relationship. Third, protégé evaluations of their initiation attempts revealed their efforts to be somewhat ineffective and unduly difficult. Fourth, students reported their mentors to provide primarily psychosocial, rather than career support. And fifth, proteges characterized their mentoring relationships as extremely positive and satisfying. Results throughout are, for the most part, independent of both protégé and mentor demographics (including ethnicity).     

The Development of Prospective Secondary Biology Teachers PCK

In order to understand how prospective teachers develop knowledge for teaching, researchers must identify the types of knowledge that are integral to effective science teaching. This case study investigated how 4 prospective secondary biology teachers’ science teaching orientations, knowledge of science learners, and knowledge of instructional sequence, developed during a post-baccalaureate teacher education program. Data sources included a lesson planning task and two interview-observation cycles during the participants’ year-long internship. Over the course of a year, the participants’ science teaching orientations were based primarily on their K-16 learning experiences, and were robust and highly resistant to change. The prospective teachers became more aware of student learning difficulties, and therefore, developed more elaborated knowledge of the requirements of learning. They consistently sequenced instruction in ways that gave priority to transmitting information to students. Prospective teachers’ development of knowledge of student understanding of science and instructional sequence were congruent with their science teaching orientations. Implications are given for teacher education and future research.