Distributed Scaffolding in a Service-Learning Course

This article argues that the instructional scaffolding metaphor may be reconceived as distributed scaffolding when multiple means of influence are provided in a service-learning setting. In the service-learning course described here, the professor's role is largely as designer of activity settings for preservice teacher candidates, through which the students construct their own conceptions of teaching culturally diverse populations. The course involves a set of interrelated settings: a tutoring experience at the city's alternative high school; the reading of books from a menu of texts that cover a range of diversity topics; the discussion of these books in book club meetings independent of the professor's direct influence; and the whole-class discussion of these texts, led by each student book club. The distributed nature of the course scaffolding is illustrated with an excerpt from one book club's discussion.     

Purpose and Pedagogy: A Conceptual Model for an ePortfolio

This conceptual model emerged from the need to balance multiple purposes and perspectives associated with developing an ePortfolio designed to promote student development and success. A comprehensive review of literature from various disciplines, theoretical frameworks, and scholarship, including self-authorship, reflection, ePortfolio pedagogy, and the psychology of hope and goal setting, set the groundwork for the model. The Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis ePortfolio includes 4 domains: (a) increasing understanding of self and others, (b) setting self-concordant goals, (c) developing hope, and (d) shaping education and career plans with a focus on facilitating students’ ability to integrate learning to promote meaning making and the development of purpose.     

Models and messengers of resilience: a theoretical model of college students’ resilience,regulatory strategy use,and academic achievement

We tested a theoretical model of college students’ ratings of messengers of resilience and models of resilience, students’ own perceived resilience, regulatory strategy use and achievement. A total of 116 undergraduates participated in this study. The results of a path analysis indicated that ratings of models of resilience had a direct effect on students’ perceived resilience and that perceived resilience directly influenced regulatory strategy use (i.e. effort regulation, self-regulation and time management), which influenced academic achievement (as measured by grade point average). The implications of our findings are further discussed, along with avenues for future research.     

Supervision from a Guidance Orientation

The role of the college supervisor is sometimes misunderstood because this position may vary from institution to institution. Dr. Conroy defines three distinct levels of college supervision and examines the responsibilities associated with each.     

THE HIGHER EDUCATION CURRICULUM CRISIS

After presenting data collected from national random samples of administrators and data collected from faculty members in a few selected junior colleges and universities, the authors contend that critics of the undergraduate curriculum may indeed have a basis for their indictments. A set of policy proposals are then presented for consideration.     

A Quantitative Synthesis of Methodology in the Meta-Analysis of Single-Subject Research for Students with Disabilities: 1985–2009

The purpose of this review was to examine the methods used to conduct meta-analyses of single-subject research involving students with and at-risk for disabilities. Specifically, the procedures used for preparing, aggregating, analyzing, and evaluating single-subject data across 68 primary syntheses were examined. In addition to these methodological and reporting issues, the present review also considered various characteristics of syntheses to determine their overall prevalence and focus. Results of the review indicated that the publication rate of single-subject meta-analyses has increased considerably in recent years, focusing equally on students with high- and low-incidence disabilities. This review revealed considerable variability in the methods and procedures used to synthesize single-subject research. Based on these findings, suggestions for future single-subject meta-analyses were made.