Higher Education Trust, Rank and Race: A Conceptual and Empirical Analysis

This study involved an analysis of faculty trust in a large southwestern institution. After reviewing the literature, we identified a valid and reliable instrument, the Higher Education Faculty Trust Inventory, to measure higher education faculty trust in administrators, colleagues, and students. We then used this instrument to gauge various aspects of faculty trust, and we found significant trust differences among professors of varying academic ranks (i.e., adjunct, assistant, associate, and full professor). We found, however, no significant trust differences in regard to race. Finally, we discuss the findings within a context of implications for future research and practice in higher education. Page A. Smith received his B.S. in Education from Wright State University, M.S. in Educational Administration from the University of Dayton, M.A. in Educational Administration from The Ohio State University and his Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Leadership from The Ohio State University. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research pursuits include organizational climate and health, institutional trust, workplace aggression and bullying, and leadership development. Alan R. Shoho received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering from California State University at Fullerton, M.Ed. in Secondary Education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and his Ed.D. in Secondary Education from Arizona State University. He is an Associate Professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. His research interests include aspiring principals, high school reform, and organizational trust.     

Are there long-term consequences of pain in newborn or very young infants?

Physiologic studies indicate that very early pain or stress experiences have more than immediate consequences for infants. Assessment and care of pain are complex subjects made even more complex and challenging when the individual experiencing pain is a very young infant. This review provides evidence that significant and long-lasting physiological consequences may follow painful insults in the very young, including changes in the central nervous system and changes in responsiveness of the neuroendocrine and immune systems to stress at maturity.     

University-level teaching of Anthropogenic Global Climate Change (AGCC) via student inquiry

This paper reviews university-level efforts to improve understanding of anthropogenic global climate change (AGCC) through curricula that enable student scientific inquiry. We examined 152 refereed publications and proceedings from academic conferences and selected 26 cases of inquiry learning that overcome specific challenges to AGCC teaching. This review identifies both the strengths and weaknesses of each of these case studies. It is the first to go beyond examining the impact of specific inquiry instructional approaches to offer a synthesis of cases. We find that inquiry teaching can succeed by concretising scientific processes, providing access to global data and evidence, imparting critical and higher order thinking about AGCC science/policy and contextualising learning with places and scientific facts. We recommend educational researchers and scientists collaborate to create and refine curricula that utilise geospatial technologies, climate models and communication technologies to bring students into contact with scientists, climate data and authentic AGCC research processes. Many available science education technologies and curricula also require further research to maximise trade-offs between implementation and training costs and their educational value.     

The dissertation examination: identifying critical factors in the success of Indigenous Australian doctoral students

Indigenous Australians represent 2.2% of the working age population, yet account for only 1.4% of all university enrolments. In relation to higher degree research students, Indigenous Australians account for 1.1% of enrolments, but only 0.8% of all higher degree research completions. This paper reports on findings that emerged from an Australian Research Council-funded study which aimed to establish a model of best practice for the supervision of Indigenous doctoral students. The project identified the dissertation examination as one of the critical factors underpinning the success of doctoral candidates. Whilst research into the examination process for doctoral students is limited, the research that specifically explores the examination of dissertations submitted by Indigenous students is entirely inadequate. Our research identified key epistemological concerns that impact approaches to the examination process, to demonstrate how the dominance of Western methods of research impact the examination process for Indigenous doctoral students. This paper explores the experiences of 50 successful Indigenous Australian doctors with a specific focus on their examiner preference and disciplinary requirements. It highlights the limitations that some Indigenous students and their supervisors experience in finding an appropriate examiner.     

媒介素养教学方法和教师培训

由于全球文化急剧变化以及素养在提高个人、社会和文化发展中的作用,如今的素养概念已经扩展为包括数字、视觉和电子媒介以及流行文化在内的一种内涵;这也就提升了媒介素养教育对个人和社会发展的重要意义。开展媒介素养教育可以在正规和非正规教育环境下进行,它将对学生学习动机的激发、师生关系的改善、公民技能的提高产生作用。     

An Evaluation of Three Interdisciplinary Social Science Events Outside of the College Classroom

This article describes three interdisciplinary events held outside of the classroom to examine social psychological concepts in the criminal justice system, with undergraduate students enrolled in criminal justice and psychology courses. These events can most accurately be described as using a synthetic interdisciplinary approach, in which the disciplines of psychology and criminal justice remain clearly identifiable in looking at phenomena like occurrences of bystander apathy, while enabling a holistic view of these phenomena. First, 75 students celebrated the life of Kitty Genovese, a famous victim of bystander apathy. Later in the semester, the same students competed in a game-show-like review session. Finally, 45 students explored the intersection of the mental health and criminal justice systems with professionals from various fields. Overall, students enjoyed the social interaction with their peers across the majors, as well as with their professors and professionals in the field. Students also indicated that the interactive learning techniques enhanced their new understanding of the intersection of the disciplines. Future research should investigate the offering of interdisciplinary events to students within and across academic divisions to build community and enhance students' understanding of their educational and career opportunities.     

An international collaborative investigation of beginning seventh grade students' understandings of scientific inquiry: Establishing a baseline

Although understandings of scientific inquiry (as opposed to conducting inquiry) are included in science education reform documents around the world, little is known about what students have learned about inquiry during their elementary school years. This is partially due to the lack of any assessment instrument to measure understandings about scientific inquiry. However, a valid and reliable assessment has recently been developed and published, Views About Scientific Inquiry (VASI; Lederman et al. [2014], Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 51, 65–83). The purpose of this large-scale international project was to collect the first baseline data on what beginning middle school students have learned about scientific inquiry during their elementary school years. Eighteen countries/regions spanning six continents including 2,634 students participated in the study. The participating countries/regions were: Australia, Brazil, Chile, Egypt, England, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Mainland China, New Zealand, Nigeria, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United States. In many countries, science is not formally taught until middle school, which is the rationale for choosing seventh grade students for this investigation. This baseline data will simultaneously provide information on what, if anything, students learn about inquiry in elementary school, as well as their beginning knowledge as they enter secondary school. It is important to note that collecting data from all of the approximately 200 countries globally was not humanly possible, and it was also not possible to collect data from every region of each country. The results overwhelmingly show that students around the world at the beginning of grade seven have very little understandings about scientific inquiry. Some countries do show reasonable understandings in certain aspects but the overall picture of understandings of scientific inquiry is not what is hoped for after completing 6 years of elementary education in any country.     

Statistical estimates of learners�� judgments about knowledge in calibration of achievement

In theoretical models of self-regulated learning, calibration is one important component in successful learning. Two issues of calibration are explored. First, Nelson (1987) suggested the G (gamma) coefficient is the most appropriate measure of calibration (judgment accuracy) and rejected signal detection theory’s d′ statistic because data commonly challenge distributional assumptions. We empirically examined this issue, comparing G and d′. Second, we examined whether a learner’s calibration varies across three domains of knowledge: general, word, and mathematics. A sample of 266 university students volunteered to participate in the study. Participants were selected from various undergraduate and graduate courses. Participants first answered demographic items. Then they completed three knowledge tests (general, word, and mathematics) and judged correctness for each answer provided. Order of domains was randomly counterbalanced among participants. Results show that d′ is a valid measure of calibration, that assumptions about underlying distributions can be tested, and that preliminary evidence suggests that d′ may be a superior measure of accuracy compared to G. Finally, calibration varied by domain.     

Guidance and education,an analysis of young peoples’ discontinuous school pathways: the guidance-oriented approach of educational institutions

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This article presents results of an investigation that explored the school pathways of young Argentine unskilled workers without a...     

Why are Women Underrepresented in Elite Colleges and Universities? A Non-Linear Decomposition Analysis

The emerging female advantage in education has received considerable attention in the popular media and recent research. We examine a persistent exception to this trend: women’s underrepresentation in America’s most competitive colleges and universities. Using nationally generalizable data spanning four decades, we evaluate evidence for three possible explanations. First, we analyze whether men’s academic profiles more closely match the admissions preferences of elite institutions. Next, we consider organizational preferences for male applicants. Finally, we test whether women self-select out of elite institutions through their application choices. Using Blinder–Oaxaca non-linear decomposition techniques and multinomial logistic regression, we find that men’s advantage in standardized test scores best explains the enrollment gap. Our analyses thus suggest that the gender enrollment gap in elite colleges and universities is a matter of access, not student choice. We discuss the implications of these results for educational equity and college admissions.