From the President: On the Liberal Arts and the Lesson of Steve Jobs

Colby President Bro Adams on Steve Jobs and the liberal arts.

Class Act: Dean of Admissions Parker Beverage retires after helping to enroll more than 11,000 Colby students

Over a quarter century of hard work, retiring Dean of Admissions Parker Beverage had a hand in Colby’s steady rise.

Políticas públicas de educação ambiental: a gestão do programa municipal de educação ambiental de Mossoró/RN

Study about environment education public policies, emphasizing the directress since the 1970 . It analyses the environment education administration of Mossoró city, indentifying its articulation with the international directresses and the Environment Education National Policy (PNEA), established according the law number 9.795/99. The text takes as empiric reference the Environment Education National Policy (PNEA) of Mossoró city, realized since 2006. In order to make the research, we employed as methodologic proceedings a bibliographical and documental revision from wich we developed a contextualization of the propolsals toward a environment Education policy and administration, the institution of the environment Education in Brazil, in the neoliberal context on the State reform ambit. We also employed a semi-structured interview, having as individuals two Environment Education Municipal Program Administration of Mossoró city / RN state administrators and nine Municipal Education System educators. The analysis was done from the historic and dialetic perspective, trying to understand the facts in its totallity. The results revealed that the environment Education has become to be emphasize as an environment crises superation strategy since the 1970 s. In this context, the environment Education administration directress, in the United Nations (UN) initiative ambit, emphasizes the participation and the partnership as a way to share responsabilities between the State and society. In the neoliberalism affirmation context, in the 1990 s, these directresses were fortified, once, since the State reform, their functions were redimensioned and the State turns into a stronger planner an controller, inducing the society to act as a public polcies executor. Therewith, a deconcentration action process is consolidated, rather than an administrative and pedagocgic decentralization, historically revendicated on Education by the progressist sectors. Even though the administrators interviewed have revealed the wish that the schools become autonomous on the PMEA execution, through the NEAs, we notice that the methods employed do not contribute to that, because of the decisions concentration on the associated managership ambit and the few human and financial resources. In spite of the difficulties, the research showed that the Mossoró municipality innovated on the environment Education field, by the institution of the NEAs, even though they demonstrate fragilities regarding their performance, revealed on the educators and adiminstration talk on the interviews. We verify that the main difficulties come from the politc culture installed on the municipality, ruled by a technocracy and power concentration wich brings difficulties to the implementation of a democratic and participative administration, even though it would not be totally impossible, even on the circumstances described

A contribuição de Demerval Saviani no Conselho Estadual de Esducação de São Paulo (1984-1987)

Pós-graduação em Educação - FFC

O currículo de ciências via tema gerador: desafios docentes na Escola Cabana

Este trabalho de pesquisa busca compreender e analisar como os professores de ciências que trabalham em escolas municipais que adotam o projeto Escola Cabana lidam com o processo de elaboração de suas propostas curriculares a partir de temas geradores. Procurando identificar os fatores envolvidos no processo de proposição curricular, desafios e dilemas que consideram importantes dentro de uma proposta educacional diferenciada. Para efeito de orientação metodológica considerei a abordagem qualitativa como suporte da pesquisa. Como este trabalho está vinculado a uma determinada realidade educacional, as chamadas Escolas Cabanas, elegi como sujeitos de pesquisa 5 professores de ciências que atuam em escolas que oficialmente seguem as orientações desta proposta educativa e 1 técnica da coordenadoria de educação do município. As informações foram obtidas a partir de duas fontes principais: leitura de documentos oficiais sobre o projeto e entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os professores de ciências de instituições de ensino vinculados ao projeto. A análise dos dados, feita a partir dos depoimentos dos professores sujeitos, possibilitou apreender as percepções e ações dos docentes sobre a proposta de se elaborar currículo por temas geradores. No confronto com a realidade de trabalhar dentro de uma proposta educacional diferenciada, os professores narram as limitações, os avanços e recuos em suas práticas curriculares. O isolamento profissional, a percepção e tradução de forma pessoal das orientações do projeto e as dificuldades em romper com as tradições curriculares foram pontos levantados pelos professores sujeitos de maneira direta ou indireta em seus depoimentos. Assim como, as dificuldades e dilemas de se trabalhar o novo, com conhecimentos advindo dos cotidianos dos alunos e alunas, portanto, com práticas que vão de encontro com aquelas presentes no período de formação e atuação profissional. A percepção de que os professores precisam redimensionar seu envolvimento com a questão curricular, recuperando essa competência inerente à docência de se elaborar propostas curriculares coerentes com sua realidade educacional foi tácita no decorrer da pesquisa. Assumir o processo de proposição curricular, entender o papel e a centralidade que o currículo apresenta no cotidiano da atuação docente, são caminhos que apontam para currículos e práticas educativas mais conscientes.

Building Leadership: The Knowledge of Principals in Creating Collaborative Communities of Professional Learning

Research literature is replete with the importance of collaboration in schools, the lack of its implementation, the centrality of the role of the principal, and the existence of a gap between knowledge and practice--or a "Knowing-Doing Gap." In other words, there is a set of knowledge that principals must know in order to create a collaborative workplace environment for teachers. This study sought to describe what high school principals know about creating such a culture of collaboration. The researcher combed journal articles, studies and professional literature in order to identify what principals must know in order to create a culture of collaboration. The result was ten elements of principal knowledge: Staff involvement in important decisions, Charismatic leadership not being necessary for success, Effective elements of teacher teams, Administrator‘s modeling professional learning, The allocation of resources, Staff meetings focused on student learning, Elements of continuous improvement, and Principles of Adult Learning, Student Learning and Change. From these ten elements, the researcher developed a web-based survey intended to measure nine of those elements (Charismatic leadership was excluded). Principals of accredited high schools in the state of Nebraska were invited to participate in this survey, as high schools are well-known for the isolation that teachers experience--particularly as a result of departmentalization. The results indicate that principals have knowledge of eight of the nine measured elements. The one that they lacked an understanding of was Principles of Student Learning. Given these two findings of what principals do and do not know, the researcher recommends that professional organizations, intermediate service agencies and district-level support staff engage in systematic and systemic initiatives to increase the knowledge of principals in the element of lacking knowledge. Further, given that eight of the nine elements are understood by principals, it would be wise to examine reasons for the implementation gap (Knowing-Doing Gap) and how to overcome it.

Honors, Inc.

Academics across the country are having an allergic reaction to the corporate model of operation being adopted by many universities. Terms like branding, collateral materials, budget controls, marketing strategies, and outcomes are causing a panic among faculty who believe that a customer satisfaction approach to higher education is anti-intellectual and that it leads to grade inflation, teaching toward evaluations, and learning as product, not process. Honors programs in particular, often the standard bearers of undergraduate academic standards, are being asked to market themselves not only to the top prospective students, but also to the university administration at large. Honors is frequently the default focus group expected to show the rest of the university programs and departments ‘How it is done,’ or rather, ‘How it is done according to standard.’ By ‘it,’ of course, I mean marketing our curriculum, selling our program, and branding our product.

Global Competence: Determination of its Importance for Engineers Working in a Global Environment

We live and work in a world that is even more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. Engineers must now not only develop technical engineering competence, but must also develop additional skills and competencies including global competence to obtain success within a global engineering environment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether multinational companies considered global competence an important skill in mechanical engineering graduates when making hiring decisions. The study was an exploratory study that utilized an extensive literature review to identify eight global competencies for engineering success within a global environment and also included a survey instrument completed by Brigham Young University (BYU) mechanical engineering alumni in 48 states and 17 countries. The study focused on an evaluation of standard hiring technical engineering competencies with eight global competencies identified in the literature review. The study established that standard engineering technical competencies were the most important consideration when hiring mechanical engineers, but global competence was also considered important by a majority of all survey respondents with six of the eight global competencies rated important by 79 to 91% of respondents with an ability to communicate cross-culturally the highest-rated global competence. The importance of global competence in engineers when making hiring decisions, as considered by large companies who employed more than 10,000 employees or who had annual revenue exceeding $1 billion (US$) per year, was particularly strong. The majority of respondents (70%) indicated that companies were willing to provide training and experience to help engineers obtain success in a global engineering environment. In addition, a majority of respondents (59.9%) indicated that companies valued the efforts of higher educational engineering institutions to prepare engineers for success in a global environment with only 4.8% of respondents indicating that they did not value the efforts of higher education engineering institutions. However, only 27% of respondents agreed that colleges and universities were successful in this endeavor. Globalization is not a passing phenomenon, it is here to stay. Colleges and universities throughout the world need to recognize the importance of globalization and the interdependence and interconnectedness among the world’s population. Therefore, it is important to identify, develop, and provide opportunities for international collaboration and interaction among students and faculty throughout the world and to focus on developing global competence as an important outcome for engineering graduates.

The South Omaha Community Scholarship Program: A Qualitative Study of Persistence of Hispanic Students at Bellevue University

The purpose of this case study was to determine the impact of the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program on the persistence of the Hispanic students who participated. Previous research on Hispanic student persistence has focused on the reasons why students do not persist and more recent research has been conducted on programs and retention efforts, colleges and universities are implementing on their campuses. This study researched a specific program, The South Omaha Community Scholarship Program, designed to provide financial, academic and other needed resources to help Hispanic students persist to graduation. The researcher believes this study was important because it provided an overview of how the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program is affecting students both on campus and in their community. Eight interviews were conducted, with eligible students, in person. Students eligible for the study were current students or recent graduates of the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program and had attained at least junior or senior status as of the fall of 2009, as defined by Bellevue University. Research questions were based on the four components of the program and the affect the program had on the student’s life, outside of Bellevue University. The four components of the program were: financial aid, academic advising, the scholarship aid, and the Professional Enrichment Program. The results of the study were broken into five components with an additional section that provided other themes that were derived from the interviews. The five components were: (a) financial aid counseling, (b) academic advising, (c) scholarship aid, (d) Professional Enrichment Program, and (e) the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program beyond Bellevue University. Other themes that were derived from the interviews were: class format, deciding on a college, higher education class, campus resources, and a sense of community on-campus. The research found that the scholarship, provided by the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program, was the primary motivating factor for students to attend Bellevue University and persist in college. The interviewed students also commented on how the scholarship had given them the opportunity to attend college, even though that opportunity had seemed out of reach. The interviewed students also commented on their academic advising experience, campus resources, and feeling a sense of community on-campus as other campus related areas that were affected by the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program. Finally, students provided examples of how the South Omaha Community Scholarship Program impacted their connection to their South Omaha community through volunteer and employment opportunities. Adviser: Richard Hoover

Everything You Have Always Wanted to Know About Academic Advising (Well, Almost...)

Answering the question “what occurs in an academic advising interaction” is not as easy as one might think. Many factors contribute to the academic advising process, and no two advising interactions are the same. This article discusses the different factors involved in an academic advising interaction, emphasizing the need for psychological counselors to become familiar with the specific aspects of the advising processes that occur at their respective institutions.

Evaluating Faculty Publications in Accounting Ph.D. Programs: The Author Affiliation Index as an Alternative

We propose a new model, the Author Affiliation Index (AAI), for examining journal quality, explain how the AAI is calculated, and report the resulting scores for 35 accounting and accounting-related journals. Next, we compare AAI journal rankings with those from other published studies and examine the correlations between them to show how the AAI can be used to evaluate relatively new journals, such as Accounting and the Public Interest, that are not included in extant ranking lists. By explaining its flexibility, we demonstrate that the AAI model can serve as a valuable tool for measuring journal quality and for meeting AACSB accreditation requirements for faculty groups as well as individual faculty. The AAI is based on the principle that as the percentage of authors in a journal who are accounting faculty at doctoral-granting institutions increases, the perceived value of that journal in terms of quality to Ph.D.-granting accounting programs also increases. Although our illustrations focus on the construction of this measure for use by Ph.D.-granting institutions, we describe how it can be adapted for use by other faculty groups.

The Bucknell Community College Scholarship Program: a Documentary as a Performative Social Science

Reviews Bucknell participation with the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation (a non-profit foundation with a mission to “help under-resourced students of exceptional promise reach their full potential through education".

International Service-Learning and the Development of Civic Identity: Understanding the Role of Short-Term International Service-Learning and its Influence on the Development of Civic Identity in College Students Using a Mixed Methodological Approach

Higher education has a responsibility to educate a democratic citizenry and recent research indicates civic engagement is on the decline in the United States. Through a mixed methodological approach, I demonstrate that the potential exists for well structured short-term international service-learning programming to develop college students’ civic identities. Quantitative analysis of questionnaire data, collected from American college students immediately prior to their participation in a short-term service-learning experience in Northern Ireland and again upon their return to the United States, revealed increases in civic accountability, political efficacy, justice oriented citizenship, and service-learning. Subsequent qualitative analysis of interview transcripts, student journals, and field notes suggested that facilitated critical reflection before, during, and after the experience promoted transformational learning. Emergent themes included: (a) responsibilities to others, (b) the value of international service-learning, (c) crosspollination of ideas, (d) stepping outside the daily routine to facilitate divergent thinking, and (e) the necessity of precursory thinking for sustaining transformations in thinking. The first theme, responsibilities to others, was further divided into subthemes of thinking beyond oneself, raising awareness of responsibility to others, and voting responsibly.

Integriertes Informationsmanagement für Bildungseinrichtungen

Der CampusSource Workshop fand vom 10. bis 12. Oktober 2006 an der Westfälischen Wilhelms Universität (WWU) in Münster statt. Kernpunkte der Veranstaltung waren die Entwicklung einer Engine zur Verknüpfung von e-Learning Anwendungen mit Systemen der HIS GmbH und die Erstellung von Lehr- und Lerninhalten mit dem Ziel der Wiederverwendung. Im zweiten Kapitel sind Vorträge der Veranstaltung im Adobe Flash Format zusammengetragen. Zur Betrachtung der Vorträge ist der Adobe Flash Player, mindestens in der Version 6 erforderlich

ISU ADVANCE Annual Report, Year 4: April 2009–April 2010

Over our four years, ISU ADVANCE has become Iowa State’s most prominent vehicle to recruit, retain, and advance women and women of color in STEM faculty positions. We are known for a well-managed network, innovative research, and an integrated approach to change. We work within departments using a Collaborative Transformation approach to improve the work environment for all faculty members. Our program identifies cultures, practices, and structures that enhance or hinder the careers of ISU faculty, and works with faculty and administrators to transform university policies, practices, and academic culture in pursuit of a diverse and vibrant faculty in STEM disciplines.