VIOLENCE ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES: UNDERSTANDING ITS IMPACT ON STUDENT WELL-BEING

Educational institutions are becoming increasingly concerned about school violence. This review of the literature on violent behavior focuses on two general issues that can be used to guide community college administrators and faculty in their attempt to counteract the damaging effects violent behavior has on the well-being of their students. First, it is important to be aware that the majority of students have at least some experience with violence. There is considerable evidence that students' exposure to violence is associated with bothantisocial behavior and psychological trauma (e.g., depression, anxiety, anger, post-traumatic stress disorder). Community colleges can help students who may be experiencing the negative effects of violence by, for example, establishing student support groups and taking accusations of harassment seriously. The second issue addressed provides some of the steps that community colleges can take to ensure the safety of their students. Violent threats should be addressed and employees need to become knowledgeable about the warning signs of violent behavior. In addition, it is recommended that community colleges develop a security plan based on the unique needs of their campuses as well as establish a Crisis Intervention Plan. The article concludes by stressing the importance of evaluating the violence prevention programs that are implemented.     

Transfer Student Success: Exploring Community College,University, and Individual Predictors

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates community college transfer success by exploring the relationship between individual and institutional-level characteristics at students’ two- and four-year institutions. Using statewide administrative data from North Carolina, this study employs a cross-classified multilevel model to investigate the impact that a student’s community college and four-year transfer institution have on post-transfer success. Our findings offer important and compelling insights into the relationship between transfer students, the community college they attended, the four-year transfer institution, and educational outcomes. While individual effects were small, we find several institutional factors associated with student success. Attendance at a large community college or having a public university in the same county as their community college is positively associated with student success, whereas size of the university is negatively related to grades during the first year and persistence to the second year. While the four-year institution’s selectivity is negatively related to many of our outcomes, transferring to a Historically Black College or University is positively associated with GPA, college persistence, and degree completion.     

Assessments of Student–Teacher Relationships in Residential Treatment Center Schools

Students in residential treatment center (RTC) schools are likely to have histories of extreme or ongoing relational trauma (e.g., abuse and neglect by primary caregivers), have substantial interpersonal and relationship problems, and exhibit many high-risk behaviors. Accordingly, these students may have particular difficulty forming positive relationships with teachers, yet student–teacher relationship quality in RTC schools has not been empirically studied. This study examines links between RTC school students' assessments of their relationships with teachers and their perceptions of self and others. Participants were 113 students in 2 RTC schools from 5th to 12th grade. Results indicate that male and female RTC students' positive perceptions (of self and others) are linked to positive assessments of their relationships with teachers. However, for girls in RTC schools, negative perceptions of self are linked to less positive assessments of the teacher–student relationship. Implications are discussed.     

Indirect Impact: How Early Childhood Educator Training and Coaching Impacted the Acquisition of Literacy Skills in Preschool Students

Learning to read becomes a difficult task for many children, particularly if they have not been reared in early childhood settings where literacy-based activities, interactions, or materials are prevalent. This study examined the impact that providing a college-level course in research-based instructional strategies for literacy development to early childhood educators had on the development of early reading skills in the preschool children they taught. In addition, impact on children’s rates of literacy skill attainment was examined when a coaching component (i.e., a Literacy Coach) was added.     

TECHNOLOGY IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPLORING DISTANCE LEARNING FROM A CONSTRUCT/VIST PERSPECTIVE

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which distance learning (distance learning vs. traditional) may influence undergraduate education majors’ emerging constructivist perspective. Elementary education majors at 2 universities (N = 102) volunteered to complete questionnaires. The 3 independent variables were traditional vs. distance learning, whether or not ever enrolled in distance learning, and instructor difference. The 3 dependent variables were concerned with what the instructor provided; what the instructor demonstrated; and what students believed they learned. A Multiple Analysis of Variance (Manova) compared the 3 independent variables across the 3 dependent variables and indicated that students in traditional classrooms rated what the instructor provided, what the instructor demonstrated, and what students believed they learned significantly greater than students in distance learning classrooms. An interpretation suggests that distance learning technology may hold potential for facilitating undergraduate education majors’ emerging constructivist perspective.     

Conceptual Foundations and Components of a Contextual Intervention to Promote Student Engagement During Early Adolescence: The Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success (SEALS) Model

Decades of research indicate that many early adolescents are at risk for developing significant school adjustment problems in the academic, behavioral, and social domains during the transition to middle school. The Supporting Early Adolescent Learning and Social Success (SEALS) model has been developed as a professional development and consultation program to train teachers in universal (Tier 1) instructional and classroom management strategies to address the correlated risks experienced by students during this time. This article reviews the conceptual foundations of the SEALS model, provides an overview of SEALS intervention components, describes the SEALS professional development training and consultation framework, reviews preliminary findings of the impact of SEALS in rural school settings in the United States, and discusses research needs and future directions regarding the use of the SEALS model.     

Public health practitioners' information access and use patterns in the Maryland (USA) public health departments of Anne Arundel and Wicomico Counties

PURPOSE: To increase understanding of the information needs and use of public health practitioners. SETTING: From June 2005 to May 2006, the library offered a course in public health information resources to eighteen practitioners in two counties, access to the library's licensed electronic resources through a tailored web portal, and consulting services. EVALUATION METHOD: We combined usage statistics from the web portal, self-report and observational data collected during training and shadowing of participants. CONCLUSIONS: The data from this project indicate that usage of licensed information resources and services is infrequent but broad ranging. A few users register at the high end of the usage range, but one use of one high quality article can have a significant impact on policy decisions. Time and competing responsibilities often constrain the retrieval and use of resources for evidence-based decision making and an informationist or power-user model may be more appropriate than training all practitioners to integrate searching into their workflow. This study indicates (i) that evidence-based public health practice requires seamless and broadly based information access; and (ii) that the currently existing patchwork does not support the level of use or take into account the time constraints of information needs for public health practice.     

Sharing centers: An alternative approach to show and tell

Show and tell is a common activity in many early childhood settings yet many teachers question its value. The purpose of this article is to review the benefits and limitations of the traditional approaches to show and tell and to present an alternative approach based upon appropriate practices that was implemented in a multi-age classroom of 3- to 5-year-old children.     

Toward collaborator selection and determination of data ownership and publication authorship in research collaborations

This study examined factors that might affect researchers' willingness to collaborate with a specific researcher and the priorities given to those factors. In addition, it investigated how researchers determined the ownership of collaborative project data and how they determined the order of authorship on collaborative publications in condensed matter physics. In general, researchers rated their intrinsic motivations the highest, such as the quality of ideas a potential collaborator might have and their satisfaction with a past collaboration, followed by their extrinsic motivations, such as the complementary knowledge, skills, or resources the collaborator could provide. In addition, researchers who had a greater number of collaborative projects and researchers who had served as a project PI or co-PI valued the deep-level, personality-related characteristics of a collaborator higher than did those who had not. Younger researchers were more risk averse and more concerned with a collaborator's reputation and the possible cost of a collaboration decision. Additionally, younger researchers indicated more often than older researchers that they did not know whether their project teams followed any rules or norms or engaged in negotiation to determine the order of authorship on collaborative publications.