Level Of Coursework Research Articles

Toward a Better Understanding of the Nature of Pedagogical Content Knowledge for Fractions: The Role of Experience

ABSTRACT Mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) is a professional knowledge crucial for effective mathematics instruction, encompassing both content knowledge (CK) and pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). The purpose of this study is to investigate the hierarchical structure of PCK for fractions by seeking further evidence for the PCK-Fractions assessment. The PCK-Fractions measure is designed to examine the effectiveness of teacher education program and field experiences in facilitating preservice teachers’ (PSTs) PCK for children’s fraction reasoning in grades 4–6. Emplying165 undergraduate students, the research investigates how different levels of coursework and field experience influence PCK-Fractions scores. Results suggest that both completing coursework in a teacher education program and having grades 4–6 field experience each led to higher PCK-Fractions scores. Additionally, this study provides further evidence supporting the validity of the PCK-Fractions measure as a reliable indicator of PSTs’ proficiency in teaching fractions. Implications for mathematics teacher education and educational research are discussed.

Placing Students for Success: Florida’s Statewide Reform of Alternative Methods for College Course Placement

ABSTRACT Each year nearly 70% of community college students nationwide are required to enroll in non-credit developmental education courses because they scored below college-ready on a placement test in reading, writing, and/or mathematics. Yet, prior research has demonstrated that these placement tests tend to inaccurately place students into courses that are not a good fit with their level of college readiness. In response, an increasingly popular reform effort is to use alternative methods such as high school grade point average (GPA) to place incoming students into the appropriate level of coursework. Florida stands at the vanguard of this placement reform movement, as one of the first states making policy changes to authorize systemwide use of alternative methods in lieu of (or in addition to) common placement tests. This study includes a document analysis of institutional website sites and virtual site visits to Florida College System institutions to enhance our understanding of the variation in placement policies used across the FCS institutions, the rationales for these decisions, as well as benefits and challenges encountered during implementation. It concludes with recommendations that can support institutions in Florida and beyond as they develop future plans about how to further reform or modify placement systems.

Determining Who Is Worthy: Stakeholder Perspectives on a District’s De-Leveling Initiatives

Background/Context: Scholars and practitioners continue to work to identify ways to change structural conditions, school-level policy, and stakeholder mindsets to support minoritized youth in advanced coursework. Open access policies, in which students do not need a previous teacher’s approval or a prerequisite grade to enroll in an advanced offering, that are coupled with teacher training and student support are one positive direction. However, it is critical to consider whether open access policies are truly “open” and how students are placed in different levels of coursework. Purpose/Objective/Research Question or Focus of Study: The purpose of this article is to examine how key stakeholders, including students, counselors, and principals, understand and act on district initiatives in course placement decisions. Research questions are: (1) How do different stakeholders view their own role, and other stakeholders’ role, in determining who should be enrolled in more advanced coursework? (2) In what ways do different stakeholders understand educational equity in relation to the course placement process? (3) How are students’ reported experiences with course scheduling consistent with or in conflict with the practices and values reported by school administrators and counselors? Research Design: The district at the heart of this study was chosen because of its 10-year-long commitment to reducing barriers to advanced coursework, and implementation of many of the strategies identified as promising by prior research. We utilized a concurrent mixed-methods design involving interviews with principals and counselors and surveys of students, given that both quantitative and qualitative data provide partial perspectives on our research questions. Social reproduction theory served as an explanatory tool, as we considered how different stakeholders understood the idea of “choice” in students’ course-selection process. We looked specifically to ways that the district continues to classify students and contributes to the reproduction of ideas about who is “smart” and “worthy,” and who is not. Conclusions/Recommendations: To address the identified difficulties in reversing race- and class-based inequities in student course-taking, we outlined a set of comprehensive recommendations for policy and practice, at both the school and district level, and the teacher and leader preparation level. In part, these aim to address the variation that existed across the district, in terms of both mindset and policy implementation. Of note, technical solutions are not sufficient for equity-focused reforms, especially with socially constructed concepts such as “interest” and socially constrained pathways of “choice.”

Tracking Health Inequalities from High School to Midlife.

Educational gradients in health status, morbidity, and mortality are well established, but which aspects of schooling produce those gradients is only partially understood. We draw on newly available data from the midlife follow-up of the High School and Beyond sophomore cohort to analyze the relationship between students' level of coursework in high school and their long-term health outcomes. We additionally evaluate the mediating roles of skill development, postsecondary attendance and degree attainment, and occupational characteristics. We find that students who took a medium- to high-level course of study in high school have better self-reported health and physical functioning in midlife, even net of family background, adolescent health, baseline skills, and school characteristics. The association partially operates through pathways into postsecondary education. Our findings have implications for both educational policy and research on the educational gradient in health.

An interdisciplinary exploration of collegiate internships

Purpose– Collegiate internships play an important role in the development of professionals. They provide students the opportunity to experience real world expectations embedded within actual vocational environments under the support of their collegiate faculty. Although there are a number of common reasons why internships are utilized in each academic area, the requirements for the experiences are substantially different across disciplines and level of coursework. The purpose of this paper is to explore some of the commonalities and differences that exist for internships across collegiate academic disciplines at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and identify their salience for programs from an interdisciplinary perspective.Design/methodology/approach– For this conceptual piece, the authors took an introspective qualitative look at both programs and compared and contrasted them based on internally available documentation and information. Although this was theoretical in nature, the authors utilized materials available for certification and accreditation purposes for each of their programs. Multiple data sources were stakeholder interviews and conversations, site visits/observations, and site artifacts/documents.Findings– The authors found a great deal of both similarity and dissimilarity across programs, and these findings were utilized as grounds for programmatic introspection, evaluation, accreditation, and certification to better understand how stakeholder voice is involved in the processes. Table I provides an overview of items identified, and will serve as a guide for the remainder of this paper.Originality/value– An inclusive awareness will consider the voices of the student, university, employer, and other stakeholders, including co-workers and employers that currently do not offer internships. Given the rising cost of tuition and the wealth of competition in the market, the pressure is on for institutions of higher education to up the ante when it comes to providing quality experiential learning opportunities. The next step should focus on defining expectations and tailoring each internship program, and for that to be accomplished, all stakeholders must be “all in.”

Students’ foreign language anxiety and self-efficacy beliefs across different levels of university foreign language coursework

ABSTRACTThis study investigated differences in students’ foreign language anxiety and foreign language self-efficacy related to skill-specific foreign language tasks (i.e., speaking, listening, reading, and writing) across five levels of university foreign language coursework. A total of 206 participants in 12 university Spanish classrooms (ranging from Beginning Spanish I to Intermediate Spanish II) were surveyed for this study. The findings revealed that students who have higher levels of skill-specific foreign language anxieties provided corresponding lower ratings on skill-specific foreign language self-efficacies. Analyses also revealed that students’ ratings for foreign language anxiety for each foreign language-learning skill were not significantly different across the five levels of coursework. However, students’ ratings of foreign language self-efficacies for each foreign language-learning skill were significantly different across different levels of coursework.

ECONOMICS COURSEWORK AND LONG-TERM BEHAVIOR AND EXPERIENCES OF COLLEGE GRADUATES IN LABOR MARKETS AND PERSONAL FINANCE

I. INTRODUCTION If economics is a unique way of thinking, as many economists like to claim, some level of coursework in economics may provide enough specific knowledge and skills to lead students to make different choices in their adult roles as consumers, workers, and voters/citizens. Of course the same could be claimed for training in business and other areas, even though (or perhaps because) it could be argued that most content and training in business courses is more applied and pragmatic than what is presented in economics courses. Some empirical evidence--though really a great deal--suggests that training in economics and business is associated with different adult behaviors and outcomes. For example, Golec (1996) finds that mutual funds perform better if mutual fund managers have an MBA, and Chevalier and Ellison (1999) also report a positive correlation between mutual fund performance and the educational background of mutual fund managers. Black, Sanders, and Taylor (2003) found that economics majors earn almost 20% more than graduates in other social science majors, and about 10% more than those who major in business administration. In fields with large numbers of graduates, they find that only engineering majors earn more than economics majors. Similarly, Hecker (1995) reported that males majoring in economics had median earnings 3% higher than all majors for the age cohort of 25-34, and 53% more than average for the cohort aged 35-44. Craft and Baker (2003) find that lawyers with an undergraduate major in economics earn 13% more than otherwise comparable lawyers with other undergraduate majors, and economics is the only major with a statistically significant effect on earnings, (1) Hamermesh and Donald (2008), however, find that higher earnings by economics majors are partly due to economics majors working more hours than others. The relationship between financial literacy/ knowledge and adult behavior and outcomes in financial markets has been addressed in several recent studies--many sponsored by Federal Reserve Banks. Hilgert, Hogarth, and Beverly (2003) and Braunstein and Welch (2002) find that knowledge about credit, saving, and investment is significantly related to recommended financial practices in cash-flow management, credit management, saving, and investment. Unfortunately, there is also evidence of widespread financial illiteracy in U.S. households, and particularly among elderly women (see Lusardi and Mitchell 2007, 2008). Employee education programs have been found to affect workers' savings, retirement, and investment behaviors (Bayer, Bernheim, and Scholz 2009; Bernheim and Garret 2003). State mandates for precollege education in personal finance appear to succeed in at least exposing students to more information and sources on financial education, and students from states with such mandates report higher levels of savings and net worth as adults (Bernheim, Garrett, and Maki 2001; Tennyson and Nguyen 2001). Much less research exists linking college coursework or majoring in economics to personal finance outcomes, (2) but Christiansen, Joensen, and Rangvid (2008) find that those trained in economics (in college courses or employee education programs) are more likely to invest in stocks than those who receive training in other areas. Guiso and Jappelli (2005) report that, among college graduates, having a degree in economics is positively associated with knowledge about financial assets. Chert and Volpe (1998, 107) concluded that business majors had better knowledge about personal financial literacy than other students, but that in general college students were not knowledgeable about personal finance.'' (3) In this paper we use a large and unique data set to investigate the relationships between taking college coursework in economics or majoring in economics with long-term labor market and personal finance behaviors and outcomes. Our information on long-term behaviors and outcomes is drawn from a detailed questionnaire we mailed in January 2003 to over 25,000 graduates who attended four public universities in 1976, 1986, or 1996. …

SMALL CLASSES IN THE EARLY GRADES AND COURSE TAKING IN HIGH SCHOOL

Researchers examined the relationship between small-class participation in the first four years of school and course-taking patterns in high school. Using original data from Tennessee's Project STAR (Student-Teacher Achievement Ratio) with high school transcripts for 3,922 students from the STAR experiment, the hypothesis that class size is related to the amount and level of coursework taken in mathematics, science, and foreign language was tested. Results indicated that students who spent three or more years in small classes took more foreign language courses, higher-level foreign language courses, and higher-level mathematics courses than did students in full-size classes. The possibility that small-class participation would benefit low-SES students more than high-SES students was also explored, but no evidence was found of an SES-specific effect. The results are discussed in terms of (a) using class-size policies to promote the taking of advanced courses in high school, and (b) the need to consider long-term outcomes when evaluating class-size reduction initiatives.

The ethics of theatre nurse practice under the microscope.

Perioperative practice is a multidisciplinary environment. In some theatres, student nurse allocations are at last becoming longer, although some theatres still only get a brief visit from student nurses who wish to watch an operation all the way through. Furthermore, practically all operating departments have trainee operating department practitioners (tODPs). Diploma and degree level tODPs are now beginning to produce higher academic levels of coursework and many warrant recognition. We should remember that these 'learners' are potentially the theatre practitioners of the future and we should encourage them, not only within the perioperative environment but also towards their academic achievements. Qualified nurses and operating department practitioners (ODPs) now have access to various multi-disciplinary post-registration/gradate courses, which not only build upon theoretical knowledge, but also enhance practical skills. Individuals work long and hard to achieve high level academic pieces of coursework. Unfortunately after courses finish many assignments are packed away, collect dust and get forgotten, instead of the authors being brave enough to submit them for consideration for publication. This new series offers all practitioners the chance to share with others their work within this speciality. Whether you are a nurse or an ODP undertaking, or having recently completed a course, tODP or student nurse (but preferably a member of NATN) the possibility to share your experiences or coursework with other perioperative practitioners is available to you in these articles. It has always been so, but this new series is dedicated to you all and to the hard work you put into your coursework.

Características socioeconómicas y consistencia en la toma de decisiones

This essay analyzes the effects of social and economic characteristics on the consistency of the preferences. The analysis begins with an Allais Test on the consistency of choices made by students of Economics and International Business. It is found that sex, social and economic level, income, age and level of course work jointly are insufficient to explain the consistency of preferences. Nonetheless, the age of the student and his level of course work do provide a partial explanation of the observed consistency.

Materials Science and Engineering at Boise State University: Responding to an Industrial Need

ABSTRACTThe College of Engineering at Boise State University (BSU) is a new program in only its fifth year of existence. Bachelor's degrees in Civil Engineering (CE), Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Mechanical Engineering (ME) are offered with M.S. Degrees in each discipline added this year. The industrial advisory board for the College of Engineering at BSU strongly recommended enhancement of the Materials Science and Engineering (MS&E) offerings at BSU. In response to local industry's desire for an increased level of coursework and research in MS&E, BSU has created a minor in MS&E at both the undergraduate and graduate level.The MS&E program is designed to meet the following objectives: provide for local industry's need for engineers with a MS&E competency, add depth of understanding of MS&E for undergraduate and graduate students in ECE, ME and CE, prepare undergraduate students for graduate school in MS&E, improve the professional skills of the students especially in the areas of materials processing and materials selection, provide applied coursework for Chemistry, Physics, and Geophysics students, and offer coursework in a format that is convenient for students currently working in local industry.

AN EXAMINATION OF THE RELATIONSHIPS OF ACADEMIC COURSEWORK WITH ADMISSIONS TEST PERFORMANCE

ABSTRACTThe redesigned Student Descriptive Questionnaire (SDQ) provides a great deal of background information about examinees sitting for the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). One set of questions focuses on the number of years and types of courses in the students' academic background. This information makes it possible to explore the relationships between coursework and performance on the SAT. This study used data from the 1987 National Sample Tape, which contains SDQ responses and score information from 100,000 seniors in the class of 1987. The analyses examined the relationships between both the Admissions Testing Program (ATP) SAT and Achievement Test scores and the type and level of coursework in six academic areas. In order to provide a more accurate representation of these relationships, the data were adjusted to account for differences related to student academic achievement. The results show that coursework in the disciplines of mathematics, natural science, and foreign languages has the strongest adjusted relationships with SAT‐mathematical scores. SAT‐verbal scores appear to be most strongly related to the number of years of foreign language coursework. These relationships are generally consistent across ethnic groups and income levels. However, it appears that the relationships are stronger for students with higher grade‐point averages. The specific courses that seem to be most strongly related to SAT performance are upper‐level courses in mathematics, natural science, and foreign languages. The specific course relationships appear stronger for male than for female examinees. An analysis of Achievement Test data again indicates that upper‐level coursework in the three previously mentioned academic areas is most strongly related to performance on the Achievement Tests. All the research findings must be qualified because the study was exploratory. Student participation in the various courses was based solely on the motivation and the opportunity of the students to take the courses. As a result of this self‐selection, causal interpretations of the results are not appropriate.