Pre-collegiate Level Research Articles

Anatomy in Action

Increasing and maintaining student engagement within anatomy education at a pre-collegiate level is a challenge that educators continue to encounter. Finding an appropriate level of difficulty that prepares students for the rigor of undergraduate anatomy education while balancing the need to inspire student interest in STEM-related fields of study can inadvertently discourage students, particularly when content is relayed in a ‘traditional’ lecture-based curriculum. The University of Colorado’s Pre-Health Scholars Program (CUPS) is an academic enrichment program for high school students from under-represented minority groups who are interested in healthcare and STEM-related professions. To address the challenges in pre-collegiate anatomy education, the CUPS anatomy curriculum has shifted away from instruction that is purely lecture-based, to a project-oriented curriculum utilizing 3D printing. Here, students are encouraged to connect hands-on experiences and collaborate on individualized projects that require mastery of anatomical principles to create. Students are also introduced to anatomic structures in a multi-dimensional fashion that allows them to examine the complimentary relationship between structure and function. This model of curriculum has the potential to improve engagement and create better foundations of anatomical knowledge through thoughtful instructional design.

Higher Education's Contributions to the U.S. Democratic Society

College experiences can contribute to teaching, learning, and instruction within higher education. The framework for this essay treats the college community as prototypic of the U.S. political society. Several aspects of the national political culture have been approximated within a collegiate culture. For example, every political problem within our society can be represented in a miniature fashion within a program of studies in a university. Much of students’ political information can come from the interaction between teachers and students. However, a sizable portion of this learned information can extend through interaction among students. At that point, teachers would point students to information that expands their reservoir of collegiate information. Ultimately, students would refine their political information by exchanging valuable information with one another, as well as with their teachers. We have chosen to target higher education rather than pre-collegiate levels in emphasizing how higher education and our democratic system of government can be intertwined. We highlight the possibilities of college students’ understanding and appreciating others’ political views in working with one another rather than against one another in educational and political planning. Specifically, we include in this report the following issues: (a) political information resources routinely available in higher education, (b) college students’ learning to participate in broader political conversation, (c) college students’ examination of high profile U.S. constitutional declarations, (d) college students’ deepened comprehension of their own political perspectives, and (e) college students’ understanding that the knowledge derived from higher education can strengthen our democratic system of government.

Higher Education's Contributions to the U.S. Democratic Society

College experiences can contribute to teaching, learning, and instruction within higher education. The framework for this essay treats the college community as prototypic of the U.S. political society. Several aspects of the national political culture have been approximated within a collegiate culture. For example, every political problem within our society can be represented in a miniature fashion within a program of studies in a university. Much of students’ political information can come from the interaction between teachers and students. However, a sizable portion of this learned information can extend through interaction among students. At that point, teachers would point students to information that expands their reservoir of collegiate information. Ultimately, students would refine their political information by exchanging valuable information with one another, as well as with their teachers. We have chosen to target higher education rather than pre-collegiate levels in emphasizing how higher education and our democratic system of government can be intertwined. We highlight the possibilities of college students’ understanding and appreciating others’ political views in working with one another rather than against one another in educational and political planning. Specifically, we include in this report the following issues: (a) political information resources routinely available in higher education, (b) college students’ learning to participate in broader political conversation, (c) college students’ examination of high profile U.S. constitutional declarations, (d) college students’ deepened comprehension of their own political perspectives, and (e) college students’ understanding that the knowledge derived from higher education can strengthen our democratic system of government.

The Tirones Project

“There is a shortage of certified Latin teachers: Please spread the word!” This plea is the title of a recent article inAmphora, a publication of the Society for Classical Studies (Ancona & Durkin, 2015). Here the authors cite government statistics, reports from the placement service of the American Classical League, and personal experience to demonstrate that the demand for Latin teachers – whether or not certified – outstrips the supply. As they point out, this lack of teachers at the pre-collegiate level does not bode well for the health of our discipline.

Do grades reflect the development of excellence in music students? The prognostic validity of entrance exams at universities of music

For successful admission to universities of music, prospective students have to pass entrance exams which assess the quality of their music-making and, in some instances, their abilities in music theory and aural training. However, only very little is known about the validity of such grades and the skill development of expectant professional musicians. For the first time, the present study analyzes the long-term development of grades of students in a bachelor degree program ( N = 63) over a period of 3 years. As the grades were neither interval-scaled nor normally distributed, a logistic regression analysis was calculated to quantify the predictability of final grades in the main instrument and music theory based on the respective entrance exam grades. The prognostic validity was low for grades in both the main instrument and music theory/aural training (Nagelkerke R2 = .08 and .01). This result can be mainly attributed to two explanations: First, university grades are often inflated and subject to ceiling effects. Second, the curricula in music theory contain such variety that it is impossible to define what all students across the board learn. In order to better define expertise skill development in students, we suggest initiating regular competency-based assessments for professional musicians at a pre-collegiate and collegiate level.

Navigating the Shoals: Teacher Training in our Graduate Programs

The impetus for the following four papers lies in several developments currently affecting the teaching of Classics in America. Each fall at Ph.D. granting institutions first year Classics teaching assistants stand before a class for the first time in their lives and do so with virtually no formal training in how to teach. Elsewhere, often in the same city or town, a pre-collegiate level Latin program is canceled for lack of a teacher or, almost as bad, is taught by a teacher with insufficient training in Latin. Frequently, and ironically, an extremely competent candidate with years of advanced Latin study applied for such a job but was rejected for not having certification or formal peda gogical training. These phenomena have for too long been seen as unrelated. Yet they are all related by the simple fact that each of us, school teacher and professor alike, spends a great deal of time teaching. A panel centering on the Latin teacher shortage (Disciplina abhorret vacuum: Addressing the Latin Teacher Short age) was therefore convened at the 2000 CAMWS meeting in Knoxville, Tennessee. Here, speakers from a range of instructional levels and institutions1 gathered to discuss the current crisis we face in providing teachers for our pre-collegiate Latin and Greek classrooms.

Using a Virtual Job Search to Implement the "Standards for Foreign Language Teaching" in First-Year German

Many college German programs are revising their curricula to respond to the intellectual and professional necessities of the new millennium and to decreasing enrollments in German programs. We see an increase in interdisciplinary and cultural orientations in the German curriculum, and less work on language acquisition via literary texts only.1 Accompanying embrace of other disciplines in content-based, task-oriented, and communicative instruction is the effort to include technology in the German Studies classroom. Technology has found a solid place in foreign language instruction. Film and other media initiated development, and the digital revolution has further inspired foreign language teaching and research on how to use computer technology in the classroom. It has accelerated exchange of information among teachers and students. Many syllabi and handouts are available on web pages and via e-mail. LISTSERVs facilitate discussion of topics such as homework, web sites, cultural issues, and educational software. In short, as Winnifred Adolph and Leona LeBlanc put it, this technology race is ... for real (30). Moreover, the student body -whose computer expertise frequently surpasses that of their teachers-may lack specific expectations about what they will be taught, but they increasingly expect computer technology and the Internet to be used effectively to enhance their language learning. The Standards for Foreign Language Learning mandate goals for cross-cultural, proficiency-oriented instruction for high schools that promise to stimulate the trends noted above in university language departments.2 As Dorothy James observed, Either we look seriously at the curriculum 'bubbling up' from the lower levels in the system, and consider how to work with it, or we continue blithely to set roadblocks in its way and in the way of the students who bubble up with it (12). In Learning Foreign and Second Languages, Heidi Byrnes also stressed the need to continue revising curricula: Although one would expect the bustling language learning activity at the precollegiate level to have worked its way into the college curriculum, such has generally not been the case, at least not in mainstream curricula.... This is not to say that changes have not taken place. They have, but they

Developing an African Studies Class at the Pre-Collegiate Level

Developing an African Studies Class at the Pre-Collegiate Level

Employment Trends in Geography, Part 3: Future Demand Conditions

The third and final article in this series about employment conditions in geography addresses the issue of future demand in both academic and nonacademic settings. To gain an understanding of future demand conditions in colleges and universities, we projected the retirement of AAG members by topical specialty and then matched these retirement trends with a profile of new faculty searches as reported by geography department chairs. We assessed the likely future demand for geography teachers at the precollegiate level through a survey of Geography Alliance Coordinators about teacher certification requirements and the education environments in their respective states. We speculated on how the kinds of jobs geographers do will be affected by changes now underway in the national and global economies. And finally, we conducted a small telephone survey of AAG corporate sponsors to determine how future business trends will affect the demand for geographers.

Recent developments in Palestinian higher education and the CEEPAT programme

Palestinian teachers at the pre-collegiate level who participate in the CEEPAT programme will, it is hoped, learn to place new emphasis on enhancement of their students' analytical skills and discourage an identification of knowledge with memorisation. For their part, Palestinian professors who have been trained to teach in the programme will presumably constitute a growing reservoir of talent which may be expected to raise the quality of Palestinian university education. Plans are now under way to give all Palestinians teaching under the auspices of CEEPAT an opportunity to attend an annual, three-week winter seminar in Gaza and/or a summer seminar in the United States, both of which will focus on issues of pedagogy and methodology. Such professors can be expected to “pass on their new understanding of teaching via discussion to their colleagues and to their university students, thereby spreading an important pedagogical method to other segments of the Palestinian... community”. 7 CEEPAT clearly has the potential to make a significant contribution to the elevation of educational standards in Palestine at a time of major historical change.

Moving into the 21st Century: Strategic Plan of the American Association of Teachers of German

In March 1987, the Executive Council of the American Association of Teachers of German adopted a long-range plan. Reviewed and revised annually, this plan provided a direction for the organization over the five year period ending in 1992. The AATG surveyed its membership in 1992 in order to collect objective data regarding its membership's composition and needs.1 In November of that year, AATG President Elizabeth Hoffman appointed a committee charged with developing a strategic plan to guide the AATG into the 21st Century. The committee included AATG members from precollegiate and post-secondary levels with representation from the AATG national office and the committee charged with developing the 1987 long-range plan. This committee developed a draft document in May 1993 which was reviewed by over 100 chapter officers and former members of the AATG Executive Council. Based on the comments of these reviewers, the strategic plan was revised in September 1993 and, following further review and revision by the AATG Executive Council, was approved in concept by the board in February 1994. To inform the AATG membership of the committee's efforts, open sessions were held at each of the six regional conferences and at the AATG annual meetings in Atlanta and Stanford. The Strategic Planning Committee and the Executive Council then began work on the action goals (bulleted items) for the plan. The AATG Executive Council approved the plan as presented here in August 1995. The following document reflects the current status of the association and its membership services while at the same time providing a vision for the organization. It outlines the mission of the AATG and its goals for the immediate future. Because of the nature of strategic planning, this document will remain in draft form, reflecting the dynamic nature of the association. The Executive

From the Axial Age to the New Age: Religion as a Dynamic of World History

FROM THE PALEOLITHIC to the neolithic age and from the Axial Age to the New Age, religion has been a key dimension of human societies. Thus, it should be essential to the teaching of a World history course, particularly at the precollegiate level. Often World historians, such as William McNeill and Leften Stavrianos, have posed other dynamics of World history such as trade and technology, but religion needs to be an integral part of any such course.' If history is the study of change and continuity of human societies and ecological systems over time, religion has helped preserve and sustain coherence of societies, maintain connection between civilizations, provide a sense of human progression, induce change-renewal, regeneration, transformation-in cultures, and render insights into the human, natural and supernatural worlds. The thinking and behavior of both individuals and civilizations are often shaped by religious beliefs and values, creating what might be termed a worldview. History, our own nation's pluralism, and contemporary events provide ample evidence that religion is a significant cultural value and powerful motivating force. Needless to say, religion has also inspired much of the world's beautiful art, architecture, literature, and music.2 If one assumes that history attempts to make the present intelligent, and without being a Whig historian, one need only look at recent events

Realities and Opportunities for Funding Geography Education

Abstract Funding for the improvement of geography at the precollegiate level has increased dramatically, both in the amount of money raised and the number of funders making grants. Nevertheless, geography is still not high on the priority list of most funders. Geographic educators must present a stronger case to potential funding agencies. Grant seekers must define geography appropriately, plan for at least the next five years, inventory the resources available to move forward, and be sure to emphasize the present-day relevance of geography' s subject matter. Six essential elements for fund raisers are listed, and a short caution concerning potential conflicts of interest is offered.

Missing Teachers, Impaired Communities: The Unanticipated Consequences of Brown v. Board of Education on the African American Teaching Force at the Precollegiate Level

In 1954, the year of the Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, approximately 82,000 African American teachers were responsible for the education of the nation's two million African American public school students (Hawkins, 1994). A decade later, over 38,000 Black teachers and administrators had lost their positions in 17 southern and border states (Ethridge, 1979; Holmes, 1990). Between 1975 and 1985, the number of Black students majoring in education declined by 66%; and another 21,515 Black teachers lost their jobs between 1984 and 1989 (Smith, 1987). As of 1991, approximately 232,000 African American teachers constituted 8% of the teaching force, while African American students constituted 16.4% of the national K-12 student population (Hawkins, 1994; National Center for Education Statistics, 1991). If current trends continue, projections are that by the year 2000, 35% of all public school students in the United States will be of minority background; however, only 5% of teachers will be members of minority groups (American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education, 1987; Recruiting New Teachers, Inc., 1992) (see Table I).TABLE ITHE LOSS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN TEACHERS FOLLOWING BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION: A SNAPSHOTPre-1954--Approximately 82,000 African American teachers were responsible for the education of 2 million African American children.1954--The Brown v. Board of Education decision was handed down.1954-1965--More than 38,000 African American teachers and administrators in 17 southern and border states lost their jobs.1975-1985--The number of African American students majoring in education declined by 66%.1984-1989--An estimated 37,717 minority candidates and teachers--including 21,515 African Americans--were eliminated as a result of newly installed teacher certification and teacher education program admissions requirements.By 2000--Only 5% of the teaching force will be of minority background, while 35% of the student population will be people of color.Forty years after Brown, most U.S. students go through 12 years of schooling without ever having met a minority teacher, and approximately 70% of all minority students continue to attend predominantly or exclusively minority schools (Hawkins, 1994). Through no fault that can be attributed to the positive aspects of the 1954 decision itself, it is clear that African Americans have failed to get the results they envisioned. This is especially true with regard to the African American teaching force. Concurring with Mercer and Mercer (1986), who claim that [operating] a public school system without Black teachers is [like teaching] White supremacy without saying a word (p. 105), this article argues that the loss of African American teachers in public school settings has had a lasting negative impact on all students, particularly African American students and the communities in which they reside. It further maintains that although the shrinking African American teacher pool has been attributed to several factors, it is partly a fall-out of how Brown was implemented by White American policy makers.THE ALMOST-LOST PROFESSIONThe message transmitted by the Brown decision, and by the desegregation strategies implemented to carry out its mandates, implied that the White education system was intrinsically better than the Black education system. The latter was deemed expendable in the interest of the cause of public school desegregation. White school systems did have better facilities and greater operational resources--the primary areas in which segregated, separate-but-equal school systems were decidedly not equal--however, high-quality facilities do not necessarily translate into a better academic system. The quality of teaching and the degree of concern for students' welfare shown by African American teachers within those facilities are crucial factors that cannot be overlooked. …

Wilson, et al., The Pursuit of Liberty - A history of the American People

Reviewing textbooks is like visiting the dentist for a checkup. The experience may be painful or it may be beneficial for you. Since Frances FitzGerald's onslaught on the American textbook in the 1980s, publishers at the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels have been experimenting in order to upgrade and improve the backbone of classroom instruction, the textbook. Many publishers have heeded FitzGerald's remarks about the dullness of textbooks by expending large sums of monies on the production of a grand design classroom teaching package.

Mexico, Mexicans and Mexican Americans in Secondary-School United States History Textbooks

IT IS NOW RATHER COMMONPLACE to decry the poor quality of United States history textbooks at the university and precollegiate levels. Criticisms range from the general to the specific. While the first include such practices as dumbing down (that is, the rewriting of texts for a lower reading level than their intended audience should have already attained), the second focus more directly upon content.' Often inspired by well-defined political agendas, these criticisms encompass issues of inclusion or omission of certain topics and the endorsement of particular values or behavior. Special-interest lobbying to change textbook content is well worth the effort, however, since American history textbooks are the single most significant source of information on many vital topics for high-school teachers as well as their students. Textbook treatments of Mexico, Mexicans and Mexican Americans are a case in point. American students are usually introduced to Mexico in primary-school geography and middle-school world history. However, it is secondaryschool United States history textbooks that offer the fullest, most sophisticated and widely disseminated images of Mexico and its peoples.2 At a time when United States relations with Mexico command ever greater attention, when Mexican Americans represent one of the fastest-growing

The Bradley Commission and American History

THE BRADLEY COMMISSION'S REPORT on the status of history in the curriculum comes at an opportune moment. National discussion of the problems of elementary and secondary education were (at least for a moment) becoming a prominent feature of public debate. Moreover, public concern about the eduational system is not narrowly focused on mathematics and the sciences. The report appears, then, in the context of a general concern for the fate of our schools and in a context in which its plea for improving the teaching of history may be heard. Accordingly, when the Commission issued its report, the Organization of American Historians asked its Committee on History in the Schools and Colleges to evaluate it. The committee (which I chaired at the time) strongly recommended that the OAH Executive Board endorse the Report and we recommended that the organization seek out ways in which it could help to implement its recommendations. Although the OAH (and its predecessor, the Mississsippi Valley Historial Association) has a long history of supporting improved teaching of history at the pre-collegiate level, in recent years a large gap has developed between professional historians and teachers of history in the schools. Moreover, during this period the teaching of history at the precollegiate level has changed significantly. The most disturbing change,

The impact of structured editing on introductory computer science education: the results so far

Properly done, introductory computer science courses have great potential, both for preparing future computing professionals and for the broad goals of general education. Yet the performance all too often lags well behind the promise. Poor grades, high failure and drop out rates are all too common at both the collegiate and pre-collegiate levels. However the advent of seamless programming environments based on structure editing provides us with an opportunity to change the situation in fundamental ways. Initial studies show dramatic differences between students who do and do not use a structure editor based environment.

Perspectives on History Education in England

THE CRISIS IN HISTORY has been generally acknowledged and widely discussed by historians and history educators in the United States over the past ten or fifteen years. A variety of studies and reports focusing on the status of history in high schools have suggested that the discipline is in disarray at the pre-collegiate level. Statistics concerning declining numbers of undergraduate history majors, a shrinking population of graduate students in history, and dismal employment prospects for academic historians have supported the perception that history has lost ground, that indeed the future of history teaching is, at best, uncertain. These concerns are not unique to the American context. To some extent, at least, the problems of history education must be viewed as modern problems. The development of the social science disciplines and their subsequent translation into high school courses have certainly contributed to history's situation. Certain social, political, and economic developments during the second half of the twentieth century and the directions they have dictated, e.g. a search for curricular relevance and a demand for courses in special subjects such as career education, consumer education, multicultural studies, and women's studies have also reduced history's importance as the central focus of the social studies curriculum in this country and elsewhere as well.2

Teaching Political Science at the Pre-Collegiate Level: An Analysis of Social Studies Methods Textbooks

Teaching Political Science at the Pre-Collegiate Level: An Analysis of Social Studies Methods Textbooks