Students In Academic Settings Research Articles

Between smart drugs and antidepressants: A cultural analysis of pharmaceutical drug use among university students

In recent years, there has been a growing concern for the non-medical use of prescription drugs by young adults, and particularly college and university students. These expanding practices of pharmaceutical drug use have been associated with different phenomena such as physical and cognitive enhancement, non-medical prescription drug use and recreational use. All of these various consuming practices involve a blurring of the boundaries between curing, preventing and enhancing and between recreational and productive activities. Some studies show the importance of linking pharmaceutical drug use with broader issues among students in academic settings, such as competitiveness, pressure, stress, depression and mental health issues. The main objective of this article is to explore some of the perceptions and rationales that underlie the use of non-medical and medical prescription drugs, natural products, energy drinks and other pharmaceutical or natural substances among university students in Montreal (Canada). Focus-groups and indepth, semi-structured interviews were realized with a sample of 42 students in order to link the consumption cultures of the participants with other variables, such as their lifestyle, their experience of psychological distress and anxiety and their need of achievement. Focusing on the young population fulfills the function of sociological forecast about the future trends in the expansion of pharmaceutical drug use for the management of everyday life in contemporary Western societies.

Practical dissonance: Bridging the gap between academia and agencies

AbstractTraditional natural resource programs in higher education tend to target biota, habitat, and human users and/or values as interacting components of a system. In the 2007 Journal of Wildlife Management article “Dinosaur Ramblings,” Scalet (2007) described a shifting continuum between applied or management‐oriented research and basic ecological research that continues to challenge how programs in higher education approach the training of young professionals. In a 2008 issue of the same journal, a seminar on this topic resulted in students publishing “Dinosaur Evolution: Student Response to Dinosaur Ramblings,” (Parker et al. 2008) in which they concurred that this continuum exists, but argued that change has been more an integration of applied and basic research as opposed to a shift away from management. The multiple‐use mission of many organizations today requires a more holistic approach to management. However, professionals often report that students lack the basic skills needed for applied management. I propose an alternative model, based on modern psychological principles, that redirects our focus toward the area of greatest concern—the apparent and increasing disconnect between what is taught to students in academic settings and what agencies expect from employees in practice, as both make the shift to more holistic management at different rates. The magnitude of this “practical dissonance” can be reduced by changing practices, adding consonant activities, or altering the perceived importance of those discrepancies to bring the trajectories more in line with each other. Change is inevitable in society, higher education, and natural resource management; our responsibility is to ensure that the link between agencies and higher education is maintained and strengthened. © 2012 The Wildlife Society.

Tra "droghe intelligenti" e antidepressivi: un'analisi culturale sull'utilizzo di farmaci tra gli studenti universitari

In recent years, there has been a growing concern for the non-medical use of prescription drugs by young adults, e particularly college e university students. These expanding practices of pharmaceutical drug use have been associated with different phenomena such as physical e cognitive enhancement, non-medical prescription drug use e recreational use. All of these various consuming practices involve a blurring of the boundaries between curing, preventing e enhancing e between recreational e productive activities. Some studies show the importance of linking pharmaceutical drug use with broader issues among students in academic settings, such as competitiveness, pressure, stress, depression e mental health issues. The main objective of this article is to explore some of the perceptions e rationales that underlie the use of non-medical e medical prescription drugs, natural products, energy drinks e other pharmaceutical or natural substances among university students in Montreal (Canada). Focus-groups e indepth, semi-structured interviews were realized with a sample of 42 students in order to link the consumption cultures of the participants with other variables, such as their lifestyle, their experience of psychological distress e anxiety e their need of achievement. Focusing on the young population fulfills the function of sociological forecast about the future trends in the expansion of pharmaceutical drug use for the management of everyday life in contemporary Western societies.

Literacies crossing borders: transfronterizo literacy practices of students in a dual language program on the USA–Mexico border

Research on transnational literacies has generally focused on youth who live in one country and communicate using digital literacies across national boundaries. Our work contributes to this literature by providing a view of transnational literacies that are unique to the USA–Mexico border region. The students in this ethnographic study navigate two countries, two languages, and two homes on a weekly and sometimes daily basis. This article describes the literacies that these transfronterizo youth acquire as border crossers. Our focus is on the print and digital literacies learned outside of the classroom and how these are being used by the students in academic settings.

Measuring emotions in students’ learning and performance: The Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ)

Aside from test anxiety scales, measurement instruments assessing students’ achievement emotions are largely lacking. This article reports on the construction, reliability, internal validity, and external validity of the Achievement Emotions Questionnaire (AEQ) which is designed to assess various achievement emotions experienced by students in academic settings. The instrument contains 24 scales measuring enjoyment, hope, pride, relief, anger, anxiety, shame, hopelessness, and boredom during class, while studying, and when taking tests and exams. Scale construction used a rational–empirical strategy based on Pekrun’s (2006) control-value theory of achievement emotions and prior exploratory research. The instrument was tested in a study using a sample of university students ( N = 389). Findings indicate that the scales are reliable, internally valid as demonstrated by confirmatory factor analysis, and externally valid in terms of relationships with students’ control-value appraisals, learning, and academic performance. The results provide further support for the control-value theory and help to elucidate the structure and role of emotions in educational settings. Directions for future research and implications for educational practice are discussed.

Catching the Wind in a Bottle: Collection Development for Wind Energy Technology Programs at Universities and Colleges

This article aims to assist information professionals in developing a resource collection that serves Wind Energy students in academic settings. Traditional as well as Internet resources should be utilized in order to meet the needs of this unique student population.

Exploring the relationship between Internet ethics in university students and the big five model of personality

The widespread use of the Internet and the convenient mechanism it provides, such as easy access, easy downloads, and easy copy and paste functions have made many types of unethical behaviors easier, particularly those involving students in academic settings. Among the issues in ethics within the academic environment that can be triggered by the Internet are fraudulence, plagiarism, falsification, delinquency, unauthorized help, and facility misuse. Given these issues, the study seeks to investigate the extent to which students at a public university in Malaysia engage in such unethical behavior and their relationship with the big five personality model. This study was conducted using a survey method of 252 students in three different academic faculties. The results of factor analyses confirm and refine the reliability of the scales for both big five personality variables and unethical Internet behaviors as conceptualized through Internet triggered academic dishonesty (ITADS). The findings indicate that personality traits such as (1) agreeableness, (2) conscientiousness and (3) emotional stability are significantly and negatively correlated with unethical Internet behavior in university students. Significant differences in facility misuse are also observed between the three academic faculties investigated. This research should provide significant contributions to educators in designing the computer ethics curriculum and in allowing for educational institutions as well as other organizations in developing relevant policies and guidelines on matters pertaining to academic conduct, utilization of computers and Internet, and recruitment exercises.

The Discourse Functions of and in the Australian Students’ Presentations

And is generally known as a connector which relates parallel information or ideas. In the discourse contexts, and is used differently. This article presents the discourse functions of and as a discourse marker in the presentations made by Australian students in academic settings. It was identified that and has four different discourse functions: i) linking events within a discourse topic; ii) introducing a new topic; iii) signalling a summary; and iv) signalling a speaker’s retaking a turn.

Higher Education and Psychiatric Disabilities: National Survey of Campus Disability Services.

Students with psychiatric disabilities are an increasing presence on college and university campuses. However, there is little factual information about the services available to these students in campus disability services offices or the extent to which they use these services. This article reports the results of a survey of disability services offices at colleges and universities in 10 states. Data from 275 schools revealed the number of students with psychiatric disabilities seeking assistance from disability services offices, characteristics of these offices, and the types of services they provide. Survey data also identified barriers to full participation of these students in academic settings. Implications of the study are discussed to inform policy and postsecondary institutional practices with the goal of better serving psychiatrically disabled students to maximize their talents and potential.

Standards for intergenerational practice: A proposal

In this article, the authors propose six standards for the work of Intergenerational Specialists in an emerging field of professional practice. These standards are intended to guide students in academic settings who are preparing to work as Intergenerational Specialists in direct service roles, administrative capacities, or the supervision and training of others in the field. In addition, they might also be considered useful guidelines for program developers who want to ensure mutually beneficial interactions between younger people and older adults in any kind of organized intergenerational context. The proposed Standards for Intergenerational Practice are currently being piloted by students in a graduate degree program, and eventually will be submitted to Generations United for endorsement and widespread acceptance by the field. These basic principles are consistent with NAEYC's Developmentally Appropriate Practices for early childhood programs, and they are also consistent with ethical practices in programs for older adults.

Writing, Knowledge Construction and Idea Framing

This paper is based on a small scale investigation into the way knowledge is constructed and the way ideas are framed (developed and linked with each other) in writing by overseas students on a British undergraduate programme. This paper applies the taxonomy of idea framing, which has been developed from the analysis of group interaction patterns (speaking) of the same students in academic settings, to the analysis of written data, comparing the differences and similarities between writing and speaking in terms of idea framing and knowledge construction. Two major types of idea framing are discussed: reactive framing and additive framing. This paper aims to examine the different patterns of framing of ideas employed by students in writing (the multi-dimensionality of knowledge construction and idea framing in writing) and also discusses the pedagogical implications of the study.

Pitfalls in Software “Architecting”: Some Issues in Transforming Paradigms from Manual to Computer-Supported Methods

Faculty, researchers, and graduate students in academic settings produce a multitude of software programs for architecture. These tool builders are attempting to transform existing paradigms into computer-based tools for academia and the profession. Although the number of serious attempts at developing software is increasing dramatically and software authoring tools are continuing to improve, the successful integration of new software into teaching and practice often remains a problem. Inexperience in software development is causing many of these projects to be unsuccessful. This article represents a compendium of the common pitfalls in architectural software development that serves as a preliminary checklist. Pitfalls are found in deciding what software to make, the effects of computation, the nature of design, the process of transformation and implementation, and organization.

Staying out of trouble: Apparent plagiarism and academic survival

Textual borrowing by second language students in academic settings has traditionally been viewed as an intentional violation of Western norms and practices. As we have learned from recent discussions, however, the issue is not that simple, but fraught with complexities. In order to understand the degree of complexity, it is worthwhile to examine one instance of such borrowing. This paper explores the apparent plagiarism of one second language student writer in a university course. It considers her behavior in relation to the context of her course, the demands of her task, her developing English language skills, and her general learning processes.

Religious Counseling: To Be Used, Not Feared

Our society is placing more emphasis on religion and religious issues. Persons seeking counseling often request Christian counseling. Students in academic settings often express an interest in becoming Christian counselors. Often the religious aspect is left out or avoided in courses for training counselors. This article gives some specific ways in which religious issues can be used in a counseling setting using the three ps: place, personhood and philosophy.

Reading-Writing Relationships in First and Second Language

The study reported in this article examined the first language and second language reading and writing abilities of adult ESL learners to determine the relationships across languages (L1 and L2) and across modalities (reading and writing) in the acquisition of L2 literacy skills. Specifically, we investigated relationships (a) between literacy skills in a first language and literacy development in a second language (i.e., between reading in L1 and L2, and between writing in L1 and L2), and (b) between reading and writing in L1 and L2 (i.e., between reading and writing in L1, and between reading and writing in L2). The subjects, Japanese and Chinese ESL students in academic settings, were asked to write an essay and to complete a cloze passage in both their first and second languages. The results indicate that literacy skills can transfer across languages, but that the pattern of this transfer varies for the two language groups. It also appears that reading ability transfers more easily from L1 to L2 than does writing ability, and that the relationship between reading and writing skills varies for the two language groups. These data suggest that L2 literacy development is a complex phenomenon for already literate adult second language learners involving variables such as L2 language proficiency, L1 and L2 educational experience, and cultural literacy practices that may be related to different patterns of L2 literacy acquisition.

Contemporary World Issues: An Interactive Approach to Reading and Writing

U The academic writing needs of limited English proficiency (LEP) students have been difficult to define and problematic to address (Spack, 1988). Instructive practices borrowed from nativespeaker classrooms do not automatically solve the problems of the ESL student. In most writing classes, earlier pattern-centered approaches, such as controlled composition or the teaching of rhetorical patterns, have given way to process-centered approaches that focus on the writer's cognitive processes and often emphasize self-generated topics. But is this enough? Students in academic settings need to go beyond their personal knowledge base. Finding the link between a learner's background knowledge and experience and the academic requirements of different disciplines has been a demanding challenge, especially for teachers of ESL. Choosing topics that are culturally accessible and sufficiently weighty for use with university students is likewise a daunting task, given that many LEP students specialize in subject areas (such as engineering or physics) containing arcane or specialized vocabularies. Fortunately, a new text, Contemporary World Issues, provides ESL teachers with a variety of readings and exercises that siuccessfully address these areas of pedagogical difficulty. Contemporary World Issues is a reading-based, integrated skills textbook for upper intermediate or advanced students of ESL who will be doing academic work in English. The 12 units, each of which can generate up to eight hours of class time, are organized in a fixed format based on a reading passage. The units are not graded, and can be completed in any order. Each thematic unit is based on authentic materials intended to appeal to language learners of many different backgrounds. Topics include the following: About the Computer, Hugs are Better than Drugs, Money for Guns and Money for Butter, and Refugees: A Fact of Life? Each unit begins with a Background section that incorporates a variety of imaginative and interactive activities designed to induce content schemata and to preview key concepts and vocabulary. This is followed by a Pre-Reading section: More traditional in its approach, it leads the student to focus on skimming, scanning, and predicting before encountering the text as a whole. The Reading section is subdivided so that the student reads for a purpose, later discussing or using information to complete a task, such as filling in a graph. A Vocabulary Study exercise is also included in the

Use of Self-Monitoring of Attention with LD Students: Research and Application

This paper examines the use of self-monitoring of attention with learning disabled (LD) students in academic settings. Three theoretical models of cognitive behavior modification—the operant model, the cognitive-behavioral model, and the cognitive model —are briefly described, followed by a discussion of the methodological considerations which limit the interpretability of self-monitoring research. A review of self-monitoring studies with LD children reveals that although self-monitoring is effective at increasing on-task behavior, concurrent academic gains are not evident. This failure to produce academic gains is discussed in terms of current conceptualizations of attention which suggest that students must be taught not only how to pay attention, but what to pay attention to. Therefore, attention deficits among LD students may reflect an inability to perceive what is relevant in academic tasks rather than a general inability to attend. Implications for instructional design are discussed.