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The present study employed a quasi-experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness and acceptability of a 6-hr mandatory stress management and well-being program for preservice teachers. A program group of 157 preservice teachers (M[subscript age]= 22.46 years; 88% women) completed the program as well as baseline, post program, and follow-up measures. A comparison group of 63 preservice teachers (M[subscript age] = 23.50 years; 85% women) completed measures at similar time points but did not receive the program. All participants completed measures of stress, coping self-efficacy, anxiety, mindfulness, and well-being. The program group completed additional measures of well-being, affect, and program satisfaction. Findings revealed significant improvements in key indices of mental health and well-being for those in the program group relative to the comparison group and high ratings of program satisfaction. Discussion focuses on implications of present findings for mandatory inclusion of wellness curriculum in teacher preparation programs with instruction on enhancing their own "and "their students' well-being.

This study evaluated a coordinated and collaborative pilot implementation of open educational resources (OER) across multiple disciplines including nursing, accounting, environmental science, religious studies, and finance. Participating faculty were qualitatively surveyed regarding their experience creating and implementing OER in a course. Students were surveyed on their perceptions of OER quality, cost savings, and ease of use. Faculty had an overall positive experience with OER, believing there was a significant benefit to students in cost savings while maintaining learning quality. Faculty felt the OER implementation process took a significant investment of time and recommended that faculty should be compensated for creating and implementing OER materials in future courses. Students overall showed positive responses to using OER in their course; the majority of students agreed with the OER cost savings, quality of OER resources, ease of using OER, and they trusted the use of OER materials. Older students (over 30 years) were more likely to state they would print out OER materials rather than read them online (as compared with students 30 and under). Senior-level students agreed significantly more than did freshman-level students that OER presented a cost savings. Faculty recommendations from this study included focusing on courses with very high textbook costs and courses that would impact the greatest number of students. Additionally, faculty recommended a follow-up revision process to keep OER materials current after implementation.

The purpose of this investigation was to gain insights on facilitating a peer observation process that supports constructive feedback for continued development of effective teaching practices. The findings from this Canadian case study reveal that peer observation feedback are of value for the observed (which is well documented in the research) as well as the observer. Benefits for the observers have tended to be under-investigated and/or under-reported in the literature with respect to: (1) fostering collegial relationships; and (2) observing a peer whose teaching practices are unfamiliar. The findings in this study also indicate that the integration of an external observer who does scholarship in teaching and learning can provide knowledgeable feedback about pedagogical theory and course development, resulting in the reflective discussion and feedback being enhanced.

In this article, the author describes how he introduces a new group of teacher education students or other preservice educators to the research about lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth and schooling-related issues. A list of rights serves as a backdrop for a presentation and discussion of current data about the school experiences of LGBTQ students and about the risks that these youth face both in and out of school. The author uses recent key data from two sources: (1) Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN) School Climate Survey; and (2) Massachusetts Youth Risk Behavior Survey (MYRBS). The exploration of LGBTQ issues in classrooms and schools takes place amid a larger conversation about how schools provide or fail to provide opportunities for students from various historically marginalized groups to develop positive identities as learners. (Contains 4 notes.)

A constant challenge for any university location within an urban residential enclave is to engage the neighboring community in a continuing and purposeful dialogue on how to mitigate the negative impacts and increase the positive impacts of its presence on the quality of life of that community. The Maryland Plan, a strategy resulting from a shared vision of the concerns, solutions, and needed change in the relationship between the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and its residential neighborhood, offers some useful lessons for comparable situations of community engagement in improving town/gown relationships. By focusing initially on shared concerns about the physical environment and successfully initiating agreed upon strategies to address those concerns, UWM and its neighbors have begun to move from a historically adversarial relationship to one based on trust and cooperation.

In an increasingly complex landscape of diversification and massification, universities are grappling with challenges of student attrition. This paper presents findings from a project investigating how students from low socio-economic backgrounds at a regional Australian university perceive challenges and supports associated with retention and success. Twenty-seven students received intensive one-to-one support from a Faculty-embedded "academic advisor", and reflected on this support, their overall student experience, and strategies to enhance student success. Students identified a range of challenges that they experienced across an academic year (personal circumstances, lack of preparedness for university study, timely access to support, course/programme difficulties) and what worked well for them (academic advisor, University support services, growing confidence in self as competent student, peer support). A range of strategies for enhancing student success were identified by students, namely consistency across teaching design and delivery, transparency of delivery modes, mandatory orientation, access to a dedicated academic advisor, and increased peer connectedness. The applicability and viability of the proposed strategies within current higher education settings are explored.

Higher education institutions, and the way education is delivered and supported, are being transformed by digital technologies. Internationally, institutions are increasingly incorporating online technologies into delivery frameworks and administration -- both through internal learning management systems (LMS) and external social networking sites (SNSs). This study aims to explore how higher education students in a regional Australian dual-sector institute use and manage SNSs for personal and study-related activities and their perceptions of how this impacts their educational experiences. This mixed-methods study involved a quantitative and qualitative survey of 355 vocational training and higher education students and in-depth focus groups with ten higher education students. Four key themes were identified through thematic analysis: SNSs as a tool for fostering peer connectedness with fellow students; deliberate and distinct variation between personal and educational use of SNSs; resistance to external SNSs within education settings; and, need for a balance between digital and face-to-face learning and connectedness. Implications for curriculum design and delivery, and development of support for students in diverse learning contexts, are considered.

New public governance emphasises less state, more market and more hierarchy as the cornerstones for effective steering of higher education institutions. Based on an explorative analysis of qualitative and quantitative data of fourteen German and European economics departments, we investigate the steering effects of six new public management instruments in the years 2001 and 2002 on subsequent placement success of PhD graduates. Using crisp set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyse the data, our results deliver strong support for the positive effects of competition for resources and the varying effects of hierarchy on PhD education. Governance of successful departments is characterised by two solutions: "transparency over academic achievements" as one single success factor in each solution or a combination of "additional funding based on national competitive performance" with either "no public policy regulations for departments" or "no university regulations for departments." Governance of unsuccessful departments is characterised by one solution: "university regulations for departments" or a combination of "no additional funding based on national competitive performance" and "no transparency over academic achievements." Our results strengthen the strong impact of selected competitive mechanisms as an effective governance instrument and the partially detrimental effects of state regulations. University regulations turn out to be successful if they increase transparency over academic achievements by faculty members. Success is unlikely if those rules intervene into PhD education.

As a strategy to promote the Arapahoe Community College Library's collections and services, the Library undertook to brand itself as a math resource center. In promoting one area of expertise, math was selected to help address the problem of a large portion of high school graduates' inability to work at college-level math. A "Math Saturday" program at the college was organized, highlighted by a keynote presentation by a national authority on overcoming "math anxiety." The effort was successful in terms of program attendance, and in establishing ties with other agencies and groups to provide additional math programs.

Spatial visualization skills are vital to many careers and in particular to STEM fields. Materials have been developed at Michigan Technological University and Penn State Erie, The Behrend College to assess and develop spatial skills. The EnViSIONS (Enhancing Visualization Skills-Improving Options aNd Success) project is combining these materials and testing them with pre-college and college students at seven institutions: Michigan Tech, Penn State Behrend, Purdue University, University of Iowa, Virginia State University, Virginia Tech, and a "Project Lead the Way" course in south-central Arizona. By removing a barrier to success for students with low visualization skills, particularly women, the project leaders hope to improve the retention of these students in STEM disciplines and to enhance their success. This paper will give a brief overview of the implementations at the university level and the findings. (Contains 8 tables and 6 figures.)

This article presents empirical results of explorative case studies that examine whether the New Public Management mechanisms have improved the academic performance of PhD education in selected German and European economics departments. Our data rely on document analyses of organisational variables and in-depth semi-structured interviews with professors in Germany and several European countries. We propose a typology of departments along their PhD production technology and suggest that organisational improvements should look at the processes through which new professional standards gain acceptance in departments and at the means by which long-term incentive problems of collective action in a department are solved.

Regardless of the instrument used to determine learning styles, it is commonly accepted that people learn in different ways. As Professors, we tend to teach in a style that matches the way we ourselves learn. Tis may or may not match the learning styles of the students in our classroom. As Graphics educators, we cannot meet every student's learning style at all times, however we can use our understanding of learning styles to address the differences between our teaching style and the students' learning styles. This paper is follow-up of a paper presented at the ASEE Annual Conference in Portland, June 2005. The Portland paper reported the results of a survey administered to graphic professionals and graphics students. Using the results of that one survey we can generalize that graphic professionals strongly favor (70 percent) the Concrete Sequential learning style, while only 34 percent of graphics students favor this style. On the other hand, 51 percent of the students favored the Concrete Random style, which was favored by only 34 percent of the faculty (Sadowski et.al., 2005). Therefore, to increase the effectiveness of their teaching, graphics educators must make an effort to "bridge" the gaps created by the differences in teaching and learning styles. In this paper the authors look at instructional strategies and techniques that graphics educators can employ to teach students with different learning styles. Often basic style adjustments, additional explanations, or alternative activities can help a student learn and achieve success. As educators we need to select the most appropriate style for the learning situation and determine the importance of matching the styles of the learners in order to achieve the intended goal. (Contains 1 figure.)

It is generally accepted that the ability to visualize is an important tool for engineers and technologists especially in engineering graphics. Enhancing the spatial visualization abilities of engineering students has long been a focus of engineering graphics educators. Over the years a variety of test and procedures have been developed to determine learning styles. As professors, we tend to teach the way we learn, whether that is an effective approach for the students or not. Understanding our own learning style as well as the styles of our students might help us become more effective as communicators and teachers. Kolb (2004), and Herrmann (1995) have developed different theories on learning styles. The Myers Briggs Type Indicator test (MBTI) is given to high school students to help them make educated decisions about their career choices. Traditionally, instructors have been encouraged to present information in several different modes to engage students with a variety of learning styles. This paper presents the results of a pilot study that examined the assessment of learning styles of graphic educators and graphic students. It was based on the Style Delineator by Anthony Gregorc (2000). The Style Delineator, a self-assessment instrument for adults, can be used as a tool for understanding learning as well as teaching styles. For the purpose of this pilot study, the student participants were limited to undergraduates majoring in the computer graphics technology. The faculty participants were university graphics instructors with a variety of academic and industrial backgrounds. (Contains 5 figures.)

Argues that being creative is the means through which to produce and express new, novel, and occasionally useful ideas that should be applied to technology and engineering students. Examines theories about creative thinking, the process, and some aspects of teaching and learning creativity. (Author/CCM)

Summarizes a study which focused on teaching critical thinking skills with computer assisted instruction. Also summarizes a 1980 study in which a microcomputer was used to deliver a version of the program BABELS to college students and a replication of this study with younger students (5th-, 7th-, and 12th-graders). (JN)

This recommendation provides a definition for computer-literate teachers in the 1980's, which includes computer literacy and attitudinal goals, how microcomputers can be used, and preservice and inservice preparation. Three issues are presented which seem key to designing training. (MP)