Search

Public administration educators in the United States have renewed their interest in incorporating an international perspective into their teaching. Why is this perspective important for students and how can educators integrate it meaningfully? In this article, I provide an argument for the internationalization of public administration curricula, generate nine "principles of practice" to help guide internationalization efforts, and specify two broad strategies through which an international dimension can be integrated into public administration curricula--one for leveraging comparative material in domestically-focused curricula and another for developing a distinct and standalone internationally-focused specialization.

One antecedent-based intervention -- choice-making opportunities -- is an easy and effective way to motivate students with autism to stay on task, complete academic tasks, and engage in appropriate behavior during academic instruction. The purpose of this article is to discuss three main methods for incorporating choice-making opportunities and describe how educators of students with autism can incorporate choice-making opportunities during academic instruction. Seven steps for implementing choice-making opportunities and examples of how to implement choice-making opportunities during instruction are provided. We intend for readers to: (1) read and comprehend the three methods for implementing choice-making opportunities during instruction, (2) apply the seven steps when implementing choice-making, and (3) use the tables as guide when implementing choice-making during instruction.

A variety of assessment options that incorporate high-impact educational practices (HIPS) have emerged to assist higher education faculty in meeting student learning outcomes. HIPS are teaching and learning tools which have been demonstrated to increase student engagement and persistence. Practices such as first-year seminars, tech-rich learning communities, collaborative projects, undergraduate research, service learning, practicums, and internships are meaningful educational tools used to assess/measure a student's cumulative learning at various intervals. However, utilization of these practices is not often applied systematically due in part to the required investment of time, training, and money. This paper describes HIPS that support course and program-level learning outcomes in conjunction with the required investments for implementation of each. An exploration into why these types of practices are critical to student learning and success unveils which students have access to these opportunities. Findings emphasize the value of investing in these practices for all students in order to ensure student success, satisfy university accreditation standards, and meet the current mandates of our government's "completion agenda" which is geared towards preparing America's future workforce.

This qualitative descriptive study analyzed the role that natural mentors had in cultivating a sense of purpose and meaning among 38 diverse male and female high school students. The "types" of mentoring support provided and the students' perceived "experiences" of receiving the support were considered in the analysis. Directed content analysis revealed four initial overarching types of supportive actions that were provided by mentors: emotional, instrumental, informational, and appraisal support. The types of support offered were further categorized across three dimensions of perceived support by the mentees: (a) affirmation (e.g., the experience of emotional and appraisal support), (b) cultivation (e.g., the experience of being challenged and obtaining skills), and (c) guidance (e.g., the experience of receiving information and advice). In order for mentees to perceive and accept cultivation and guidance support, they first needed to experience an affirming relationship with their mentors. Findings may inform best practices for mentoring youth toward lives of meaning and purpose.

A growing number of studies have demonstrated that purpose in life is associated with positive outcomes among adolescents and young adults. The college years represent an important period of both personal and professional growth, including purpose in life. Supportive relationships may play a critical role in the identification and pursuit of purpose. Relationships with mentors, for example, have been linked with purpose among adolescents. The present study examined whether mentoring relationships were linked with purpose among college students (N = 194) from three institutions across the United States. Both aspects of quality (relational health) and quantity (i.e., number of mentors) were examined as predictors of purpose. Students who had at least one mentor reported higher levels of purpose compared to students with no mentors. Among students with at least one mentor, quality of mentoring was significantly associated with a greater commitment to purpose, while the number of mentors was not associated with commitment to purpose. Results are discussed in the context of practical applications regarding student success and purpose formation in higher education settings.

This case study describes the use of an emergency department as a learning space for interior design students. Kolb's (1984; 2005) framework identifies the characteristics of experiential learning and learning spaces, serving as the bridge to unify learning styles and the learning environment. A post-occupancy evaluation was conducted with interior design students to engage them in a concrete learning experience, reflection on these experiences from a variety of viewpoints, and building theories or generalizations that are applied to actively solving practical problems. Learning is explored as a never-ending cyclical process within all environments, which will serve to inform future decision-making.

Public education in the United States is increasingly focused on ensuring that all students graduate from high school and matriculate to college. Unfortunately, students themselves have demonstrated widespread academic disengagement across the middle and high school years. This disengagement is associated with a host of negative academic outcomes, including the failure to leverage their educations toward long-term goals. This article presents a youth purpose program called MPOWER designed to increase student engagement, intrinsic motivation, and ultimately college matriculation rates at an urban high school in the greater Boston area. Research and theory that inform MPOWER, as well as insights from the first author's experience as an urban educator implementing purpose curriculum, are discussed. The article highlights ways in which youth purpose interventions, such as MPOWER, are especially relevant for underserved and marginalized student populations.

Scholars have differentiated other-oriented (OO) purpose (i.e., a personally meaningful life aim intended to contribute to the world beyond the self) and self-oriented (SO) purpose (i.e., a personally meaningful life aim without intention to contribute beyond the self). OO purpose is associated with adolescent thriving, yet little is known about how to cultivate it. In a study of 207 adolescent girls, we examined how positive parent--adolescent relationships may contribute to developing OO versus SO purpose; we also tested whether the association between parent--adolescent relationships and OO purpose was mediated by prosocial behavior.

The present study explored the influence of psychological stress on the development of purpose among youth of color living in urban, low-income communities. A qualitative approach based on grounded theory was used to understand how stress-related experiences influence the development of youth purpose in participants' own words. Findings revealed that participants faced substantial psychological stress in their lives resulting from financial, family, academic, vocational, peer, neighborhood, relocation, and immigration-related stressors. Moreover, stress appeared to act as a barrier to purpose development in two common ways: (a) through youths' perceptions of "impossibility" of realizing their goals for the future and (b) through youths' experiences of regularly being "overwhelmed" to the point where purpose engagement was not a priority. However, stress could also serve as a "motivator" to purpose development for youth through (a) "pressure" from important others who held high expectations and (b) strong desires to escape from contextual stressors, such as violence or financial strain. Four patterns emerged from the data indicating that social support could serve to mitigate stress, propelling youth to develop a sense of purpose.

This study examines fiscal federalism by interrogating the relationship between first- and second-nature geographic features—most notably distance as well as various economic/infrastructural indicators—and intergovernmental transfers and subnational fiscal dependence in Russia and the United States from 2003 to 2015. Our findings reveal stark differences in the role that geographic factors play in these two federations. While first- and second-nature factors influenced both transfers and reliance in Russia, only second-nature indicators had an effect in the U.S. case. Economic development and infrastructural improvements do not cause the influence of first-nature indicators to evaporate altogether, but they do attenuate the effects of those considerations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a novel perspective on policymaking in personalist dictatorships based on outbidding theory. Originally developed with reference to ethnic conflict and terrorist organizations, outbidding suggests that individuals or organizations compete for support from their relevant audience, which produces predictable outcomes. I present a modified version of outbidding theory derived from the incentives faced by autocratic elites' desire to avoid upward accountability and attract the favour of the dictator. I probe the theory's plausibility for explaining policymaking in one prominent authoritarian legislature, the State Duma in Russia. Using two conditions "most likely" to reveal outbidding dynamics – the archetypal personalist regime of Putin's Russia and the realm of electoral policy – I couple quantitative text analysis with rigorous study of legislative debates. The findings support the existence of outbidding behaviour in Russian policymaking, suggest that it may result in positive outcomes for Duma deputies, and substantiate outbidding's effects on the repressiveness of public policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]