Students who actively participate in the learning process learn more than those who do not. "Involvement matters," as Tinto (1997) points out, and this involvement can occur both inside and outside the classroom. The importance of students' active involvement in learning is by now well documented and known. Active involvement in class facilitates…

This chapter describes an undergraduate psychology research methods course in which laptops facilitated online organization, electronic portfolios, and flexible laboratories to improve student engagement, capability, and understanding. (Contains 3 figures.)

Proposals to make governance "more efficient" by reducing or limiting the faculty role in shared governance are likely to diminish institutional effectiveness.

This study examined the long-term effects of participation in a half-day, low-element challenge course on the group functioning of members of college student organizations. Seventy-six participants completed measures of group cohesion, group effectiveness, and individual effectiveness within the group at four points in time: (a) one week prior to…

United World College of the American West (UWC-USA) which was founded in 1982 by the Occidental Petroleum magnate and philanthropist, Armand Hammer, is an upper-secondary school with 200 students and two dozen faculty from 80 countries or more. Situated amid traditional Hispanic settlements in New Mexico's scenic Sangre de Cristo Mountains,…

Background: In the light of the existence of lengthy waiting lists for out-of-home placements, this study examines the factors affecting the decision to apply or not to apply for this facility in a city traditionally characterized by a cultural and policy emphasis on family responsibility and by relatively low levels of welfare commitment to…

In this study the "neural efficiency" phenomenon (more efficient brain function in brighter as compared to less intelligent individuals) was investigated regarding differences in intelligence (average vs. above-average intelligence) and scholastic achievement (achievers vs. underachievers). The cortical activation (assessed by…

This article is an analysis of the social and political implications of changes in school assessment practices. It is based on two interview surveys carried out by the Swedish National Agency for Schools. These surveys, commissioned by the Swedish government, sought answers to questions raised about the consequences of a criterion-referenced…

There has been some concern that participation in an intervention and exposure to a measurement instrument can change participants' interpretation of the items on a self-report questionnaire thereby distorting subsequent responses and biasing results. Differential item functioning (DIF) analysis using item response modeling can ascertain possible…

With the highest national HIV prevalence in the world, the issue of HIV/AIDS is one of the most pressing socio-political matters in South Africa. It directly affects between five and six million people. A conservative estimate suggests that 600 people die every day of illnesses related to HIV/AIDS and the number of AIDS orphans in South Africa is…

Organizational creativity, in the model that follows, is subcategorized according to the type of creativity demanded by the industry in which a firm competes. Industries that demand the constant creation of new products are referred to as "creativity-centered" while others, which benefit from creative refinements to current services, are referred…

A new library in San Jose opened on August 1, 2003. This library is the result of a unique collaboration between San Jose State University Library and the San Jose Public Library. The planning for this new library highlighted merging several key areas of operation, including Government Publications. Several years before the two libraries merged,…

This article introduces an approach to service learning based on students' collective engagement with a range of community organizations. We explore the particular benefits of this comparative collective community-based (CCC) learning model through a discussion of the "Possibilities for Change in American Communities" program, which was begun by…

Decision-makers in organizations often make what appear as being intuitively obviously and reasonable decisions, which often turn out to yield unintended outcomes. The cause of such ineffective decisions can be a combination of cognitive biases, poor mental models of complex systems, and errors in thinking provoked by anxiety, all of which tend to…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of organizational factors such as leadership commitment, incentives and interaction on learning outcomes defined as performance improvement and organizational climate. Design/methodology/approach: Different aspects of knowledge acquisition, sharing and utilization were examined,…