This study attempted to explore the main influences of politics on teacher's academic freedom and on the independence of academic institutions. The general objective of this study was assessing the impact of political party membership among teachers on their freedom in the study area. Nigste Saba is a model high school which is selected…

This article describes two cohort programs that were used to support students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields at Carleton College. These programs were designed to support three aspects of student development: students' drive to succeed in STEM fields; students' sense of belonging in their student cohorts, in the college, in the STEM…

The purpose of this study was to examine how simulations in physics class, class management, laboratory practice, student engagement, critical thinking, cooperative learning, and use of simulations predicted the percentage of students achieving a grade point average of B or higher and their academic performance as reported by teachers in secondary…

In 2011, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) founded the Center for Community College Advancement to provide training and resources to help community colleges build and sustain effective fundraising, alumni relations, and communications and marketing programs. A goal for the center is to collect data on best practices at…

Although exclusion is commonly thought of as a form of relational or social aggression, it often reflects attempts at maintaining friendships, drawing group boundaries, and optimizing group functioning and can thus also be considered an inevitable feature of normative social interactions. This study examines the narrative accounts and judgments of…

Background: Early substance use co-occurs with youths' self-organization into deviant peer groups in which substance use is central to social interaction. We hypothesized that the social dynamics of deviant peer groups amplify the risk of progressing from early use to later dependence, and that this influence occurs over and above escalations…

Social work students, regardless of their multiple social identities in oppressed and oppressor groups, are called upon to take action against social injustice. This conceptual article introduces the Ally Model of social justice and its alignment with social work values and goals and recommends it to social work educators as a pedagogical tool to…

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) programs are growing in popularity in higher education settings and a key component is the use of work groups, which require active employee involvement. The problem addressed in this research was the lack of employee engagement in the Quality Review Process (QRP), which is a statewide CQI model developed by…

The purpose of this study was to examine the ways in which a professional learning community (PLC) of music teachers sustained growth as they sought to incorporate Comprehensive Musicianship Through Performance (CMP) in their teaching practices. Seven music teachers from a suburban school district in the upper Midwest participated in a PLC as they…

Purpose: Groundnut farmers in East Africa have experienced declines in production despite research and extension efforts to increase productivity. This study examined how social network structures related to acquisition of information about new seed varieties and productivity among groundnut farmers in Uganda and Kenya.…

College provides students with many opportunities to achieve academic success and enrich other aspects of their lives. Participating in campus activities can reduce stress, create social connections, promote healthy active living, and broaden civic engagement (Lindsey & Sessoms, 2006; Watson, Ayers, Zizzi, & Naoi, 2006). Studies noting…

Using a probability-based neighborhood sample of urban African American youth and a sample of their close friends (N = 202), we conducted a one-year longitudinal study to examine key questions regarding sexual and drug using norms. The results provide validation of social norms governing sexual behavior, condom use, and substance use among…

A consensus has been reached within the scientific community concerning the occurrence of climate change and its anthropogenic causes. Outside of this community, however, there continues to be considerable debate and confusion surrounding the topic. The government mitigation strategies and political leadership needed for this issue will require…

One prominent approach in the exploration of the variations in project team performance has been to study two components of the aggregate personalities of the team members: conscientiousness and agreeableness. A second line of research, known as self-categorisation theory, argues that identifying as team members and the team's performance norms…

We use a longitudinal national dataset to explore the direct and conditional effects of fraternity/sorority membership on students' educational outcomes in the 4th year of college. Controlling for a variety of potentially confounding variables, including pretest measures of the outcomes, we find no direct effect of fraternity/sorority membership…