Title III Literature

Aguirre, A., Jr – California Journal of Teacher Education, 8 (4): 11-19, (1981).

Adalberto Aguirre, Jr. is a member of the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. The main reason that traditional faculty development programs have failed to meet the needs of Chicano professors, he writes, is a failure to recognize the Chicano as a person with a dual identity within the institution. “One thing is very clear for Chicanos,” the author states,”—their growth depends on answers to questions of self and community, and not conformity to an institutional lifestyle.”

Education is sacred work—through education, as Native people, we help our children and each other to be good human beings. In our traditional and historic experiences, education is the way that we learn about creation, spirituality, social and family relationships, and how to provide for ourselves. In our contemporary life, we are experiencing education in more formal settings such as schools, colleges and universities but that education still has the same purposes This report is a collection of stories about how we, as Native people, are experiencing higher education in the State of Washington. Our experiences are shared from an institutional perspective showing the many ways that state, independent and tribal colleges and universities are striving to meet the demand of tribal people for a high quality education that honors cultural identity and tribal goals. Our stories share many successes. Through this brief examination of our best practices, our pathways, successful strategies can be examined and explored toward creation of even more opportunities.

We have a right to a post-secondary educational experience that honors our identities, promotes our social and economic well-being, builds our capacity as leaders and managers of our own resources and provides the training that we need to be successful in our careers. The recommendations of this report focus on specific strategies to promote improved access. We appreciate the many ways that our allies throughout higher education including foundations, tribal, state and federal government partners and legislators and organizations in our communities have shown determination and willingness. More persistent and adequate resources are needed in order to continue to move forward with the recommendations. The hands, hearts, and minds of many people touched this report. Their contributions are honored by each of us through our commitment to using the report to inform our discussions and our decisions. My hands go up to each of you in appreciation for your work.

The authors reference a wide range of indicators of student success. At times, indigenous values are referenced as important pathways towards success, both in higher education and in the preceding years of schooling. However, the general focuses throughout this comprehensive report are college persistence, four-year degrees and higher, and college completion.

There are currently more Native Hawaiian students entering post-secondary institutions; however, the number of Native Hawaiian college graduates does not mirror the spike in enrollment. Therefore, there is a need to identify the different motivational and sociocultural factors that currently assist Native Hawaiian college student retention. The purpose of this study is to identify and assess the motivational and sociocultural factors that are utilized by Native Hawaiian college students. Fifty students from Windward Community College, Kāneʻohe, Hawaiʻi, who identify themselves as being of Native Hawaiian descent, participated in a Q-Sort, as well as a personal interview. The ethnography uses both quantitative (Q-Sort) and qualitative (personal interviews) data to analyze the motivational and sociocultural factors for Native Hawaiian college students. By identifying select motivational and sociocultural factors that help the retention of Native Hawaiian college students, post-secondary learning institutions can better understand Native Hawaiian students and, therefore, can assist them in achieving their goal of graduating with a college degree.

My career-long interest as a researcher has been in the school literacy learning of students of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, particularly students of Native Hawaiian ancestry. The question I have been addressing recently, which drew me to research on teacher education, is how to develop a system that nurtures successful teachers of literacy in diverse, low-income communities. I consider my work a form of participatory action research, although my thinking has been influenced more by the constructivist/interpretivist perspective than the critical/historical perspective.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of completion of a self-regulated learning course on long-term academic outcomes of undergraduate students from a university program to support underprepared undergraduate students. These students were compared to a group of students from the same program who were carefully selected to be similar in terms of number of prior academic credits, prior cumulative GPA, gender, and number of transfer credits. Students who took the course had significantly higher cumulative GPAs four semesters afterwards, significantly higher odds of graduation, and significantly lower odds of receiving one or more F grades in subsequent semesters. Course structure and other factors deemed central to the success of this course were identified.

Understanding the experiences of underrepresented groups within colleges and universities is an important step in making higher education more inclusive and representative of the diversity in the United States. Social capital acquired through formal and informal social networking has been proposed to explain differences in college experiences among diverse student populations. The purpose of this study is to identify students’ social networks and to examine the effects of such networks on academic and social integration among ethnic groups. Almost 340 students attending an ethnically diverse university described their personal networks and how their networks affected their college experience. The results provide a more refined understanding of how social capital, social networking and ethnicity affect the students’ overall college experience. Quantitative analyses of the data indicated that members of each ethnic group had different ethnic networking patterns before and during their college attendance. Moreover, non-Caucasian groups relied on their networks more in comparison to Caucasian students. After controlling for a number of student background variables, networking functions before (e.g., receiving help with college-related tasks, sharing in fun and relaxation activities) and during college were significant in explaining students’ satisfaction with attending college. Similarly, network functions during college (e.g., receiving help with college-related tasks such as homework) were significant in explaining academic achievement. The study implies that students’ social networking patterns can contribute to their accumulation of social capital. Such behavior positively affects their performance in college, as well as their overall integration and satisfaction with the college experience. The fact that networking behavior differs among ethnic groups deserves the attention of those positioned to influence the behavior of students both before and during their college attendance.

Two studies were conducted to examine validity evidence for the College Self-Efficacy Inventory, by investigating dimensionality and theoretically based relationships with external criteria. Modifications to the scale yielded an adequately fitting three-factor model, and most hypothesized relationships were empirically supported. However, continued refinement of the instrument is recommended owing to construct underrepresentation.

This article presents the results of a cooperative inquiry into the nature, historical development and effectiveness of teacher training programs for American Indian students. The authors contend that historic patterns of marginality within and limited access to educational contexts have silenced Native communities’ voices and presence in the structure and curriculum of schools. In contrast to programs which inculcate dominant values and perspectives, effective American Indian teacher education programs provide access to university resources; engage members of the Indian community in developing curriculum and instruction strategies; immerse student teachers in authentic, diverse cultural settings; and model culturally responsive teaching practices for pre-service teachers. Results of the authors’ inquiry indicate three areas of promising reform for culturally responsive Indian teacher education:

1. establishing infrastructures for incorporating Native voices and participation in the educational process;
2. institutionalizing culturally responsive norms for curriculum and instruction; and
3. increasing the knowledge base concerning Indian education through scholarly study of the complexities of teaching and learning within Indian communities.

This chapter highlights the role of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in promoting the academic success of minority students and discusses successful strategies used by several Hispanic-Serving community colleges.

The scholarship on student success, particularly for minority groups, has two limitations. One is the lack of attention to practitioners’ knowledge, beliefs, experiences, education, and feelings of self‑efficacy as factors that influence student outcomes. The other derives from the traditional science assumption that the researcher produces generalized knowledge that is translatable into “best practices” that are implemented locally by practitioners. These epistemological limitations can be addressed by the conceptualization of a phronetic social science for higher education where practitioners assume the role of researchers and develop context‑dependent knowledge and experience about how to facilitate student success.

Recent research has generated a large body of knowledge about students who are the first members of their families to attend college (referred to as “first-generation students” in this report). What do first generation students study in college? How well do they do in their coursework? Is their coursework different from that of their peers whose parents went to college? This report explores these questions by using data from the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study (PETS) of the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988 (NELS:88) to examine the majors and course-taking patterns of first-generation students and to compare their postsecondary experiences and outcomes with those of students whose parents went to college. This analysis focuses on a subset of the NELS 1992 12th-graders who had enrolled in postsecondary education between 1992 and 2000 and who also have complete postsecondary transcripts available; in addition, the analysis also required that parents’ education levels be reported. The findings of this study contribute to earlier research by distinguishing between first-generation students and their counterparts with respect to major fields of study chosen, the types of courses taken, amount of coursework completed, academic performance, and postsecondary outcomes.

In Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Higher Education, Doris Ching and Amefil Agbayani have amassed and edited a mixture of theory, research, history, best practices, and inspirational stories that clearly show the need for additional discussion, research, and review regarding Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) students, faculty, staff, and administration. They begin by showing that statistically AAPI students are the fastest growing sub-population in the country. However, little is known about this population due to misconceptions and myths created by the dominant White population. Even the term “Asian American and Pacific Islander” does not clearly differentiate the more than 48 ethnic groups, cultures, and languages/dialects including: Bangledishi, Bhutanese, Burmese, Cambodian, Chinese, Filipino, Hmong, Indian, Indo Chinese, Iwo Jiman, Japanese, Korean, Laotian, Malaysian, Maldivian, Nepalese, Okinawan, Pakistani, Singaporean, Sri Lankan, Taiwanese, Thai, and Vietnamese. This does not even include the Pacific Islander categories of Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, Guamanian, I-Kiribati, Kosraean, Mariana Islander, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Ni-Vanuatu, Palauan, Papua New Guinean, Pohnpeian, Saipanese, Samoan, Solomon Islander, Tahitian, Tokelauan, Tongan, Yapese, Polynesian, Micronesian, and Melanesian.

Ching and Agbayani discuss how AAPIs are segregated from both the White and Colored cultures by being presented as less than White, but better than the African-American and Latino/a populations, which the editors believe have been consistently presented as being lower socioeconomically, as well as underprepared educationally. This has been accomplished through misconceptions and myths about AAPIs and their abilities to succeed in school and in the workplace without the support given to other minorities. However, through statistics and research, Ching and Agbayani provide a picture of the overall subclass of AAPI that proves that these misconceptions are outdated and racist. Students that classify themselves as AAPI are not always educationally prepared or focused on STEM fields as popular stereotyping would have us believe. Yet, due to these stereotypes, it is mistakenly assumed that support for these students and professionals are not necessary, because they will be successful anyway.

Additionally, Chang and Agbayani discuss the importance of increasing and supporting AAPI leadership within the university. Having an active AAPI leadership not only provides a passionate group of advocates for AAPI students but also readily available mentors who can relate to the experiences and issues with which AAPI students are being faced. In order to increase these leadership positions, understanding of the differences between Western and AAPI cultures must be fostered. These cultural differences frequently lead to misunderstanding of the leadership potential in AAPI employees and their ability to be successful in leadership positions.

This study reports findings from a 10-day professional development institute on curricular trends involving 19 secondary mathematics and science teachers and administrators from Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Korea, Philippines, the United States, and People’s Republic of China. Participants explored the roles of culture, place, and personal experience in science education through writings and group discussions. Initially, Asian participants tended to view indigenous knowledge and practices more negatively than U.S. peers. After a presentation on indigenous Hawaiian practices related to place and sustainability, they evaluated indigenous practices more positively and critiqued the absence of locally relevant science and indigenous knowledge in their national curricula. They identified local issues of traffic, air, and water quality they would like to address, and developed lessons addressing prior knowledge, place, and to a lesser extent, culture. These findings suggested critical professional development employing decolonizing methodologies articulated by indigenous researchers Abbott and Smith has the potential to raise teachers’ awareness of the connections among personal and place-based experiences, cultural practices and values, and teaching and learning. An implication was the development of a framework for professional development able to shift science instruction toward meaningful, culture, place, and problem-based learning relevant to environmental literacy and sustainability.

At first glance, American Indian and Alaska Native higher education participation and achievement rates seem to lag behind national norms. Closer examination of trends and developments, however, reveals a sense of accomplishment and success in the number of American Indian and Alaska Native students going to college and graduation from a range of academic programs. Overall college success among American Indian and Alaska Native students going to college and graduation rates, development of Native-focused student services and academic programs, and students finding gainful employment after graduation (many of whom return to their own communities). …the literature on American Indians and Alaska Natives in higher education is replete with success stories of individual students. Report and studies have proven the increasing positive impact of institutional programs designed to meet the needs of American Indian and Alaska Native peoples and the growing, positive influence of tribal governments. This book advances insights believed to be associated with the college success of American Indians and Alaska Native s and will hopefully provide you with information on how to be successful in fulfilling your own postsecondary aspirations, intentions, and commitments. A complex array of events and circumstances can either enliven the prospect of success or conspire against American Indians and Alaska Natives getting into college and making the most of the experienced. One important aspect of promoting college success is for all the important stakeholders to acknowledge that they feel a part of the process. If postsecondary representatives read this book, they might understand the depth of commitment needed to ensure that American Indians and Alaska Natives have a successful experience in college…

Although there is momentum among Canadian educators to incorporate Aboriginal content and epistemology into pre-kindergarten to postsecondary education, the learning and assessment of Aboriginal students remains subjugated by a Western perspective. The purpose of this article is to explore ideal learning contexts for Aboriginal students and juxtapose these ideas with the predominant learning and assessment tactics used in a school. Data for this qualitative study were collected via five focus groups involving grandparents/caregivers, representatives from Aboriginal organizations, and educators of one Saskatchewan school. Analyzed through Aboriginal and Western epistemologies, results indicated that, for Aboriginal students, learning and assessment are holistic experiences, and educators need to balance students’ academic assessment with other physical, emotional, and spiritual forms of assessment. These findings suggest that educators need to depart from the zone of cognitive competence and move toward promoting an educational zone of trustful intuition.

Using a longitudinal sample of 7,063 students, this study examined through multilevel regression analyses the impact of interracial interactions on student-faculty relationships and intellectual self-concept. Interracial interactions were positively related to each type of student-faculty interaction, while student-faculty interactions were significant to students’ self-perception of academic ability and intellectual self-confidence.

Many secondary and postsecondary schools in the United States are undergoing major changes as they seek improvements in access, responsiveness, performance, and efficiency. The changes include increased integration of subject-matter areas, closer coordination of school- and community-based learning, and improved articulation among educational levels and systems. These changes, in turn, call for new roles and responsibilities for those who staff secondary and postsecondary schools. The purposes of this project were to develop

1. a conceptual framework for the new roles and responsibilities of staff who will lead and support educational change,
2. a list of the competencies needed by staff in their new roles, and
3. recommendations on how the competencies might best be developed in preservice and inservice staff development programs.

This development is grounded in the plans and experiences of high schools that have applied New Designs for the Comprehensive High School (NDCHS) and community and/or technical colleges that have applied New Designs for the Two-Year Institution of Higher Education (NDTYI), both previous works of the National Center for Research in Vocational Education (NCRVE), as well as a broader review of research and best practices in staffing and staff development in high schools and community/technical colleges across the country. The method of study included several activities relating to both staffing and staff development:

1. a review and revision of the recommended design features of high schools and colleges originally proposed in NDCHS (Copa, Beck, & Pease, 1992) and NDTYI (Copa & Ammentorp, 1997),
2. a review of research and best practices for staffing and staff development for high schools and community/technical colleges, and
3. a conference/workshop of researchers and practitioners with expertise in staffing and staff development for high schools and community/technical colleges.

Recommendations were made to improve professional practices in schools and colleges, policies guiding staffing and staff development, and further research on this topic. The recommendations include

1. broadening the traditional meaning of staff to add others who contribute in significant ways to the learning experience (e.g., students, family, and mentors);
2. expanding the framework for needed competencies beyond teaching by adding competence in leading, partnering, counseling, designing, and learning;
3. recognizing the importance of staff development for all categories of staff and all areas of competence to achieving successful educational reform; and
4. envisioning learning environments that lead to effective and efficient development of the competencies required of all staff to facilitate educational improvement in high schools and community/ technical colleges.

It is argued in this book that postsecondary instructors have to improve their performance in the classroom not only by achieving a better understanding of how teachers teach, but also of how learners learn. Most postsecondary teachers are well trained in their disciplines, but few have received formal training in how to teach or have acquired an understanding of how learning occurs. Without guidance, most teachers find and become comfortable with only one teaching strategy and confine themselves solely to it. This volume puts student learning at the center of the discussion, translates recent research on learning into a form useful for college teachers, and integrates it with current thinking on teaching to construct a framework or model for effective classroom communication. The book begins with an examination of the perspectives at work in any teaching situation: subject, setting, and student diversity; then, it explores the relationship of learning to teaching as it applies to specific strategies such as training and coaching, lecturing and explaining, inquiry and discovery, groups and teams, and experience and reflection. A final section discusses choosing and using teaching strategies.

Counselors, academic advisors and educators working in educational institutions must address the increasingly diverse mental health and academic needs of culturally diverse groups. In Hawaiʻi, Native Hawaiians are a cultural minority. To alleviate the negative effects of current culturally inappropriate counseling and teaching methods, university personnel would benefit from intercultural training. The Intercultural Sensitizer (ICS) is a well-researched tool used in attribution training. The purpose of this study was to develop a Hawaiian ICS to train non-Hawaiian university personnel. The researcher gathered critical incidents from Hawaiian university students (N=113); presented 20 edited, critical incidents to a bicultural Hawaiian panel (N=6) to elicit culturally relevant attributions, and investigated the meanings Hawaiian students and non-Hawaiian students (N=285) attributed to the critical incidents. Statistical tests indicated 3 of 20 critical incidents and 14 attributions were statistically significant, revealing finite, cultural differences between the Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian samples. Counseling and educational implications are suggested that should increase the chances of success among Hawaiian students enrolled in college.

In the current context of legal challenges to affirmative action and race-based considerations in college admissions, educators have been challenged to articulate clearly the educational purposes and benefits of diversity. In this article, Patricia Gurin, Eric Dey, Sylvia Hurtado, and Gerald Gurin explore the relationship between students’ experiences with diverse peers in the college or university setting and their educational outcomes. Rooted in theories of cognitive development and social psychology, the authors present a framework for understanding how diversity introduces the relational discontinuities critical to identity construction and its subsequent role in fostering cognitive growth. Using both single- and multi-institutional data from the University of Michigan and the Cooperative Institutional Research Program, the authors go on to examine the effects of classroom diversity and informal interaction among African American, Asian American, Latino/a, and White students on learning and democracy outcomes. The results of their analyses underscore the educational and civic importance of informal interaction among different racial and ethnic groups during the college years. The authors offer their findings as evidence of the continuing importance of affirmative action and diversity efforts by colleges and universities, not only as a means of increasing access to higher education for greater numbers of students, but also as a means of fostering students’ academic and social growth.

Strategies, methods, and techniques for improving college instruction are offered in this handbook. Units include: Pre-instructional Activities; Methods and Techniques: Focus on the Individual and the Small Group; Methods and Techniques: Focus on the Large Group; Methods and Techniques: Focus on Affective Learning; Assessment Techniques; and Evaluating Professional Performance. Offered within each unit are several chapters, including an overview that provides a list of key concepts, new terms, and questions for guiding study. Focus is on improvement in the following areas: preparing and presenting discussion groups, lectures, and seminars; using questioning strategies to stimulate student involvement; developing teaching plans; affective learning through case methods, simulation techniques, and creativity; determining appropriate assessment techniques, measurement instruments and devices, and evaluation procedures; evaluating professional performance and teaching competence; and meeting professional growth responsibilities through publishing efforts. Three appendices provide an illustrated teaching unit, illustrated aspects of a learning activity package, and forms for student evaluation of teachers.

Faculty (academic staff) development in the United States has grown from periodic sabbaticals, given to facilitate faculty members’ ability to keep up‐to‐date in their content areas, to full‐blown programs designed to provide support to faculty members in all areas of their lives as academics. This paper will describe the evolution of faculty development programs in the USA.

This manual is designed for beginning postsecondary instructors with no previous teacher training. It presents the essentials of the instructional planning and implementation process and explains key principles and practices that have been shown to enhance students’ motivation to learn. An introduction describes the purpose, rationale, readers, and format of the manual.

• Chapter 1, “Key Principles of Motivating Teaching and Learning,” discusses motivating learning; the teaching/learning process; learning styles; motivating teaching; and offers a conceptual framework.
• Chapter 2, “Conditions Conducive to Learning: Climate and Management,” highlights creation of a positive teaching/learning climate and the managerial process (organizational routines and strategies).
• Chapter 3,”Motivating Instructional Processes,” discusses planning for instruction and implementing generic instructional skills.
• Chapter 4, “Motivating Methods of Teaching/Learning,” focuses on teacher-centered and student-centered approaches.
• Chapter 5, “Assessing Learners’ Progress,” presents basic guidelines of assessment and assessment strategies and practices.

Appended are a sample course plan, a sample lesson plan, and a final exam. A bibliography with approximately 200 entries is appended. (Individual chapters contain references.)

During the past 20 years, a new field of research has emerged, focused on the limited numbers of faculty of color present on college campuses nationwide. This qualitative study examines the career histories of 19 faculty of color from a research university in the western United States and analyzes the variables influencing their career choices and success in academe. A model of the development of bicultural skills in successful faculty is offered for further consideration.

In the United States the issue of access to higher education is typically less important than that of retention and graduation. This is the case because most students in the United States can gain access to some form of higher education, two or four-year. Though not all students do so, it can be said that there is a place somewhere in our higher educational system for virtually anyone who wishes to go. The same cannot be said of graduation from higher education.

Though access to higher education in the United States has increased over the past several decades, similar increases in college completion have not followed suit. Despite years of effort, we have, in large measure, been unable to translate the promise increased access affords to students, in particular those of low-income and underserved backgrounds, into the reality of college completion especially as measured by 4-year degrees. That this is the case is reflective in part of our inability to translate what we have learned from research on student retention into a reasonable set of guidelines for the types of actions and policies institution must put into place to increase rates of college completion.

This study uses two national data sets to explore the relationship between faculty practices and student engagement. Our findings suggest that students report higher levels of engagement and learning at institutions where faculty members use active and collaborative learning techniques, engage students in experiences, emphasize higher-order cognitive activities in the classroom, interact with students, challenge students academically, and value enriching educational experiences.