From Teaching Democratic Thinking to Developing Democratic Civic Identity

Using theory and research from the cognitive and social sciences as well as the literature of service-learning and community-campus engagement, we critically examine an over-emphasis on democratic thinking as the primary construct of interest in American higher education’s efforts to prepare young people for meaningful participation in democracy.  We propose developing democratic civic identity as a more appropriate superordinate goal than teaching democratic thinking.  We examine relationships between and among cognition, behavior, and attitudes generally and within the context of democratically-engaged community-campus partnerships and democratic critical reflection as a basis for developing and refining persons as civic agents in a diverse democracy.  We conclude with implications of the analysis for service-learning—a pedagogy that, when designed and implemented accordingly, provides a uniquely powerful means to cultivate democratic civic identity

Perceived freedom, reinforcement schedules, and cost.

Though philosophers have invested great amounts of time and energy probing the dimensions of freedom as it relates to the human situation, psychologists have tended to avoid the topic. However, the relevance of freedom to the empirical investigations of psychology does not reside in an extension of its philosophical roots. The pertinent aspect of freedom for psychology is the freedom a person perceives himself and others to possess. Thus, it is the perception of freedom, be it valid or invalid, and how it influences behavior, that is relevant to psychology

An electron microscopic study of microbody types found in dwarf pea internode.

Introduction: Ever since plant cell organelles morphologically resembling animal microbodies were clearly established by Mollenhauer et al. (1966) and Frederick et al. (1968), a great deal of attention has been focused, on this subject. Several papers outlining morphology and orientation have followed (Frederick and Newcomb, 1968, 1969; Vigil, 1971, 1973a). Plant microbodies appear to be a distinct class of organelle found ubiquitously in cells. They are single membrane-bounded and have a dimensional range of 0.2u - 0.5u. Their interior exhibits a coarse to finely granular matrix and often a para-crystalline or nucleoid structure is quite evident. Microbodies are characteristically associated with smooth or rough endoplasmic reticulum and are often found in close proximity to mitochondria and/or chloroplasts. Frederick (1968) has shown some evidence of a possible endoplasmic reticulum origin for microbodics

A Service-Learning Curriculum for Faculty

The development of service-learning courses is contingent upon faculty. Institutions of higher education which are interested in service-learning can engage in faculty development activities in order to (a) develop a common understanding on campus concerning the nature of service- learning, (b) establish and maintain the academic integrity of service-learning, (c) increase the confidence of faculty as they implement a new pedagogy, and (d) increase the likelihood that service-learning is institutionalized in higher education. This article describes a curriculum for a series of faculty workshops: Introduction to Service-Learning, Reflection, Building Community Partnerships, Student Supervision and Assessment, and Course Assessment and Research. Each module provides a synopsis of topics and suggested readings for participants