ESTIMATING DETERMINANTS OF STUDENT EVALUATION SCORES TO IMPROVE TEACHING

Student evaluations are used for both formative and summative assessment of teachers. This paper provides a method to make more effective use of these student evaluations by individual teachers. Data on three years of evaluations in two courses were used to develop regression models to explain overall effectiveness of teaching. The relative importance of explanatory variables changed with the course taught.Teaching/Communication/Extension/Profession,

Facing Defacement: Factors influencing indigenous patients in provider-patient communication in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala

The purpose of this ethnographic research was to explain the factors influencing Achi patients in provider-patient interactions in Baja Verapaz, Guatemala. I explored the complex intercultural challenges influencing the interactions between biomedically-trained providers and indigenous patients. Data collection involved participant observation and twenty-four informal field interviews in Guatemala. I utilized thematic analysis to identify and understand the factors influencing Achi patients when interacting with health care providers. Findings reveal that the Achi patients are influenced in provider-patient interactions by the reciprocal interaction among four major factors: environment, beliefs, emotional effect, and experiences. In addition, subthemes were identified for each of the major factors. A central finding of this research was a new construct, defacement, which is purposeful communication that dehumanizes by destroying other-face. Four levels of defacement, each increasing in intensity and dehumanizing content, emerged from the data: disregarding, degrading, regaño-ing, and abusing

Hope as Reclaiming Narrative Agency: The Communication Processes Facilitating Hope at a Community-Based Support Program

This study, using interviews and in situ group observations, explored the communication processes that facilitate the emergence of hope at a community based support program (CBSP). No literature within the communication field focuses on hope and there are no studies that explore the co-construction of hope through communication. Within the extensive studies of hope in other disciplines, the communication lens is absent. Within the literature of wellness, positive and supportive communication, narrative, and mutual aid groups, there are no studies that focus on emergent hope or the communication processes facilitating hope. Hope is widely accepted as critical to life and wellness. However, there is a gap in the existing literature across disciplines with no studies exploring the communication processes and social interactions that facilitate hope. In addition, no studies explored the communication processes in situ involved in the emergence of hope. Taking an appreciative approach, the data collection (24 interviews and 13 group recordings) and analysis focused on what was going right rather than critiquing or contrasting the program. The CBSP is a sacred story space where narratives and narrative fragments are shared, redeemed, and hope is germinated. The data revealed that communication processes, especially narrative, at the CBSP are central to the emergence of hope for participants. The findings of this study ground hope firmly as a communication narrative concept. Narrative construct is refined to incorporate a duality of narrative. The duality of narrative holds to the social constructionist concept of the co-construction of self narratives while simultaneously acknowledging the agency of the individual to choose what and in what ways the contributions of co-constructors are woven into the narrative of self and reality. The construct of hope is also refined by adding the concept of reclaiming the agency within the construct of the duality of narrative. Three major communication processes were identified through thematic analysis and connecting strategy analysis: reflexive moments, transitional messages, and story space. In addition, dynamic group interactions were identified as facilitative of hope including reflexive sharing and murmurations. Each of these findings are explicated with the identification of types of each provided. This study proposes a narrative synergism model to explicate the interplay among the communication processes that facilitate hope at the CBSP. The three communication processes at the CBSP, story space, murmurations, and transitional messages, work in a reciprocal interplay with each influencing the others. The narrative synergism created in this dynamic interplay facilitates reflexive moments which in turn facilitates the reclaiming of narrative agency and the resultant emergence of hope. These processes are all based in narrative and their interaction is a dynamic synergism, creating something greater than the sum of the parts--that is, hope

Ethical Leadership in Intercollegiate Sport: Challenges, Opportunities, Future Directions

Given the significant issues leaders face in the intercollegiate sport context, the need to lead ethically is paramount. This special issue, Ethical Leadership in Intercollegiate Sport, highlights the need for ethical leadership, explores enhancing ethical leadership and ethical decision-making, and examines ways to reduce unethical behavior within intercollegiate athletics. This introductory paper defines ethical leadership and identifies opportunities to better understand ethical leadership in the context of intercollegiate sport

Mare Geneticum : Balancing Governance of Marine Genetic Resources in International Waters

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Transactional or Transformational? Leadership Preferences of Division III Athletic Administrators

Leadership research within sport management has yielded inconsistent results when examining transactional and transformational leadership. In addition, there has been a paucity of research comparing leadership behaviors between men and women based on leadership style. Therefore, this study examined whether leadership style (transactional, transformational) led to more positive perceptions of organizational outcomes in intercollegiate athletic administration and whether gender of the leader influenced these perceptions of leaders. Ninety-eight Division III athletic directors evaluated either a male or female transactional leader or a male or female transformational leader on extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Findings indicated transformational leadership was related to more positive organizational outcomes, specifically extra effort and satisfaction. However, gender of the leader did not influence these perceived outcomes

Organizational Culture Mediates the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Work Outcomes

The objectives of this study were to examine the mediating effect of group and developmental organizational culture types on the relationship between transformational leadership and three outcome variables—affective organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job search behaviors. Senior administrators (n = 188) working in NCAA Division I intercollegiate athletic departments completed a survey assessing perceptions of leadership behavior of their athletic directors, the culture of their athletic departments, and their affective organizational commitment, turnover intentions, and job search behaviors. Results indicate that group culture partially mediates the relationship between transformational leadership and affective organizational commitment, and fully mediates turnover intentions and job search behaviors. Developmental culture partially mediates affective organizational commitment but has no influence on turnover intentions and job search behaviors. Findings contribute to the understanding of the important mediating role of organizational culture on the relationship between transformational leadership and outcome variables in the intercollegiate athletics context

South Dakota Farmland Market Trends: 1991-1999

Agricultural land values and cash rental rates in South Dakota, by region and by state, are the primary topics of this report, which is written for farmers and ranchers, landowners, agricultural professionals (lenders, rural appraisers, professional farm managers, Extension agents, and educators), and policy makers interested in agricultural land market trends. This report contains the results of the 1999 SDSU South Dakota Farm Real Estate Market Survey, the ninth annual SDSU survey developed to estimate agricultural land values and cash rental rates by land use in different regions of South Dakota