Earth Day Reflections at Western

There is a lot of wonderful talk these days about the environment here at Western. As part of UNCTomorrow, we have committed to sustainability as a core institutional value and accepted the charge to“assume a leadership role in addressing the state’s energy and environmental challenges.” We haveembraced the idea that as a public institution we must be good stewards of place. This latter concepthas been applied mostly to the civic and economic health of our local community, but it can scarcelybe denied that being stewards of place commits us to the environmental health and ecological integrityof the land as well

Beyond Boyer: SoTL in the Context of Interesting Scholarly Things

The positive effects of Ernest Boyer’s broader definition of scholarship have been attenuated by stress on published outcomes as indicators of all his scholarships, including the scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL). At universities outside the research university sector, we need to find ways to recognize and reward a wide variety of interesting scholarly things related to teaching that are not likely to meet the formal assessment criteria that have come to define the SoTL category of scholarship. The faculty’s scholarliness in teaching should be recognized and evaluated directly

Teacher Thinking About Students' Thinking

College teachers are frequently told that knowing the details of the cognitive psychological processes of their students will improve their teaching effectiveness. However, investigations of college teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning have yielded conceptions of teaching at a very general level. Most studies have resulted in conceptions that focus more on the teacher and teaching methods than on the learning processes of students. This paper argues for a more differentiated study of teacher thinking about student thinking that explores what teachers tacitly believe about their students' attention, memory, learning strategies and motivation. Potential implications of differences in how teachers may think about their students' cognitions are explored

The Silent Killer of 1918: The Devastating Effects of the 1918-1920 Spanish Influenza Pandemic in Western North Carolina

The Spanish influenza pandemic is one that many historians have largely covered in research. However, with estimates between 50 to 100 million people dying worldwide, it is a pandemic that has become forgotten among today's public. With recent scholarship done on smaller regions, this thesis addresses the impact that this devastating illness had on the everyday life of the Western North Carolinian during the years of 1918-1920.Ben’s long thin body lay three-quarters covered by the bedding; its [sic] gaunt outline was bitterly twisted below the covers, in an attitude of struggle and torture. It seemed not to belong to him, it was somehow distorted and detached as if it belonged to a beheaded criminal. And the sallow yellow of his face had turned gray; out of this granite tint of death, lit by two red flags of fever, the stiff furze of a three-day beard was growing. The beard was somehow horrible; it recalled the corrupt vitality of hair, which can grow from a rotting corpse. And Ben’s thin lips were lifted, in a constant grimace of torture and strangulation, above his white somehow dead-looking teeth, as inch by inch he gasped a thread of air into his lungs… it was monstrous, bruta

The contact hypothesis and its relevance to busing

It was the purpose of this thesis to review and summarize the recent literature on the contact hypothesis and to analyze its possible use as an effective means of attitude change in American ethnic relations. A primary objective was to highlight the relevance of the contact theory to the current busing controversy. The positive and negative effects of busing children to schools outside their neighborhoods were evaluated and weighed against the probable benefits implicit in the contact situations. The social psychological research reviewed in this paper supports Allport's theory that intergroup prejudice will be diminished when two groups possess equal status in the contact situation, seek common goals, are cooperatively dependent upon each other and interact with the positive support of authorities, laws and custom. The research and national surveys indicate an increasingly significant positive change in the attitude of whites towards blacks since the 1940's. This change has been shown to be related to increased contact between the two groups in the areas of occupation, recreation, education, politics, and proximity of living quarters. Busing as a means of integrating the schools helps to increase black-white contact. Insofar as the contact situation may embody compelling goals which cannot be achieved by either group singly but require intragroup cooperation, then interdependence between the two groups would be established

The Tennessee self-concept scale as an indicator of community college student retention and need for remediation

The purpose of this research was to assess the relationships between (a) students' level of self-concept and placement into at least one remedial course and (b) student's level of self-concept and retention into the third quarter of enrollment at Randolph Community College (RCC), Asheboro, North Carolina. One hundred and three first time freshmen at the College comprised the population. The level of self-concept was determined by students' scores on the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale. Remedial placement was determined by RCC's placement testing system, which is based on results of the College Board's Assessment and Placement Services for Community Colleges. Chi square tests of association revealed that level of self-concept was not significantly related to placement into at least one remedial course but that level of self-concept was significantly related to retention at the College (p= 0.016). Of students with children, 79% of those with adequate self-concept persisted while only 37.5% of those without adequate self-concept persisted. A clear trend of students' final status was also noted with 31% of persisters, 55% of voluntary leavers, and 69% of academic leavers having inadequate self-concept

Legal aspects of the school principalship

The school principalship demands greater knowledge of legal issues concerning education than in the past. More and more courts are recognizing that students and teachers have constitutional rights which must be protected. Administrators are being challenged in court cases involving student rights, tort liability, and teacher rights. This study provides principals with information concerning major court rulings in the areas viewed as most litigious, including student rights involved in freedom of expression, speech, or press, personal appearance, suspension and expulsion, corporal punishment, search and seizure, marriage and parenthood, and handicapped children; tort liability; and teacher rights involved in First Amendment rights, due process, and academic freedom. Among the conclusions of this study are the following: (1) First Amendment rights of students are upheld by the courts when student conduct does not "materially and substantially interfere with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school," but conduct which "materially disrupts classwork or involves substantial disorder or invasion of the rights of others" is not immunized by constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech

Counselor professional identity: construction and validation of the counselor professional identity measure

The purpose of this study was to create a reliable and valid measure of counselor professional identity (CPI) that could be used with all counseling specialties and across the career span. A comprehensive definition of counselor professional identity was derived from the literature and used as the framework for creating the measure. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the original six subscale structure of the instrument was too simplistic. To gain a better understanding of the factor structure of the measure, exploratory factor analysis, also was conducted. Findings from both the confirmatory and exploratory factor analysis, along with results from additional exploratory analyses are reported. Implications for the counseling profession are discussed in relation to the findings

Examiner Effects On WISC-R Scoring

This study examined the effects of the examiner on accuracy in scoring the Similarities, Comprehension and Vocabulary subtests of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R)

"That Ain't Old-Time": The Shifting Ambassadorship Of Appalachian Old-Time Music

Appalachian old-time music, or acoustic folk music from the southern Appalachians before the mid-1920s, was first disseminated to a national audience during the nascent years of the recording industry. Now, depending on which old-time music festival one attends during the summer, the winning fiddle player could be from Galax, Virginia or New York City. Non-Appalachian musicians who come into old-time from other traditions (e.g. classical, punk, folk, jam bands) are winning first place ribbons, recording highly acclaimed albums, and in some cases, making music videos and touring the country playing a pastiche of old-time and quasi-traditional folk/pop. Some of the more established of these musicians make a full-time living as old-time musicians. They teach workshops, record instructional videos, play concerts, give private lessons, and an even smaller number have the opportunity to play this music abroad. Many of these non-native Appalachian musicians have permanently relocated to the mountains to be around the music, and are now considered to be experts in the nuances of the style. Several of these musicians now teach old-time music to local children here in Boone and throughout the mountains. In Mount Airy, NC, an area that was home to scores of the old-time musicians who were recorded during both the golden age of old-time and the revival years, the de facto hub of old-time music is now a farmhouse owned by two self-described "hippies" from Connecticut and New York. Few scholars or players of the music seem particularly interested in broaching what I think are the most important issues regarding the music's relation to Appalachia: which group is now the tradition bearer of old-time Appalachian folk music - native Appalachians or outsiders, in what form and in what context is this tradition being passed on, and what does this suggest for future trends involving outsiders being responsible for the preservation and dissemination of other aspects of traditional Appalachian culture (i.e. crafts, dance,folktales)? This thesis is an examination of these issues through interviews I conducted and observations I made in Mount Airy, North Carolina and Boone, North Carolina