Exploring Voice as Integration: A Direction for Assessing Student Work in Learning Communities with Composition

Kennesaw State University’s team of interdisciplinary scholars qualitatively assessed student learning within theme-based learning communities to determine whether content from one discipline was evident in student work produced within another discipline. Faculty concluded that they were likely expecting more disciplinary integration than first-semester college students were capable of providing, and that they were likely not asking for the integration they were expecting. By examining student work as evidence, the researchers became more acutely aware of the assignment instructions, prompting them to work more closely with colleagues in their future learning communities to develop interdisciplinary assignments with explicit expectations for integration

Integrating Modern-Day Slavery into Interdisciplinary First-Year Seminars

One of the contributing causes of trafficking is its seeming invisibility, especially in the United States. Traditional-age college students arrive on campus having been taught a pervasive cultural myth throughout their years of education. That myth is that slavery was abolished in the United States in the 1800s. It is no longer a social issue demanding concern or attention. It can\u27t happen here -- for a myriad of issues. Yet, conservative estimates point to at least 200,000 individuals being enslaved in the United States at any moment in time. Part of the role of the academy is to make these invisible problems visible, to spark critical thinking regarding complex social issues, and to engage the next generation of leaders in the exploration of both causes and possible solutions. Our work with first-year college students suggests that they are not aware of modern-day slavery, yet they are quite ready to get engaged in the fight to eradicate it once they have the knowledge. We would like to discuss how to integrate the teaching of modern-day slavery into first-year seminar courses, a growing interdisciplinary curricular option on many campuses, and provide data illustrating its effectiveness at one institution. This presentation will be both theoretical and highly practical, combining data analysis with dialogue about what worked on our own campus and what might work on other campuses. We will also provide participants with curricular materials to help them integrate modern-day slavery into their courses. [ The Download document (upper right) is a PDF file generated from the PowerPoint presentation; the Additional file (below) is the Powerpoint slides themselves.

Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide: Smoking and Drinking in Disney\u27s Animated Classics

Disney films have long interested effects researchers, who have consistently shown the wholesome image generated by the company is misrepresentative. This content analysis explored tobacco and alcohol exposure in 24 Disney G-rated, animated, feature- length motion pictures from 1937 to 2000 and found 381 incidents of substance use. Over the decades, tobacco use tended to decrease while alcohol use increased. Virtually no antiuse messages were seen in these films directed to young children

Quality Standards in Children\u27s Programming: An Independent Observation of Industry Claims

There is no standard definition for quality children\u27s programming currently. This study sought to build from the work of Alexander, Hoerrner, and Duke (1998) and others in constructing a standardized definition. The Alexander et al. study defined the television industry\u27s definition of quality. This project analyzed the attributes of the shows used in the 1998 study to determine if the content actually contained the aspects of quality stated by the industry. In doing so, this project sought to validate the television industry\u27s self-imposed definition. The results were quite encouraging; consistency exists among several researchers\u27 and industry definitions.Six categories set the standards for quality: instructional excellence, distinctive program characteristics, production excellence, age appropriateness, diversity, and prestigious participant