Integrated instruction: Perceptions of community college faculty

Community colleges in some states have explored delivery options to accelerate students through remediation and into credit-bearing courses, reduce attrition rates and time-to-degree, and increase retention and completion rates. Two of these options, contextualized and integrated instruction, have demonstrated clear academic advantages for students and promising fiscal advantages for institutions. However, since many of the promising innovations colleges are exploring require faculty to make the biggest adjustments, this study addressed the impact of contextualized and integrated instruction on faculty. Literature was plentiful on the models themselves and the effect on student outcomes, but a gap existed for the impact of these models on faculty. The common thread throughout the literature of integrated programs was that successful implementation depended not only upon the great idea, the available financial resources, or the top-down support given by administration, but also upon the willingness of instructors to innovate and collaborate. Some studies suggested that faculty are critical for successful instructional innovations, but that their specific perceptions and behaviors have not been sufficiently studied in the context of planning and implementing these campus initiatives. This qualitative case study, therefore, explored the perceptions of faculty who participated in contextualized and integrated instructional models. Using personal interviews, the study examined the culture of selected campuses through the eyes of the faculty to understand how the initiatives were implemented, and which campus practices and policies contributed to or inhibited successful implementation. Interviews explored (a) How faculty members characterized integrated or contextualized instruction; (b) The experiences of faculty members who implemented integrated instruction; (c) What faculty identified as the benefits and challenges for the student, the institution, and themselves; and (d) What practices or policies contributed to or inhibited successful integrated or contextualized instruction. Findings were significant for community college administrators to understand concerns regarding the time required for planning contextualized and integrated instruction, and practical considerations for aligning syllabi, learning outcomes, advising practices, and providing professional development for faculty. Findings were significant on a broader scope as they related to project management for any change effort on a campus

Can you Dig? Returning to Volleyball after Arthroscopic Medial Plica Excision

The purpose of this case report is to describe the rehabilitation and return-to-sport process following arthroscopic medial plica excision for a patient who had previously undergone unsuccessful conservative management for anterior knee pain.https://soar.usa.edu/flsaspring2018/1014/thumbnail.jp

2017-2018 New Music Festival

Twelfth Annual New Music Festival Scott Wheeler, Composer-in-Residence Lisa Leonard, Director Friday, January 19, 2018 at 7:30 pm Spotlight I: Young Composers Saturday, January 20, 2018 at 1:00 pm Master Class with Scott Wheeler Sunday, January 21, 2018 at 4:00 pm Spotlight II: Scott Wheeler Commissioned Work Nightingale: Scenes from a Ballet by Scott Wheeler. The full score is displayed in the Creative Works collection.https://spiral.lynn.edu/conservatory_newmusicfest/1000/thumbnail.jp

Industry’s Colonization of Psychiatry: Ethical and Practical Implications of Financial Conflicts of Interest in the DSM-5

The revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), scheduled for publication in May 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association (APA), has created a firestorm of controversy because of questions about undue industry influence. Specifically, concerns have been raised about financial conflicts of interest between DSM-5 panel members and the pharmaceutical industry. The authors argue that current approaches to the management of these relationships, particularly transparency of them, are insufficient solutions to the problem of industry’s capture of organized psychiatry. The conceptual framework of institutional corruption is used to understand psychiatry’s dependence on the pharmaceutical industry and to identify the epistemic assumptions that ground the DSM’s biopsychiatric discourse. APA’s rationale for including Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD) in the DSM-5 as a Mood Disorder is reviewed and discussed

Discerning the Invisible in a Group Portrait of Stability: An Ethnography of the Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood

The purpose of this ethnographic study has been to learn about the sub-culture of the Butler-Tarkington Neighborhood: who the people are who live in its geographic boundaries (according to each other) and how they experience and construct their community. Although residents recognize to some degree that their neighborhood is fragmented into smaller areas, most emphasize a sense of belonging to the neighborhood as a geographic whole, taking pride in its reputation for stability, diversity and integration. The strong sense of community\u27 and stability that residents often say they enjoy relies on common interests and a shared goal among active residents to make Butler-Tarkington the kind of neighborhood in which they want to live. I show that community is built on the one hand by the cooperation of neighborhood institutions that pull different residents together within a common sense of order

New Chairs in a World of Hurt: Using Trauma-Informed Leadership to Guide Communication, Compassion, and Flexibility for Five New Chairs.

Presenters will discuss their challenges as first-year Chairs facing the multiple academic fires generated by an unprecedented global pandemic. The presenters will detail how using Trauma-Informed Leadership styles allowed them to adjust for the unpredictability of communication from system-level administration, establish relationships with internal stakeholders, and develop trust with faculty as new leaders within the institution