University Scholar Series: Scott Myers-Lipton

Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works On October 13, 2010, Scott Myers-Lipton spoke in the University Scholar Series hosted by Provost Gerry Selter at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library. Scott Myers-Lipton is a Professor in the Sociology Department at SJSU. His recent book, titled Rebuild America: Solving the Economic Crisis through Civic Works, analyzes the history of U.S. public works and explores the federal government\u27s new emphasis to create jobs and build infrastructure.https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/uss/1004/thumbnail.jp

Education as Re-Embedding: Stroud Communiversity, Walking the Land and the Enduring Spell of the Sensuous

How we know, is at least as important as what we know: Before educationalists can begin to teach sustainability, we need to explore our own views of the world and how these are formed. The paper explores the ontological assumptions that underpin, usually implicitly, the pedagogical relationship and opens up the question of how people know each other and the world they share. Using understandings based in a phenomenological approach and guided by social constructionism, it suggests that the most appropriate pedagogical method for teaching sustainability is one based on situated learning and reflexive practice. To support its ontological questioning, the paper highlights two alternative culture’s ways of understanding and recording the world: Those of the Inca who inhabited pre-Columbian Peru, which was based on the quipu system of knotted strings, and the complex social and religious system of the songlines of the original people of Australia. As an indication of the sorts of teaching experiences that an emancipatory and relational pedagogy might give rise to, the paper offers examples of two community learning experiences in the exemplar sustainable community of Stroud, Gloucestershire in the United Kingdom where the authors live

Noise Correlation in Cosmic Microwave Background Experiments

Many analyses of microwave background experiments neglect the correlation of noise in different frequency or polarization channels. We show that these correlations, should they be present, can lead to severe misinterpretation of an experiment. In particular, correlated noise arising from either electronics or atmosphere may mimic a cosmic signal. We quantify how the likelihood function for a given experiment varies with noise correlation, using both simple analytic models and actual data. For a typical microwave background anisotropy experiment, noise correlations at the level of 1\% of the overall noise can seriously {\it reduce} the significance of a given detection.Comment: Analysis generalized; conclusions unaltere

SUPERINTENDENT LENGTH OF TENURE AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

This quantitative study, utilizing the backward method of multiple regression, examined the relationship between the length of tenure of a superintendent and academic achievement as defined by the percentage of students who scored “Proficient” or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment. To put this relationship into context, five other predictive variables were included as a part of this study: the individual’s total length of experience as a superintendent, the superintendent’s total length of experience in education, each district’s assessed valuation per pupil, each district’s percentage of students who qualified for free or reduced meal prices, and each district’s total student headcount. To gain the most comprehensive view possible, all 295 Kansas school districts in existence in 2008 were included in this study. Although included as one of the four predictive variables that had a significant effect on the percentage of students who scored “Proficient” or better on the 2008 Third Grade Kansas Reading Assessment, the primary focus of this study – to examine the impact a superintendent’s length of tenure has on students’ academic achievement – proved to have the least relative impact, according to beta weights

How Can Education Support Prepare Students for a Workforce Focused on Innovation? A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

Graduate Applie

Determination of mass excavation haul distance and direction by linear optimization

This thesis develops a two-dimensional grid system for the determination of the haul distance and direction to haul the soil on a mass excavation project using linear optimization programming methodology. The system generates a mathematical solution for the minimum haul distance and the direction in which to haul the soil for each unit of the program grid when formulated with the proper input. The necessary inputs are the calculated cut and fill quantities for each cell of an X-Y coordinate grid system. The mathematical outputs from the cut and fill inputs are converted into a vector drawing indicating the quantity of cut to be hauled to each fill cell of the grid system and the vectored length of that haul. Simulations of the optimum haul distances are run to determine costs at optimum production

How Can Education Support Prepare Students for a Workforce Focused on Innovation? A Qualitative Phenomenological Study

The purpose of this hermeneutic phenomenological study was to understand how faculty members and administrators describe their experiences in preparing their students for an innovation-focused 21st century workforce. The guiding theories associated with this study were Kolb’s experiential learning theory (ELT) as a gauge for modeling the learning process and Bloom’s taxonomy to assess learning levels. The relationship between Kolbs ELT, Bloom\u27s taxonomy, and this study was conceptualized as a gauge to assess learning skill effectiveness. The central research question associated with this study was: How do faculty members and administrators describe their experiences preparing their students for an innovation-focused 21st century workforce? The data collection methods included interviews, focus group meetings, and journal entry postings from college business professors, many with administration and industry experience. Data analysis employed the Heidegger hermeneutic circle, including reading, reflective writing, rewriting, and interpretation. This study revealed that industry wants education to better prepare students with innovation skills, before the students enter the workforce; however, college faculty are focused primarily on developing student foundational skills. The college educators focused on foundational skills such as good communication, teamwork, computer, and leadership skills, versus developing specific innovation skills for industry. It is recommended that industry team up with educational institutions to develop specific industry-education cooperative programs, to develop student skills based on specific industry organizational needs

Making a Difference: The Launch of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy

Communication pedagogy is the systematic study, reflection, and identification of teaching practices across communication course curricula that results ultimately in effective classroom instruction, gains in student learning, and the establishment of a supportive learning environment. Systematic study focuses on the teaching, the assessment, or the scholarship of teaching and learning of a specific communication course, extra-curricular activity (e.g., forensics), or curriculum (e.g., internships, concentrations/areas of emphases, undergraduate programs). Reflection centers on a pedagogical problem or issue encountered by instructors when teaching a specific communication course. Best practices offer tips for teaching or assessing a specific communication course, extra-curricular activity, or curriculum. Together, systematic study, reflection, and best practices work together to inform research conducted from instructional communication, the basic course, critical communication pedagogy, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and service-learning lenses, and vice versa

And So It Goes: An Introduction to Volume 2 of the Journal of Communication Pedagogy

As part of the larger instructional communication education umbrella and similar to, yet distinct enough from, its related subdisciplines such as basic course scholarship, the scholarship of teaching and learning, and critical communication pedagogy, the articles published in this volume of JCP demonstrate the three forms through which communication pedagogy can emerge. That is, whether communication pedagogy centers on the systematic study (i.e., Original Research Studies), reflection (i.e., Reflection Essays), or identification of teaching practices (i.e., Best Practices) across communication curricula, the end result is that communication pedagogy acts as a vehicle through which teaching effectiveness can be improved, strengthened, or even realized, with the goal of enriching—in some way—the educational lives of instructors and students and assisting instructors, students, and classmates in the development and maintenance of productive and satisfying communication relationships with and among each other