Student wellness is an essential component of academic success in higher education and subsequent opportunities in the labor market. The Ohio State University Office of Student Life’s Student Wellness Center uses a model that includes nine key dimensions of wellness: career, creative, emotional, environmental, financial, intellectual, physical, social and spiritual.
SUMMARY
This paper presents an overview of gender differences in education outcomes in OECD countries. A rich set of indicators describes the improvement of educational attainment among women over the past decades, and various dimensions of male under-performance in education. Possible explanatory factors include incentives provided by changing employment opportunities for women, demographic trends, as well as the higher sensitivity of boys to disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds. Gender differences in field of study and in performance by subject are found to be related to attitudes and self-perceptions towards academic subjects, which are in turn influenced by social norms. A number of policy options to address gender gaps are presented in the final section of the paper.
RÉSUMÉ
Ce document présente un aperçu des différences entre garçons et filles dans les résultats scolaires des pays de l’OCDE. Les indicateurs utilisés décrivent l’amélioration du niveau d’instruction des femmes au cours des dernières décennies et les différents domaines dans lesquels les garçons obtiennent des résultats inférieurs par rapport aux filles. Parmi les explications avancées figurent les politiques encourageant les opportunités d’emploi pour les femmes, les tendances démographiques ainsi que la vulnérabilité accrue des garçons issus de milieux socio-économiques défavorisés. Les différences entre hommes et femmes dans le domaine des études et dans les résultats scolaires par discipline tiennent aux mentalités et à l’autoperception des disciplines, et sont elles-mêmes influencées par les normes sociales. La dernière section du document présente un certain nombre de mesures pouvant combler les disparités entre hommes et femmes.
This paper explores the potential of cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT), to provide new insights into community service-learning (CSL) in higher education. While CSL literature acknowledges the influences of John Dewey and Paolo Freire, discussion of the potential contribution of cultural-historical activity theory, rooted in the work of Russian psychologist
Lev Vygotsky, is noticeably absent. This paper addresses this gap by examining four assumptions
associated with activity theory: the rejection of a theory/practice divide, the development of
knowledge as a social collaborative activity, the focus on contradictions in and across activity
systems, and the interventionist approach
aimed at transformation.
An Leadership PowerPoint Presentation
Participants will learn:
▪ How collegiality is deliberately cultivated
▪ How learning is the work
▪ How to turn accountability to your advantage
▪ How to tackle complexity with confidence and humility
▪ Which leadership qualities and strategies are crucial
Kennett, Mo.
Drive 90 miles north on Interstate 55 from Memphis, then 20 miles west on Route 412, cutting through seemingly endless fields of cotton, rice, and soybeans. You’ll know you’ve arrived when you see the sign: Welcome to Kennett. Hometown of Sheryl Crow.
This small town in southeastern Missouri used to greet visitors with a different motto: "Service. Industry. Agriculture." But the machine-parts-maker closed and the trailer manufacturer left and the aluminum smelter went under. There’s not nearly as much industry around here as there used to be. Sheryl Crow’s Grammys aren’t going anywhere.
This study assesses the economic and financial benefits for individuals and the province of Ontario of implementing a coordinated, province-wide credential and credit recognition and transfer system for Ontario college graduates enrolling in a university undergraduate degree program in the province. The study demonstrates that there are solid economic and financial reasons to develop such a system. It also recognizes that the current patchwork transfer framework results in significant instances of inequity for students and that an enhanced system will encourage more students to pursue the higher education that matches their interests and skills. It will also reduce the number of students who feel compelled to leave Ontario to continue their education. The study recommends a Made-in-Ontario solution to address the fundamental equity and fairness concerns of students, to simplify administration for post-secondary institutions, and to strengthen our economy by providing educational opportunities for the workforce this province will need to compete and prosper in the global economy.
Although historical thinking has been the subject of a substantial body of recent research, few attempts explicitly apply the results on a large scale in North America. This article, a narrative inquiry, examines the first stages of a multi-year, Canadawide
project to reform history education through the development of classroombased assessments. The study is based on participant-observations, documents generated by the project, and interviews, questionnaires, and correspondence with participants.
The authors find impediments – apparently surmountable – in teachers’ application of potentially difficult concepts, and in their organizational resistance.
While much literature has considered feedback and professional growth in formative peer reviews of teaching, there has been little empirical research conducted on these issues in the context of summative peer reviews. This article explores faculty members’ perceptions of feedback practices in the summative peer review of teaching and reports on their understandings of why constructive feedback is typically non-existent or unspecific in summative reviews. Drawing from interview data with 30 tenure-track professors in a research-intensive Canadian university, the findings indicated that reviewers rarely gave feedback to the candidates, and when they did, comments were typically vague and/or focused on the positive. Feedback, therefore, did not contribute to professional growth in teaching. Faculty members suggested that feedback was limited because of the following: the high-stakes nature of tenure, the demands for research productivity, lack of pedagogical expertise
among academics, non-existent criteria for evaluating teaching, and the artificiality of peer reviews. In this article I argue that when it comes to summative reviews, elements of academic culture, especially the value placed on collegiality, shape feedback practices in important ways.
In early 2014, two incidents engulfed the University of Ottawa in the debate over sexual violence
that has affected many postsecondary institutions in recent years. In February, members of the University of Ottawa men’s varsity hockey team were involved in an alleged sexual assault, resulting in the suspension of the men’s hockey program for the 2014-15 season. Following this incident, a Facebook conversation involving five male students that included sexually derogatory and violent comments about the female President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO) was made public.
Abstract
Achieving tenure and promotion are significant milestones in the career of a university faculty member. However, research indicates that racialized and female faculty do not achieve tenure and promotion at the same rate as their non-racialized and male counterparts. Using new survey data on faculty in eight Canadian universities, this article examines differences in being tenured and promoted between racialized and non-racialized faculty and between female and non-female faculty. It also investigates the extent to which explanations of human capital theory and cultural or identity taxation account for these disparities. Logistic regression confirms that controlling for human capital and cultural or identity taxation washes away the differences between being tenured and promoted for female faculty. Differences for racialized faculty remain, offering evidence of racial discrimination in the academic system.
Résumé
L’obtention de la permanence et la promotion sont des jalons importants de la carrière d’un professeur d’université. Cependant, des recherches scientifiques indiquent que les professeurs racialisés et les femmes n’obtiennent pas de permanence et de promotion au même rythme que leurs homologues non racialisés et de sexe masculin. En utilisant de nouvelles données provenant d’une enquête menée auprès de professeurs dans huit universités canadiennes, cet article scrute les différences entre les taux de permanence et de promotion des professeurs racialisés et non racialisés, ainsi qu’entre femmes et non femmes, afin d’analyser dans quelle mesure la théorie du capital humain ou celle de l’imposition culturelle ou identitaire explique
ces disparités. La régression logistique confirme qu’en contrôlant le capital humain ou l’imposition culturelle ou identitaire, les différences de permanence ou de promotion parmi les femmes disparaissent. Cependant, même avec ce contrôle, les différences demeurent pour les professeurs racialisés, ce qui fournit une preuve que la discrimination raciale existe dans le système universitaire.
This report summarizes several phases of a multiphase science education
development project occurring between April, 2004 and November, 2009 in three Inuit
communities in the northern Qikiqtani (Baffin Island) Region of Nunavut, Canada.
Although the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) funding for this project is confined to
the development, implementation and evaluation of the influence of Inuktitut-language
place-based resources on Inuit students’ learning, it is believed by the participants of this
project that because of the dissemination forum provided by CCL, the contents in this
report should be a cumulative summary outlining the chronology of the project and its
overall findings. The project, in its entirety, is motivated to assist Inuit school communities
in achieving their aspirations for science education. The project overall focuses on (1)
establishing the current situation in science education in Kindergarten through to Grade 7
in the Qikiqtani communities, (2) identifying developmental aspirations for stakeholders
within the communities and potential contributors and constraints to these aspirations, (3)
implementing mechanisms for achieving identified aspirations, (4) evaluating the
effectiveness of such mechanisms and (5) providing suggestions for further development
projects established to assist Aboriginal, especially Inuit, communities in achieving their
goals for curriculum, in particular, science education. This project attempts to “combine the
views of both worlds” in science education for Qikiqtani students; that is, it combines the knowledge, practices, values, beliefs, and ways of knowing of both the community of scientists and Inuit culture. Equally, it also combines the views of both worlds in achieving these goals through two process development frameworks: Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model (a model that identifies teacher attributes and the environment in which they work as determinants on development) and Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit (IQ, Inuit ways of knowing and doing). This report focuses upon an evaluative overview of all phases of the
development project and the efficacy of this “two-way” model in fostering school development, especially in the area of science education.
The Critical Thinking Assessment Rubric was developed as a key deliverable of the ‘Building Capacity to Measure Essential Employability Skills’ project funded by the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)1. This handbook serves as a resource to teachers in using the Critical Thinking Assessment Rubric.
Critical thinking is one of the six skill categories within the ‘essential employability skills’ (EES) curriculum requirements for Ontario college programs – specifically, EES numbers 4 and 52. Each of these essential employability skills must be addressed (learned, practiced, evaluated) within a program. How and when these are implemented should be based on decisions regarding the program as a whole and by individual teachers.
The latest Ontario government survey of graduates from undergraduate programs shows 94 per cent have secured employment two years after graduation. The average salary for university bachelor’s degree graduates in full-time jobs was $49,001 two years after graduation, up from the average $42,301 six months after graduation.
The survey of Ontario university students who graduated in 2012, conducted for the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities, concludes that university graduates get jobs related to their education. The best path to career success for Ontario students is still a university degree.
How often have you thought, “My people always tell me what’s really going on.”
Hundreds of leaders have told us that their followers are open with them. These leaders believed that they were getting honest feedback and were being asked the tough questions. Unfortunately, this is rarely true. In fact, we’ve come to think of this
common belief as a myth—a myth consistent with the concept of seduction of the leader, which was introduced to us more than twenty-five years ago by our colleague Dr. Rod Napier.
Within the span of 20 years, tuition as a source of operating revenue grew from 18 percent in 1988 to 37 percent in 2008.1 The most recent financial reports show tuition alone made up 45 percent of universities’ operating budgets in 2014—51 percent when fees are included—compared to the provincial government’s 43 percent contribution.2 As tuition continues to increase the affordability, accessibility, and accountability of a university education are put at risk. Our Tuition policy sets out students’ priorities for addressing their short and long term concerns with regards to the tuition framework and tuition payment processes.
As midcareer professors, we often hear newcomers to the tenure track worry about having to choose between academe and family life. Likewise among graduate students, the general perception is that, to succeed, they will have to be 100-per cent consumed with work.
Combining parenting with any job is not for the faint of heart. But from our perspective — as tenured professors and parents of, between the two of us, five kids, aged 8 to 11 — you do not have to sacrifice family life to succeed in an academic career.
But you may well have to sacrifice everything else. Both of us are in a phase of life that leaves little time for anything outside of our work and our kids.
Academe has plenty of its own clichés, but one that we’ve eagerly adopted from the business world is "thinking outside the box." You’ll see that phrase again and again in administrative-job postings and in applicants’ cover letters. But what does it really mean in higher education?
More important, however good you are at thinking outside the box, is it possible to act on your outside-the-box ideas once you’re on the job as a chair, dean, provost, or president?
This month the Admin 101 series on-campus leadership explores some of the reasons why leaders encounter resistance in carrying out unconventional proposals, and what you need to know before you jump outside the box.
Most graduate students and postdocs know they should give serious thought to their next career steps, but they aren’t sure how to navigate the career exploration process. After all, for those with doctoral training, there are a dizzying array of possible career “destinations” both inside and outside academe. Collecting information about even a few of those options can quickly become overwhelming and hard to sustain along with your current job.
Women represent the majority of young university graduates, but are still underrepresented in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and computer science (STEM) fields. This article provides more information on women with STEM university degrees, and examines whether mathematical ability in high school is related to gender differences in STEM university programs.