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Developing High Quality Teachers Through Professional Pre-Service Teaching Opportunities
Full text linkBased on the reform movements over the past two decades, it is evident that while effective teachers are critical to student learning, not all teachers are coming to the profession highly qualified. Policy and research continue to highlight the need to reorganize and refocus teacher preparation programs to produce higher quality teachers ready to meet the demands of the classroom from day one of employment. This study focuses on the enhancement of traditional preparation programs in public Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) as this continues to be the context for which most teacher candidates come to the profession. Using a six-group, four measure mixed-methods design, the objective of the study is to determine the impact California Teaching Fellows Foundation (CTFF), a pre-service teaching and learning opportunity for future teacher candidates, has on developing higher caliber teachers prepared in a traditional University-based teacher preparation setting. Through the use of an online survey, interviews, and focus groups, the relationship of CTFF participation to teacher efficacy before, during, and after traditional preparation participation is examined and explored from the perspective of teacher and supervisor. Unexpected findings show that CTFF participation has a relationship to decreased Teacher Efficacy for teacher candidates and CTFF is not creating a significant pipeline to teaching as proposed, leading to questions for further study.
 
A Survey Of Personal Hurdles Contributing To Failures Of Rural Entrepreneurship: Economic Implications For Owner-Managers
Full text linkThis study seeks to explore with keen understanding of personal hurdles as revealed by owner-managers from two rural settings of the Northern Cape Province (NCP). The study focuses on personal hurdles that according to literature contributes to the growing failure of entrepreneurial activities. Personal hurdles were assessed using “Statistical Package for the Social Science” (SPSS). A survey method is utilized in gathering primary dataset, descriptive analysis and frequency tables were used to assess all the basic variables including the personal hurdles of owner-managers. Factor analysis was utilized as a determinant of personal hurdles. Formulated hypotheses for the study were tested by the inferential statistic of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Relationships between dependent (rural entrepreneurial failures) and independent variables (resources, information and infrastructure gaps) were ascertained through the Pearson Correlation techniques. The study revealed that the resource gaps affect rural entrepreneurial failure (REF)On the other hand, information and infrastructure do not have significant effect on REF.A moderate positive linear correlation between resource gap and REF was detected. Furthermore, there is a low positive linear correlation between REF and the two independent variables (information and infrastructure gaps) were detected
Raising Cash Under Duress And The Role Of Cash Value Life Insurance: An Educational Example
Full text linkConsumers face hard choices when they need cash quickly. Hard choices can lead to emotional or economically unsound decisions. Traditional classroom discussions of raising funds to pay for expenses usually focus on generating income, borrowing, or the sale of real and financial assets, if hardship is discussed at all. However, many families have additional “non-traditional” sources of cash. This article examines the use of life insurance surrenders and policy loans as a source of funds for both routine funding needs as well as a source of emergency financing. The article concludes with a review of the economic considerations of life insurance for Insurance and Financial Planning educators and students
Effect Of The IFRS Adoption On The Cost Of Capital: Evidence From Korea
Full text linkThis study investigates whether the cost of capital of Korean listed firms was substantially reduced after the IFRS adoption in long-term aspect and which firms listed in KOSPI or KOSDAQ market had been more enjoyed the benefit. Prior studies related to this subject don’t provided consistent results and have limitations of insufficiency of research periods and generalization problem. Therefore, this study analyzes the positive effect of the IFRS adoption in Korea using long-term based approach and differential measurements (CAPM and WACC) to facilitate generalization. Results of the study found that the cost of capital of Korean listed firms had been significantly reduced during 5 years after the IFRS adoption. In addition, the cost of capital of KOSPI listed firms was reduced more than KOSDAQ listed firms. The results provide meaningful implications to evaluate the effects of IFRS adoption on the cost of capital and to assess accomplishment of fundamental purpose of the IFRS adoption in Korea
Professional Skepticism: Practitioners’ Perceptions And Training Practices
Full text linkWhile regulators criticize auditors for lacking appropriate professional skepticism (SEC, 2010, 2013; PCAOB, 2012), auditing standards lack a clear, consistent definition (Nelson, 2009; Hurtt, Brown-Liburd, Earley, & Krishnamoorthy, 2013), leaving application of professional skepticism “open to interpretation” (Glover & Prawitt, 2013, p. 2). If individual auditors view professional skepticism as open to interpretation (i.e., subjective), auditors may believe they are appropriately applying standards on professional skepticism based on their individual interpretations. However, if regulators apply a different definition of professional skepticism when reviewing auditors’ work, this may help explain ongoing criticisms from regulators stating auditors lack appropriate professional skepticism. The author reports insights of 66 auditors’ perceptions and finds the majority believe professional skepticism has a subjective (as opposed to uniform) definition. This finding is consistent across auditor rank and firm size, suggesting the potential for variations in application of professional skepticism in practice. Supplemental analyses indicate tax practitioners are more likely than auditors to view professional skepticism as subjective, particularly at the partner rank. The author presents professional skepticism training practices for 25 firms that suggest most firms recognize the importance of professional skepticism training and its regular reinforcement. However, there are concerns surrounding the fact that mentoring is listed as the most common training method, which lacks benefits of more formal training activities. Overall, this study provides relevant insights from practitioners and strengthens recent calls for developing a “common definition and shared understanding” of professional skepticism and a framework for evaluating application of professional skepticism (Glover & Prawitt, 2014, p. 5-6)
Stock Option Grants And Cost Behavior
Full text linkThis study examines the relation between cost asymmetry and stock option grants. I posit that managers’ incentives to decrease the strike price of subsequent option awards may affect manager’s resource adjustment decisions. Using U.S. firm data, I find that the degree of SG&A (selling, general, and administrative) cost asymmetry is positively related to the value of subsequent option grants awarded to the CEOs, suggesting that managers who expect large stock-option grants deliberately delay reduction of committed costs to decrease the share price prior to the option award date. Manipulating the timing of stock option grants do not fully explain the results because the positive relation that this paper documents still holds with only fixed-date option awards sample
From Conceptual Frameworks To Mental Models For Astronomy: Students' Perceptions
Full text linkConsiderable debate exists among discipline-based astronomy education researchers about how students change their perceptions in science and astronomy. The study questioned the development of astronomical models among students in institutions of higher education by examining how college students change their initial conceptual frameworks and construct mental models in astronomy. The study considers four areas of astronomical knowledge: "sky observations," "Earth and its orbit," "solar system" and "stars” by implementing a recently developed research tool - Conceptual Frameworks in Astronomy (CFA) (Pundak, 2016). The responses of 537 undergraduates from three Israeli colleges were classified into one of four mental models: pre-scientific, geocentric, heliocentric, stellar/scientific. The findings indicate significant differences among students adopting some combination of the four mental models. Most students adopted a combination of these models and used different conceptual frameworks for different astronomical phenomena. Students with a scientific engineering background tended to use the stellar/scientific model more often than Liberal Arts students. The stellar/scientific model is the most scientifically progressive of the four models tested and manages the most systematic astronomical conceptual frameworks. The study identified three variables: "physical background," "average academic grade" and "academic discipline" - which contribute to the adoption of the stellar/scientific model
Be Responsive To Get In Print Faster
No full textThe vast majority of questions received by peer-reviewed journal editors revolve around one repeated and sometimes frantic theme: when will my article appear in print? Manuscript authors sometimes forget how many different procedural and sequential steps must occur before even the most scholarly and well-conceived “print-ready” article makes it into print. However, the most important steps where timelines seem to get unexpectedly extended are not actually those phases controlled by the publishers or the reviewers or the editors, but the critical steps related to the responsiveness of the authors themselves. The bottom line to helping publishers get scholarly work you can be proud of published in a timely matter is for authors to posture themselves in rapid response mode, replying promptly to correspondence from the journal
To Teach Or Not To Teach Astronomy, That Is The Question: Results Of A Survey Of Québec’s Elementary Teachers
Full text linkTo determine the extent of astronomy teaching in Quebec’s schools, we conducted an online survey of 500 Québec’s elementary (K-6) teachers between January and March 2015. With a 35-items questionnaire, we wanted to find out how these elementary teachers teach astronomy (or not) to their classrooms, what is their background in Science & Technology (S&T), what pre-service education they received, the reasons why they teach astronomy or not to their students, the resources and materials they have at their disposal, their perception of the effectiveness of pre- and in-service training they received, and their perceived needs for in-service training. Results show that the majority of teachers surveyed didn’t study science beyond high school and have had no experience in S&T employment before becoming a teacher. We also found that only half of the teachers surveyed actually teach astronomy to their class, mostly by using reading and writing material, and that 39% of “Astronomy teachers” in our sample teach astronomy to their class between 6 and 10 hours per year. Major hurdles to astronomy teaching perceived by the teachers in our survey are a lack of experience and training in astronomy, a lack of resources and equipment, inadequate classroom arrangement, and their own, self-perceived incompetence in astronomy. Pre-service education in astronomy, in science and in science teaching is also considered mainly unsatisfactory, or non-existent in the case of astronomy; in-service training in astronomy is mainly composed of conversations with colleagues. Most respondents thus consider in-service training in astronomy to be inefficient or inexistent
Evaluating Strategies To Collect Micrometeorites From Rainwater For Citizen Scientists
Full text linkMicrometeorites originate from small pieces of rock from space colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere at high velocity, such as the Perseid meteors which hit the atmosphere at 60 km/s. When they do so, they burn up, causing a flash of light that we see as a meteor. Many groups have been successful collecting these particles using various devices. Such activities make great science projects for middle and high school students, and we plan to start a program to train students in the collecting methods and get them interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. Various methods are used to collect micrometeorites from rainwater, but little work has been done to assess the most efficient method of collecting these particles from space and then analyzing them. Before we began our citizen science project, we determined that it was necessary to conduct a pilot project to determine the most effective method of collecting micrometeorites from rainwater. Four collecting methods were tried and the method that collected the most micrometeorites was also the simplest, that being a simple bucket under the downspout of the gutter system of a house and a magnet which is then run through the bucket to gather the meteorites