Open Journals at the University of Georgia Libraries
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The Impact on College Students of Service-Learning in After-School Programs
No full textIn the United States, the dearth of quality expanded learning opportunities (ELO), such as afterschool and summer programs, has long been recognized as a national concern (DeKanter et al., 2000). The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated this problem, as expanded learning opportunities of all kinds became increasingly limited in spring 2020 (Carver & Doohen, 2021). This research evaluated a new service-learning project, Honors Afterschool Clubs, which allows college students to fill ELO needs by creating and leading afterschool clubs for high-needs, low-income youth. By analyzing college student pre- and postexperience surveys, semistructured interviews, and focus groups, the authors evaluated the perceived impacts of this project on college students and their learning. Our preliminary results suggest that in addition to providing an essential service to the community, families, and youth, college participants who lead afterschool clubs perceive an improvement in their self-efficacy, interpersonal skills, and career confidence
Evaluating Engaged Research in Promotion and Tenure: Not Everything That Counts Can Be Counted
No full textAs institutions of higher education evolve and adapt to meet the increasing needs of their communities, faculty are faced with the choice of where and how to employ their time and expertise. To advance and encourage partnerships between institutions and their communities, academic reward structures must be designed in ways that support those who choose to leverage their expertise, resources, and time to engage with community in meaningful and mutually beneficial ways. This dissertation (Wendling, 2022) contributes to the growing body of higher education community engagement literature by investigating how school- and department-level promotion and tenure committees not only define and understand faculty’s engaged research, but how they evaluate it. Specifically, this dissertation explored what goes into making evaluative decisions, if and how committees utilize tools for evaluation, and how evaluative decisions are made
Why Researchers Should Consider Using Propensity Score Matching Methods to Examine Effectiveness of Community Engagement Programming
No full textThis article provides community engagement researchers with an introduction to propensity score matching (PSM) methods. It explains why PSM can serve as a valuable method for evaluating the success of programs when random assignment of individuals to community engagement programs is not possible; it also addresses some of the advantages and challenges in using PSM. It then explains the steps in conducting a PSM study and illustrates them with an example drawn from research our team conducted. That research looked at the success of a community engagement program in which underrepresented college students mentored and tutored middle school students in their community
Young Students Exploring Measurement Through Problem Solving and Problem Posing
No full textThe empirical data in this study are from a series of two lessons on measurement implemented in seven classes with 119 six-year-old students in Sweden. Both problem solving and problem posing were shown to be important in early mathematics when students in this study worked on one problem-solving task and one problem-posing task on measurement. As there are few studies specifically on problem posing in early mathematics and on young children’s understanding of measurement, this study adds knowledge of value for both teachers and researchers. In the study, paper-and-pen work from the students was analysed together with interviews conducted after the students had worked on the two tasks. When solving the task on measurement, the students discerned shape, size, distance, and number as mathematical aspects of measurement. When asked to pose a similar task, only size and number reoccurred as mathematical aspects of measurement. However, other features from the problem-solving task reoccurred in the posed tasks: similar drawings were used in combination with questions on measurement as the mathematical content
