Participants in the 2007 American Sociological Association teaching workshop, “Innovative Teaching Practices for Difficult Subjects,” shared concerns about teaching statistics, research methods, and theory. Strategies for addressing these concerns center on building a community of learners by creating three processes throughout the course: 1) an ongoing active role for students; 2) mechanisms to establish a common language of discourse; and 3) a means of monitoring students' feelings. Examples are provided which introduce readers to ideas which can help in the creation and maintenance of a successful community of learners when teaching these difficult subjects. These processes can build student engagement and help to reduce student anxieties. More detailed information about specific exercises, examples, and bibliographic resources which were distributed at the workshop, can be found on the Teaching Sociology website.
This study assessed the feasibility of doing hearing screening in Migrant, American Indian and Early Head Start programs using otoacoustic emissions (OAE) technology. Staff members were trained to screen 0-3-year-old children for hearing loss using handheld OAE equipment and a multi-step screening and referral protocol. Of the 3486 children screened as a part of the study, 77% passed an OAE screening at the first step, 18% more passed an OAE screening at the second step, and 5% were ultimately referred for medical or audiological follow-up. Eighty children were identified as having a hearing loss or disorder of the outer, middle or inner ear requiring treatment. Of these 80, six had permanent bilateral or unilateral hearing loss. Although the protocol suggested that the multi-step screening procedure should be completed within a 4-week time period or less, analysis of the data showed that for children requiring more than an initial OAE screening, the length of time over which the screening was completed ranged from 7 to 12 weeks. The median time required to complete a single OAE screening session was 4 minutes per child. The results demonstrate that OAE screening of young children using this protocol is practical and effective. The implications for conducting periodic hearing screening throughout early childhood are discussed.
This research examines the structure and coherence of an emerging environmental world view as measured by the new environmental paradigm (NEP) scale, developed by Dunlap and Van Liere (1978). We utilize data from two independent surveys of three communities in Colorado and Wyoming, United States, in 1997 and 2012, and examine the extent to which this world view has been accepted by the general public. Using factor analysis, we focus our attention on the structure and coherence of the NEP, as well as the dimensionality of this scale, revisiting the original question raised by Dunlap and Van Liere of whether a coherent ecological world view has emerged among the general public at this point in time. Comparisons between the two surveys reveal that both the structure and coherence of the NEP are highly consistent and stable over time, lending support to the belief that the general public within our study areas has indeed developed such a world view.
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