<p> Over fifty thousand Chinese students are leaving China to study in US high schools. This interview-based, narrative inquiry study focuses on the experience of ten Chinese nationals now studying at a US high school and expands work done in comparative pedagogy by offering thick descriptions of the school experience in two cultures. This study makes the case that China&rsquo;s changing culture is reflected in the stories and school histories of Chinese students who experience pedagogy as significantly different in China and the US. The push that drives students out of China includes high-stakes testing and public ranking systems and the individual success of students within these systems. Students&rsquo; experience school in China as a symbiotic relationship between teachers, students, and schools, which often manifests in culturally located methods for efficient study, including achievement collaboration&mdash;wherein actors work together for mutual success. It is within this context that many students are pulled to study in the US in order to take up a certain degree of cultural rebellion, wherein they perceive that US schools have the resources to provide for broader constructions of school success than in China. This study illuminates how these students then gain new knowledge around how to be successful in school in two cultures and how to better navigate global education mobility. It is in this way that Chinese students become conduits of change. They influence the curricula, programming, and services offered at the schools they attend in both countries, emphasizing how cross-border mobility (re)shapes the identities and values around education for all involved, from individual students and schools to educational policy and reform. This study engages how schools in the US are meeting the needs of these students in both policy and practice, and lends nuance to the literature around intercultural education and the impact of globalization on pedagogy.</p>

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<p> The purpose of this study was to determine if using intentional, transformational learning strategies in an undergraduate business ethics course improved the curriculum with respect to targeted, student learning outcomes. Since business schools have a social mandate to provide opportunities for ethical growth and development, improving the efficacy of business ethics education is of paramount importance. The importance of this mandate has been further highlighted in recent years by egregious instances of misconduct by business professionals whose actions have had obvious and profoundly negative impacts upon the stability of our financial systems and state of the world economy. </p><p> This was a quasi-experimental, quantitative study conducted at a university of approximately 8,000 students. The focus of the study was to measure the effects of intentional, transformational learning strategies on the occurrence of transformational learning and cognitive moral development among students enrolled in the university's online business ethics course. The intentional, transformational learning strategies utilized were those identified by David Warren Keller in a 2007 study and adapted to an online learning environment. The correlation between epistemological development based on the Perry Scheme (of William G. Perry Jr.) and the occurrence of transformational learning was also examined in this study. </p><p> While this curricular intervention was not found to have had a statistically significant impact on the targeted outcomes, a statistically significant correlation was observed between epistemological development and transformational learning. A principle conclusion of the researcher is that the online learning environment is the most likely explanation for the difference in the efficacy of the curricular intervention when comparing the results of the Keller study to the current study due to the affective dimensions of the student learning experience (central to transformational learning) in the online learning environment and the limitations inherent therein, which are detailed in the study. Finally, the correlation observed between epistemological development and transformational learning, while statistically significant, was inconclusive due to the absence of additional correlations which would have been expected, yet merits further study.</p>

<p> This study examines the perceived intellectual and dispositional takeaways for high school alumni who had been peer tutors in their secondary context. The research question which drove this study was, &ldquo;What abilities, values, and skills do tutors develop from their experience as peer tutors and how, if at all, have they used those abilities, values, and skills in their lives beyond high school?&rdquo; The findings come from the completed surveys of 63 high school tutor alumni who all tutored at a large, public suburban high school with a diverse population, and who represent a cross-section of the school&rsquo;s population. The survey was adapted from one made available by the Peer Writing Tutor Alumni Research Project (PWTARP), a national project which seeks to better understand the developmental process of students who engage in the work of peer tutoring during their undergraduate university experience. I collected this data between 2010 and 2013 in my role as the program coordinator and although I knew these tutors very well, their responses were anonymous. Participants named 25 skills, abilities, and values they developed. Participants also indicated, through the survey&rsquo;s four Likert-scale questions, that they found their tutor experiences were important or influential to their development after high school. This study used the grounded theory method of initial and focused coding for analysis of the data generated by the survey&rsquo;s open-ended responses. These responses generated 180 pages of text. During the analysis 132 initial codes were applied to 2,231 excerpts from the survey responses. The 132 initial codes were grouped into 34 focused codes. These focused codes were further consolidated into 11 categories that describe the learned skills, innate abilities, and developed values of respondents. These analytic categories are descriptive in nature and constitute the major findings of this study. These categories include writing, reading, collaboration, adaptability, patience, perseverance, confidence, maturity, leadership, bravery, and joie de vivre.</p>

<p> <i>A Mindfulness Approach to Help Teachers and Staff Provide Support to High School Students</i> is a self-instructional curriculum with the goal of providing a reference guide that can be used to demonstrate to students the care that they need and deserve. Research shows that students&rsquo; academic success and emotional well-being improve when students experience positive interactions with high school personnel. This self-instructional PowerPoint design aims to: (a) accommodate high school personnel&rsquo;s busy schedules; (b) facilitate learning at their own pace; (c) navigate between sections that are beneficial for their needs; and (d) provide a user friendly application of mindfulness in a high school setting. The content includes: definitions, rationale, vignettes, and resources to enhance this learning opportunity.</p>

<p> The purpose of writing An Evaluation of The Journey Within: Soul Care in the African American Context to implement an eight week curriculum of intentional and experiential practice of spiritual formation/soul care to determine the impact of the Journey Within: Soul Care on a Christian believer&rsquo;s emotional health and spiritual maturity in the African American context. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)</p>

<p> Clinical experiences are an essential part of the training of future nursing professionals. The period of clinical experience aims to develop in the student the necessary skills to practice as a nursing professional, when the academic program ends. This case study aimed to understand the opinion and explore the perception of faculty, clinical instructors, and nursing students on the meaning, contributions and challenges presented during clinical experiences. Among the themes explored in the focus groups were the meaning and importance to learning about the profession of clinical experiences, teaching strategies used during the practice scenarios, didactic relationships developed among students, clinical instructors, and teachers. The goal was to learn from all participants about what they do, their expectations, and the challenges presented during the clinical experiences.</p><p> A qualitative, descriptive and contextual research design was followed, which required conducting six focus groups to collect the information from the perspective of all the participants. Faculty, clinical instructors, and nursing students participated each in two focus groups. Collected data were transcribed, coded and analyzed in order to organize it under themes related to the research framework.</p><p> The qualitative analysis of the focus groups revealed that nursing faculty and clinical instructors perceived clinical experiences as a very important element in the training of nursing students, but that coordination between the academy and practice scenarios is disconnected and needs improvement. They also expressed that they use various learning strategies during the clinical experiences, however, they recognize it needs more structure and suggested mentoring as a strategy to consider. They affirmed that mentoring could contribute positively to enhance the teaching-learning process. Clinical instructors understand they perform mentoring roles, but they would like to have a more defined role and structured process. Nursing students, also, recognized the importance of clinical experiences in their professional training. They expressed the need to improve the communication between the academy and the practice scenarios in order to reduce the levels of anxiety they experience when entering the clinical experiences. Nursing students also expressed the need to consider the use of different teaching strategies, such as mentoring, to improve clinical experiences.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of classroom-assigned tasks and responsibilities in middle school classrooms. This mixed methods research study focused on perceptions held by students and educational professionals, both classroom teachers and administrators, of the classroom-assigned tasks and responsibilities program in relation to overall classroom environment, overall school environment, and students&rsquo; sense of connectedness to the school. Quantitative data consisted of secondary data obtained from a survey taken by students exposed to the program and students not exposed to the program. Student survey results were compared to determine if a difference of perceptions existed between the two groups. Qualitative data were collected from educational professionals via electronic surveys and face-to-face interviews. Participant responses were documented and analyzed. The quantitative data showed no significant impact of the classroom-assigned tasks and responsibilities program related to students&rsquo; perceptions; however, the qualitative data pertaining to educators&rsquo; perceptions of the classroom-assigned tasks and responsibilities program demonstrated a multitude of positive effects of the program. According to the qualitative data, students exposed to the program exhibited a multitude of positive changes, whereas students not exposed to the program did not exude beneficial changes. The researcher concluded that although the quantitative data could not support the effectiveness of the classroom-assigned tasks and responsibilities program, the qualitative data provided enough evidence to support the validity of the program. </p>