A story is an established method of communicating fact, fiction, parable, and myth from cultural generation to generation. Is it possible to actively engage accounting students with content when the student becomes the storywriter? Can story writing by the student be an effective teaching tool, and should accounting professors consider its use in their classrooms? This archival research seeks to review the literature regarding the value of story writing as a pedagogical tool across academic disciplines in higher education, synthesize the findings of existing research and describe the uses, benefits and difficulties with using story writing in various accountancy classes across the curriculum.

This design report details the development of a summer training experience for peer mentors in the Freshman Mentoring program at Brigham Young University. The purpose of the project was to develop an extended training program which would assist peer mentors in developing core mentoring skills necessary for their work with first-year students. The design of the training was informed by a number of theoretical frameworks including experiential learning, reflective practice, and narrative design. The training was evaluated using a post-then survey instrument as well as analysis of qualitative data collected from learners throughout the training. Analyses of these data suggested that peer mentors increased both their mentoring skill and confidence in providing mentoring to first-year students. This document also reports on the practical, design, and theoretical insights which emerged from the project as well as their implications for other designers who face similar design challenges. Finally, a brief discussion of the way in which the project has influenced the professional development of the designer is included.

In a time of growing awareness of the climate change crisis, cities are revisiting their policies and practices to align with sustainability aspirations.   Transportation and cycling policies offer a way forward. On visits to best practice cities, policymakers, practitioners and decision-makers learn from local experts in an effort to take ideas home and implement them. The activity of finding out about policies, known as policy transfer, can be explored as a type of experiential learning when it takes place as a bicycle study tour. The policy transfer framework provided by Dolowitz & Marsh (1996, 2000, 2012) and the experiential learning theory of Kolb (2015) can serve as starting points in exploring how policies are transferred during learning activities and interpersonal interactions that involve hosts and visitors during bicycle study tours. The case study of Amsterdam, which has over 500km of separate cycle lanes and 53% of all daily trips made by bicycle (van der Horst, 2014), offers a working, observable example of an alternative future for cities wanting to change their transportation situation. More than 150 groups visit the city annually to find out about its bicycle culture and underlying policies (Sargentini, 2017).  While policy transfer and learning in Amsterdam may be initiated by visitors that take steps to travel to the city, the local hosting situation is made up of different institutions and actors that interact in various ways. Some attention to the governance of urban cycling in Amsterdam to understand the role of the private sector and the responsibilities of different organizations and actors can partially respond to Oldenziel’s (2016) call for research on this topic throughout Europe. Interviews and document research about the hosting situation in Amsterdam reveal several players with varied backgrounds, a rich variety of learning activities, and a loosely governed hosting landscape. Recommendations are made for Amsterdam institutions, hosts, visitors and future research.

This paper details collaboration in elective global health Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs) between six schools of pharmacy, four in the United States (U.S.) and two in Uganda. This collaboration was initiated to build capacity within Uganda to advance pharmacy practice by strengthening pharmaceutical care education and research, and to provide benefits in the global and public health education and research for U.S. students and each partner University. Makerere University and Mbarara University of Science and Technology in Uganda sought out collaborations to improve pharmacy education in Uganda and alleviate shortages in faculty they have experienced in expanding pharmacy training. In response to this need, Wilkes University, Binghamton University, the University of Minnesota, and East Tennessee State University developed faculty-led APPEs to help model and teach the principles of clinical pharmaceutical care. These faculty-led APPEs occur in various Ugandan locations throughout the year and incorporate Ugandan and U.S. students as co-learners. Ugandan and U.S. faculty act as co-facilitators of didactic, experiential, and research learning experiences. APPE activities include modeling the provision of pharmaceutical care, interprofessional patient care on inpatient wards, joint didactic lectures and case presentations, skills laboratory sessions, and research components. Developed to serve the needs of both the U.S. and Ugandan partners, the elective global health APPEs to Uganda have grown to be sustainable, mutually beneficial collaborations between the six schools of pharmacy and the Ugandan partners. Formal and informal communications between all of the entities involved have helped support continuity of these programs. We recommend such initiatives to other countries and institutions desiring to improve training for pharmaceutical care to advance pharmacy practice.

This study analyzed hospitality management student perceptions of learning both inside the classroom environment and student perceptions of learning in their experiential learning assignments outside the classroom. There were 681 students attending the Rosen College of Hospitality Management at the University of Central Florida who participated in this study. A modified version of the Predicting Learner Advancement through Cooperative Education (P.L.A.C.E.) instrument was used in order to collect data for the study. The P.L.A.C.E. instrument was developed to be a standardized instrument measuring pre-graduation learning outcomes in the following four areas: (a) career development, (b) academic functions achievement, (c) work skills development, and (d) personal growth/development (Parks et al., 2001). This study attempted to add to the literature regarding learning outcomes by contrasting learning in the classroom environment and cooperative education learning assignments. Many leading hospitality curriculums currently incorporate an experiential learning component into their curriculums. Some of the documented benefits of experiential learning or cooperative education programs include: (a) improved student self confidence, self-concept, and improved social skills (Gillan, Davies, & Beissel, 1984). (b) increased practical knowledge and skills (Williams et al. (1993), and (c) enhanced employment opportunities (Clark, 1994; Sharma, Mannel & Rowe, 1995). This study confirmed all of these previously documented benefits of experiential learning, and identified new learning outcomes or benefits for students who participate in experiential learning, such as an increased understanding of how organizations function, increased ability to view career expectations realistically, an increased network of professional contacts, increased ability to take initiative, increased ability to adapt to change, increased leadership skills and increased financial management skills. Unlike many other studies, this study investigated student perceptions of learning in both their classroom environments and their experiential learning assignments at the same time. This allowed the researcher a unique opportunity to compare and contrast each learning environment and identify specific benefits for each.

This thesis explores why instructors should use narrative intentionally and effectively with reflection to better understand adult students' perceptions of experiential learning activities in technical communication. The frequent use of narrative in technical discourse reminds us that the tone of technical texts is often appropriately informal, personable, and reflective. A closer analysis of narratives provides instructors with valuable opportunities to learn more about the motivations for and barriers to learning for adult students and to better understand how these students situate themselves in larger social and cultural narratives. Narrative serves many purposes in technical communication. Not only does narrative add a human element to technical discourse, but it also invites interrogation and inquiry into the technical communicator's decision-making process. For these reasons, narrative is commonly paired with reflection exercises in experiential learning programs as a way for students to make sense of their learning experiences. If instructors can capture the essence of how adult students make sense of their learning experiences, they can determine if experiential learning is an effective pedagogical approach to teaching technical communication to adult students. Using examples of ongoing, initial and summative, and alternative reflection exercises, I illustrate how narrative can be used to facilitate the learning process in adult students and gain access to these students' perceptions of experiential learning activities in technical communication.

The purpose of this action research study was to document 8th grade students' experiences at a residential marine learning facility as they discovered the interconnections between life on Earth and its dependency on ocean health. My goal was for students to take their new knowledge and share it with others in a quest to become educated and caring stewards of the Earth's ocean. Students in this study participated in open peer and instructor discussions, performed full and guided inquiry activities, and snorkeled among the shallow water habitats that transition from mangroves toward coral reefs to discover the interconnections among shallow water marine habitats and the critical necessity of biological diversity among habitats. The processes used to collect data for this action research study were a pre/post knowledge assessment about coral reefs, videotaped conversations among peers and instructors, photographs documenting student engagement in activities, and interviews conducted at the conclusion of the trip. The themes that emerged included a mindset of ocean stewardship, deep engagement in inquiry-driven activities while interacting among peers, the ability to clearly articulate the effects of human impact on biological diversity and the need to maintain sustainable shallow water ecosystems that are biologically diverse. Although this study was only conducted over a three day weekend, the emergent themes highlight the value of providing students with opportunities to interact with nature. Experiential learning not only contributes to the various ways of knowing but such experiences help students develop a stronger sense of self perception and values as they begin formulating their sense of relationship to and responsibilities toward their own communities and the larger, natural world.

Baccalaureate degree completion statistics are surprisingly low. National four-year graduation rates hover around 38%, and six-year graduation rates have remained steady at approximately 63% (Berkner, He, & Cataldi, 2002). At the University of Central Florida, as at many public research institutions, the numbers are even lower. Literature has emerged, however, which suggests that students who participate in cooperative education programs may experience increased motivation to continue the formal education process (Avenoso & Totoro, 1994; Schambach & Dirks, 2002; Somers, 1986). This study investigated the effect of co-op participation on undergraduate degree completion in the context of several risk factors for attrition. The population for this study was the cohort of full-time, bachelor's degree-seeking undergraduate students who entered the University of Central Florida as first-time-in-college (FTIC) students in the fall semester of 1999. Group One (Co-op Students) consisted of full-time FTIC students who successfully participated in the University of Central Florida Cooperative Education program and Group Two (Non-Participants) included full-time FTIC students with at least 20 credit hours completed and consistent grade point averages of at least 2.5 who did not participate in the University of Central Florida Cooperative Education program. The additional parameters on the Non-Participant group were included to control for any potential differences between the two groups due to increased requirements for participation in the co-op program. The two groups arrived at the University of Central Florida with nearly identical high school grade point averages and standardized test scores, and also were remarkably similar in age, ethnic composition, and college at entry. Results indicated that students who graduated within four years seemed to do so regardless of co-op participation, but for those who took longer, there was a correlation between co-op and degree completion. There was also some evidence to suggest that internships are associated with degree completion as well. Further, some of the known risk factors for attrition (lower high school grade point average, male gender, and non-White/non-Asian ethnicity) may be mitigated by the student's participation in their institution's co-op program, though additional research in this area is suggested.

[pt] A ciência oceânica carece de um diálogo estruturado entre os conhecimentos técnico e empírico social, em particular com o esporte. São escassos os trabalhos que estimulam e conectam cientistas do mar e esportistas aquáticos. A falta de comunicação entre estes setores sociais inviabiliza oportunidades que agregam para a sustentabilidade do oceano. Por conta disto, e em busca de analisar o potencial que os esportes aquáticos possuem para o desenvolvimento da cultura oceânica no Brasil, esse trabalho propõe uma metodologia de aprendizagem experiencial que conecta a educação do surf a temas da sustentabilidade, oferecendo aos educadores desse esporte uma ferramenta capaz de propagar a Cultura Oceânica. A metodologia tem como base a Teoria da Aprendizagem Experiencial, desenvolvida em sua maior parte por David Kolb (1984). Nesta abordagem, o aprendizado se inicia a partir da experiência direta de cada pessoa, seguida de reflexões, conceituação e ações estimuladas para internalização e fixação da aprendizagem. A metodologia proposta neste trabalho conecta a aprendizagem prática do surf a reflexões, conceitos e estímulos comportamentais ligados à Cultura Oceânica. Para compreender o contexto do público em relação ao tema, e averiguar a importância da criação desta metodologia, foram realizadas quinze entrevistas em profundidade: oito com educadores do oceano e sete com educadores do surf. A abordagem teórico-metodológica do construcionismo social de Spink (2013) orientou o desenho da pesquisa e a análise das entrevistas. Ambos os grupos de educadores concordaram com o importante papel do esporte como ferramenta de sensibilização para aprendizagem da sustentabilidade do oceano e disseminação da cultura oceânica. / [en] Ocean science lacks a structured dialogue between technical end empirical social knowledge, in particular with sport. There are only a few works that stimulate and connect ocean scientists and water sports enthusiasts. The absence of communication between those sectors prevents the creation of opportunities that contribute to the sustainability of the ocean. Therefore, in order to analyze the potential that water sports have for the development of Ocean Literacy in Brazil, surfing was used to build the methodology by which sport educators can propagate Ocean Literacy using scientifically based information through their own contact with the ocean. The methodology is based on the Experiential Learning Theory developed mostly by David Kolb (1984). Learning starts with the direct experience of each person, which will be the sport, along with their own experiences and the environment that surrounds them. Based on the feelings and observations generated by the practice of the sport, reflections, conceptualizations, and actions are stimulated to internalize and fix this learning. To ascertain the importance of creating this methodology, interviews were conducted, based on Spink s (2013) theoretical-methodological approach of social constructionism, with a group of eight ocean educators and seven surf educators. Both groups of educators agreed on the important role of water sports in the collaboration of Ocean Literacy, and its influence on society s understanding of the importance of ocean sustainability for their lives and the planet.

We examined the effects of deliberate practice (DP) in teaching motivational interviewing (MI) helping skills to 45 upper-level undergraduate students in a semester-long course using an experimental crossover waitlist design. Students participated in a three-hour MI skills workshop focused on open-ended questions, affirmations, reflections, and summaries (OARS) and engaged in ongoing practice throughout the semester. Students video-recorded four skill demonstrations involving real-life changes with a volunteer client, addressing behavioral change. Pre- and post-workshop video recordings were analyzed to evaluate changes in reflective listening skills and the overall consistency of using MI OARS skills. The results revealed significant increases in reflections-to-questions ratio, consistency in using MI OARS skills, and decreased use of statements that were inconsistent with MI. Additionally, students reported increased learning and self-efficacy in using MI skills. These findings suggest that integrating DP into undergraduate courses enhances the frequency and proficiency of MI-helping skills among undergraduate students preparing for the helping professions. The practical implications extend to preparing students for graduate programs or careers in the helping professions. Public Significance: This study highlights the potential benefits of incorporating DP with MI in undergraduate courses. By using experiential methods to introduce students to MI and its principles, this approach may lay the foundation for developing greater confidence and a solid foundation for building advanced helping skills as novices prepare to enter graduate programs in the helping professions.