Role of Mindfulness Practices in the College Classroom

The following study examined the effect of mindful practices on college student attitudes and learning comprehension using two sections of an introductory biology course taught by the same instructor. One section used lecture complemented with active learning formats while the other section additionally included mindful practices. Comparisons were made between the students’ surveys and quiz/exam scores. Students in the mindful section also kept journals. Results showed no significant differences in quiz and exam scores between the two groups; however, students in the mindfulness section found value in the practices both in and outside the classroom. Students reported a gain in their attitude towards the value of mindfulness practices as well as the use of mindfulness practices and reported a decrease in anxiety levels. Students identified these practices as helping them with focused attention, peace, and relaxation. At the end of the semester, over 90% of students agreed that mindfulness has a valuable place in the college classroom.

Defining Terms and Selecting Metaphors to Understand Technology in the Classroom

The words we use to describe technology in the college classroom matter and should be carefully selected and defined at the onset of any fruitful discussion of the subject. This chapter frames the discussion of technology in the classroom by defining and redefining salient terms, as well as exploring metaphors through which technology in the classroom can be more deeply understood. The constructs of phubbing, presence, interpersonal attraction, immediacy, and rapport are discussed; additionally, tool, text, system, ecology, and drug are evaluated as potentially instructive metaphors. Ultimately, this chapter aims to not only describe mobile technology and its effects in the classroom, but also to aid the reader in examining his or her own thought processes in understanding it. The presence of technology in the classroom is a complex, multifaceted, and still emergent phenomena, and warrants robust consideration on the part of each individual instructor.

“The Paper Is White”: Examining Diversity Issues With the Next Generation of Journalists

Although the lack of diversity in newsrooms and reporting remains a serious issue in the journalism industry, college journalism education and student media provide a critical opportunity for change. Yet prior research has found notable diversity gaps in both. This study analyzed the state of diversity at a Midwestern university student newspaper and found significant gaps in coverage of diverse populations. The findings suggest the need for more comprehensive diversity education within the college classroom and campus media advising. This is important not only for more representative student media, but also for the future of journalism.

Does laïcité translate to the American classroom?

This essay reflects on the relevance of French laïcité for the American college classroom. It begins with a discussion of philosopher Catherine Kintzler’s radical interpretation of laïcité as a theory of political association that takes the classroom as its model. According to this view, the autonomous learning contingent on doubt and self-correction that ideally occurs there is the basis for an egalitarian and collaborative production of knowledge, a model of a res publica. The essay then turns to legal scholar and philosopher Anthony Kronman’s analysis of classroom conversation and the “ethics of depersonalization.” It considers the extent to which these notions can be viewed as American translations of Kintzler’s laïcité. The essay concludes with a reading of American essayist Ta-Nehisi Coates’s bestselling 2015 memoir as an endorsement of the autonomous abstract individual, the linchpin of republican universalism, laïcité, and liberal education.

University Classroom Teaching Model Based on Decision Tree Analysis and Machine Learning

The existing teaching evaluation system partially reflects the teaching effect and other related conditions through statistical reports, but it is difficult to find the useful knowledge hidden in the database, and it cannot effectively assist the decision-making support. In order to improve the evaluation effect of college classroom teaching mode, this paper mainly uses decision tree algorithm and data mining technology of association rules to construct the effectiveness evaluation system of college classroom teaching mode based on decision tree analysis. Moreover, this paper analyzes the teaching information and evaluation data to extract the potentially useful knowledge contained in it, which can help decision-makers find the rules and explore various factors that affect the teaching effect of teachers, thereby improving teaching management and optimizing resource allocation. In addition, this paper uses experimental teaching methods to verify the performance of the system model constructed in this paper. The research results show that the system constructed in this paper has certain reliability and practicability.