Papers by Baine Alexander
Technology-Based Re-Engineering Engineering Education Proceedings of Frontiers in Education FIE'96 26th Annual Conference, 2000
Page 1. Effects of a Learning Community Program on the First-Year Experience of Engineering Major... more Page 1. Effects of a Learning Community Program on the First-Year Experience of Engineering Majors Baine B. Alexander & Debra L. Penberthy (UW-Madison LEAD Center), Ian B. McIntosh & Denice Denton (UW-Madison Engineering Research Center) Abstract ...
This report is based on the analysis of initial interviews with the staff of the Freshmen Learnin... more This report is based on the analysis of initial interviews with the staff of the Freshmen Learning Community Program (FLCP) staff. FLCP is a pilot program in engineering education that focuses on diversity and cultural change. Data includes structured open-ended interviews and observations of discussion sections and learning program meetings. Evaluation findings indicate that in 1995 FLCP was moderately successful for a small subset of students. The program appears to foster a sense of group identity, providing students with a sense of belonging at the university. Findings also suggest a significant impact on student learning processes through the fostering of a collaborative learning approach. (DDR)
This report is based on the analysis of initial interviews with the staff of the Freshmen Learnin... more This report is based on the analysis of initial interviews with the staff of the Freshmen Learning Community Program (FLCP). FLCP is a pilot program in engineering education that focuses on diversity and cultural change. The primary purpose of this evaluative study is to provide feedback while the learning community program is being implemented. Data from students (N=13) and various staff included structured open-ended interviews and observations of discussion sections and learning program meetings. Five sections provide preliminary information regarding relevant issues, research questions, student experiences in the program, perspectives of the staff, and an appendix which contains the interview protocols. (DDR)
Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering, 1997
The failure to successfully complete gateway calculus courses often prevents ethnic minority stud... more The failure to successfully complete gateway calculus courses often prevents ethnic minority students from pursuing science and engineering majors. Research suggests that this failure to succeed is caused more by social factors than by attributes related to ability. This article presents the findings of an evaluation study done of the Wisconsin Emerging Scholars Program, a non-remedial, multicultural workshop approach to learning calculus. Through its emphasis on community and collaboration, it is more culturally relevant and designed to foster substantial participation from underrepresented ethnic minority groups. The Wisconsin Emerging Scholars Program also helps to alleviate the problems of isolation and lack of support that can occur at universities. When the program is implemented optimally, a community of confident calculus learners who outperform traditional students academically emerged. Contains 24 references. (DDR)
A third-party evaluation of the CRPC's GirlTECH workshop established the effectiveness of the wor... more A third-party evaluation of the CRPC's GirlTECH workshop established the effectiveness of the workshop in helping K-12 teachers to incorporate the educational resources of the World Wide Web into their curriculums. During the two-week workshop, participants significantly increased their Internet searching and programming skills, their awareness of the field of computational science, and their understanding of how issues of gender and ethnicity effect computational science. In the school year that followed the workshop, substantial increases were seen in the number of participants using computers in various educational contexts, their use of computers as an instructional tool, and the diversity and sophistication of their general computer use. Teachers who participated in the workshop became members of an ongoing, supportive community of fellow teachers and computational scientists at Rice University who were dedicated to incorporating computer-and Internet-based educational materials into the K-12 curriculum, and about a quarter of the participants contacted went on to become technology resources or advocates in their schools. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of survey and interview data were used to identify the essential elements that were critical in bringing about the success of the workshop. This report provides guidelines to administrators at other institutions who are interested in creating similarly successful technology training programs for the K-12 teachers in their area.
Journal of gerontology, 1991
The key relationships of never married, childless older women, that is, those relationships descr... more The key relationships of never married, childless older women, that is, those relationships described as central, compelling, enduring, or significant throughout their lifetimes, were explored in this study. Analysis of qualitative, ethnographically based interviews with 31 women indicated that the key relationships they describe fall into three classes: ties through blood, friendships, and those we label "constructed" ties (kin-like nonkin relations). We report on types of key interpersonal relationships of these women and also examine limits to these key relations, describing some strategies these women have adopted for gaining kin-like relations and the problems inherent in them for the expectation of care in later life. Theoretical work by anthropologist David Schneider concerning American kinship as a cultural system is used to explore dimensions of these relationships.
Journal of gerontology, 1991
This article describes differences between elderly Jewish and non-Jewish women in dealing with th... more This article describes differences between elderly Jewish and non-Jewish women in dealing with the death of an adult child. Dimensions of difference include the meaning of the death to the mother, her expression of grief, and her conceptualization of the future in the face of the loss. Results are based on data from 12 Jewish and 17 non-Jewish women taking part in a larger study examining generativity as a predictor of well-being in women over 60. Data collection included in-depth life histories and quantitative evaluations of well-being, affect, generativity, and personality variables associated with mothering. Qualitatively, Jewish women were depressed and fixed in grief, with the loss remaining central to their lives. Non-Jewish women articulated philosophies of acceptance, putting the death in a perspective that enabled them to move beyond their loss. Well-being, affect, generativity, and personality measures statistically supported the qualitative differences found between the ...
The Gerontologist, 1992
This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative m... more This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative methods. Regrets were discussed in the context of the changing meaning of childlessness over the life course. We found that issues of regret are situated in a cultural system that renders childless women marginal. We argue that regrets should be understood in a wider cultural context that incorporates the cultural construction of the self over time.
The Gerontologist, 1992
This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative m... more This paper explores regrets about childlessness in 90 older women interviewed using qualitative methods. Regrets were discussed in the context of the changing meaning of childlessness over the life course. We found that issues of regret are situated in a cultural system that renders childless women marginal. We argue that regrets should be understood in a wider cultural context that incorporates the cultural construction of the self over time.
Council on Undergraduate …, 2000
One of the most vexing problems in higher education has been the dramatic underrepresentation of ... more One of the most vexing problems in higher education has been the dramatic underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians in the nation's graduate schools and within the ranks of those who hold Ph. Ds, especially in the areas of ...
CUR Quarterly, 2000
... Dr. Richard Tapia, the Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Ric... more ... Dr. Richard Tapia, the Noah Harding Professor of Computational and Applied Mathematics at Rice, established the SaS program in 1989 with the help of the Center for Research on Parallel Computation to increase the number of ethnic minority and female researchers in ...
Ageing and Society, 1991
ABSTRACTTheoretical approaches to conceptualising the notion of generativity have been psychologi... more ABSTRACTTheoretical approaches to conceptualising the notion of generativity have been psychologically or psychosocially based and assume generativity to be a universal phenomenon. Because psychological issues are subsumed within a cultural context, we suggest that generativity is not a universal psychological principle but rather a cultural construct. In this paper we argue that generativity must be analysed as a product of American culture and its embeddedness in individualism. Through an analysis of ethnographically based interviews with 161 older women we illustrate how generative behaviour is inextricably tied to a constellation of American beliefs about the nature of the self, the meaning of death, and attempts to attain immortality that are informed by the ideology of individualism.
One of the most vexing problems in higher education has been the dramatic underrepresentation of ... more One of the most vexing problems in higher education has been the dramatic underrepresentation of African Americans, Hispanics, and American Indians in the nation's graduate schools and within the ranks of those who hold Ph. Ds, especially in the areas of ...
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Papers by Baine Alexander