This phenomenological investigation examined the lived experience of technically-oriented students over the course of a single semester, attempting to answer the question, "What was it like for a student to experience the spatial ability phenomenon?" The study included 12 interviewees and 8 focus group freshman participants at a Midwestern…

From the first days of medical school, students are socialized into the medical environment. They are trained to view patients as the "other." The medical humanities have been introduced into the curriculum of most medical schools as a means to counteract the possible effects of this "othering." In particular, writing exercises…

This article explores the conditions under which international social work field placements may be effectively administered. The positive and negative potential of international placements is examined. A review of empirical and theoretical literature in the related fields of service learning and international volunteering reveals that role taking,…

This article looks at best practices in basic writing instruction in terms of non-traditional audiences and writerly authority. Much conventional wisdom discourages participation in service-learning projects for basic writers because of the assumption that their writing is not yet ready to "go public." Countering this line of thinking, the author…

The number of women veterans attending college is increasing. This suggests that campus professionals need to become aware of how issues associated with mental health, sexual assault, and gender identity may influence how women veterans make the transition into the higher education environment. This chapter addresses the special needs of women…

Each fall semester, on the first day of class of his upper-level American Military History course, the author informs his students that a major part of the class consists of a wargame in which they will participate. In this article, the author describes briefly how the class will be divided into two teams, and that on a specific evening during the…

This study is based on a stage-by-stage dialogue between four geography staff and seven students. Members of staff were asked to identify issues that reflect academically inappropriate behaviour in classes for students at university (as opposed to school) level. Students were then asked to comment on the staff's views. In general, the students…

In this paper, the author explores the views of a group whose perspectives have not often been included in discussions of new directions for foreign language education--students. Drawing from a larger ethnographic, discourse-analytic study of the nature of culture learning for one group of college students and their teacher, this paper presents…

Results compiled from several studies indicate that college students place significant personal emphasis on matters related to spirituality. Compiling students' responses from the author's 2003 pilot study, subsequent focus group interviews, and the 2004 national survey, along with faculty's responses from the 2004-2005 Higher Education Research…

Empathy, a basis for altruistic motivation, is viewed as a developmental process by Hoffman and others. Current measures of empathy, such as the Davis Interpersonal Reactivity Index (IRI), have been analyzed by exploratory factor analytic methods which do not allow for the testing of a developmental model of the simplex form. This study was…

Results of this study suggest that regular oral interpretation course work had no effect on student's measured perspective-taking abilities, but an oral interpretation course specifically designed to increase these skills had the predicated effect. (PD)

We examined social role-taking and moral judgement improvement after an educational group-oriented intervention emphasizing guided reflection and role-taking dimensions among 11 groups, made up of a total of 61 female and male Italian university students. They were compared to a control group of 59 students. We twice applied Italian adaptations of…

Reports a preliminary study of the four-level theory of role-taking. Investigates the hypothesis that the use of each role-taking level in describing the self correlates with the use of the same role-taking level in describing other persons. Discusses implications for interpersonal communication research. (PD)

College students who took the Defining Issues Test (DIT) were instructed to simulate the responses of 11-, 15-, and 19-year-old adolescents; other college students selected moral issues which they believed should be presented to adolescents in those age groups who were faced with the moral dilemmas in the DIT. (Author/DB)

Interpersonal sensitivity refers to the perception of the thoughts, feelings and reactions of another person with whom one is interacting. To examine the effects of sex and leader/subordinate role upon interpersonal sensitivity, female, male and mixed-sex dyads (N=72) were first observed in interaction and then asked to complete questionnaires.…