Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The combination of clicker questions and peer instruction has been shown to increase student learning. While implementations in large lectures have been around for a while, mathematics has been increasingly using clickers in classes of smaller size.


In the fall of 2008 I taught two sections of Calculus I, one with 26 students and the other with 14. Each section used clickers daily, always for a warm-up question and usually for several questions during lecture. Warmup questions were either review from previous day's material or preview of today's. The students see the question when they arrive in the classroom and the question is discussed after 10 to 15 minutes of homework questions. Then lecture occurs for the rest of the 55 minute class with interspersed questions. The clicker questions during lecture follow the more traditional format of answer, pair and share, answer again, and the discuss as a whole.


For each exam I picked two topics that I had clicker questions for. In one section I did clicker questions with board examples and in one section I did only board examples except for the warm-up clicker question on the previous day's material. The sections were reversed for the other topic. On the exam there were questions on the topics. The final had questions on all of the topics.

I will present a report about the collected data and attempt to answer : Does doing questions by clicker have an effect on exam performance?

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The mobile phone penetration in EU countries has basically approached or surpassed 80 percent in the population (10+). At the same time the share of mobile only households typically increased to around 10 percent, with some Scandinavian countries surpassing 35 percent. The fixed telephone surveys - which currently dominate in the majority of developed countries – thus face an increasing non-coverage problem, at least when targeting the general population. With this respect, Slovenia is a typical EU country, being slightly above the EU average in mobile phone penetration. Its position particularly characterizes the EU situation, as no quality mobile phone sampling frames exist. Due to the rich source of data the Slovenian situation could be a case study for methodological problems related to mobile phone surveys.

The paper analyzes the mobile phone related questions in Labor Force Survey and in General Social Survey, both face-to-face surveys. It then compares these results with fixed telephone surveys and also with a special interviewer mobile phone survey. The combination of these sources enables to empirically evaluate the key methodological problems: bias, sampling frames, costs, nonresponse and mode effect.

The main conclusion is that mobile phones surveys bring sever problems. Opposite to some Scandinavian countries - with excellent public directories of fixed and mobile phone users where the only change introduced with mobile phone surveys was the increase of costs – in Slovenia the survey errors also increase with mobile phone surveys.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: A presentation on an "inquiry as professional development" model used by a team of P-12 teachers and university professors to support the growth of differentiated instruction in their classrooms.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: In this research we assess the applicability and generalizability of the 'social conditions as fundamental causes of disease proposition for explaining the distribution of mental illness in a developing society. The study reports preliminary results testing the fundamental causes argument using data collected from 2706 randomly selecelted adults and 300 of their spouses as part of the WHO World Mental Health Surveys project in Kathmandu, Nepal

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: To increase student engagement and enhance critical thinking, I have used a variety of focused Web-based discussion activities and assignments in fact-to-face race and ethnic relations classes. In this paper, I focus on two different approaches used in these classes and the way those approaches informed a hybrid or blended course offered this past semester. Examples of focused Web-based discussions over two years are analyzed to illustrate the extent to which the assigned topic increased student engagement of key course concepts. The assignments began as an adaptation of the process described by Persell in an upper level seminar and moved to a new set of assignments created to meet the needs of students at a different type of institution and in a different type of course. Students’ assessment of the value of different assignments to student learning will be presented. A comparison will be made of the effectiveness of Web-based assignments in face-to-face and blended classes.