Principal Investigator: Leann Lower
Project Dates: 3/1/18-11/30/19
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $2100
Project Sponsor: Nat Intramural-Recreational Sports Association
Governance of Collegiate Sport Clubs: A Study on Institutional Oversight
Sport clubs, classified as voluntary, non-profit sport organizations, are a critical provider of sport participation opportunities for communities in Europe, Australia, Canada, and the United States (Warner, Dixon, & Chalip, 2012; Wicker & Breuer, 2013), as they serve multiple foci of promoting sport, social, economic, and health functions (e.g., Doherty, Misener, & Cuskelly, 2014). Similar to international and community sport clubs, American collegiate sport clubs operate in accordance with a sport governing body and provide similar services to their members (Breuer, Feiler, Llopis-Goig, & Elmose-Osterlund, 2017; Sports Clubs, 2017). However, their regulatory framework is unique as clubs are required to remain in compliance with the policies, regulations, and procedures of their associated university (Czekanski & Lower, 2018). The clubs also serve an important role for a university as they enable the recruitment and retention of students and are linked to numerous student outcomes such as the development of leadership skills and sense of community (e.g., Kampf & Teske, 2013; Warner et al., 2012; Weaver, Forte, & McFadden, 2017). As such, the capacity of sport clubs to achieve these desirable objectives is of primary concern.
Across the United States, the majority of collegiate sport clubs are governed by university recreational sport departments (78%; NIRSA, 2010), whose administrative philosophies range from conservative to liberal (Mull, Bayless, & Jamieson, 2005). A conservative administrative philosophy mandates institutional oversight for club activities, schedules, travel, financial transactions, and staffing whereas a liberal philosophy allows clubs to manage internal operations independent of the institution. Departments with greater resources allocated to collegiate sport clubs necessitate greater university governance (Mull et al., 2005), influencing the organizational capacity of sport clubs. Unfortunately, university governance has been GOVERNANCE OF COLLEGIATE SPORT CLUBS 2 identified as a primary obstacle to clubs operating at full capacity by student sport club officers responsible for the internal operations of their clubs (Lower & Czekanski, 2017), compelling further investigation as to the ideal institutional oversight of sport clubs. Thus, the primary objective of the proposed study is to investigate the institutional governance of American collegiate sport clubs and assess how it impacts club success. More specifically, the proposed project is guided by three research questions:
RQ1: How do sport clubs achieve high organizational capacity?
RQ2: How do institutional factors support and inhibit sport club capacity?
RQ3: How can universities adopt strategies to improve sport club capacity and success?
Principal Investigator: Sherine Tambyraja
Project Dates: 3/1/18-6/30/18
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $100,000
Project Sponsor: Mahoning County Education Service Cent
Increasing teacher implementation of STAR
Principal Investigator: Wanchanit Vongkulluksn
Project Dates: 5/1/18-4/30/19
Anticipated Total Award Amount: $50,000
Project Sponsor: Spencer Foundation
Scaffolding students’ information literacy development in science classrooms
Information literacy is crucial for success in schools, and for effective functioning as informed citizens. With increasing availabilities of web 2.0 technologies in the classroom, students need to be able to critically evaluate information to learn effectively. This competency is particularly important in science education since conflicting scientific claims are common in digital spaces. However, there are no clear guidelines for science teachers regarding how information literacy should be taught and integrated into day-to-day science instruction.
With the support from the Spencer Foundation, Drs. Vongkulluksn and Xie are undertaking a project to uncover how high school science teachers in technology-integrated classrooms scaffold students’ information literacy development. The study features in-depth observations and audio recordings of 20 teachers and approximately 400 of their students, as well as survey data collection. Using mixed methods of interpretive content analysis and hierarchical growth modeling, Vongkulluksn and Xie are examining the ways in which high school science teachers scaffold information literacy skills as part of science instruction, and how these scaffolding practices are linked to students’ growth in information literacy skills. The findings will constitute the first step towards helping science teachers purposefully integrate this crucial competency as part of their curricular objectives. The project begins Summer 2018.