Tara Gray

Ten Easy Ways to Engage Your Students.

Twenty years of research shows that using interactive techniques more often can make a class more effective. For example, a study of six thousand physics students compared classes using passive lecture to classes using interactive techniques that allowed for discussion among students and between the professor and students. The study showed that students in classes that used interactive approaches rather than lecture learned twice as much.

Drunk drivers in the courts: Legal and extra-legal factors affecting pleas and sentences

Abstract To what extent are pleas and sentences of drunk drivers influenced by legal factors such as offense severity and priors versus extralegal factors such as race and gender? It was found that guilty pleas and sentences were based most heavily on offense severity. Pleas also were based on ethnicity, with Caucasians more than twice as likely to plead not guilty. Although judges often fail to impose mandatory sentences, the judges in this sample always imposed mandatory sentences on drunk drivers.

Team Teach with a Student: New Approach to Collaborative Teaching.

As scholars, we conduct a great deal of co-authored research; as teachers, we stress the impor tance of collaborative learning. All of us are smarter than any of us.1 In our own teaching, however, we often forget this principle, and our classrooms become isolated (Gray and Meyer 1997, 273). When teachers work collaboratively, we benefit from the experience of others (Arredondo and Fueyo 1994, 110). This article will focus on team teaching with a student and place this method in the context of other collaborative ap proaches that usually involve teams of two faculty: peer coaching through class room observations and team teaching. In peer coaching, teachers visit each others classes and meet to exchange ideas after ward. In the most collaborative form of

Research note: Using cost-benefit analysis to measure rehabilitation and special deterrence

How should rehabilitation and special deterrence be measured? Although they affect offenders differently, both rehabilitation and special deterrence should reduce the criminal activity of offenders following intervention. The same measure, therefore, can be used to estimate both. The measure should compare the number of crimes committed before and after intervention, as well as the seriousness, or cost, of the crimes. The measure should be robust to various assumptions that affect these estimates. Economists have developed a methodology, cost-benefit analysis, that is well suited to such a measure.

Team teach with a student: A pilot study in criminal justice

In this study, criminal justice classes were team taught by six pairs of one faculty member and one student teacher. The professor-student teaching teams met together before class to plan and after class to problem solve. The student teachers were charged with helping the professors introduce active learning exercises into their classes. This article reports on survey data from these professors, student teachers and the students they taught, including their views on both the benefits and problems. The article shows professors how to team teach with a student and helps professors who want to try the approach to anticipate and minimize the problems while capitalizing on the benefits.

Dependency, Cultural Identification, and Elder Abuse Among Americans of Mexican Heritage

ABSTRACT We interviewed professional caregivers who work with elderly Americans of Mexican ancestry. These caregivers were employed at nursing homes or in home health care agencies. They were interviewed about the impact of dependency and cultural identification on elder abuse and its reporting. They described abusers who were often dependent in terms of living arrangements and finances on the elders they abused. The caregivers who identified as “Hispanic” rather than “Mexican-American” said that people in their culture would be more likely to report abuse. Among the caregivers who were themselves Americans of Mexican heritage, this was the case: Those who identified as “Hispanic” rather than “Mexican-American” were twice as likely to report abuse, even though far fewer had direct knowledge of the abuse.