Mark Burgin
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
History can teach people a lot. Thus, it is necessary to teach history, and a teacher comes to the natural question how to use history in teaching. It is fairly clear how to do this when history itself is the subject of teaching or for such disciplines as political sciences, economics, art, humanities, and law. But what about science and mathematics? The general approach to these disciplines is that they give objective knowledge that is independent from the people who have obtained this knowledge as well as from the ways of its acquisition. Only the result, scientific knowledge itself, is important. As a consequence, this may give birth to the opinion that history is unnecessary, and perhaps even harmful, when mathematics or science is taught. In this article, it is demonstrated that this is not the case. When history is used properly, it is very useful in any course of mathematics or a scientific discipline (such as physics, chemistry, and biology). At the same time, improper utilization of history might be misleading and sometimes deleterious for the students. A technique for using history in teaching mathematics and science also is presented.
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| A. Elaine Eikner Southwest Texas State University |
| Hassan Hefzi California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
| G. William Glezen University of Arkansas |
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) requirement that prospective information be disclosed in Managements' Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) assumes that such information is useful to annual report users. This article tests that assumption, and also investigates whether the usefulness of prospective information increased after the SEC issued an interpretive release (Financial Reporting Release, FRR-36) encouraging fuller disclosure. Cumulative abnormal returns were regressed on a disclosure index (a measure of usefulness) developed from a survey of Chartered Financial Analysts. Change in cash flows, size, exchange, and unexpected earnings were controlled. The significant association found between abnormal security returns and the disclosure index suggests that disclosures of prospective information in MD&A are useful. Change in cash flows was significant in one model, suggesting that the prospective disclosures have incremental information content over change in cash flows. Also, the stronger association in the time period after FRR-36 suggests that it had its intended effect of improving the usefulness of prospective information in MD&A. Other studies have noted the increase in number of disclosures as a result of FRR-36. However, this study is the first to document that the disclosures are useful.
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Jim Grizzell
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
The health of students, and its relationship to academic performance, is at the core of a university's mission. It has only been in recent years that university health personnel have studied the reasons students say they have done poorly in academics. These reasons are different from the health issues traditionally addressed by university health services. This is a new way of looking at competitive success. It considers re-engineering the utilization of resources that link university health services to the university mission. The American College Health Association and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services are beginning to assess and set objectives. They urge core activities that provide more comprehensive health education and wellness programs to reduce health issues that hinder achievement of the university mission. This paper reports the outcomes of pilot studies of student reasons for poor academic performance, and discusses the implication of the outcomes as new performance measures.
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| Frederick J. Baker California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
| Rosalie Giacchino-Baker California State University, San Bernardino |
"I wouldn't hire someone based on one quarter's student
teaching experience. I want to look at them for a longer period
of time. Going overseas to teach is an artificial situation. How
is that going to help you handle a classroom in California?"
"Travel groups are fun but I doubt if you will learn much
you can use." "Why would you want to leave the United
States? Our schools are better than you will see anywhere
else."
Comments like these are spoken frequently by administrators across the United States. They are common reactions to teacher education programs that offer university student teaching experiences in other countries. During a job interview, these statements can come as quite a shock to a candidate. How much validity is there in these types of comments? Should universities be involved in this kind of process? What justification can we have for involving ourselves in places as diverse as Mexico and Malaysia?
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| Jeanne H. Yamamura University of Nevada, Reno |
| Rose Marie Martin California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
| Walter M. Campbell II University of North Alabama |
| Sharon N. Campbell University of North Alabama |
| Albert H. Frakes Washington State University |
In 1986, the Audit Education Committee of the Audit Section of the world's foremost accounting scholarly association - the American Accounting Association - concluded that knowledge of business systems was important to the study of auditing but best acquired prior to taking auditing. Although the close relationship between the accounting information systems (AIS) and auditing courses has been recognized, the linkage has not been empirically confirmed. This study examines the relationship between the AIS course and the auditing course. The value of AIS performance in modeling subsequent performance in auditing was tested and confirmed in two different universities having similar curricula but distinctly different student populations. The AIS grade was found to be a highly significant predictor of subsequent performance in the auditing course for students at both universities, even after considering more general determinants of academic performance such as cumulative GPA and selected demographic variables.
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Frank Glaser
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
This article is a continuation of a previous work which dealt with the inversion of a Sierpinski triangle with respect to a hyperpolar circle. In this article, the same transformation of inversion is applied to a hyperpolar Sierpinski carpet placed in an advantageous position with respect to the hyperpolar circle of inversion. This is done in order to obtain a new fractal which also has the property of universality for all compact one-dimensional curves (i.e. the same property enjoyed by both the Sierpinski carpet and its hyperpolar image).
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William Kratt
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
This pilot study will examine whether or not there is significant variation in acceptance of pre-ascribed "American Values" based on a person's racial or ethnic background. More specifically, it will assess the degree to which white students adhere to these values in comparison to students of color. In addition it will assess the degree to which people emphasize or de-emphasize their racial and ethnic experience as part of their identity.
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Karen Langlois
California State Polytechnic University Pomona
In the cartoon strip of the same name, Dilbert, an engineer, contends with the complexities and challenges of technological change and corporate restructuring. The cartoon, a satire on modern corporate culture, criticizes the pervasive influence of the business efficiency movement known as Total Quality Management. The issue of productivity in the post-modern age holds particular relevance for educators at a time when institutions of higher learning seek to restructure themselves in the image of the modern corporation.
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| Olga Felix California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
| R. Richard Sabo California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
In spite of the changes in our society to improve the conditions for agricultural workers through immigration legislation, control of pesticides, and union pressure for social justice, there is evidence to suggest that fundamental problems still exist for those who work in the fields. There are still crops that need human labor to harvest them. The farm workers are still being exploited with low pay along with hazardous and oppressive work conditions to provide us with the fruits and vegetables that we demand. The employers claim that their reliance on immigrant labor is because they cannot hire enough domestic or legal labor to do the work. Further, they argue that domestic workers do not want to accept this kind of work.
This article discusses only two examples of how the conditions of the California farm workers have not changed much. Curtailing the employment of unauthorized or illegal workers in agriculture may alleviate many of the problems but enforcement of the immigration laws, California Department of Pesticide Regulations, and California farm labor laws, need more attention if there is ever going to be a fundamental improvement in the agricultural workers' wages and conditions of employment.
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Richard D. Hulme
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Students have very definite but decidedly different ways of using their minds. These differences in thinking are also though to be related to different learning preferences as well as how individuals approach decision making concerning ethical and international matters. This paper examines the possible linkages between students' ethical and cultural values and Raudsepp's problem solving styles model of information gathering and processing. The value systems considered are the four ethical systems identified by Hitt and the cultural value dimensions outlined by Hofstede. To better educate diverse groups of students, a broader, more balanced approach is recommended to general course design.
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Thomas H. Patten, Jr.
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Together with such factors as training required, degree of initiative, responsibility for product or service, supervision of others, safety, working conditions and other considerations weighed in the evaluation of jobs, is the possibility of assessing relative job stress. But we seldom see stress per se considered in the design of job evaluation plans. There have been myriad conceptual and measurement problems involved in explicating what stress is. Thus stress has not been ignored in the social sciences and business. Moreover, it is possible to build ad hoc job stress scales; and there is good reason for companies and agencies to experiment with them. A way of exploration and measurement of perceived stress in the job is proposed and suggested as a worthwhile beginning for interested scholars, companies, agencies and other work organizations. Such endeavors would also generate studies of individual job performance in organizations and their connection with occupational stress research.
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| Mahmoud Abu-Raddaha Ernst & Young Ramallah, West Bank |
| William Schneider The Maastricht School of Management, Netherlands |
| Rick Hayes California State University, Los Angeles |
| John Karayan California State Polytechnic University, Pomona |
Accountants worldwide inhabit a Tower of Babel. If accounting is the practical language of economics - that is, the way stories about contracts and exchange activities are told - a uniform set of syntax and grammar is required to ensure that high quality communication occurs. This happens for organizations operating within a single country, because they issue financial statements in accordance with that country's Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). However, despite the marked integration of the world's economy in recent years, GAAP continues to vary substantially from country to country. This can cause a multinational organization to report dramatically different accounting results to stakeholders in different countries simply because the countries in which the organization operates have differing financial accounting rules. This article proposes a comprehensive conceptual model as a basis for the development of Global GAAP.
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