This article presents one university's approach to supplementing traditional doctoral research training with a two-semester teaching practicum. The practicum is designed to help students develop and hone pedagogical and other teaching skills, while gaining insight into academic career acumen. It consists of two, one-hour courses taken by students during each of the first two semesters of their doctoral program. In the first semester, weekly teaching seminars are accompanied by an apprenticeship activity in which the students attend classes of faculty mentors throughout the term, teaching one of those classes toward the end of the term. In the second semester, the doctoral students are mentored through their first whole-semester teaching experience, sharing issues from that experience and sharpening skills in the weekly seminar discussions. The article provides details of the practicum and implementation guidance intended to encourage other Ph.D. programs to embrace the general approach we describe, adapting the specifics to reflect the resources and aspirations of their programs.

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Among the many differences between asynchronous interactions and traditional classroom communication, the most critical differences involve those that may affect a student’s ability to learn. The efficacy of courses in facilitating instruction and learning is a key concern of all educators involved in or contemplating conducting such courses. This paper explores the impact on learning in asynchronous internet courses compared to learning in a traditional classroom setting. Specifically, the study examines student perceptions of the effectiveness of an active-learning, asynchronous internet course relative to that of a traditional classroom-based course. Students were asked to compare effectiveness on a variety of dimensions. The study yields results consistent with previous research related to learning outcomes along several measures, particularly with regard to students’ positive attitudes about their learning in an online computer course. However, the findings here offer new evidence that learning can also be enhanced with an active learning format in an online course.

The purpose of this study is to examine mentoring as an important resource in coping with rapid organizational change during the merger of two international accounting firms. Shortly after their merger, 28 pairs of management advisory services (MAS) professionals, i.e., protégés and their mentors, within the two merged firms were interviewed concerning the role mentoring played as an adaptive mechanism in dealing with changes caused by the merger. Both firms examined in the study used a formal mentoring system. In the study, we examined three broad areas. First, whether or not there had been a shift in the type of mentoring relationships from career development to the psycho‐social function in order to deal with the emotional trauma and stress of changes created by the merger, and how extensive this shift had been across the different levels of the merged firm. Second, what the emphasis was between the informal mentoring and formal mentoring within the merged firm, and how useful the participants found the two in dealing with the higher level of uncertainty in the work environment. In addition, a third research area emerged during the interview process. Differences in the communication structure of the two former firms appeared to be related to how well the participants were able to deal with changes caused by the merger and to affect the type of mentoring relationships they preferred.

This article reports the results of tests used to detect shifts in market model parameters during bull and bear market conditions. The evidence indicates that the parameters exhibit nonstationarity during market advances and market declines for certain predetermined stock groups. Specifically, the parameters of stocks in high-risk and low-risk classifications behave as if they are affected by the alternating forces of bull and bear markets.