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1.
From individual longitudinal data for a full cohort of first-entering students who embarked on short programs in Spain and were observed over a 7-year period ending in 2003, we analyze the probability that an individual will drop out, transfer, or graduate from a university school program. The statistical analysis is carried out in a competing-risks framework. We find that the system’s internal efficiency is low, with dropout and completion rates averaging 50 and 36%, respectively. However, we find considerable variability in the probabilities of withdrawal, transfer, and graduation among students. In this regard, our results show that preenrollment academic ability, age at enrollment, family characteristics, and secondary educational experience are major influences on student progress.  相似文献   

2.
Concept inventories are often used to assess current student understanding although conceptual change models are problematic. Due to controversies with conceptual change models and the realities of student assessment, it is important that concept inventories are evaluated using a variety of theoretical models to improve quality. This study used a modified item response theory model to determine university nonmajor biology students’ levels of understanding of natural selection (n = 1,192). Using Conceptual Inventory of Natural Selection, we have reported how we applied Bock’s modified nominal item response theory model and the distracter test item analysis. We found that the use of this model can define student levels of understanding and identify problematic distracters.  相似文献   

3.
Educationalists are well able to find fault with rankings on numerous grounds and may reject them outright. However, given that they are here to stay, we could also try to improve them wherever possible. All currently published university rankings combine various measures to produce an overall score using an additive approach. The individual measures are first normalized to make the figures ‘comparable’ before they are combined. Various normalization procedures exist but, unfortunately, they lead to different results when applied to the same data: hence the compiler’s choice of normalization actually affects the order in which universities are ranked. Other difficulties associated with the additive approach include differing treatments of the student to staff ratio, and unexpected rank reversals associated with the removal or inclusion of institutions. We show that a multiplicative approach to aggregation overcomes all of these difficulties. It also provides a transparent interpretation for the weights. The proposed approach is very general and can be applied to many other types of ranking problem.  相似文献   

4.
Recent legislative and local school accountability efforts have placed a premium on the collection, analysis, and use of student assessment data for educational improvement. As a result, schools have sought assessments that will provide additional information about student performance. In response, a burgeoning boon industry formed—formative educational assessment systems. In this study we describe how districts search for and acquire formative assessment systems to meet their needs. We focus on three school districts that adopted three different formative assessment systems. Our findings suggest the fit between a system’s characteristics and a school district’s intended use is the most important consideration in instituting a successful formative assessment system that will have a positive impact on teacher education and student learning.  相似文献   

5.
Instruments for evaluating the implementation of inquiry science in K-12 classrooms are necessary if evaluators and researchers are to know the extent to which programs are implemented as intended and the extent to which inquiry science teaching accounts for student learning. For evaluators and researchers to be confident about the quality of these instruments, information about their development and validation—particularly about teacher self-report instruments—must be available. In this article, we present the Inquiry Science Implementation Scale, describe the instrument’s development and the results of analyses of the validity and reliability of data collected with it, and discuss the possible uses of the instrument.  相似文献   

6.
Success in college is not simply a matter of students demonstrating academic ability. In addition, students must master the “college student” role in order to understand instructors’ expectations and apply their academic skills effectively to those expectations. This article uses data from focus groups to examine the fit between university faculty members’ expectations and students’ understanding of those expectations. Parallel discussions among groups of faculty and groups of students highlight important differences regarding issues of time management and specific aspects of coursework. We find definite incongruities between faculty and student perspectives and identify differences between traditional and first-generation college students. We argue that variations in cultural capital, based on parents’ educational experiences, correspond to important differences in each group’s mastery of the student role and, thus, their ability to respond to faculty expectations. The conclusion discusses the theoretical and practical implications of considering role mastery a form of cultural capital.  相似文献   

7.
There is, no doubt, untapped potential in using technological tools to enhance the understanding of science concepts. This study examines the potential by observing 7th and 8th grade middle school students’ (n = 23) use of portable data collection devices in a nine-week elective class, Exploring Technologies. Students’ use of the data collection devices and subsequent interactions were traced through audiocassette and videocassette recordings, field notes, and student artifacts. The culminating activity for the course was a scientific investigation that required students to use the technologies to answer student-selected research questions. To illustrate the use of technology as a mediatory tool, an inquiry investigation of three student groups is described. In examining the three groups of middle school students the researchers encountered specific evidence of technology maximizing students’ science learning. The students were able to use the portable data collection devices in their investigations as they discussed scientific ideas related to temperature and heat. The study’s findings indicated that the three student groups were able to use the tools to conduct scientific inquiry and engage in scientific discourse. Further research on instructional approaches that allow students to develop expertise by using technology as tools to construct knowledge about complex phenomena is encouraged.  相似文献   

8.
Previous studies with university students have shown that resource interdependence during cooperative dyadic work on texts produces two different dynamics in student interaction and learning. Working on complementary information produces positive interactions, but a good quality of information transmission is needed to foster student learning. Working on identical information produces a confrontation of viewpoints but also encourages a threatening social comparison of competence, which can be detrimental for learning. The aim of present study is to test the moderating role of a partner’s competence in two peer-learning methods by manipulating a partner’s competence through a confederate. Results indicate that a partner’s competence is beneficial when students work on complementary information while it is detrimental when students work on identical information.  相似文献   

9.
The form and function(s) of doctoral education continue to be a subject of much debate by stakeholders internal and external to the university. Notable concerns driving this debate derive from a seemingly discursive array of factors including increasing student numbers, increased understanding of the economic value of doctoral graduates, capitalisation of the academic market and a focus on allocating funding using ostensibly narrow, arbitrary measures of ‘program success’ such as completion rates/time to completion, all framed by a wider debate regarding precisely what constitutes valid knowledge in contemporary society. Within the university, the biomedical sciences are one area of scholarship undergoing rapid change in this respect. One of the salient outcomes of these internal and external dialogues is the apparent transition of biomedical doctoral education towards a ‘training model’ that places increasing emphasis on rapid completion and the generation of ‘industry ready graduates’; a transition that is, potentially, occurring at the expense of the edifying and transformative aspects of biomedical doctoral education. Focusing on the effects of academic capitalisation, this paper draws on data from Australia and Europe to examine the drivers and potential effect(s) of this shift on contemporary doctoral education in the biomedical sciences. This paper acknowledges the potential benefit of contemporary developments whilst simultaneously concluding that by progressing too far towards a quantitatively assessed, industry-driven training model we risk eliminating the intellectual and societal transforming aspects of biomedical doctoral education that make graduates increasingly valuable to our economy and, just as importantly, to our society as a whole.  相似文献   

10.
In this article, we investigate the relationship between preservice teachers’ inquiry experience and their capacity to reflect on the challenges involved in implementing inquiry into classrooms. For data, we draw on the personal narratives of preservice science teachers enrolled in science instruction courses. Preservice teachers with extensive inquiry experiences perceive implementation challenges principally in terms of teaching and student learning. This contrasts with the perceptions of preservice teachers with limited inquiry experience for whom the main concerns relate to the negative perceptions of others, time, the curriculum, and materials. By identifying these perceptions, it may be possible to develop courses that assist limited and moderate-experience preservice teachers’ move toward the perceptions of their more inquiry experienced colleagues.  相似文献   

11.
Tools are needed to track the elements of students’ successful engagement in inquiry. The McGill Strategic Demands of Inquiry Questionnaire (MSDIQ) is a 79-item, criterion-referenced, learner-focused questionnaire anchored in Sch?n’s model and related models of self-regulated learning. The MSDIQ addresses three phases of inquiry engagement—planning, enactment, reflection—perceived as important by teachers, parents, and students before or after inquiry participation. Internal consistency and validity evidence was obtained from 205 university students with different inquiry backgrounds: teacher education years 1 and 4, continuing teacher education, and honors psychology. Separate confirmatory factor analyses of planning, enactment, and reflection generated 14 intercorrelated factors congruent with definitions of inquiry instruction and supported the hypothesized structure underlying the MSDIQ as a reliable and valid instrument for measuring inquiry engagement and valuing its building blocks.  相似文献   

12.
The concept of “professional learning community” (PLC) has been suggested as a tool to improve teachers’ professional competency and students’ learning outcomes since the mid-1990s. In such a community, teachers can share their individual practices with the aim of searching for “good practice” based on the outcome of collective inquiry. Such a learning process will result in a reculturing of the school community by reshaping the existing values and cultures and resolving problems such as teacher isolation and individualism. China already has a long tradition of teachers working and learning collaboratively, so investigating collaborative efforts in this context may provide a view of how to contextualize professional development of teachers in schools. This study attempts to access teachers’ lenses in order to explore their views on the effects of subject-based professional learning activities. This also helps to explain how teachers work and openly share their practices aiming at improving their professional competency and student learning outcomes within their communities. Also, factors influencing the sustainability of a professional learning community will be discussed.  相似文献   

13.
In the context of the emphasis on inquiry teaching in science education, this study looks into how pre-service elementary teachers understand and practise science inquiry teaching during field experience. By examining inquiry lesson preparation, practice, and reflections of pre-service elementary teachers, we attempt to understand the difficulties they encounter and what could result from those difficulties in their practice. A total of 16 seniors (fourth-year students) in an elementary teacher education program participated in this study. In our findings, we highlight three difficulties ‘on the lesson’ that are related to teaching practices that were missing in the classrooms: (1) developing children’s own ideas and curiosity, (2) guiding children in designing valid experiments for their hypotheses, (3) scaffolding children’s data interpretation and discussion and another three difficulties ‘under the lesson’ that are related to problems with the pre-service teachers’ conceptualization of the task: (4) tension between guided and open inquiry, (5) incomplete understanding of hypothesis, and (6) lack of confidence in science content knowledge. Based on these findings, we discuss how these difficulties are complexly related in the pre-service teachers’ understandings and action. Several suggestions for science teacher education for inquiry teaching, especially hypothesis-based inquiry teaching, are then explored.  相似文献   

14.
This paper explores the student teachers’ perceptions about the most positive aspects of the supervision provided during their teaching practice. The authors developed a study based on the reflections of a group of 224 student teachers about their cooperating teacher’s and university supervisor’s performance. Student teacher’s appraisals regarding their supervisors, the learning and progress perceived as resulting from their co-working with more experienced teachers, and the emotional aspects of this relationship are among the main aspects analysed in the study. Results show the importance attributed to the supervisors’ personal features and to the quality of the interactions established with their student teachers. These aspects were clearly regarded as an essential aspect of the student teachers’ emotional balance and resistance to the difficulties emerged during their entrance in the teaching profession. Some differences were perceived in terms of the students teachers’ evaluations regarding the moment of the practicum (beginning versus end) and the type of supervisor (university versus school). Some enquiry and suggestions for future research emerge as final contributions.  相似文献   

15.
School science systems tend to emphasize teaching and learning about achievements of science (such as laws and theories) at the expense of providing students with opportunities to develop realistic conceptions about science and science inquiry and expertise they could use to conduct their own science inquiry projects. Among reasons for such an emphasis, teachers’ lack of experiences with realistic science inquiry appears to be particularly problematic. Accordingly, we engaged student-teachers in a university-based course that attempted to balance instruction about science and science inquiry with student-teachers’ own theorization about science and science inquiry. Qualitative data collected mainly from nine student-teachers in four focus groups indicate that these student-teachers’ motivation for promoting student-led science inquiry projects in schools significantly increased by the end of the course. Analyses suggest that this outcome was influenced by changes in their conceptions about the nature of science, changes in how they associated science inquiry with student learning, and the inductive-deductive dialectic immersion that was built into their pre-service methods course. Implications of these findings for science teacher education are explored in this paper.  相似文献   

16.
A large sample of international students attending an Australian metropolitan university provided data concerning use of university health and counselling services—their perceived need for help, resultant help-seeking, satisfaction with help given, explanations for not seeking help when in need, and variables that predicted help-seeking. Using as criterion the individual’s perceived need for help, we found students were under-utilizing both health and counselling services. Those who did seek help evaluated their experiences positively. The gap between need and action is a concern. Students explained failure to act in terms of insufficient seriousness of problems, lack of information about services and, to a lesser extent, doubts and discomfort about the services. Contrary to views commonly expressed in the literature, student perceptions and responses showed few differences based on cultural background. Within-person variables played a stronger role than culture in accounting for students’ help-seeking decisions.  相似文献   

17.
This study uses fixed-effects panel data techniques to estimate the elasticity of community college enrollment demand relative to local unemployment rates. The findings suggest that community college enrollment demand is counter-cyclical to changes in the labor market, as enrollments rise during periods of weak economic conditions. Using national data for the years 1990 through 2009, we find that a one percentage-point change in unemployment is associated with 1.1–3.3 % increases in enrollment demand. We disaggregate the analysis by total full-time and part-time enrollment, concluding that high levels of unemployment are also associated with greater demand for full-time attendance. Additionally, enrollments are slightly more responsive to unemployment in metropolitan (rather than micropolitan) areas. Informed by enrollment demand theory, our analysis provides an update to the “unemployment elasticity” literature and could aid in current enrollment planning, economic development, and public policy efforts to educate students on the margin between college and work.  相似文献   

18.
This position paper proposes the enhancement of teacher and student learning in science classrooms by tapping the enormous potential of information communication and technologies (ICTs) as cognitive tools for engaging students in scientific inquiry. This paper serves to challenge teacher-held assumptions about students learning science ‘from technology’ with a framework and examples of students learning science ‘with technology’. Whereas a high percentage of students are finding their way in using ICTs outside of school, for the most part they currently are not doing so inside of school in ways that they find meaningful and relevant to their lives. Instead, the pedagogical approaches that are most often experienced are out-of-step with how students use ICTs outside of schools and are not supportive of learning framed by constructivism. Here we describe a theoretical and pedagogical foundation for better connecting the two worlds of students’ lives: life in school and life outside of school. This position paper is in response to the changing landscape of students’ lives. The position is transformative in nature because it proposes the use of cyber-enabled resources for cultivating and leveraging students new literacy skills by learning ‘with technology’ to enhance science learning.  相似文献   

19.
20.
In making admission decisions, selective colleges make choices that allow them to improve the quality of the college. Desired student attributes include leadership, noteworthy achievements and talents, and cultural and geographical diversity, as well as high academic performance. Since few applicants dominate in all these attributes, a delicate balancing act must be forged.In this study we construct probability models for college admissions and student enrollment. We have chosen a selective liberal arts college as a case study over a four-year period. In the first stage we estimate the probability of acceptance to the college for individual applicants. The logit model includes a number of academic factors as well as nonacademic components. In the second stage we estimate the probability of enrollment for an accepted student.The first stage results show that the actual outcome of the admissions decision does match the broader institutional goals of the college. However, in the second stage, the discrepancy between the acceptance and enrollment decisions frustrates the efforts of the institution to achieve its diversity goals and highlights the difficulty that admission officers have in targeting their efforts toward special groups of applicants.  相似文献   

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