Hochschuldidaktische Forschung zur Lehrqualit?t und Lernwirksamkeit

The following article gives an overview on the research on teaching effectiveness and teaching quality. It starts with a glance back to the early programmatic demands formulated in the 1970s concerning teaching in higher education and sketches the development towards the current research strands. A special focus will be given to theoretical and methodological aspects of researching quality of teaching in higher education. We then will draw upon examples of state-of-the-art research in the respective construct. These examples can be clustered into (a) evaluation of teaching quality and measurement of key competency acquisition, (b) research on the efficacy of inquiry-based vs. lecture-based teaching and (c) action research into teaching and learning in higher education     

An Investigation into the Relationship between Students’ Conceptions of the Particulate Nature of Matter and their Understanding of Chemical Bonding

A thorough understanding of chemical bonding requires familiarity with the particulate nature of matter. In this study, a two‐tier multiple‐choice diagnostic instrument consisting of ten items (five items involving each of the two concepts) was developed to assess students’ understanding of the particulate nature of matter and chemical bonding so as to identify possible associations between students’ understandings of the two concepts. The instrument was administered to 260 Grades 9 and 10 students (15–16 years old) from a secondary school in Singapore. Analysis of students’ responses revealed several alternative conceptions about the two concepts. In addition, analysis of six pairs of items suggested that students’ limited understanding of the particulate nature of matter influenced their understanding of chemical bonding. The findings provide useful information for challenging students’ alternative conceptions about the particulate nature of matter during classroom instruction in order to enable them to achieve better understanding of chemical bonding.     

Relationship between affect and achievement in science and mathematics in Malaysia and Singapore

Background : The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assesses the quality of the teaching and learning of science and mathematics among Grades 4 and 8 students across participating countries.

Purpose : This study explored the relationship between positive affect towards science and mathematics and achievement in science and mathematics among Malaysian and Singaporean Grade 8 students.

Sample : In total, 4466 Malaysia students and 4599 Singaporean students from Grade 8 who participated in TIMSS 2007 were involved in this study.

Design and method : Students’ achievement scores on eight items in the survey instrument that were reported in TIMSS 2007 were used as the dependent variable in the analysis. Students’ scores on four items in the TIMSS 2007 survey instrument pertaining to students’ affect towards science and mathematics together with students’ gender, language spoken at home and parental education were used as the independent variables.

Results : Positive affect towards science and mathematics indicated statistically significant predictive effects on achievement in the two subjects for both Malaysian and Singaporean Grade 8 students. There were statistically significant predictive effects on mathematics achievement for the students’ gender, language spoken at home and parental education for both Malaysian and Singaporean students, with R ² = 0.18 and 0.21, respectively. However, only parental education showed statistically significant predictive effects on science achievement for both countries. For Singapore, language spoken at home also demonstrated statistically significant predictive effects on science achievement, whereas gender did not. For Malaysia, neither gender nor language spoken at home had statistically significant predictive effects on science achievement.

Conclusions : It is important for educators to consider implementing self-concept enhancement intervention programmes by incorporating ‘affect’ components of academic self-concept in order to develop students’ talents and promote academic excellence in science and mathematics.     

Assessment of electrochemical concepts: a comparative study involving senior high-school students in Indonesia and Japan

This study investigated Indonesian and Japanese senior high-school students’ understanding of electrochemistry concepts.

Sample

The questionnaire was administered to 244 Indonesian and 189 Japanese public senior high-school students.

Design and methods

An 18-item multiple-choice questionnaire relating to five conceptual categories (reactions occurring during electrolysis, differences between electrolytic and voltaic cells, movement of ions in voltaic cells, poles in voltaic cells, voltaic cell reactions) was administered.

Results

The findings of this study show that difficulties and alternative conceptions previously reported in the literature are held equally by students from a developing and developed country, Indonesian and Japan respectively.

Conclusions

Collectively, the findings suggest that students’ understanding of electrochemistry concepts is relatively weak. Students from both samples shared common difficulties and displayed several alternative conceptions dealing with electrolysis, electricity flow, the voltaic cell and the electrode reactions. Not surprisingly, the students displayed limited consistency in understanding of the concepts in the five categories. This study has implications for teaching and learning, particularly in classroom discussions using models and computer animations in order to reinforce understanding at the sub-microscopic level.     

Public perceptions of teachers’ status in Flanders

Schools have increasingly been targeted as appropriate sites for mental health promotion and teachers are considered well placed to identify issues concerning students’ social and emotional well-being. Whilst teachers are now expected to be responsive to a wide range of student needs and circumstances, they receive little in their pre-service and subsequent teacher education to adequately prepare them for such realities. This paper reports the findings of a study that investigated teacher perspectives on student mental health and mental health education, including their sense of self-efficacy in relation to promoting and supporting children’s mental well-being in schools. These findings highlight a complex interplay between teachers’ constructions of ‘mental health’, the importance they place on mental health promotion in schools, issues of teacher confidence, role identity conflict and school culture, as well as teachers’ own sense of mental well-being. The discussion signals a need to pay close attention to the assumptions, values, beliefs and attitudes of teachers in relation to children’s mental health since these are integral to their confidence and skill in supporting children’s social and emotional well-being.     

Moving out of their comfort zones: enhancing teaching practice in transnational education

This paper investigates the development of teaching practice of the multinational staff delivering UK programmes in a higher education institution in Oman hosting these programmes. It presents a tool to evaluate the teaching practice, and points to those elements of an academic development framework that were found to be most useful in supporting staff in moving towards a student-centred, learning-focused teaching approach. The majority of the lecturers made this shift. We therefore conclude by arguing for long-term CPD aimed at enhancing teaching quality to be part and parcel of a partnership.     

Personal factors and personal information activities behaviors of faculty in selected universities in Ghana

This study examined how demographic characteristics of faculty influence their personal information activities behaviors, namely information creation, information organization, and information storage. Data was collected from a sample of 235 faculty in six universities in Ghana using a questionnaire. Age, gender, rank and university of affiliation predicted personal information activities behaviors in different directions and with different magnitudes. Gender made a difference in information organization and information storage while age made a difference in respect of information creation and information organization only. Faculty ages 4049 years created information the most, followed by those above 50 years. Males stored information more than females. Rank made a difference in information creation, organization and storage, but university of affiliation made a difference in information creation and information storage, and not information organization. It is common among information system designers and managers to implement information management systems without considering the differential influence of personal variables on human information behaviors. This omission denies information users adequate access and maximum use of the information in their information space. Institutional leaders and PIM systems designers should consider demographic and other personal factors of faculty in information literacy programs. Profiling of users' personal characteristics when designing personal information management systems will enhance maximum access and utilisation of personal information.     

The socio‐political significance of changes to the vocational education system in Germany

This paper explores the effects on social inequality in Germany of ongoing changes to the employment system and, thus, vocational education. Results based on an examination of the literature indicate that students from increasingly middle‐class backgrounds with higher levels of general, rather than vocational, educational attainment are winning the competition for ever‐fewer apprenticeships. Progress for women in education is accompanied by relative declines in men’s performance on high school exit examinations and does not translate into success in the employment system. Employers are abandoning the corporate‐state organization of vocational education. The paper concludes that school degrees are increasingly important for later career opportunities. As a result, the educational system is increasingly stratified, contributing to social inequality in Germany.     

Teacher education graduates’ entrance into the teaching profession: Development and test of a model

This study aims to advance insight into the relationship between teacher education and graduates’ intended and actual entrance into the teaching profession. Moreover, it indicates how this relationship varies between teacher training for primary education (i.e., programs for class teachers-to-be) and teacher training for secondary education (i.e., programs for subject teachers-to-be). A hypothetical model of graduates’ entrance into the teaching profession comprising empirically grounded variables was developed. Besides teacher education related variables, other factors (e.g., motivation and labour market) were included. Data for this study were collected based on a sample of 301 teacher education graduates. Logistic regression analysis shows that intention to enter teaching is a valid predictor of actual entrance. Path analysis was applied to test the hypothetical pattern of (inter)relationships between the variables. For graduates from teacher training for pre-school and primary education, the path model accounts for 33% of the variance in intention to enter teaching. For teacher training for secondary education the explained amount of variance is 44%. Results are largely consistent across the two types of teacher training showing a small, although statistically significant, contribution of teacher education above other antecedents of graduates’ intention to enter teaching.