WHAT CONSTITUTES EFFECTIVE RESEARCH? A CASE STUDY

The aim of this study is to elicit from staff members and from postgraduate students their personal constructs of research effectiveness. Based on Kelly's Personal Construct Theory, the repertory grid technique was used to elicit, analyse, discuss, and negotiate individual and group constructs of research with the result of arriving at a greater group consensus and a clearer picture of shared criteria for research effectiveness.     

FACULTY ATTITUDES TOWARD INSTITUTIONAL COMPETITIVE STRATEGIES IN U.S. RESEARCH UNIVERSITIES

The present study aims at assessing faculty attitudes toward institutional competitive strategies in U.S. research universities and at exploring some of the correlates of these attitudes.

A stratified random sample of 40 U.S. research university departments, 10 each in physics, sociology, electrical engineering, and education was surveyed by means of a questionnaire.

The major findings of this study suggest that faculty members at research universities express non‐receptive attitudes toward university generic strategies, although, more productive,more satisfied and more committed faculty members are relatively more receptive toward university strategies than less productive, less satisfied and less committed faculty members.

The meaning and the implications of these findings are discussed.     

ICT and educational (dis)advantage: families,computers and contemporary social and educational inequalities

Because access to new technologies is unequally distributed, there has been considerable debate about the growing gap between the so‐called information‐rich and information‐poor. Such concerns have led to high‐profile information technology policy initiatives in many countries. In Australia, in an attempt to ‘redress the balance between the information rich and poor’ by providing ‘equal access to the World Wide Web’ (Virtual Communities, 2002 Virtual Communities (2002) About us. Available online at: http://www.virtualcommunities. com.au (accessed 18 August 2002)  [Google Scholar]), the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Virtual Communities (a computer/software distributor) and Primus (an Internet provider) in late 1999 formed an alliance to offer relatively inexpensive computer and Internet access to union members in order to make ‘technology affordable for all Australians’ (Virtual Communities, 2002 Virtual Communities (2002) About us. Available online at: http://www.virtualcommunities. com.au (accessed 18 August 2002)  [Google Scholar]). In this paper, we examine four families, one of which had long‐term Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) access, and three of which took advantage of the Virtual Communities offer to get home computer and Internet access for the first time. We examine their engagement with ICT and suggest that previously disadvantaged family members are not particularly advantaged by their access to ICT.     

RECOGNITION OF STUDIES,DIPLOMAS, AND DEGREES: THE YUGOSLAV EXPERIENCE

The differences, so far as Yugoslav legislation is concerned, between “equivalence” and “recognition” are mads clear, and the Yugoslav instances authorized to make decisions on questions of equivalence and recognition are stated and their procedures, briefly described. The 7 multilateral conventions and the 13 bilateral agreements on equivalence and recognition matters are listed. More is said about the various Yugoslav instances empowered to make decisions and to give Information on questions of equivalence and recognition.     

Two Mandarin readers in Taiwan: characteristics of children with higher and lower reading proficiency levels

This study investigated how two readers of Mandarin with differing reading‐proficiency skills interacted with a narrative passage, as well as what knowledge they brought to and made use of while reading the text. The perspectives of reading comprehension, transactional theory and social‐cognitive models of reading served as this study's theoretical framework. Two Sixth‐Grade participants were selected for inclusion through snowball sampling. The data in this study were obtained from interviews and think‐alouds. Qualitative analysis indicated that the skilled Mandarin reader's stance moved along the efferent/aesthetic continuum, while the less‐skilled Mandarin reader's was mainly efferent. The skilled reader employed strategies of inferencing, summarisation and synthesis during and after reading, while the less‐skilled reader applied bridging inferences, paraphrasing and repetition. The findings of this study corroborate previous findings that proficient readers employ more sophisticated approaches to reading than less‐proficient readers.     

汉英语言中的文化色彩

通过汉英两种语言文化的差异比较 ,说明在英语学习的过程中 ,了解英语民族文化有助于准确把握语言思维模式及交际准则     

Serbia and Montenegro: the catalytic effects of higher education

Brain drain has been a long‐lasting phenomenon. It existed in the former Yugoslavia, and was affected by various factors, from political through economic ones to the attractive offers for advanced studies and work in scientific institutions or firms in developed countries. Some ad‐hoc analyses were made concerning individual groups or periods, but there was no systematic monitoring and no complete and all‐inclusive data. It is however possible to draw a picture showing trends in the – mostly one‐way – movement towards highly developed countries.

Therefore, the current study has a mosaic character, which – we hope – shall throw some light and try to explain brain drain in the academic circles of Serbia and Montenegro (former SFRY). As the Republic of Serbia represents the largest component part (about 90 percent), most of the data is about Serbia.     

EFL teachers’ perceptions of English language policy at the elementary level in Taiwan

Due in large part to the trends towards economic globalization, English has become the most widely disseminated and ubiquitous international language. The purpose of the study was to investigate what Taiwan’s EFL teachers at the elementary level believe about the policy of English as a compulsory subject and how they perceive the benefits and obstacles of the policy’s implementation. Ten elementary English teachers in Tainan City and its suburban areas participated in this study. Data were collected through teachers’ interviews, classroom observation and document analysis. Results found that all ten teachers agreed with the policy for English as a compulsory subject at the elementary level. They observed both positive and negative sides of this top‐down policy. Classroom observation and interview data revealed that EFL teachers had to plan their English classes with the constraints on a large class of students with mixed levels of proficiency, limited teaching hours and resources. Parents’ expectations of and attitudes towards English learning also became an obstacle.     

Determining the level of inquiry in teachers' questions

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if an instrument, originally designed to classify levels of teachers' questions on the basis of logical operations, could be utilized to measure the level of inquiry present in a classroom discussion and to determine if the inquiry questioning behavior of the teacher influenced student achievement. The results of the study show that the modified classification scheme could accurately and reliably measure the inquiry level of teachers' classroom questions. The data also indicated that teachers who ask a greater proportion of high inquiry questions cause a greater change in students as measured by an achievement examination.