Assessing undergraduate education from graduating seniors' perspective: Peer institutions provide the context

Abstract

This paper presents a comparative research study as a model for assessing undergraduate education. This evaluation model used Factor Analysis to create scales, tested the reliability of these scales, and used Analysis of Variance to compare the primary institution with five types of comparable institutions. The value of this statistical/ methodological evaluation model was shown. Results are based on Class of 1998 survey responses from 244 graduating seniors at the primary institution and 1481 students at 39 peer institutions. Comparative analyses identified business courses, faculty, career preparation and impact on students' technological skill as strengths and students' knowledge of arts and foreign languages and campus social life as areas for improvement at the primary institution. Recommendations advocated publicising students' superior satisfaction with courses, faculty and career preparation; using these results as baseline data for future curriculum evaluation; and continuing efforts to enhance campus social life.     

Using the College Outcome Measures Project to measure college outcomes

This article describes one institution's use of the College Outcome Measures Project (COMP) in comparing outcomes for graduates of traditional and non-traditional programs. The study was designed to answer three questions concerning the use of COMP in evaluating traditional and non-traditional programs. Results obtained in a study of 96 University of Minnesota graduating seniors suggest greater potential usefulness in distinguishing among institutions than in comparing outcomes of programs within an institution. The authors conclude that as new approaches and instruments for measuring college outcomes become available, criteria for instrument selection need to be shared among individuals charged with conducting outcome studies.     

Concentrations and Methods

This study compared 248 graduating seniors with 301 beginning juniors at 10 bachelor's-level social work programs in the Northeast concerning their knowledge and attitudes regarding working with substance-abusing clients. Graduating seniors demonstrated modestly higher levels of knowledge and only slightly more positive attitudes toward working with this population. In a multivariate analysis, however, having taken a substance abuse course in college or training in settings outside of school improved students' attitudes in this regard. The students' ethnic/racial identity and personal exposure to substance abuse through family, close friends, or self also had a significant impact on their knowledge and attitudes.     

Can Observation Be Trained in School Children!

Abstract

This study was an attempt to determine the necessity for adherence to three multiple-choice item construction principles recommended by experts for teacher-made tests. These principles involved the location of the blank in the stem, the use of complete or incomplete sentence stems, and the presence or absence of extraneous (noncueing) material in the stem. Over 480 high school juniors and seniors viewed a film and completed one of six test forms about its content. It was found that the item construction violations had a slight effect on the test results for these high school juniors and seniors.     

Employment outcomes and satisfaction levels in graduates of the gerontology master's programs in Spain

ABSTRACT

There has been an increase in the aging population in developed countries. This has led to a need for trained people in the gerontological field. The most common academic way of specializing in this field in Spain is via a master's program. It is well known that investing in human capital increases knowledge, productivity, and the probability of getting a job. The question is if these kinds of educational programs are useful to provide real preparation for students and if the programs are useful for getting into the job market. We asked graduates to supply the answers. A survey was completed by 144 graduates from the Universities of Salamanca and Seville. Most graduates selected these master's programs to increase their probability of getting a job. A total of 64.6% reported that they had got a job, 38.8% of which got one in the first 2 years after graduating. A total of 55.6% felt that they had got a job thanks to having done the master's program. The usefulness of the acquired knowledge (47.9%) and social networks (28.8%) was seemingly high when getting a job. A high percentage of students (67%) found a job in this field after completing the master's program, and they got their first experience in a relatively short period after graduating. Investment in human capital is considered useful by graduates. The labor market is interested in highly qualified specialists. To have a postgraduate degree is still an advantage in getting a job, even after the 2008 economic crisis.     

Manufacturing and Production Technician Youth Apprenticeship Program: A Partnership

For 3 years, a university, a public secondary school, and a manufacturing company have been collaborating in offering an alternative education program to juniors and seniors who are not expected to graduate. The program takes place at the manufacturing site where students who are youth apprentices spend about 20 hr each week in work and another 20 hr in the classroom at the site-all at pay. After 2 successful calendar years in this competency-based program, youth apprentices earn a high school diploma. They are graduating from this program with useful skills, improved behavior, and academic qualifications for higher education. The Youth Apprenticeship (YA) Program meets the manufacturer's demand for skilled high school graduates in a rural area where such candidates are scarce. The program also provides the university with an alternative field site for preparing teachers and conducting research while rendering valuable services in areas of curriculum. Most important, the YA Program adds educational options for the apprentices themselves. The program has been recognized regionally and nationally for its design and effectiveness.     

Are Graduating Students Ready for Financial Aspects of Social Work Practice?

ABSTRACT

Graduating students must be prepared with knowledge and skills for the financial aspects of social work practice. This study examines graduating students’ attitudes and perceptions about client finances, as well as their financial knowledge. Internet survey results (n = 116) of BSW and MSW graduating students indicate that respondents (a) perceive a limited function for discussing client financial circumstances in practice, (b) understand the relevance, however, of client finances, (c) are unprepared to address this aspect, and (d) are supportive of integrating this content into required policy and practice courses. Teaching and curricular implications, along with programmatic recommendations, are included.     

Conflict from teamwork in project‐based collaborative learning

This study investigated the conflict occurring during teamwork among college seniors in project‐based collaborative learning in a capstone course. It found that conflict emerged with poor communication, task management, and work allocation; unequal treatments among classmates; egocentricity; a clash of values; and lack of responsibility and initiative. To prepare graduating students for the workforce, teachers should equip them with essential skills and foster students' appropriate work attitude to improve performance.     

Understanding Seniors' Perceptions and Stereotypes of Aging

Research suggests there is a connection between stereotypes, beliefs, and behavior in older individuals. To explore this link of stereotypes affecting beliefs and beliefs affecting behavior, we interviewed young (age 60 to 75) seniors in an effort to further examine these relationships. Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 seniors. Questions focused on the broad themes of aging stereotypes and attitudes towards active living. Responses from the participants indicated the variety of opinions and beliefs seniors hold about the aging process. Intriguing results emerged on the topic of role models. Participants often had someone in their lives who represented what it means to age successfully. Generally, this was an individual older than themselves, active, vigorous, and illustrative of the high quality of life that is possible into a very late age. In addition, these individuals provide a direct contrast to the most negative stereotypes of aging.     

Internet Based Activities (IBAs): Seniors' Experiences of the Conditions Required for the Performance of and the Influence of these Conditions on their Own Participation in Society

The digital gap is a threat to the participation of senior citizens in society, as a large proportion of seniors are not involved in Internet based activities (IBAs). To be able to overcome this disadvantage for seniors, there is a need to both learn more about the conditions that make seniors start performing IBAs and to be able to provide them with the most beneficial professional interventions. The aim of this study was to explore and describe seniors' experiences with IBAs. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 10 seniors (aged: 66–82 years) with a variety of experiences with IBAs, and the interviews were analyzed with the constant comparative method. The results reveal three categories that describe the experiences of the established performers, the new performers of IBAs in the process of starting out, and the nonperformers. The variations in performance were influenced by the meaning that the performance of IBAs had for the seniors. In addition, the seniors were affected by several other conditions—such as the support available in their environment, including access to knowledge—as this could encourage them to develop their performance. Basic aspects, such as having access to a computer and to the Internet had been arranged for the performers of IBAs. The different ways of performing IBAs, revealed in the three categories, influenced how the seniors viewed their opportunities to participate in society. The conclusion highlights the finding that professionals should consider a multitude of conditions when introducing seniors to the performance of meaningful IBAs.     

College students' views on criminal justice

We surveyed 683 college students to examine their attitudes toward the death penalty, other criminal sanctions, and the war on drugs. College seniors were consistently less likely than freshmen to hold punitive views; this suggests a “liberalizing” effect of the college experience. This liberalizing college effect on attitudes toward criminal justice was not apparent for criminal justice majors, however, particularly when criminal justice seniors' attitudes toward the death penalty were compared with those of freshmen in criminal justice. The views of criminal justice majors overall did not differ appreciably from other students' views. We found no support for the expectation that criminal justice majors with experience in criminal justice would express more conservative, more punitive views than would criminal justice majors in general.     

Piaget's Cognitive Psychology and its Consequences for the Teaching of Science

Summaries

English

Dr Kubli investigates several central statements from Piaget's cognitive psychology and their meaning for science eduction in that he attempts to clarify them. Among these statements are theses such as: ‘The basis of thought is action’ and ‘The development of thought is characterized by an ever more flexible equilibrium of the structure of the operative entirety’. These statements are supported by Piaget's experiments. In this article, interpretations which appear most suitable for use in deriving consequences for science education are presented. Some characteristic levels of thinking in children are explained in terms of the child's difficulty to switch from a subjective egocentric assimilation of the material world to an objectively verifiable one. The conclusion derived from this is a general one: the communication of the teacher must be conducted as reversibly as possible by presenting in his teaching those of his own assimilation schemata which can be equilibrated by the pupils with the schemata already available to them.     

Scales for Measuring Results of Physics Teaching

ABSTRACT

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is an educational program that permits high school students to take introductory college-level courses and receive college credit by passing a standardized end-of-course exam. Data were obtained from a statewide database of 2 high school graduating cohorts (N = 90,044). We used a series of propensity score analyses and marginal mean weighting through stratification to examine the impact of the AP program on students' academic achievement as measured by ACT scores. Results indicate that merely enrolling in an AP course produces very little benefit for students. Students who take and pass the AP exam, however, obtain higher ACT scores, even after controlling for a wide variety of academic, socioeconomic, and demographic variables. The authors conclude the article by discussing aspects of the AP program that remain unanswered.     

Borrowing Norms for the Human Figure Drawing Test: How to validate this practice?

Too often tests are used with clients for whom the validity of the test has not been established. As a case in point we studied the use of the Human Figure Drawing (HFD) test with children living in Curaçao, a small island in the Caribbean. In this community no time and money are available for developing tests and establishing their validity and norms. We suggest that borrowing such information can be a relatively good, inexpensive alternative, provided that clinicians make the best of choices. This paper formulates three requirements, which should be met by the group of clients a clinician is working with. As an example we explored to what extent the requirements are being satisfied by 96 Curaçaoan Grade 4 school children. With regard to these children we conclude that clinicians using the HFD test can best use US representative frequency tables for scoring.     

The Primary Classification Test

ABSTRACT

The authors sought to better understand the relationship between students participating in the Advanced Placement (AP) program and subsequent performance on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT). Focusing on students graduating from U.S. public high schools in 2010, the authors used propensity scores to match junior year AP examinees in 3 subjects to similar students who did not take any AP exams in high school. Multilevel regression models with these matched samples demonstrate a mostly positive relationship between AP exam participation and senior year SAT performance, particularly for students who score a 3 or higher. Students who enter into the AP year with relatively lower initial achievement are predicted to perform slightly better on later SAT tests than students with similar initial achievement who do not participate in AP.     

The Image of a Teachers College as Seen by High-School Counselors

Abstract

Using national data, the author examined the influence of family and parenting variables on expectations regarding education. Demographic, family, and parenting variables were reported by adolescents and parents while the adolescents were seniors in high school, and educational expectations were reported by adolescents 2 years beyond high school. Socioeconomic status (SES) was most strongly related to educational expectations. Adolescents' perceptions of parents' personal involvement and parents' reports of their own behavior were both related to educational expectations. Also, both seemed to interact with SES. Variables quantifying the affective dimension of family relationships were only weakly related to educational expectations.     

Aging and social security system in Pakistan: policy challenges,opportunities, and role of China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this research is to highlight the aging and elderly care in Pakistan, a country considered the seventh most populous country in the world with an estimated population of 220 million people (citation, 2017). In 2013, Pakistan signed a MoU with China for 56 billion in US$ to create opportunities for the youngsters, but there was no story of opportunity included for the senior citizens. An attempt has been made to raise awareness of the plight of seniors to the Pakistan Government’s attention; however since there is no formal policy dedicated to elders from the Chinese mega MoU and political instability, only little has been accomplished to better the lives of older adults. Modernization has had a major impact on the life of older Pakistani, and not always a positive effect. This research focuses on the important issues that are making the lives of senior citizens more difficult. The issues include psychological factors, anxiety, physical issues, and environmental issues. The research concludes while many factors are making the lives of senior citizens problematic, seniors are still living a satisfied life because they are not depending on their children or others. Senior citizens demand and desire time with their children and grandchildren. Increases found in elders’ psychological problems are likely correlated with modernization. Unfortunately, the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and the mega project remain totally for the younger population with no economic prospects for elders to directly benefit. Thus, the question remains what will be the outcome for Pakistani seniors?     

An Analysis of Academic Reputation as Perceived by Consumers of Higher Education

ABSTRACT

A college's academic reputation (AR) plays a significant role in positioning the institution. Survey responses of college-bound high school seniors suggest that a majority of respondents view successful postgraduate careers as very important to the perception of AR and very likely to be attributed to a college with very good AR. A principle components factor analysis revealed three factors that describe the perception of AR (i.e., Academic Concerns, Campus Ethos, Practical Value). In a similar analysis three factors were found likely to be associated with very good AR (i.e., Curricular Concerns, Exclusivity, Career Preparation).     

Voices of senior rural men and women on falls and fall-related injuries: “If I fall outside and get hurt,what would I do?”

ABSTRACT

This qualitative study examined the falls and fall-related injury experiences of community-dwelling rural seniors. 42 senior men and women living in two rural areas in Saskatchewan, Canada were recruited, and in-depth interviews were conducted. Analysis revealed three main themes among responses: nature of falls and injuries, causes of falls and injuries, and consequences of falls and injuries. Men and women expressed a fear of falling, which led to activity limitations; however, women were more reflective on their potential to fall and showed an increased level of preparedness compared to men. The causes of falls included activities at the time of a fall, functional limitations, chronic diseases, and personal factors such as type shoes worn. While men and women downplayed the seriousness of their falls or injuries, indicating a level of hardiness, this trend was stronger among men. None of the participants discussed the role of health care professionals or the health care system in relation to fall risk and ways of preventing falls, despite reporting adaptations to prevent and deal with consequences of falls. Overall, these findings may allude to the scarcity of health care services provided in rural communities, highlighting a need to focus on falls prevention for community-dwelling rural seniors.     

Re-Educating Humankind: Globalizing the Curriculum and Teaching International Ethics for the New Century

Nations, cultures, languages - all are converging in this globalizing world of the early Twenty-First Century, giving individuals both a feeling of powerlessness and a sense of infinite possibilities. A new ethics of globalization is needed. The best way to create such an ethics is through education. The author proposes several means by which students at all levels of education can achieve global awareness on a personalized basis, in particular, through two university-level courses. These would be required, respectively, of entering university freshmen and of exiting graduating seniors, to be taught simultaneously in networks of higher education institutions all over the world. These courses would focus on global awareness and on the local solution of globally relevant problems. Much of the feasibility of the simultaneous global delivery of such courses would depend on the deft use of the Internet and, in general, of the information and communication technologies.