The Influences on Educational Management Learning

This paper draws on findings from a research study in which educational managers at different career stages were interviewed about their conceptions and experiences of educational‐management learning. The study highlighted the diverse and individual influences on the process of learning to become an educational manager and indicated that teachers acquire managerial expertise by a variety of means. The seven most common opportunities through which educational‐management learning was gained have been identified, and they are analysed from the point of view of the learner in terms of: (i) their relative importance to the learning process, (ii) how (and if) they affect practice or thinking, (iii) when (at what points in the learning curve) they are effective. This study suggested that the value and effectiveness of the different developmental processes may reflect some of the personal characteristics peculiar to the individual educational manager. These significant characteristics are also discussed.     

Job Satisfaction and Withdrawal Cognition among Preservice Teachers

This study attempts to survey the different levels of job satisfaction among 350 preservice teachers who had experienced their first teaching practicum at the end of their first year of training. Four scales for job satisfaction (perception of the work environment, intrinsic reward, career prospects and career commitment) and a scale for withdrawal cognition were administered to the preservice teachers. A study of their attitude profiles revealed that a high proportion of the preservice teachers experienced negative feelings about various aspects of career prospects, particularly, salary and career advancement. In the area of career commitment, nearly 37% of the trainees felt that the teaching profession was not always their ambition. Despite the less‐than‐expected commitment level and perception of career prospects, trainees had positive feelings for the work environment and intrinsic reward for the profession in many aspects. A multiple‐regression model fitted to the data gave the result that perception of career prospects and career commitment were highly significant predictors of withdrawal cognition.     

教师在职攻读教育硕士专业学位的学习成效及其影响因素研究

教育硕士专业学位是培养胜任基础教育教学和管理工作的高层次人才的专业性学位。本研究以737名正在攻读教育硕士专业学位的中小学教师为研究对象,系统探讨了教师在职攻读教育硕士专业学位的学习成效及其影响因素。研究结果表明,中小学教师在职攻读教育硕士专业学位的学习成效颇佳;中小学教师的自我导向学习准备度、职业承诺、专业成长动机和职业规划动机对其攻读教育硕士专业学位的学习成效具有影响作用。     

Adopting Web‐Based Learning and Teaching: A case study in higher education

Most universities worldwide are becoming distance education providers through adopting web‐based learning and teaching via the introduction of learning management systems that enable them to open their courses to both on‐ and off‐campus students. Whether this is an effective introduction depends on factors that enable and impede the adoption of such systems and their related pedagogical strategies. This study examines such factors related to adopting a learning management system in a large multicampus urban Australian university. The research method used case study approaches and purposively selected the sample consisting of innovative teaching academics from across the university, who used web‐based approaches to teach both on‐ and off‐campus learners. The data were analyzed using a combination of Rogers’ theory of diffusion of innovations and actor‐network theory and revealed a series of enabling and impeding factors faced by pioneering technology‐adopter teaching academics, some of which are technology related while others are policy related and common to large multicampus institutions. The study found that safe adoption environments recognizing career priorities of academics are a result of the continuous negotiation between the evolving institution and its innovative and creative staff. The article concludes with a series of conditions that would form a safe, enabling, and encouraging environment for technology‐adopter teaching academics in a large multicampus higher education setting.     

Educational software usability: Artifact or Design?

Online educational technologies and e‐learning tools are providing new opportunities for students to learn worldwide, and they continue to play an important role in anatomical sciences education. Yet, as we shift to teaching online, particularly within the anatomical sciences, it has become apparent that e‐learning tool success is based on more than just user satisfaction and preliminary learning outcomes—rather it is a multidimensional construct that should be addressed from an integrated perspective. The efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction with which a user can navigate an e‐learning tool is known as usability, and represents a construct which we propose can be used to quantitatively evaluate e‐learning tool success. To assess the usability of an e‐learning tool, usability testing should be employed during the design and development phases (i.e., prior to its release to users) as well as during its delivery (i.e., following its release to users). However, both the commercial educational software industry and individual academic developers in the anatomical sciences have overlooked the added value of additional usability testing. Reducing learner frustration and anxiety during e‐learning tool use is essential in ensuring e‐learning tool success, and will require a commitment on the part of the developers to engage in usability testing during all stages of an e‐learning tool's life cycle. Anat Sci Educ 10: 190–199. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

The Effects of Inattentive Responding on Construct Validity Evidence When Measuring Social–Emotional Learning Competencies

Self‐report inventories are commonly administered to measure social‐emotional learning competencies related to college and career readiness. Inattentive responding can negatively impact the validity of interpreting individual results and the accuracy of construct validity evidence. This study applied nine methods of detecting insufficient effort responding (IER) to a social‐emotional learning assessment. Individual methods identified between 0.9% and 20.3% of respondents as potentially exhibiting IER. Removing flagged respondents from the data resulted in negligible or small improvements in criterion‐related validity, coefficient alpha, concurrent validity, and confirmatory factor analysis model‐data fit. Implications for future validity studies and the operational use of IER detection for social–emotional learning assessments are discussed.     

Counselor Commitment and Career Development

The relationship between preparation and career commitment is explored by studying the degree to which counseling personnel actively involve themselves as school counselors after training. If counselor education programs are truly concerned with preparing professionals for a career, then long-term involvement is an important criterion reflecting the success of counselors and their prior preparation. Results from a study tracing 406 graduates from 20 NDEA institutes six years after training showed that only 45 percent immediately entered and remained in counseling for six years. The existence of a teacher-counselor-administrator promotion ladder is presented as being a major source of loss from the ranks of school counseling. A related finding showed non-entry to counseling to be caused by a return to classroom teaching after counseling preparation.     

高校青年教师职业承诺与其职业生涯管理的结构关系

高校青年教师的职业承诺和职业生涯管理不仅影响着教师个体的发展,也影响着高校的发展。为了了解高校青年教师职业承诺与其职业生涯管理之间的结构关系,本研究运用＂职业承诺问卷＂和＂自我职业生涯管理调查问卷＂,对来自不同高校的218名青年教师进行了调查。结果发现,高校青年教师职业承诺对其职业生涯管理的影响仅在有限的几个维度之间存在：（1）情感承诺、继续承诺对个体的职业探索存在显著性影响;（2）情感承诺对继续学习存在显著性影响;（3）情感承诺、继续承诺对职业目标、注重关系以及自我展示的影响是以规范承诺为中介的。     

Unravelling quality culture in higher education: a realist review

There is a growing belief that higher education institutions should nurture a ‘quality culture’ in which structural/managerial and cultural/psychological elements act in synergy to continuously improve education. Notwithstanding the positive connotation of the ‘quality culture’ concept, its exact configuration remains subject to debate. A realist review was conducted to identify inhibiting and promoting organisational context elements impacting quality culture, its working mechanisms and associated outcomes. Leadership and communication were identified as being of key importance in binding structural/managerial and cultural/psychological elements. Leaders are central ‘drivers’ of quality culture development through their ability to influence resource allocation, clarify roles and responsibilities, create partnerships and optimise people and process management. Adequate communication is considered a prerequisite to diffuse quality strategies and policies, evaluate results and identify staff values and beliefs. It is proposed that the working mechanisms of quality culture comprise increased staff commitment, shared ownership, empowerment and knowledge. Associated outcomes related to these mechanisms are positive effects on staff and student satisfaction, continuous improvement of the teaching–learning process and student and teacher learning and development. Institutions striving for the development of a quality culture should best operate from a contingency approach, i.e. make use of quality management intervention approaches which are tailored to the organisational context.     

The Mediating Effects of Approaches to Learning on the Academic Success of First-Year College Students

Students’ personal predictors of academic success are particularly relevant for first-year college students, given the specific challenges that these students face when entering higher education (HE). Academic success in HE has been related to multiple factors, including the students’ approaches to learning (SAL), satisfaction (linked to commitment and persistence), study time (effort), and prior academic achievement. This study analyzes the combined effect of these predictors on perceived academic success. Data from 247 students was collected using the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students and other specific measures to assess presage and process variables of academic success. Although academic success is multidimensional and difficult to explain, factors such as prior academic achievement, satisfaction with the course, SAL, and study time contribute to explain perceived academic success in first-year college students.     

College students' intentions to use e‐portfolios: From the perspectives of career‐commitment status and weblog‐publication behaviours

The growing popularity of a school‐wide e‐portfolio system in colleges and universities has raised concerns regarding whether students will use it or consider it important to have an e‐portfolio system, especially when its use is not required by their curriculum. This study investigated college students' intentions to use and the students' attitudes towards using an e‐portfolio system, and did so from the perspectives of career‐commitment status and weblog‐publication behaviours. The results indicate that career‐commitment status substantially influences college students' intentions and attitudes relative to using an e‐portfolio system. Also, overlap in the functions of weblogs and e‐portfolios (which allow people to use them interchangeably) does not directly result in higher or lower levels of intention to use an e‐portfolio system. A composite system providing career services, goal‐oriented self‐presentation and personality‐driven self‐expression is recommended.     

School Leaders as Learners: what attitudes and preferences do they have?

Leadership development is a key issue for success in leading educational reform and school improvement. Demands for more flexible, responsive, and enterprise‐driven schooling require that school leaders can create the kind of conditions which sustain vigorous processes of continuous school improvement. To meet this requirement, school leaders must be in command of a broader range of leadership and management expertise than was traditionally required of them. The changing environments make it essential for school leaders to have a high level of awareness of their preferences for leadership development and a commitment to improve their professional performance. This paper discusses findings of a survey‐based study of school leaders’ attitudes and preferences for professional development in Western Australia. Surveys conducted among principals and deputy principals of primary (n = 233) and secondary (n = 180) schools reveal some important similarities, as well as differences, in the extent to which primary and secondary school leaders have recognized the potential for work‐based and peer‐assisted learning.     

Book Reviews

The present study explored the relationships of preservice teachers’ levels of commitment to teaching and their beliefs and perceptions of teaching as a career. Participants were undergraduate students enrolled in a teacher education program at a major university in the southeast. Sixty‐seven preservice teachers completed a survey in which they rated the importance of 20 factors for influencing their choice of career. Additionally, among the survey respondents, nine students were selected from three groups of preservice teachers for in‐depth interviews: (1) students who were currently considering teaching as a career choice, (2) students who were undecided about their future teaching career, and (3) students who were no longer considering teaching as a career. Overall, findings from this study revealed that preservice teachers’ understanding of their goal of becoming teachers and interpretations of their motivation for teaching were unique, yet the types of influences on their career choices were similar across participants’ stories.     

Transferability of Skills and Education and Thai Academics' Organisational Commitment

Few studies have examined the links between perceived transferability of education or perceived transferability of skills and organisational commitment. This paper reports on a study examining the relationships between transferability of education and transferability of skills, and the three components of organisational commitment (affective, continuance, and normative commitment) with a sample comprising 517 Thai academics. Hierarchical regression analyses (controlling for gender, education, academic rank, and organisational tenure) indicated that transferability of skills was positively related to both affective and normative commitment, while transferability of education was negatively related to continuance commitment. The implications in terms of career management and human resource development are discussed.     

From Felt Need to Actual Need: A Multi‐method Multi‐sample Approach to Needs Assessment

This study reports on an approach for assessing managerial development needs. The approach uses multi‐methods such as qualitative career plots, critical incidents, a skill rating form, and surveys to identify the critical managerial development needs for a target managerial position. In addition, it uses multi‐subject groups in an ef fort to triangulate on the development needs. The empirical findings indicate that, through this approach, congruent managerial development needs can be identified. By doing so, the organization can design a systematic development effort that will enable them to have both effective managers when they need them in an efficient manner.     

The meaning of work and performance‐focused work attitudes among midlevel managers in the United States and Brazil

This survey‐based study investigated work meaning and performance‐focused work attitudes of some 315 midlevel managers in diverse industries in the United States and Brazil to determine similarities, differences, and relationships among absolute and relative meaning of work, work role identification, desired work outcomes, and job satisfaction, career fulfillment, and organizational commitment. The study found strong levels of absolute work centrality in both countries and similar rank orderings for nonwork‐related domains of life. Work role identification patterns differed, and so did the levels of intrinsic and extrinsic work values. A small number of demographic and work meaning dimensions predicted job satisfaction, career fulfillment, and organizational commitment, but this pattern was different for the samples from each country. The article concludes with a discussion of these patterns of similarities and differences for the research and application of performance theory and improvement in cross‐cultural settings.     

Food safety in the classroom: Using the Delphi technique to evaluate researcher‐developed food safety curriculum aligned to state academic standards

High school students’ prevalence as food‐service industry employees and their lack of food safety knowledge make them prime candidates for food safety education. The researchers developed a food‐safety‐focused curriculum for high school students aligned with Indiana Academic Standards for Agriculture, Advanced Life Science: Food. The curriculum was designed to provide students with fundamental food safety concepts through experiential learning and incorporation of science, technology, engineering, agriculture, and mathematics (STEAM) activities in the context of different careers related to agriculture, especially in food science. This study uses the Delphi technique to evaluate the food safety curriculum, including the identification of barriers to incorporating the curriculum into classrooms. The Delphi technique uses an expert panel to generate consensus related to a topic. A panel of experts in the field of education evaluated the curriculum through three rounds of surveys containing questions related to six curriculum assessment topics. Experts rated the degree to which they agreed with statements about the curriculum using a 5‐point Likert scale and multiple‐choice questions. At the conclusion of the study, the cost to purchase materials for cooking labs was the only identified barrier to curriculum incorporation (62.5%). Experts agreed that the curriculum addressed academic standards (100%), was engaging for students (100.0%), was easy for teachers to use (89.5%), and successfully incorporated STEAM (100.0%), experiential learning (89.5%), and career‐education (78.9%). This study highlights the feasibility of providing food safety education to high school students in less traditional disciplines while promoting career development through the incorporation of experiential learning, STEAM, and career‐education components.     

Developing career management competencies among undergraduates and the role of work-integrated learning

This paper explores undergraduate capabilities in career self-management and the influence of work-integrated learning (WIL). Career management competencies are an important aspect of individual employability and impact on wellbeing, graduate job attainment and long-term career success. Enhanced competencies among graduates can assist Faculty in achieving strong employment outcomes and support industry partners who wish to employ graduates able to self-manage their career pathways effectively amid flatter organisational structures and greater employee mobility. Our findings indicate that business undergraduates at one UK and one Australian university consider themselves reasonably proficient in career self-management yet variations exist across the different dimensions of self-awareness, opportunity awareness, decision-making learning and transition learning. Participation in work placements and study and employment characteristics influenced certain elements of career self-management. Our study highlights the importance of nurturing career management competencies in undergraduates and we discuss strategies, particularly in relation to WIL, which may promote effective career self-management.     

Implementing Performance Indicators of early learning and teaching: A Chinese study

This study investigated how a set of newly developed indicators of early learning and teaching by the government, which was based on western ideology of child learning, was implemented in a Chinese context like Hong Kong. Twelve early childhood settings of 5747 children and 284 staff volunteered to implement the indicators within two years and the processes were observed and analysed. A multi‐method, multi‐source data collection strategy was used to document the self‐evaluation and improvement process. All the participating settings went through the five stages of the evaluation cycle: understanding the Performance Indicators, assessing learning and teaching, formulating an action plan for improvement, implementing the action plan, and reflection. The results indicated that: (1) implementing a quality assurance cycle took time, resources and commitment; (2) the implementation helped to enhance practitioners’ professionalism; and (3) teacher professionalism was the key to the success of this quality assurance mechanism. The socio‐contextual factors and the educational implications of these findings are discussed.