PhD crisis in the Global South: Oversupply or mismanagement of talent?

Rising unemployment rates among PhDs gave relevance to a crisis narrative revolving around the assumed oversupply of doctorate holders. The discourse, which originated in established systems of higher education two decades ago, has not been duly tested in the Global South. Taking Tunisia as a case in point, this article probes the validity of the association between high unemployment rates and the oversupply narrative to answer the question of whether Tunisia actually trains more PhDs than necessary. Using quantitative data from national and supranational databases, the state of affair in Tunisia is put into perspective with some neighbouring and OECD countries along four axes: stock and flow of PhDs, student experience, qualification of academic staff and transition to employment. Overall, the paper's main finding discredits the oversupply claim as Tunisia trails in a number of respects but calls for upgrading the static and rather obsolete doctoral training system. Doctorate holders' unemployment is mainly rooted in structural economic and bureaucratic deficiencies as well as a traditional occupational structure that fails to grasp PhDs outside academia. A more exhaustive policy mix is required to streamline the management of doctoral output and address the signs of a degrading research potential.     

Didactique? Is it a plaisanterie? You must be joking! A critical comment on terminology

Instructional Science -     

An abbreviated form of the WISC-R: Is it valid?

The completed WISC-Rs of 76 white urban children (6–0 to 15–9) were rescored utilizing the Satz and Mogel criteria for an abbreviated intelligence measure. Extremely high correlations for IQs (.96 – .98) and subtests (.66 – .95) were found. However, when mean differences between complete WISC-R and the shortened form were examined, significant differences between administrations were found. Furthermore, one-third of the subjects showed changes in intelligence classification levels when the abbreviated form was used. Thus, two of the three criteria previously suggested for a valid abbreviated intelligence test of: (a) a significantly high correlation between administration forms; (b) nonsignificant t-tests between the abbreviated and standard form mean IQ; and (c) low percentage of IQ classification change with the administration of the short form, were not met. It was concluded, however, that the abbreviated WISC-R may be appropriate when intelligence is a question relative to candidacy for therapy or as a noncritical, general indication of intelligence when IQ classification is not important and/or assessment time is limited.     

Engineering design in the classroom: Is it good science education or is it revolting?

The changing emphasis of science education today includes a shift from a narrowly disciplinary view of science to a more socially and technologically situated perspective. This article reports on the implementation of engineering design projects in about two dozen U. S. secondary science classrooms, following an inservice professional development course conducted at a university engineering college. Using data from an evaluation of the project and three sociological themes—secrecy and ownership, social persuasion and the status of facts, and the relationship between money and science—I argue that technological design projects provide a sociologically fruitful approach for teaching new themes in science education. However, teachers must rethink the nature of their subject matter, something that may be difficult if their training was disciplinary in emphasis.     

An Analysis of the Expectations Gap:Can it be eliminated?

The "expectations gap" signifies the differences between what the public expects from an audit and what the auditing profession prefers the audit objectives to be.Although the gap exists,it seems that the professions trust that it could be eliminated.In this paper,further evidence was provided to deny the above point by exploring the inevitability nature and the structure of the audit expectation gap.In addition,the author concludes that expectations gap cannot be eliminated;instead,the only thing can be done is to narrow down the gap.     

Creating an Online Learning Community: Is it Possible?

As institutions are moving towards offering more online and distance education courses, scholars have reported that instructors may have difficulty developing learning communities among students enrolled in these courses (DiRamio and Wolverton 2006). The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in students’ perceptions of a learning community when enrolled in an online or on-campus introduction to counseling course. Participants were beginning graduate and advanced undergraduate students interested in pursuing a higher education degree in counseling. Results indicated no significant difference in students’ perceptions of learning communities based on course format.     

Reasoning by analogy: Is it schema-mediated or case-based?

One of the “classical” ways of learning consists of studying examples of already solved problems. In two experiments, we analyzed the degree of abstraction of the knowledge used by ninth grade students to solve algebra problems after studying worked examples. The results showed that there are two processes underlying reasoning by analogy, one that uses abstract knowledge and another that involves case-based reasoning. Both experiments pointed out interindividual differences in the population under study: when given examples, some subjects seem to extract the structure of the solving process by comparing the worked examples, while others focus more on the specifics of each example. To these two processes correspond two levels of transfer: correctly solve problems that have the same structure as the examples, regardless of how similar they are, or be better at solving problems that resemble the examples the most. Experiment 2 used a dual-task paradigm to show that some subjects implement both processes, in which case the mental load is greater. This experiment also showed that both processes can lead to the long-term acquisition of the principles behind the examples.     

Creative leadership: a new category or more of the same?

New categories of leadership are continually being invented. Because the ways we think are productive of the ways in which we act, it is important to hold these rhetorical innovations to account. This paper focuses on the latest of these categories – creative leadership. Mobilising a Foucauldian notion of ‘discourse’ I deconstruct the notion of creative leadership as it has recently been represented in five published texts. I suggest that the interpretation on offer has a determinist view of the future, ignores the history of debates about creativity, offers creativity as a generic skill and underestimates what it is that teachers and leaders might need to do in order to work creatively. I show that the notion of creative leadership on offer is strongly connected with that of creative learning, and put the ‘recipe’ offered by one set of texts into conversation with a body of empirical evidence about what is happening in schools that aim to promote creative learning. I argue that what is evident from the dialogue between the texts and the empirical studies is that it is pedagogical leadership that is absent but is actually most required, embedded in leadership/management principles and practices that promote social justice.     

School transitions: beginning of the end or a new beginning?

Moving from elementary to middle/junior high school or from middle/junior high to high school is difficult for most students and especially problematic for some. This chapter explores the reasons that these transitions are difficult, the kinds of students that have the greatest difficulty with transitions, and the process of disengagement from school that too often follows unsuccessful transitions. Facilitating successful transitions requires that attention be paid to students’ preparedness for the transition and the kinds of support students need before, during, and after the transition. The chapter concludes with a series of recommendations for facilitating successful transitions.     

One year of preschool or two: Is it important for adult outcomes?

Until recently, public funding for preschool education had been growing rapidly over a decade with most state programs providing one year of preschool for four year olds. Fewer three year olds are enrolled in preschool. To investigate the importance of enrollment duration, this study is the first to estimate long-term dosage effects of years of preschool. We use data from a cohort of 1500 students in the Chicago Longitudinal Study who enrolled in the Chicago Public Schools in the mid-1980s. Many of these students participated in a high-quality preschool program called Child-Parent Centers (CPC) for one or two years. To address selection with multiple treatments, we employ inverse propensity score weighting. Relative to children who attended one year of CPC preschool, the two-year group is significantly less likely to receive special education or be abused or neglected or to commit crimes. The findings provide support for the long-term benefits of greater exposure to preschool.     

Transnationalism in the Australian Curriculum: new horizons or destinations of the past?

Educationally, it is arguable that transnationalism has been primarily framed around course delivery by educational institutions within international contexts. However, it is a more complex notion, incorporating ideas such as global citizenship and intercultural understanding. Consequently, if the Australian Curriculum is the national substantiation of Australia's educational priorities, designed to prepare young Australians for a globalised future, it should reflect such transnationalist elements. This paper contends that, despite contrary impressions, the Australian Curriculum is more of a protective reinforcement of older conceptions of a ‘Western’ community than one centred on forward-looking global principles. Its codifications dominate at the cost of acknowledging other points of reference that represent a collective transnational sensibility, and thus it embodies a lost national opportunity. Recent criticisms that the Australian Curriculum fails to adequately reflect ‘Western’ civilisation are ill-founded, as they ignore the strong presence of ‘Western’ intellectual constructs throughout the Australian Curriculum's design and content.     

Is it the Earth that turns or the Sun that goes behind the mountains? Students’ misconceptions about the day/night cycle after reading a science text

ABSTRACT

The present research tested the hypothesis that the reading of science text can create new misconceptions in students with incongruent prior knowledge, and that these new misconceptions will be similar to the fragmented and synthetic conceptions obtained in prior developmental research. Ninety-nine third- and fifth-grade children read and recalled one of two texts that provided scientific or phenomenal explanations of the day/night cycle. All the participants gave explanations of the phenomenon in question prior to reading one of the texts and after they read it. The results showed that the participants who provided explanations of the day/night cycle at pretest incongruent with the scientific explanation recalled less information and generated more invalid inferences. An analysis of the participants’ posttest explanations indicated that these readers formed new misconceptions similar to the fragmented and synthetic conceptions obtained in developmental research. The implications of the above for text comprehension and science education research are discussed.     

‘Does it answer the question or is it French fries?’: an exploration of language supports for scientific argumentation

ABSTRACT

Reform initiatives around the world are reconceptualising science education by stressing student engagement in science practices. Yet, science practices are language-intensive, requiring students to have strong receptive and productive language proficiencies. It is critical to address these rigorous language demands to ensure equitable learning opportunities for all students, including English language learners (ELLs). Little research has examined how to specifically support ELL students’ engagement in science practices, such as argumentation. Using case-study methodology, we examined one middle school science teacher's instructional strategies as she taught an argumentation-focused curriculum in a self-contained ELL classroom. Findings revealed that three trends characterized the teacher’s language supports for the structural and dialogic components of argumentation: (1) more language supports focused on argument structure, (2) dialogic interactions were most often facilitated by productive language supports, and (3) some language supports offered a rationale for argumentation. Findings suggest a need to identify and develop supports for the dialogic aspects of argumentation. Furthermore, engaging students in argumentation through productive language functions could be leveraged to support dialogic interactions. Lastly, our work points to the need for language supports that make the rationale for argumentation explicit since such transparency could further increase access for all students.     

Kindergarten entrance assessment: Is it worth the effort?

School psychologists frequently are involved in assessment programs for children entering kindergarten. A comparison is made between screening and assessment related to norm-based and criterion-referenced assessment. Normbased testing can be either categorical or deficit-centered, while the criterion approaches tend to be academic or cognitive-developmental. In order to make appropriate decisions, we need to know the problems and outcomes related to each approach. It is also felt that assessment should be related to the underlying issues in developmental psychology and the type of kindergarten experiences provided for the child.     

“To be,or not to be,that is the question:”的翻译

莎剧《哈姆莱特》中的著名独白"To be,or not to be,that is the question:"的翻译,历来是译者关注的焦点,由此产生了众多不同的译文。本文试图通过对众多译文的比较分析,进一步探讨这句独白的翻译方式。