Q Methodology and Q-Perspectives® Online: Innovative Research Methodology and Instructional Technology

Q methodology is an underutilized research methodology in the fields of education, instructional design and instructional technology, yet is well suited to research on perceptions of learning, efficacy of design, technology adoption and other issues within those fields. One reason for its lack of widespread use is the somewhat cumbersome nature of the research process, including the lack of readily available mainstream tools to conduct data collection and analysis. The authors introduce Q methodology, discuss its relevance in educational and instructional technology research and introduce their design of a new tool, Q-Perspectives® Online (Walker et al. 2017). The authors provide examples of the how Q-Perspectives® Online makes Q methodology more accessible as an instructional tool, and provide examples of use in face-to-face, flipped and online classrooms. The authors also describe how the methodology and real-time analysis tool provide an opportunity to bridge the research/practitioner divide by creating an explicit merger of the learning and research environments.     

Family Background,Students’ Academic Self-Efficacy,and Students’ Career and Life Success Expectations

This study examined the relationship of family background on students’ academic self-efficacy and the impact of students’ self-efficacy on their career and life success expectations. The study used the national dataset of the Educational Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002), funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Based on a path model, results demonstrated that family background predicted academic self-efficacy positively and students’ career and life success expectations negatively. However, with the mediating influence of academic self-efficacy, family background positively influenced students’ career and life success expectations. School counselors should consider interventions to enhance interactions between parents and students and seek to develop positive perceptions about students’ capabilities and futures. In addition, school counselors need to be knowledgeable about curricula, enrichment classes, summer opportunities, various educational options, and students’ academic and career aspirations for providing better guidance.     

Remarks on Face-saving and Politeness Expression

politeness is an important way to achieve good interpersonal relationships,and is a norm imposed by social conventions.Only by saving the face of others and expresses yourself politely can we communicate with each other successfully.We have to preserve the rules when we speak to others,as well as we reply to others.     

Research on Rural Compulsory Education＇ Public Policy and Fairness in Our Country

我国农村人口占全国人口总数50.32%以上,中国的教育问题实际上主要就是农村义务教育的问题。就目前农村义务教育发展的现状而言,农村尤其是中西部贫困农村地区,因经济落后而造成财政困难和农村义务教育中存在不公平现象是两个突出问题。义务教育的关键在于公平。对农村义务教育,尽管国家给予了相关的优惠政策和专项资金的资助,但一直缺少对城乡义务教育均衡发展的有力制度保障。本文认为,造成农村义务教育不公平问题的深层次原因在于教育政策中＂公平性＂的欠缺,并从制度视角分析不同的制度安排与制度博弈过程对农村义务教育发展的影响,对完善当前农村义务教育体制提出了相应的政策建议。     

Success,Gender and Academic Voices. Consuming Passion or Selling the Soul?

ABSTRACT In 1995 a research team interviewed a cross-section of academics and senior managers in an Australian public university about their perception of the attributes of success. A number of different views emerged. Respondents who felt the system was reasonable saw the successful academic as someone who was productive, hard-working, strategic and able to adopt a university-wide perspective. Those who saw the system as flawed, identified success in negative terms, speaking of 'careerism' and selfishness. This group also spoke of institutional discrimination. These responses were differently articulated by senior managers, and by male and female, and senior and junior, academics. The article discusses these responses. It concludes with an analysis of the way gender constructs patterns of academic and managerial success within universities, and argues that in a profoundly gendered fashion production is privileged over reproduction and output over process.     

Wealth,Success and Love

A woman saw three old men sitting in her front yard.She said,“I don'tthink I know you, but you must be hungry.Please come in and have something to eat.”“We do not go into a house together.” they replied.     

Wealth,Success and Love

1.A woman saw three oldmen sitting in her front yard.She said.“I don’t think I knowyou,but you must be hungry.Please come in and have some-thing to eat.”一位妇女看见三位老人坐在她家前院,她说:“我想我不认识你们,但你们一定饿了,请进来吃点东西吧。”     

Predicting University Students’ Academic Success and Major Using Random Forests

Research in Higher Education - In this article, a large data set containing every course taken by every undergraduate student in a major university in Canada over 10 years is analysed. Modern...     

The Research on the System of Examination and Assessment of Academic Teachers Based on the Cultural Reflections

With some reflections on the management culture of higher educational institutions in China, this paper presents that it is not adequate to make analyses of rules and regulations from the mere perspective of institutional economics to get rid of short-term, which can be accounted for on a deeper level by the absence of management culture in the prevailing assessment system of teachers＇ achievements; while the key to reform the system of assessing teachers＇ work is to rebuild cultural conceptions in the management of higher educational institutions.     

Adult Education and Developmentin Rural Areas—— A Case Study on Hebei Agricultural College,China

Life- long education aims mainly at adults asthe receivers of its educational programs.Thus,how to successfully conduct adult education be-comes a key issue as to tell whether life- long edu-cation is a success or failure.Adult education inrural areas,esp.,in developing countries,seemsto be more important,since the more advanced asociety enjoys its civilization,the more people willenjoy its freedom,and the less restrictions theywill suffer from.Whereas in a less advanced soci-ety,people are mu…     

The Effect of Family Background and Parental Expectations on Eighth Graders’ Academic Achievement in Rural and Urban China

Extensive research has suggested that there is a large rural-urban student achievement gap in China. However, less is known about the effects of family background and parental expectations on student achievement. Using a large representative sample of Chinese eighth graders, this study examines these relationships. We find that: (1) Rather than a rural/urban hukou (household registration system) type, it is variation in family background, especially family socioeconomic status (SES), which plays a significant role in student achievement; (2) although factors of family background show different patterns of influence on Chinese, mathematics, and English achievement, maternal education and home educational resources are significantly positive predictors consistently across three subjects; (3) parental expectations are significantly and positively associated with Chinese, mathematics, and English achievement.     

Empirical Evidence of Social and Emotional Learning's Influence on School Success: A Commentary on “Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What Does the Research Say?,” a book edited by Joseph E. Zins,Roger P. Weissberg,Margaret C. Wang,and Herbert J. Walberg

In Building Academic Success on Social and Emotional Learning: What does the Research Say? Zins and his colleagues presented a new way to conceptualize the impact of social and emotional learning programs on students' school success by broadening the concept to include students' attitudes, behaviors, and performance. To build on Zins' ideas, we (a) briefly review research examining the impact of 262 social and emotional learning (SEL) programs on a number of outcomes that assessed school attitudes, behaviors, and performance; and (b) suggest additional avenues for research of SEL interventions.     

Research on Ellipsis and Substitution—A Prototype Theory Perspective

Though ’clearly’ defined by traditional grammar,the boundary between ellipsis and substitution is actually fuzzy.The author infers that the psychological principles which govern all kinds of human behavior of categorization the concrete world also applies to their linguistic behavior.Thus,this thesis attempts to acknowledge the principle of family resemblances in its interpretation while analyzing the grammatical phenomena of ellipsis and substitution from the perspective of prototype theory.Then it concludes that substitution can be considered entity substitution and ellipsis can be considered zero substitutionin the category of SUBSTITUTION,and there is a gradient continuum between them.     

How Can Brain Research Inform Academic Learning and Instruction?

This paper explores the potential of neuroscience for improving educational practice by describing the perspective of educational psychology as a linking science; providing historical context showing educational psychology’s 100-year search for an educationally relevant neuroscience; offering a conceptual framework for the connections among neuroscience, cognitive science, educational psychology, and educational practice; and laying out a research agenda for the emerging field of educational neuroscience.     

Study on Dialect Words in Chinese Neologism——Based on the Research of Beijing,Guangdong,Hunan and Jiangxi Dialects

In recent years,a large number of dialect words merged with Chinese mandarin,becoming a main source of Chinese new words and contributing to the diversity of Chinese.Targeting this phenomenon,the researchers conducted research on those words.By studying literature,sending out questionnaires,making field trips and observations,this paper analyzes the main factors influencing the dialect words’absorption in Chinese mandarin and the channels involved,summarizes the traits of their formula tion.     

Some Remarks on Reading and the Teaching of Reading

Reading is one of the four important skills in English as a secoind or foreign language. However, many teachers often focus attention on grammatical or lexical issues like tenses, sentence structures or verbal idioms, To students reading is the main reason why they learn English. Through reading, our range of kowledge can be broadly widened. However, for a long time, the importance of the teaching of extensive reading has been neglected. This paper aims to give an analysis and my own empirical experience of the teaching of extensive reading. The first part is about the complex nature of reading, the second part dealing with some methods which I have applied in the teaching of reading.     

The Big-fish–little-pond-effect Stands Up to Critical Scrutiny: Implications for Theory, Methodology, and Future Research

The big-fish–little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts (ASCs) when attending schools where the average ability levels of classmates is high, and higher ASCs when attending schools where the school-average ability is low. BFLPE findings are remarkably robust, generalizing over a wide variety of different individual student and contextual level characteristics, settings, countries, long-term follow-ups, and research designs. Because of the importance of ASC in predicting future achievement, coursework selection, and educational attainment, the results have important implications for the way in which schools are organized (e.g., tracking, ability grouping, academically selective schools, and gifted education programs). In response to Dai and Rinn (Educ. Psychol. Rev., 2008), we summarize the theoretical model underlying the BFLPE, minimal conditions for testing the BFLPE, support for its robust generalizability, its relation to social comparison theory, and recent research extending previous implications, demonstrating that the BFLPE stands up to scrutiny. Quotations (associated page numbers) to the Dai and Rinn (2008) article are based on a prepublication version of the article available to the authors of this article that may have changed during the final preparation for publication. The authors would also like to express thanks to David Dai and Anne Rinn for their encouragement and assistance to us in preparation of our article, whilst still acknowledging that they might not agree will all the views expressed here.