A case study of academic staff integration in a post-merger Chinese university

The aim of this study was to discover and better understand through a case study, the phenomenon of academic staff integration in a post-merger Chinese university. The analysis was undertaken by using a cultural framework derived from relevant literature. The results indicate that adjustments to academic values and beliefs, the cultural dimension, are crucial in the integration process. This study also identified factors, which could affect academic staff integration, such as leadership, organisational objectives, regulations, geographic division, and cultural differences. Being aware of these factors could provide university managers with useful guidelines on how to facilitate the integration of academic staff members from different pre-merger institutions.     

School racial composition and academic achievement: the case of Hmong LEP students in the USA

The existence of the achievement gap is more than just a black–white issue; contrary to stereotypes, it is a concern within Asian homes. Hmong students underachieve in comparison with many East Asian students. Traditional cultural practices and poverty have been identified as explanatory factors. Our data suggest that a more critical factor might be within‐school segregation. Utilising a racial exposure statistic, it was found that the more diverse a school became, the higher the achievement of Hmong limited English proficient (LEP) students. This study provides theoretical explanations for this finding and implications for Hmong student achievement.     

Understanding academic performance of international students: the role of ethnicity,academic and social integration

More than 3 million students study outside their home country, primarily at a Western university. A common belief among educators is that international students are insufficiently adjusted to higher education in their host country, both academically and socially. Furthermore, several groups of international students experience considerable amounts of stress while adapting to the culture of the host-institute. Several researchers argue that studies on adaptation of international students should widen its focus to the underlying mechanisms that leads towards this “misalignment”. In a cross-institutional comparison among 958 students at five business schools in the Netherlands, differences in academic performance between local and international students were identified by focussing on their levels of academic and social integration. Students’ academic integration was measured with the Students’ Adaptation to College Questionnaire (SACQ), while students’ social integration was measured with a newly developed and validated questionnaire. The results indicate that the degree of academic success of international students is multi-faceted. International students with a (mixed) western ethnic background perform well on both academic and social integration, and also attained higher study-performance in comparison to domestic students. In contrast, international students with a non-Western background are less integrated compared to other international students. Nevertheless, they have a similar study-performance. Finally, academic adjustment is the main predictor of study-performance for Dutch, Western and Mixed-Western students. Social adjustment was negatively related to study-performance. The lack of fit for predicting long-term study success of non-Western students indicates that their academic and social integration processes are more complex and non-linear.     

The academic "hurdle race": A case study

This study analyzes the career patterns of a cohort of faculty members in a large Israeli university and shows that women constitute a small minority in that university, and that their rank advancements are fewer, slower, and lower than men's. We examine three possible explaining mechanisms: (a) "Thresholds" - according to which after women cross a certain barrier, differential career development on the basis of gender disappears or is, at least, greatly reduced. (b) "Ceilings" - according to which women's advancement is curbed before they reach the highest rank. (c) "Hurdles" - according to which women, as compared to men, are confronted by more obtrusive barriers at each step of the academic career. We found that no threshold could be detected after which gender differences are reduced and that the ceiling effect may be a by-product of women's extended career paths. Rather, the analysis of the case study suggests that women's career trajectories are characterized by "hurdles", i.e., at each rank they stay longer and their advancement probability is lower than men's even when their publication rates are taken into account.     

我国大学院系治理现代化:学理认识、现实困境与实践路径

当前,我国院系治理现代化进程中面临学校管理重心"有限下移"和院系"接管乏力"的瓶颈,院系间壁垒难以消除与跨学科现实需求间的矛盾,以及权力"差序格局"和内部人控制的现象。面对复杂的院系治理现实,我国大学需要以渐进式改革、动态化探索的总体思路为指导开展实践探索,具体的实践路径包括:大学给院系权力做加法,院系给内部权力做优化,实现院系自治;探索多元治理模式,拓展院系制度空间,彰显院系自主;凸显"以人为本"理念,激发教师主体活力,保护院系自由。     

Impact of a pre-college outreach programme on the academic achievements of higher education students: a case study of Chile

ABSTRACT

This research evaluated the impact on students’ academic achievements of a pre-college outreach programme implemented by a Chilean higher education institution. This programme benefits students in their last year of secondary education so they can better adapt to post-secondary education. Specifically, we assessed whether freshmen enrolled in 2017 in the institution that implemented this initiative and who attended this programme during 2016 as secondary school students performed better than students at this same institution but who did not take part in this scheme. A quasi-experimental design was applied using the method propensity score matching. The results showed that students who participated in this outreach programme had better average grades and attendance levels than those who did not take part in this initiative. In addition, it was found that this programme does not have a significant impact on student retention rates.     

Constructing a practical philosophy of teaching: A study of preservice teachers' professional perspectives

This paper reports the findings of an ethnographic study of preservice teachers' professional perspectives. Using the principles of “ethnographic semantics” to analyze the data, th paper describes the way in which students create a practical philosophy of teaching by integrating two primary perspectives, portrays the “guiding images” that make up these perspectives, and examines the psycho-social dynamics that underlie the development of a given professional perspective. Finally, it discusses the implications of the study's findings for research on teacher socialization and for teacher education.     

Gender,academic careers and the sabbatical: a New Zealand case study

This article examines academics’ access to and perceptions of sabbaticals at a research-intensive university in New Zealand. Statistical and inductive analysis of survey data from 915 academics (47% of all academics employed) revealed inequalities in access to and experience of sabbaticals, and highlighted academic, personal and gender issues. Men and women were generally united in their views on how family circumstances, children, childcare, partners, unfairness, inequity, transparency and finances, affected ability to take sabbatical leave, and that lack of transparency and gatekeeping were barriers to access. Yet, women indicated greater concern than men about the application process, adequacy of leave and the role of the Head of Department in accessing sabbaticals. Women were also significantly more likely to be ineligible for sabbaticals owing to casual employment status, and women who were eligible tended to take fewer, shorter sabbaticals. Academics view sabbaticals as vital for career progression and the findings highlight the need to facilitate equitable access to sabbatical leave across an institution. Universities need to audit the uptake of sabbaticals by eligible academics and review the processes associated with application, approval and support for sabbatical leave.     

数学实验与研究性学习整合案例一则

这篇文章主要是说明在一次研究性学习活动中,借助于几何画板来进行数学实验,使学生顺利的完成了观察、发现、猜想、论证这样几个步骤。进而阐述了中学的研究性学习若借助于多媒体信息技术进行数学实验,不仅可以使教学活动变得形象生动,提高教学质量,最重要的是可以激发学生的学习兴趣,使学生真正成为富有创新思想,具有创造力的人才。     

Teacher learning in the context of a continuing professional development programme: A case study

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into characteristics of teacher learning in the context of a successful continuing professional development programme (CPD programme). An in-depth case study of the learning activities of two teachers, the problems they encountered and the way they regulated their learning was conducted. Results show that these teachers differed greatly from each other: one teacher showed a meaning directed learning pattern, while the other teacher's learning pattern was undirected. Still, positive effects of the PDP on classroom behaviour were observed for both teachers. It appeared that the trainer could compensate for a lack of self-regulation.     

“理解性教学”研究的哲学反思

理解应当是教学的要素,因而,把理解性教学看作一种模式是错误的;理解性教学强调的是以理解为目标的理性精神,而不应当照搬某些具体的方法;张扬师生的生命意义,是理想的教学的发展方向,而不是理解性教学的本质特征。     

A multi-criteria approach for the group assessment of an academic course: A case study

The present paper aims at proposing a structured methodology to evaluate the results of an academic training course addressed to postgraduate students. The evaluation process intends to identify the efficacy of an education course by means of a comparison between the general objectives and the results expected by the students. Since the evaluated aspects by the students, detected by means of questionnaires, are both quantitative and qualitative, the proposed methodology is based on the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). In order to facilitate the evaluation process, answers have been modelled by means of linguistic variables. In particular, different evaluation scales have been used and each one is characterized by different levels associated to different fuzzy numbers.     

Educational opportunities and academic performance: A case study of university student mothers in Venezuela

The transformation of universities from elite to mass models in developing countries has given the opportunity to new social groups to participate in higher education. As a part of this process, diverse groups of students have benefited in different ways from the equal educational opportunities offered to them. In this paper, we approach the problem of institutional efficiency versus social inclusion in a developing country through the case study of the academic performance of a social group of recent participation in a public university in Venezuela, especifically that of student mothers in the Universidad de Los Andes. This work investigates how student mothers make use of the educational opportunities opened to them and how their academic performance is affected by their particular life circumstances. Evidence shows that the academic performance of student mothers is lower than that of other groups of university students. In practice, student mothers participate as part-time students, although this category is not officially recognized by most Venezuelan public universities. Almost all the life circumstances of student mothers negatively affect their academic performance. The only circumstance that contributes positively to the performance of a student mother is the help provided by her extended family in taking care of her children. The fact that student mothers are able to participate in higher education is mainly due to the help they receive from their extended family. This is a distinctive cultural feature associated to this social group in the context of a developing country such as Venezuela.     

A case study of assessment of graduate learning outcomes at the programme,course and task level

A shift in emphasis from educational inputs to academic outcomes as the basis for judgements of educational quality in many parts of the world has intensified efforts to develop assessment practices that provide convincing evidence that students have achieved or made progress towards the graduate learning outcomes specified for a programme of study. Examples of sound and feasible practice are still relatively rare in this area, so when assessment practices observed during the initial stages of an evaluation of a curriculum innovation in an archaeology programme conveyed an impression of unusually high quality, the original evaluation plan was expanded in order to allow further investigation. The resulting case study describes the features that contributed to assessment quality at the programme, course and task level. As the general principles and guidelines for effective practice are comprehensively addressed in current assessment literature, this case has a particular focus on the ‘technical’ such as task analysis and task relationship patterns. Though contextualised in the archaeology discipline, the study seeks to illuminate aspects of practice in terms that enable academics outside this field to identify implications for practice in their own disciplinary or institutional contexts.     

Globalisation,transnational academic mobility and the Chinese knowledge diaspora: an Australian case study

The master discourses of economic globalisation and the knowledge economy each cite knowledge diasporas as vital ‘trans-national human capital’. Based on a case study of a major Australian university, this article examines the potential to deploy China's large and highly-skilled diaspora in the service of Chinese and Australian scientific and technological development. It finds that at a time when much of the world is deeply mired in a global financial crisis, this treasured resource of highly-skilled intellectuals assumes even greater significance. Meanwhile, there are key challenges to be confronted to fully utilise China's overseas talent. It argues that the Chinese knowledge diaspora are a modern kind of cosmopolitan literati, and could contribute actively to higher education internationalisation in both Australia and China.