Collaborative learning: More is not necessarily better

Abstract

What are the effects of distance on collaboration and learner interaction as it relates to women learners in feminist courses? Through personal interviews with nine women from a variety of backgrounds and personal circumstances, I discovered that interaction as an educational issue, strategy, and process is not of primary concern to women distance learners. Significantly less interaction occurred among students and tutors than was anticipated, and the majority of students endorsed the relatively solitary nature of distance study as appropriate and useful for them. Because of the importance of the principle of collaboration to feminist pedagogy, distance educators should clarify, broaden, and adapt their understanding of the concept of learner interaction. We should question our assumptions about the nature, prevalence, and utility of learner interactions, resist applying traditional classroom models to distance contexts, and creatively structure and moderate interactions between learners, tutors, and technology.     

More evidence that cognitive complexity is not loquacity: A reply to Beatty and Payne

Beatty and Payne (1984) recently presented data allegedly demonstrating that assessments of cognitive complexity based on Crockett's popular Role Category Questionnaire (RCQ) are severly confounded by “loquacity,” the simple amount of verbal response to stimuli. The present paper responds critically to the claims of Beatty and Payne, arguing that these researchers employed a flawed measure of loquacity and inappropriate data analytic procedures. In order to better clarify the influence of loquacity on sophisticated social‐cognitive and communicative functioning, two empirical studies are reported in which alternative measures of loquacity were employed. In neither of these studies was loquacity found significantly associated with social‐cognitive or communicative abilities.     

Transformation processes in higher education: More market,less government

Competitively allocated research funds, from both public and private sources, constitute an increasing share of university revenues. The article investigates empirically, using data on the Italian university system, whether structural and strategic features of universities—such as size, age and especially the importance that they assign to their teaching and research missions—affect their success in securing research funds. The analysis shows that universities that strategically prioritize their research mission also obtain higher funds per researcher, from different sources. These results are compared with those obtained by similar studies of other European higher education systems, and some general implications of the introduction of competitive funding mechanisms for university behaviour are derived.     

School choice in England: evidence from national administrative data

We study school choice in England using a new dataset containing the choices of all parents seeking a school place in state secondary schools. We provide new empirical evidence to inform how the school choice market functions, including the number of choices made, whether the nearest school is the first choice and the probability of an offer from the first choice school. These indicators show that school choice is actively used by many households in England. We use the rich data available to describe how choices vary by pupil, school and neighbourhood characteristics and how school choice is used differently by different groups and in different parts of the country. For the first time, we are able to present national data on how the school choices made by parents vary according to pupils’ ethnic group and across urban and rural areas. We show, contrary to some existing literature that has relied on smaller and less representative samples of parents and pupils, that school choices do not vary significantly by social background. We show that parents pro-actively use the choice system and present new evidence on the extent to which the current school admissions criteria that prioritise distance penalise poorer families.     

College-major choice to college-then-major choice: Experimental evidence from Chinese college admissions reforms

One of the most important mechanism design policies in college admissions is to let students choose a college major sequentially (college-then-major choice) or jointly (college-major choice). In the context of the Chinese meta-major reforms that transition from college-major choice to college-then-major choice, we provide the first experimental evidence on the information frictions and heterogeneous preferences that students have in their response to the meta-major option. In a randomized experiment with a nationwide sample of 11,424 high school graduates, we find that providing information on the benefits of a meta-major significantly increased students’ willingness to choose the meta-major; however, information about specific majors and assignment mechanisms did not affect students major choice preferences. We also find that information provision mostly affected the preferences of students who were from disadvantaged backgrounds, lacked accurate information, did not have clear major preferences, or were risk loving.     

Matching-to-sample in pigeons: In the absence of sample memory,sample frequency is a better predictor of comparison choice than the probability of reinforcement for comparison choice

In matching-to-sample, comparison choice should be controlled by the identity of the sample and, when the sample is not available, by the overall probability of reinforcement associated with each of the comparisons. In the present research, pigeons were trained to match a frequent sample (appearing on 80% of the trials) to one comparison (C _fr) and an infrequent sample (appearing on 20% of the trials) to the other (C _inf), with the number of reinforcements associated with each sample equated. In Experiment 1, the task was identity matching; in Experiments 2 and 3, it was symbolic matching. We asked whether, when control of comparison choice by the sample was reduced (by inserting a delay between the sample and the comparisons), pigeons would choose comparisons on the basis of (1) the number of reinforcements per comparison (and thus show no comparison bias), (2) the comparison associated with the more frequent sample during training (and show a preference forC _fr), or (3) the probability of reinforcement given a correct response (and show a preference forC _inf), or (4) inhibition produced by nonreinforced choice of the more frequently correct comparison (and show a preference forC _inf). Pigeons showed a significant tendency to chooseC _fr. In Experiment 3, we showed that this bias did not result from the effects of intertrial facilitation or interference. Thus, it appears that when control of comparison choice by the sample is reduced, pigeons’ choice is controlled not merely by the probability of reinforcement but also by overall sample frequency.     

Pupils’ reading is better in schools with a librarian: evidence from Slovenia (Research Note)

Using data from a representative sample of schools that participated in the IEA International Literacy Study, the importance of the librarian’s contribution to the development of reading was investigated by comparing the reading test results of pupils who did not have access to a professional school librarian. The mean reading test scores obtained by pupils in schools employing a professional librarian (n=86) were found to be significantly higher than those obtained in schools where a teacher was responsible for the school library (n=50).T     

Assistance that fades in improves learning better than assistance that fades out

Instructional Science - When students are solving problems they often turn to examples when they need assistance. Examples are helpful because they illustrate how a problem can be solved. However,...     

浅谈“头发掉得越来越少了”一类句子的特点

通过对“头发掉得越来越少了”一类述补谓语句作多角度的分析，尤其是对歧义的分析来管窥动态句子中形式与意义不相一致的一面。     

论梁晓声《雪城》创作的误区

曾经名噪一时的《雪城》一味地注重个人情感的渲泄，忽视了读者－作 －作品三者有机地结合进而使作品表现手法单一，理 性成分单薄，造成了《雪城》永久的缺憾。     

Culture and country choice of international students: evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to examine the influence of the cultural elements on international students’ country choice. It also examines whether individual values moderate the influence of cultural elements on the country choice of international students. Drawing upon a sample size of 223, the data was analysed using structural equation modelling technique. Among the five cultural elements, education, language and social institutions were found to have a positive significant influence on the international student’s country choice. When moderated by individual values education was found to be the only key significant value to international students when selecting a country to further their education. The cultural elements should be given much attention by marketers, government and managers of academic institutions. An improvement in the standards of education in developing countries would attract more students from developed countries.     

宋代"吏强官弱"现象之探析

宋代吏人势力强盛,以至于官不能制,形成了“吏强官弱”这一普遍现象,它反映出在“士大夫政治,吏人社会”的框架下,官吏之间的剧烈碰撞,文章试图从解析此现象着手,对其产生的原因及影响做一些初步的探讨。