“Time is not on our side”: Cultural vs. structural explanations of black American women students' achievement in the urban,nonelite university

Drawing primarily on 42 in-depth interviews with working-, lower-, and underclass black American women students at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH), this article challenges the cultural argument that credits black women students' lower educational achievement to their adherence to oppositionalcultural forms and a preindustrial time sense that inhibits success in higher educational contexts. It argues such an explanation gives too much autonomy to culture while failing to situate the everyday responses of working-class black women students within the complex of race, class, and gender forces that affect them. Documenting that urban, nonelite university black women students are bound up in that stratification complex such that they come to the university while attempting to cope with financial hardship and heavy employment loads, I suggest the individual costs they pay are much less time to devote to academic activities and, hence, lower academic achievement.     

Policies in American external study: Credit for extra‐institutional learning

Colleges and universities in the United States award credit for extra‐institutional learning to adult students in residential and external degree programmes. This policy is examined in its various forms. In addition the relationship of US independent study to external degrees is discussed. Reasons for evolutionary differences in distance education in Australia and North America are also explored.     

Nurturing moments of transformation in teachers – comparative perspectives on the challenges of professional development

This article discusses teachers' views of their own learning. Two groups of teachers attending graduate programmes in Seattle, Washington in the United States of America (USA) and Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom (UK), participated in a project that encouraged them to discuss examples of effective professional development. The teachers from the UK were enrolled on a Masters degree course for staff working with pupils with autism. The teachers from the USA were enrolled on a Masters degree course specifically focused upon working with children who have moderate to severe difficulties. Both groups of teachers were working, at least for a portion of their timetables, with pupils who had low incidence disabilities. Phyllis Jones, of the University of South Florida, Elizabeth West, from the Department of Special Education at Boise State University, and Dana Stevens, who is working on her PhD in special education at the University of Washington, analysed the critical moments of professional development identified by the teachers in both contexts. Four themes emerged: seeing the relationship between theory and practice, the role of the professor or lecturer in mediating learning, learning from others and reflecting in action. In this article, the authors analyse the themes in relation to the subtle differences that occurred within, and across, the two contexts. This analysis will assist in the design of quality professional development opportunities that reflect teachers' voices. Teachers make meaning of their learning in highly personal ways and, although it is possible to nurture formalised learning opportunities, teacher educators need to be constantly aware of the contextual and personal meaning making that is at play.     

美国大学的财务报告公开制度与启示——以加州州立大学长滩分校为例

财务报告公开制度在美国是大学的例行做法.本文以加州州立大学长滩分校(csuLB)为例,分析了美国大学面向全社会公开财务报告的框架与核心内容,提出了这种制度在财务报告公开方式、大学"取信于民"的有效途径、促进学校依法理财和规范管理、补充"三位一体"会计监督体系等四个方面的借鉴与启示.     

Community-embedded learning experiences: putting the pedagogy of service-learning to work in online courses

This paper considers the applicability and adaptability of service-learning pedagogy to online and distance education teaching environments. More specifically, it looks at the community-embedded learning model (CEL), which asks distance students to conduct service projects in their local communities, as manifested in a project undertaken by online graduate students in the library science programme at Appalachian State University, a mid-sized university in the United States of America. For this assignment, students, who are located throughout the state of North Carolina and surrounding areas, performed service work in libraries located within their own communities and neighbourhoods, coming together to discuss their experiences in regular synchronous course meetings conducted online. In addition to describing this project, this paper will offer analysis of student reflections, describing what students perceived as challenging, important and rewarding about the experience. Through this study, the researchers highlight the potential value of community-embedded learning experiences for classes conducted in online environments.     

State authorization reciprocity agreement: participation and access to higher education

The State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement initiative was launched in 2014 to provide a uniform standard for the regulation of distance education across states in the United States. The system established by the National Council for State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (NC-SARA) allows willing post-secondary institutions to participate voluntarily through a member state where their home campus is located. Since implementation, several states and institutions in the approved states have joined the interstate agreement. About 36 states and 613 institutions in the United States are participating in the interstate agreement as of January 2016. This study analyzed the pattern of participation among various institution types (public, private for-profit and private not-for-profit) and finds that participation amongst states and institutions has continued to increase since implementation of the interstate agreement. With the flexibility that distance learning offers, increased participation in SARA may translate into greater opportunities for participation in higher education.     

UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES ABROAD ‐ EVALUATION IN THE CONTEXT OF US HIGHER EDUCATION

In analyzing international student mobility, there is a question which is important from the point of view both of the individuals concerned and of society: what is the value of study abroad? The following article deals with the evaluation of student experience in programmes of undergraduate studies abroad within the context of higher education in the United States.

The article is based on a paper written by W. Frank Hull IV, Associate Research Educator, office of the Chancellor, University of California, Santa Barbara, which was presented at the US International Studies Association in February 1978, in a session entitled “Taking the Measures of Undergraduate Study Abroad, Research and Evaluation”.     

Staff meetings: Planning meaningful curriculum

Young children of the 80s feel a lack of involvement of significant others in their lives. They perceive the world as a place where important adults are not seriously involved in their lives even if the same adults would describe themselves as being very caring about their children. The reasons for this perception were developed in a Children of the 80s seminar at California State University, Fresno recently.Doris O. Smith is Coordinator of the Early Childhood Education Program of the School of Education and Human Development at California State University in Fresno.     

Safety concepts and early childhood education: An integrated curriculum

In the United States injuries are the leading cause of death and disability in all children after the first year of life. The National Safety Council has indicated that children from birth to four years of age are at greater risk than any other age for injuries and deaths due to poisoning and ingestions, burns, and drownings.E. Audrey Clark is Professor and Chairperson, Department of Home Economics, California State University, Northridge, CA. Robert A. Simmons is Program Director, Just Say No International. Dr. Simmons was working with the American Lung Association of Los Angeles County at the time this curriculum was developed.     

Development of a Higher Educational Programme in China: The Hong Kong experience

The aim of this paper is to describe the authors' experiences in planning and developing construction-related postgraduate degree programmes for the China Mainland using guided distance learning as the mode of study. The Master/Postgraduate Diploma in Project Management offered by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is presented as a case study. China has a large and expanding market for construction-related postgraduate degree programmes in the next decade because of the projected substantial economic development in the country. It is argued that factors such as cultural contexts, social settings and thresholds of affordability of local Chinese students must be carefully considered before educational programmes of any significance can be launched in the China Mainland. The paper draws upon the authors' experiences in planning and development of the postgraduate programme, to illustrate the major considerations which should be taken into account by the host academic institutions, particularly at the programme planning stage.     

Entrepreneurial studies in higher education

Entrepreneurship is relatively new as a subject of formal study in universities. Its teaching can be traced back to 1947. Since then, the subject has caught on, and in the 1980s and 1990s, there was a veritable explosion in such offerings at universities in the United States. The subject came to Europe rather late, but here, too, courses and programmes are becoming increasingly numerous, particularly in the United Kingdom but also, now, in Belgium and in Germany. University programmes in Entrepreneurship can be “focused” or “university wide”. University‐wide programmes can be “magnet programmes” or “radiant programmes”. The author presents and describes these different kinds of programmes and cites examples of their implementation in different universities in Germany and abroad. Such education, she feels, will gain great importance in the Twenty‐First Century; however, courses will require innovative funding methods and, particularly, a great deal of private funding.     

Understanding the contexts in which we work

Open and distance learning is experiencing rapid growth throughout the world. China in particular is undergoing a massive expansion of its distance EFL programmes. This global phenomenon challenges all those involved in delivering distance learning materials to examine current practice and the assumptions and expectations that underlie it, with particular regard to the factors influencing approaches to learning, not least the extent of the effect of differing cultural backgrounds. The cross‐cultural study which forms the subject of this paper investigates foreign language students in two very different open and distance learning cultures, The Open University, United Kingdom and the Shantou Radio and TV University, China. It seeks to investigate different attitudes to the distance teaching of languages as spelt out in the two groups’ answers to questions relating to beliefs, difficulties and learning strategies.     

Investigating teachers’ professional learning in an advanced Master’s degree programme

This study examined how multiple measures can be used to study experienced teachers’ learning. The study was conducted in an advanced Master’s degree programme, aligned with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in the United States. The programmatic features and key learning experiences found in the programme are described and connected to the multiple measures used to investigate teachers’ professional learning. Results of the study indicated that multiple measures can be used to examine a programme’s effects on teacher learning; prompted reflections can provide evidence of a programme’s influence on teacher thinking; and programme structure and content are important elements to consider when designing and assessing programmes for experienced teachers. This study also addresses how building a programme around measurable outcomes and then examining the results through multiple measures is an important link in understanding teacher learning.     

A model for the use of achievement data and time data in an instructional system

This paper considers both theoretical and practical issues involving the use of different kinds of achievement data and time data in evaluating an instructional system. A definition of an instructional system is proposed, as well as a model for considering the use of achievement data and time data for decision-making with regard to instruction, students, and tests. Particular emphasis is placed upon the use of data to identify instruction that requires revision.A previous version of this paper was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association held in New Orleans in February, 1973. The previous version was entitled: The Use of Test Data in Non-Traditional Instruction. The research reported herein was partially supported by grants from the United States Office of Education, QEG-2-2-2B118, and the Research Foundation of the State University of New York, No. 0477-03-031-71.State University of New York at Stony Brook     

Youth voices: connections between history, enacted culture and identity in a digital divide initiative

The design of educational experiences is often mediated by historical, institutional, and social conceptions. Although these influences can initially shape the way that educational opportunities are created and implemented, this preliminary form has the potential to reorganize. In this paper, we illustrate how history shows its presence in the ways that instructors systematically arrange a technology course for urban youth. This original approach to the course inhibits youth participation. Incrementally, however, the cultural enactments of instructors and students lead to a reorganization of activity. Through highlighting history and examining the intersection of culture, we provide insight into the ways in which adolescents of color become successfully engaged in learning technology. We focus our study by asking how co-existence and the dialectic of structure and agency play a role as youth develop an identity as a technology user. Further, this emergent learning design affords outsiders a unique view of the educational and contextual experiences of these youth. Our illustration of how history, enacted culture and identity mediate the emergent learning design stems from a grounded theory approach to analyzing video, interview and artifact data in this after-school technology course.

The effect of computer-mediated collaborative learning on solving III-defined problems

The positive effects of collaborative learning in a face-to-face environment are well known. However, little empirical research exists to determine if such effects transfer to a computer-mediated environment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of computer-mediated collaboration on solving ill-defined problems. Participants first worked through a Web-based instructional program that taught them a four-step problem-solving process. Then they worked in computer-mediated dyads or alone to apply the steps to solve a realistic problem scenario. Results indicated that participants who worked in computer-mediated collaborative dyads performed significantly better than did participants who worked alone. The results also indicated that dyads spent significantly more time than participants in the individual treatment. Both treatment groups had positive attitudes toward working collaboratively, Internet-based instruction, and transfer of problem-solving skills. Implications for the implementation of computer-mediated collaboration in distance learning are discussed. During article preparation, he was a PhD student at Arizona State University (ASU), Tempe. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Air Force, Department of Defense, or the United States government.     

Theoretical Eclecticism in the College Classroom

In this article we argue that student learning is enhanced by theoretical eclecticism, which we define as intentionally drawing on different theories of learning when making instructional decisions to provide students with the instructional support they need to be successful. We briefly review the literature on four views of learning and on learner-centered approaches to instruction and then integrate this literature with Barr and Taggs (1995) distinction between the instruction paradigm and the learning paradigm. Finally, we present examples from a teacher education course to illustrate how theoretical eclecticism can be used to support student learning.Anastasia S. Morrone is the Executive Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning and an Associate Professor of Educational Psychology in the School of Education at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She received her B.S. degree in Technical Communication from the University of Minnesota and her Ph.D. degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. Her research interests center around instructional practices that promote college student motivation and learning. Terri A. Tarr is the Director of the Instructional Design and Development unit of the Center for Teaching and Learning and the Director of Associate Faculty Development at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. She is also an adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Psychology. She earned the Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from Purdue University as well as an M.A. in School Psychology and a B.A. in Psychology from Ball State University. Her special interests are individual differences in learning and effective practices in faculty development     

THE TEAM APPROACH TO INSTRUCTIONAL TELEVISION PRODUCTION: AN AMERICAN VIEW

Instructional television (ITV) is most likely to be successful when resulting from the coordinated efforts of a team of capable specialists, but the contributions of such specialists are frequently overlooked, oversimplified or perceived too late. The team or task force assigned to the organization and development of a televised teaching project should consist of (1) a specialist in the psychology of learning, (2) a content specialist/writer, (3) a production specialist, (4) a TV engineer, and (5) a research and evaluation specialist. Each of these specialists, when properly trained and experienced, can play a unique and significant part in the creation of effective ITV materials. It is possible for some of the roles to be combined, but this can be disadvantageous.

Public television stations in the United States have not made extensive use of the specialist team approach, for reasons of economy, scarcity of personnel and constraints of time and scheduling, but it is notable that the best known and apparently most effective producers of ITV programmes have used the specialist team approach. Amongst these successful users are the British Open University, the Children's Television Workshop, the Agency for Instructional Television, the University of Mid‐America and a few other large ITV consortia. Benefits to be derived from the specialist team approach should be carefully considered by all those engaged in the preparation not only of ITV programmes but also other audiovisual materials and multi‐media courses.     

Assuring Quality in Collaborative Distance Education Programmes: The Experience of the University of Texas System TeleCampus

In 1997, the University of Texas (UT) System initiated the development of the UT TeleCampus, a centralized facilitation point for distance learning. The TeleCampus opened its virtual doors in May 1998. At the start, its focus was entirely on support services for students. By late 1998, however, the TeleCampus had begun developing what would become collaborative benchmark on-line programmes for the UT System. Since then, in developing more than twelve complete on-line degree programmes, the administrators of the TeleCampus have learned lessons about creating and maintaining quality in collaborative, Web-based, distance, for-credit, education courses and degree programmes. Some of the key issues arising from the collaborative nature of these programmes and methods that are used to ensure that each course meets a high-quality standard are discussed.     

Ethnic minorities in higher education adapting to a new social system

This paper presents preliminary findings of a longitudinal study that focuses on the dynamic interaction between an individual of a minority culture and a new social system. Observations and clinical implications are reviewed within a cognitive/psychosocial model.Students of Mexican extraction (nth generation citizens of the United States) are a distinct minority at the University of California, Berkeley. Of the approximately 30,000 students enrolled in 1980 — when this study was begun — only about 660 (2.2 percent) were identified as being Mexican-Americans.