Student perceptions of Thai university initiations

Recently there have been several sensational reports of serious consequences of freshmen initiation rites at Thai universities. The purpose of this study was to investigate Thai freshmen students' perceptions of the faculty initiation process. For this study, roughly 1,000 freshmen students took a pre-test during the first week of their initiation and a post-test after the initiations were complete. These tests were administered at 18 universities around Thailand during the first term of the 2007 academic year. The results of the survey suggest that initiations seem to have little effect on student perceptions of themselves, the activities, and their institutions. In conclusion, the university initiation process should be reviewed so that it can better focus on helping students get accustomed to life at the university.     

Student evaluations and the university professor: Caveat professor

Research evaluating student ratings of professors reveals continued controversy. Interpretations of student ratings of professors in terms of face validity are marred by halo affects, the apparent inability of even skilled raters to judge complex behaviors adequately, the salience of personality features in judging tasks, and a host of other variables. Research shows student ratings to be reliable, but design flaws for simple, first order, predictions usually omit the teacher as a cause. Interpretations of research are confusing because of justifications that indiscriminately involve nomological and applied models. Rating scale peculiarities, questionable validity, and scholastic homogeneity lead to diverse professional attitudes towards student opinions of professors, with a learner or consumer emphasis occupying the extremes. Several evaluation schemes are noted along with behaviors that tend to produce favorable student opinions.     

初探创新高校学生党员活动

本文就创新学生党员活动的活动内容、活动形式和活动栽体探讨新时期创新高校大学生党员活动.     

Student note-taking related to university examination performance

Student note-taking is an almost universal activity among university students, yet few naturalistic studies have examined relationships between note-taking practices and subsequent examination performance. Complete sets of notes on an introductory psychology course, involving 75 lectures presented by ten instructors, were obtained from nineteen male and nineteen female students. Notes on ten selected lectures (one per instructor) were analysed, and information derived about class attendance and the quantity, organization, and presentation of the notes. Variables based on this information were then correlated with performance on two three-hour final examination papers (one multiple-choice, one essay). High correlations were found between the quantity of notes and examination performance. Surprisingly, these correlations increased in subsamples consisting of those students who attended class most diligently. The correlations involving the multiple-choice examination tended to be higher than those involving the essay examination, most probably because of wider sampling of lecture content and a more factual orientation in the multiple-choice examination. The results appear to conflict with the advice given in student study guides, many of which suggest that students should be very selective and concise in their note-taking.     

美国高校学生资助体系的目标分析

美国高校的学生资助经过几十年的发展,目前已经形成了一套目标多样、种类齐全、行之有效的"多目标"(Multiple-Purposes)体系.本文考察了美国高校学生资助的目标发展进程,总结并分析了它的目标功能,并对其可能的发展进行探索和分析.     

Student observations: Introducing iPads into university classrooms

This paper explores the growing trend of using mobile technology in university classrooms, exploring the use of tablets in particular, to identify learning benefits faced by students. Students, acting on their efficacy beliefs, make decisions regarding technology’s influence in improving their education. We construct a theoretical model in which internal and external factors affect a student’s self-efficacy which in turn affects the extent of adoption of a device for educational purposes. Through qualitative survey responses of university students who were given an Apple iPad to keep for the duration of a university course we find high levels of self-efficacy leading to positive views of the technology’s learning enhancement capabilities. Student observations on the practicality of the technology, off-topic use and its effects, communication, content, and perceived market advantage of using a tablet are also explored.     

试论大学校长评价

大学校长(团队)是高校精神的塑造和维系者.要正确评价一个大学,首先要正确评价该校的校长.笔者提出将国家高级人才培育基地的核心领军人才校长视为核心人力资本进行评价与激励,使他们视校长这一岗位为毕生珍惜的荣誉,能为大学发展担责,而不仅视之为完成组织任务和自身职业生涯的某个过程,应始终以高度负责任的态度看待大学管理,由此,把评价理论及时引入对大学校长的评估管理之中很有必要.还通过比较国外大学校长评价实践,指出我国大学校长评价中存在的五个问题,并针对这些问题,通过专家访谈、问卷调查提出了相应的评价指标.     

Student teachers and cultural diversity in an Australian regional university

This article examines student teachers' discursive constructions of difference, cultural diversity and race as they write and talk about their cultures and identities in relation to teaching and learning in the first year of a Primary Teaching Degree in a regional Australian university.
The qualitative case study which informs this paper considered the discursive resources that students bring to teacher education from their past experiences and contact with cultural differences in communities, families and schools. It examined various discourses around cultural diversity that are available to them in the teacher education course and how their discursive practices are mediated and reconstructed in the particular university context. A major goal was to explore how universities in largely homogeneous settings might firstly work with the resources that students bring to teacher education and, secondly, assist students to consider the implications of cultural and linguistic diversity for teaching language and literacy.     

网络平台下高校学籍管理的实践与研究

学籍管理是学生在校期间全过程情况的记载和控制,是教学管理工作不可或缺的组成部分,科学合理的管理有利于人才培养的需要。从事学籍管理的工作者应该适应网络化信息化的时代要求,依托网络平台,遵循学籍发展规律,并结合本校的具体情况,引进新思路新方法,从而提高学籍管理工作的效率和水平。     

Student evaluations of university teaching: A cross-cultural perspective

The applicability paradigm developed by Marsh (1981) was used to investigate the validity of a U.S.-developed model of teaching effectiveness and two related questionnaires at campuses in six different countries representing very different cultural, economic, and philosophical traditions. The data supported the reliability, appropriateness, and to some extent the convergent and discriminant validity of the instruments. Similar patterns of item salience and differentiation between “good” and “poor” lecturers were also identified. Thus, the results generally supported the cross-cultural validity of these two instruments and their underlying model of teaching. This research was supported by funding from the Committee on Research and Conference Grants, University of Hong Kong.     

Student engagement and departure intention: an Australian university perspective

This study addresses the departure intentions of an Australian university business student cohort that is characterised by high levels of diversity in pre-entry attributes. The study investigates the level of student engagement using the academic and social integration components of the Student Engagement Questionnaire (SEQ) based on Tinto’s model of institutional departure. The results showed that the pre-entry attributes of students such as gender and low socio-economic status, together with first year of study, were not significant in determining student engagement. There were, however, significant differences in departure intention based on student engagement, particularly in terms of interaction with administrative support services and satisfaction with the educational experience. Overall, the findings support the view that institutional efforts to engage business students in the early stages of their studies minimise the risk of departure.     

Student involvement in university policy groups and resultant attitude change

Expressed satisfaction of university students toward their campus environment was measured before and after three conditions: (1) participation in small-group discussions that had as their purpose the formulation of recommendations to be presented to the university president and the administrative council, (2) participation in small-group discussions that provided students an opportunity to express feelings to each other, and (3) no treatment.Overall satisfaction with the university environment was not altered. Students in the Experimental Group expressed an increased satisfaction with several specific areas of their environment. The findings indicate that students would benefit from programs that allow them to express opinions and ideas concerning changes and development of their environment.     

The Emotionally Affected University Student: support from the university community

The study measured the general attitudes towards disability of academics, administrative staff, and students in a small rural University. Respondents were also asked to comment on the nature of support that might be provided for a student with an emotional disability. There were some significant differences in level and nature of support for students with an emotional disability among academics, administrative staff, and students. These differences were related to the levels of comfort with, and sympathy felt towards, students with an emotional disability. However, overall the results suggest that university students with expressed emotional difficulties are liable to be relatively negatively regarded and are not liable to receive much concrete assistance for the difficulties they face. It is proposed that the data supports the notion that academics, of all the groups measured, are best placed to decide types of support for students with an emotional disability on a case by case basis.     

大学生群体性突发事件的类型与应对机制探索

本文在对近年来我国高校突发事件分析的基础上,围绕大学生群体性突发事件的类型和特点进行研究,重点探索了大学生群体性突发事件发生的原因、应对理念及应对机制的构建。为有效预防大学生群体性突发事件,降低此类事件导致的社会伤害、高校不和谐、个人损害提供了一定的解决思路。     

浅谈当前高校学生党支部建设

高等学校的学生党支部是党在高校的最基层组织,是党联系广大学生的桥梁和纽带。当前加强高校学生党支部建设,对深化高校党建工作,保证党的领导,保持学生党员的先进性、发挥先锋模范作用,加强学生的思想政治教育,推进校风、学风建设具有非常重要的意义。     

Student needs and motives when attending a university: exploring the Syrian case

This paper aims at exploring student needs and motives to pursue higher education in Syria. Based on the model of student buyer behavior developed by Kotler and Fox in 1995, the study focuses on the first step of this model, so-called motives. The study results are based on qualitative data collected by means of semi-structured styles of interviews with 30 current students at three higher education institutions in Syria in the summer of 2010.The study reveals three dimensions of needs and motives. These are: Self needs and motives; Social needs and motives, and Souk (market) needs and motives. Accordingly, several detailed explanations for each dimension concluded from the study are presented. The findings reveal that the three dimensions are important for university students in Syria when attending universities. People responsible for marketing in higher education institutions need to pay attention to understand their students' motives when designing their customer-oriented marketing strategies. Study programs at universities could be designed to better satisfy such needs and motives. This study could provide bases for further research through a replication of the model using the information offered by the survey. Further research could investigate the research questions in a wider student population employing a quantitative approach. The importance of this study comes from the classification of needs and motives into a three-Ss model (Self, Society and Souk). The study also shows originality into understanding motives of Syrian students in attending certain universities in particular.     

Student effort response to shifts in university admission policies

Policies which change the incentives students face are important levers for policymakers to improve learning. I study a statewide postsecondary admissions policy in North Carolina which introduces minimum admission standards for students wishing to attend college in-state. Regression discontinuity estimates show that high school students respond by increasing GPA and decreasing absences and suspensions, suggesting increased engagement. However, I find that the boost in GPA is driven by students substituting away from demanding coursework. Finally, I document stark heterogeneity of response across demographics, as minority and less affluent students have higher effort allocations but do not engage in strategic course-taking.     

Student evaluation of teaching and matters of reliability

The student evaluation of teaching process is generally thought to produce reliable results. The consistency is found within class and instructor averages, while a considerable amount of inconsistency exists with individual student responses. This paper reviews these issues along with a detailed examination of common measures of reliability that are utilised with the instruments. While inter-item consistency of the evaluations has been shown to be high, the agreement between students was shown to be no better than what would be expected by chance, indicating that students do not agree on what they are being asked to evaluate. The reliability measures generated by the student evaluations of teaching are an insufficient foundation for establishing validity. Further, the pattern of reliability indicates that the instruments are generally providing information about students, not instructors.