The impact of Israel's class-based affirmative action policy on admission and academic outcomes

In the early to mid-2000s, four flagship Israeli selective universities introduced a voluntary need-blind and color-blind affirmative action policy for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The program allowed departments to offer admission to academically borderline applicants who were above a certain threshold of disadvantage. We examine the effect of eligibility for affirmative action on admission and enrollment outcomes as well as on academic achievement using a regression discontinuity (RD) design. We show that students who were just barely eligible for this voluntary policy had a significantly higher probability of admission and enrollment, as compared to otherwise similar students. The affirmative action program also led to higher rates of admission to the most selective majors. Moreover, after enrollment, AA-eligible students are not falling behind academically, even at the most selective majors. Our results suggest the potential for a long-lasting impact of class-based preferences in admission on social and economic mobility.     

The Mediating Effects of Student Engagement on the Relationships Between Academic Disciplines and Learning Outcomes: An Extension of Holland’s Theory

This research examined the relationships among students?? academic majors, levels of engagement, and learning outcomes within the context of Holland??s person?Cenvironment theory of vocational and educational behavior. The study focused on the role of student engagement as a mediating agent in the relationships between academic majors and student learning. Drawing on data from a stratified random sample of 20,000 seniors who participated in the 2008 National Survey of Student Engagement, results revealed that students?? academic majors were significantly related to levels of engagement and learning outcomes. Student engagement was also significantly related to learning outcomes. Students?? academic majors generally were not indirectly related to learning outcomes through levels of engagement. An important exception to this result was found for students in Enterprising environments where indirect relationships among Enterprising disciplines and Enterprising learning outcomes were positive, statistically significant, and substantially larger than the direct relationship.     

就业单一型专业大学生的就业问题研究

就业单一型专业是指由于专业的行业性、职业性强,就业面狭窄,毕业后只能从事所学专业,否则所学专业就会无用武之地的专业。这部分大学生的就业涉及到行业发展、个人发展和合理利用教育资源的问题,应充分认识这部分大学生就业问题的重要意义,借鉴计划体制下招生的有益做法,适当控制招生规模,在课程设置上重视通识课程、素质教育理论与技能课程,提高就业单一型大学生适应社会的能力,按照专业内就业、专业外就业和继续深造的适当比例分流制定相应的培养计划。     

The combined effect of self-efficacy and academic integration on higher education students studying IT majors in Taiwan

The purpose of this study is to examine the combined effect of self-efficacy and academic integration on higher education students studying IT (Information Technology) majors in Taiwan. We introduced self-efficacy, which is a psychological factor that affects students’ academic outcomes, as a new factor in Tinto’ theory, a well-known framework in student retention research. Academic integration is the main proposition of Tinto’s theory affecting students’ decision to dropout. Students from different populations have various reasons from dropping out of their studies. An examination of the relationship between self-efficacy and academic integration is useful to understand the effect of self-efficacy on academic outcomes on the IT student population in Taiwan. Data from a Taiwanese national survey database conducted in 2005 was used to achieve the research objective. A total of 2,895 records were extracted from 75,084 students in public and private institutions studying in two IT-related Majors, namely Information Management (IM) and Computer Science (CS). MANOVA was used to analyze the interaction effects between academic integration and self-efficacy. The independent variables were institution types and students’ majors. The results showed that students from public institutions have higher levels of self-efficacy than students from private ones. Another finding is that IM students seem to have better study strategies and habits than CS students. However, CS students were found to have better collaboration and satisfaction with their institutions than IM students. Team projects, counselling services, and flexible teaching and learning strategy are suggested to enhance students’ academic integration and self-efficacy.     

Student response to tuition increase by academic majors: empirical grounds for a cost-related tuition policy

This study explored the responses of students in different academic majors to tuition increase, with a particular focus on the relationship between tuition increase, and future earnings and college expenditures. We analyzed effects of tuition increase on enrollment in six academic majors—Engineering, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Business, and Education—where disciplinary enrollment data were available. The main findings are that students are elastic to tuition level in Physics, Biology, and Business, but not in Engineering, where the rate of return is the highest among the six majors and the college expenditure are the highest. The findings suggest that student enrollment in various academic majors is affected differentially by tuition. Further, the findings support a cost-related tuition policy, one designed to charge students higher tuition for higher-cost majors and lower tuition for lower-cost majors.

Does working during higher education affect students’ academic progression?

This paper examines the effect of working during higher education on academic progression, in terms of number of credits acquired by first-year university students in Italy. We discuss different contrasting hypotheses on the role of employment during university on academic outcomes: the zero-sum perspective, the reconciliation thesis, the positive and the negative selection to work hypotheses. In the empirical part we analyze data from the Eurostudent survey, which collected data on a representative sample of university students who were enrolled in the academic year 2002/03, after the implementation of the ‘Bologna Process’. We use a negative binomial regression model considering work experience as an endogenous multinomial treatment. Results indicate that, conditional on observed covariates (socio-demographic variables, school-related and university-related variables), there is a positive self-selection into employment, especially for low-intensity work. Traditional multivariate regressions show a penalty in academic progression only for high-intensity workers, but once accounted for unobserved heterogeneity also the low-intensity work experience appears to negatively affect academic progression.     

Jobs and liberal arts graduates: Some critical relationships

Policy deliberations within the university frequently require information useful in shaping discussion and pointing up priorities. Research work among faculty and graduate students often includes data about alumni, students, or staff gathered to answer theoretical questions. This study reports one effort to translate such data into forms useful to the College of Liberal Arts in creating academic policy to meet the altered job market. Organized around the concepts of jobentry, decisions, andchanges in goals, jobs, and majors, the analysis revealed the urgency of the issue, the importance of a satisfaction on the first job, a changing relationship between jobs and majors, the impact of the liberal arts' study on educational aspirations, and the rationale for choices.     

Students' perceptions of academic dishonesty in the chemistry classroom laboratory

Although the literature on both academic dishonesty and scientific misconduct is extensive, research on academic dishonesty has focused on quizzes, exams, and papers, with the virtual exclusion of the classroom laboratory. This study examined the distinctions undergraduate chemistry majors made between academic dishonesty in the classroom laboratory and scientific misconduct in the research laboratory. Across the spectrum of undergraduate chemistry courses, from the introductory course for first‐semester chemistry majors to the capstone course in instrumental analysis, we noted that students believe the classroom lab is fundamentally different from a research or industrial lab. This difference is so significant that it carries over into students' perceptions of dishonesty in these two environments. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 47–64, 2004     

Comparing Academic Readiness Requirements for Different Postsecondary Pathways: What Admissions Tests Tell Us

Ensuring postsecondary readiness is a goal of K‐12 education, but it is unclear whether high school students should get different messages about the required levels of academic preparation depending on their postsecondary trajectories. This study estimated readiness benchmark scores on a college admissions test predictive of earning good grades in majors associated with middle‐skills occupations at 2‐year postsecondary institutions. Results generally indicated similarity between those scores, the corresponding scores for students preparing for high‐skills jobs requiring a bachelor's degree, and established readiness benchmarks for the general college‐going population. Subsequent analyses revealed small variation between readiness benchmarks for different college majors. Overall, results suggest that high school graduates need a strong academic foundation regardless of the postsecondary path they choose.     

The predictors of academic interest: fluid intelligence,openness, and their interaction

The importance of academic interest has been emphasised in education, both as a construct influencing achievement, and as an important learning outcome. However, psychological predictors such as personality and intelligence that characterise students who become interested in coursework are often neglected. The present study examined the influences of fluid intelligence (Gf) and Openness on academic interest in a large sample of Chinese secondary school students (N?=?836). Latent variable models found that controlling for age and gender, Openness significantly predicted interest in Chinese, mathematics, and English, whereas Gf only significantly predicted Chinese interest. Beyond the main effects, Gf and Openness also had an interaction effect on academic interest but only for Chinese. The findings represent an important contribution to understanding the psychological predictors of academic interest, although the effect sizes were relatively small.     

Stretching the academic harness: knowledge construction in the process of academic mobility in Chile

In this article, we analyse the impact of academic mobility on the construction of knowledge for Chilean scholars who have studied abroad. We conducted 41 semi-structured interviews with Chilean-born scholars in the social sciences and humanities, who accepted jobs at national research universities in Chile after receiving their doctorates abroad. Findings show that international academic mobility allowed these participants to question legitimised ways of doing knowledge, where they can stretch the academic harness that increasingly rules their knowledge construction. Our main argument is that knowledge construction process is neither linear nor unidimensional and it occurs as a rhizomatic process in a multidimensional space.     

Employment and Achievement in a Problem‐Based Curriculum

The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to examine to what extent the time students work on paid jobs is related to study‐time (class attendance and time devoted to self‐study) and second, to what extent the time students work on paid jobs is related to achievement. A number of 120 students from the problem‐based Faculty of Health Sciences in the Netherlands kept a time‐diary. Academic achievement was measured by using scores on the block‐test. The results showed that working about four to eight hours per week on paid jobs (as opposed to working less than four hours per week or to working intensively, more than 8 hours per week) actually is positively related to study‐time. Test‐scores are not significantly different among students who are not working on jobs, work some hours, or work a lot.     

An Internet-based expert system for selecting an academic major: www.MyMajors.com

An expert system is a computer program that emulates the procedures and thought processes by which one or more experts solve problems. This paper describes an Internet-based expert system found at www.MyMajors.com, which provides advice to high school students or college freshmen who are seeking assistance in selecting a potential major. It emulates a professional academic advisor. The on-demand, approximately 15-min consultation gathers information from the student on his or her grades, degree of enjoyment of traditional courses, standardized test scores, interests, and aptitudes. It assesses student qualifications for a variety of majors. The expert system recommends six majors from among 60 widely diverse majors for the students to consider and produces a report that fully describes the students' responses in such a way that the output can be used by a human advisor to further extend and strengthen the advisement process.     

Gender disparities in science and engineering in Chinese universities

Gender disparities in science and engineering majors in Chinese universities have received increasing attention from researchers and educators in China in recent years. Using data from a national survey of college students who graduated in 2005, this study documents gender disparities in enrollment and academic performance in science and engineering majors, and explores gender disparities in initial employment experiences of science and engineering graduates. It finds that females lag far behind males in enrollment in science and engineering majors overall. However, females actually are more represented than males in some majors such as mathematics and chemistry though the reverse is true for other science and engineering majors. Also, in science and engineering majors, females perform better than males in both general course grades and in English competency tests. Male science and engineering graduates have a clear advantage over their female counterparts in initial employment after graduation: they have a high employment rate, a higher starting salary, and are more likely to be employed in such jobs as business management and technical specialist. The male advantage in employment rate and starting salary persists even after controlling for other factors.     

外语专业学生择业取向的实证研究

近年来高校毕业生的就业难的问题已成为社会各界关注的焦点。本文首先调查了外语专业毕业生的就业情况,分析了毕业生就业趋势。其次,调查了外语专业在校生的择业目标、态度和择业取向的影响因素。用KolmogorovSmirnov双样本检验法分析了毕业生就业状况对在校生的择业取向的影响。继而将分析结论与其它专业的在校生择业取向相比...     

Recognition and development of academic talent in educationally disadvantaged students

Abstract

We studied 36 students identified as “educationally disadvantaged” who scored above average on standardized achievement tests and completed a program to reinforce their academic skills in either language arts or mathematics. We pretested and posttested an additional (control) group of 28 students who received no instructional intervention. We found a significant effect of the instructional intervention for both achievement and aptitude test scores in language arts as well as mathematics. Gains in mathematics were significantly greater than in language arts. After instructional intervention, the majority of students were eligible and academically qualified for challenging gifted‐talented programs. These findings are consistent with two other similar research projects using the same instructional program and model, suggesting stability of results. We discuss implications of this study for identifying and developing academic talent in such a population.     

The influence of academic coaching on persistence in online graduate students

ABSTRACT

Scholarly attention to academic learning centers is warranted, as they lack a consistent identity and, consequently, little is known about their effect on meaningful student outcomes. Further, such investigations are warranted in online education, given the greater student needs and dropout rates. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the receipt of academic coaching at an online learning center and persistence in online graduate students using a matched sample and after controlling for demographic and academic variables. After holding months since enrollment and Grade Point Average (GPA) at follow-up constant, visiting the learning center increased the odds of persistence 2.66 times. Compared to students in the matched sample, students who visited the learning center even once were significantly more likely to persist at follow-up. Convergence and divergence of the findings with the scholarly literature is examined with a particular focus on the unique population of online graduate students.     

The effect of web-based portfolio use on academic achievement and retention

The web-based portfolio emerged as a result of the influence of technological developments on educational practices. In this study, the effect of the web-based portfolio building process on academic achievement and retention is explored. For this purpose, a study platform known as a computer-assisted personal development portfolio was designed for 30 Turkish students who participated in a web-based portfolio process. The academic achievements of the students were examined through an experimental design in which participants were divided into an experimental group and a control group and given a pre-test and a post-test. The results of the study revealed that the levels of both academic achievement and retention in the experimental group were significantly higher than those in the control group. Similar practices can be applied to the teaching of medicine, economics, physical sciences, humanities and other subjects in order to extend students?? performance and achievement levels.     

英语专业毕业生就业困境归因与对策

近年来我国高校毕业生在就业市场上面临越来越大的压力,而一度曾经颇受青睐的英语专业毕业生更是遭遇前所未有的就业寒潮。解决大学生就业难的问题需要全社会从宏观到微观各个层面的相互协同,共同努力。同时,大学英语教育必须走出以往的优越感,积极应对挑战。     

Socioeconomic determinants of academic achievement

This study aims to investigate the relationship between academic achievement and the socioeconomic characteristics of elementary school 7th grade students in Burdur. The population of the study are 7th grade students who had education at elementary schools in Burdur in the 2007?C2008 academic year. Two staged sampling was chosen as suitable for the aim of research. In the first stage, settlements were chosen with the random settlement group sampling method. In the second stage, schools in chosen settlements were picked up with the random method considering the number of students who have taken SBS examination. Socioeconomic variables of students generally explain 39.2?% of SBS points of student. When standard beta values are observed, variables which have the most effect on the SBS points of students are: attending a course or having private lessons, father??s education, the average monthly income per capita, attending a course or having private lessons and mother??s education.