An Update on the Use of Ranks in Calibrating and Marketing Higher Education

ABSTRACT

An analysis of ranking data, taken from Maclean's magazine's 2001 rankings of the 47 Canadian universities, is presented. Consistent with previous research, the rank data show that the specific measures and indices used by the magazine are inconsistently related to each other and to the universities' final assigned rankings. Some implications for the counselling and welfare of students, with special reference to selected issues in higher education, are outlined. Comparative information from related analyses, involving 2002 rankings of American universities recently published in U.S. News, and 2002 student satisfaction rankings published in the Toronto Globe and Mail, using increasingly popular evaluation indicators, is also presented.     

The Stratification of Students in Israeli Universities: Persistent Outcomes of an Educational Expansion Policy

Expansion trends of higher education systems involve the planned growth of new universities, frequently stratified lower than established ones in academic breadth and excellence as well as in the socio-demographic origins of their students. The persistence of this internal stratification of the university system subsequent to its expansion remains a controversial issue. Between the early and mid-1990s the Israeli Council for Higher Education has expanded the three ‘‘target’’ universities, aimed at peripheral or specific sectors. Compared to the three established elitist institutions, these universities have concentrated on the liberal arts and attracted students of lower social origins. The present study examines the stratification of students into elitist and target universities a few years after this particular expansion policy was abandoned in favor of college accreditation. Though the overall growth rate of university freshmen since 1995 has subsequently declined, the relative share of the target universities is still steadily growing. Our analysis of data from a 1999 national survey of freshmen in all six universities reveals that students of the target universities still tend to originate from lower status groups and ethnic minorities regardless of academic ability. Furthermore, their general study motivations, particular study considerations, and institutional choice orientations are more practical and vocationally oriented than those of students in the elitist universities. It therefore seems that expansion policies of university systems should not overlook their long-term consequences for the stratification of universities and their students.     

Is there a gap between students’ preference and university presidents’ concern over college ranking indicators?: a case study of “College Navigator in Taiwan”

In order to help students make well-informed choices, reliable college ranking systems with comparable information about higher education institutions worldwide have been welcomed by many students. Because traditional college rankings had many methodological problems, a new type of user-based ranking, called “personalized college ranking” started to develop in many nations in the late 1990s. In 2008, Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT), launched a ranking project called “College Navigator in Taiwan” which developed the first Asian student-based college search engine to provide local and international students with transparent information on Taiwan’s higher education institutions. The main objective of this paper, therefore, is to compare the rational, strategies and pathways for establishing personalized college rankings. In order to analyze the gap between students’ preferences and university presidents’concerns over ranking indicators, HEEACT’s “College Navigator in Taiwan” is adopted as a case study at the end of paper.     

New Learning Environments and Constructivism: The Students’ Perspective

Research into students’ perceptions of their learning environments reveals the impact of these perceptions on the way students cope with these learning environments. Consequently, students’ perceptions affect the results of their learning. This study aims to investigate whether students in a new learning environment (NLE) perceive it to be more constructivist when compared with the perceptions students have of a conventional lecture-based environment. Using a questionnaire consisting of seven key factors of constructivist learning environments, the results show that students in the NLE perceive it to be more constructivist when compared to the perceptions of students in a conventional lecture-based environment. The difference was statistically significant for four of the seven factors. According to the effect size, as measured by the d-index, the difference in perception between the two groups was greatest for the factor ‘conceptual conflicts and dilemmas’. in final form: 31 May 2005     

Managing differentiation of higher education system in Japan: connecting excellence and diversity

This article presents recent reform processes in Japanese higher education, concerning the tensions emerging within the system regarding ‘excellence’ and ‘diversity’. The article particularly focuses on how Japanese universities have reacted to the recent ‘competition’ and ‘differentiation’ policy promoted by the government, drawing on recent survey results conducted with academic managers at Japanese universities. It is interesting to examine the case of Japan, a historically diversified and differentiated national system, which has been changing rapidly with recent national ‘top-down’ policy reforms, followed by more recent and new bottom-up institutional initiatives. The study shows that universities are trying to achieve excellence, fulfilling different functions at the same time, aspiring to be excellent in teaching, research and social contribution without having institutional capacity to meet these expectations. Appropriate internal governance and external mediation mechanisms need to be created at the institutional level to manage diversification of the higher education system as a whole.     

Making the most of the mosaic: facilitating post-school transitions to higher education of disadvantaged students

Research studies of post-school education and training conducted in Australia and internationally have revealed a mosaic of students’ education and employment experiences, with a multiplicity of nonlinear pathways. These tend to be more fragmentary for disadvantaged students, especially those of low socio-economic background, rural students, and mature aged students seeking a ‘second chance’ education. Challenges faced by students in their transitions to higher education are made more complex because of the intersection of vertical stratification created by institutional and sectoral status hierarchies and segmentation, especially relating to ‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ education and training, and the horizontal stratification of regional, rural and remote locations in which students live. If we are to achieve the equity goals set by the Bradley Review (Bradley et al., Review of Australian Higher Education Final Report, 2008) we need to acknowledge and work with the complex realities of disadvantaged students’ situations, starting at the school level. Interrelated factors at the individual, community and institutional level which continue to inhibit student take-up of higher education places are discussed in the context of discursive constructions of ‘disadvantage’ and ‘choice’ in late modernity. Research highlights the need to facilitate students’ post-school transitions by developing student resilience, institutional responsiveness and policy reflexivity through transformative education.     

Online self-assessment with feedback and metacognitive knowledge

The present work describes an experience of educational innovation in a university context. Its aim was to determine the relationship between students’ frequency of use of online self-assessment with feedback and their final performance on the course, taking into account both learners’ motivation and perceived usefulness of these resources for their learning process. Furthermore, we studied the relationship between metacognitive variables and academic performance and/or execution of activities aimed at learning the course content. To this end we created self-assessment material with the Hot Potatoes educational program and assessed the degree to which students took advantage of the tool, their satisfaction with it and their perceived knowledge, using ad hoc questionnaires. The results indicate better academic performance in those students that use interactive self-assessment. It should be pointed out that even students with low motivation levels made use of this teaching tool. Finally, a relationship was found between metacognitive variables and students’ effort and performance. We discuss the need to include self-assessment in the curriculum, with a view to improving students’ metacognitive knowledge.     

University decision making and prestige: An empirical study

In this paper, we examine the factors that influence the reputation or prestige of universities. We first develop a model of university behaviour which indicates how the decisions made by university officials would be chosen in order to maximize their respective reputations. In doing so, we assume that reputation is enhanced by the quality of students produced, the caliber of research and the service provided to the community in terms of the provision of publicly funded education services. We argue that the relative weights placed on these intermediate outputs may vary by university type as well as the means of producing them. Using the results of the reputational survey – a ranking of the institution in terms of reputation – conducted as part of the Canadian magazine Maclean’s overall ranking exercise, we then estimate an Error Correction—Ordered Probit Model of the rankings of Canadian universities to determine the factors that influence the change in reputation or “prestige” of the university as viewed by the external community. We find evidence that the change in reputation of a university is based on what might be considered the appropriate “signals” that one might use in estimating the respective quality of the institution given the respective differences in mission.     

Higher education and UK elite formation in the twentieth century

This study examines the proposition that mass higher education is, in practice, less a network of more or less homogeneous activities than a series of concentric circles in which elite institutions remain at the centre, but are surrounded by increasingly wide bands of universities and colleges, that are less and less likely to set graduates on the road to elite status the further they are from the centre. After a brief review of the classical and subsequent literature on elites and elite formation, the empirical study uses data from the very long established annual publication Who’s Who to make a quantitative analysis of the higher education background of all 120,000 Who’s Who entries born in the twentieth century. It finds that Oxford and Cambridge remained the dominant route to elite status throughout the century, though their share fell from about a third to about a quarter of the total. There were big rises in the contribution of other leading universities that have come to be known as the ‘Russell Group’. An analysis by main occupational categories shows that the political elite broadened its educational catchment area more than other groups. The so-called ‘public’ (i.e. independent) secondary schools also continued to make contributions much larger than their numbers warrant. The main conclusions are that Bourdieu’s notion of ‘symbolic capital’ offers a useful contribution to the interpretation of the continued dominance of well-known high status universities, and that while there was considerable change throughout the century, in general it followed the British tradition of being evolutionary and slow. In policy terms it concluded that the present government is justified in seeking both to widen participation generally and simultaneously to increase the number of people from modest economic and social backgrounds who attend the high prestige universities.     

The nature and implications of the growing importance of research grants to Canadian universities and academics

This paper analyzes a significant but virtually unexplored recent development within Canadian higher education, namely the growing importance of research grants to universities and academics. It addresses three main questions. First, the paper examines why and how research grants are becoming more important to Canadian universities and academics, focusing in particular on the role played by federal higher education policy. Next, it explores how the growing importance of research grants is transforming relations between and among the key players in Canadian higher education and academic research, including university administrators, academics, government, and the broader community. The paper’s final section takes up some of the actual and potential implications of these changes and raises concerns about detrimental effects on Canada’s universities and citizens. Prospects and possibilities for reform are also addressed.     

Explorations of a Paradox in Curriculum Control: Resistance to Open-ended Science Inquiry in a School for Self-directed Learning

Despite official government srt (in various jurisdictions around the world) for providing students with opportunities to construct their own knowledge within the context of formal schooling, school science systems continue to place greatest priority on teaching and learning of products of science (e.g., laws and theories), while compromising students’ opportunities to develop realistic conceptions about science and expertise for doing science. Based on qualitative data analyzed using constant comparative methods (based on constructivist grounded theory), we found this also to be the case – paradoxically – in a school belonging to the Canadian Coalition for Self-directed Learning (CCSDL). Schools in this coalition espouse, among various goals, enabling students to construct their own knowledge, in ways and directions suiting their individual needs, interests, perspectives, and abilities, in addition to gaining access to knowledge developed by society. The science department within the coalition school in this study experienced considerable difficulty realizing this goal, despite school-level administrative support for a concerted effort to reinvent itself along these lines. Factors that appeared to influence the science department’s efforts included those in each of Schwab’s (1969) educational "commonplaces;” that is, the curriculum, teachers, students, and the milieu surrounding teaching and learning. Further analysis suggests that results can be explained through reference to a Kuhnian (1962/1996) paradigm conflict – in which the school’s administrative and curricular committee and other members of the CCSDL were unsuccessful in convincing members of the science department (who, in turn, appeared to be supported by the provincial government, parents, and students) to make provisions for more student-directed, openended science inquiry. Assuming that student-led scientific inquiry continues to be an important curricular goal, efforts must continue to be made, therefore, to convince members of the mainstream paradigm that it is a worthy goal.     

Obtaining a picture of undergraduate education quality: a voice from inside the university

This study aims to construct ranking indicators from the perspective inside of the university and shift the ranking target from overall university quality to undergraduate education quality. In dealing with the complexity of the concept of undergraduate education quality, two-stage questionnaire survey was conducted to gain comprehensive opinions from 20 higher education evaluation experts. The Fuzzy Delphi Method then was introduced to perform data analysis and help final indicator selection as well as the distribution of weights. The results compared with ranking systems conducted by US NEWS and Guardian showed weighting differences and greater comprehensiveness in terms of the types of measures, sources of data and different perspectives from the students, employers and the academics. Most important of all, this study provided a more transparent ranking system and detailed ranking methodology that are crucial for users’ understanding and use of the ranking system.     

Transforming an Introductory Programming Course: From Lectures to Active Learning via Wireless Laptops

Within the framework of MIT’s course 1.00: Introduction to Computers and Engineering Problem Solving, this paper describes an innovative project entitled: Studio 1.00 that integrates lectures with in-class demonstrations, active learning sessions, and on-task feedback, through the use of wireless laptop computers. This paper also describes a related evaluation study that investigated the effectiveness of different instructional strategies, comparing traditional teaching with two models of the studio format. Students’ learning outcomes, specifically, their final grades and conceptual understanding of computational methods and programming, were examined. Findings indicated that Studio-1.00, in both its extensive- and partial-active learning modes, enhanced students’ learning outcomes in Java programming. Comparing to the traditional courses, more students in the studio courses received “A” as their final grade and less failed. Moreover, students who regularly attended the active learning sessions were able to conceptualize programming principles better than their peers. We have also found two weaknesses in the teaching format of Studio-1.00 that can guide future versions of the course.     

Analysis of Korean students’ international mobility by 2-D model: driving force factor and directional factor

The purpose of this study is to understand the dynamics of Korean students’ international mobility to study abroad by using the 2-D Model. The first D, the driving force factor, explains how and what components of the dissatisfaction with domestic higher education perceived by Korean students drives students’ outward mobility to seek foreign higher education. The second D, the directional factor, describes the factors that influence the choice of destination country for students’ outward mobility, and is explained by the comparison of Korean students’ perceptions on the images of universities in the U.S., China, the U.K., and Australia and their expectations for higher education in each country (categorized as ‘academic’–‘environmental’). Two questionnaire surveys were conducted to analyze the two D factors and the research findings were integrated into suggestions for each country’s higher education institutions that can be incorporated into their recruitment strategies for international students.

Do university rankings matter? A qualitative exploration of institutional selection at three southern Ontario universities

Concern with university rankings have become widespread throughout post-secondary education (PSE), fuelled in part by administrative concerns that demotions down the rank ladder will produce negative institutional outcomes. There is reason to believe, however, that ranking ‘effects’ may be partially muted in Canadian PSE due to the (1) national system’s flatter hierarchical structure and (2) the generally inconsistent findings produced by domestic research on rankings. Through this study, we provide a qualitative analysis of how rankings shaped the institutional selection processes of 90 undergraduate students across three universities in southern Ontario, Canada. Our data indicate that these students rarely consulted ranking publications, relying instead on reputational information available through their informal networks (e.g. peers, family). We theorise that the unique structural characteristics of Canadian PSE minimise the influence of rankings within this jurisdiction, and discuss the practical implications of this finding for both scholars and administrators.     

A preliminary research on middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and its major influential factors

This study is conducted with self-developed questionnaire on 910 middle school students, aimed at describing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being and exploring its influential factors. Results show that (1) Academic subjective well-being of middle school students is generally low and there exist differences in different schools and grades. Students from non-key middle schools have lower academic subjective well-being than those from the key schools. Grade 2 students in both junior and senior middle schools have the lowest academic subjective well-being. (2) Factors directly affecting middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are academic experience and the present academic achievements · · with the former playing a major role. (3) Factors indirectly influencing middle school students’ academic subjective well-being are social pressure and expected academic achievements, both of which influence students’ academic subjective well-being through students’ academic experience or their present academic achievements. __________ Translated from Educational Research and Experiment, 2004:4     

Preparing special educators to teach reading and use curriculum-based assessments

Preparing special educators who are knowledgeable about evidence-based interventions for teaching reading to students with reading difficulties and who are capable of using curriculum-based assessments to monitor student progress and differentiate interventions is vital to the success of current school reform efforts. The primary purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the effect of tutoring and using assessment to monitor the progress of struggling readers on preservice teachers’ (PSTs’) knowledge and preparedness to teach reading. Also of interest was whether reading scores of tutored students improved. PSTs (n = 18) in an undergraduate reading methods course tutored at-risk second graders using an evidence-based intervention and monitored students’ progress weekly. PSTs made significant growth on a measure of teacher knowledge about the structure of language and on a survey of their preparedness to teach reading. A qualitative analysis of PSTs’ weekly reflections and final reports revealed that the majority used curriculum-based assessment data to describe students’ response to tutoring and were beginning to use that data to make instructional decisions. On average, tutored students improved reading fluency, but did not demonstrate significant growth in reading relative to national norms. Implications and limitations of the study are described and directions for future research are discussed.     

Consistent results with the consistency hypothesis? The effects of epistemic beliefs on metacognitive processing

We explored relations between students’ epistemic beliefs, metacognitive monitoring and recall performance in the context of learning physics through metaphor. Eighty-three university undergraduate students completed questionnaires designed to measure their epistemic beliefs and prior knowledge about Newtonian physics. Students were epistemically profiled as rational, empirical, or metaphorical in their approaches to knowing. Using a think-aloud protocol, students read a text on Newton’s First and Third Laws. The text included metaphors as examples of the various laws described. Results revealed that students profiled as metaphorical engaged in more metacognitive processing compared to students profiled as rational or empirical. Moreover, path analyses revealed that metacognitive monitoring positively predicted recall performance. Results challenge Muis’ (2008) consistency hypothesis; the ways in which knowledge is represented in text may be the linking factor for relations between metacognitive monitoring and epistemic beliefs rather than the underlying epistemology of the domain.     

TEACHING SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN SCIENCE STUDIES: DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

This study explores the impact of ‘Scientific Communication’ (SC) skills instruction on students’ performances in scientific literacy assessment tasks. We present a general model for skills instruction, characterized by explicit and spiral instruction, integration into content learning, practice in several scientific topics, and application of performance tasks. The model was applied through an instructional program that focuses on the following learning skills: information retrieval, scientific reading and writing, listening and observing, data representation, and knowledge presentation. Throughout the 7th–8th grades, 160 students learned the whole program or one of its components: structured instruction (SI) of SC skills, or performance tasks (PT). A comparison group of 42 students did not receive instruction of SC skills. Students’ performances were assessed through a questionnaire and a complex task that measured students’ scientific content knowledge, SC skills, and the quality of the final products. Results indicated that students who learned the whole program or one of its components achieved higher scores in all categories than the comparison group students. High achievers can benefit from just one component of the program: either structured instruction (SI) or learning from practice (PT). However, they can hardly acquire SC skills spontaneously. Low and average achievers require both components of the SC program to improve their performances. Results show that without planned intervention, the spontaneous attainment of SC skills occurs only to a limited extent. Systematic teaching of skills can make a significant difference. The explicit instruction of skills integrated into scientific topics, the opportunities to implement the skills in different contexts, the role of performance tasks as ‘assessment for learning’—all these features are important and necessary for improving students’ scientific literacy. Our general model of skills instruction can be applied to the instruction of other high-order skills. Its application can lead to the realization of the central goal of science education: literate students possessing scientific knowledge.