Policy change in Austrian higher education: indications of a new approach

Despite significant expansion in participation over the last three decades, Austrian higher education has been slow to change either its elitist self-concept or structure. But, as is the case elsewhere, the Austrian academic community is beginning to be confronted with such concepts as efficiency, strategic planning, deregulation, and performance evaluation. Inadequate admission policies, extreme overcrowding, and high dropout rates are but three factors placing pressure on Austrian higher education to reform. The system is not only in need of increased budget allocations, but also requires new policies to guide it into the 21st Century.     

Socialist mathematics education: Does it exist?

A recent book by Frank Swetz and others has postulated the existence of the phenomenon socialist mathematics education. In this paper we consider critically Swet's arguments and assertions and suggest an alternative methodology whereby one might attempt to describe socialist mathematics education.     

The cultural grid: A framework for multicultural counseling

The Cultural Grid suggests a structure for interpreting a person's behavior in the context of culturally learned expectations. When two persons' expectations are similar, but their behaviors are dissimilar, cross cultural misunderstanding is likely to result. When their expectations are dissimilar, the result is likely to be a personal misunderstanding even though their behaviors are similar. This article introduces a framework for differentiating personal and cultural differences in the interview which is essential for appropriate multicultural counseling. The alternatives are to allow apparent and obvious cultural differences to mask underlying personal differences or to incorrectly assume that two persons who appear culturally similar are having a personal disagreement.     

The use of examples in expository texts: Outline of an interpretation theory for text analysis

Much has been made about the difficulties students have in transferring their learning from one context to another. We suggest that students learning from examples use imitation, a subtype of analogical problem solving (APS). Whereas APS involves manipulating a mental representation, imitation involves mapping the surface features of a source example to a target problem and no assumptions are made about what a student knows. Often imitating a close variant of a source problem is likely to be relatively successful; however, trying to solve a distant variant by imitating an example creates difficulties in mapping values and adapting the source example to the target. In this paper we argue that some students' inability to transfer their learning is very often due to the teaching material rather than any failure on the part of the student. To this end, we have developed an interpretation theory based on the proportional analogy framework (a:b::c:d) which can be applied to text analysis. The theory is demonstrated using examples taken mainly from computer programming textbooks.     

The Pseudo-Conceptual and the Pseudo-Analytical Thought Processes in Mathematics Learning

This paper suggests a theoretical framework to deal with some well known phenomena in mathematical behavior. Assuming that the notions conceptual and analytical are clear enough in the domain of mathematical thinking, the notions pseudo-conceptual and pseudo-analytical are proposed and explained. Examples from mathematics classrooms, mathematics exams, and homework assignments are analyzed and discussed within the proposed theoretical framework.The notions pseudo-conceptual and pseudo-analytical proposed in this paper, actually narrow the extension of the notion cognitive by restricting it to the domain of meaningful contexts. Analysis of meaningless behaviors, it is claimed, requires a different theoretical framework. The attempt to analyze meaningless behaviors in the same way as meaningful behaviors is called here the cognitive approach fallacy.     

Making connections: the logical structuring of hypertext documents

The results from an experiment analysing hypertextual semantic linking is reported. In the study participants are asked to describe logical relationships between related, semi-related and unrelated paragraphs of text. It is concluded that existence and themes of relationships are (as expected) fairly consistently recognised, however, specific relationships do not readily fall into natural predicate like statements. Purely thematic relationships, or a palette of available relationships might be the more practical approach. Further work on dynamic linking in hypertext documents is also reported. Dynamic linking eliminates some of the problems associated with a mismatch between the mental models of authors and readers and allows the readers to construct their own hypertexts from linear documents. This approach offers useful data on logical connectivity in hypertext documents but also represents an alternative to conventional hypertext authoring and reading.     

The concepts of science in Japanese and Western education

Using structural linguistics, the present article offers an impartial frame of reference to analyze science education in the non-Western world. In Japan, science education has been free from epistemological reflection because Japan regards science only as effective technology for modernization. By not taking account of the world-view aspect of science, Japan can treat science as not self-referential. Issues of science education are then rather simple; they are only concerned with the question of how to, and answers to this question are judged according to the efficiency achieved for modernization.Science, however, is a way of seeing nature. This word is generally translated into Japanese as shizen which has a totally different connotation and therefore does not lead to an understanding of the Western scientific spirit. Saussure's approach to language is used to expose the consequences of the misinterpretations that spring from this situation. In order to minimize or prevent these misinterpretations, it is emphasized that science education should be identified with foreign language education in the non-Western world.     

Assumptions Underlying Performance-Based Budgeting

Interest in performance budgeting is growing despite a lack of research on its effectiveness. U.S. states have largely used incremental and formula budgeting processes to fund higher education. However, more than half of them are experimenting with some form of performance budgeting. There have been similar attempts to reform budget practices in the U.S. in the past, but most of these processes have been largely abandoned. Governmental performance budgeting for higher education assumes policy objectives are stable, complex decisions on budget trade-offs can be made at governmental levels on the basis of data, institutions operate as bureaucracies, resources can be linked to outcomes, outcomes are identifiable and can be agreed upon, accountability can be achieved through budget policies, and current practices create incentives to enrol unqualified students. These assumptions are not realistic. Consequently, performance budgeting will not meet proponents expectations and will suffer the fate of past budget fads.     

Swedish Universities towards Self-Regulation: A New Look at Institutional Autonomy

Swedish universities are required to change towards more effective self-regulation as the government has recently reduced state steering and devolved further responsibilities to them. In this paper, self-regulation is related to the concept of autonomy, a concept which is analysed on the two dimensions of purpose and authority, resulting in four models of state governance and consequently in a different space of action for the institutions. However, in order to develop self-regulation, the space granted must also be used effectively to realise autonomy. Six Swedish higher education institutions are analysed concerning how they have used their new space of action and what restrictions they have met in their efforts for self-regulation.     

Confidence is Everything” – Perspectives of Teachers and Students on Learning Mathematics

This paper problematises confidence as a frequently used explanation for performance in the mathematics classroom. I report on an interview-based study of how some English Advanced level (16+) students who have chosen to study mathematics, and their teachers, speak about confidence with respect to the learning of mathematics. I outline what constitutes confident learners for these teachers and, differently, for their students and what the students feel teachers could do to improve the students confident state. I discuss the implications of this for the education of prospective teachers of mathematics.     

Research and scholarship: Perceptions of senior academic administrators

This paper reports selected findings from the first stage of a study on the research role within academic work in Australian universities. These findings come from the interview component of the study and discuss the perceptions that senior academic administrators hold on research and scholarship. The analysis of the interviews indicates that research covers a wide and varied range of activities across the disciplines found in a university and therefore needs to be defined broadly. However, research has three major attributes: new knowledge, enquiry and publication of results and views. Scholarship was perceived to be part of the research process, providing the context for good research by adding the element of breadth to the depth of research. In addition, scholarship describes the manner of pursuing a serious, sustained line of enquiry as well as the dissemination process.     

On culture,geometrical thinking and mathematics education

This article confronts a widespread prejudice about mathematical knowledge, that mathematics is culture-free, by demonstrating alternative constructions of euclidean geometrical ideas developed from the traditional culture of Mozambique. As well as establishing the educational power of these constructions, the article illustrates the methodology of cultural conscientialization in the context of teacher training.     

Impact and adjustment: foreign students in comparative perspective

Foreign study is a multifaceted phenomenon - its impact is felt on academic institutions in both the host and sending countries, on the economies of nations, and of course on the individuals involved. With more than one million students studying abroad, foreign study has assumed considerable importance in higher education planning. This article considers the many aspects of foreign study and discusses the interrelationships of these elements. The policies of the host nations, for example, have an impact on higher education planning in the sending countries. The non-return of foreign students, traditionally referred to as the brain drain, is considerably more complex than was once thought since Third World graduates settled in the industrialized nations often retain contacts with their home countries and increasingly return after a period abroad. This article also considers the various push and pull factors which determine the constantly changing flow of foreign students.This study was supported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. It was presented at the International Seminar on Higher Education and the Flow of Foreign Students, convened by the Hochschul-Informations-System, with support from the Federal Ministry of Education and Science and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Arts in Hannover, Germany on 26th–28th April 1990.     

Analyzing children's errors on written mathematical tasks

Methods developed by Newman and Casey for analyzing errors made by children attempting verbal arithmetic problems are described, with particular emphasis being given to Newman's hierarchy of error causes. Data obtained by Newman, Casey, and Clements are presented. These show that a large proportion of errors made by children in grades 5–7 in Victoria on verbal arithmetic problems are in the Newman categories Comprehension, Transformation, Process Skills, and Carelessness.     

Child-methods in secondary mathematics

An earlier research project, the Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science (Mathematics) project, identified both a hierarchy of levels of understanding in different areas of secondary mathematics, and a number of particular errors which were made by significant proportions of the children tested. Preliminary consideration of these errors and the strategies which appear to have given rise to them suggests that the use of informal naive methods which are limited in their applicability is widespread even at fourth-year level. The suggestion is made that there may be two systems of mathematics coexisting in the secondary school classroom: the formal taught system, and a system of child-methods which are based upon a counting, adding-on or building-up approach, and by which children attempt to solve mathematical problems within a human-sense framework. The difficulties which some children appear to experience in mathematics is suggested to be due in part to these children's non-initiation into the formal taught system. The implication of such a view for teaching and research are indicated.     

Policy communities,issue networks and the formulation of Australian higher education policy

Governments in most western countries consult extensively with clientele groups in the process of formulating higher education policy. The nature of these consultative mechanisms, in turn, influences the manner in which decisions are made, and the substance of policy outcomes. This article explores the changing style of government-interest group interaction in Australia over the decade 1985–94 and how these changes have effected the way policy is determined. It is argued that Australia has gone through three phases over that time. Until 1987 policy was formulated by a stable policy community. From 1988–90, when a number of major reforms were introduced, this framework was replaced by a brief period of state direction. During the early 1990s a new environment characterised by unstable issue networks emerged.     

Women in higher education

The high level of admissions of women into higher education in Japanis analysed in the context of examining revised views about the highereducation of women resulting from changes in the traditional view of therelationship between higher education and social values. Despite the shiftin womens educational expectations, there is still clear evidence that agender track continues; typically men congregate in four year institutionswhilst women focus on Junior Colleges and on particular courses of studydeemed to be appropriate for women. The gender track is furtherdemonstrated by detailed studies of the Junior College and the WomensCollege. Womens employment opportunities are shown to have been affected byrestrictive attitudes of employers which tended in the past to impose onwomen particular modes of employment. The reasons for the emergence of achange in these attitudes in the latter part of the 1980s are explored andthe impact of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1986 is examined. Thearticle concludes by considering the wider implications for women, both inthe work-place and in society more generally, of these developments. It isnoted that highly educated Japanese women tend to hold more conservativevalues and may see their education as an expression of their social statusrather than a way of increasing their earning power. The recentestablishment of a number of courses in Womens Studies may well have aninfluence upon future developments in ideas about women and higher educationin Japan.     

“Without Contraries is no Progression”: Dust as an All-Inclusive, Multifunctional Metaphor in Philip Pullman's “His Dark Materials”

Drawing on John Milton's Paradise Lost and on motifs found within Gnostic mythology and the poetry of William Blake, this article explores Philip Pullman's reworking of the Judeo-Christian myth of the Fall. At the centre of this investigation is Dust: a conventional metaphor for human physicality inspired by God's judgment on humanity. This article suggests that Dust is re-presented in the trilogy in a more positive manner through the development of Milton's metaphor of the dark materials into a substance in which good and evil, and spirit and matter—conceptual opposites that form the basis of religious dualism—coexist.     

Hierarchies in mathematics education

In mathematics education literature the term hierarchy is used in a number of ways. It is important that the mathematics educator consider the usefulness of the hierarchies presented by various researchers and theorists, in the light of their application to teaching. Current works on mathematical learning hierarchies are illustrated and in particular the work of the mathematics team of the research project Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science is examined.     

The American mixture of higher education in perspective: four dimensions

Several nations are currently considering privatization of parts of their higher education systems. This paper, mainly based on the American experience, examines privatizing public institutions as an alternative to establishing solely private institutions.Institutions are analyzed along four dimensions: (1) ownership (public or private); (2) control (external or internal); (3) financing (public or private funds); and (4) mechanisms for public financing (who controls fund distribution and how). There are varying mixtures along these four dimensions both within countries and around the world, with the American system exhibiting the widest range of combinations. Six categories are described, including four common in the U.S.: I. Independent private, where institutions are independent in ownership, in control, and in basic financing; II. Dependent private, independent in ownership and financing but dependent in control; III. Independent public, dependent in ownership but independent in control and substantially independent in financing; IV. Semi-independent public (state/guild type), dependent in ownership, mixed in control, and heavily dependent in financing (less common in the U.S., but typical of Italy and Latin America); V. Semi-independent public (state/trustee/guild type), where control is shared among state, academic guilds and lay boards of trustees but with mainly state-controlled financing; and VI. Dependent public, the model in the Communist nations.Kerr traces the historical path that led to the mixed American system and examines some of its positive consequences, which include institutional autonomy, diversity, and flexibility. Negative results include possible over-responsiveness to short-term pressures, as from the labor market or student preferences for courses of study, and from supporting business or industry.The author concludes that the American experience with privatized public institutions may serve as a model for those elsewhere who now seek greater institutional differentiation, autonomy, and flexibility within national systems of higher education.