Ageism: A prejudice touching both young and old

Summary Prejudice and discrimination can be both subtle and blatant. It offends and affects both young and old. If our goal as teacher or caregiver is to guide children to grow up in a world that celebrates diversity and strives to reduce and eventually eliminate destructive forces such as racism and sexism, then we must analyze our homes and clssrooms through a wide-angled lens that allows us to see the presence of ageism and its manifestations. In a society that seems to be increasingly segregated by age, we have a tremendous responsibility to examine ways in which we endorse and teach values regarding the worth and dignity of each human being. We must begin to direct the experiences children have toward the development of positive attitudes toward all people including the elderly. When young children digest behaviors, images, and perceptions, they will begin to form attitudes that have a powerful influence on their present and future behavior. It is only as young and old alike are able to understand and develop healthy attitudes toward their own aging process and cultivate the positive attitudes that allow them to develop intergenerational relationships that they will be able to realize their own full potential.     

Opportunities for older learners: Older students in the open university

This paper discusses research carried out by the Older Students' Research Group in the UK Open University between 1982–87. It examines the motivation, experience and performance of OU undergraduate students aged 60 and over and compares older OU students with the rest of the OU student body and with older students in a variety of other educational organisations. It argues that the success of older students in the Open University indicates that distance education has considerable potential as a mode of study for older people.     

A comparative study of computer and mobile-assisted pronunciation training: The case of university students in Taiwan

Education and Information Technologies - English pronunciation training for real-world communication tasks is crucial in EFL learning because it is essential to learners’ listening...     

Rethinking Critical Thinking: Indigenous students studying at university

Critical thinking is conceived in the theories as a skill that students consciously learn and practice while the teacher is positioned as the one who can teach students how to critique. However, one of the major insights gained through research conducted at a university in the Northern Territory is that students are already critiquing what they say and do in the classroom as they negotiate a position in relation to the lecturer as an authority. The research finds that critical thinking is not just a cognitive attribute, it is constituted through a practice that is always at work, albeit in hidden ways in the classroom. It is through this hidden practice of critique that indigenous students at this university speak and learn outside an assimilation to the power and knowledge of the non‐indigenous teacher.     

The motivation to study: an analysis of undergraduate engineering students at a Caribbean university

The link between motivation and success is well documented; however, there is still room to problematise motivation in regards to the individual and contextual levels. This study looks at motivation in relation to students studying undergraduate engineering courses at a Caribbean university and seeks to discover the factors that motivate them to study and the factors that keep them motivated. An online questionnaire was constructed using 19 Likert-type questions and 5 questions that allowed for open-ended qualitative responses. The findings reveal that participants tended to be motivated by the increased possibility of desired future careers and tended to stay motivated by a combination of goal-orientation and family support. It is recommended that departments, faculties and institutions deliberate on shared and contextually constructed understandings of why students choose to enrol in particular university courses.     

Abusive histories in youth/young adult students

A survey of a college student population indicates that psycical abuse is prevalent in our society. The self-reported data was found to be similar to that occurring in the literature on parent-reported child abuse, documenting that approximately one-third of college students had a history of moderate abuse and 5 to 10 percent had a history of a severe abuse during their developmental years. Through an awareness of its high prevalence, the health care provider will question a history of physical violence when evaluating a student with a medical or psychosocial complaint and appropriately plan a management program inclusive of therapeutic counseling to decrease the effect of the prior or current physical abuse.     

Course grades and academic performance by university students: A two-stage least squares analysis

This study employs two-stage least squares to estimate an educational production function for university course grades. The dependent variable is grade for studenti in coursej. Explanatory variables include measures of student aptitude and ability, teacher and course characteristics, and student time allocations to academic endeavors. Results of the study suggest that (1) homework assignments, examinations, and use of a required text increase the time students allocate to a given course; (2) time allocated to a given course has a positive effect on course grade; (3) homework assignments, examinations, and required texts, while increasing time allocated to a given course, have negative effects on course grades; and (4) measures of high school performance, in the presence of controls for mathematical and verbal aptitude, are positively related to the time students allocate to university courses but have no significant independent effect on course grades.     

Pre-enrollment factors and academic performance of first-year science students at a Nigerian university: a multivariate analysis

Multi-group discriminant analysis is used to identify the pre-enrollment demographic and academic factors which best separate out the success classes in the first-year examinations of science students at a Nigerian university. Each science-based faculty is separately analysed to control for faculty differences in all the variables used. The pre-eminent predictor of success is performance in the specialist subjects of the universitys matriculation examination. Other variables selected for use in the discriminant functions depend on the faculty group. Misallocation rates are generally low and, exept for one faculty group, discrimination is uni-dimensional.     

山东省高师大学生职业价值观性别差异性的研究

本文采用自编的《大学生职业价值调查问卷》对山东省高师大学生进行了调查，探讨了山东省高师大职业价值观在职业选择，职业思想，职业评价等方面的性别差异特点，为高师大学生职业价值观的因性施教提供了理论依据。     

当代大学生的成长特点及思想道德现状分析

人类进入崭新的21世纪，国际国内形势发生了新的变化。笔者认为随着当前德育环境的变化，高校德育对象也发生了变化。本文试图对当代大学生的成长特点及思想道德现状进行分析，从而说明进一步加强和改进高校德育的重要性。     

对精神“贫困”大学生的分析与对策

贫困大学生的问题能否妥善地解决是关系到能否实现大学校园和谐建设的重大问题。在新的社会大背景下对贫困大学生也要有新的定义,大学生的贫困不能再只是体现为物质的贫困,应该还要加上意识或者说是精神方面的“贫困“。本文就从大学生精神方面的“贫困“这种新的“贫困“形式进行分析,并提出解决问题的策略。     

Chinese students at an English-Language university: Prediction of academic performance

There is a paucity of systematic research on prediction of success at the tertiary education level for Asian students, despite the important role that universities play in Asian communities, and despite the increasing numbers of such students who are coming to the West to study. This study reviews evidence collected over the past ten to fifteen years, which relates to the issue of prediction of academic performance of Chinese students at an English-Language and Western-oriented university - the University of Hong Kong. This review is complemented by an analysis of data collected longitudinally over a five year period, using multiple regression, multiple correlation, path analysis and canonical correlation analyses. The results provide evidence of factors which are important in determining the ability of a student to adapt to the foreign cultural and language barriers that exist at this university. In particular, ability in English language and mathematics provides good and reasonably independent predictors of success. The data show the importance of considering the cultural background of students when assessing their aptitude for study, and offer information for Western universities regarding their admissions procedures for Chinese students.     

Productions of space: Civic participation of young people at university

Civic participation of young people around the world is routinely described in deficit terms, as they are labelled apathetic, devoid of political knowledge, disengaged from the community and self‐absorbed. This paper argues that the connectivity of time, space and social values are integral to understanding the performances of young people as civic subjects. Today's youth negotiate unstable social, economic and environmental conditions, new technologies and new forms of community. Loyalty, citizenship and notions of belonging take on new meanings in these changing global conditions. Using the socio‐spatial theories of Lefebvre and Foucault and the tools of critical discourse analysis this paper argues that the chronotope, or time/space relationship of universities, produces student citizens who, in resistance to a complex global society, create a cocooned space, which focuses on moral and spiritual values that can be enacted on a personal level.     

The pathways to higher education: lexical availability in adult candidate students and in young first-year students

In the past few years there has been an increase in the number of adult students in higher education courses, many of whom have returned to school after a break. Most of these students do not intend to continue their studies from the point where they stopped; rather, they want to prepare for specific tests in order to have direct access to higher education courses, which in Portugal is a legal option for students over the age of 23. In response to this new cohort, higher education institutions need to find out what kind of students these are, determining their characteristics, capabilities and major problems, if they are to provide them with successful learning opportunities alongside younger students. This article presents a comparative study of lexical competence, focusing on lexical availability, contrasting those adult applicants to higher education who are attending a course preparatory to higher education with first-year students who have just entered higher education. The results show significant differences between the two groups, the adult group in general showing poorer results. Their withdrawal from schooling is clearly reflected in their vocabulary activation with regard to transversal themes. The most salient contrasts are related to the number of words mentioned and the frequency of words in the group, as well as the greater or lesser proximity to the topic of the terms mentioned.     

Academic motivation and self-regulation: A comparative analysis of undergraduate and graduate students learning online

To succeed in autonomous online learning environments, it helps to be a highly motivated, self-regulated learner. The present study explored potential differences between undergraduate (n = 87) and graduate students (n = 107) in their levels of academic motivation and self-regulation while learning online. In particular, this study provides a comparative analysis of undergraduate and graduate students' motivational beliefs (task value and self-efficacy), use of deep processing strategies (elaboration and critical thinking), and motivational engagement (procrastination and choice behaviors). As hypothesized, graduate students learning online reported higher levels of critical thinking than undergraduates. Moreover, after controlling for experiential differences, a logistic regression analysis indicated that graduate student membership was predicted by higher levels of critical thinking and lower levels of procrastination. On the other hand, undergraduate membership was predicted, somewhat paradoxically, by greater task value beliefs and greater intentions to enroll in future online courses. Implications for online instructors and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

自我同一性与大学生心理健康分析

同一性是一个重要的心理学概念,大学生自我同一性状态与心理健康水平显著相关,自我同一性的分析对于加强和改进大学生心理健康教育具有重要意义。     

Isolated learners: young mature-age students,university culture,and desire for academic sociality

The differentiated experiences of young mature-age students are under-researched and often unacknowledged in higher education literature and university policy. This article contends that, due to their age (early 20s to early 30s), many younger mature-age students feel ‘out of the loop’ and ‘alienated’ from university culture. The sample is drawn from a large first-year subject and analyses students’ written ethnographic reflections on their identities as students within university culture. Using interpretive theory and NVivo coding software to analyse the written assignments, the experience of isolation amongst the young mature-age demographic was a prominent and unanticipated finding. Students in this age range want academic-based sociality but do not identify as either school leaver or ‘mature-age’. They feel like isolated learners. We argue young mature-age students’ experiences of social isolation pose a significant barrier to full participation, negatively impacting their identities as students and their university transition. In Australia and internationally, governments and universities have increased their enrolments of young mature-age students, but their capacity to structure learning environments to suit them are limited without greater knowledge of their diverse experiences. Taking a cultural, socially situated view of learning allows insights into students’ experiences and suggests opportunities for understanding and supporting them.     

地方高校师范生就业竞争力建设分析

随着我国高等教育的普及与高校招生就业制度改革的不断深入,大学生就业问题成为全社会的关注焦点。本文首先分析了地方高校师范生的就业现状,并从个人、学校和社会三个层面进行了深度剖析,指出师范生面临的就业问题,最后针对这些问题提出几点建议,以期对师范生就业形势的好转建言献策。     

A comparative study of older adult learning in Korea and Japan: Focusing on learning after 70 years old

This study compares older adult learning in Korean and Japanese sample populations, paying special attention to learning after age 70. Surveys with nearly identical questionnaires were conducted in the Bundang Senior Welfare Center in Korea (N = 549, mean age 73.6 years) and at Osaka Prefecture Senior College in Japan (N = 1,491, 787, mean age = 67.4, 69.5 years). The main results are as follows: (a) in terms of learning needs, selected ratios of topics of “life review” and “communication with other seniors” increased as respondents increased in age from their 60s to 70s in both countries; (b) attitudes toward learning and social activities changed from “Novelty” to “Continuity” to “Disengagement” as respondents increased in age in both countries; and (c) the threshold age to old age was identified at around 75 years, not 70 years, particularly in Korean data. These results suggest that old age is a diverse period, and that creating ways to facilitate learning after age 70 is an urgent issue in the field of educational gerontology.     

A comparative study of language learning strategy use in an efl context: Monolingual korean and bilingual korean-chinese university students

Since language is socially mediated and context dependent, it would be expected that learners’ use of language learning strategies may vary with the environment. Using the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning (SILL) (Oxford, 1990), this study examines the language learning behaviors and thought processes of two geographically and socio-educationally different groups by comparing learning strategy use as reported by 428 monolingual Korean and 420 bilingual Korean-Chinese university students. Monolinguals reported using compensation strategies most and affective strategies least. Bilinguals preferred to use metacognitive strategies most and memory strategies least. Despite a less favorable formal English education environment in the Korean-Chinese community and less experience in learning English, bilingual Korean-Chinese reported higher use of learning strategies, which is arguably indicative of the positive effects of the bilingual context in learning a new language.