Predictors of students’ intrinsic motivation in school physical education

The aim of the present study was to examine the relations of students’ intrinsic motivation in physical education lessons with factors such as perceived locus of causality, perceived competence and outcome expectancies. Five hundred sixteen students of grades 7–12 participated in the study. The students were randomly selected from three schools located in a medium sized town in Greece. Perceived locus of causality was examined using Ryan and Connell’s (1989) motivational orientation scales, while intrinsic motivation was assessed by means of the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (Ryan, 1982). Outcome expectancies for ten possible outcomes of school physical education were assessed by means of two different scales, namely outcome evaluation and outcome likelihood. Causal modelling analysis showed that intrinsic motivation was mainly influenced by perceived usefulness which in turned was influenced by outcome expectations. Moreover, outcome expectations also influenced perceived locus of causality. These results show that students’ outcome expectancies for their participation in school physical education is an important factor influencing their intrinsic motivation.     

Bachelor’s Degree Completion Across State Contexts: Does the Distribution of Enrollments Make a Difference?

Growing accountability pressures, accompanied by a lack of readily accessible measures of institutional performance, have led to an increasing focus on graduation rates. Although previous research has illuminated myriad factors influencing students’ likelihood of educational success, it has not paid adequate attention to how state contexts may shape student outcomes. I build on the small but growing body of research exploring the role of state characteristics in facilitating student success in higher education. Controlling for a range of state and individual attributes, I examine how one aspect of the state context––the distribution of enrollments in 2 vs. 4-year public institutions––is related to bachelor’s degree attainment of students attending public 4-year colleges and universities. The results suggest that the larger the proportion of students attending community colleges in a state, the higher the probability of bachelor’s degree attainment at public 4-year institutions. This appears to be a product of student sorting: the presence of community colleges facilitates sorting of students into higher education in a way that is associated with higher degree completion at public 4-year institutions. These findings have important implications for research on student outcomes and policies aimed at evaluating the performance of public 4-year institutions.     

Destination choice of cross-border Chinese students: an importance-performance analysis

Higher education institutions are competing with one another to recruit students. As a major developing country with emphasis on human capital development, China has the largest group of tertiary students studying locally and aboard, including cross-border students in the Greater China region. This paper examines the destination choice of cross-border Chinese students. The empirical findings reveal that the most important attributes are programme reputation, recognition of university qualifications, availability of course information, safety and cost of living in the host cities. Importance-performance analysis was applied to the survey data. Results show that students are satisfied with the safety aspect, but not with the cost of living. Regression analysis indicates that student satisfaction was significantly affected by the perceived value of the programme, followed by accessibility. These findings can help improve the quality of education services of higher education administration by addressing the perceptions and concerns of cross-border Chinese students.     

Higher Education and Equity in Portugal

The main topic of this article is to consider the role of the State in providing higher education in Portugal, paying attention to the fact that the privatisation of higher education has been in place since the eighties (Amaral 1999) and also that it is difficult for students and their families to find the monetary resources needed for attendance at university (Cabrito 1999). The discussion focuses on the funding of higher education in a quasi-market situation (Le Grand et al. 1993), as Portugal hasn't escaped the universal trend towards privatisation of education (Whitty et al. 1998). In the last decade, the relationship between State, universities and students has been changing rapidly (Acherman et al. 1989; Barr et al. 1993; Williams 1990; Henkel et al. 1999), and some arguments are presented that equity in access to higher education must be guaranteed (Mora 1997; UNESCO 1998; Williams 1992). In this connection, the need is argued for free attendance on higher education and State subsidies to students to cover the costs of education. Firstly, the economic and social condition of university students is presented. Using data from two periods, one academic year from the 60s and one from the 90s, the increase in the degree of equity that the university system had known in recent decades can be verified. According to the analysis, the Portuguese population in general is better represented in the university student body nowadays, than in the 60s. Therefore, it is possible to discuss the maintenance of a low degree of equity in the Portuguese university system. For this, the economic and social condition of university students is compared with – that of the Portuguese population in the 90s. Secondly, the expectations of the students of higher education are presented, in order to understand the value attached by them to a university degree, which explains the social demand for education. Finally, the costs of higher education, both private and public, are evaluated. From this evaluation, it is possible to conclude that the principal source of funding of higher education costs is the student and his/her family and to discuss the need for a more interventionist State in higher education financing. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Urban Students’ Perceptions of Teachers: Views of Students in General, Special, and Honors Education

Students’ satisfaction with school experiences has been linked to their sense of belongingness, connection to school, and achievement. Though the extant research addresses students’ perceptions of school climate and sense of belonging, there is a paucity of research about students’ views of teacher–student interactions. Five hundred and seventy-seven students from one ethnically and academically diverse urban high school were surveyed and interviewed about the nature of teacher talk with students. Findings from this mixed-methods investigation indicate students from general, special, and honors programs experience a wide range of interactions based on academic services received, gender, and ethnicity. More frequent perceived punitive feedback was reported by all students in special education as well as males in general and honors education programs, while Hispanic students indicated a greater frequency of perceived supportive feedback. Findings also reflect a wide range of attitudes and feelings about teachers, the educational system, and learning.     

GERONTOLOGICAL EDUCATION FOR STUDENTS IN NURSING AND SOCIAL WORK: KNOWLEDGE,ATTITUDES, AND PERCEIVED BARRIERS

Most health care and social service providers are routinely required to work with elderly clients and clients’ aging family members. Research suggests that students entering these professions have knowledge deficits and lack positive attitudes toward older people. Few prefer to work with aging clients. Professional curricula are not providing students with adequate training to serve the current needs of this population, much less to meet projected increases in demand for services. To examine this issue, 67 master's students in nursing and social work completed questionnaires assessing (1) knowledge about aging, (2) attitudes toward old people, and (3) perceived barriers to gerontological education. Results confirmed the existence of knowledge deficits among respondents. Attitudes tended to be neutral rather than strongly positive or negative. Knowledge scores were related to attitudes, to respondents’ ages, and to their having lived in households with older relatives. Nursing students identified the greatest barriers in gerontological education as insufficient curriculum time and lack of academic role models. Social work students perceived lower status of work with the elderly and limited experience with healthy older people as the greatest barriers. The two groups agreed that fragmentation of services contributes to inadequate gerontological preparation. Findings suggest a need for didactic and experiential learning opportunities, reinforced by appropriate academic role models, for students in service professions.     

‘But no one in my family has been to University’ Aiming Higher: School students’ attitudes to Higher Education

In this paper, we present findings from the second stage of a three year longitudinal study involving 3,570 students aged 13–18 in a London Borough looking at the impact of Widening Participation (WP) on the attitudes of students. We outline findings from a previous stage and then focus specifically on two cohorts of Year 10 students (aged 14–15) in two consecutive years. The students completed the specially designed Attitudes to Higher Education Questionnaire (AHEQ) and provided information on WP activities in which they had participated. Data on the students’ academic attainment and social backgrounds were also included. There were significant sex and cohort differences and interactions which were found to be related to WP activities specifically aimed at increasing the participation of socially disadvantaged students in higher education. The implications of findings are discussed in relation to theories of social identity and self concept and the implementation of strategies to increase participation in Higher Education.     

Student/teacher relations and attitudes toward mathematics before and after the transition to junior high school

In a longitudinal study of 1,301 students and the teachers they had for mathematics before and after the transition to junior high school, we assessed whether changes across the transition in students' perceptions of their teachers' supportiveness were related to changes in their valuing of mathematics. Using repeated-measures multivariate analysis of variance, we found that when students moved from elementary teachers they perceived to be low in support to junior high teachers they perceived to be high in support, the intrinsic value of math was enhanced, while students who moved from teachers they perceived to be high in support to teachers they perceived to be low in support experienced a sharp decline in both the intrinsic value and perceived usefulness and importance of math. For students' perceptions of the usefulness and importance of math there was an interaction with achievement level. Math values decreased more sharply during the first year of junior high for low-achieving students who moved from more supportive to less supportive teachers than for high-achieving students who experienced the same change.     

Who attends and completes virtual universities: the case of the open University of Catalonia (UOC)

A highly touted feature of the so-called global “revolution” in higher education is the trend to use information technology to reach a broader clientele. Although there is evidence that students may be learning the material in on-line courses as well as in traditional face-to-face universities, how well students learn content is not the only reason they persist to a degree, and student persistence is an important goal of higher education institutions. In this paper, we make the case that the life conditions for students attending virtual universities are different from those of “traditional” students in face-to-face universities, and that this difference puts a particular (largely non-pecuniary) premium on time to degree. With our data from a Catalan virtual university, the Open University of Catalonia (UOC), we are able to test this hypothesis directly by using the heterogeneous degree structure of the Catalonian/Spanish higher education system to estimate whether the number of courses required to get various degrees (the length of the degree program) is significantly related to student persistence. The study analyzes several cohorts of students (those who entered in 2000–2003) studying in the UOC and estimates the factors that influence their degree completion. We find that the completion rate is generally low, but that students taking shorter degree courses at the UOC are much more likely to complete their degrees. This suggests that, given their clientele, on-line universities operate under very different constraints from their face-to-face counterparts. Our results are important for higher educational researchers, who have mainly focused on younger populations attending face-face universities. They also can serve university administrators who launch distance education degree programs and make high stakes decisions about them with little of no information on the likely behavior of their older students, and can serve employers who are deciding whether to subsidize their employees to take advanced degrees through on-line programs of study.     

The Pursuit of Wisdom: A Modest,but Essential,Prescription for the Future

Although higher education leaders are occupied with important issues such as accessibility, globalization, funding, and innovation, another issue – moral education – must be addressed if we are to equip students to navigate the future. One need not adhere to a particular religious orthodoxy or propound any sectarian dogma to engage students in the examination of values. The rare context and crucible of heterogeneous and heterodox postsecondary institutions provide an environment in which students, guided by their professors, can learn to wrestle with thorny questions, to maintain their intellectual and moral autonomy, and to take responsibility for their actions.     

Study on life education for college students

Due to the social environment of China’s reform and opening up, as well as China’s education system with knowledge impartation as its focus, some college students lack the humanistic care and education of value and significance of life. Universities should plan effective activities to make students realize the importance of life. They should provide students with such education as life conscience, failures in life, the ability to make a living and the values of life in order to have a clearer knowledge of life education, so that the students can set up a positive, healthy and correct life view, realize the value and meaning of life, and finally learn to respect life. __________ Translated from Zhongguo Qingnian Zhengzhi Xueyuan Xuebao 中国青年政治学院学报 (Journal of China Youth College for Political Sciences), 2007, (5): 12–17     

‘I am happy just doing the work …’ Commuter student engagement in the wider higher education experience

This paper reports on a large qualitative study with commuter students in England. Research on student success identifies the importance of engagement in academic and non‐academic aspects of the student experience; in this paper student engagement is segmented into academic, enhancement and social spheres. Commuter students, who often incorporate a range of equity characteristics, aim to achieve good degree and employment outcomes, and prioritise academic engagement. But commuting tempers their face‐to‐face academic engagement as they make trade‐offs between the costs of travelling and the value of the academic encounter. Engagement in enhancement and social activities is limited and is seen by many as an extraneous aspect of the higher education experience. This lack of engagement can be understood through the employment of notions of economic, cultural and social capital, and these insights inform the recommendations for higher education providers to improve the engagement and outcomes of non‐traditional students in higher education.     

Students’ Perceptions of Mental Health Counseling in the United Arab Emirates (UAE)

Counseling services in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have focused on counseling in the elementary and secondary schools. To date, the idea of the private practitioner of mental health counseling has been virtually nonexistent. However, education officials at the University of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been exploring the option of following the international trends of preparing students for mental health counseling services, with special emphasis in marriage and family. A counselor education degree would allow individuals to operate private practices to address various concerns that impact individuals within the society at large. No instruments that measure perceptions of counseling from an international perspective were found for the purposes of this study. Therefore, it was necessary for the authors to devise and test a new tool. Surveys were completed by a sample of 141 undergraduate students regarding their perceptions of the importance of counseling in UAE society and the role of the counselor in society and other general questions regarding perceptions of counseling. With this initial effort, psychometric properties of the ‘Perceptions about Counseling Survey’ appeared promising. Results revealed that students had a favorable view toward the role of the counselor in UAE society. Results further revealed that students perceived the counseling profession as favorable. Given that the participants were predominately female, the results were analyzed from the social and cultural perspective of women in Arab society and the social psychological theory of ‘attitude’ is considered as a contextual backdrop.     

Students’ perceptions of classroom instructional environments in the context of ‘Universal Design for Learning’

Using a sample of 867 students in Grades 5–12, the present study investigated whether students’ perceptions toward the instructional environment in classrooms that employed Universal Design for Learning differed by school grade level and teacher gender. High-school students in the study showed higher perception scores than upper-elementary or middle-school students in the personalisation and participation aspect of the classroom environment. The results for teacher gender indicated that students in the study perceived a more personalised classroom environment with female teachers than with male teachers. Policy implications and methodological considerations are provided for future study.     

Learning to prove by investigations: a promising approach in Dutch secondary education

The Mathematics Department of the University of Nijmegen in collaboration with the Graduate School of Education has developed a math course in the field of fractals and dynamic processes for volunteer students in the second phase of secondary education in the Netherlands. The students, of approximately 16 years of age, show a special interest in, and an aptitude for mathematics and informatics. One of the main goals of the course was to highlight the deductive aspect of mathematics, an aspect that is neglected in the ordinary math curriculum of secondary education in the Netherlands. That goal was pursued by giving the students ample opportunity to conduct investigations on their own and in a way that they would be responsible for judging the correctness of their arguments in making mathematical deductions. In that way proving is imbedded in a larger structure and becomes a tool for the students to convince each other. During the courses we searched for the right way for teachers to coach these investigations, that is: to find a balance between mere concentration on guiding the process of the students' investigations and active intervention in the learning process of proving. In this article we illustrate with two examples – the first from the '95–'96 course and the second from the '96–'97 course – in what way we adjusted our coaching. Our results are explorative, but our approach appears promising and we are convinced that investigations as learning environment for proving would also be a valuable part for the regular secondary math education in the Netherlands. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Worker Perceptions of Effectiveness and Minority-Relevant Education as a Function of Worker and Client Ethnicity

This study explores the relationship between perceived effectiveness of services delivered to minority clients, and the usefulness of education in the delivery of services, as reported by two national samples of social workers. This relationship was examined by using a national sample of minority social workers and a national sample of caucasian social workers, randomly selected from the Membership Directory of the National Association of Social Workers. The results indicate a stronger correlation between effectiveness and educational adequacy for the caucasian sample compared to the minority sample. In addition, the strength of the correlations change over the years. The data also suggest that the proportion of minority clients in a workers caseload results in differential perceptions of understanding of client problems and the presence of value conflicts.     

高等职业教育价值观研究

教育价值观是主体关于教育价值的主观判断。高等职业教育依循传统大学和西方发达国家职业教育办学模式,在价值观上呈现出经世致用、功利主义和全面发展等代表性主张。但由于高职教育对于时代变迁和社会经济环境更为敏感．需要更加辩证地看待社会价值与个人价值的统一关系,厘清教育功能之取舍,彰显职教特性。所以,坚持以人为本,追求术道合一、担当社会责任的高职教育价值观,将更有益于引导高职教育的健康发展。     

Student’s local top-up higher education choices

Making decisions about education choices is challenging and difficult for students. Utilising the theory of reasoned action, we specify and estimate a conceptual framework that captures the cognitive process of decision making of students in choosing top-up higher degrees in Hong Kong. Top-up higher or bachelor’s degrees are top-up undergraduate programmes forming a progression route for sub-degree graduates to earn bachelor’s degrees. We argue that attitudes, subjective norms and perceived value influence a student’s top-up higher education choices. Our results show that family members, educators, job availability and security, social image and difficulty of curriculum play critical roles in influencing students’ decision. We also find differences between females and males, between business and non-business students and between Year 1 and Year 2 students in higher education choices. These findings underscore the importance of educational institutions developing effective policies for promoting top-up higher degree programmes by taking cognisance of gender, the field of study and year of study differences and for policy makers to understand the dynamics of higher education.     

Higher education provision for students with disabilities in Cyprus

Internationally, the number of students with disabilities entering higher education institutions is on the rise. Research estimates that 8–10% of students attending higher education are registered with disability, with learning difficulties being the most commonly reported disability. Widening participation in higher education has been supported by legislative changes, inclusive education practices, the use of ICT and accessible facilities and programs and, ultimately, an increasing belief among students with disabilities that higher education maximizes their opportunities for employment and independent living. Within the Cypriot context, research on disability, access and provision in higher education is limited. This study was a part of a large-scale study (PERSEAS) funded by the EU. From the original sample, 15 students attending private higher education institutions in Cyprus reported disability (i.e., sensory impairment, dyslexia, physical disabilities) and were selected for focus group discussions. Also, interviews and focus groups were conducted with the Headmasters and teachers, respectively, in 10 private higher education institutions. This study yielded interesting results regarding the current state of provision (e.g., concessions for exams and assignments, infrastructure, teaching modification, counseling services) as well as issues of social inclusion, equality of opportunity and entitlement to education.     

Social Support and Optimism as Predictors of Life Satisfaction of College Students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the predictive value of optimism, perceived support from family and perceived support from faculty in determining life satisfaction of college students in Turkey. One hundred and thirty three students completed the Satisfaction with Life Scale (Diener et al., Journal of Personality Assessment 49(1):71–75, 1985), Perceived Social Support Scale-Revised (Yıldırım, Eğitim Araştırmaları–Eurasian, Journal of Educational Research 17:221–236, 2004), and Life Orientation Test (Scheier and Carver, Health Psychology 4(3):219–247, 1985) and provided demographic information about themselves. Independent samples t-test, correlation, and multiple regression analyses were performed for data analysis. Significant relationships were found among the variables, with regression analysis indicating that perceived support from family, perceived faculty support, and optimism were statistically significant predictors of life satisfaction. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions made for counseling practice and future research.