THE ROLE OF STUDENT INVOLVEMENT AND PERCEPTIONS OF INTEGRATION IN A CAUSAL MODEL OF STUDENT PERSISTENCE

This study uses a revised integrated model ofundergraduate persistence to examine first-yearretention at a private, highly selective researchuniversity. Findings from the study provide strongsupport for use of the model in futurestudies.     

PERCEPTIONS OF ACTIVITY AND PARTICIPATION IN THE COLLEGE STUDENT ROLE BY OLDER PEOPLE

A group of senior auditors was compared with a sample of older people to determine if there was an association between perceived levels of activity and participation in higher education. Significant relationships were observed for perceived levels of physical and mental activity but not social activity. Senior auditors thought their levels of mental and physical activity were higher than their nonstudent counterparts.     

STUDENT EVALUATION OF TEACHING IN AN AUSTRALIAN UNIVERSITY ‐‐ STAFF PERCEPTIONS AND REACTIONS

At the University of Queensland staff have had the opportunity since 1982 to make use of a standardised questionnaire to students to get feedback on their teaching. The questionnaire was developed and is organised in such a way that it may be used in promotion applications, as evidence of teaching ability in the annual appraisal of probationary staff by the head of department, and for personal feedback. After one year of operation interviews were held with all those who had used the questionnaire. Their attitude to evaluation of teaching was overwhelmingly positive and differed sharply from the way they perceived their department's and the University's attitude to be. Staff, on the whole, acted on the feedback received from their students by changing the course organisation and content, aspects of classroom teaching or their attitude. Many felt more confident about their teaching as a result of the evaluation, and for many the questionnaires were the only source of feedback and encouragement.     

EXPERTISE AND GIFTEDNESS

The thesis of this paper is that to be gifted means being able to go through the developmental curve from novice to expert more rapidly. Central in growing expertise are the building up of pattern recognition capabilities, schema formation, proceduralization of the knowledge base, and the development of a multistrategy control structure. However gifted the person, in most domains this development takes thousands of hours of hard work. For this reason the contribution to success of sheer intellectual ability is hypothesized to be overshadowed by the personal and situational characteristics that have been found to differentiate between actually (not potentially) creative and less creative persons, e.g., an early, passionate, personal interest in a domain.     

A NEGLECTED COMPONENT OF NURTURING GIFTEDNESS: AFFECTIVE DEVELOPMENT

Research on giftedness and programs for fostering its development often neglect the affective component: the social, emotional and personal components which release (or block) a person's abilities. One problem of gifted children is that their accelerated intellectual development may outstrip affective development. Nonetheless, available research findings paint a positive picture of the social‐emotional characteristics of such children. Among other things they tend to be highly motivated, have a positive self‐concept and be particularly sensitive to social and ethical issues. This suggests that designers of learning experiences should pay greater attention to the affective aspects of instruction. All subject areas offer opportunities for stressing the affective dimension, science as much as literature. This involves creating a classroom climate which offers an “invitational” environment. The highly developed social values of gifted children suggest that they can be encouraged to apply their talents to the solution of the myriad problems with which contemporary society is afflicted.     

THE NATURE AND DEVELOPMENT OF GIFTEDNESS: A LONGITUDINAL STUDY

Following a short discussion of conceptual and theoretical problems of giftedness, the methodological foundations and selected results of a (presently) four year longitudinal study are presented. This study is based on a multidimensional concept of giftedness: intelligence, creativity, social competence, musical ability, psychomotor ability (or practical intelligence). Both academic achievements and leisure activities, as well as cognitive and motivational personality factors and school and family socialisation conditions relevant to giftedness, were studied. During the second project phase developmental aspects and achievement analyses of gifted and normal students aged 6 to 18 years were the central aspects of the study. Finally, methodological problems in the identification of gifted children and adolescents as well as consequences for the nurturing of giftedness are discussed.     

CHANGING CHILDREN'S PERCEPTIONS OF THE ELDERLY

Many children have negative attitudes about older persons. This study used a pre‐posttest control group experimental design to investigate the effects of a guidance unit about older persons upon elementary school children in two schools. Significant results are reported. The experimental unit also proved effective for both boys and girls. Perceptions of children about the aging process and the elderly can be positively changed.     

MATHEMATICAL GIFTEDNESS AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIP

From 1963 to 1971 about 2.8 million East German school children participated in nine nationwide mathematical competitions. The 1329 most successful participants were selected for further study. In 1970/71 and in two follow ups in 1983 and 1993, data on 23,000 relatives of these children were gathered. The data indicated the existence of a strong relationship between mathematical‐technical giftedness in school and achievement in life. There was evidence from the distribution of high professional achievement among the relatives that such achievement needs not only nurture but also an appropriate genetic background, which seems to be transmitted as a simple Mendelian trait, now open to investigation by molecular genetics.     

MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECTS OF STUDENT AND INSTRUCTOR/COURSE CHARACTERISTICS ON STUDENT RATINGS

Multilevel SEM was used to examine the extent to which student, instructor, and course characteristics affect student ratings. Data were gathered from 1867 students enrolled in 117 courses at a large teacher training college in Israel. Four alternative two-level models that differ in only the nature of the relationship among interest in the course subject, expected grade, and student ratings were tested. Two of the models were judged as less appropriate, one because it failed to support the spurious relationship assumed between expected grade and student ratings, and the other on grounds of poor model-data fit. The other two models were equally good both in terms of the model-data fit and the amount of variance in student ratings that is accounted for by each of them. Both models supported the mediation effect of expected grade in the relationship between interest in the course subject and student ratings.     

GIFTED AND TALENTED CHILDREN: THE NATURE OF GIFTEDNESS,SCREENING, DEVELOPMENT

The intensive restructuring of Soviet society has led to the decision to establish the National Centre on Creative Giftedness to lead theoretical and applied research on the nature of giftedness both in children and adults. The development of a gifted person is viewed as an ideal model of normal development. The psychology of giftedness includes investigations into the nature of creativity and creative personality growth; the structure and dynamics of general ability and special capacities; the psychophysiology of individual differences; psychogenetic studies. Applied research involves educational practices based on creative problem discovery and problem solving. General giftedness is viewed as primarily expressing itself in problem sensitivity and sensitivity to nonstandard ways of solving them. It also involves a high ability to anticipate and forecast the future. The integral components of giftedness are considered in terms of an evaluation function based on the individual's perspective, intellectual and emotional ‘standards’. Special abilities are viewed as emerging against the framework of general giftedness.     

THE AFFECTIVE LEARNING PROCESS AND GIFTEDNESS

Learning for mastery is a time and energy consuming process that involves different types of cognitive processes and, above all, goal directed behaviour. The cognitive system is designed for knowledge and skill acquisition, but, as several researchers have pointed out, learning is also facilitated or hampered by emotions, moods and feelings. The emotion system is conceptualized as a more primitive processing system that uses gross discriminators to identify quickly problematic and nonproblematic situations. In the last few decades, students’ goal directed behaviour, their emotions and moods, their appraisals and attitudes have been studied extensively, and it has become clear that most students have a strong desire to control their environment, but also to increase their resources and to conserve energy. A framework for studying affective learning processes is outlined, and three key findings to help readers organize their reading on the affective learning process are presented.