Singapore Students' Perceptions of Graphs,Charts and Maps

Graphs, charts and maps are often used to present quantitative information. Students learn about these in geography, mathematics and other subjects across the curriculum. From contact with school teachers it has been found that many students have problems with graphic representations. This is often seen as a problem of teaching method rather than a problem concerning students' understanding. Studies in Sweden (Ottosson & Aberg-Bengtsson, 1995) and Australia (Gerber et al., 1995) confirm that it is not teaching methods alone that matter. The studies also indicate that the meanings assigned by beholders of graphs, charts and maps are closely linked to their life experiences. This is similarly so for Singapore students. Over thirty students ranging from 11 to 20 years of age were interviewed on their interpretation of a set of graphs, charts and maps of an imaginary world. A phenomenographic analysis shows that the students experienced considerable variations in their perceptions of graphic representations of quantitative data (graphs, charts and maps). These variations are represented in an outcome space diagram showing three major levels of understanding.     

Students' Knowledge of Aging and Career Preferences

The increased number of older adults attributes to a rising need for future professionals to work in gerontology. Understanding the influence of students' career choices is important. A qualitative study was conducted after students' taking a gerontology course to explore students' knowledge and career preference in gerontology. The results were that students reported higher competency in that their knowledge was higher. Although increased knowledge did not necessarily encourage students to choose careers in gerontology, it may have made students more amenable toward accepting working with the aging population in the future. The study offers suggestions on how to increase students' competency level in practice.     

Students' Perceptions of Study Modes

This paper reports on a survey of how Australian undergraduate students perceive the benefits of broad study modes: face‐to‐face classes, web‐based study, and print‐based study. Two benefit types were identified through factor analysis: engagement and functionality. Respondents rated face‐to‐face classes highest on engagement and print‐based study highest on functionality. However, they distinguished only marginally between the engagement and functionality benefits of print‐based and web‐based study. Two variables associated with differences in students’ perceptions of study modes were attendance mode and student tenure. The findings raise questions about the learning and marketing rationales for offering web‐based delivery of educational programmes at the expense of both the traditional face‐to‐face experience and the traditional “distance” experience in Australia using print materials.     

Students' Perceptions of Literacy Assessment

Students' perceptions of literacy assessment processes and practices were investigated in two year long case studies undertaken in two English classrooms in two state high schools in Queensland, Australia. A range of qualitative data techniques was used to collect information related to students' previous experiences of assessment in primary school, students' responses to the first and last literacy assessment task of the school year, and their perceptions of assessment at the end of the year. The study showed that students' attitudes, beliefs, practices and understandings about assessment varied both within and across student groups and differences in students' accounts were evident both at the start and end of the school year. The findings highlight the role that students play in actively constructing knowledge about literacy assessment through their prior and current experiences with assessment tasks, and in their interactions with each other.     

Students' Preferences and Needs in Portuguese Higher Education

In Portugal, there is a diversified higher education system comprising some 160 institutions: universities, polytechnics and isolated schools, public or private, with a total enrolment of some 350,000 students. This article presents the analysis of the results of questionnaires which were completed in 2004 by students entering higher education for the first time so as to understand their perceived needs and aspirations and how they chose their institution/study programme.
In the last few years, there has been a decline in the number of candidates to higher education — mainly due to demography — which created strong institutional competition. Therefore it is important to understand the reasons behind students' choices, perceived needs and aspirations and how students assess the capacity of different institutions/programmes to fulfil these. It is also relevant to understand how their choices may be conditioned by factors such as their socio-economic and cultural background, employability prospects, other available information, gender and type of institution and study programme.     

Counseling-Orientation Preferences: American and Australian Comparative Data

This study investigated counseling-orientation preferences of samples of counselor trainees in the United States and Australia using the Counseling-Orientation Scale. The authors compare the preferences in theoretical orientations and discuss the two major findings primarily in terms of the cultural characteristics of the two nations.     

Gender,Achievement, and African-American Students' Perceptions of Their School Experience

This article discusses factors related to academic achievement among African-American male and female students. A review of the literature on achievement and gender differences among African-American students and two empirical studies I conducted are presented. The results of the first study, which focused on achievement, indicated that successful achievers reported more positive self-perceptions, more interpersonal support, and more active problem solving. The results of the second study, which focused on gender differences, indicated differences in support favoring females. In addition, some gender differences were found in this sample that differed from those found for White students.     

School Counselors' Perceptions of Career Counseling and Career Testing: Preferences, Priorities, and Predictors

Limited information on the actual and preferred career counseling and career testing activities of school counselors exists. An analysis of a statewide school counselors' survey revealed career counseling and testing preferences, priorities and predictors. Results revealed counselors preferred trait/factor approaches to career counseling, including Holland's RIASEC theory, Person-Environment-Correspondence theory and Cognitive Information Processing theory, respectively. With respect to career counseling and career testing priorities, means comparisons indicated that elementary, middle, and high school counselors' actual time performing career counseling duties is minimal; however, they desire to spend significantly more time on career counseling and testing. Multiple regressions revealed important predictor variables for actual and ideal time spent on career counseling and career testing. Limitations and recommendations for further research are discussed.     

Preferences for Various Learning Environments: Teachers' and Parents' Perceptions

In the last ten years, a number of innovations, mainly inspired by constructivist notions of learning, have been introduced at various levels of the Dutch educational system. However, constructivist learning environments are rarely implemented. Teachers tend to stick to expository and structured learning environments. This consistent finding requires research in order to gain insight into teachers' preferences for learning environments and to determine the factors that support and impede the realization of these learning environments. Regarding the influence of social backgrounds on student learning, is it also important to take stock of parental views on learning environments.This study is focused on teachers' preferences for learning environments, their reported teaching behavior, and how these match with parents' preferences. Three parallel questionnaires were developed for teachers (n = 285), students (n = 951), and parents (n = 636) to measure preferences and behavior at different levels of education, for three types of learning environments: direct instruction; discovery learning; and authentic pedagogy. The results show that teachers often prefer direct instruction, and seldom promote discovery learning. While teachers sometimes realize authentic pedagogy, constructive learning tasks are seldom used. Teachers' reported practice and parents' preferences for their children appear to correspond reasonably.Results of multiple regression analyses show that the use of the three types of learning environments yield different predictors. For the use of discovery learning and authentic pedagogy, confidence in students' regulative skills is an important predictor. In predicting the use of direct instruction, the teacher's own conception of learning turns out to be an important predictor.     

College Students' Preferences for Psychotherapy Across Depression,Anxiety, Relationship,and Academic Problems

The present study examined differences in college students' preferences for processes of change across four kinds of problems: academic, relationship, depression, and anxiety. Two hundred eighteen undergraduates were randomly assigned to complete either an academic problems, relationship problems, depression, or anxiety Processes of Change Questionnaire along with the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Services Scale. Results revealed significant differences for preferred processes of change as a function of problem type. Generally, processes of change were more preferred for depression, anxiety, and relationship problems than for academic problems. Results may assist clinicians in selecting psychotherapeutic interventions to which college students will be most receptive.     

Students' Perceptions of their Learning Outcomes

Abstract

This paper indicates students' perceptions of their learning outcomes, identified through group consultations in the author's University. These student generated outcomes were strongly orientated towards personal and professional skills and qualities, and the listing of them is compared to existing models of ‘transferable skills’. This might be of particular interest in the light of recent concerns about ‘graduateness’. The list was subsequently used as the basis for a questionnaire survey of students, and the findings of this survey are briefly reviewed. The student generated list differs in two main ways from the existing skills models reviewed. It is more context specific and is more concerned with values.     

对WebQuest的学生观感研究

WebQuest将专题研习和网络结合起来,给学生提供了建构主义的学习环境.学生对学习环境的观感决定了他们的学习方式和结果,同时可以给教师的教提供直接的反馈.本研究采用混合式的研究方法对香港10所中小学的学生进行观感方面的调查访谈,结果认为WebQuest改善了他们的学习态度.     

Science Students' Perceptions of Engaging Pedagogy

During their years of schooling, students develop perceptions about learning and teaching, including the ways in which teachers impact on their learning experiences. This paper presents student perceptions of teacher pedagogy as interpreted from a study focusing on students' experience of Year 7 science. A single science class of 11 to 12 year old students and their teacher were monitored for the whole school year, employing participant observation, and interviews with focus groups of students, their teacher and other key members of the school. Analysis focused on how students perceived the role of the teacher's pedagogy in constructing a learning environment that they considered conducive to engagement with science learning. Two areas of the teacher's pedagogy are explored from the student perspective of how these affect their learning: instructional pedagogy and relational pedagogy. Instructional pedagogy captures the way the instructional dialogue developed by the teacher drew the students into the learning process and enabled them to “understand” science. How the teacher developed a relationship with the students is captured as relational pedagogy, where students said that they learned better when teachers were passionate in their approach to teaching, provided a supportive learning environment and made them feel comfortable. The ways in which the findings support the direction for the middle years and science education are considered.     

Influencing College Students' Perceptions of Videocounseling

Technology has made inroads in the counseling field in the form of e-mail, chat, and videoconferencing. It is not clear, however, whether college students perceive technology to be an acceptable application to counseling. The purpose of this study was to assess students' attitudes and expectations for a particular type of technology application—videocounseling. The results indicated that after watching a simulated videocounseling session students placed greater value in videocounseling, felt less discomfort with videocounseling, and expected videocounseling to be an effective and satisfactory approach. The merits of using such a role induction procedure with college students who consider participating in videocounseling are discussed as well as the implications of this therapy approach for counseling training programs and university counseling centers.     

Elementary School Students' and their Parents' Preferences for Counselors

This is the fourth in a series of studies underway at Ohio State University exploring the importance of race, sex, and ethnic origin in the expression of counselor preference. This study emphasizes the importance of these variables for elementary school students and their parents and discusses the implications of these findings for counselor preparation.     

A Study on the Current Job-Selection Preferences of Postgraduate Students

In May 1993 the "Market Economy and the Values of Postgraduate Students" study group composed of postgraduates in the Department of Philosophy at Wuhan University conducted a questionnaire sampling survey of masters degree postgraduates at eight universities, i.e., Wuhan University, Central China Institute of Technology, Central China Teachers University, Central China University of Agriculture, South Central University of Finance and Economics, Wuhan University of Hydraulics and Electric Power, Tongji Medical University, and Hubei Medical University. Altogether 600 questionnaires were sent out, and 548 effective questionnaires were retrieved, the rate of effective retrievals was 91.3 percent. The sampling ratio was approximately 1:10, and the male to female ratio in the sample was 2.8:1. The ages ranged from 20 to 38 according to the Gaussian distribution. Among the subjects, those aged 20-25 totaled 59.3 percent; 26-30, 36.2 percent; and 31-38, 4.5 percent. Sample composition was basically consistent with the overall composition.     

An Exploratory Study of Undergraduate Students' Referral Preferences

We surveyed undergraduate college students from the psychology subject pool (N = 73) about where they would refer a depressed friend for help. Students from this sample were most likely to refer friends to the counseling center followed by social support options. Students were comparatively least likely to refer to other professionals, indicating that these students view the counseling center as their primary access point for mental health care. Implications of these findings for counseling centers include the continued importance of on-campus care, outreach geared at generating appropriate referrals from social support, fostering relationships with students' parents, and providing access to psychiatric care.     

Singaporean and Australian Students' Understanding of Vision

A model for the development of an understanding of how people see has been proposed on the basis of a questionnaire and interview study of a cross-section of Australian school students. The model, based on the SOLO model of cognitive development (Collis & Biggs, 1991), involves the building of connections between the eye, light and the object seen in the Ikonic and Concrete Symbolic modes of cognitive functioning. In order to assess the viability of the model across cultures, the questionnaire was administered to 116 primary and secondary school students in Singapore. This paper reports some details of how the model was supported in its most important respects. The few discrepancies might be explained in terms of environmental, linguistic and/or teaching factors.     

Teachers' Perceptions of Their Students' Gender Roles

Abstract

Attitudes and perceptions of teacher behavior regarding students' gender roles were investigated. A questionnaire was administered to 221 Israeli teachers and responses were analyzed according to gender and education setting. Results indicate no extreme egalitarian or chauvinistic responses. In general, elementary school and female teachers gave more gender egalitarian responses to questionnaire items in comparison with male and secondary school teachers. Only 15% of teachers in this sample had attended courses on gender equality. Over 50% of teachers did not respond to the question concerning their school's gender policy. Those findings may reflect a relative lack of teacher awareness concerning the in-depth nature of gender stereotypes and their overall influences. Results may indicate compulsory courses and seminars on gender self-awareness during teacher training.     

Students' Perceptions of Different Tertiary Learning Environments

In this study of students' perceptions of six different tertiary learning environments, 1,249 students indicated the behaviours and practices that helped or hindered their learning and why. Irrespective of the type of learning environment, students felt that their learning was helped when learning experiences were practical and experiential. Students also felt that their learning was helped when the presentation and explanation were clear. These learning conditions clarified their understanding and consolidated their learning. Learning was hindered when the pace of presentation was inappropriately fast or slow and the presentation was unclear. Learning in each particular type of environment was also helped or hindered by conditions and behaviours idiosyncratic to that environment. These conditions and the reason for their effects are identified and discussed. Although many are predictable, they reinforce the notions, first, that different learning environments are designed to, and in practice do, produce different learning outcomes and, second, that students are capable of discriminating between what they consider to be good and bad educational experiences. What students regard as “good”, however, provides a challenge for tertiary educators and staff developers.