The myths about e‐learning in higher education

Proponents have marketed e‐learning by focusing on its adoption as the right thing to do while disregarding, among other things, the concerns of the potential users, the adverse effects on users and the existing research on the use of e‐learning or related innovations. In this paper, the e‐learning‐adoption proponents are referred to as the technopositivists. It is argued that most of the technopositivists in the higher education context are driven by a personal agenda, with the aim of propagating a technopositivist ideology to stakeholders. The technopositivist ideology is defined as a ‘compulsive enthusiasm’ about e‐learning in higher education that is being created, propagated and channelled repeatedly by the people who are set to gain without giving the educators the time and opportunity to explore the dangers and rewards of e‐learning on teaching and learning. Ten myths on e‐learning that the technopositivists have used are presented with the aim of initiating effective and constructive dialogue, rather than merely criticising the efforts being made.     

From school to higher education in Australia

This paper addresses the question of why young people go on from school to higher education in Australia. A person-situation interactionist theory to explain decisions taken in the matter is developed, and in the light of this theory a model to predict entry to higher education is advanced. The model is tested using data from separate studies in two Australian States, Victoria and Queensland. Results of bivariate and logistic regression analyses are generally consistent with expectations from the model. Certain interactive effects of variables in the model upon entry to higher education are reported.     

关于加强高等院校学生思想教育的思考

近几年,各高校在不断的扩招,一方面有更多的学生可以借此机会接受高等教育,另一方面高等教育也受到了严峻的考验。这些学生来自不同的省市,有着不同的生活习惯,他们普遍年龄偏低,思想还不够成熟,在这个阶段正是人格和思想形成的关键时期。另外由于他们的文化背景、思想基础、自身素质等也各不相同,所以大学教师不仅要帮助他们在大学期间完成学业,更重要的是要引导学生如何正确树立人生观、价值观,合理规划自己的人生。因此加强高校大学生的思想教育非常重要,具有重大意义。本文就这个问题谈几点粗浅想法。     

Helping students become better learners: a case study in teacher education

The aim of this project is to increase teacher education students' understanding of the learning process by focussing on their own learning experiences. 67 preservice teacher education students in 4 classes completed measures of academic locus of control and study processes before and after a semester course in a specially designed programme in Educational Psychology. The programme focuses on students taking greater responsibility for their own learning by exposing them to a variety of learning experiences. These experiences include negotiation of the curriculum, peer discussion and teaching, learning contracts, self, peer and collaborative assessment and critical reflection on these and other learning experiences by means of an ongoing learning log.Results indicate an increase in academic locus of control for one class, and an increase in deep motive, achieving strategy, deep approach and deep achieving approach to learning for the whole group. These outcomes are discussed in terms of the congruence between these changes and the particular learning experiences to which the students were exposed.     

‘Fitting in’ or ‘standing out’: Working‐class students in UK higher education

Drawing on case studies of 27 working‐class students across four UK higher education institutions, this article attempts to develop a multilayered, sociological understanding of student identities that draws together social and academic aspects. Working with a concept of student identity that combines the more specific notion of learner identity with more general understandings of how students are positioned in relation to their discipline, their peer group and the wider university, the article examines the influence of widely differing academic places and spaces on student identities. Differences between institutions are conceptualised in terms of institutional habitus, and the article explores how the four different institutional habituses result in a range of experiences of fitting in and standing out in higher education. For some this involves combining a sense of belonging in both middle‐class higher education and working‐class homes, while others only partially absorb a sense of themselves as students.     

Helping parents to become partners in the education of their handicapped child

Conclusions Educators are beginning to seek methods of improving parent-child relationships and school and parent relationships, as the evidence accrues and is assimilated, which shows how much more important is the child's family experience. The handicapped child brings the desirability of successful home and school links into clear focus, as the six-hour school day is clearly inadequate for the needs of many severely handicapped children, who require a consistent programme of developmental experiences from waking to sleeping. The only way in which the trust and confidence imposed by close relationships in the home may be continued in the school is by a mutual effort directed at common goals: the development of the child's capacity to learn and care for himself. Perhaps it is the similarity of the tasks undertaken in home and in school, with the severely and profoundly handicapped child, the severely and profoundly handicapped child, which has shown just how powerful the home-and-school combination can be when working in harmony. There are clearly lessons here for the education system at large. Perhaps the longstanding schism between parents and schools can be bridged in the next decades.The importance of social abilities, self-help skills and the confidence which all emanate from a successful family life, are emphasized by Smith and Sykes (1981) and others, who show that social competency is perhaps the key factor in determining vocational and post-school success for handicapped students. These competencies and confidence cannot come from school alone. The initiatives alluded to in this article, and described in full in the literature cited, show that schools have come a long way from believing that they alone can cope.Has written a number of studies on the development of education for the visually handicapped.     

Musselin,Christine & Teixeira,Pedro N ed (2014) Reforming higher education Springer (Berlin) isbn 978‐94‐007‐7027‐0 233 pp £90 http://www.springer.com/education+%26+language/higher+education/book/978‐94‐007‐7027‐0

As a whole, this is an extraordinary book if you wish to study and understand the evolution of higher education—especially in Europe in these times of change of educational paradigms generated by the Bologna Process. However, if the subject of this book is relevant to you as a learning technologist, I advise that you will probably find only parts of it of interest or use. Jesus Garcia Laborda     

Special needs students in higher education

The topic in this paper is how former special needs students with academic competence from upper secondary school succeed in education on a higher level. The study concentrates on students who at their start in upper secondary education were registered with problems of concentration, difficulties in reading, writing or mathematics. The main part of this paper will base on qualitative interviews with nine former special needs students. Seven out of the nine informants were registered with reading and writing difficulties. However, it is also possible to compare these informants with longitudinal data from a larger group of students who have been followed prospectively since spring 1996. Theoretically the study is based on life course research with special emphasis on social transitions. In transitional processes between different educational arenas gatekeepers＇often play important roles. This study will examine how such gatekeepers, e.g. teachers, may facilitate or obstruct these transitions for a vulnerable group like former special needs students.     

Transfer students in institutions of higher education

The primary purpose of this study is to describe the extent of college transfers over two years since initial matriculation and to examine differences in background characteristics between transfers and nontransfers (i.e., persisters, withdrawals, and graduates). Data involved a national probability sample of the 1972 entering class. Major findings include the following: 25% of the 2-year college students transferred to a 4-year institution, and 16% of 4-year college students moved to another 4-year institution. This later group of students tended to hold higher socioeconomic status and college grades but lower ability test scores than persisters. Implications of the findings are also discussed.     

Identifying students with dyslexia in higher education

An increasing number of students with dyslexia enter higher education. As a result, there is a growing need for standardized diagnosis. Previous research has suggested that a small number of tests may suffice to reliably assess students with dyslexia, but these studies were based on post hoc discriminant analysis, which tends to overestimate the percentage of systematic variance, and were limited to the English language (and the Anglo-Saxon education system). Therefore, we repeated the research in a non-English language (Dutch) and we selected variables on the basis of a prediction analysis. The results of our study confirm that it is not necessary to administer a wide range of tests to diagnose dyslexia in (young) adults. Three tests sufficed: word reading, word spelling and phonological awareness, in line with the proposal that higher education students with dyslexia continue to have specific problems with reading and writing. We also show that a traditional postdiction analysis selects more variables of importance than the prediction analysis. However, these extra variables explain study-specific variance and do not result in more predictive power of the model.     

Coping experience among students in higher education

The study examines the coping strategies among 130 undergraduate college and university students with learning disabilities (LD) and 146 students without learning disabilities (NLD). Students completed self‐reported instruments designed to measure stress, support and strategies. The findings revealed that students without LD reported higher work stress, higher combined stress and more social support than did students with LD. Students without LD were more task orientated and perceived more support than students with LD, while students with LD used more emotional coping strategies than NLD students. Differences were also obtained regarding age and gender. The study highlights the importance of further investigations with a larger sample and the support sources of students with LD, and suggests developing task‐oriented coping strategies designed especially for students with LD.

Coping experience among students in higher education

All authors

Tali Heiman Corresponding author: Department of Education and Psychology, The Open University, 108 Ravutski Street, Raanana, 43107, Israel. Email: talihe@openu.ac.il View all notes & Dafna Kariv

https://doi.org/10.1080/0305569042000310354

Published online:

07 October 2010

Background variables of participants

CSVDisplay Table