The distinction between academic standards and quality: implications for transnational higher education

Although the conceptual distinction between academic standards and the quality of learning opportunities is fundamental to an understanding of the role of quality assurance in higher education, the distinction, and its implications, have not always been well understood in the case of transnational higher education. This paper explores both the source of academic standards and the criteria by which the quality of learning opportunities can be judged. It is argued that the distinction is of particular importance in the context of transnational education, because whilst judgements about quality may legitimately be susceptible to a degree of cultural influence, the same is not true of judgements about academic standards. It is suggested that a lack of attention to the logical distinction between standards and quality has hampered efforts by regulatory régimes around the world to develop coherent policies with respect to hosting transnational higher education provision.     

The need for context-sensitive measures of educational quality in transnational higher education

This paper argues that the current approach to educational quality formation in transnational higher education promotes educational imperialism, and that guidelines and practices should be altered to embrace context-sensitive measures of quality. The claims are sustained by findings from a study that investigated how academics understood and pursued educational quality in an Australian university programme delivered in partnership with a Chinese university in China. A key finding was that a home programme functioned as the single reference point for quality in the programme delivered in China. Quality in the China programme was sought through the imposition of practices and philosophies associated with the home programme, which required the suppression of local educational traditions. The paper points out that reliance on a home programme as the single measure of quality is encouraged by governing UNESCO/OECD guidelines on quality in cross-border provision.     

试论高等教育质量的跨国比较

本文从方法论角度，探讨高等教育质量跨国比较的背景、复杂性和可行性。认为：经济全球化、高教国际化互动条件下质量问题的凸显，为高等教育质量跨国比较提供了动因；跨国比较的任务就是要从个性中辨析共性，区分出可比较的和不可比较的质量因素，客观地界定跨国比较的范围，运用系统科学方法进行比较。     

Inter-agency cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education: challenges and opportunities

This paper presents the findings of a study undertaken by the United Kingdom Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), with support from the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE), aimed at investigating the challenges and limits to cross-border cooperation in the quality assurance of transnational education. The study builds on the outcomes of the recently concluded Erasmus Mundus project Quality Assurance of Cross-Border Higher Education (QACHE) and in particular the QACHE Toolkit developed as part of the project to foster cooperation between quality assurance agencies in quality assuring transnational education. Based on the responses to a survey sent to QAA’s partner agencies in key sending and receiving countries of transnational education, the study extract recommendations to agencies to help them developing viable strategies for inter-agency cooperation, identifying concrete ways in which they might or might not cooperate across borders.     

Responding to crises in transnational education: new challenges for higher education

This paper is based on a case study of an Australian university involved in the delivery of transnational programs in an educational environment that has been increasingly characterized by commercial considerations. The researchers conducted focus group interviews with both general and academic staff to ascertain the personal, academic and administrative issues affecting the delivery of educational programs in Asia that arose as a result of one particular crisis in 2003: the SARS epidemic. The findings indicate that both administrative and academic staff felt personally and professionally challenged by the complexity of the issues involved in interrupting the pattern of transnational teaching. Potentially conflicting rationales emerged through the focus group discussions, with administrative staff expressing concern with maintaining services, while lecturers articulated a preoccupation with the safeguarding of assessment standards.     

The role of transnational networking for higher education academics

Amidst rapid socio-economic change, higher education (HE) academics across the world face major challenges to its organisation, finance and management. This paper discusses the role of transnational networking in higher education. Data from 40 interviews with geographically distributed academics engaged in learning and teaching transnational networks (TNNs) were analysed. The findings show that in an increasingly globalised higher education system, transnational networking goes beyond conference attendance to entail multiple combinations of offline and online activities. We do not think that current concepts of communities of practice or networks of practice accurately describe these phenomena. Instead, we suggest that these activities entail different and varying levels of tangibility, more accurately defined by us as TNNs. Moreover, we argue that the term ‘network’ in this context facilitates the individualistic pursuit of a career increasingly essential in a pressurised higher education environment.     

The impact of a peer-tutoring program on quality standards in higher education

The purposes of this study were, on one had, to determine the impact of a peer tutoring program on preventing academic failure and dropouts among first-year students (N = 100), from Civil Engineering, Economics, Pharmacy, and Chemical Engineering careers; while, on the other hand, to identify the potential benefits of such tutoring program on the cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies and social skills of student mentors in their last year of studies or already in a postgraduate program (N = 41) at the University of Granada (Spain). After building and selecting the measurement instruments necessary to gather demographic and academic relevant information on both samples, and assigning first-year students to either an experimental or control group, the intervention consisted of ten 90-min tutoring sessions during the first semester lead by student tutors who, in turn, had undergone four 3-h training sessions on tutoring contents like planning and time management, cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies, motivational strategies and the use of materials designed ad hoc for this program. The results show differences in favour of the treatment group on grade point average, performance rate, success rate and learning strategies and, also, statistically significant pre-post differences for the tutors on learning strategies and social skills.     

Becoming siap mental: education for transnational labour migration

Disparate groups with dissimilar agendas, ranging from the Indonesian government to grassroots education collectives, agree that training and education play an important role in preparing women for safe labour migration. However, perspectives on precisely how this training and education should be structured and what information should be included vary widely. This article, which is based on 10 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Indonesia, explores the range of perspectives on what it means to become educated about migration for domestic labour. Particular attention is given to migrant women’s emphasis on the idea of being siap mental (mentally ready) for migration. This research sheds light on the challenges to developing education programmes for migrant women workers and contributes empirical evidence on the role that nonformal or out-of-school education can play in shaping values and social norms.     

Specific remedy for specific problem: measuring service quality in South African higher education

This study commences a process of developing a scale for the measurement of service quality in higher education in South Africa and also examines the relationship between the measures of service quality on the one hand and some other related variables such as intention to leave the university, trust in management of the university and the overall satisfaction with the university. Using structured questionnaires, survey data was collected from students (n = 391) in two South African universities. Findings indicate that the 52-item measure of service quality in higher education is a multidimensional construct loading on 13 factors with a high reliability coefficient (0.93) and some construct validity. Significant relationships were also found between service quality in HE and other study variables—intention to leave university, trust in management of the university and overall satisfaction with the university. Some further research directions were suggested and policy implications of findings discussed.     

ADA-based accommodations in higher education: a survey of clinicians about documentation requirements and diagnostic standards

The expansion of the number of students requesting accommodations in postsecondary settings compels clinicians to become knowledgeable about the legal definitions and documentation requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Because the law is relatively new, courts and regulatory agencies have only recently begun to clarify what constitutes a disability. In this study, 147 clinicians completed a questionnaire developed to assess their understanding of the law and the diagnostic approaches they used to justify claims of learning disability (LD), attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and psychiatric disability. Whereas the clinicians agreed on certain points (e.g., the right of institutions to formulate specific policies regarding documentation), they substantially disagreed on several fundamental issues. Clinician consensus was lowest on items that asked about the basic intent of the law, the metrics for assessing impairment, and the criteria for assessing ADHD in adulthood. Judged against the legislative history of the ADA and the body of regulatory rulings and legal decisions, many clinicians' responses showed a need for clarification regarding the distinction between special education law and the antidiscrimination intent of the ADA. The respondents also expressed a nearly uniform wish for more training in this fast-growing area of clinical practice.     

谈网络环境下继续教育培训对辅导教师的要求

中小学教师继续教育培训的形式已逐渐转向利用计算机网络开展远程培训,这一转变要求参与培训的辅导教师要提高自己的网络技术水平,通过电子邮件、QQ、MSN等形式同学员顺利进行交流和沟通;确保教育教学任务的顺利完成。更对辅导教师的职业道德修养、专业课程水平、培训的技能方法等提出了新的要求。     

The international branch campus as transnational strategy in higher education

The international branch campus is a phenomenon on the rise, but we still have limited knowledge of the strategic choices underlying the start of these ventures. The objective of this paper is to shed light on the motivations and decisions of universities to engage (or not) with the establishment of international branch campuses. As a point of departure, institutional theory has been selected to frame the potential motives for starting an international branch campus. Secondary literature, including professional journals and university reports and websites, has been analysed to obtain information that alludes to the motivations of universities for adopting particular strategies. It was found that university managements’ considerations can be explained by the concepts of legitimacy, status, institutional distance, risk-taking, risk-avoidance and the desire to secure new sources of revenue. We argue that universities should avoid decisions that are based largely on a single dimension, such as legitimacy, but rather consider a broad spectrum of motivations and considerations.     

Towards a transnational model of critical values education: the case for literature education in Singapore

Once regarded as the most essential subject in the national curriculum vital for civilizing the public, English Literature has now lost its place of prominence. In this paper, I focus on Singapore where the subject was a core aspect of the colonial curriculum and where it is currently facing declining enrolment at the national examinations. In the first part of the paper, I discuss how Literature initially functioned to propagate colonial values education in Singapore and how, following Singapore's independence, its goals were overtaken by a nation-state model of values education. Limitations of this model provide the grounds for a transnational model of critical values education that, as I argue in the second part, may be powerfully conveyed through Literature. It is Literature's capacity to facilitate transnational critical engagements with values and explorations of identity especially involving highly sensitive aspects related to gender, race, and religion that represents the strongest justification in the light of its present demise. What Literature offers is the possibility of engaging with values beyond the confines of Empire or nation by grappling with essential questions about what it means to be a cosmopolitan as opposed to a nationalistic citizen inhabiting the world.     

美国《国家科学教育标准中的化学内容》的解读

本文通过对《国家科学教育标准中的化学》解读分析，讨论了化学内容统一性和开放性的实质及意义．探讨了它对化学教学带来的启示。     

浅析中学音乐教育对教师素质的要求

本文通过对21世纪中学音乐教育与素质教育的联系及我国基础教育现状的分析，详细论述了中学音乐教师应具备良好的思想品德修养、综合的音乐学科专业修养和技能、与各门基础学科相结合的教学能力、教学实践和多种形式辅助能力，音乐教育教学科学研究等5个方面的能力。     

Muslim cosmopolitanisms in a transnational world: implications for the education of Muslims

ABSTRACT

In a transnational world, Muslim cosmopolitanisms are both numerous and diverse. These cosmopolitanisms constitute a broad spectrum of views and practices, representing a range of interpretations and expressions of Islam, some of which are polarized and polarizing. In this reflective, theoretical paper, I discuss the potential implications of Muslim cosmopolitanisms for the education of Muslims in a transnational world and argue that the teachings of Islam are sufficiently open to interpretation to support various Muslim cosmopolitanisms. While resistance to change has typified the education of Muslims historically in many parts of the world, this resistance is being challenged in new ways, characteristic of the Information Age, wherein near-instantaneous, transnational exchanges of information and ideas are democratizing and adding complexity to Islamic hermeneutics and praxis. In this context, I contend that Muslim cosmopolitan discourses have become necessary, and the outcomes of these discourses will be crucial in shaping the future education of Muslims. Given historical precedents, however, I posit that the triumph of Muslim educational orthodoxy is expected if these discourses lead to or reinforce polarization.     

Understanding marginalisation in education: The voice of children

This paper illustrates how conversations with children can enhance thinking and practice in relation to the development of inclusive education. In particular, evidence from research carried out in a primary school in Cyprus is used to throw light on notions of marginalisation. The study suggests that marginalisation can be conceptualised in four ways: when a child is experiencing some kind of marginalisation that is recognised almost by everybody, including himself/herself; when a child is feeling that he/she is experiencing marginalisation, whereas others do not recognise this: when a child is found in what appears to be marginalised situations but does not view this as marginalisation; and, finally, when a child appears to experience marginalisation but does not recognise this. The paper concludes that children’s voices should not only be used as a strategy for understanding and developing more inclusive practices, but more importantly that listening to children is itself a manifestation of being inclusive.     

谈新课程对德育教师素质的要求

新一轮基础教育课程改革彰显了许多崭新的教育理念,这正是新课程昭示其强大生命力的原因所在.德育课程改革呼唤德育理念的更新,对德育教师的素质提出了更高要求.如何转变教育思想,更新德育观念,改进课程教学方式方法,使之与新课程改革的基本理念、价值取向和目标要求相一致,这是每个德育教师必须思考的重大课题.德育教师必须树立新的课程观、教材观、品德教育目的观、学习观和教师角色观,以适应新课程改革的要求.     

在建设“生活品质之城”中推进市民教育的新发展

市民教育是随着现代社会的进步和发展而产生的一项新生事物,是成人教育的重要组成部分,也是提高市民素质和生活质量的一个重要途径。文章在分析“生活品质之城”建设中市民教育重要意义的基础上,结合市民教育工作实践,对如何在建设“生活品质之城”中推进市民教育的进一步发展提出了若干建议。