A System of Student Feedback: Considerations of Academic Staff Taken into Account

As a consequence of the suspension of a system of yearly evaluations of individual courses with student questionnaires, the University of Leuven organised a broad consultation of the academic community focussing on what they expect from a system based on student feedback. The study revealed that this community attaches great importance to a clear definition of the goals of student feedback, improvement and accountability, and a logical translation of these goals into a concrete approach. The study also confirmed the need of academic staff for a concrete response to the importance they give to quality improvement and enhancement besides accountability.

     

应当重视制作网络新闻标题

好的网络新闻标题对于引起网民阅读的兴趣,实现网络新闻的有效传播有着不可忽视的作用.要想吸引读者,提高点击率,达到最大程度新闻传播的目的,就必须制作一个好的网络新闻标题.在这个过程中,要注意网络新闻标题的制作应该是网络新闻编辑对新闻资源进行二次加工和开发的过程,而不是对报纸新闻标题简单的照搬照抄,要求是既简单准确,又生动形象,能牢牢抓住网民的眼球.     

Taking Race into Account: Charting Student Attitudes Towards Affirmative Action

This paper examines student attitudes towards affirmative action over 4 years of college. Asian American and Latino/a students were more likely than White students to disagree strongly or somewhat with abolishing affirmative action after 4 years of college. A student’s attitude towards the policy as a first-year student, peer group influence, and political orientation were significant predictors of student attitudes of affirmative action during the fourth year of college. The findings suggest that while college plays some role in shaping affirmative action attitudes, its influence is somewhat limited in comparison to the background traits and attitudes that students bring to college.     

Video: A Method of Delivering Student Feedback

This paper describes the implementation and evaluation of the use of video as a method of delivering feedback to students taking certain practical art and design modules, as part of their first degree programmes at De Montfort University. Initially tested within Lens Based Media photographic modules, the results were such that video was considered to enhance a feedback process that referred to visual imagery, as well as offering students comparative feedback on their own performance. Further tests were undertaken, with an Interior Design module, to investigate the effectiveness of video in assessment procedures that included both two and three dimensional work. Insights are also given into various perceived improvements that this use of video can offer art and design education. These include the freeing up of staff time for individual tuition and creative work, a rapid speed of turnaround between assessment and distribution of the feedback to students, and a method of alleviating problems associated with the storage of student work.     

Willingness to obtain Student Evaluations as a Criterion of Academic Staff Performance

In a preliminary report published in 1988 a working party of the Australian Vice‐Chancellors’ Committee and the Australian Committee of Directors and Principals in Advanced Education Limited suggested that the number of formative evaluations by students be adopted as an indicator of commitment to teaching of university departments. This study reports research into factors influencing individual staff willingness to seek such information from students. Relationships were explored among seven demographic, educational and professional background variables and between them and two criterion variables, Perceived Competence on teaching tasks and Willingness to Obtain Student Evaluations. Perceived Competence was found to be the major direct but negative influence upon Willingness to Obtain Student Evaluations, while sex, possession of a doctorate and length of teaching experience were found to have indirect effects mediated by Perceived Competence.     

Monitoring the Use of a Staff Student Liaison Committee for Feedback in Quality Engineering Education

The paper explores the use of a staff student liaison committee (SSLC) as one of the mechanisms for assuring quality in civil engineering education. The School of Civil Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology, Australia, is used as a case study. The school has a SSLC which meets about six times per year and has representatives of all undergraduate courses and some academic staff. It was thought that the SSLC was well regarded by staff and students and contributed to the learning experience of students within the school. A questionnaire was used to ascertain the views of staff and students regarding the effectiveness of the committee in promoting good quality education. The findings indicated that the SSLC was playing an important role, but that it was not as well regarded as academic staff thought, and that many students were not fully aware of its activities. The school has used the findings to adopt new methods of distributing information to the student body and for ascertaining student opinion, principally electronically.     

A Stereotype Threat Account of Boys' Academic Underachievement

Three studies examined the role of stereotype threat in boys' academic underachievement. Study 1 (children aged 4–10, n = 238) showed that girls from age 4 years and boys from age 7 years believed, and thought adults believed, that boys are academically inferior to girls. Study 2 manipulated stereotype threat, informing children aged 7–8 years (n = 162) that boys tend to do worse than girls at school. This manipulation hindered boys' performance on a reading, writing, and math test, but did not affect girls' performance. Study 3 counteracted stereotype threat, informing children aged 6–9 years (n = 184) that boys and girls were expected to perform similarly. This improved the performance of boys and did not affect that of girls.     

学校学业乐观:提升学生学业成就的合力

学校学业乐观是教师群体对教与学的积极信念与态度及由此形成的良好学校氛围,由注重学业成就、教师集体效能感以及教师对家长和学生的信任这三个协同作用的成分构成。与社会经济地位、学生先前的学习成就等因素相比,学校学业乐观更能稳定而显著地预测学生的学业成就。学校学业乐观概念的提出及结构成分的确立源自积极心理学、学校组织行为学、教育心理学等多学科的理论与实证研究的支持。     

大学学术自治与学术自由的比较阐释

首先 ,对学术自治和学术自由作了比较阐述 ,认为学术自治是学术自由的保障 ,是在学术自治中实践着学术自由。进而从教育实践角度总结国内外的经验与问题 ,并就我国高等教育领域中贯彻这一原则提出了进行制度创新的基本设想 ,主要包括学术仲裁制度、学术风险制度、学术基金制度及学术柔性管理制度等     

Closing the Feedback Loop: Ensuring Effective Action from Student Feedback

Feedback from students can informimprovement in higher education institutionsand be part of the students' role in universitymanagement. To be effective it is important to`close the loop': from student views, throughidentifying issues and delegatingresponsibility for action, to informingstudents of the action resulting from theirexpressed views. The focus of this paper is theStudent Satisfaction Approach, aninstitution-wide survey used internationally.The paper explores the different waysuniversities feed back information to studentsfollowing institution-wide surveys, includingthe different presentation styles and the typesof issues that are presented to students,drawing on international examples.     

Improving Academic Advising Through Student Seminars: A Case Study

Effective advising can be a challenge for most criminal justice and criminology programs due to the high enrollment and the variety of careers available in the field. One technique designed to address these challenges is the group advising method. The purpose of this study was to examine the details, processes, and execution of a particular group advising method, called student advising seminars, implemented over a two-year period in a criminal justice department at a four-year state-owned university. Preliminary data measuring student accountability and satisfaction are also examined. The findings indicate student advising seminars, as it is described in this case study, have a potential of providing effective and efficient advising.     

Assessment and Feedback: Institutional Experiences of Student Feedback, 1996 to 2007

Attention has recently focused on sectoral concern with assessment and feedback as a result of the National Student Survey. Government, the higher education agencies and the NUS have called for urgent action to address this concern. Existing data from institutional student feedback surveys, using the Student Satisfaction Approach, some dating back well over a decade, shows that the issue is not a new one. Indeed, several institutions have been addressing student concerns and as a result, have seen student satisfaction increase.
This paper explores the existing student feedback data in order to identify not only how students' perceptions of assessment and feedback have changed over time but also the main concerns of students and institutions and what action has been taken by institutions to increase satisfaction.
Several main concerns emerge from the data. Students value feedback as it is re-assuring as an indication of their progress and that it should be timely. Institutions that have used the Student Satisfaction Approach are concerned to clarify their processes to students, to increase their own efficiency in returning work, to monitor and review their assessment and feedback régimes and to share good practice, both internally and externally. Action taken as a result of listening to the student voice results in increased satisfaction but this can take several years.     

高校学生社团评价的心理机制研究

高校学生社团是大学校园中特有的文化现象，对其评头论足历来就是学生们喜闻乐道的事情，正是由于他们对社团的评价，学生的参与热情，社团工作的改进和学校管理部门的态度，受到了极大的影响，甚至在一定程度能导致学生社团整体发展的起落现象，本文通过对经济资料的分析，研究高校学生社团评价拟理机制，文章着重揭示了两个方面的问题，学生评价的心理依据和学生评价的思想背景。     

Select-a-Kibitzer: A Computer Tool that Gives Meaningful Feedback on Student Compositions

Select-a-Kibitzer is a computerized tool that gives feedback to students on their compositions in a unique way. The feedback is based on composition research which describes the process of writing as one of simultaneously solving multiple, possibly conflicting, constraints. In Select-a-Kibitzer, each constraint is personified by a different character. A student enters a composition into the tool and then asks for feedback. A variety of natural language processing techniques are used to analyze the text. Then, each of the characters gives feedback on the text from its particular point of view. Select-a-Kibitzer differs greatly from standard “style checker” mechanisms that focus on surface features of the text. By using Latent Semantic Analysis, Select-a-Kibitzer can address a wide range of meaning-oriented composition issues, including coherence, purpose, topic, and overall quality. This paper describes the composition research that forms the basis of the projec t, and the interaction and implementation of Select-a-Kibitzer. It focuses on techniques for using LSA to provide feedback about the meaning of the composition.     

A Competency‐Based Study of Academic Staff Development Needs

The role of Australian academics is undergoing a period of rapid change as the Federal Government attempts to restructure both the higher education system and the economy. With these changes in role comes a need for the continuing professional development of academics. This paper gives details of a study which adopted a competency‐based approach to identify the job requirements, skill‐deficiencies and training needs of one group of Australian academics. This group ‐ staff from the Business faculties of (former) Colleges of Advanced Education ‐ is of particular interest because its members are experiencing uncommonly rapid growth and change. In general, the respondents tended to rate (a) teaching skills as more important than research skills, (b) their own teaching skills as more highly developed than their research competencies, and (c) their desire for training as greatest with respect to several specific research skills. Some potential barriers to the successful implementation of professional development programmes are discussed.     

An Investigation into Target Setting and Academic Tutoring to Promote Student Learning

There has been a move in schools towards the use of pupil performance data to set targets. It is believed that effective target setting can motivate pupils and staff to strive to reach, or beat, target grades. Alongside this has been a move to promote more effective dialogue about learning between teachers and pupils through the use of academic tutoring. There is a belief that in combination a system of target setting and academic tutoring might lead to more effective learning, increased achievement and therefore school improvement. This investigation into one system of target setting and academic tutoring suggests that although these systems may promote increased achievement in terms of examination performance, they do not necessarily help students to learn more effectively. For this schools must attempt to develop in ways that make learning an explicit subject of discussion, and help students learn about learning. Therefore, it is on the development of student meta–learning that such school improvement efforts should focus.     

对个体私营经济建帐立制规范化的探讨

本文以宏观会计实践的角度,从我国新时期经济条件下财税政策的要求出发,分析了个体、私营经济财务管理的现状,指出其建帐立制的意义和作用,就政府机关对建帐立制的监督和管理进行了剖析,在此基础上阐述了个体、私营业户建帐立制的规范化问题,在对这几个代表性问题作了探讨之后,指出了亟待解决的其他问题.     

The Destination of Three Paths: Improved Student,Faculty and Staff,and System Learning

Piecemeal change to improve schooling is an approach that at its worst does more harm than good, and at its best is limited to creating pockets of good within school districts. When it comes to improving schooling in a district, however, creating pockets of good isn't good enough. Whole school systems need to be improved.

This article focuses on helping educators learn how to transform entire school systems to create unparalleled opportunities to improve student, faculty and staff, and system learning, and presents a set of principles to help change leaders in school systems navigate large-scale, district-wide change to create these multiple learning opportunities.