African American Students at Predominantly White Institutions: A Motivational and Self-Systems Approach to Understanding Retention

Predominantly White institutions have not been as effective as historically Black institutions in retaining and conferring degrees upon African American college students. This review seeks to embed the psychological aspects of the retention process proposed by Bean and Eaton [A psychological model of college student retention. In J. M. Braxton (Ed.), Reworking the student departure puzzle (pp. 48–61). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000] in a culturally-sensitive framework and consider how African American students attending PWIs may experience the processes in retention. We first give a brief overview of Bean and Eaton’s [A psychological model of college student retention. In J. M. Braxton (Ed.), Reworking the student departure puzzle (pp. 48–61). Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2000] model of retention, then we propose and discuss revisions to Bean and Eaton’s model that we believe would make the model more applicable to African American students attending predominantly White institutions. Specifically, we address students’ attitudes towards their institution, academic self-efficacy, motivation, achievement goals, attributions, and ethnic and bicultural identity development. The discussion concludes with implications and directions for future study.     

Perceptions of Black Student Athletes About Academic Mentorship at a Predominantly White Institution in Higher Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate and describe the mentorship experiences of Black student athletes attending undergraduate programs at a Predominantly White Institution in Higher Education (PWI-HE). The research site for this study was a co-educational public research institution (PWI-HE) with an approximate enrollment of 45,000 students. A total of six Black student athletes (five African American and one Jamaican) agreed to participate in this study. Four major interrelated and complex themes emerged from the data analyses. These themes were: (a) mentoring study habits and routines, (b) mentoring academic schedule and time management, (c) personal development within an isolated environment, and (d) family members’ support and encouragements. To better support Black student athletes at PWI-HEs, athletic department administrators, coaches, faculty, and all students should be encouraged to respect, value, and embrace the racial identities, origins, languages, and cultures of the student athletes that are being mentored.     

Differences in Social Adjustment and Classroom Behavior Between Children Retained in Kindergarten and Groups of Age and Grade Matched Peers

Children are routinely retained in kindergarten because of perceived academic and social difficulties. The current study compared retained children with matched samples of age and grade mates using teacher ratings as an index of their social and academic skills. Retained children showed decreased conduct problems and shy-anxious behavior over time compared to a matched set of initial kindergarten age-mates. Compared to a matched group chosen during the repeated year, retained children did not differ on problem behaviors but showed lower tolerance for frustration and poorer work habits at the end of first grade. Compared to themselves over two and a half years, retained children showed reductions in behavior problems and task orientation while their tolerance for frustration and peer relations remained unchanged.     

Social Interactions Between a Teacher and Small Groups of Students Working with a Microcomputer

No abstract available for this article.     

Bursaries and Student Success: a Study of Students from Low-Income Groups at Two Institutions in the South West

This article draws on quantitative and qualitative data from two institutions to compare the student experience of those with and without bursary awards. Using the student life cycle model, the article examines the ways in which bursaries impact on the student experience before they enter the institution, in the early weeks of their studies and as they progress through their programmes. At these two institutions, students with bursaries were more likely to be retained and to perform well during the first year than those without bursaries. The study found that bursaries can ease financial pressures during their transition to higher education (HE) and that institution‐specific bursaries can affect students’ perceptions of an institution and their commitment to succeed. After 2006, those institutions wishing to charge variable fees will be required to provide bursary support for low‐income students. The findings from this article suggest that HE providers should consider the timing of the bursary payments and the implicit message the bursary sends to applicants if they want to ensure that their bursaries have a positive impact on the student experience.     

Differences in Graduation Rates Between Young Black and White College Students: Effect of Entry into Parenthoodand Historically Black Universities

Black and White students who enrolled in college by age 20 were selected from a national probability sample, in order to estimate the prevalence of having children and the effect of having a child on probability of graduation with a bachelors degree. Black students reported significantly higher rates of having children than White students, but rates for Black students at historically Black universities were similar to those of Black students at predominantly White universities. After controlling for family background, achievement, and other student characteristics, having a child within 5 years of starting college generally reduced the probability of graduating with a bachelors degree for Black women and White women and men. The independent effect of attending a historically Black college was significantly positive for Black women but not statistically significant for Black men.     

关于加快民族院校国际化进程的思考

在当今世界信息全球化、经济一体化、政治多元化、教育国际化的时代,高等院校特别是民族类院校如何面对教育国际化的发展形势,是我们值得认真思考的问题。本文从当今国际间留学生教育发展的角度出发,对民族院校的留学生教育状况进行了现实的分析,提出了今后发展留学生教育,加快民族院校国际化进程的一些建议。     

Change in Academic Distress: Examining Differences Between a Clinical and Nonclinical Sample of College Students

The purpose of this study was to examine academic distress over the course of a semester for both a clinical and nonclinical sample of college students by administering the Counseling Center Assessment of Psychological Symptoms (CCAPS‐62 and CCAPS‐34) to students at a single university. Results revealed that students who were in counseling showed a significant decrease in academic distress scores, whereas students who were not in counseling showed no significant change in academic distress scores. Implications of these results on future practices for university counseling centers are discussed.     

差异教学模式及其实践与反思

差异教学是推进素质教育的有力举措。面向全体,必须有效地针对学生的差异,以学业能力、学科问题和学习活动为设计基础的差异教学模式,多角度地反映了从整体上构建差异教学策略体系的取向。其目的在于以最佳方式为学生提供各种学习机会,以适应学生不同的学习能力和个别教育需要,使教学达到最优化。     

Qualitative Differences Between Learning Environments Using Videos in Small Groups and Whole Class Discussions: A Preliminary Study in Physics

Interactivity, group learning and student engagement are accepted as key features of social constructivist learning theories. The challenge is to understand the interplay between such features in different learning environments. This study focused on the qualitative differences between two interventions—small-groups and whole-class discussions. In both interventions, three short video slices on the abstract topic ‘the physics of superconductivity’ were interspersed with the different discussion styles. The video slices are based on the Bruner stages. Twenty-nine first year university physics students completed a pre-test, underwent the intervention and completed a post-test. The remainder of the data were collected from student drawings, video recordings, observer notes and facilitator feedback. Results indicate that the use of the video slices in both interventions were successful in changing students’ understandings of superconductivity. However, the small groups treatment tended to facilitate questioning, meaning-making and subsequent changes of ideas more so than the whole class discussions. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

Baccalaureate Attainment of College Students at 4-Year Institutions as a Function of Student Engagement Behaviors: Social and Academic Student Engagement Behaviors Matter

Vincent Tinto originally asserted, “… it is the individual’s integration into the academic and social systems of the college that most directly related to his continuance in that college” (Tinto, Review of Educational Research 45(10): 89–125, 1975), yet the rates of college degree attainment are still stagnant. Institution-level research on student engagement indicates that both types of engagement contribute to increased student persistence and degree attainment. Research has prompted going beyond institutional-level data and calls for using of nationally representative, longitudinal data to addressing engagement. Using the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) and logistic regression, this study finds that both academic and social student engagement behaviors significantly impact degree attainment in postsecondary education net of individual and institutional factors. Interaction analysis of the two different types of engagement finds that the impact is not additive but instead is differential and dependent upon the student’s engagement typology as proposed by Coates (Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education 32(2): 121–141, 2007).     

Differences in Performance Between Students with Learning Disabilities and Mild Mental Retardation: Implications for Categorical Instruction

We reviewed eight studies that described learning differences between students with learning disabilities (LD) and students with mild mental retardation (MMR). A total of 639 students, 6–20 years old, participated in these studies. Study authors examined students' inductive reasoning and their performance during guided inquiry and more lengthy interventions in reading and math. Students with LD and students with MMR were assessed in terms of learning ease, pre‐ to posttreatment gains, and the maintenance, transfer, and application of knowledge acquisition. Students with LD statistically significantly outperformed students with MMR on both inductive reasoning and guided inquiry tasks. They made reliably larger gains following interventions in reading and math. Across all learning tasks and contexts, students with LD displayed greater consistency transferring and applying conceptual knowledge to new tasks. Regarding maintenance, results were mixed. Implications for categorical instruction are discussed.     

A Tale of Two Cities: Education Responds to Globalisation in Hong Kong and Singapore in the Aftermath of the Asian Economic Crisis

It has been suggested that although the most theorisation about globalisation has emerged from “western” contexts, the material implications of globalisation have been felt most strongly in non‐western regions. With this in mind, we are undertaking a situated analysis of how two states, Singapore and Hong Kong, are interacting with the broader processes of globalisation through their educational policies. We apply Foucault's conceptual tool of governmentality to understand (i) the conduct of governing in the contemporary nation‐state, and (ii) how the “right” rationalities are being inculcated by government to create “desiring subjects” who will play their part in ensuring national prosperity. We use the Asian Economic Crisis as a point of departure to show how global‐local tensions are being managed by Singapore and Hong Kong. We conclude that both these global cities have adroitly managed the Asian economic crisis to steer their citizens away from pursuits of greater political freedom and towards concerns of material well being. They have done so through a selective interpretation of globalisation, by simultaneously resisting and embracing the contradictory strands of globalisation. Education has emerged as a critical space for this selective absorption of globalising trends.     

新疆区内初中班少数民族学生学习适应性及其影响因素研究

本研究选取391名“内初班”学生为被试,采用AAT问卷测验,考察“内初班”学生学习适应性的总体状况、年龄特点及性别差异.结果表明:“内初班”学生学习适应性总体水平高于全国常模;年级差异呈现“中间高、两头低”的现象;而性别在各个维度无显著性差异.调查同时发现“内初班”学生在学习环境及身心健康方面仍存在适应问题.     

The Implications of Culture and Identity: A Professor's Engagement with a Reform Collaborative

In this study, part of a larger United States project investigating K16 teachers and science reform, we seek to understand how a science professor's participation in a large-scale reform effort affects her conceptions of teaching, teachers, and reform. The topic in this study concerned how the professor's teaching identity was modified and created by the reform effort as she mediated her participation. A multiple-method approach utilizing (a) semi-structured interviews/correspondences with four students and the professor, (b) classroom observations, and (c) field notes, comprised the data collection. Results indicated that, although the professor was inclined to try out new teaching strategies in her classroom, the project failed to create pedagogical dissonance thus leading to her lack of desire to accommodate a more inquiry-based pedagogy.     

新疆高校预科教育教学与考评

新疆高校预科大学生一年预科学习后应达到的汉语水平仅用HSK、MHK衡量是不够的。确切地说,能用汉语这个语言工具听懂专业课,学习专业知识,才是我们要求少数民族学生进行一年预科学习的真正目的。但事实表明,很多高校少数民族学生一年预科学习后,在掌握专业知识的过程中仍困难重重,笔者针对这一问题进行了探讨。     

北方少数民族师生三语教育认同研究——以维吾尔、蒙古、朝鲜、哈萨克族师生为例

本文分析了我国北方地区的维吾尔族、蒙古族、朝鲜族、哈萨克族等少数民族师生对于三种语言教育认同的调查问卷。结果显示,较之西部其他少数民族,上述4个北方少数民族对三语教育的认同度较高,能够客观认识三语教育,认为三种语言间存在内在联系,并希望少数民族外语教师能够具备三语能力。     

数学学优生与学困生两种抑制能力的比较研究

以小学五年级学生为被试,选取数学学优生30名,数学学困生32名,通过设计不同条件的负启动实验,对两组被试的分心抑制能力和记忆提取抑制能力进行了比较。结果表明：（1）数学学困生在特性抑制和记忆提取抑制上显著差于学优生;（2）与学困生相比,数学学优生对存在于知觉水平的干扰物反应更快。     

Power Relationships in Rumpelstiltskin: A Textual Comparison of a Traditional and a Reconstructed Fairy Tale

Reconstructed fairy tales provide a different point of view and challenge the assumptions of a common set of values; for that reason, these stories provide a medium in which to examine power relationships in texts by applying a critical multicultural analysis (Botelho & Rudman, forthcoming, 2008, A critical multicultural analysis of children’s literature: Mirrors, windows and doors. New York: Lawrence Erlbaum) to identify and analyze power relations of Rumpelstiltskin (Grimm & Grimm, 1812/1987, New York: Bantam) and Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter (Stanley, 1997, New York: Morrow Junior Books). Specifically, this study examines how power is exercised on a continuum: domination, collusion, resistance, and agency. Findings indicate that by identifying and questioning text ideologies, critical readers can consider how texts maintain, counteract, or promote alternative systemic power structures.

多元宗教与社会和谐——云南丽江少数民族宗教文化互动的调查研究

丽江是一个少数民族聚居地区,有22个民族在此繁衍生息.除当地各民族不同形式的原始宗教外,佛教、道教、伊斯兰教、基督教、天主教等宗教都有广泛传播,宗教的种类较多,但它们却以互相尊重、并存包容为主要发展趋势.丽江各种宗教在传播过程中,不仅彼此间相互渗透融合,而且与当地文化接触整合,这是丽江少数民族宗教发展的重要特征,也是丽江各民族和睦相处、社会和谐的有利条件.因此,既要继承丽江各民族、各宗教互相尊重、和谐共处的历史传统,又要积极引导宗教与社会主义社会相适应,充分发挥宗教在促进社会和谐方面的有益作用.