从富强走向文雅

一个文明社会最重要的产品是什么?是人。一个社会培养出来的人,是有素质、有气质、有教养的人,还是脑满肠肥、腰缠万贯却非常粗鲁的人,这是问题的关键。单纯的富裕并不足以使一个文明社会受到尊重,尤其中国这样一个有着几千年文明的国家,我们对国人要提出更高的要求。中国崛起,必然要求文化     

诚信的价值

星期五的傍晚,一个贫穷的年轻艺人站在纽约的一个地铁站门口,拉着他的小提琴。琴声优美动听,虽然人们都急急忙忙地赶着回家过周末,但还是有很多人情不自禁地放慢了脚步,时不时地会有一些人在年轻艺人跟前的礼帽里放一些钱。     

The importance of being ignorant

In many real life situations, we have to draw conclusions from data which are not complete and have been affected by measurement errors. Such problems have been addressed from the time of Bayes and Laplace (late 1700’s) using concepts which parallel Boltzmann’s use of entropy in thermal physics. The idea is to assign probabilities to different possible conclusions from a given set of data. A critical — and sometimes controversial — input is a ‘prior probability’, which represents our knowledge before any data are given or taken! This body of ideas is introduced in this article with simple examples.     

诚信的价值

星期五的傍晚,一个贫穷的年轻艺人站在纽约的一个地铁站门口,拉着他的小提琴。琴声优美动听．虽然人们都急急忙忙地赶着回家过周末,但还是有很多人情不自禁地放慢了脚步,时不时地会有一些人在年轻艺人跟前的礼帽里放一些钱。     

The importance of financial aid: The case of higher education in Sweden

This is the first in a series of investigations planned with a view to studying the effects of the financial aid reform which was introduced in Sweden in the mid-1960s. The group studied is a nationally representative sample of those born in 1948. It is shown that social background is a strongly influential factor in the selection for higher education. However, this class bias would have been far greater if it had not been for the national financial aid system. The aid is not only important for recruitment but also to enable the students to complete a degree program and this is particularly true for those from lower socio-economic strata.     

Recognition and development of academic talent in educationally disadvantaged students

Abstract

We studied 36 students identified as “educationally disadvantaged” who scored above average on standardized achievement tests and completed a program to reinforce their academic skills in either language arts or mathematics. We pretested and posttested an additional (control) group of 28 students who received no instructional intervention. We found a significant effect of the instructional intervention for both achievement and aptitude test scores in language arts as well as mathematics. Gains in mathematics were significantly greater than in language arts. After instructional intervention, the majority of students were eligible and academically qualified for challenging gifted‐talented programs. These findings are consistent with two other similar research projects using the same instructional program and model, suggesting stability of results. We discuss implications of this study for identifying and developing academic talent in such a population.     

The evaluation of a special educational opportunities program for disadvantaged college students

This paper analyzes the early academic achievement of disadvantaged, mainly black, students admitted to the Special Educational Opportunities Program (the SEOP) at the Urbana-Champaign campus of the University of Illinois in the fall of 1968 and 1969.High school percentile rank and standardized test scores predicted the early overall academic performance of SEOP students. Validities, though significant, were not high and were possibly attenuated by use of too difficult test instruments and by inflated grading practices. Nevertheless, the data indicate that recruitment people should not abandon customary merit selection based upon these types of measures. Test scores were found to be more valid for predicting the GPA of regularly admitted students than for the prediction of GPA for SEOP students; the predictive effectiveness of high school percentile rank was greater for regularly admitted students.The research reported herein was performed, in part, pursuant to a contract with the United States Office of Education, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. The opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the Office of Education and no official endorsement by the Office of Education should be inferred. Project No. 9-E-136/Contract No. OEG-5-70-0005.     

Aligning digital and social inclusion: A study of disadvantaged students and computer access

In this paper we discuss the notion of the digital divide and link it with recent policy designed to promote social inclusion in a project that addressed both issues. Families in low socio economic areas of Australia were given computers and Internet access as part of a project that had as its primary aim to support the participation of disadvantaged families in digital activities at home and in schools. The authors collected data over a period of 3 years that included, pre and post surveys with parents and students, interviews with program facilitators, and focus groups with parents. This paper focuses on selected themes that emerged from the interview and focus group data with the parents and explores the ways in which they perceived having the computer had impacted on their lives and those of their school aged children. This data (surveys, interviews and focus groups) reveals that all family members felt that the ownership of a computer enabled them to feel more confident about their active participation in everyday educational, social and community activities. Parents, teachers and students also reported that owning a computer was important to their lives yet they were not naïve to the fact that they still had a lot to learn in terms of using all the options available to them on the computer. Students noted the increased ease with which they could complete school work and communicate with friends in online contexts and outlined some of the ways in which they used the computer for leisure activities. Parents highlighted the increase in their own digital skill levels and described the ways in which their lives had benefitted from having a computer in the home. Problems associated with connectivity at the beginning of the project, the quality of the machines and inadequate initial training were listed as drawbacks to greater participation. The project represents one attempt to address the digital divide and illustrates how going beyond the dichotomy of a ‘haves’ v ‘have nots’ view of the digital divide is necessary if we want to promote social inclusion.     

An Australian study of graduate outcomes for disadvantaged students

Whether or not disadvantaged students are realising the same benefits from higher education as their peers is of fundamental importance to equity practitioners and policymakers. Despite this, equity policy has focused on access to higher education and little attention has been paid to graduate outcomes. The Australian study reported here used national data to investigate relationships between disadvantage and graduate outcomes. The study provides critical insights into how access to higher education does, or does not, lead to improvements in post-graduation equity. The study reveals that outcomes are not equal for all students and that higher education disadvantage persists for many students after they have completed their studies. Whilst the specific findings relate to the Australian university sector the broader discussion of the article is relevant to higher education policy more generally, especially in terms of how governments align institutional processes to measure and scrutinise achievement in relation to public policy objectives.     

Study orchestration and learning outcome: evidence of association over time among disadvantaged students

This study explores, for the first time, the study orchestrations of (mostly Black) engineering students who enter an academic support programme in their first year at university at an educational disadvantage by virtue of their exposure to an inferior, racially determined school education.The empirical manifestation, and the stability over time, of their study orchestrations is described, and the association between their study orchestrations and learning outcome is investigated.It is concluded that the manifestation of individual study orchestrations of these particular educationally disadvantaged engineering students, as well as the association between their study orchestrations and their learning outcomes, is essentially similar to that of other students; academic success is associated with theoretically desirable study orchestrations - particularly when these are manifested early on in the programme since they remain essentially stable over time. Where changes do occur over time they are generally of a theoretically desirable nature and, to a lesser extent, where theoretically undesirable changes occur they appear to be associated with a decline in academic achievement.The implications of these conclusions for academic support programmes and for future research are discussed in so far as they impinge on admissions procedures, the identification of potentially at risk students early on in the academic year and explicit provisions of intervention mechanisms to assist such students.     

Financial aid and student persistence: An application of causal modeling

This research uses path analysis to explore the relationships among a number of variables (including financial aid variables), which have been shown in both theory and prior research to be related to student persistence. The subjects were 227 full-time freshmen, who enrolled Fall Quarter 1982, in a liberal arts college at a large commuter institution of higher education, and who received financial aid. The model, which includes background and academic variables, accounted for 35% of the variance in persistence. Persistence was measured by credits completed over a two-year period. Significant variables that showed the largest total effects on persistence were college grade-point average and high school rank. The financial aid variables in the model showed no significant effect on persistence in this study of students who received aid. The model was cross-validated on a second data set and the model was supported.Revised version of a paper presented at the Twenty-Sixth Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Orlando, Fla., June 22–25, 1986.     

开设文科类物理课程的必要性和重要性

培养文理兼通的人才是当今高教改革的发展趋势,在高校开设文科类物理课程是深化教育改革的必要举措之一,该文主要阐述了开设文科类物理的必要性和重要性,以及目前文科类物理课程教学存在的问题和相关建议。     

Survey of academic programs for disadvantaged students in higher education

In the 1960's many colleges and universities developed programs for disadvantaged students in higher education. Almost all programs were involved to a certain extent with four different areas: basic skills development, affective objectives, use of technological aids, and evaluation of students.In order to determine the specific policies and practices in the academic programs now being implemented for the disadvantaged student, a questionnaire was designed and mailed to 262 colleges and universities. The questionnaire listed 14 academic program statements and asked the respondents to what extent the statements applied to their particular programs.The respondents indicated that teaching relationships with minority groups must be highly personal for effective learning to take place. They recognized the importance of communication skills but also felt that such virtues as self-discipline and self-respect were equally important as academic skills. In addition, most respondents felt their students did not need social skills (such as the ability to relate to fellow students) more than communication skills. Reading machines, tape recorders, computer-assisted instruction, and other technological aids tended not to be used in most programs. Compensatory work seldom carried college credit. Most programs did not have a pass-no-pass system for academic assessments, and almost no programs gave students financial incentives for grades or class attendance.     

Student online communication skills: Enhancing the comparability of self-reports among different groups of students

Education and Information Technologies - With the current emphasis placed on ICT skills development in education, accurate information about how well students master these skills becomes...     

大学生就业困难群体援助制度实施策略探析

在分析了大学生就业困难群体和援助制度特点的基础上,提出了以服务大学生就业困难群体为导向的制度宣传、分级响应、统筹兼顾、信息互通等四项策略.