Conceptualizing higher education students as social actors in a globalizing world: a special issue

This introductory essay describes an analytical framework that locates students, staff, and institutions within both local and extra‐local patterns of stratification and clarifies our theoretical understanding of ethnographic data concerning student perceptions and practices in higher education. The essay introduces four articles based on ethnographic research that utilizes such a framework.     

Differentiation and social selectivity in German higher education

In this paper we investigate social selectivity in access to higher education in Germany and, unlike most previous studies, explicitly devote attention to semi-tertiary institutions such as the so-called universities of cooperative education. Drawing on rational choice models of educational decisions we seek to understand which factors influence upper secondary graduates from different social backgrounds in their choices of diverse tertiary institutions in Germany. We find that scholastic performance, expected job security, study duration, monetary costs and preferences for study content considerably contribute to the creation of socially selective choice patterns of post-secondary careers. The characteristics of semi-tertiary institutions—such as universities of cooperative education that combine firm-based training with tertiary education—constitute a potential alternative that could reduce inequities in access to higher learning.     

Computer-based tools for instructional design: An introduction to the special issue

Modern instructional theories are characterized by their focus on rich, multidisciplinary and often collaborative learning tasks that are somehow representative for authentic, real life tasks. This new view on learning heavily increases the complexity of the design process and the resulting instructional systems. It is argued that computer-based instructional design (ID) tools may help to deal with this growing complexity. A framework to distinguish different kinds of ID tools is presented. This framework is then used to introduce the contributions to this special issue.     

Policy issue in Japanese higher education

Traditionally Japanese governments avoided as far as possible directinterference in higher education policy. In part this was due to concern notto infringe academic freedom and in part a reflection of the major effortbeing made to develop and expand education at the pre-higher educationstages. When demand for higher education did increase, it was readily met byexpanding the private sector.The debate on higher education generated by campus unrest in the late1960s led during the 1970s to discussion on the governance of highereducation and also to some new initiatives such as the creation of theUniversity of Tsukuba and the University of the Air. In the 1980s a newadvisory body, Daigakushin, was created and several new administrativemeasures introduced. Thus, by the 1990s, it could be said that highereducation had become an important policy issue in Japan.The article discusses the reform movement under the following headings:de-regulation and moves towards self-regulation; accountability; highereducation as an economic resource; and internationalization. Some furtherchallenges are reviewed, notably the impact of future demographic changewhen the relevant age cohorts decrease. This is all the more significantsince so much of the system relies on the private sector which is in turndependent on fee-income. The article also draws attention to evidence thatJapanese industry is changing its expectations of what higher educationshould be providing for its students.     

Testing the effectiveness of handwriting interventions: introduction to the special issue

This special issue was born within the COST Action IS1401ELN—Strengthening Europeans’ Capabilities by Establishing the European Literacy Network, with the major goal of disseminating evidence-based practices to promote handwriting and motivate researchers to move this research field forward. This issue includes five articles testing a different range of interventions to promote handwriting in students with and without disabilities from kindergarten to middle grades, across multiple contexts (viz., United States, Switzerland, Belgium, and Portugal). A final commentary paper closes the special issue with a discussion on the importance of acquiring fluent and legible handwriting along with the contributions and limitations of the investigations presented in the special issue.     

The language of written language: an introduction to the special issue

This special issue includes five articles dealing with selected aspects of writing disorders, crafted by key contributors to the literature on written language. Articles addressing definitional issues and diagnostic questions, assessment strategies, selected neurodevelopmental components of written expression, the manifestation of writing problems in children and young adults, direct intervention, training for elementary teachers in the early grades in the area of literacy, and brain-behavior linkages are presented. This introduction provides an overview of these articles tied to specific issues confronting the field of written language. Some thoughts and directions for the future are articulated.     

Performance management and diversity in higher education: an introduction

Tertiary Education and Management -