The development of a questionnaire on metacognition for students in higher education

Interest in the role of metacognition has been steadily rising in most forms of education. This study focuses on the construction of a questionnaire for measuring metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive regulation and metacognitive responsiveness among students in higher education and the subsequent process of testing to determine its validity.

Purpose

The aim of the study was to construct an original instrument for measuring features of metacognition, henceforth referred to as the Awareness of Independent Learning Inventory (AILI), and further to establish the similarities and differences between this model and existing instruments for measuring metacognition.

Sample

The AILI questionnaire was distributed to 1058 students in various types of Teacher Training Institutes in the Netherlands and Belgium. The abridged English version of the questionnaire was administered to another sample of 729 students reading Economics and Business Administration at the University of Maastricht in the south of the Netherlands.

Design and methods

The AILI instrument was constructed on the basis of a facet design along two dimensions: components of metacognition and topics of concern to students in higher education. The data gathered with the instrument was analyzed by means of a generalisability study and a decision study, respectively. The validity of the instrument was investigated by using confirmatory factor analysis.

Results

The generalisability study showed that the reliability of the instrument was satisfactory. The decision study revealed that the number of items included in the questionnaire could be reduced substantially by leaving out two components of one of the dimensions in the facet design, without losing too much generalisability. The validity study showed that there was a considerable level of congruity between parts of the AILI questionnaire and the relevant parts of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ).

Conclusions

The AILI questionnaire is a reliable and valid instrument for measuring metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness. It is suitable for use in the evaluation of the effects of interventions that purport to increase metacognitive knowledge, regulation and responsiveness of students in higher education.     

The use of evidence-based instructional strategies in special education settings in secondary schools: Development,implementation and outcomes

The lack of effective training and an inability to maintain fidelity are two major barriers to implementing evidence-based practices in schools. This study examined the level of implementation of evidence-based practices by teachers after they participated in a unique training program aimed at enhancing the use of evidence-based practices. The results indicate that five months posttraining, 62% of the evidence-based strategies had been implemented and these levels were maintained 13-months posttraining. While the level of exposure to students of the evidence-based practices was low, significant longitudinal improvements in reading and levels of inclusion were documented.     

A broken paradigm? What education needs to learn from evidence-based medicine

ABSTRACT

The paradigm of evidence-based education continues to inform the development of policy in a number of countries. At its simplest level, evidence-based education incorporates evidence, often that provided by randomised controlled trials, into classroom practice. England’s Education Endowment Foundation is in the process of exporting evidence-based school education, promoted as a medical approach, to other countries, including Australia. Australia is in the process of establishing an Education Evidence Base, informed by the government’s 2016 Productivity Commission report. While the literature around evidence-based education is explicit in identifying its basis in medicine, there has been little medical input into its development. Interdisciplinary examination of the medical literature reveals the contested nature and troubled state of evidence-based medicine and what policymakers need to consider to maximise the benefits of this translation into education.     

For whom does “what works” work? The political economy of evidence-based education

ABSTRACT

What role does scientific evidence play in educational practice? Supporters of evidence-based education (EBE) see it as a powerful way of improving the quality of public services which is readily applicable to the education sector. Academic scholarship, however, points out important limits to this applicability. I offer an account inspired by Tullock’s theory of bureaucracy that helps explain EBE’s influence despite these limits. Recent configurations of EBE are an imperfect solution to 2 imperatives where policymakers are at an informational disadvantage: (a) guiding professionals working in the field and (b) evaluating evidence from academic researchers. EBE, especially in the form of RCTs and systematic reviews, offers a way of filtering a complex range of research to produce a determinate result that is transparent to policymakers. However, this impression of research transparency is misleading as it omits theoretical background that is critical for successfully interpreting the results of particular interventions. This comes at a cost of relevance to the frontline professionals whom this research evidence is supposed to inform and help.     

孔子教育思想的主旨:德以育人

孔子是我国历史上最早开办私学的教育家。他的学术思想和教育理念影响了中国整个封建社会。他承继了周代的"四教",并在此基础上建构了自己的学说。他的教育主旨是以德育人,培养的对象是他心目中能够"修己以敬"的君子,目的是服务于政治,使受教育者能够"修己以安人"、"修己以安百姓"。     

语料库建设中影响其代表性的因素

影响语料库代表性的主要因素有；语料库总体的定义、语篇的分类和层次、语料库的规模。建立具有代表性的语料库，首先必须从时间、地域、社会语言学、类型等方面对语言总体进行明确地限定；设计语篇的抽样层次必须对语料进行多堆、全面地分类，井确定各层次和部分的合理比例；决定语料库的总体规模应该考虑建库的目的以及财力和技术的限制，确定语篇类型的大小和单个语篇的长度，主要依据所研究的语言现象的常见程度。     

高校的音乐教育在德育中的作用

高校在进行音乐教育的过程中,有机地将培养学生良好的道德品质、情感品质,增强学生的爱国主义情感、凝聚力和纪律观念结合在一起,让德育教育与音乐教育相互渗透,对促进高校大学生的综合素质提高有着不可或缺的作用。     

德育的理想与德育的有效性

如何提高德育的有效性 ,是学校教育长期关注的重大现实课题。在新的社会历史条件下 ,要提高德育的有效性 ,必须防止德育概念的泛化 ,凸现德育目标的超越性 ,彰显道德教育的实践特征 ,关注学生的主体需要 ,体现以人为本的精神 ,并充分发挥“乐”在学校德育中的作用。     

The role of self-concept in medical education

Much research has acknowledged the importance of self-concept for adolescents’ academic behaviour, motivation and aspiration, but little is known about the role of self-concept underpinning the motivation and aspiration of higher education students in a specialised field such as medical education. This article draws upon a programme of research undertaken over the past three years examining the psychosocial determinants of success in educating home-grown doctors for regional communities. Interviews conducted with Australian medical students found that self-concept is a dynamic and multidimensional phenomenon that emerges through social activity and plays a crucial role in shaping their motivation and aspirations. For these students in a specialised field in higher education, self-concept not only influences their study performance, but also forms part of their personal and career development. Because of the significant level of interaction between the self and the social environment, the development of self-concept through a holistic and systemic facilitation of essential psychosocial drivers of success is essential in higher education.     

论素质教育中的音乐教育

音乐教育在素质教育中、在培养人才全面发展方面有着特殊的功能和作用.它可以陶冶情操、启迪智慧、滋养心灵、提高审美能力,可以益智辅德健体助劳.音乐教育是一种人格教育,应面向全体学生贯穿教育的全过程,应使所有的学生自始至终受到良好的音乐教育.音乐教育的现状与素质教育的要求存在着一定的差距,必须从素质教育的根本点出发进行一系列的改革.     

Good education in an age of measurement: on the need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education

In this paper I argue that there is a need to reconnect with the question of purpose in education, particularly in the light of a recent tendency to focus discussions about education almost exclusively on the measurement and comparison of educational outcomes. I first discuss why the question of purpose should always have a place in our educational discussion. I then explore some reasons why this question seems to have disappeared from the educational agenda. The central part of the paper is a proposal for addressing the question of purpose in education—the question as to what constitutes good education—in a systematic manner. I argue that the question of purpose is a composite question and that in deliberating about the purpose of education we should make a distinction between three functions of education to which I refer as qualification, socialisation and subjectification. In the final section of the paper I provide examples of how this proposal can help in asking more precise questions about the purpose and direction of educational processes and practices.     

The role of research education coordinators in building research cultures in doctoral education

The development of cultures of support has become important in programmes for the preparation of research students. The paper draws on in-depth interviews with 21 research education coordinators from Australian and UK institutions to identify the strategies that they use to build research cultures and integrate research students into them. Students’ research cultures are not always linked to departmental research cultures more generally. Local contexts and conditions and staff (including supervisors’) attitudes are found to be critical in how research education coordinators respond and what is considered possible in order to ensure that research students are involved in research cultures.     

国防教育在高等医学院校学生素质教育中的作用

新时期对医学人才的要求,决定了必须加强医学生的综合素质教育。国防教育是教育事业的重要组成部分．它有利于提高医学生的思想道德素质、人文素质、心理素质以及心理素质。医学院校应从进一步完善制度,推进国防教育课程建设;大力宣传国防政策;创新教育形式,积极开设第二课堂等方面提高医学生素质。     

The role of extracurricular activities in active citizenship education

There have been multiple trends of building democratic citizens through formal education, and in the European context the trials have been dramatically increased with the Europeanization process since the 1980s. In line with this trend, an in-depth qualitative case study was carried out in a private primary school in Turkey to shed light on the role of school-based extra-curricular activities as a contemporary trend in building active citizenship values and competencies in students. Qualitative data were collected through multiple data collection tools as observation field notes, interviews, and document analysis to achieve triangulation and trustworthiness. Much of the findings were compatible with EURYDICE Report (2005) on citizenship education, and yielded six themes, called the six blossoms of extra-curricular activities in citizenship education: namely, active citizenship perception; social accountability; intercultural awareness; awareness of democracy and human rights; thinking and research skills; and interaction and interpersonal skills.     

Transforming academia: The role of education

Scientific research is usually presented as the driver that provides progress and meaning to the academic ecosystem. Higher education on the other hand, is typically imagined as something that naturally follows scientific research. In the academic ecosystem, education often retains a more marginalized position than scientific research and in many of the predominant accounts of the academic ecosystem it is even neglected. As a result, higher education and teaching tends to be treated as duty work that retracts resources away from research. In response to such accounts the present article proposes an alternative perspective in which higher education can assume a proactive role that affects institutions’ research. The article presents a case that demonstrates how social scientists at the Technical University of Denmark, in response to new demands for autonomous economy within Danish universities, invented the controversial, yet successful, ‘Design and Innovation’ engineering program. Design and Innovation’s controversial curricular composition brought together: creativity, social awareness, and product innovation and heralded the salvation for the declining status of engineering in Danish higher education. The article contributes to contemporary discussions on transformations within the university system by illustrating educational development as a transformative practice whereby the value and purpose of scientific disciplines get rearticulated in conversation with contemporary understandings of social needs.     

探索艺术教育在教育均衡发展中的积极作用

随着我国经济建设的快速发展,我国的教育事业也得到了极大的促进,并且很多高校都是非常注重艺术在教育均衡发展中的重要作用。为了更好的促进当代大学生的个人素质能力的提升,在教学过程中,艺术教育已经成为一个必不可少的环节。本文重点研究艺术教育在教育均衡发展中的积极作用。     

The academic career: contradiction as a key player in nursing education

ABSTRACT

Background: Within Europe, substantial changes in academia in recent years have transformed the work of academic nurses. The most important change has been a result of the Bologna Process, launched in 1999, as it has led to the implementation of significant reforms to higher education across participating European countries.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to develop a theoretical understanding of the effect of the Bologna Process on academic nurses’ professional development and explore academic nurses’ perceptions of the challenges and opportunities they encounter in the teaching and research arena.

Method: A qualitative study was conducted. The participants were eight academic nurses and data were collected through 24 in-depth, semi-structured weekly interviews. The analysis was performed using the constant comparative method, leading to the construction of categories based on the constant comparison of similarities and differences between the participants.

Findings: The coding process led to the identification and interpretation of the core category. This category, identified as ‘The academic career: Contradiction as a key player’, emerged as a result of analysis of the interaction of four categories: (1) opportunity for change, (2) unnecessary difficulties, (3) growth of the discipline and (4) institutional requirements. Findings indicated that the academic nurses in the study viewed the Bologna Process positively but noted several obstacles to its implementation. According to the participants, the changes also led to conflict in terms of their work–life balance.

Conclusions: This study is of relevance to nursing education and to clinical nursing practice. It suggests that the implementation of the Bologna Process in nursing studies has helped nurses to regard research as part of their autonomous professional role, and to be aware that research contributes to improve clinical practice, providing an evidence base on which to design and assess nursing interventions. However, the notion that academic nurses consider research within a contradiction paradigm is a potential barrier to the advancement of nursing science and evidence-based practice.     

全国翻译专业资格(水平)考试英语二级笔译试题效度分析

全国翻译专业资格(水平)考试(CATTI)是为加强我国外语翻译专业人才建设于2003年形成的一项新兴考试。本文选取2010年下半年至2011年下半年三次二级笔译试题为研究对象,从内在效度、外在效度、使用效度这三个方面对该试题进行效度分析,以期对提高试卷质量有一些帮助。     

Workforce diversity in Kenyan public universities: an analysis of workforce representativeness and heterogeneity by employee gender and ethnic group

Workforce diversity is considered an indicator of successful diversity and equal employment opportunity initiatives. In Kenya, it is a legal requirement for all public establishments to seek to represent the diversity of the population in employment of staff. This study analyses ethnic and gender representativeness and heterogeneity of the workforce in public universities. The results show over-representation of certain ethnic groups and non-compliance with diversity requirements in most universities. Variations between universities with regard to workforce heterogeneity are not statistically significant. However, the link between workforce heterogeneity and degree of urbanisation of university location is statistically significant. The conclusion is that compliance with legal requirements does not necessarily translate into representativeness and heterogeneity of the workforce. A shift from legal compliance to planned increase in numbers of under-represented gender and ethnic groups through diversity initiatives that identify and address barriers to equal employment and discriminatory employment practices is recommended.