A Study of Urban–Rural Differences in College Student Employment—Based on National College Sample Survey Data

Abstract

Using large sample data from the 2013 National College Graduate Employment Survey, this article compares and analyzes differences in the job-seeking process and results for college students with urban and rural household registrations and uses a measurement model to explore factors affecting the starting salaries of college students. The research found that in the job seeking results, college students with urban household registrations had higher starting salaries than did college students with rural household registrations, and a greater proportion of college students with urban household registrations entered the main labor market. An overall analysis of the job seeking process shows that compared to college students with rural household registrations, college students with urban household registrations first showed a greater inclination to choosing management and technical professions. Furthermore, they obtain better quality positions by investing more economic resources, making more effective use of information channels, and using less time for job seeking. Finally, a study of the factors impacting starting salaries found that gender factors have a greater impact on college students with urban household registrations, the contribution rate of academic degrees toward starting salary is greater for college students with rural household registrations, and the intergenerational transmission of extent of education and income is more significant for graduates with urban household registrations.     

On Paradigms and Methods: What Do You Do When the Ones You Know Don't Do What You Want Them To? issues in the Analysis of Data in the Form of Videotapes

This article examines a range of issues related to the development of nonstandard methods for the analysis of videotapes of problem-solving sessions. It proposes some rather stringent standards for novel methods, standards concerned with issues of validity, reliability, and the communication of methods and data. The discussion is illustrated by the detailed examination of two case studies that employ two different grain sizes of analysis—the first macroscopic, the second microscopic. In the light of those case studies, theoretical issues regarding the relationships among theory-based, method-based, and problem-based approaches to programmatic research in the learning sciences are considered.     

Exploratory Talk and Task-based Learning: A Case Study of a Student’s Learning Journey on an MA (Education) English Language Teaching Course

This article records and evaluates a student’s learning journey in two modules on an MA (Education) English Language Teaching (ELT) programme: an Oracy and ELT Pedagogy module and an Educational Technologies module. The notions of ‘exploratory talk’ and ‘task-based learning’ are explored using a single case study with material drawn from the student’s autobiography and diary, the spoken and written assignments, and the student and lecturers’ reflections on completion of the modules. We show, through the use of autobiography and critical reflection, what the student brings to the course and how this reflection allows him to use and transfer knowledge from one module to another. We analyse the ways in which the modules complement each other and how this influences the student’s learning and teaching practice. We then identify the key features of his learning in relation to ELT pedagogy.     

Do Returnee Faculty Promote the Internationalization of Higher Education? A Study Based on the “2014 Faculty Survey in China”

Abstract

Based on data from the “2014 Chinese University Faculty Survey,” this article analyzes the distribution characteristics and manifestations of internationalization from returnee faculty to Chinese colleges as well as their impacts on the internationalization of higher education in the three dimensions of scientific research output, teaching content and methods, and international exchanges. Compared to local teachers, returnee faculty members adjust their research output strategies to reach a higher level of internationalization. They favor publishing papers in international journals and publish fewer domestic papers and make fewer domestic patent applications. They focus on international perspectives and content in their course teaching content and methods. In terms of international exchanges, they participate in international academic conferences and travel abroad more often for advanced studies. Their experiences studying overseas accumulate their comparative advantage in the internationalization of the academic profession. Higher education institutions should make them play larger roles in promoting the internationalization of scientific research and teaching as well as international academic exchanges to improve the level of internationalization of Chinese higher education.     

Do Students Develop Towards More Deep Approaches to Learning During Studies? A Systematic Review on the Development of Students’ Deep and Surface Approaches to Learning in Higher Education

The focus of the present paper is on the contribution of the research in the student approaches to learning tradition. Several studies in this field have started from the assumption that students’ approaches to learning develop towards more deep approaches to learning in higher education. This paper reports on a systematic review of longitudinal research on how students’ approaches to learning develop during higher education. A total of 43 studies were included in the review. The results give an unclear picture of the development of approaches to learning and, thus, do not provide clear empirical evidence for the assumption that students develop towards more deep approaches during higher education. Neither methodological nor conceptual aspects of the studies investigated explained the ambiguity of the research results. Both theoretical and empirical implications for further research are discussed.