Does the reputation of a faculty member’s graduate programme and institution matter for labour market outcomes?

For a future faculty member the choice of which graduate programme and institution to attend is considered to have important implications for securing academic employment, developing skills to succeed in academia, and yielding positive returns on investment of time and money in education. Yet does it matter where a faculty member attends graduate school – and if so, is it the reputation of the programme or the institution that matters most for his or her labour market outcomes? In this study, we used nationally representative data from the U.S. to estimate the relationship between a faculty member’s graduate programme and institution and their institution of first academic employment, research productivity, and salary. Our findings suggest that the reputation of one’s graduate department may factor more heavily than reputation of institution in the type and level of institution at which he or she is first employed, while graduate institution reputation has notable marginal, positive benefits associated with research productivity and salary. We discuss implications for the influence of graduate education on academic careers.     

A Web-based on-machine mould matching and measurement system based on CAD/CAM/CAI integration

INTRODUCTION Today, the manufacturing industry makes con- stant effort in order to construct an E-manufacturing system using information technology for effective production control, and then, it offers the integrated production control to the workers, the production managers, and the consumers, etc. (Lee, 2003; Choi, 2004). In the mould manufacturing industry, the process managers often request paperwork to know the information of the processes on CNC machine tools or they visit the shop…     

Integration of a social skills training: a case study of children with low social skills

This study explores changes in children's social skills after a cognitive-social skills model intervention. The intervention was conducted over a period of 12 weeks within a regular preschool setting. Sixteen children including four considered to have low social skills participated in the study. Data analysis revealed that the four children with low social skills demonstrated changes in social skills through positive play behaviours such as asking positive questions, offering suggestions, initiating play episodes, and sharing play materials, although they had limited ability to maintain play episodes.     

从语言与思维的关系看中国传统思维方式对汉语词汇的影响

语言是思维的工具,又是思维的产物,人类思维的某些方面总不可避免地在语言中留下印记。汉语词汇中,事物的形体因素和情景图像表现突出,这是重直觉、重类比、重了悟的中国传统思维方式渗透的结果。     

Utilizing online learning data to design face-to-face activities in a flipped classroom: a case study of heterogeneous group formation

This study investigates the possibility of utilizing online learning data to design face-to-face activities in a flipped classroom. We focus on heterogeneous group formation for effective collaborative learning. Fifty-three undergraduate students (18 males, 35 females) participated in this study, and 8 students (3 males, 5 females) among them joined post-study interviews. For this study, a total of 6 student characteristics were used: three demographic characteristics obtained from a simple survey and three academic characteristics captured from online learning data. We define three demographic group heterogeneity variables and three academic group heterogeneity variables, where each variable is calculated using the corresponding student characteristic. In this way, each heterogeneity variables represents a degree of diversity within the group. Then, a two-stage hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to identify the significant group heterogeneity variables that influence face-to-face group achievement. The results show that the academic group heterogeneity variables, which were derived from the online learning data, accounted for a significant proportion of the variance in the group achievement when the demographic group heterogeneity variables were controlled. The interviews also reveal that the academic group heterogeneity indeed affected group interaction and learning outcome. These findings highlight that online learning data can be utilized to obtain relevant information for effective face-to-face activity design in a flipped classroom. Based on the results, we discuss the advantages of this data utilization approach and other implications for face-to-face activity design.

     

Learning Classroom Management Through Web-Based Case Instruction: Implications for Early Childhood Teacher Education

In this article, we report a research project on web-based case instruction that was developed and implemented to allow prospective early childhood teachers to be exposed to various dilemmas faced by practicing teachers. The goal of this project was to design an instructional tool and method that could help prospective teachers expand their notion of classroom management beyond a set of techniques. We collected 23 prospective teachers’ pre and postessays before and after the 3-week implementation of the web-based case instruction, along with surveys and a focus group interview data. The initial data analysis results indicated that this instructional method was effective for (a) promoting prospective teachers’ awareness of multiple perspectives, (b) encouraging them to explore diverse ways of problem solving, and (c) articulating their justification based on a sense of moral responsibility and affective engagement. We conclude with implications for future research and early childhood teacher education.

The relationship between students ’ perceptions of classroom environment and their academic achievement in Korea

The classroom has long been recognized as a critical milieu for students ’ educational achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between students ’ perceptions of classroom environment and their academic achievement in Korea. For this study, the Classroom Environment Scale (CES), developed by Moos and Trickett (1987), was revised and translated into Korean. The Korean Classroom Environment Scale (KCES), consisting of nine subscales, was used to measure the psychosocial characteristics of the classroom environment. The data was collected from May to June 2001 from a sample of 1,012 students in 10th and 11th grades at the same school district in Seoul, Korea. The results of ANOVA analysis of the data revealed that there were statistically significant differences in classroom environments according to students ’ school and classroom organizations. Additionally, the results of Pearson ’s simple correlation coefficient analysis showed that the seven subscales in the KCES (i.e., involvement, affiliation, competition, task orientation, order and organization, rule clarity, and teacher control) had a significant correlation with students ’ academic achievement. Furthermore, the results of multiple regression analysis revealed that the multiple correlation (R) between the KCES 9 subscales and students ’ academic achievement was 0.27. Based on these results, it was claimed that classroom environment was a good predictor of students ’ academic achievement.     

The romance and the reality between pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the potential benefits of a short-term study abroad programme and their practices

This qualitative study aimed to explore Hong Kong pre-service teachers’ beliefs about the potential benefits of a short-term study abroad programme and their practices. Pre- and post-programme semi-structured interviews and reflective journals were employed to collect data. The findings suggest that the transformation of beliefs into practices plays a critical role in the actualization of possible learning outcomes, such as increasing the use of the target language, fostering pedagogical development, broadening cultural understanding and nurturing personal growth. The programme per se, however, does not guarantee target language enhancement in a short time. Implications for programme coordinators and future research are discussed.     

Latent variable modeling in the hierarchical modeling framework in longitudinal studies: a fully bayesian approach

This paper presents a strategy for specifying latent variable regressions in the hierarchical modeling framework (LVR-HM). This model takes advantage of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) approach in terms of modeling flexibility—regression among latent variables—and of the HM approach in terms of allowing for more general data structures. A fully Bayesian approach via Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) techniques is applied to the LVR-HM. Through analyzing the data from a longitudinal study of educational achievement, gender difference are explored in the growth of mathematical achievement across grade 7 through grade 10. Allowing for the fact that initial status effect to rates of change may differ for girls and boys, the LVR-HM is specified in a way that rates of change parameters are modeled as a function of initial status parameters and the interaction between initial status and gender.