Taking stock of taking equity: The last frontier of university technology transfer

This paper addresses the question of what potential success factors are relevant when developing and managing higher education–business partnerships. To shed light on this question, the paper presents a review of research literature on the possible success factors in university–industry relations. To shed further light on the factors identified in the literature, this paper reports on an empirical study of cross‐sector collaboration between four regional universities and energy firms in Norway. The empirical study should be seen as a “relevance check” of the factors identified in the extant literature on university–industry collaboration, within the particular context of education‐related partnerships. Based on the review and case studies, implications for management and further research are discussed.     

Designing e-assessment activities appropriate to learner's competency levels: Hybrid pedagogical framework and authoring tool

Education and Information Technologies - E-Assessment, which is a key element in the instructional design process, plays a major role in supporting and enhancing learning. However, the current...     

Investigating instructional leadership in Kuwait's educational reform context: school leaders’ perspectives

This study explores the practices of Kuwaiti school principals acting as instructional leaders during education reforms, using qualitative content analysis of standardised open-ended interviews with 28 randomly selected school principals. The results showed that principals faced obstacles related to the deeply-ingrained centralised structure in the Ministry of Education, whose mandates conflicted with the stated goal of building principals’ capacity. There were variations in instructional leadership dimensions, including defining the school’s mission, managing the instructional programme, and creating a positive climate for teaching and learning. A gradual, planned decentralisation is recommended to improve educational leadership practices in Kuwait.     

A study of practical‐moral knowledge in science teaching: Case studies in physical science classrooms

This study further extends a conceptual framework that explores science teaching as a “practice” not reducible to the application of formal knowledge, but as informed by teachers' practical‐moral knowledge. A hermeneutic model was developed to examine practical‐moral knowledge indirectly by investigating teachers' commitments, interpretations, actions, and dialectic interactions between them. The study also aimed to analyze teachers' actions in terms of their interpretations and commitments as they realize “internal goods” of their practice. Ethnographic case studies of three science teachers were conducted through classroom observation, in‐depth interviews and dialogues, and artifact analysis. A commitment of preparing students for national exams was common to the three teachers but was manifested differently in classroom practices. This commitment originated from interpretations about the duty of “good” teachers not letting students and schools down. Other emergent commitments were commitments: to conceptual understandings, to “challenge” learners, and to social modeling. We present each with associated interpretations and actions. The concepts of practical wisdom (phronesis) and gap closing are used to characterize teachers' practical knowledge and its development respectively. Implications for teacher education are discussed. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 929–951, 2010     

Within‐Family Relations in Objective Sleep Duration,Quality, and Schedule

The current study examined within‐family relations between mothers’, fathers’, and children's objectively assessed sleep. Participants were 163 children (M_age = 10.45 years; SD = 0.62) and their parents. For 7 nights, families wore actigraphs to assess sleep duration (minutes), quality (efficiency, long wake episode, total wake minutes), and schedule (wake time). A sleep log assessed bedtime. Multilevel models indicated that children's sleep minutes, sleep efficiency, wake minutes, and wake time were associated with fluctuations in their mothers’, but not fathers’, sleep that same night. The duration and quality of mothers’ sleep was associated with both fathers’ and children's sleep that night, whereas fathers’ sleep was positively associated with only mothers’ sleep. Findings highlight the importance of examining sleep within a family context.     

Revisiting perceived service quality in higher education: uncovering service quality dimensions for postgraduate students

ABSTRACT

Perceived service quality in higher education and its antecedents have been one of the significant issues worldwide. Despite being studied over decades, service quality (SQ) remains a crucial area of research due to its dynamic and contextual nature, among other reasons. The main research objective is to uncover the dimensions constituting SQ from the perspectives of postgraduate students and university staff to provide a better understanding of key elements of the SQ. The current research incorporated relevant theories and concepts from both marketing and higher education literature and employed in-depth interviews with students and staff for data collection. Interviewees’ insights were analyzed using content analysis. A conceptual model is developed to explain the suggested relationship among study variables. Based on qualitative data analysis, four dimensions of SQ emerged, namely academic services, academic facilities, administrative services, and students’ service role. Additionally, performance and employee orientation are found to affect SQ. Research findings can guide education managers and academicians to consider students’ service role as an integral dimension of SQ and find new ways to improve it.     

Investigating substantive and consequential validity of student ratings of instruction

This study aimed at exploring faculty and student perspectives on student evaluations, as well as identifying their perceptions of the usefulness and appropriateness of the ratings for evaluating teaching effectiveness. More specifically, the study aimed at identifying the consequences, both intended and unintended, of using the evaluations, in addition to better understanding the process students used in responding to evaluations and what use faculty members made of them. Two surveys were developed and placed on the website of the Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Emails were sent to all students and faculty participating in evaluations soliciting their cooperation and requesting their input. Faculty and student perceptions were compared qualitatively and statistically. Results revealed that students and faculty believe in the effectiveness and usefulness of the system with the need to overcome some negative consequences and biases inherent in its application at the University. Recommendations for system improvement are provided.     

The effect of test expectations on study strategies and test performance: a metacognitive perspective

The aim of the present study was to investigate whether university students can adjust their study strategies to meet the cognitive demands of testing; a metacognitive self‐regulatory skill. One hundred and fifty undergraduates attended three lectures as part of a course on the psychology of individual differences. These participants were then assigned randomly to each of two groups. In the first group, the participants were instructed to study for a test that required deep‐level cognitive processing. In the second group, the participants were instructed to study for a test that required surface‐level cognitive processing. Results of the study showed that university students do adjust their study strategies so that they are in line with the cognitive processing demands of testing. It was also found that study strategies mediated the relationship between the type of test items expected and the test performance.