Involvement with child protective services: Is this a useful question in population-based surveys?

Direct questions on child maltreatment in population-based surveys are often limited by ethical and methodological issues. This restricts the ability of researchers to examine an important aspect of early adversity and its relationship to health and behavior. An alternative to excluding issues of maltreatment entirely in population-based surveys is to include questions on child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS). A school-based adolescent survey that included a question on child and family involvement with CPS yielded results that were generally consistent with other studies relating child maltreatment to health and behavioral outcomes such as psychological distress symptoms, delinquency, aspects of bullying, and health service utilization. Such findings suggest that questions on involvement with CPS may be a reasonable proxy for child maltreatment. Despite the lack of information on the reason for involvement or specific categories of maltreatment, CPS involvement questions highlight the shared familial experience that surrounds CPS involvement and serves as a general reflection of an adverse experience that can be utilized by researchers interested in early experiences.     

Understanding pictorial information in biology: students’ cognitive activities and visual reading strategies

ABSTRACT

In classroom, scientific contents are increasingly communicated through visual forms of representations. Students’ learning outcomes rely on their ability to read and understand pictorial information. Understanding pictorial information in biology requires cognitive effort and can be challenging to students. Yet evidence-based knowledge about students’ visual reading strategies during the process of understanding pictorial information is pending. Therefore, 42 students at the age of 14–15 were asked to think aloud while trying to understand visual representations of the blood circulatory system and the patellar reflex. A category system was developed differentiating 16 categories of cognitive activities. A Principal Component Analysis revealed two underlying patterns of activities that can be interpreted as visual reading strategies: 1. Inferences predominated by using a problem-solving schema; 2. Inferences predominated by recall of prior content knowledge. Each pattern consists of a specific set of cognitive activities that reflect selection, organisation and integration of pictorial information as well as different levels of expertise. The results give detailed insights into cognitive activities of students who were required to understand the pictorial information of complex organ systems. They provide an evidence-based foundation to derive instructional aids that can promote students pictorial-information-based learning on different levels of expertise.     

Quality,Viability and Relevance: A Strategic Framework for Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mixed‐Mode Teaching and Learning in an Undergraduate Biotechnology and Biomedical Science Degree

RMIT is a major Australian university of technology based in central Melbourne with regional and international reach. It has made both online education and programme quality two central planks in its teaching and learning strategy in recent years. This paper proposes making the connection between these two strategic directions by working within a framework of programme quality assurance to evaluate the effectiveness of mixed mode teaching and learning. This paper undertakes a case study of evaluation‐readiness in one RMIT degree programme – undergraduate biotechnology and biomedical science – in which implementation of the university’s teaching and learning strategy has been a major focus. (A note on terminology: at RMIT, ‘programme’ describes a degree comprising a number of ‘courses’ usually studied over several years).

Qualité, viabilité et importance: une structure stratégique pour l'évalution d'une méthode d’enseignement et de formation mixte dans un grade universitaire de sciences biotechnologiques et biomédicales. RMIT est une grande université australienne de technologie située au centre de Melbourne avec une importance régionale et internationale. Pendant les dernières années, la formation en ligne et la qualité du programme sont devenues deux piliers centraux de la stratégie d'enseignement et de formation de cette université. Cet exposé propose de créer une relation entre ces deux directions stratégiques en opérant avec une structure de qualité guarantie de programme pour évaluer l'efficacité de la méthode d'enseignement et de formation mixte. Cet exposé décrit une étude modèle sur la disposition d’évaluation dans un des programmes diplômés de la RMIT – sciences biotechnologiques et biomédicales – dans lesquelles la réalisation de la stratégie d'enseignement et de formation universitaire a été le centre d'intérêt principal. (Note: à la RMIT un programme décrit un grade universitaire comprenant un nombre de cours généralement étudiés pendant plusieurs années).

Qualität, Realisierbarkeit und Bedeutung: ein strategischer Rahmen zur Bewertung der Wirksamkeit einer kombinierten Lehr- und Lernmethode im Grundstudium der biotechnologischen und biomedizinischen Wissenschaft RMIT ist eine große australische Technologische Universität in Melbourne mit regionaler und internationaler Bedeutung. Sie hat in den vergangenen Jahren sowohl die Online‐Bildung als auch die Qualität ihres Programms zu zentralen Stützen ihrer Lehr- und Lernstrategie gemacht. Dieser Bericht schlägt vor, durch einen gemeinsamen Rahmen für die Sicherung der Qualität des Programms eine Verbindung zwischen diesen beiden strategischen Richtungen zu schaffen, um auf diese Weise die Wirksamkeit einer kombinierten Lehr- und Lernmethode zu beurteilen. Außerdem beschreibt dieser Bericht eine Fallstudie der Beurteilungsbereitschaft in einem RMIT Abschluss‐Programm – im Studiengang der biotechnologischen und biomedizinischen Wissenschaft – in der die Einführung dieser universitären Lehr- und Lernstrategie den Hauptschwerpunkt darstellte. (Eine Anmerkung zur Terminologie: Bei der RMIT bedeutet der Begriff Programm einen Abschluss, der eine gewisse Anzahl an Kursen beinhaltet, die gewöhnlich über mehrere Jahre studiert wurden).     

An exploration of how programme leaders in higher education can be prepared and supported to discharge their roles and responsibilities effectively

Background: Within Higher Education in the United Kingdom (UK), programme leaders are under increased pressure to be more productive and are expected to undertake a complex range of demanding activities. However, perceptions of the role through the lens of the programme leader have not been explored sufficiently. Clearly, a university’s ability to enhance and sustain improvement in programme delivery depends largely upon its ability to nurture and foster professional learning, most notably at a programme level. The need for a review of programme leader training and support was reinforced through the experience of facilitators at programme leader workshops at one Higher Education Institution in the UK. Critically, these workshops highlighted a need to review and enhance the preparation and on-going training and support available to programme leaders.

Aim: The overall aim of this study was to explore the role of the programme leader, in order to gain an in-depth understanding of what the role involves and a detailed appreciation of the knowledge and skills required to discharge the role effectively and efficiently. Such insight would inform the review of the provision of initial and on-going training and support workshops for new and experienced programme leaders. Indeed, the ultimate aim was to drive improvements in programme leader performance.

Method: A qualitative design was selected to allow the complexity of the programme leader role to be explored and captured. A purposeful sample (n = 25) was recruited from a range of newly appointed and experienced undergraduate and postgraduate programme leaders and associate deans with academic quality assurance and learning and teaching expertise across seven schools in one post-1992 university in England. In total, four semi-structured focus group interviews were conducted. A modified version of the data analysis method advocated by Chenitz and Swanson was employed to examine the data.

Findings: Four dynamic, interrelated conceptual categories form the basis of the emergent findings. These are Operational Diversity, which addresses the different duties carried out by participants, highlighting certain tensions in their ability to meet the demands placed upon them; Interaction with Others, which identifies the diverse range of stakeholders that shape and impact on the multifaceted programme leader role and highlights the importance of collaborative working; Mechanisms of Support, which describes the training and personal development experience of the participants and the extent to which it matches their needs; and Required Knowledge and Skills, which considers the need for initial and on-going training to enable programme leaders to meet the demands of this role.

Conclusion: Examination has revealed that within an ever-changing Higher Education sector in the UK, the role of a programme leader is not without challenge as most have to deal with complex academic, pastoral, moral, administrative and pragmatic decisions on a daily basis. Moving forward must involve bespoke preparation and on-going training and support. Specific emphasis should be placed on opportunities for self-reflection, debriefing and the sharing of experiences with peers. At the heart of on-going training and support should be the strategic engagement of students, professional staff and other key personnel from services offered across a university.     

Effect of worked examples and Cognitive Tutor training on constructing equations

Algebra students studied either static-table, static-graphics, or interactive-graphics instructional worked examples that alternated with Algebra Cognitive Tutor practice problems. A control group did not study worked examples but solved both the instructional and practice problems on the Cognitive Tutor (CT). Students in the control group requested fewer hints and made fewer errors on the CT practice problems but required more learning time on the instructional examples. There was no difference among the four groups in constructing equations on a paper-and-pencil posttest or on a delayed test that included training and transfer problems. However, students who studied worked examples with a table were best at identifying the meaning of the equation components. The concept of transfer-appropriate processing (the overlap between instructional task and assessment task) aided our interpretation of the findings. Although the CT had a short-term effect on reducing errors and hint requests on CT practice problems, the worked examples were as effective on delayed paper-and-pencil tests. The subsequent construction of a new module for the Animation Tutor (Reed and Hoffman, Animation Tutor: Mixtures. Instructional software, 2011) used both the interactive-graphics and static-table worked examples to take advantage of the complementary strengths of different representations (Ainsworth, Learn Instr 16:183–198, 2006).     

The Value of Examination Success in Sri Lanka 1971‐1996: the effects of ethnicity,political patronage and youth insurgency

In the original Diploma Disease thesis Sri Lanka is presented as a ‘later developing country’. This article explores the validity of the original Sri Lankan case within the more general thesis, changes in the symptoms of the ‘diploma disease’ over the past 20 years and economic and political developments which may have influenced the course of the disease. Despite economic liberalisation and an expansion of the education system, the value attached to educational certificates appears to have increased. Two explanations may be found within the educational system itself. Access to the apex of the system, the university, remains restricted and maintains the pressure of competition in the upper reaches of the secondary school. At the base of system, the Year 5 scholarship exam channels students into schools differentiated by quality. Although access to Year 11 is free and open to all, access to the top grade schools is restricted and highly competitive. A third explanation moves beyond both the education and economic system to the political crisis in Sri Lanka—manifested by the growth of ethnic tension in the late 1970s, the institutionalisation of political criteria for job allocation in the 1980s and the insurgency of Sinhala youth in the 1980s. All three aspects of the political crisis have contributed to a reaffirmation of educational qualifications as the legitimate criterion of access to jobs and resources.