Report on the CSEET '99 Workshop: “Establishing a Distance Education Program”

The objectives of the workshop were to examine five particular aspects relevant to software engineering distance education: how to turn existing courses into distance mode, the implications of cultural issues in establishing the program and in the delivery of material, how to ensure the quality of courses, how to ensure comparability of experience for students, and the range of delivery mechanisms which have been tried and assessed. The two-staged operation and results of the workshop are reported. Initial position statements are detailed and the analysis from five separate subgroups that addressed a case study as stage one of the process is presented. The second stage, of different subgroups addressing the four operational scenarios, is described and the feedback obtained from these groups is then presented. Finally a summary of the major work-shop findings is given, along with some overall conclusions.     

Effect of the Learning Consortium: One District's Journey

The Learning Consortium has provided the conditions for Consortium partners to construct a more meaningful approach to instructional change. Those conditions focus on four opportunities: (1) to build on individual accomplishments; (2) to create a broader view of the educational picture; (3) to share and interact with wider audiences; and (4) to re‐focus on the future. This article applies those conditions to illustrate the Durham Board of Education's efforts to extend the instructional practices of their teachers. The major message is that extending the instructional practices of teachers requires an intensive effort over time.     

Development,Evaluation and Use of a Student Experience Survey in Undergraduate Science Laboratories: The Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory Student Laboratory Learning Experience Survey

Student experience surveys have become increasingly popular to probe various aspects of processes and outcomes in higher education, such as measuring student perceptions of the learning environment and identifying aspects that could be improved. This paper reports on a particular survey for evaluating individual experiments that has been developed over some 15 years as part of a large national Australian study pertaining to the area of undergraduate laboratories—Advancing Science by Enhancing Learning in the Laboratory. This paper reports on the development of the survey instrument and the evaluation of the survey using student responses to experiments from different institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the USA. A total of 3153 student responses have been analysed using factor analysis. Three factors, motivation, assessment and resources, have been identified as contributing to improved student attitudes to laboratory activities. A central focus of the survey is to provide feedback to practitioners to iteratively improve experiments. Implications for practitioners and researchers are also discussed.     

Examination of Chinese homeroom teachers’ performance of professional school counselors’ activities

Chinese homeroom teachers’ performance of professional school counselor activities was explored. A total of 109 homeroom teachers in Beijing and Harbin, China reported their performance of 68 different school counseling activities as part of their regular actions as a homeroom teacher. Results found that on average homeroom teachers performed a wide variety of counseling tasks and together almost all tasks were performed by homeroom teachers. Further, participants reported frequently providing individual counseling to students on a range of concerns. Findings in this study support calls for the continued development of school counseling in China, hiring more school counselors, and additional training for homeroom teachers. Limitations, recommendations, and avenues for future research are described.     

Community College Faculty Competencies

Much has been written about the characteristics of effective college teachers. However, skill sets have not yet been defined with any level of specificity. Also, instructors at community colleges have unique working conditions and challenges that influence how they teach. This paper illustrates the use of three studies conducted to build and validate a framework for defining the competencies of effective community college faculty. The project's culmination was a set of skills used to redesign one university's master's in education (MAEd) program in two-year college teaching. Although participants in all three studies identified subject matter expertise as an important competency, they emphasized several other skill sets as being important for meaningful student learning. Those skills are related to the use of authentic activities and multiple instructional delivery models, multiple ways of assessing student learning, and skills that are necessary outside the classroom in their teaching roles. Participants also emphasized interpersonal and affective components of effective teaching.