Student evaluation surveys: anonymous comments that offend or are unprofessional

Student comments are routinely collected in university evaluation surveys for the purpose of improving teaching and learning. Whilst student comments provide valuable insights into their experiences, there is limited published research reporting the extent to which student comments are offensive and professional. The aim of this study was to investigate the number of student comments that were identified as being offensive or unprofessional in an online unit evaluation survey collected in a semester in 2010 from an Australian university. One person read 30,684 comments taken from 17,855 surveys and identified comments considered to be abusive or unprofessional. Comments were categorised as either abusive or unprofessional and by the intended target (that is, teacher, unit, resource). Thirteen abusive comments (0.04 % of the sample) were identified. Five abusive comments were directed at the teacher and eight were targeted at teaching and learning experiences. Forty-six comments (0.15 % of the sample) were identified as unprofessional. Of these, seven comments were directed at the teacher and 34 were about units. This suggests that the vast majority of students do not abuse the privilege of giving anonymous feedback. Strategies identified in this paper to educate students and give appropriate feedback can be adopted by universities to minimise offensive comments. Universities can educate students and teachers in appropriate and professional ways of working together, in providing professional feedback to improve the student experience in teaching and learning and to support and mentor teachers in their academic careers.     

Knowledge systematisation,reconfiguration and the organisation of firms and industry: The case of design

The paper explores two pathways that are crucial for making knowledge economically useful – knowledge systematisation and knowledge reconfiguration – and analyses how their interplay enables the emergence of a new business function or activity. Knowledge systematisation is the abstraction and diffusion of operative principles to the effect of expanding to broader remits practices that had been initially conceived for a narrow purpose. Knowledge reconfiguration involves the conversion and formalisation of these novel practices within existing firm and industry organisation. Using the design activity as a lens, and drawing on primary and secondary interviews and archival data on the home furnishing sectors in Italy, our case study articulates the processes that facilitate the abstraction of general rules from novel practices and the changes that are necessary, both within firm and industry organisation, to foster their diffusion.     

Cultivating a Religiously Literate Society: Challenges and Possibilities for America's Public Schools

This article presents a rationale as well as a proposal for a religious literacy curriculum in U.S. public high schools. Relying on the Religious Education curriculum currently in use in the United Kingdom, the authors sketch a religious literacy curriculum designed to help students thrive in a pluralistic and democratic society. In order to help young citizens develop the skills, dispositions, and knowledge to thrive in an increasingly global, pluralistic, and democratic society, they need to become religiously literate. For students to be religiously literate they must learn to respect the religious other as well as understand the role of religions in contributing to civic life.     

THE RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE OF THE HOME

The process of sophisticated theological thinking in children begins at an early age. Thinking deeply about the ultimate concerns of life is inherent in human beings. This paper, based on the author's conversations with his children, explores the profound processes of theological reflection in playground songs sung by children in public elementary schools, informal conversations with children about prayer and religious insight, and the place of paradox and play in the theological reflection of children. Drawing on the works of such scholars as Winnicott, Gerkin, Rizzutto, and Stivers, the author charts intriguing areas for reflection as well as needed areas for future research.     

Book review

Isaura Barrera, Robert M. Corso, Dianne Macpherson, Skilled Dialogue: Strategies for Responding to Cultural Diversity in Early Childhood, Paul H. Brookes, Baltimore, MD, 2003.