Improving higher education practice through student evaluation systems: is the student voice being heard?

Many higher education institutions use student evaluation systems as a way of highlighting course and lecturer strengths and areas for improvement. Globally, the student voice has been increasing in volume, and capitalising on student feedback has been proposed as a means to benefit teacher professional development. This paper examines the student evaluations at a university in Trinidad and Tobago in an effort to determine whether the student voice is being heard. The research focused on students’ responses to the question, ‘How do you think this course could be improved?’ Student evaluations were gathered from five purposefully selected courses taught at the university during 2011–2012 and then again one year later, in 2012–2013. This allowed for an analysis of the selected courses. Whilst the literature suggested that student evaluation systems are a valuable aid to lecturer improvement, this research found little evidence that these evaluations actually led to any real significant changes in lecturers’ practice.     

Industry,academe, and the values of undergraduate engineers

This paper contributes to research about organizational effects on the socialization of undergraduates and the formation of engineers' values by examining the effects of exposure to academic and industrial work, in the form of cooperative employment and undergraduate research, on the educational experiences, job values, and life objectives of engineering students. Using data from a questionnaire survey conducted in the spring of 1990, we found that both programs strongly influenced participants' skills, job values, and life objectives, even when social background, academic performance, reasons for attending college, parental socialization, and other collegiate and noncollegiate variables were controlled. Cooperative employment more strongly influenced students' skills and had a greater effect on their career decisions, but research experience had a surprisingly powerful influence on values and life objectives, particularly the value placed on receiving peer recognition and influencing the political structure.     

Sexual interest in children,child sexual abuse,and psychological sequelae for children

This article reviews the literature on sexual victimization of minors and the role of school psychologists in assessing and intervening with sexually abused minors. Although estimates of child sexual abuse prevalence differ widely owing to disclosure biases and the definitions that researchers have used in studying it, it is clear that child sexual abuse is a serious public problem. Also troubling is the extent to which “normal” adults, especially males, exhibit sexual interest in children, suggesting that a substantial number may be at risk for victimizing minors; fortunately, a variety of inhibitory mechanisms prevent most adults from committing this crime. Although victims typically suffer from sexual abuse, surprisingly, some evidence suggests that victims of sexual abuse can exhibit neutral or even positive outcomes, a controversial finding that has numerous possible explanations. Tragically, childhood sexual abuse may lead the victim to become an abuser later in life, sometimes while still a minor. We suggest directions for future research. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Preschool emotional competence: pathway to social competence?

Preschoolers' (N = 143) patterns of emotional expressiveness, emotion regulation, and emotion knowledge were assessed. Their contributions to social competence, as evidenced by sociometric likability and teacher ratings, were evaluated via latent variable modeling, both concurrently and across time. Moderation of key results by age and sex was also explored. Emotional competence assessed at 3 to 4 years of age contributed to both concurrent and kindergarten social competence. Even early in the preschool period, contributions of emotional competence to social competence have long-term implications.     

Exploring teaching concerns and characteristics of graduate teaching assistants

The purpose of the study was to explore a conceptual structure of graduate teaching assistant (GTA) teaching concerns. Results indicated that GTAs experience five distinct, inter-related types of concerns: class control, external evaluation, task, impact and role/time/communication. These ‘teaching concerns’ were further analysed by examining their relationship with the value placed on them by the GTAs and the confidence in dealing with the teaching-related issues of concern. The results revealed that GTAs tend to have concerns about self, task or role/time/communication-related issues when the nature of the concerned issues is perceived as being valuable but challenging. On the other hand, GTAs are more likely to have concerns with impact-related issues when the nature of the issues is perceived as both being valuable and manageable. Several GTA characteristics, such as teaching experience, teacher efficacy, participation in professional development and values on teaching practices, were examined as predictors of GTA teaching concerns.     

Academic development through the contextualization of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: reflections drawn from the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago

Whilst the case for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has been made, there has been little discussion on how such scholarship might lead academic development at the local level. Through analyzing the recent history of Trinidad and Tobago this paper proposes that the conceptualization of SoTL should embrace the nuances of its particular context. It is argued that, since gaining independence, the education system of Trinidad and Tobago has failed to shake off the remnants of its former colonizer and that the Ministry of Education has looked to import educational ‘best practice’ from other countries. This paper suggests that ‘borrowing’ the drivers of development is culturally naïve and, instead, proposes that educational change should be led through a context-specific examination of the relationship between scholars of teaching and learning and the society in which they find themselves.     

Student Academic Support: A Validity Test

Given the significant support system changes that students often experience at the university level, college students often view fellow students as their primary source of academic support. This study offers validity evidence for the Student Academic Support Scale (SASS), a 15-item, multidimensional measure that assesses informational, esteem, motivational, and venting support. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) of the SASS revealed close model fit, replicated prior CFA tests (Thompson & Mazer, 2009 Thompson , B. , & Mazer , J. P. ( 2009 ). College student ratings of student academic support: Frequency, importance, and modes of communication . Communication Education , 58 , 433 – 458 .[Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]), and ultimately provided additional evidence for content validity. More important, correlations between student academic support, student motivation, affective learning, and engagement suggest that the SASS construct is related to other theoretically similar constructs, providing initial evidence for construct validity. Pedagogical implications and recommendations for future research are discussed.     

Detecting Bouts of Physical Activity in a Field Setting

Abstract

The purposes of this study were to assess the TRITRAC® and CSA® for: (a) interaccelerometer agreement; (b) agreement in detecting patterns of moderate-intensity physical activity; and (c) agreement in detecting walking patterns recorded in a diary. Thirty-one women wore both the TRITRAC® and CSA® accelerometers for three consecutive days. Interaccelerometer agreement (measured with generalizability coefficients) ranged from .88 to .99. In total, 71.3% of the accelerometers' patterns agreed in length, with CSA® patterns being on average significantly longer. Interaccelerometer agreement in detecting patterns of brisk walking, as recorded in a diary, was comparable (69.4%). Interaccelerometer discrepancies may be related in part to the threshold employed by each instrument for classifying moderate intensity patterns.