Still a gendered technology? Issues in teaching information and communication technologies at the UK Open University

Over the last 5 years the Faculty of Technology of the UK Open University has redesigned most of its courses in the information and communication technologies. This paper reviews some of the issues, the changes made and what has been achieved. The combination of changes to content, pedagogy and marketing appears to have made the new generation of courses significantly more attractive to women--although it is difficult to disentangle the effects of the various changes.     

DIAGNOSING STUDENTS' ERRORS FROM THEIR RESPONSE SELECTIONS IN LANGUAGE ARTS

This set of studies examined the consistency of student response patterns on a test of language arts, as a first step toward designing a computerized adaptive test to diagnose errors. A diagnostic domain-referenced language arts test was designed so that the choice of response would immediately point to a specific misconception in pronoun usage. This direct correspondence between error and diagnosis was designed to facilitate classroom instruction and remediation. Analysis of students' response choices on matched items and analysis of students' rationales for selecting their responses showed that student behavior was not always consistent and could be used to diagnose some errors but not others.     

School-leaving Examinations,Selection and Equity in Higher Education in South Africa

This paper explores the international experience in respect of school-leaving examinations and selection for higher education. It briefly states some theories of selection for equity in societies with severe structural inequalities, why and when formal selection is done. It then advances an argument to explain the dual functions of selection in education. International trends in selection for higher education are analysed, also school-leaving examinations and university access in South Africa. The policy and experience in selection for equity at the University of the Western Cape is then discussed, as well as the academic development programme initiated. It concludes with an analysis of some of the dilemmas facing universities committed to redress and equity in the current climate of entitlement.     

Embracing Human Science in Counseling Research

This article reviews the historical antecedents to the human science movement in counseling, describes common human science methods, and concludes by identifying potential benefits of this research model.     

Interpersonal Relations: Some Suggestions for Theory Development

This article argues the need for theory development in the field of interpersonal relations training. Criteria, based on the four major divisions of philosophic inquiry (ontology, logic, axiology, and epistemology), are presented for assessing the substantive adequacy of interpersonal relations training theories. Three views of interpersonal relations—Ivey and Authier's Microcounseling, Kagan's Interpersonal Process Recall, and Strong's Social Psychological Approach—are then examined using these four criteria.