Student satisfaction in higher education: a meta-analytic study

This paper discusses the results of a meta-analysis performed to identify key antecedent and consequent constructs of satisfaction in higher education. We offer an integrated model to achieve a better understanding of satisfaction in the context of higher education. To accomplish this objective, we identified 83 studies that were valid and relevant to the research objective of the current study, generating a total of 469 observations. We identified studies published from 1986 to 2016 and analyzed six antecedent dimensions (perceived value of educational services, resources provided to the student, service quality perception, marketing orientation, identity of the higher education institution, university environment) and one consequent dimension related to satisfaction. The 7 dimensions exhibited a total of 51 relationships. We believe that the originality of the findings clearly contributes to future academic research in higher education.     

Modeling imitation and emulation in constrained search spaces

Social transmission of behavior can be realized through distinct mechanisms. Research on primate social learning typically distinguishes two forms of information that a learner can extract from a demonstrator: copying actions (defined as imitation) or copying only the consequential results (defined as emulation). We propose a decomposition of these learning mechanisms (plus pure individual learning) that incorporates the core idea that social learning can be represented as a search for an optimal behavior that is constrained by different kinds of information. We illustrate our approach with an individual-based model in which individuals solve tasks in abstract “spaces” that represent behavioral actions, results, and benefits of those results. Depending on the learning mechanisms at their disposal, individuals have differential access to the information conveyed in these spaces. We show how different classes of tasks may provide distinct advantages to individuals with different learning mechanisms and discuss how our approach contributes to current empirical and theoretical research on social learning and culture.     

Application of functional principal component analysis in race walking: An emerging methodology

This study considered the problem of identifying and evaluating the factors of individual performance during race walking. In particular, the study explored the use of functional principal component analysis (f-PCA), a multivariate data analysis, for assessing and classifying the kinematics and kinetics of the knee joint in competitive race walkers. Seven race walkers of international and national level participated to the study. An optoelectronic system and a force platform were used to capture three-dimensional kinematics and kinetics of lower limbs during the race walking cycle. Functional principal component analysis was applied bilaterally to the sagittal knee angle and net moment data, because knee joint motion is fundamental to race walking technique. Scatterplots of principal component scores provided evidence of athletes' technical differences and asymmetries even when traditional analysis (mean ± s curves) was not effective. Principal components provided indications for race walkers' classification and identified potentially important technical differences between higher and lower skilled athletes. Therefore, f-PCA might represent a future aid for the fine analysis of sports movements, if consistently applied to performance monitoring.     

A comparative analysis of the efficiency of national education systems

The present study assesses the performance of 54 participating countries in PISA 2006. It employs efficiency indicators that relate result variables with resource variables used in the production of educational services. Desirable outputs of educational achievement and undesirable outputs of educational inequality are considered jointly as result variables. A construct that captures the quality and quantity of educational resources consumed is used as resource variables. Similarly, environmental variables of each educational system are included in the efficiency evaluation model; while these resources are not controllable by the managers of the education systems, they do affect outcomes. We find that European countries are characterized by weak management, the Americans (mainly Latin Americans) by a weak endowment of resources, and the Asians by a high level of heterogeneity. In particular, Asia combines countries with optimal systems (South Korea and Macao-China); countries with managerial problems (Hong Kong, China-Taipei, Japan and Israel); others where the main challenge is the weak endowment of resources (Jordan and Kyrgyzstan), and, finally, others where the main problem is in the long run since it concerns structural conditions of a socioeconomic and cultural nature (Turkey, Thailand, and Indonesia).     

Multidimensional profiles of learning orientations and school achievement: a person-oriented approach in middle-school students

A person-oriented approach was applied to the study of early adolescents’ learning orientations to identify different profiles and their association with school achievement. A total of 244 middle-school students (male: 128; female: 116; M-age ± SD = 12.51 ± .93) completed a self-report questionnaire to explore cognitive, metacognitive, and affective dimensions of learning orientations. School achievements were collected in a range of school subjects. Cluster analyses and one-way MANOVA were carried out to verify the existence of profiles. Chi-square tests were used to test the association between profiles of learning orientations and school achievement. The results showed two profiles differently associated with school achievement: students “Dragged by the current” (Profile 1) showed low school achievement across school subjects, meanwhile students “At the helm” (Profile 2) reached excellent school achievement. In promoting middle-school students’ achievement, it is important for teachers to consider students’ profiles of learning orientations.

     

Problematizing the Practicum to Integrate Practical Knowledge

This article examines the influence of a practicum teaching experience on two pre-service science teachers. The research is focused on examining a practicum in a secondary science department that actively promotes the teaching and learning of science as inquiry. We investigated the process through which the pre-service science teachers integrated their practical knowledge, and examined this in the context of the quantified reformed instruction they enacted. Using a mixed methods design, we have quantified these pre-service science teachers’ practice using the Reformed Teaching Observation Protocol (Piburn et al. 2000), in concert with a narrative methodology drawn from in-depth interviews. Our analysis of the data indicates two important conclusions. The first is the importance of a consistently reformed image of science education being presented and practiced by both science teacher educators and cooperating teachers. The second is the recognition that a consistently reformed image may not be sufficient, of itself, to challenge pre-service teachers’ views of science education. Pre-service teachers appear to be heavily influenced by their biographies and own science education. Consequently, it appears the extent to which a pre-service teacher identifies problems of teaching and learning, and then works toward possible resolution, influences their progress in shaping reformed views of science education.     

Temperament Predicts Processing Speed in Low Socioeconomic Status Rural Preschoolers

Extreme poverty all over the world is concentrated in rural settings. However, studies about cognition in low socioeconomic status (SES) children are for the most part conducted in urban populations. This paper investigates, in a poor rural sample, what are the individual and socioenvironmental variables that make the difference in performance in a processing speed task. Forty four 5‐year‐old children were evaluated with a processing speed task; individual and socioenvironmental information was obtained from parents' interviews. Higher scores in the effortful control dimension of temperament were associated with higher performance in the processing speed task. No other individual or socioenvironmental variable predicted the performance. These results showed that effortful control is important in processing speed and suggest that in low SES rural contexts, low effortful control children would require stronger interventions.     

Evaluating the Effectiveness of Modelling-Oriented Workshops for Engineering Undergraduates in the Field of Thermally Activated Phenomena

Research in Science Education - Two 20-h modelling-based workshops focused on the explanation of thermally activated phenomena were held at the University of Palermo, Italy, during the Academic...