Critical competencies in early childhood administration: A national survey

There has been little consensus to date about the skills needed to administer early childhood facilities. A national survey of state education and child welfare agencies attempted to rate competencies.Rosemarie Slavenas is an Assistant Professor and Charles A. Sloan is a Professor at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb.     

The development of flexibility in equation solving

This paper explores the development of students’ knowledge of mathematical procedures. Students’ tendency to develop rote knowledge of procedures has been widely commented on. An alternative, more flexible endpoint for the development of procedural knowledge is explored here, where students choose to deviate from established solving patterns on particular problems for greater efficiency. Students with no prior knowledge of formal linear equation solving techniques were taught the basic transformations of this domain. After instruction, students engaged in problem-solving sessions in two conditions. Treatment students completed the “alternative ordering task,” where they were asked to re-solve a previously completed problem but using a different ordering of transformations. Those completing alternative ordering tasks demonstrated greater flexibility.     

Conscientious internationalisation in higher education: contextual complexities and comparative tensions

Asia Pacific Education Review - In this paper, authors focus on how internationalisation is defined, interpreted, and responded to by Universities in Australia and Canada, two decades after de...     

User library service expectations in health science vs. other settings: a LibQUAL+ Study

Objectives: To explore how the library service expectations and perceptions of users might differ across health‐related libraries as against major research libraries not operating in a medical context; to determine whether users of medical libraries demand better library service quality, because the inability of users to access needed literature promptly may lead to a patient who cannot be properly diagnosed, or a diagnosis that cannot be properly treated. Methodology: We compared LibQUAL+® total and subscale scores across three groups of US, Canadian and British libraries for this purpose. Results: Anticipated differences in expectations for health as other library settings did not emerge. Conclusions: The expectations and perceptions are similar across different types of health science library settings, hospital and academic, and across other general research libraries.     

Ironies and Limitations of Educational Leadership for Social Justice: A Call to Social Justice Educators

In this article that reviews this special issue, we identify 5 ironies and limitations of educational leadership for social justice: (a) the meaning of inclusive practice, (b) the intersection of identity and difference, (c) the emphasis given to student achievement, (d) the lack of policy and practice coherence, and (e) the separation of superheroes from critical collaborative leadership. Although we discuss each issue separately, these conceptions are interrelated and intersecting. We conclude with a call to educators for social justice to change their work in several fundamental ways.     

What should make up a final mark for a course? An investigation into the academic performance of first year Bioscience students

Performance of individual students in a tertiary level course is usually reflected in a final mark that determines their progress and transfer to higher courses. The contributions of different types of assessment to this final mark vary greatly within and between subjects in and between institutions. Performance of students in a first year course, Bioscience at the University of KwaZulu‐Natal, Pietermaritzburg (UKZN) was assessed to determine if there were any patterns emerging in the broad components that contributed to the final mark, namely the coursework, theory and practical examinations. Performance of students was compared in Bioscience 110 for the years 1995–2000 using Repeated Measures ANOVA. Students performed best in coursework. All students performed poorly in the theory examinations. In addition differential performance between students, particularly the performance of sub‐groups within the class was investigated. Of particular interest were English second language (ESL) students, and previous Science Foundation Programme (SFP) students. The latter are mainly previously disadvantaged Black students. All sub‐groups of students showed similar trends in performance in Bioscience assessment tasks and final marks. However, the SFP students' final marks were lower than the other sub‐groups, and showed a decreased performance for the same period. Most students, excluding SFP students, fell in the 50–59% category for the final Bioscience 110 marks obtained for the period 1995–2000. Theory examinations were investigated further, and were analysed in their component parts, namely multiple choice (MCQ), short questions and essay. Students performed best and consistently in MCQ. In contrast, students performed poorly in the short question and essay sections. Although the different ethnic sub‐groupings showed similar trends in performance, the SFP students showed the poorest performance. In particular, they scored lowest in the theory examinations where they performed more poorly than the other sub‐groupings in short questions and essays that require higher order cognitive skills. These patterns suggest that changes are required at the teaching, student and assessment interfaces.