Quality Assurance of Higher Education in Transition Countries: Accreditation -- Accountability and Assessment

One issue facing countries in transition concerns how to ensure quality for a broader and more diverse set of institutions. Quality assurance processes (i.e. accreditation, accountability and assessment) have particular relevance today as higher education undergoes dramatic changes in countries in transition, as the world becomes more internationalised, and as private higher education institutions increase in number and enrol increasing numbers of students. Three questions emerge. Do differences among transition countries relative to central control prior to independence explain the current set of quality assurance mechanisms? Has the growth of private higher education in transition countries affected how quality assurance is conceptualised? Have quality assurance mechanisms been affected by the opening of branch campuses in transition countries?     

The Master Should Know More: Book-Farming and the Conflict Over Agricultural Knowledge

Eighteenth-century Britain witnessed a struggle over knowledge and expertise in agriculture that has been largely neglected. This article uses the social controversies surrounding ‘book-farming’ – the practice of farming with knowledge acquired from books – to highlight the wider conflict over agricultural knowledge. The development of agricultural instructional literature gave rise to tensions between an established labour-based and an emerging book-based system of knowledge, which mapped onto social struggles over control of the intellectual powers of production. Hostility to ‘book-farming’ from practical farmers was partly a response to the threat books posed to the customary knowledge of farm workers of various kinds.     

Interpersonal Behavior,Laboratory Learning Environments,and Student Outcomes in Senior Biology Classes

The purpose of this study was to investigate associations between students' perceptions of their biology teachers' interpersonal behavior and their laboratory learning environments and their attitudinal, achievement, and performance outcomes. A sample of 489 students from 28 senior biology classes in eight schools in Tasmania, Australia completed the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) and the Science Laboratory Environment Inventory (SLEI). Responses to two attitude questionnaires, achievement on an external written examination, and performance in laboratory practical tests were used as student outcome measures. Statistical analyses supported the reliability and validity of the QTI and the SLEI when used with senior secondary biology students. We investigated associations between students' perceptions of teacher behavior and their laboratory learning environment with student outcomes, including the unique and common contributions of the QTI and SLEI to variance in student outcomes. Associations with students' perceptions of the learning environment were stronger for the attitudinal outcomes than for the cognitive or practical skills outcomes. Some commonality between the QTI and SLEI scales was found in their contributions to the variance in attitudinal outcomes, but not in their contributions to variance in cognitive and practical skill outcomes. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 37: 26–43, 2000