Students’ Approaches to Summarisation

This paper considers the role that students’ approaches to learning play in summarising text, and in learning from summarisation. Students’ approaches to learning are characterised in terms of their relative reliance upon deep and surface processing. Two forms of summarisation are studied: the familiar text present summarisation, in which students have access to the text while summarising, and the less familiar text absent summarisation, in which students are warned that the text will be removed after they read it, but before they summarise it. It is predicted that text absent summarisation will facilitate deeper processing for students who normally adopt a deep approach and who are able to write competent summaries, and that these effects will be more apparent for the more difficult text. The results confirm the hypotheses and indicate that the two types of summarisation encourage different processes. Discussion focuses upon the relative merits of the approaches to learning and of the two forms of summarisation. It is concluded that the effects of students’ approaches to learning play a powerful role in summarisation, and need to be studied with respect to other learning activities.     

Is it all memory recall? An empirical investigation of intellectual skill requirements in Leaving Certificate examination papers in Ireland

The terminal examination of post-primary education in Ireland, the Leaving Certificate, is often criticised for the reliance on memory recall over higher order thinking skills in the assessment process. In order to examine the evidence base for these critiques, this article presents an empirical investigation of the intellectual skills and knowledge domains implicit in the tasks in the written examination papers of 23 subjects in the Leaving Certificate in Ireland from 2005 to 2010. Data were collected from two sources: examination papers and student interviews. In an in-depth document analysis of the examination papers, 14,910 occurrences of command verbs were coded for the intellectual skill and knowledge domains required by the assessment task. As the same verb can require different intellectual skills in different subjects and in different tasks, each occurrence of every verb was assigned a specific value depending on its context. The article presents the frequencies and distributions of intellectual skills and knowledge domains within and across subjects. In light of key points in the literature search, the findings indicate concern regarding the level of challenge and stimulation for the development of students of the Leaving Certificate.     

The relationship between high school students' perceptions of teaching as a career and selected background characteristics: Implications for attracting students of color to teaching

This study sought to determine: What influence do background characteristics of high school students have on their perceptions of teaching as a career choice? The independent variables, or background characteristics, were ethnicity, gender, the work status of parents, and grade level. Of particular interest was the extent to which African Americans were receptive to teaching as a career choice. The dependent variable of the study was students' perceptions of teaching as a career. Students perceptions were ascertained from their responses to an instrument administered to over 800 high school students. The inventory sought students' attitudes regarding: (a) the extent to which they valued teaching as a career; (b) the importance they assigned to teaching relative to other professions; (c) the influence of significant others in encouraging them to go into teaching; and (d) their desire to meet the prerequisites to becoming a teacher. Although the findings were in general those to be expected, some surprising ones were also observed.     

Creating a Caring Community: The University of Arkansas Nursery School Experience

The seven dimensions of establishing a caring community at the University of Arkansas Nursery School are described. Key components include empathetic teacher–child and teacher–parent interactions, celebration of differences, and a responsive classroom environment.     

Soft and hard variables in determining pre‐service teachers' intentions and decisions to pursue a special education career

This study examined the roles of hard variables and soft variables in determining college teachers' intentions to pursue a special education career and education majors' actual decisions to major in special education. This study surveyed 243 college students taking special education courses at a state university, including 213 education majors. The survey questions included four blocks of variables, pertaining to demographics, training and work experience, soft variables (i.e., personal connections to people with disabilities, personal value and commitment and perceived social support) and hard variables (i.e., estimated salary, workload, professional development opportunities and job security). Results suggest that (1) after controlling for other variables, hard factors such as salary did not add significant contributions to college students' intention or education majors' actual action to pursue a special education career; (2) soft variables, such as value, commitment to special education and perceived social support, significantly predicted college students' intention to pursue a special education career, but did not significantly influence education majors' actual decision to choose a special education program, and (3) workloads significantly affect education majors' decisions making decisions of enrolling in a special education program. Implications are discussed about the importance of enhancing soft‐variable aspects of working conditions for special education recruitment and retention.     

HPT as a manager's tool for analyzing individual employee performance

Typically the human performance technology (HPT) process is regarded as a tool for use when analyzing performance gaps in functional or larger organizational units. This case study demonstrates the application of the HPT process in a one‐to‐one relationship between a manager and a direct report. Specifically, the process is used to analyze the cause of the gap between an employee's exhibited performance and the desired performance.