Research Experiences of Staff within a Specialist UK Higher Education Institution: Challenges,opportunities and priorities

The study discussed here was based on a collective case approach involving a specialist UK higher education institution. Six individual interviews were carried out with a cross-sectional sample of the institution’s staff members. Additional information was gained through observations and examination of relevant documents. These data were interrogated with the purpose of exploring how the institution had made the transition from a teacher training college to a teaching-led higher education institution with a particular commitment to developing research capacity. This analysis yielded a number of key findings: first, the institution had experienced a cultural shift, with research forming a more noticeable profile; second, practitioner-oriented research was the dominant research endeavour; and third, there appeared to be an incomplete understanding of the potential of research to change a staff member’s career and teaching practice. The article concludes by giving consideration to the implications of the findings.     

Dual Credit/Dual Enrollment and Data Driven Policy Implementation

The use of dual credit has been expanding rapidly. Dual credit is a college course taken by a high school student for which both college and high school credit is given. Previous studies provided limited quantitative evidence that dual credit/dual enrollment is directly connected to positive student outcomes. In this study, predictive statistics were calculated using the generalized linear mixed model function in SPSS. For the final analysis, a two-level, propensity score weighted, multinomial logistic regression model was developed. Findings of this study are that even after controlling for selection bias, variation across high schools, and several education and socioeconomic status variables, dual credit/dual enrollment was significantly related to increased odds of enrolling at both four-year institutions and community colleges upon high school graduation. The opportunity presented by dual credit expansion and related policy recommendations are explored within the state and federal completion agenda context.     

The Assessment of Patron-Initiated Collection Development via Interlibrary Loan at a Comprehensive University

Patron-initiated collecting via interlibrary has been examined regularly in the literature over the past decade, with articles examining the topic at public libraries, liberal arts colleges, and large doctoral institutions. This paper examines a patron-initiated collection development program at Grand Valley State University, a comprehensive university with an enrollment of 24,000 students. It compares Grand Valley State University's experiences with those at other types of institutions. The paper also discusses the different models used to assess the success of these programs within the literature and how Grand Valley State University used WorldCat Collection Analysis, circulation statistics, and peer comparisons to assess its program.     

Audience Studies

NATURAL AUDIENCES: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH OF MEDIA USES AND EFFECTS edited by Thomas R. Lindlof (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$37.50)

COMMUNICATION, GENDER, AND SEX ROLES IN DIVERSE INTERACTION CONTEXTS edited by Lea P. Stewart and Stella Ting-Toomey (Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1987—$35.00)

QUESTIONNAIRES: DESIGN AND USE by Doug R. Berdie, et al. (Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow, 1986—$22.50)

CHILDREN AS CONSUMERS: INSIGHTS AND IMPLICATIONS by James U. McNeal (Lexington, MA: Lexington/Heath, 1987—$24.95)     

Teacher adaptation to flexible learning environments

Learning Environments Research - Teaching practices respond to the prompts, resources and inherent potential of a school’s physical, social and cultural landscape. This study involved how...     

Licencing and training reform in the Australian aircraft maintenance industry

The training and licencing of aircraft maintenance engineers fulfils a crucial protective function since it is they who perform and supervise aircraft maintenance and certify that planes are safe afterwards. In Australia, prior to training reform, a trades-based system of aircraft maintenance engineer training existed in an orderly relation with the system of licencing, regulated by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). Training reform through the 1990s gave rise to concerns that the training system could not be relied upon to deliver adequate numbers of trainees with valid qualifications. From 2007, CASA introduced new regulations, designed to align Australia’s qualifications and licencing with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). This process saw the aviation regulator effectively cede much quality control of training to an increasingly dysfunctional training system, giving rise to doubts about whether Australia’s international obligations for quality aircraft maintenance training can be fulfilled.     

Plausibility Judgments in Conceptual Change and Epistemic Cognition

Plausibility judgments rarely have been addressed empirically in conceptual change research. Recent research, however, suggests that these judgments may be pivotal to conceptual change about certain topics where a gap exists between what scientists and laypersons find plausible. Based on a philosophical and empirical foundation, this article presents a theoretical model of the role of plausibility judgments in conceptual change (PJCC) with implications for epistemic cognition. The PJCC moves beyond the limitations of cold cognitive processing by incorporating the warmer constructs of affect, motivation, and motivated reasoning. We review recent research in plausibility judgments that informed the PJCC's development and discuss components of the model. Of particular note is the importance of using explicit critical evaluation to reappraise plausibility judgments that may have been originally made through implicit cognitive processes. We also suggest potentially productive areas of future research based on the PJCC model.     

The evolutionary design of a Knowledge Network to support knowledge management and sharing for lifelong learning

Knowledge Management (KM) and knowledge sharing are important factors that support lifelong learning, and enable people to continue developing throughout their careers. The concept of a Community of Practice ( Wenger, 2000 ) is attractive in drawing together people whose work shares similar aspects, and consideration is given here to how technology can be used to develop and support such a community. In this paper, concepts from the Community of Practice literature are used to consider the development of a software environment for people working as a community in the area of lifelong learning. The intention was to design the system in an evolutionary way, using a minimal set of essential elements which would be elaborated according to user feedback. Three key design questions are considered: Who can contribute resources to such a system? What happens to existing practices? How is the community engaged? We conclude that, in lifelong learning, knowledge management supported by a software environment offers a good way to bring together communities, resources and experience, but to achieve these benefits, great care needs to be exerted in introducing the system and maintaining existing work practices.