A quantitative exploration into environmental determinants of two types of higher education spending

Regression analyses were conducted on environmental determinants of two types of higher education spending. As hypothesized, those states which were able to expend large amounts of money per full-time student were not the same states who spend generously in relation to the college-age population.     

The improtance of selected textbook features to science teachers

This paper reports the results of a study of teacher opinions about the features considered important in an ideal textbook. A survey of Queensland high school teachers revealed that they favoured texts that focus on student cognition and which provide useful features such as exercises and practical activities. Differences were found between the preferences of Queensland teachers and the preferences of teachers reported in two American studies. The significance of these differences for writers and publishers is discussed. Specializations: communication and cognition in science. Specializations: science education.     

Changes in primary science over the past decade: Implications for the research community

During the early 1980s in Australia there was a new wave of expectancy about primary science as new curricula were being considered or introduced and research findings were beginning to identify new directions for both teaching and research. In an expression of this, six authors were invited to present papers to a symposium on primary science held in 1984 to address the question: “What do you believe should be the state of primary science (in Australia) in 1995 and what are the steps which need to be taken to achieve the desired state?” This study set out to identify what had been said at that time, to compare that with actual developments, and to identify possible future directions for research. Relevant publications includingResearch in Science Education were analysed as a means of comparing what had happened since 1984 with the hopes of those authors. It was only in the latter half of the decade that some of the scenarios painted by the authors in 1984 began to emerge. A key implication for the research community drawn from the analysis shows that science education researchers have tended to neglect working in collaboration with education departments and authorities for the improvement of primary science education.     

Response bias in follow-up studies of college students

The problems of response bias in longitudinal studies of college students are examined. An extensive follow-up questionnaire was sent to 1,253 college seniors who had participated in a similar survey as freshman four years earlier. Careful measure of student responsiveness in relation to various techniques designed to increase the proportion of responders (e.g., postcard, telephone contact) were kept.The less responsive groups were significantly different from their more responsive counterparts on nearly a dozen variables representing a wide variety of content areas, including academic achievement, self-concept, alcohol consumption, social deviance, and major choice preferences. Controlling for sex and socioeconomic status served to reduce, but not eliminate, these biases. Overall, the results indicate that researchers cannot account for follow-up nonresponse bias by making statistical adjustments according to data available at initial testing. The results are discussed in light of identifying the reasons for nonresponse, and attempting to develop categories of nonresponders who may be motivated to cooperate by different types of follow-up techniques.     

Dzierzbicka/Kubac/Sattler (Hrsg.), Bildung riskiert

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Introduction

The expansion of higher education in Latin America before 1980 resulted from the growing demand of the urban middle classes. The state responded with a benevolent attitude, except when political circumstances led to police repression. The deep crisis and the emergence of new economic policies in the 1980s drastically changed this picture. Funds for further growth are not available and there is no longer a favorable political climate for the universities. The new ideological and political scene favors policies aimed at abandoning incremental formulae for state funding, increasing private funding, rationalizing spending, promoting institutional and program differentiation, introducing evaluation as a major policy instrument and checking enrolment growth. Negotiation over these issues in democratic regimes has become cumbersome and difficult. A set of policies for the private sector is also emerging though these are ineffectual if state funding is not forthcoming. Though flexibility over accreditation became common in the 1970s and 1980s there is now closer scrutiny of such matters. Legal frameworks have favored differentiation in the private sector also, including recognizing profit-oriented institutions which are capable of absorbing excess demand but which are less closely regulated than the older and more prestigious institutions.