Pricing policy and the college choice process

Following the presentation of a marketing management paradigm for higher educational institutions, this paper discuses some aspects of the pricing policy process in colleges and universities. A statistical model of the college choice process is developed, and some empirical results related to the effects of price, among other factors, on the collegechoice decision-making behavior process of high school seniors are presented and interpreted. The two most important factors affecting the college choice process are seen to be college quality and price-related considerations. Marketing implications of these results are discussed.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association For Institutional Research, Houston, Texas, May 1978.     

Discovering the Laws of Sampling

That the sample mean and variance are “good” estimates of the corresponding population parameters is easily accepted as “obvious” by students, but the concept of standard error of the mean is often found to be quite a hurdle. That this standard error decreases inversely as the square-root of the sample size, and the mysterious appearance of the Normal distribution, are often taken as magical and incomprehensible effects, and non-mathematical students can often be turned away from further understanding. This article describes a program which provides an experimental framework in which the student can rapidly develop an intuition for the basic properties of sampling.     

Designing minimal computer manuals from scratch

We designed from scratch a minimal manual of the kind proposed by Carroll (1990) for Unix e-mail. The design process involved acquiring from a set of experts information about e-mail use that would be helpful to novices, and acquiring from novices information that guided subsequent versions of the manual. The seventh version of the minimal manual was tested against a commercial manual, in a comparative performance experiment, with 30 naive subjects. It had approximately 13% of the pages of the commercial manual; it resulted in 30% faster learning and more effective use of the e-mail system overall, and significantly better performance on individual subtasks; including the recovery from errors. Significantly more users were satisfied with it than with the conventional manual. Carroll's general principles of manual design for minimal manuals were found to be a good basis for design, and we suggest these guidelines are suitable for the design of such manuals from scratch.     

The data collection matrix model: A tool for functional area and program evaluation

The management and utilization of collected data is crucial in evaluating programs and functional area effectiveness. Various assessment instruments may address similar functional areas of the college, yet we often fail to compile these data for comprehensive evaluation. The data collection matrix makes possible the integration of functional area data from numerous assessment sources and presentation of the information in a unified composite report. The matrix model will be discussed in relation to the various assessment instruments and the evaluation of functional areas and programs. This paper is directed toward institutional researchers who may wish to adapt the model to their own institution.Presented at the Annual Forum of the Association for Institutional Research, Louisville, KY, May 13–16, 1990.     

Intellectual Disability and Developmental Risk: Promoting Intervention to Improve Child and Family Well‐Being

Initial intervention processes for children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) largely focused on direct efforts to impact core cognitive and academic deficits associated with the diagnosis. Recent research on risk processes in families of children with ID, however, has influenced new developmental system approaches to early intervention. Recent risk and resilience processes are reviewed that connect stress, family process, and the high rates of behavioral problems in children with ID that have substantial influence on child and family outcomes. These models are linked to emerging evidence‐based intervention processes that focus on strategic parent skill training and mindfulness interventions that reduce parental stress and create indirect benefits for children's behavioral competencies. A family‐focused developmental systems approach (M. J. Guralnick, 2011) is emphasized.     

Der Einfluss von Lehrervorstellungen zum Lernen und Lehren auf die Gestaltung des Unterrichts und auf motivationale Schülervariablen

Es gibt einige Hinweise darauf, dass Vorstellungen vom Lehren und Lernen sowohl für das Handeln der Lehrkr?fte im Unterricht als auch für Zielkriterien auf der Ebene der Schüler eine Rolle spielen. Dabei gelten konstruktivistisch orientierte Sichtweisen als besonders günstig. Empirische Untersuchungen dazu gibt es jedoch bislang nur auf einzelne fachdidaktische Inhaltsbereiche bezogen. In der vorliegenden Studie werden konstruktivistisch orientierte Lehrereinstellungen mit Merkmalen des Unterrichts (?ffnung des Unterrichts im Hinblick auf Entscheidungsm?glichkeiten für Schüler/-innen und Strukturierung des Unterrichts) sowie mit Einsch?tzungen der Schüler/-innen (Selbstbestimmungsempfinden und Interessantheit des Unterrichts) in Beziehung gesetzt. Die Ergebnisse best?tigen die Theorie: In den Klassen der Lehrer/-innen mit überwiegend konstruktivistischen Vorstellungen von Lernen und Lehren gibt es mehr Freir?ume, ohne dass der Unterricht weniger strukturiert abl?uft. Zudem empfinden sich die Schüler/-innen als selbstbestimmter und sch?tzen den Unterricht als interes-santer ein.