Student-environment interaction in the development of physical symptoms

This study identifies personal characteristics which distinguish university students who conform to living group norms in complaints of physical symptoms from those who do not. Discriminant function analyses indicated significant differences between these two groups of students, and between males and females. For example, low-symptom females living in high-symptom living groups who did not themselves increase in symptoms (environmental resisters) were higher in dominance and religious concern and lower in social participation than those who increased in symptoms. For males, important discriminators between conformers and resisters were academic achievement and alcohol consumption. Further specification of psychological variables which relate to the degree of conformity or resistance to environmental influence is central to understanding the impact of educational settings such as student living groups and classrooms.     

Students' understanding of concepts related to plant growth

This paper reports on an investigation into students' understanding of the concept of plant growth. There are three aspects to the research. First, responses of Australian primary students to questions concerning plant growth are compared with those identified in British research (Russell & Watt, 1990). Second, the answers of secondary students, Year 7-Year 12, to questions concerning plant growth were analysed and common categories of responses were identified. Finally, the response categories were considered within the framework offered by the SOLO Taxonomy of Biggs and Collis (1982, 1991). In particular, interest was focused on whether the findings of an earlier study (Levins, 1992) in which cycles of development in the understandings of the concept of evaporation were established, might be observed in the concept of plant growth. Specializations secondary science curriculum, biology and chemistry teacher education. Specializations secondary mathematics curriculum topics, the SOLO Taxonomy, student cognitive growth.     

Types of educational leadership in a postindustrial society

As school improvement efforts shift to emphasis on restructuring, the types of leadership required to effectively develop new patterns of shool structure and relationships also are being questioned. This discussion examines transactional, transformational, cultural, and critical types of leadership, compared on the dimensions of the roles of formal school leaders, the roles of teachers and other school staff, and the value system of leadership (which would include the goals and purpose of leadership and perceptions of the standards by which performance will be evaluated). Critical leadership is suggested to be the most promising approach through combining the pursuit of democratic value with explicit examination of structural and cultural dimensions of school organization.     

General transfer across sensory modalities survives reductions in the original conditioned reflex in the rabbit

Two experiments demonstrated that transfer of training between CSs from different sensory modalities survived substantial reductions in responding to the first CS. In both experiments, animals received three stages of training. Stage 1 entailed CS-US training with a CS from one modality (e.g., light), and Stage 3 entailed CS-US training with a CS from another modality (e.g., tone). The experiments differed in treatment during Stage 2. In Experiment 1, animals either remained in their home cages or received unreinforced exposures to the first CS, which extinguished the original CR. In Experiment 2, the animals received either continued CS-US training or exposure to the CS and US but at a long interval (2,800 msec), which eliminated the original CR. As the baseline for detection of transfer effects, each experimental group had a control group that received Stage 1 training with a 2,800-msec CS-US interval, which produced minimal CR acquisition. The results of both experiments revealed substantial positive transfer across CS modalities regardless of the treatment during Stage 2. The transfer did not appear immediately on test presentations of the second CS in Stage 3. Rather, the transfer appeared as an enhancement in the rate of CR acquisition after reinforced training with the second CS had commenced. The results are discussed with respect to stimulus generalization, neutralization of background stimuli, and learning processes superordinate to specific associations.     

Hannah Arendt über die Krise in der Erziehung — Wiedergelesen

In dem vorliegenden Text wird Hannah Arendts Aufsatz über die Krise in der Erziehung vor dem Hintergrund ihres Werks Vita activa oder Vom t?tigen Leben re-interpretiert. Im Ausgang von ihrem Begriff der Natalit?t wird zun?chst Arendts kritische Auseinandersetzung mit der „progressive education“ skizziert. Es zeigt sich, dass ihre Typologie der menschlichen T?tigkeiten, die sie in Vita activa entwickelt, für ihre Kritik der Erziehung ebenso ma?geblich ist wie ihre Dichotomie des Privaten und ?ffentlichen. Eine Folge dieser Bestimmungen ist einerseits ihre Beziehung des Neuen, das mit jedem Kind in die Welt kommt, auf die politische Praxis in Freiheit; andererseits verortet sie das Aufwachsen der Kinder ausschlie?lich in der Sph?re des Privaten und Pr?-Politischen. Insbesondere Arendts aristotelisch inspirierte Konzeption des Handelns, aber auch ihr r?misch bestimmter Begriff der Tradition führen zu Unstimmigkeiten im Rahmen ihrer eigenen Theorie. Es stellt sich die Frage, ob die Kategorie der Natalit?t nicht eher eine politische Kategorie ist als eine p?dagogische.     

Towards a theoretical basis for students' alternative frameworks in science and for science teaching

As there is nothing as practical as a good theory, there is a continuing need in the field of science education enquiry to look for theories which help to interpret the findings about students' alternative frameworks and to inform the design of teaching strategies which relate to a research focus on ‘how the student learns’. The developmental model of cognitive functioning based on the SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1982) as updated in 1991 (Biggs & Collis, 1991; Collis & Biggs, 1991) is being applied in this way. Questionnaire data from two large studies of science learning of Australian students (conducted by ACER and NBEET) are being re-analysed in terms of the current theory. This paper illustrates the theory and describes a plan of further research. Specializations: science education, students' understandings of phenomena in science. Specializations: cognitive development, evaluation, mathematics and science education. Specializations: mathematics education, students' understanding of chance and data concepts.     

Zwischen Bildungsaufstieg und Karriere Studienperspektiven „nicht-traditioneller Studierender“

This contribution looks at a series of qualitative and quantitative investigations on the study success and study behavior of so-called non-traditional students. Of particular interest are two aspects: the combination of qualitative and quantitative findings, which are mutually complementary and in a sense present plausible corrections for one-sided observations, and controlled observations over a long period of time, as the first studies were carried out within the framework of an international study in 1998 and the last one within the framework of a project sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) in 2007. This longer time period certainly increases the plausibility of the cautious diagnoses made, which attempt to capture the relevant changes in this field of research. Such mixed methods research (Derzin 1970, 1989; Flick 1992) – i.e. the link between quantitative and qualitative research and survey methods often termed “triangulation” (cf. Prein/Kelle/Kluge 1993; Flick 1995) – has the advantage that a complex field of research can be scanned using different instruments and through a type of “convergence model” (Jacob 2001) the data won from different methods can be used to mutually validate the results. The qualitative material used in this study comes from theoretical sampling (cf. Glaser 1965; Strauss/Corbin 1996) of data from six German higher education institutions from two points in time (1998 and 2005; n=2x c. 400 surveyed respondents). The quantitative analysis, which was especially carried out for our study, profits from the fact that 2500 interested people responded to our recruitment search for biographic-narrative interviews. This group of people was then asked to participate in a special online survey in 2007 – a cooperative initiative in which around one third of the initial respondents took part. That does, however, mean that the quantitative study is not representative. Our overall research design remains complex, but retains an exploratory character     

Strategies toward cooperation

The Quad-Cities Graduate Study Center is a voluntary, publicly funded, academic consortium comprised of ten colleges and universities from Illinois and Iowa. It was incorporated in 1969 as an experimental project to determine if a pooling of institutional resources was academically, financially and administratively possible. The Center now serves as a model of inter-institutional cooperation providing a solution to continuing education needs for persons who reside in areas remote from university settings.     

The value of institutional research in the assessment of institutional effectiveness

A survey of 167 institutions engaged in the regional reaccreditation process between 1987 and 1992 revealed that the presence of institutional research activities was positively related to the institution carrying out a systematic assessment of institutional effectiveness. Institutional research activity was more predictive of assessment efforts than was the type of governance (public or private), the level of degree offered, or enrollment size. An alarmingly low proportion of institutions had begun to define outcomes at the time of the survey—a first step in the development of assessment procedures. Even fewer had identified ways of measuring outcomes. Budgets and staff expertise were felt to be adequate for current responsibilities but insufficient to assume responsibility for assessing institutional effectiveness. Institutional research activity is urgently needed in order to support the data collection efforts required by institutional assessment mandates. Whether these activities are conducted by institutional researchers or are dispersed across the campus, they provide the underpinnings for assessment.