An IT-based teaching model for a new generation of students

To demonstrate whether individuals of the new generation have developed a unique and different learning model, research was conducted on children aged 10–11 in England, the United States, Australia and Germany. The qualities and the characteristics those children seek in the activities with which they spend more time were recognized. Using this knowledge, an innovative IT-based teaching model was structured and applied to an experimental group during the 2016–2017 school year. The results show that children indeed have developed their own learning model to extract the information they need from everything that catches their attention, challenges them and offers them rewards. In addition, they easily lose attention and interest when they are subjected to the traditional teaching model, as evidenced in the control group.

     

COMMUNITY COLLEGE ADMINISTRATORS AND FACULTY OPINIONS OF TECH PREP

According to D. Hull and D. Parnell (1991), technical preparation, commonly referred to as Tech Prep, is essentially an innovative approach to vocational education. It is designed to integrate academic subjects (i.e., mathematics and science) with vocational-technical education subjects (i.e., engineering technology, applied science) and mechanical, industrial, or vocational subjects (i.e., agriculture, health, and business). This study focused on community college presidents' knowledge of attitudes toward Tech Prep in the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS). Four research questions were addressed in the research that are essential to the success of Tech Prep initiatives in the NCCCS. These questions were (1) to what extent are the 58 community colleges in North Carolina actively engaged in Tech Prep programs?; (2) how many of the colleges have been actively involved in Tech Prep programs for four or more years?; (3) to what extent do senior administrators, faculty, and administrative support staff differ in their opinions of Tech Prep programs in their respective colleges?; and (4) what are the differences in opinions of Tech Prep among community college presidents, faculty, and administrative support staff on issues such as recruiting better-prepared students, retention, and graduation rates?     

From participation to competition: Changes in the notion of decentralization in Swedish higher educational policy 1

Abstract

The relationships between higher education and the world of work are viewed, principally, as similar in economically advanced societies. The comparative study ‘Higher Education and Graduate Employment in Europe’, however, indicates substantial differences between European countries as regards transition to employment, as well as the employment and work situation, according to objective and subjective measures. The analysis is based on a survey of more than 30,000 graduates from 10 European countries about 3–4 years after graduation. The findings suggest that only a minority of 10–20% of graduates face substantial problems on the labour market or end up in positions not commensurate with their level of education. There is a clear North‐South differential in Europe with respect to transition and objective employment measures, while the pattern is more differentiated with respect to the perceived utilisation of knowledge, the self‐rated adequacy of position and the job satisfaction.     

The Development of an Environmental Science Degree Program in the United Kingdom

Abstract

The authors report a study that is based on the premise that, although it continues to be desirable to chart public attitudes toward the natural environment, the widely used 12-item New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) scale, published by R. E. Dunlap and K. D. van Liere in 1978, is in need of revision if it is to measure the public's more recent and sophisticated understanding of complex environmental issues. A quantitative and qualitative 2-stage international survey was conducted via the Internet in which respondents not only completed the NEP scale but also commented critically and in depth on the scale items. The authors determined that the NEP scale is limited with respect both to the anachronistic wording of items and its inability to capture people's increasingly thorough understanding of the nature, severity, and scope of environmental problems over the last 2 to 3 decades. Several suggestions are offered for updating the NEP scale if it is to continue to be a useful research tool.     

Season of birth distribution of elite tennis players

In many competitive sports, the use of a cut-off date for junior competition has been associated with a skewed birth date distribution in junior and senior players. The International Tennis Federation uses a junior competition year that commences on 1 January. The purpose of the current investigation was to describe the birth date distribution of 448 elite senior tennis players and 476 elite junior tennis players. There was a significant season of birth bias among elite senior players (P <?0.001), with 58.9% being born in the first 6 months of the year. There was also a significant season of birth bias among elite junior players (P <?0.001), with 59.5% being born in the first 6 months of the year. This pattern was observed in both male and female players as well as in players from different regions. The results provide evidence that it is the cut-off date for the junior competition year that is responsible for the skewed birth date distribution in tennis rather than regional or climatic factors.     

The lag effect in secondary school classrooms: Enhancing students’ memory for vocabulary

Educators often face serious time constraints that impede multiple repetition lessons on the same material. Thus, it would be useful to know when to schedule a single repetition unit to maximize memory performance. Laboratory studies revealed that the length of the retention interval (i.e., the time between the last learning session and the final memory test) dictates the optimal lag between two learning sessions. The present study tests the generalizability of this finding to vocabulary learning in secondary school. Sixth-graders were retaught English–German vocabulary after lags of 0, 1, or 10 days and tested 7 or 35 days later. In line with our predictions, we found that the optimal lag depends on the retention interval: Given a 7-day retention interval, students performed best when relearning occurred after 1 day. When vocabulary was tested after 35 days, however, students benefited from lags of both 1 and 10 days. Model-based analyses show that enhanced encoding processes and stronger resistance to forgetting—but not better retrieval processes—underlie the benefits of optimal lag. Our findings have practical implications for classroom instruction and suggest that review units should be planned carefully by taking the time of the final test into consideration.     

Teacher Perceptions of Intra-Occupational Status Relationships among Elementary,Junior High,and Senior High School Teaching Positions

Correlation matrices having linear dependencies are a common occurrence in educational research. For such matrices there is no unique solution for the multiple regression coefficients; however, there is an infinity of solutions which satisfy the least squares criterion and yield the identical multiple-R and R-square. Traditional strategies for deriving the multiple regression coefficients do not ordinarily function in the presence of linear dependencies. The common practice is to use an iterative technique in which a series of approximations is carried out repeatedly until a solution is achieved. The authors have modified the Gauss-Jordan procedure to function in the presence of linear dependencies. The modified procedure is much simpler than the iterative procedure and has the added advantage of identifying each redundant variable with a zero regression coefficient.