Student drop‐out from a distance education project course: A new method of analysis

A study of student attributes and achievements in previous Open University courses was undertaken to find out what affect they had on the drop‐out rate and achievements on a project work course. A special case of multidimensional analysis called partial order scalogram analysis has been employed in this research.

The main aim of the study was to help the staff when advising prospective students (of various drop‐out risks) and to distinguish between students requiring different levels of assistance on the course.

The findings, based on a sample of 445 students from 1982–;88, indicate that particular attributes such as occupation affect the drop‐out rate, while achievement in the project course appears to be influenced by the students’ performance in some previous courses.     

Exploring the Links Between Visual Arts and Environmental Education: Experiences of Teachers Participating in an In‐Service Training Programme

An in‐service teachers' training programme was designed aiming to encourage art teachers to learn through theoretical and artistic experiential activities in a specific environmental setting (Lemithou environmental education centre, Cyprus). The programme was based on the use of the environment as an educational resource, and sought to develop participants' environmental perception through artistic activities. Teachers (N=12) from public nursery, elementary and secondary schools, with particular interests and backgrounds in visual arts were invited to participate. The present study is particularly concerned with participants' artistic work inspired by the environment in three different settings of the area: (1) natural (e.g. forest) (2) the rural‐building (e.g. the village) and (3) culture and tradition (e.g. myths and people). Qualitative methods based on observation; diary reports and photographic material were applied on a case study basis. Results revealed teachers': (1) abilities in integrating environmental aspects in their artistic work, (2) positive attitude and interest for environmental art, (3) abilities in enhancing their personal power of artistic expression based on their experiences and the world around them. The findings highlight the significance of artistic experiential activities (hands‐on activities) and critical enquiry in developing teachers' environmental perception.     

Evaluating two approaches to helping college students understand evolutionary trees through diagramming tasks

To understand evolutionary theory, students must be able to understand and use evolutionary trees and their underlying concepts. Active, hands-on curricula relevant to macroevolution can be challenging to implement across large college-level classes where textbook learning is the norm. We evaluated two approaches to helping students learn macroevolutionary topics. Treatment 1 is a laboratory for the software program EvoBeaker designed to teach students about evolutionary trees. We tested Treatment 1 among nine college-level biology classes and administered pre/posttests to assess learning gains. We then sought to determine whether the learning gains from Treatment 1 were comparable to those derived from an alternate hands-on treatment, specifically the combination of a prerecorded lecture on DVD and paper-based activity based on Goldsmith's Great Clade Race (Treatment 2). Comparisons of pre- and posttests among participants using either Treatment 1 or 2 show large learning gains on some misconceptions and skills beyond knowledge gained from reading standard textbook entries. Both treatments performed equivalently in overall learning gains, though both had areas where they performed better or worse. Furthermore, gains among students who used Treatment 1 representing a wide range of universities suggest that outcomes are potentially applicable to a variety of "real-world" biology classes.     

From Hard to Soft Governance in Multi‐level Education Systems

Decision‐making in educations systems has become more complex: while decentralisation has moved the locus of power to lower governance levels, the central level still is held responsible for the quality of outcomes. As a consequence, new steering strategies have emerged that tend to apply softer modes of governance as opposed to harder ones in the past. This article aims at shedding empirical and conceptual light on these new developments. It compares two national examples for soft modes of governance with a supra‐national one (the EU's Open Method of Co‐ordination OMC) and argues that OMC might be both a useful analytical lens to categorise new steering mechanisms and a possibly promising policy strategy at the national level.     

The Impact of an Engineering Design Curriculum on Science Reasoning in an Urban Setting

This study examines the use of engineering design to facilitate science reasoning in high-needs, urban classrooms. The Design for Science unit utilizes scaffolds consistent with reform science instruction to assist students in constructing a design solution to satisfy a need from their everyday lives. This provides a meaningful context in which students could reason scientifically. Eighth grade students from two urban schools participated in the unit. Both schools contained large percentages of racial/ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged students. Students demonstrated statistically significant improvement on a paper-and-pencil, multiple-choice pre and post assessment. The results compare favorably with both a high-quality inquiry science unit and a traditional textbook curriculum. Implications for the use of design-based curricula as a viable alternative for teaching science reasoning in high-needs, urban settings are discussed.