Voices of reform from the classroom: teachers’ approaches to change

Abstract

This paper reports on case studies of three teachers managing an education reform focussed on assessment, during a busy period of curriculum change in an Australia state Participants attended multiple professional development opportunities including a number of state-wide, systemically-facilitated assessment workshops. The most significant finding to emerge, as narratives of change unfolded over a nine- month period, was the diversity of teachers’ approaches to change. All three were insightful about practices that required change and could identify personal and professional attributes that would assist their management of change. All teachers attended the same systemic workshops and all had access to the Education Department’s published literature about assessment. Yet they organised and implemented change in very different ways. Each teacher’s approach was based on personal assumptions about learners and learning, the reform they agreed to implement, and their preferred approaches to incorporating new assessment practices into their existing repertories. Approach taken was a major determinant of experience of change and thus is an aspect of change management important to inservice-providers, teachers and school leaders. The paper concludes with an overview of a PD package designed with the findings of this research project in mind.     

Bird Sunrise in Winter

伊丽莎白·詹宁斯（ Elizabeth Jennings, 1926-2001 ）, 英国当代著名女诗人。1926年出生于林肯郡,六岁时随父母迁母牛津,之后在牛津度守一生。上世纪中期与菲利普·拉金、金斯利·艾米斯、汽姆·冈等诗人一道成为战后英国著名诗歌流派“运动派”主要成员,为上世纪英国最受欢迎的诗人之一。     

Culture and country choice of international students: evidence from Ghana

ABSTRACT

This study seeks to examine the influence of the cultural elements on international students’ country choice. It also examines whether individual values moderate the influence of cultural elements on the country choice of international students. Drawing upon a sample size of 223, the data was analysed using structural equation modelling technique. Among the five cultural elements, education, language and social institutions were found to have a positive significant influence on the international student’s country choice. When moderated by individual values education was found to be the only key significant value to international students when selecting a country to further their education. The cultural elements should be given much attention by marketers, government and managers of academic institutions. An improvement in the standards of education in developing countries would attract more students from developed countries.     

Political Socialization of International Students: Public-Issue Discourse and Discussion on the College Campus

ABSTRACT

This study examined international students’ interests in public issues in the U.S. and motivational factors behind their discourse or avoidance of such issues. In-depth interviews with international students revealed that they discuss certain public issues in the U.S. to gain or exchange information and knowledge, because these issues are relevant to themselves and others, or due to the misconceptions that others have about their country. Moreover, international students tend to avoid certain public issues because of the level of their knowledge and lack of interest in such issues and in order to avoid dissonance caused by the public issues.     

Content Analysis of Google Alerts for Cultural Heritage Institutions

This article outlines evidence-based methods for cultural heritage institutions to look for news and mentions about their collections and services online. Google Alerts were created for repository names, websites, and finding aid websites for 66 institutions randomly selected from the Archive Grid database. Results were analyzed to determine Google Alerts' accuracy, what types of institutions would benefit most from using Google Alerts, what the content of the sources found by the alerts was, what types of publications returned the most results, and if Google Alerts could also identify image reuse. While Google Alerts' accuracy for returning usable results for analysis was not very high, the structure of alert e-mails makes discarding irrelevant results simple and quick. Mid- to large-sized museums and institutions staging frequent exhibits and events, as well as those with active collections, return the largest number of alerts. News publications and social media publish the most content related to cultural heritage institutions. Though the sample set was small, Google Alerts also was able to identify image reuse.     

The Effectiveness of an Augmented Reality Head-Mounted Display in Learning Skull Anatomy at a Community College

Despite an increase in the use of technology in undergraduate anatomy education, and the rising popularity of online anatomy courses at community colleges in the United States, there have been no reports on the efficacy of augmented reality on anatomy education in this population. The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that augmented reality is an effective and engaging tool for learning anatomy in community college students. Participants recruited from Cuyahoga Community College (Cleveland, OH) studied skull anatomy using either traditional tools (i.e., textbook and plastic skull model) or an augmented reality head-mounted display with an interactive virtual skull application. Comparison of knowledge before and following the study period revealed that augmented reality was an effective tool for learning skull anatomy: pre-quiz = 32.7% (± 25.2); mean (± SD), post-quiz = 61.8% (± 19.5); n = 15; t₍₂₈₎ = 3.53; P = 0.001. The traditional tools were equally effective: pre-quiz = 44.9 % (± 18.6), post-quiz = 67.9 % (± 17.3); n = 17; t₍₃₂₎ = 3.73; P = 0.0007. Students rated the augmented reality device as 9.6 (± 1.0); mean (± SD) when asked if it fit the statement “fun to use” on a semantic differential scale from 1 (poor) to 10 (excellent). In conclusion, this study found that augmented reality is an effective and engaging tool for the instruction of skull anatomy at a community college.