Considering student retention as a complex system: a possible way forward for enhancing student retention

This study uses multilayer minimum spanning tree analysis to develop a model for student retention from a complex system perspective, using data obtained from first-year engineering students at a large well-regarded institution in the European Union. The results show that the elements of the system of student retention are related to one another through a network of links and that some of these links were found to be strongly persistent across different scales (group sizes). The links were also seen to group together in different clusters of strongly related elements. Links between elements across a wide range of these clusters would have system-wide influence. It was found that there were no elements that are both persistent and have system-wide effects. This complex system view of student retention explains why actions to enhance student retention aimed at single elements in the system have had such limited impact. This study therefore points to the need for a more system-wide approach to enhancing student retention.     

An Online Questionnaire for Evaluating Students' and Teachers' Perceptions of Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environments

The purpose of this article is to describe the development, validation and use of the Constructivist Multimedia Learning Environment Survey (CMLES). This questionnaire assesses teachers' and students' perceptions of the learning environment when students use online multimedia programs while teachers use constructivism as a referent for their teaching. The design of the questionnaire was based on a constructivist approach to learning and focused on the process of learning with the multimedia program and on the nature of that program. Before the use of the CMLES becomes widespread, it was important to determine whether it is valid and reliable. Therefore, a study involving 221 students in 12 high school classrooms into statistical validation and interpretive validation of the questionnaire was undertaken. For this sample of Grade 10 and 11 students who completed the actual and preferred forms of the questionnaire, the CMLES scales demonstrated a high degree of internal consistency reliability (with alpha reliability coefficients ranging from .73 to .82), as well as satisfactory factorial validity and discriminant validity. Therefore, the study supports the reliability and validity of the CMLES for assessing students' and teachers' perceptions of one important aspect in evaluating learning environments which promote the use of multimedia programs and constructivist learning approaches.     

Associations between school-level environment and science classroom environment in secondary schools

This article describes a study of links between school environment and science classroom environment. Instruments to assess seven dimensions of school environment (viz., Empowerment, Student Support, Affiliation, Professional Interest, Mission Consensus, Resource Adequacy and Work Pressure) and seven dimensions of classroom environment (viz., Student Affiliation, Interactions, Cooperation, Task Orientation, Order & Organisation, Individualisati n and Teacher Control) in secondary school science classrooms were developed and validated. The study involved a sample of 1,318 students in 64 year 9 and year 12 science classes and 128 teachers of science in Australian secondary schools. Using the class mean as the unit of analysis for student data, associations between school and classroom environment were investigated using simple, multiple and canonical correlational analyses. In general, results indicated weak relationships between school and classroom environments and they reinforced the view that characteristics of the school environment are not transmitted automatically into science classrooms.     

Reflecting on institutional support for SoTL engagement: developing a conceptual framework

This paper considers the support required to develop Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) capability across institutions. Rather than developing a checklist or a standardised audit approach, this paper describes the reflective journey taken by a group of academic developers who used strategies and structures previously identified in the literature to develop a conceptual framework for academic professional development. The framework was refined through an iterative process, including reflection on its use within diverse institutional contexts, combined with evaluative feedback from recognised experts in the field. The resulting framework is designed to facilitate and guide conversations to support institutional decision-making related to SoTL capacity building.     

Images in mirrors: Recollections,alternative explanations and modes of cognitive functioning

Students' conceptions of how objects are seen directly, and in mirrors, were explored in an analysis of their written and drawn responses to common visual phenomena depicted in cartoons with brief text. Students in Grades K-10 (n=214) completed a questionnaire and some were interviewed. Evidence was sought to support an hypothesis for increasingly sophisticated responses related to the concepts of sight, light, reflection and image. The developmental model used in this analysis was the updated SOLO Taxonomy (Biggs & Collis, 1991; Collis & Biggs 1991). It appears from the results that different modes of functioning can interfere to produce factually incorrect recollections of experience particularly in the age group 7 to 13 years approximately. Also, this is associated with the common spurious conception that mirrors have a lateral inversion property. Explanations involving light were extremely rare and its role related to the production of an image ‘in the mirror’ but not to the perception of an image in the eyes. 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.     

Predictive validity of my class inventory

A recent guest-edited issue of this journal (Volume 6, Number 3, 1980) summarizes the considerable interest evident since the late 1960s in the conceptualization, assessment, and study of student perceptions of psychological characteristics of their classroom learning environment. This issue and several other recent key overviews (Moos, 1979; Walberg, 1979; Fraser, 1981; Fraser and Walberg, 1981) have firmly established classroom environment as a thriving field of study.When used as criterion variables in prior curriculum evaluation research, student perceptions of classroom environment characteristics have differentiated revealingly, usefully, and appreaciably between classrooms following alternative curriculum materials or instructional strategies (Anderson, Walberg, and Welch, 1969; Levin, 1980). In addition, other studies have established the criterion validity of classroom environment perceptions in differentiating between classrooms varying in class size (Walberg, 1969), grade level (Welch, 1979), and subject matter (Anderson, 1971a; Hearn and Moos, 1978), and between classrooms in five different types of schools (urban, rural, suburban, vocational, alternative) (Trickett, 1978). The strongest tradition in past research on classroom learning environment, however, has involved investigation of the predictive validity of student perceptions (i.e., the ability to predict student cognitive, affective, and behavioral learning outcomes).     

A comparison of actual and preferred classroom environments as perceived by science teachers and students

This study of perceptions of classroom environment is distinctive in that, first, it made use of two instruments (the Individualized Classroom Environment Questionnaire and Classroom Environment Scale) which have had very little use in prior science education research and, second, it involved assessment not only of student perceptions of actual environment, but also of student perceptions of preferred environments and teacher perceptions of actual environment. Administration of these instruments to a sample of 2175 junior high school students in 116 classes revealed that the environment scales exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity in each of the three forms (student actual, student preferred, and teacher actual), and that there were some fascinating systematic differences between the profiles of environment scale scores obtained for the different forms. In particular, it was generally found that students preferred a more favorable classroom environment then was perceived as being actually present and that teachers perceived the environment of their classes more favorably than did students in the same classrooms.     

Notes on the progress and plans for educational research in the Socialist Republic of Vietnam

Educational research in Vietnam is directed primarily by the National Institute of Educational Science (NIES), which consists of some thirteen specialised research departments. The Institute investigates various long-term aspects of educational policy reform, curriculum innovation and methodological approaches to education as well as more specialised fields such as national-ethnic minorities and population education.The major tasks of educational research in Vietnam have to be predicated on the demands of a developing society wishing to modernise its educational structure qualitatively while coping quantitatively with enormous population growth and a situation where school-age children currently comprise some 30% of the total population. Hence, harsh demographic realities and limited economic resources have to be offset, where possible, by efficient utilisation of the intellectual capital of the people and by the establishment of realistic educational priorities on the part of the government. These are amongst the major considerations of the NIES and are exemplified by the kind of research publications already emanating from the Institute as well as by the recently announced five-year plan for research development during the period 1981–1985.

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Zusammenfassung In Vietnam wird pädagogische Forschung in erster Linie von dem National Institute of Educational Science (NIES) gesteuert, das aus dreizehn spezialisierten Forschungsabteilungen besteht. Das Institut erforscht verschiedene langfristige Aspekte der erziehungspolitischen Reform, Curriculum-Innovation und methodologische Erziehungsansätze sowie speziellere Gebiete wie das der national-ethnic minorities und das der population education.Die Hauptaufgaben der pädagogischen Forschung in Vietnam müssen auf den Forderungen einer sich entwickelnden Gesellschaft basieren, die einerseits ihr Erziehungssystem qualitativ modernisieren möchte, andererseits jedoch quantitativ bei einem enormen Bevölkerungswachstum mit einer Situation fertig werden muß, in der derzeit 30% der Gesamtbevölkerung Kinder im schulpflichtigen Alter sind. Deshalb müssen harte demographische Realitäten und begrenzte ökonomische Ressourcen so ausgeglichen werden, daß, wo immer möglich, das intellektuelle Kapital der Bevölkerung wirksam genutzt wird und realistische pädagogische Prioritäten von der Regierung gesetzt werden. Diese Gesichtspunkte gehören zu den Hauptüberlegungen des NIES. Sie werden durch die Art der von diesem Institut bereits herausgegebenen Forschungsberichte sowie durch den kürzlich angekündigten Fünf-Jahres-Plan zur Forschungsentwicklung für die Zeit von 1981 bis 1985 belegt.

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Résumé Au Viet-Nam, la recherche en matière d'éducation est assurée essentiellement par l'Institut National des Sciences de l'Education (INSE) qui regroupe quelque treize départements de recherche spécialisés. L'Institut étudie les différents aspects à long terme de la réforme de la politique de l'éducation, de l'innovation du curriculum et des approches méthodologiques de l'éducation ainsi que des domaines plus spécialisés tels les minorités ethniques nationales et l'éducation en matière de population.Les principales tâches de la recherche en matière d'éducation au Viet-Nam doivent être formulées d'après les besoins d'une société en développement qui souhaite moderniser qualitativement sa structure éducative et faire face quantitativement à une énorme augmentation de la population, à une situation où les enfants en âge scolaire représentent actuellement quelque 30% de la population totale. C'est pourquoi il faut compenser, là où c'est possible, la sévérité des réalités démographiques et les ressources économiques limitées par une utilisation efficace du capital intellectuel du peuple et par des priorités réalistes établies en matière d'éducation par le gouvernement. Ce sont les principales considérations de l'INSE comme le montrent le type de publications de la recherche émanant déjà de l'Institut ainsi que le plan quinquennal présenté récemment pour le développement de la recherche pour la période allant de 1981 à 1985.