A model for the effective engagement of all stakeholders in engineering education and its pilot implementation

Methodologies for engineering learning and teaching (MELT) approach aims to enhance the attractiveness of education through science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) among young people, while promoting awareness of future careers in these areas. To this end, students’ expectations are considered within university programmes, aiming to an increased engagement in STEM careers. To accomplish these goals, a new and integrated approach (MELT) is presented, involving the main stakeholders in both scientific education and society. An education framework is presented, providing guidelines for an improved collaborative approach to STEM education in the future. Results from the pilot implementation of MELT are presented, from a small-scale education parliament prototype. From these initial stage and results, it is seen that there is a need for a proper alignment of expectations from all involved stakeholders, concerning the engineering education towards society’s demands.     

POSTCOLLEGE EARNINGS OF FORMER STUDENTS OF CALIFORNIA COMMUNITY COLLEGES: Methods, Analysis, and Implications

In the wake of new federal and state mandates,community colleges are faced with demands to provideaccountability reports on student outcomes. With the useof the Employment Development Department Unemployment Insurance (EDD-UI) wage record data, along withthe California Community Colleges Chancellor's OfficeManagement Information System administrative database,this study sought to investigate the extent to which completing an associate degree andvocational certificate impacts the postcollege earningsof students. Based on information from 700,564 studentsfrom California community colleges during the 1992-93 academic year, the findings suggest thatstudents' gains from first year out of college to thirdyear out will differ by age group. Among economicallydisadvantaged students, a strong positive relationship exists between educational attainment andpostcollege gains. An important finding among vocationalstudents is that as women complete more education, theearnings gap closes between men and women. Finally, this study raises several policy implicationsand presents suggestions for future research.     

Team cohesion and ethnic–cultural identity in adolescent migrant athletes

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of sport participation in the social integration of adolescents with non-dominant ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In particular, this study investigated the relationship between team cohesion and ethnic–cultural identity. Participants were 83 young migrant athletes (mean age 15.60 years). Participants completed the Ethnic/Cultural Identity Salience Questionnaire and the Youth Sport Environment Questionnaire. Regression analyses showed that cohesion negatively predicted feelings of fringe and lack of interaction. Our findings suggest that sport participation, particularly in cohesive teams, can facilitate the development of adaptive identity toward the goal of social integration in migrant adolescents.     

A Multilevel Mixture IRT Framework for Modeling Response Times as Predictors or Indicators of Response Engagement in IRT Models

Disengaged item responses pose a threat to the validity of the results provided by large-scale assessments. Several procedures for identifying disengaged responses on the basis of observed response times have been suggested, and item response theory (IRT) models for response engagement have been proposed. We outline that response time-based procedures for classifying response engagement and IRT models for response engagement are based on common ideas, and we propose the distinction between independent and dependent latent class IRT models. In all IRT models considered, response engagement is represented by an item-level latent class variable, but the models assume that response times either reflect or predict engagement. We summarize existing IRT models that belong to each group and extend them to increase their flexibility. Furthermore, we propose a flexible multilevel mixture IRT framework in which all IRT models can be estimated by means of marginal maximum likelihood. The framework is based on the widespread Mplus software, thereby making the procedure accessible to a broad audience. The procedures are illustrated on the basis of publicly available large-scale data. Our results show that the different IRT models for response engagement provided slightly different adjustments of item parameters of individuals’ proficiency estimates relative to a conventional IRT model.     

'REDEFINITION OF IMAGE': THE IMPACT OF MASS-MEDIATED TERRORISM

The emergence of media-oriented terrorism led several scholarsof modern terrorism to reconceptualize the phenomenon of terrorwithin the framework of symbolic communication theory. However,the success of media-minded terrorists has been studied mainlyby measures of amount of coverage given to terrorist acts andnot by examining the impact of this coverage on public opinion.The present study sets out to examine the effects of media coverageof two terrorist events on the public's attitudes and perceptions.By means of an experimental design, the impact of press andtelevision reports of two terrorist incidents was studied. Thefindings highlight the ‘redefinition of image’ causedby exposure to media reports and relate media functions suchas status-conferral and agenda setting to the specific caseof mass-mediated terrorism.     

Learning from human cadaveric prosections: Examining anxiety in speech therapy students

Human anatomy education often utilizes the essential practices of cadaver dissection and examination of prosected specimens. However, these exposures to human cadavers and confronting death can be stressful and anxiety‐inducing for students. This study aims to understand the attitudes, reactions, fears, and states of anxiety that speech therapy students experience in the dissection room. To that end, a before‐and‐after cross‐sectional analysis was conducted with speech therapy students undertaking a dissection course for the first time. An anonymous questionnaire was administered before and after the exercise to understand students' feelings and emotions. State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory questionnaires (STAI‐S and STAI‐T) were used to evaluate anxiety levels. The results of the study revealed that baseline anxiety levels measured using the STAI‐T remained stable and unchanged during the dissection room experience (P > 0.05). Levels of emotional anxiety measured using the STAI‐S decreased, from 15.3 to 11.1 points (P < 0.05). In the initial phase of the study, before any contact with the dissection room environment, 17% of students experienced anxiety, and this rate remained unchanged by end of the session (P > 0.05). A total of 63.4% of students described having thoughts about life and death. After the session, 100% of students recommended the dissection exercise, giving it a mean score of 9.1/10 points. Anatomy is an important subject for students in the health sciences, and dissection and prosection exercises frequently involve a series of uncomfortable and stressful experiences. Experiences in the dissection room may challenge some students' emotional equilibria. However, students consider the exercise to be very useful in their education and recommend it. Anat Sci Educ 10: 487–494. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Disciplinary Text-Dependent Questions: Questioning for Learning in the Disciplines. The Challenge of Literacy in the Disciplines

The challenge of reading across disciplines is often not a matter of word recognition or general comprehension instruction; it is a matter of understanding how ideas are represented in the language and conventions of that discipline. In this article we describe a strategy for foregrounding the disciplines in the design and implementation of text-dependent questions in content area courses in order to accomplish a dual focus on content and discourse when using discipline-specific texts.     

Facilitating conditions for farmer learning behaviour in the student-to-farmer university outreach

Purpose: This study elucidates on how faculty supervision support to students during farm placements and other facilitating conditions influence farmer learning in the student-centred university outreach.

Methodology/Design/Approach: Cross-sectional data were collected from a sample of 283 farmers who had previously hosted students of Gulu University in the student-to-farmer university outreach. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse how faculty supervision support to students in combination with other facilitating conditions affect the formation of intentions for learning and actual farmer learning behaviour.

Findings: Faculty supervision support in the student-to-farmer outreach was found to significantly influence formation of intentions for learning (β?=?0.380; t?=?5.263; P?β?=?0.182; t?=?2.081; P?Practical implications: Faculty supervision support to students is critical to fostering lasting learning relationships in university outreach. Thus, it needs to be a part of the transformation agenda of the higher education sector for improved community linkages and innovation.

Theoretical implications: Empirical data obtained from the context of student-centred university outreach is used to extend the model of facilitating conditions.

Originality/Value: The study addresses how faculty supervision support together with farmers’ perception of student attitudes and the value of the learning content influence farmers’ learning behaviour during university outreach.     

La Necessite D'un Organe de Coordination de L'education Non-Formelle au Burundi

Sans résumé