Managing Relationships: Insights from a Student Gratitude Model

Research in Higher Education - This paper develops a student relationship model which highlights the role of gratitude in impacting students’ positive perceptions, attitudes, and behavioral...     

On the optimality of hysteresis operators in signal processing and communication systems

This paper demonstrates that hysteresis operators are the optimal estimators for a large class of estimation and decision problems. This class of problems arises whenever a cost is associated with actions needed to process changes in the estimates or decisions. A simple example related to least-squares estimation is used to illustrate and motivate the developments in this paper. Subsequently, the problem of mean-square estimation with minimal cost of actions is investigated. These results provide a justification for the use of hysteresis in many practical signal processing and communication applications.     

Examining the effectiveness of real-time query expansion

Interactive query expansion (IQE) (c.f. [Efthimiadis, E. N. (1996). Query expansion. Annual Review of Information Systems and Technology, 31, 121–187]) is a potentially useful technique to help searchers formulate improved query statements, and ultimately retrieve better search results. However, IQE is seldom used in operational settings. Two possible explanations for this are that IQE is generally not integrated into searchers’ established information-seeking behaviors (e.g., examining lists of documents), and it may not be offered at a time in the search when it is needed most (i.e., during the initial query formulation). These challenges can be addressed by coupling IQE more closely with familiar search activities, rather than as a separate functionality that searchers must learn. In this article we introduce and evaluate a variant of IQE known as Real-Time Query Expansion (RTQE). As a searcher enters their query in a text box at the interface, RTQE provides a list of suggested additional query terms, in effect offering query expansion options while the query is formulated. To investigate how the technique is used – and when it may be useful – we conducted a user study comparing three search interfaces: a baseline interface with no query expansion support; an interface that provides expansion options during query entry, and a third interface that provides options after queries have been submitted to a search system. The results show that offering RTQE leads to better quality initial queries, more engagement in the search, and an increase in the uptake of query expansion. However, the results also imply that care must be taken when implementing RTQE interactively. Our findings have broad implications for how IQE should be offered, and form part of our research on the development of techniques to support the increased use of query expansion.     

Ethics in field work research: A case study

Most field work studies report findings but fail to deal with ethical problems encountered during their execution. This paper concentrates on four ethical problems which arose during the conduct of a field work investigation of the life experiences of three student teachers. The four problems were: acquiring permission to begin the study; how far to dig into personal lives to extract necessary information; the pitfalls of doing collaborative research; the more a participant tells, the worse he/she looks. A major implication is that ethical problems given the current bureaucratic and interpersonal climate in urban institutions (universities and city school districts) may be unresolvable, rather than simply a minor hindrance to the researchers and participants.     

Developing Information Fluency in Introductory Biology Students in the Context of an Investigative Laboratory

Students of biology must learn the scientific method for generating information in the field. Concurrently, they should learn how information is reported and accessed. We developed a progressive set of exercises for the undergraduate introductory biology laboratory that combine these objectives. Pre- and postassessments of approximately 100 students suggest that increases occurred, some statistically significant, in the number of students using various library-related resources, in the numbers and confidence level of students using various technologies, and in the numbers and confidence levels of students involved in various activities related to the scientific method. Following this course, students should be better prepared for more advanced and independent study.     

Effect of instructor and class characteristics on students' class evaluations

Student evaluations of their classes and instructors are widespread in higher education and have both practical and theoretical importance. This study examined the relationship between class average evaluations and characteristics of the instructor and of the class in an off-campus setting with nontraditional students. A stepwise multiple regression analysis found that four variables—the time format of the class, the number of classes taught in the program by the instructor during the year, whether a term paper was required, and the size of the class—explained 13.5% of the variance in class average evaluations. The addition of average class grade increased the explained variance by 6%. Evaluations were higher in classes taught with more intensive time formats, in classes taught by instructors teaching more frequently in the program, in classes where term papers were required, and in classes with fewer students. Evaluations were also higher in classes where the average class grade was higher. Other course and instructor characteristics had little or no effect on overall class evaluations. The results support the view that nontraditional students react similar to traditional students in their evaluations of their classes. The results also suggest the importance of time format as a factor affecting class evaluations.An earlier version of this paper was presented at Western Psychological and Rocky Mountain Psychological Association Meeting, April 1989.     

Policies on and practices of cultural inclusivity in learning management systems: perspectives of Indigenous holistic pedagogies

Online learning has become a conventional term and practice in Australian higher education, yet cultural inclusivity for Indigenous (Indigenous for the purposes of this paper refers to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples) students is insufficiently reflected in learning management system (LMS) policies and design. This study aims to explore culturally inclusive learning entrenched in Australian university policies on and practices of LMS by applying Indigenous holistic pedagogical values in LMS design. Based on a literature review, we articulate four dimensions: communication, collaboration, community and interculturality for culturally inclusive learning in an online learning environment. By using the dimensions, we critically review policies (n?=?10) and LMS sites (n?=?50). In this review, we argue that there are contrasts of individually heterogeneous and collectively homogeneous approaches, self-focused and community-driven pedagogy, and task-oriented and relational learning. Significantly, the review results indicate that Indigenous holistic pedagogies have a metaphysical strength to be the ontological foundation for cultural inclusivity.     

Demographic Transformation in a Policy Vacuum: The Changing Face of U.S. Metropolitan Society and Challenges for Public Schools

Abstract

Educators and policy makers must confront the race and class disparities in learning opportunities across American society. Nowhere are these disparities more acute than in the country's great metropolitan areas. As the demographic landscape continues to shift, metropolitan areas are fueling the transition to a majority-minority country. This essay provides an overview of the challenges for the country's public schools and offers an alternative path to creating a more just and vital society.     

Effects of verbal shadowing on the recognition of visually presented verbal and nonverbal information

Are there distinct verbal and non-verbal processing systems in the mind? This study seems to support a dual-processing hypothesis. Although the first experiment determined that verbal interference (shadowing) was detrimental to the subjects’ memory of words and high-similarity pictures, the second, designed to minimize the possibility that students would sort through pictures (as they apparently had in the first experiment) indicated that verbal interference did not decrease memory of high-similarity pictures. Subjects were graduate students and faculty members.     

Academic engagement in students with a hearing loss in distance education

This investigation compared 267 students with a hearing loss and 178 students with no declared form of disability who were taking courses by distance learning in terms of their scores on an abbreviated version of the Academic Engagement Form. Students with a hearing loss obtained lower scores than students with no disability with regard to communication with other students, but some felt that communication was easier than in a traditional academic situation. Students who were postvocationally deaf had lower scores than students with no disability on learning from other students, but they obtained higher scores on student autonomy and student control. In general, the impact of a hearing loss on engagement in distance education is relatively slight.