Secondary school students' conceptions of learning and their relationship to achievement

Conceptions of learning were investigated in three studies. Study 1 piloted a modified version of Purdie and Hattie's (2002) Conceptions of Learning Inventory (COLI-I) with 236 secondary students. Multilog analysis was used to remove items with poor measurement characteristics. Study 2 used a nationally representative sample of 701 New Zealand secondary school students who completed the COLI-II. The measurement model had marginally acceptable fit. Study 3 consisted of 608 secondary students who completed a slightly revised COLI-III and provided standardised academic reading and mathematics achievement data. The Study 2 and 3 samples were found to have configural invariance and the structural model mapping students' conceptions of learning onto their academic achievement had acceptable fit. The conception that learning is a duty predicted lower achievement and the conception of learning as continuous predicted higher achievement. This is the first study to empirically demonstrate a direct relationship between learning conceptions and academic outcomes in the secondary sector.     

Four tiers

This paper posits a classification of tertiary education institutions into four tiers: world research universities, selecting universities, recruiting universities, and vocational institutes. The distinguishing characteristic of world research universities is their research strength, the distinguishing characteristic of selecting universities is their strong student demand, the distinguishing characteristic of recruiting universities is their lower student demand, and the distinguishing characteristic of vocational institutes is their predominance of vocational programs. Yet there is one general characteristic that underlies the whole classification: positional value. The classification is put within a theoretical framework which generates tests of the classification proposed in the paper.     

Individual calibration of accelerometers in children and their health-related implications

This study compared children’s physical activity (PA) levels, the prevalence of children meeting current guidelines of ≥60 minutes of daily moderate to vigorous PA (MVPA), and PA-health associations using individually calibrated (IC) and empirical accelerometer cutpoints. Data from 75 (n = 32 boys) 10–12 year old children were included in this study. Clustered cardiometabolic (CM) risk, directly measured cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), anthropometric and 7 day accelerometer data were included within analysis. PA data were classified using Froude anchored IC, Evenson et al. (Evenson, K. R., Catellier, D. J., Gill, K., Ondrak, K. S., &; McMurray, R. G. (2008). Calibration of two objective measures of physical activity for children. Journal of Sports Sciences, 26(14), 1557–1565. doi:10.1080/02640410802334196) (Ev) and Mackintosh et al. (Mackintosh, K. A., Fairclough, S. J., Stratton, G., &; Ridgers, N. D. (2012). A calibration protocol for population-specific accelerometer cutpoints in children. PLoS One, 7(5), e36919. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0036919) (Mack) cutpoints. The proportion of the cohort meeting ≥60mins MVPA/day ranged from 37%-56% depending on the cutpoints used. Reported PA differed significantly across the cutpoint sets. IC LPA and MPA were predictors of CRF (LPA: standardised β = 0.32, p = 0.002, MPA: standardised β = 0.27 p = 0.013). IC MPA also predicted BMI Z-score (standardised β = ?0.35, p = 0.004). Ev VPA was a predictor of BMI Z-score (standardised β = ?0.33, p = 0.012). Cutpoint choice has a substantial impact on reported PA levels though no significant associations with CM risk were observed. Froude IC cutpoints represent a promising approach towards classifying children’s PA data.     

The Significance of Australian Vocational Education Institutions in Opening Access to Higher Education

Vocational education provides an educational but not a social ladder of opportunity to Australian higher education. The five dual-sector universities with significant enrolments in both vocational and higher education admit about twice the proportion of students transferring from vocational education as other universities. However, since the students in the upper levels of vocational education have a socio-economic composition similar to higher education students, vocational education does not provide a social ladder of opportunity by increasing access by students from a low socio-economic status background. Nevertheless, the article argues for the extension of dual-sector universities and other measures to articulate vocational and higher education and that more needs to be done to improve the representativeness of the upper levels of vocational education.     

Academic literacies: the word is not enough

For Academic Literacies, the world is textually mediated; written texts and what informs them reveal elements such as subject-discipline practices. Furthermore, multi-modalities, for example, visual representation, inform written text, and multiple methods of inquiry, including interviews, shed light on written text production. In this article we argue that the word is not enough, and non-textual elements must also be considered. From multiple-discipline focused research, we present data from interviews and focus groups with Design and Nursing lecturers that explored student success holistically, not solely through, or for, written text production. We highlight non-textual elements key to both student success, and written text production, such as ‘empathy’, the ‘visual’, the ‘non-verbal’, and also the inability of text to reveal certain key features. We argue that rather than solely prioritise text, Academic Literacies approaches can more effectively help students succeed by holistically considering non-textual elements.     

Social Presence and Identity: Facebook in an English Language Classroom

While social media is widely used by youth around the world, research is only beginning to document how transnational students employ these technologies. This study investigated how English-learning adolescents in the United States use social media to engage in social, academic, and identity work. Data were collected during a four-day social media unit in a high school English as a Second Language class of mostly recently arrived East African youth. Data sources included Facebook posts, video recordings of class interactions, student presentations, and interviews. These data were analyzed through post-structuralist identity frames (e.g., Norton, 2010) and the social semiotic construct of modality (van Leeuwen, 2005). Analyses indicated that through the process of building social presence (SP), learners asserted identities, which were affirmed by classmates, and legitimated their contributions. This legitimation resulted in rich, interactive learning experiences in the group. This finding has implications for using social media in classes with transnational newcomers.     

Analysis of speed accuracy using video analysis software

Determining an athlete’s speed from broadcast video is a common practice in sport. Many software packages that perform data extraction from video files are expensive; however, open source software is also available, but lacks published validation for speed measurements. The purpose of this research was to examine the error of speed measurements extracted from video during an ice hockey skating exercise using open source software. The subject completed four exercises, at two speeds recorded by broadcast cameras set at five angles. The speeds from the broadcast cameras were compared to speeds calculated from a high-speed camera placed orthogonally to the exercise. Speeds from the broadcast cameras correlated well with the high-speed video for motion more than 12 m away from the broadcast camera. When comparing all the measured speeds, no significant difference was found between the speeds calculated by the high-speed camera (slow: 4.46 m/s ± 0.2; fast: 7.2 m/s ± 0.7) and the speed calculated from the broadcast cameras (slow: 4.50 m/s ± 0.4; fast: 7.34 m/s ± 0.6) (p > 0.05). The open source method was found to be less accurate when the athlete was close to (within 12 m of camera position) or moving directly toward the broadcast cameras.     

Maintenance of observing responses with the less highly valued stimulus in pigeons

Previous research has shown that the more valued stimulus will maintain observing responses but the less valued stimulus will not. In the first part of this experiment, it was shown that the removal of the stimulus associated with the fixed-ratio component of a multiple schedule (mult FI 2 min, FR 35) abolished observing responses. In the next part, the ratio stimulus was phased out by making it available during some ratios but not during others. Observing responses were maintained following the phasing procedure even when all ratio stimuli were unavailable. In the third part, all stimuli, both ratio and interval, were unavailable. Observing responses declined under this condition and increased again when the stimulus associated with the interval was again made available. It is hypothesized that observing responses will be maintained as long as they permit the maintenance of a discrimination.     

Mapping the typology of transition systems in a liberal market economy: the case of Canada

This research explores links between tertiary education institutions and between tertiary education and the labour market as determinants of provincial and national transition patterns in Canada. The study consists of a provincial analysis that maps the typology of transition systems across Canada’s devolved federated tertiary education structure. The results show that, nationally: the links between education and work are relatively loose aside from regulated occupations; there is an emphasis on general education; and qualifications are used as a screen for entry to the labour market. However, while Canada can be broadly understood as a liberal market economy, there is provincial diversity within the nation; and there are varying logics for the development of skill, deployment of labour, and relations between institutions. The institutional and policy frameworks, structure of jobs, and formation of skill in Canada’s largest provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec reveal diverse characteristics of transition systems. However, despite internal differentiation in the value of vocational education, variations at the provincial level have not been enough to shift the federal pattern as a whole. Instead, in Canada vocational education is generally stigmatised and viewed as signalling low ability and motivation.     

The Future of the Academy: Who’s Looking for Whom?

Individuals seeking academic employment opportunities often do so by exploring hiring announcements that are advertised online through Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, American Society of Criminology, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. Because limited educational resources and budget constraints can impact hiring decisions that are made at institutions of higher learning over time, it is important for candidates to consider exactly what employers are looking for in prospective professionals and to see how they measure up to the demands brought on by academic job searches. Using quantitative content analyses of recent job postings on popular academic job search websites, this study explores recent trends in the hiring of criminology and criminal justice professionals, paying particular attention to exactly which positions are being sought after by colleges and universities and how the presence of online technology has changed hiring trends within our field.