Exploring sex differences in science enrolment intentions: An application of the General Model of Academic Choice

In many countries there remain substantial sex differences in enrolments in elective science courses, despite concerted efforts in recent years to alleviate them. This paper explores the reasons for these differences by comparing models of male and female enrolment intentions in elective courses in biology, chemistry and physics. The models are based on responses from approximately 450 students from 5 Australian high schools. First, a theoretical model, the Science Enrolment Model, was derived from Eccles and colleagues’ General Model of Academic Choice. Students’ responses were then used to develop empirical models of enrolment intentions in the three elective courses. Analyses for the models were conducted using the LISREL “mean structures” extension. Sex differences in the dependent variables in the models were then attributed to the relevant sets of independent variables. Substantial sex differences were identified in measures of perceived career value, interest and performance expectations in all three models which explained between 70% and 82% of the sex differences in enrolment intentions.     

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF COLOUR IN LEARNING FROM EDUCATIONAL TELEVISION

The author reviews recent research comparing both the relative learning gains and relative attitudes of students using colour or monochrome television material. It is concluded that all users of educational television should resist the temptation to spend large sums on colour television equipment merely because colour is now widely preferred by society at large.     

An Innovative Higher Education Course to Meet Industry's Needs

This paper describes the development and implementation of a multilevel undergraduate degree course in technology management designed to meet identified needs of manufacturing industry. The program has a number of innovative features, including flexible entry and exit points and three levels of award, and is delivered in the workplace with the aid of a computer managed learning system and self paced learning materials supported by electronic mail and workplace tutorials. A feature crucial to its success is extensive collaboration with industry, a partnership with a technical and further education college, and cooperation between applied science and business faculties. An evaluative account of the implementation of the program in two motor vehicle manufacturing plants during 1990, and a discussion of the implications of the findings of the evaluation are also included.     

Postgraduate Education and the Student's Contribution to Research

The Swinnerton‐Dyer Report of the Working Party on Postgraduate Education bases its recommendations on meeting the manpower needs of society. It largely omits from consideration the contribution to research and knowledge that postgraduates may make while working towards research degrees.

This article uses interview and observational data from a study of postgraduate research students in physics to attempt to predict the possible effects on university research of any reductions in the number of postgraduate students. It is argued that manpower needs is only one of a number of criteria which need to be used in any consideration of future postgraduate numbers.     

Studying mathematics learning in collective activity

This paper describes a study of the interplay between social and developmental processes in children's mathematics learning. The focus is on children's play of an educational game, Treasure Hunt, and the way children's interactions in play frame developmental processes involving arithmetic with base-10 blocks. Sixty-four third and fourth graders were grouped in same- and mixed-grade dyads. Analyses of interactions revealed that players were frequently involved with jointly structuring arithmetical problems involving base-10 blocks. However, the arithmetical goals that members of dyads created often differed as labor became divided in their activity. Two findings were of particular interest: (1) differences in divisions of labor as a function of players' grades and grades of their opponents led to construction of different arithmetical goals, and (2) differences in goals led to different sequences in children's strategic developments, sequences that differed from the developmental trajectory in our matched controls.     

Perceptual learning in human and nonhuman animals: A search for common ground

Perceptual learning has been extensively studied in both human and nonhuman animals, but the two lines of research have, for the most part, developed independently, addressing seemingly rather different issues by rather different methods. It has been argued, however, that analysis of the disparate phenomena studied in experiments on perceptual learning reveals that in all the studies, the essential feature is that appropriate training allows behavior to come to be controlled by the unique features, rather than by the common features, of similar stimuli. It has further been argued that experiments with nonhuman animals have established the existence of a range of learning processes that allow this to occur, and that these processes have general relevance, applying to humans as well as to animals.     

Women’s Studies Collections: A Checklist Evaluation

A checklist evaluation on thirty-seven Women's Studies programs conducted using the individual institutions' online public access catalogs (OPACs) is presented. Although Women's Studies collections are very difficult to build, an evaluation of existing programs shows that collections, for the most part, have managed substantial coverage of the subject area.     

Student Veterans’ Outcomes by Higher Education Sector: Evidence from Three Cohorts of the Baccalaureate and Beyond

We use nationally representative survey data from three cohorts of bachelor’s degree recipients to examine military veterans’ student loan debt at graduation and their employment and earnings 1, 4, and 10 years after graduation, relative to observably similar graduates. We also examine whether the effects of veteran status depend on college sector. Using propensity score weights with covariate adjustment, we find employment and earnings premiums for veterans 1 and 4 years after graduation, and an employment penalty but earnings premium (conditional on employment) 10 years after graduation. We find no clear evidence of a for-profit employment or earnings penalty among bachelor’s degree recipients, including veterans. We do find that veterans are as likely as similar non-veterans to graduate with debt, and that graduating from a for-profit institution yields markedly higher debt amounts, especially for veterans, despite the availability of Montgomery GI Bill benefits for these cohorts.