The outcomes of university education: Some empirical findings on aims and expectations in The Federal Republic of Germany

Aims and expectations of three groups, the population in general, university graduates, and legislators and university representatives, are described and compared. Social status advantages (allocation function) and extra professional qualities (socialization function) are the main outcomes taken into account. The data stem from representative surveys, surveys of university graduates and highly qualified non-graduates, and an analysis of documents. The quality expectations which the public has of university graduates and the norm that graduates bear a particular social responsibility form an interrelated pattern, which can be regarded as a social role. As compared to public opinion, graduates' own conception of their qualities and responsibilities displays characteristic additions, which point toward a cultural elite of critical intellectuals. On the other hand, graduates fail to identify with some of the educational aims put forward by the university and its legislators. Graduates' personal experiences at university match their generalized conception of the outcomes of higher education, since they report socialization effects and attribute especially the acquisition of cognitive skills and rational and critical habits to university rather than to other educational contexts.     

The structure of interest in physics

Summaries

English

The article describes a study, consisting of a preliminary and a main investigation, of the structure of high school pupils’ interest in physics as it results from their exposure to physics education at school level. Using a factor‐analytic procedure applied to the results derived from a specially designed questionnaire, as used in the main study, four relatively independent ‘interest components’ were identified. These correspond to the following: interest in observation, interest in practical activities, interest in working with models (theories) and interest in mathematical aspects of physics.     

Einschätzungen der schulischen Motivation und des Arbeitsverhaltens durch Grundschullehrkräfte und deren Bedeutung für Verzerrungen in Leistungserwartungen

Several studies have shown that teachers’ achievement expectations for their students may be biased to some extent by students’ ethnic or social background as well as gender. The present study investigates whether these biases in teachers’ expectations of students’ performance in early language and mathematics are partly explained by differences in teachers’ perceptions of students’ motivation and learning behaviour. The analyses are based on data from a sample of N?=?901 first-grade students from N?=?66 classrooms with 69 teachers. The results support the hypothesis for biases associated with social background and gender. Ethnic bias, however, occurred independently of differences in perceived motivation and learning behaviour. We discuss the relevance of stereotypical assumptions for teaching as well as educational disparities.     

Schadenersatzanspruch Studierender gegen die Universit?t wegen unzureichenden Lehrveranstaltungsangebots? Anmerkungen und überlegungen zu OGH 1 Ob 142/07z

Mit dem Urteil zu 1 Ob 142/07z best?tigte der OGH die Entscheidungen der Vorinstanzen, wonach die Klage eines Studierenden gegen eine Universit?t auf Feststellung, dass die beklagte Partei der klagenden Partei für s?mtliche aus der Unterlassung des Anbots von Parallellehrveranstaltungen zukünftig entstehenden Sch?den hafte, wegen fehlender Passivlegitimation abgewiesen wurde. Das H?chstgericht stellte eindeutig klar, dass "Universit?ten in Vollziehung der Studienvorschriften im Rahmen der Hoheitsverwaltung t?tig werden", weshalb ein zivilrechtlicher Anspruch gegen die Universit?t aufgrund eines zu geringen Angebots von Lehrveranstaltungen nicht in Betracht kommt und bekr?ftigte, dass die Haftung der Universit?t oder ihrer Organe für hoheitliches Handeln in Vollziehung der Studienvorschriften auch nach dem UG 2002 ausgeschlossen ist.     

Evaluative Conditioning and the Development of Attitudes in Early Childhood

Many attitudes are acquired in early childhood. However, due to a lack of experimental research, little is known about the processes of how they are acquired. Two experiments were therefore conducted with 153 German kindergarten children aged 3–6 years that provide first evidence for childhood attitude formation in terms of evaluative conditioning. Specifically, it was found that children preferred novel stimuli previously paired with liked stimuli over novel stimuli previously paired with disliked stimuli. This effect occurred independently of age, generalized toward similar novel stimuli, and did not depend on children's recollection of how stimuli were paired. The findings are discussed in terms of the processes underlying childhood attitude formation, and implications for related research areas are highlighted.     

Work sampling: An application to the university

Work sampling, an industrial technique, enables a supervisor to estimate the percent of time a worker spends on a particular activity. In the office situation studied here, it was found that the same amount of work presently produced could be accomplished by a staff reduced by 23% from the present level. This determination was made in less than five hours by the observer, yet a savings of over $9,000 could be realized from these efforts in a single year. Periodic campus-wide use of this technique could result in even more substantial savings for an institution.The research reported on was the subject of a pilot study report in which John Fornof was most helpfully an original participant. The helpful critique of Dr. Robert C. Judd, Professor of Operations Analysis at the University of Toledo, is gratefully acknowledged.     

Different Paths,Different Voices: The Historical Contexts of Women’s and Minorities’ Access to Broadcasting

This essay extends Susan Carter’s (2004) models of women’s access to broadcasting to include racial and ethnic minorities. It investigates the different historical contexts of female and minority access to commercial broadcasting, and argues that women and minorities have rooted their media access in different models. The intersection of race and gender, combined with an evolving cultural, political, and regulatory environment, has had a powerful influence on which of the three access models were used by women and people of color.     

Make it relevant! How prior instructions foster the integration of teacher knowledge

Instructional Science - Preservice teachers face the challenge of integrating multiple types of knowledge, such as pedagogical–psychological knowledge and subject-specific pedagogical...