Chronische Myeloproliferative Erkrankungen (CMPE)

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Higher education marketisation and its discontents: the case of quality in Kenya

This study addresses the implications of higher education marketisation for quality in Kenya. It focuses on full fee-paying programmes, the de facto market source of revenue for Kenya’s public universities. The study argues that Kenya’s public universities were precipitately subjected to diminished public capitation, and so was their plunging into marketisation. These institutions started enrolling full fee-paying students at a time when they were strained in terms of institutional capacity. There were not enough physical facilities, and most of those available were suffering decay following many years of neglect. They did not have enough teaching staff, a problem, which the marketisation agenda has made worse. The desire to claim a bigger share in the student market has seen the introduction of many new courses in advance of capacity to offer them. The study concludes that by seeking economic self-determination through full fee-paying programmes, in advance of a well-developed institutional capacity, the subsequent pressure seems to have made the quality situation worse.     

Methodological and Epistemological Issues in the Interpretation of Infant Cognitive Development

This commentary on J. Kagan (2008) addresses 2 issues. The first concerns the importance of studying developmental sequences and processes of change. The second concerns epistemological differences between contemporary neonativist approaches and classical theories of development. The commentary argues that classical theories of infant cognition and contemporary neonativist theories fundamentally differ in terms of how they conceptualize the workings of the mind. These differences affect the meaning of terms such as representation and reasoning. Also discussed are implications of epistemological differences for developmental explanations. The commentary concludes that epistemological differences must be articulated more fully in order to improve understanding of different theories and in order to evaluate the relative merits and shortcomings of those theories.     

The flow of instructors through the segmented labor markets of academe

This paper focuses on two categories of teaching personnel, those inside and outside of the tenure stream, who together provide instruction in North American post-secondary institutions. Segmented labor market thinking is used to examine the extent to which entry to the tenure stream is achieved by those who begin on appointments outside of these internal labor markets. Tabulations provided by Statistics Canada on the fate of seven entering cohorts of full-time instructors at Canadian universites (excluding Quebec) seven years after their initial appointment are analyzed. We find that a consistent and meaningful proportion of each cohort achieves entrance to the tenure stream from an initial external labor market appointment and that such an employment history accounts for almost half of all entrants who actually remain. Thus, despite the hardships of many who have no opportunity to be considered for continuing employment, external labor market appointees are, nonetheless, an important pool for recruitment of permanent faculty. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge that identifies their major role in the provision of post-secondary instruction. Disadvantages accruing to women and young academics and their relationships to external labor markets are discussed, as are the implications of these patterns for the changing career trajectories of those currently entering academe.     

Writing performance assessments: how important is extended time?

Students in Grades 5 and 8 completed a 30-minute writing performance assessment and a writing performance assessment completed over 3 days. Assessments were evaluated on four traits (ideas, organization, conventions, and sentence fluency). A significant interaction was found at Grade 5 between length of time allotted for the assessment and students' educational classification (general or special education). Grade 5 students performed significantly better on the 3-day writing assessment, with students in special education benefiting the most. At Grade 8, there were no differences between scores on the 30-minute and the 3-day assessments. No significant differences were found in students' writing performance across various types of discourse (narrative, imaginative, persuasive, and expository); significant differences were reported across certain writing traits. We shared three hypotheses for reported differences: (a) students' proficiency with the writing process, (b) scoring scale bias, and (c) differences in the revision behaviors of developing and mature writers. Educational implications related to statewide test programs are discussed.     

Project-based learning for middle school students monitoring standby power: replication of impact on stem knowledge and dispositions

Educational technology research and development - Middle school students participating in energy-monitoring activities guided by their teachers during 2009–2011 gained...