Selection as contract to teach at the student's level. Experiences from a South African mathematics and science foundation year

The selection of students is a critical issuecurrently facing South African higher educationinstitutions. The identification and selection ofdisadvantaged students with the potential to succeedin mathematics- and science-based study is aparticularly pressing problem. The new South Africanhigher education law requires that selection is donein a fair and transparent manner. Selection has to befollowed by adequate support for selected students tosucceed in their study programmes. Issues of accessare closely coupled to issues of retention andsuccess. The research results discussed in this paperillustrate how these issues can be successfullyaddressed and how selection fairness and effectivenessmay be optimised under the constraints of selectionefficiency. An optimal solution can be found bydeveloping test specifications and selection cut-offvalues based on the teaching programme for which theselection is done. The resulting close fit betweenselection testing and teaching after selection leadsto a reasonable expectation of success for selectedstudents in the study programme. Under suchconditions, selection can be seen as a contract toteach at the student's level.     

Early childhood special education pictorial literacy activities for young children with disabilities

Summary Alternative literacy activities can be adapted to complement the speech and language programs that have been developed to assist learners with disabilities. Pictorially based alternative literacy programs may involve rebus symbols, augmentative and alternative communication devices, or picture reading. Because these programs do not assume extensive language development, they can be appropriate for children with severe learning problems as a foundation or replacement for typical early reading activities.     

Principal Leadership for Technology-enhanced Learning in Science

Reforms such as technology-enhanced instruction require principal leadership. Yet, many principals report that they need help to guide implementation of science and technology reforms. We identify strategies for helping principals provide this leadership. A two-phase design is employed. In the first phase we elicit principals’ varied ideas about the Technology-enhanced Learning in Science (TELS) curriculum materials being implemented by teachers in their schools, and in the second phase we engage principals in a leadership workshop designed based on the ideas they generated. Analysis uses an emergent coding scheme to categorize principals’ ideas, and a knowledge integration framework to capture the development of these ideas. The analysis suggests that principals frame their thinking about the implementation of TELS in terms of: principal leadership, curriculum, educational policy, teacher learning, student outcomes and financial resources. They seek to improve their own knowledge to support this reform. The principals organize their ideas around individual school goals and current political issues. Principals prefer professional development activities that engage them in reviewing curricula and student work with other principals. Based on the analysis, this study offers guidelines for creating learning opportunities that enhance principals’ leadership abilities in technology and science reform.     

Communicative Foreign Language Teaching and how it Reflects on the Training of Modern Foreign Language Teachers

If acquiring a foreign language is a highly individual process—part cognitive part affective, part information based part discovery based—the methodology of creating teaching/learning situations must take (next to linguistic issues) the individual into account: his learning style, his needs, interests, etc.

The article has two distinct emphases: (I) a cognitive, applied linguistics emphasis and (II) an affective, learner‐centred emphasis. By way of conclusion the implications of (I) and (II) for teacher training are involved.     

Librarians Before Congress: Advocacy and Identity

This article explores the connection between congressional testimony and political identity for libraries. Library testimony highlights the ways in which libraries are hybrid, public/private institutions. Thus in some areas (such as library funding or intellectual property), libraries are like private associations: They testify to protect interests that are library specific. In other areas (such as government information), libraries are more like governmental agencies: They testify as a partner and stakeholder in specific government programs, policies, and benefits. And in yet other areas (such as privacy), libraries are more like issue-oriented advocacy groups: They testify to engage their peers and patrons while organizing these constituencies to effectively advocate for public goods.     

Evaluating Measures of Optimism and Sport Confidence

The psychometric properties of the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-R), the Sport Confidence Inventory (SCI), and the Carolina SCI (CSCI) were examined in a study involving 260 athletes. The study aimed to test the dimensional structure, convergent and divergent validity, and invariance over competition level of scores generated by these instruments. Exploratory structural equation modeling (ESEM) supported the measurement models for the SCI and CSCI but favoured a two-dimensional model for the LOT-R. ESEM analyses of the total pool of 33 items indicated satisfactory divergent validity among these optimism and sport confidence measures with the only overlap occurring between the LOT-R and CSCI measures of optimism. The SCI discriminated among athletes participating at different competitive levels and emerged as the most suitable instrument for measuring individual differences in sport confidence. The CSCI emerged as a better measure of optimism in a sporting context than the more general LOT-R.     

Medicare Reimbursement for Counselors: Counseling Professionals’ Advocacy Beliefs and Behavior

The authors analyzed data from 5,528 American Counseling Association members to examine advocacy beliefs and behavior regarding Medicare reimbursement and advocacy for counselors. Nearly half (49.3%) of the respondents had participated in one or more forms of Medicare reimbursement advocacy. Advocacy participation differed significantly by professional status.     

Self-esteem and academic achievement: a comparative study of adolescent students in England and the United States

Utilizing mixed methodology, this paper investigates the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement for young adolescents within two Western cultural contexts: the United States and England. Quantitative and qualitative data from 86 North American and 86 British adolescents were utilized to examine the links between self-esteem and academic achievement from the beginning to the end of their academic year during their 11th–12th year of age. For both samples, quantitative results demonstrated that fall self-esteem was related to multiple indicators of later year academic achievement. While country differences emerge by the end of the year, math appears to have a consistent relationship with self-esteem in both country contexts. Qualitative analyses found some support for British students’ self-perceptions as more accurately reflecting their academic experience than the students from the United States.     

Academics’ job-related stress and institutional commitment in Hong Kong universities

Tertiary Education and Management - Recent developments in higher education have placed greater emphasis on performance and accountability and raised concerns about increasing levels of stress...