Student perceptions of student perception of module questionnaires: questionnaire completion as problem solving

A sample of 202 students filling in a student evaluation of teaching (SET) questionnaire were asked to complete another questionnaire asking about the specific reasons for awarding a score to the specific SET questionnaire items. The aim was to find out what influenced students' judgements on those items. It was found that students' interpretation of some questions differed from the ‘expected’ interpretation. Several factors, such as the placing of questions and the salience of items retrieved from memory, could influence a score. It was also found that asking for an explanation improved scores overall. The conclusions were that questionnaire completion could be understood as a form of problem solving and judgement under uncertainty. The specific heuristics used led to variability in students' interpretation of the task.     

Career guidance and active labour market policies in the Republic of Armenia

International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance - This article provides an account of current public policy for career guidance in the Republic of Armenia. Brief background...     

Supporting school teachers’ rapid engagement with online education

Educational technology research and development - In response to Philipsen et al.'s (Educ Technol Res Dev 67:1145–1174, 2019) article titled “Improving teacher professional...     

Reference to Stacks: Getting the Most out of Library Resources

Changing patron demands, coupled with significant repurposing of library space, led the library to experience a marked decline in the usage of the print reference collection. Such a significant decrease challenged librarians to find new methods for promoting this still viable collection. It was decided to integrate the print reference books into the general library collection. After a year, circulation data demonstrated that by integrating collections, reference titles were now used more frequently.     

New wine in old bottles: Technological diffusion in developed economies

As new and old technologies generally co-exist in the complex production methods that characterise major sectors of modern developed economies, it is important for policy makers to analyse them together in order to take full advantage of complementarities and optimise outcomes for entire economies rather than for individual industries. In this article, we look at the interrelationships between technologies of different vintages from three perspectives. Firstly, we develop a short theoretical model to demonstrate the reciprocal connections between industries that are generally described as being ‘high technology’ with the other sectors that rely more heavily on ‘non-high tech’ methods. Through the use of input-output and patent data, we then show that long-established industries that are not generally thought of as being high tech often employ cutting-edge knowledge in their own research and development and, by extension, in their other activities. Finally, we use sectoral case studies to show how so-called high tech knowledge is used in specific long-established industries. Our conclusion is that relationships between high tech and non-high tech sectors are highly symbiotic and that the health of high tech firms and industries depends heavily on their ability to sell their outputs to other sectors in developed economies.     

Email Forum Usage as an Identity Maintenance Strategy for Educators Working with Pupils with Special Educational Needs

The moves towards the inclusion of pupils with special educational needs (SEN) into mainstream settings places particular responsibilities on SEN educators in these schools, who are charged with both meeting such pupils’ individual needs and promoting more inclusive contexts. The resultant tensions may be reflected in how SEN educators see their professional identities. We studied the determinants of SEN educators’ usage of a professional email forum, one unrestricted support and information mechanism for SEN coordinators. Drawing on social psychological identity theory we predicted the usage of a professional email forum by SEN educators. We hypothesised that particular characteristics of SEN educators, relating to how they regard their professional identity, would predict the usage of the forum. An email forum survey comprising Likert‐style questions to assess identification, prototypicality, and forum usage was completed by 130 SEN educators. We found use of the forum was highest when users felt they were not central members of their professional group, but at the same time this group was important to their identities. We discuss these findings in relation to the policy and practice of educational inclusion.     

Expert versus novice users: Power rules in virtual space

This study sought knowledge of the decision-making used by learners when interacting with multi-media environments. Mounting evidence on related thinking processes appeared to expose a gap in the prior knowledge, vocabularies and values used when entering cyberspace. We were curious to know about the decision making judgements made by learners and any associated rules or strategies they had developed to interact with new and emerging information technology environments. How decisions are undertaken are considered major issues for educational institutions at local, national and global levels with ramifications for civic and community life. In a sample drawn from a senior high school and university we investigated students’ responses to different questions including: What ways of knowing are used by learners? What codes of behaviour apply? Are they age and gender related? The responses provide a rich and fascinating insight to the ways in which people are interacting with the new media environments. ‘Experts’ versus ‘novices’ appeared to provide the major distinction.