TEACHING YOUTH IN A SOCIALLY TOXIC ENVIRONMENT

The partisan church‐related institution of higher education typically contains a serious internal inconsistency. It attempts not only to fulfill the educational expectations of the general academic culture of the United States, but also the theological expectations of its founding denomination. These two sets of expectations are at odds because they represent incompatible approaches to the acquisition of knowledge, and produce incompatible conceptions of educational diversity, authority, and academic freedom. To rid itself of this inconsistency, the partisan institution must choose to follow either one set of expectations or the other exclusively, or allow the two to exist in tension within one institution.     

Learning Logo: The social context of cognition

In the wake of South Africa's first non-racial elections in 1994, the new Minister of Education launched a national process which would purge the apartheid curriculum of its most offensive racial content and outdated, inaccurate subject matter. At a first glance these essential alterations to school syllabuses sounded reasonable and timely, given the democratic non-racial ideals of the new government. However, these syllabus alterations had little to do with changing the school curriculum and much more to do with a precarious crisis of legitimacy facing the state and education in the months following the national elections. The haste with which the state pursued a superficial cleansing of the inherited curriculum is explained in terms of the political constraints, conflicts and compromises which accompanied the South African transition from apartheid.     

Sticky information and heterogeneous needs as determining factors of R&D cooperation with customers

The aim of this work is to investigate the factors determining cooperation in developing innovations between firms and a specific group of agents, customers and users. The central point of the analysis is two variables recognised in previous studies as important factors in the study of cooperation with these agents, but which basically have been dealt with from a purely theoretical viewpoint. These variables are: (1) the existence of sticky information (information which is costly to obtain, transfer and use) and (2) the presence of heterogeneous needs in the market. Regarding the first variable, we have also taken into account two kinds of information which can be sticky: information on needs and information of technological nature. The findings obtained, using a Spanish sample of firms, show clearly that all these three factors exert a positive influence on cooperative relationships with these agents.     

Hispanic Student Success: Factors Influencing the Persistence and Transfer Decisions of Latino Community College Students Enrolled in Developmental Education

This study examined the impact of a set of theoretically-derived predictor variables on the persistence and transfer of Hispanic community college students. Early models of student persistence have been validated primarily among 4-year college students. While the constructs have been well-established, the relationships of those relevant factors remain unexamined among community college transfer students, and specifically, among Hispanic students enrolled in developmental coursework and planning to transfer from a community college to a 4-year institution. Logistic regression analysis was used to test the hypothesized conceptual framework on an existing set of quantitative persistence data drawn from a national sample of Hispanic students.     

Evolution of a laptop university: a case study

Technology is integral to carrying out many types of business transactions and has become entwined in the very fabric of everyday life. In the educational environment—particularly higher education—technology is underutilised as a pedagogical tool and in many cases remains largely untapped. Winona State University and its laptop programme learned some valuable lessons from the marriage between the application of the Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education and technology. The transformation into a leading laptop university was neither smooth nor easy, but it is a successful case about principle‐centred technological change and improved student learning outcomes.     

Working memory,cognitive style,and behavioural predictors of GCSE exam success

This study investigates the interplay of working memory, cognitive style, and behaviour. Year 8 (aged 13 years) students (n = 205) at a UK urban secondary school were tested to ascertain predictors of General Certificate of School Education (GCSE) achievement. Assessment included Riding's cognitive style dimensions, working memory capacity, and a profile of school behaviour. A stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that behaviour, working memory, verbal–imagery style by working memory, wholist–analytic style by working memory, and verbal–imagery style by wholist–analytic style predicted GCSE outcome, accounting for 58% of the variance. Generally, poor GCSE grade points were predicted by low behaviour scores, and by low working memory capacity in analytics and verbalisers. The results are discussed in terms of possible interventions that may improve student GCSE performance.     

Towards a model of interprofessional preparation to enhance partnering between educators and families

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) involves cross disciplinary learning, teaching, and supervision to foster greater interdisciplinary collaboration. In the field of medicine, this training approach has been adopted to improve collaboration amongst health care professionals. Rarely has this approach been adopted in regard to the preparation of student teachers. Yet professionals from the disciplines of general and special education, school social work, and school psychology often must work together and with families and pupils. A rationale will be forwarded for offering IPE to graduate students in these fields before they graduate. A multi departmental project was undertaken to design a new IPE training programme to foster collaborative knowledge of, dispositions towards, and skills in family school partnering. The components of the programme, the proposed criteria to gauge the success an initial pilot of the programme, and challenges faced in setting up such cross-discipline training will be described with lessons learned for the future.     

Educating for competence in professional practice

In educating for the professions, teachers seek to enable students to engage in professional practice as competent practitioners. In this paper we question the adequacy of traditional approaches for promoting competent practice. These traditional approaches typically view competence in terms of attributes, such as knowledge, skills and attitudes. Competence development is then seen in terms of acquiring the necessary attributes. From an alternative view of competence as based on ways of experiencing practice, we argue that competence development focus on enriching experience of practice. More specifically, we point out that competence development involves change in the structure of the meaning for practice. Change in meaning structure for practice involves both a significant shift from one way of experiencing practice to another, as well as refinement and elaboration of the way of experiencing practice. Implications of this view of competence development for professional education are discussed. In particular, we deal with implications relating to the teaching-learning relation and the form the educational programme takes. In summay, we argue that enabling students to develop competence through experience of engaging in practice is most closely directed to the aims of education for the professions.     

Assessing Cultural Orientation,Cultural Fit,and Help‐Seeking Attitudes of Latina Undergraduates

This study assessed the influence of cultural orientation and cultural fit of 121 Latina undergraduates' help‐seeking attitudes. Mexican and Anglo orientation, cultural congruity, and perceptions of the university environment did not predict help‐seeking attitudes; however, differences emerged by class standing and self‐reported previous counseling experience. Implications for university counselors are provided.