The role of postsecondary Education Institutions in the U.S. Department of Education's adult literacy initiative

On September 7, 1983, the U.S. Department of Education announced a nationwide adult literacy initiative designed “... to promote functional literacy for the entire adult populations.” The department is committed to conducting several activities to attack and solve the problem of adult literacy. Two of the activities pertain specifically to postsecondary education. They are:

? working with postsecondary education institutions to develop demonstration programs utilizing college work-study students in adult literacy programs;

? promoting college student involvement through literacy tutoring experiences in college courses and through student volunteerism.

The authors believe that there should be much greater participation in the initiative by postsecondary education institutions, and they propose that more extensive participation can be attained through the institutions' performance of their usual functions of teaching, service, and research.     

Learning and Study Strategies among First-Year Students at a South African University: A Mixed Methods Study

South African higher education is plagued by low academic success rates. Academic development and support units can play an important role in addressing low academic success rates by assisting students in developing appropriate learning and study strategies. Limited information is available on students’ learning and study strategy profiles and their needs regarding intervention programmes. This article reports on a mixed methods study that investigated learning and study strategies among a sample of first-year students enrolled at a South African university. Quantitative data, collected using the Learning and Study Strategies Inventory (LASSI) from a sample of first-year students, pointed to an urgent need for learning and study strategy intervention programmes to be provided. The qualitative data offered a more in-depth understanding of participants’ needs regarding learning and study strategy intervention programmes. Implications for practice and avenues for further research are discussed.     

Wavelet-based deconvolution of ultrasonic signals in nondestructive evaluation

INTRODUCTION Deconvolution of ultrasonic signals is defined as the solution of the inverse problem of convolving an input signal, known as the system function h(n), with a medium reflectivity function x(n) and can be rep- resented by y(n)=h(n)*x(n) η(n), (1) where y(n) is the measured signal, * denotes the convolution operation and η(n) is the additive noise. Recovering x(n) from the observation y(n) leads to improving the appearance and the axial resolution of the RF-signals by removin…     

Strategies reported used by instructors to address student alternate conceptions in chemical equilibrium

This study explores general‐chemistry instructors' awareness of and ability to identify and address common student learning obstacles in chemical equilibrium. Reported instructor strategies directed at remediating student alternate conceptions were investigated and compared with successful, literature‐based conceptual change methods. Fifty‐two volunteer general chemistry instructors from 50 U.S. colleges and universities completed an interactive web‐based instrument consisting of open‐ended questions, a rating scale, classroom scenarios, and a demographic form. Survey respondents who provided responses or described remediation strategies requiring further clarification were identified (n = 6); these respondents amplified their views in separate, researcher‐led semistructured phone interviews. All 52 responding chemistry instructors reported and identified common student areas of difficulty in chemical equilibrium. They reported employing a variety of strategies to address and attempt to remediate students' alternate conceptions; however, these self‐reported strategies rarely included all four necessary conditions specified by Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog (Science Education, 66, 211–217, 1982) to stimulate conceptual change. Instructor‐identified student alternate conceptions were congruent with literature‐reported alternate conceptions of chemical equilibrium, thus providing validation support for these compilations. Implications for teaching and further research are also highlighted. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 42: 1112–1134, 2005     

Two scenarios for productive learning environments in the workplace

Productive learning is defined as learning that can be reused, in application to new problem situations in an organisation or for assimilation and reflection in structured learning situations such as courses. An important but underexploited form of productive learning relates to the capture and reuse of the tacit knowledge of members of an organisation. Two approaches for this reuse of tacit knowledge are discussed, along with instructional strategies and technologies to support the knowledge capture and reuse process within each of the approaches. In one of the illustrated approaches the emphasis is on how those in mentor or supervisor positions can more systematically support the diffusion of their own tacit knowledge to those of their mentees and in the process create new knowledge for reuse in other situations. In the second illustration, a change in orientation from knowledge transfer to knowledge creation and sharing in the formal training programmes of the organisation is the focus. An underlying database as well as easy-to-use tools for resource entry and indexing are key elements in facilitating the reuse of experience-based resources within and across both informal and formal learning.     

中国教育私营化的机遇与挑战

中国各层次的民办学校正在大规模增长。本文正是要设定一种情景 ,从而更多地理解和引导这种现象。作者首先解释了在拥有庞大公立教育系统的国家缘何出现私立学校。基于埃斯特尔·詹姆斯的划分 ,私立学校是对过度需求、差异需求以及非营利组织大量出现的回应。中国的特点是在公共教育资源短缺的地方存在过度需求 ,特别是在中学阶段那些无法就学或是达不到中学教育和高等教育入学标准的学生中 ;差异需求也明显存在 ,民办精英学校的出现为学生在现有公立教育体系之外提供了另一种选择。其次 ,作者讨论了评价私立学校功能和运作的四个目标 :自由选择权、效率、公平和社会凝聚力。再次 ,他提出三个政策性工具以使私立学校达到上述目标 ,即财政、法规和支持性服务。最后作者考察了中国民办教育中存在的一些问题 ,特别是公平性问题。虽然中国在努力实现这些目标 ,但是对于民办学校的定位和监管法律依然含糊不清。今后需要澄清和完善这个民办教育的框架。