A quantitative analysis of the demand for higher education

This article analyses the plans of a sample of 7425 secondary school children in Greece regarding their demand for further education. A set of family, personal, geographical and school characteristics are related by means of multivariate analysis to the pupil's decision to continue or not his/her studies and to the particular institution of higher education he/she aspired entry. The maximum likelihood estimates of the yes-no pupil decision indicate the dominance of school grade as a key variable affecting plans for further study. An educational production function revealed in turn that it is mainly parents' education that relates to scholastic achievement. The article also contains empirical estimates of the relative strength of several family and school factors affecting self-selection which may make the results useful to policy makers who attempt to influence the social demand for post-secondary education.     

Plane transient electromagnetic wave propagation in a generalized conducting medium

A technique first suggested by Knop (1) has been used to invert exactly a special contour integral arising in the study of space-time evolution of pulsed plane electro- magnetic signals in the presence of a class of generalized conducting media. The final expressions are given in terms of Lommel functions of two imaginary variables. These findings have been applied to the examination of plane transient wave propagation in uniformly moving conducting media, and materials described by a dissipative Klein-Gordon equation.     

An ESD pathway to quality education in the Cyprus primary education context

This research is based on the rationale that the well-defined framework of education for sustainable development (ESD), its connection with real life and its specific integration in the educational policies and curricula can help to enhance quality education (QE) in a meaningful and identifiable way. In a first step, the common ground of ESD and QE was explored in different areas: common dimensions, future-oriented objectives, commonly targeted skills, value orientation, teaching and learning approaches. In a second step, this information was taken as a base to investigate how well twelve lesson units for primary school reflect the common ground of ESD and QE. The units were specifically developed for this research, in which ESD experienced teachers (mentors) supported inexperienced ones (mentees). Results indicate that ESD can reinforce QE, but that teachers need support with regard to the political and cultural dimensions of SD issues, collaborations with local communities and assessments.     

Children’s orthographic representations in English and Greek

Two experiments were conducted to compare the development of orthographic representations in children learning to read English and Greek. Nonsense words that either shared both orthography and phonology at the level of the rhyme with real words (comic-bomic), phonology only (comic-bommick), or neither (dilotaff) were created for each orthography. Experiment 1 compared children’s reading of bisyllabic and trisyllabic nonsense words likebomic vs.bommick, taffodil vs.tafoddyl, and found a significant facilitatory effect of orthographic rhyme familiarity for English only. Experiment 2 compared children’s reading of trisyllabic nonsense words that either shared rhyme phonology with real words (tafoddyl) or did not (dilotaff). Significant facilitation in reading accuracy was found for shared rhyme phonology in English, with a significant speed advantage in Greek. These results are interpreted in terms of the level of phonology that is represented in the orthographic recognition units being developed by children who are learning to read more and less transparent orthographies.     

Online courses assessment through measuring and archetyping of usage data

Database files and additional log files of Learning Management Systems (LMSs) contain an enormous volume of data which usually remain unexploited. A new methodology is proposed in order to analyse these data both on the level of both the courses and the learners. Specifically, regression analysis is proposed as a first step in the methodology in order to explore how e-learning contents and characteristics of the course (such as a theory or lab course, a first- or second-year course, etc.) influence performance. Further investigation of each course, according to learners' usage, is achieved by archetypal analysis, which pinpoints the typical usage. The proposed methodology was successfully applied to LMS data from a Greek University. The results confirmed the validity of the approach and showed a relationship between the educational content which was provided and its usage by the learners.     

The role of environment design in an educational Multi‐User Virtual Environment

This paper presents empirical results from an exploratory study conducted in an authentic educational situation with preservice education students enrolled in an undergraduate course, which was partially taught in Second Life. The study investigated the effect of environment design on presence, learning outcomes and the overall experience of the students. Two different educational virtual environments (a traditional university auditorium and an open‐air setting) were designed and presented to different groups of students (n = 51). Results indicate that students' experience from the educational activities, their attitudes toward the environment and the induced sense of presence are not affected by the design of the educational setting. Learning outcomes seem to be slightly better in virtual educational settings that replicate traditional educational settings. Experience shows that undergraduate university classes can be successfully taught in Second Life and such environments elicit satisfaction, positive experiences and attitudes and high levels of social presence from the participants. Course design in a Multi‐User Virtual Environment (MUVE) should take into account the time and training necessary for all students to become familiar with the virtual environment and possible time losses due to technical issues. This study could act as support to construct and test hypotheses regarding the role of educational setting design in teaching and learning in MUVEs.     

Enhancing student teachers’ epistemological beliefs about models and conceptual understanding through a model-based inquiry process

In this study we present the structure and implementation of a model-based inquiry teaching–learning sequence (TLS) integrating expressive, experimental and exploratory modelling pedagogies in a cyclic manner, with the aim of enhancing primary education student teachers’ epistemological beliefs about the aspects, nature, purpose and change of models as well as their conceptual understanding of light phenomena related to properties of optical fibres. The subjects were 16 prospective primary teachers involved in modelling activities, employing both hands-on experiments and computer modelling activities, based on the application of the ray model. Student teachers were tested before and after the implementation of the TLS by semi-structured interviews and a written questionnaire. Results show that before the TLS most students adopted epistemologically naïve realistic beliefs about models, whereas after the TLS there was an overall significant transition from naïve to more sophisticated epistemological beliefs, as well as significant improvements in their conceptual knowledge about light phenomena. Nevertheless, the relation between epistemological beliefs and conceptual understanding seems to be aspect-dependent, so our evidence suggests that more educational effort is required in order to establish a coherent relationship between them.