The impacts of different types of workload allocation models on academic satisfaction and working life

Increasing demands on academic work have resulted in many academics working long hours and expressing dissatisfaction with their working life. These concerns have led to a number of faculties and universities adopting workload allocation models to improve satisfaction and better manage workloads. This paper reports on a study which examined the workload models in use across a large Australian university. Analysis revealed that the various models could be categorised into three types. The pros, cons and impacts of these three categories of model were compared from both a management and staff perspective. The study found that while models of all types can lay the foundation for equitable distribution of workload, some categories of model can have unintended consequences with negative effects on the work culture and hence staff satisfaction.     

Multifaceted Evaluation Criteria of Digital Libraries in Academic Settings: Similarities and Differences From Different Stakeholders

Digital library (DL) evaluation is essential to the success and enhancement of DLs. However, there is a lack of research on the assessment of comprehensive evaluation criteria across multiple dimensions of DLs. In particular, limited research is available on criteria prioritization to determine which criteria are perceived important by different stakeholders. This study was conducted to compare similarities and differences in perceptions of the importance of different DL evaluation criteria by heterogeneous stakeholders in academic settings. Ninety subjects were recruited with 30 from each of the group representing DL scholars, DL librarians, and DL users. Subjects were instructed to fill in an in-depth survey consisting of 10 evaluation dimensions with 94 criteria. ANOVA and t-test were applied to examine the similarities and differences among the three groups. This study reveals consensus and divergence in perceptions of criteria importance among the three groups, and indicates an inherent tension among the stakeholders. Moreover, the differences identify gaps not only between user expectations and the DL practice but also between what's desirable and what's possible in the academic environment. The findings provide a comprehensive list of criteria to guide practical evaluation of DLs, and contribute to the narrowing of the identified gaps.     

Allowing course compensation in higher education: a latent class regression analysis to evaluate performance on a follow-up course

Abstract

In this study, the consequences of allowing course compensation in a higher education academic dismissal policy are evaluated by examining performance on a second-year follow-up (i.e. sequel) course that builds on material from a first-year precursor course. Up to now, differences in the consequences of compensation on student performance across groups of students who portray different unobserved study processes were not considered. In this study we used a latent class regression model to distinguish latent groups of students. Data from two undergraduate curricula were used and latent classes were formed based on similar patterns in averages, variability in grades, the number of compensated courses, and the number of retakes in the first year. Results show that students can be distinguished by three latent classes. Although the first-year precursor course is compensated in each of these latent classes, low performance on the precursor course results in low performance on the second-year sequel course for psychology students who belong to a class in which the average across first-year courses is low and the average number of compensated courses and retakes are high. For these students, compensation on a precursor course seems more likely to relate to insufficient performance on a sequel course.     

Extending Learning Communities: New Technologies,Multiple Literacies,and Culture Blind Pedagogies

Technologies such as videoconferencing used for distance education are creating ways for high schools to extend their learning communities to connect youth with professional communities of practice in ways that approximate the face-to-face interactions in traditional classrooms. These technologies are often touted as a way to augment course offerings and curricula, particularly those needed for college-going. The use of videoconferencing technologies alone, however, does not ensure that the desired forms of interaction will occur particularly given their reliance on traditional banking-model pedagogies and literacies. In this article, we focus on college bound Black and Latino/a youth from under resourced urban communities and their negotiations of new technologies, multiple literacies, and traditional pedagogies within a music education learning community extended through videoconferencing technologies. Employing a multicultural feminist critical theoretical framework, we unearth the ways Black and Latino/a youths identities as active learners and college-bound musicians shape, and are shaped, in the interplay of new technologies, multiple literacies, and traditional pedagogies within a music education classroom.     

Children’s and Adolescents’ Specific Interest in Science and Technology,Participation in Out-of-School Activities and Inclination to Become Scientists

Journal of Science Education and Technology - Recently, the literature has repeatedly reported an interesting decrease in science and technology (S&T) among youngsters, and a drop of...     

Qualitätsmanagement in Unternehmen

Zusammenfassung Durch den immer schwieriger werdenden Wettbewerb und die steigenden Ansprüche der Kunden an Qualit?t hat sich Qualit?tsmanagement zu einem wichtigen strategischen Managementinstrument entwickelt. Einen besonderen Stellenwert hat die Norm ISO 9000 gewonnen, die zum Ziel hat, die Qualit?tsf?rderungsma?nahmen der Unternehmen transparenter zu gestalten. Die aktuelle Norm betont insbesondere den prozessorientierten Ansatz und die Notwendigkeit der kontinuierlichen Verbesserung. Generell wird Qualit?tsmanagement als Oberbegriff für eine Vielzahl von Managementmethoden verwendet, von denen zentrale Konzepte wie TQM. Benchmarking und Balanced Scorecard im überblick vorgestellt werden. Die wirtschaftliche Bedeutung des Qualit?tsmanagements begründet sich vor allem durch die Annahme, dass eine hohe Qualit?t des Produktionsprozesses betriebswirtschaftliche Potenziale er?ffnet, die im Idealfall den Unternehmenserfolg deutlich steigern. Gleichzeitig müssen strategische überlegungen zur Produktqualit?t und Kosten-Nutzen-Analysen berücksichtigt werden. Besonderheiten für die Bereiche Dienstleistung und Handel werden kurz skizziert. Ein Ausblick auf zukünftige Entwicklungen veranschaulicht, dass die Bedeutung von Qualit?tsmanagement in Unternehmen in den n?chsten Jahren weiterhin zunehmen wird.

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Summary Quality management in private enterprises Due to stronger competition and growing customer demands concerning quality, quality management has become a significant strategic management tool. The DIN standard ISO 9000, particularly, with the objective of advancing transparency in the methods of quality management used by companies has gained in importance. The current DIN standard places special emphasis on processes and the need for continuous improvement. Quality management refers to a large number of management tools, including TQM, Benchmarking and Balanced Scorecard, which are reviewed briefly. The economic relevance of Quality Management is primarily based on the assumption that high quality production processes increase the potential for commercial success. At the same time it is important to consider overall management strategies as well as cost-benefit analyses. Specials issues regarding the areas of trade and service are briefly sketched. Finally, an outlook on future developments is given, showing that the significance of quality management in companies will increase in the coming years.

     

Discrepancies in purposes of student course evaluations: what does it mean to be “satisfied”?

Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability - Student evaluation of teaching is a multipurpose tool that aims to improve and assure educational quality. Improved teaching and student...     

Can professional development make the vision of the standards a reality? The impact of the national science foundation's local systemic change through teacher enhancement initiative

Professional development is seen as one of the major levers for aligning science instruction in the USA with the vision put forth by national standards documents. Although there is a growing consensus regarding what constitutes effective professional development, there is little empirical evidence to support this consensus. This study examines the impact of professional development that is content‐based, situated in classroom practice, and sustained over time on teacher attitudes, perceptions of preparedness, and classroom practices. It utilizes longitudinal data from the National Science Foundation's Local Systemic Change through Teacher Enhancement Initiative (LSC), collected from 42 projects over a span of 7 years. The professional development model used in the LSCs differed from previous initiatives in that it targeted all teachers in a jurisdiction and emphasized preparing teachers to implement project‐designated instructional materials. Analyses of the data provide evidence that this model for professional development has an impact on teachers and their classroom practices. In addition, the analyses found that teachers' perception of principal support for Standards‐based science instruction is an important predictor of these outcomes. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 44: 375–395, 2007     

Doing curious research to cultivate tentacular becomings

Abstract

Referring to Haraway’s concept of tentacularity, this article embarks on a curious research practice-inspired speculative journey to think with material tentacular becomings in an Australian kindergarten. Some of the questions that guided our curious research practice asked: How does curious practice as a postqualitative methodology enable us, as researchers, to cultivate a presence that creates the conditions for these research encounters and events to be perceived? What becomes possible for generative relational diverse learning with matter-energies if we accept that there is no rational explanation at hand? What worlds come into being if we speculate instead of rationalize? How do children animate, and are animated relationally, in particular worlds and not in others? How do we, as researchers, become entangled within children’s ways of perceiving and naming encounters? We experimented with Haraway’s notion of tentacularity as our navigational tool to map four entangled territories in this article.