Quality Assessment by Students: The Case of a Postgraduate Engineering Programme

In the framework of an ISO 9001 certification, a permanent evaluation system of an educational programme has been installed. All students evaluate very frequently the quality of courses and seminars. The evaluations are summarized and made public in such a way that they constitute a regular, quantitative teaching appraisal for every professor and teaching assistant. This system has some advantages, but also unexpected disadvantages: it engenders a lot of work; there are interpretation difficulties; it causes some uneasiness among staff members; and, most importantly, it reinforces the student's attitude of non-involvement.     

北京市居住区屋面集雨资源的潜力分析

随着中国快速城市化,传统的供水方式正面临严峻挑战,雨水利用这一古老的水资源利用技术,被实践证明是解决城市水问题的重要手段之一。与城市其他不透水面集雨利用相比较,屋面收集的雨水水质高,因此屋面集雨利用系统在世界上被广泛应用。本文建立了居住区屋面集雨利用潜力的计算方法,并据此计算出北京2002年～2007年居住区屋面依据实际年降水量和多年平均降水量可收集的水量分别为2.16亿m3和2.75亿m3,雨水利用对家庭生活用水的节水效率分别为7.2%和9.3%。通过分析影响北京雨水利用的因素,预测了2020年北京居住区屋面可收集水量与不同情景下的收集利用量。最后针对北京雨水利用存在的问题提出了相应的政策措施。     

IMPLICATIONS OF CRITERION-REFERENCED MEASUREMENT1,2

During the past several years measurement and instructional specialists have distinguished between norm-referenced and criterion-referenced approaches to measurement. More traditional, a norm-referenced measure is used to identify an individual's performance in relation to the performance of others on the same measure. A criterion-referenced test is used to identify an individual's status with respect to an established standard of performance. This discussion examines the implications of these two approaches to measurement, particularly criterion-referenced measurement, with respect to variability, item construction, reliability, validity, item analysis, reporting, and interpretation.     

Effects of Low-level Counselor Functioning on Clients

Three counselors identified as functioning at a low level on basic facilitative skills were paired with both a high- and a low-level functioning client for three sessions. Functioning levels for both counselors and clients were determined by appropriate rating scales. The results indicated negative change in interpersonal functioning levels on the part of high-level clients and no significant change on the part of low-level clients.     

CLIENT 1: A Computer Simulation for Use in Counselor Education and Research

CLIENT 1 is an interactive program that was designed to simulate client behavior in an initial interview and to provide a standardized environment for training and research on counselor problem-solving strategies. Through interaction with the computerized client, counselors attempt to facilitate client movement toward the goal of verbalizing a specific problem statement. Client movement is a function of the appropriateness and accuracy of counselor statements, the threat value associated with both client and counselor statements, the strength of the relationship between the counselor and client, and an index of counselor expertise. The uses of the simulation in counselor education and research are discussed.     

The future of HRD

What organizational, technological and training developments will become crucial in the coming years, and what consequences will they have for human resource development? These questions have led to a study carried out by the faculty of Educational Science and Technology at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. The ultimate aim of the study was to create an inventory of trends and developments which professionals deem to be influential with regard to the future HRD field. One direct catalyst for the study was the report of a similar study in the United States, involving HRD executives, carried out by the American Society for Training & Development. Following a brief explanation of the research plan and methods, this article describes the findings of the Dutch study an compares these with the results of the American research. It concludes with comments regarding the implications of the information obtained through this investigation.