Identifying threshold concepts: case study of an open catchment hydraulics course

The Threshold Concept Framework is used to initiate a dialogue on an empirically supported pedagogy that focuses on students’ conceptual understanding required for solving application-based problems. The present paper uses a triangulation approach to identify the threshold concept in a third-year undergraduate civil engineering course on open channel hydraulics. Evidence from teachers, students, and assessment data point to ‘critical flow’ as the threshold concept – a concept that is transformative, integrative, and troublesome. Identifying the threshold concept by engaging various course stakeholders in a dialogue about conceptual understanding and capabilities makes learning visible for all participants in the process. Implementing this approach can result in an empirically driven rationale for adjusting pedagogies and assessments to foster enhanced student learning outcomes.     

Is the cure worse than the disease? A longitudinal study on the effect of grade retention in secondary education on achievement and academic self-concept

Holding students back when they do not meet a specific attainment level is common practice in a lot of countries. However, this practice is not without controversy and recent studies point at the negative effects of grade retention, especially in the long-term. The majority of these studies focused on grade retention in primary education. In our study, we focused on the effect of grade retention in Grade 8 on language achievement and academic self-concept. We matched students who were and were not retained based on their propensity to be retained and compared both groups using a growth curve analysis. The basic treatment “grade retention vs. promotion” was extended with the certificate these students received at the end of Grade 8. With this growth curve analysis, we were able to draw conclusions on the effect in the short-term, as well as in the long-term. In the short-term (i.e. the year of retention), it seems that grade retention had no negative effect on language achievement in the short-term, and even a positive effect on academic self-concept in the year of retention. The effects became more negative when we considered effects in the long-term. Especially for language achievement, we found a strong decline in the achievement of grade retainees. We found no negative effect of grade retention on academic self-concept. We can conclude that grade retention has a negative effect on the achievement of retained students in the long run, but has no negative effect on academic self-concept. When we take into account the certificate they received, it seems that following the teacher’s advice to change track is a better decision than repeating the grade in the same track.     

To Intervene or be Neutral,to Investigate or Entertain?

Through a series of surveys of Nordic journalism students in 2005, 2008 and 2012 (N = 4665 respondents from 30 institutions in five countries), this article investigates the differences in students' role perceptions and their link to national, institutional and personal factors. After discussing some methodological challenges for comparative survey studies of journalists and journalism students, the major differences in students' role perceptions are extracted using multiple correspondence analysis, which revealed: (1) an opposition of participatory versus neutral ideals, and (2) an opposition between investigative and recreational ideals, which in both cases are linked to a range of factors, including type of educational institution, social background, previous journalistic experience and year of study. While marked national differences in role perceptions are found to be present, subsequent analysis of single countries shows that the above oppositions are also found within the national context and linked to similar sociological characteristics, demonstrating the inadequacy of simple nation-type explanations of journalistic role perceptions.     

Student alienation at University level: Psychometric properties and relationship with student’s ICT motives

Education and Information Technologies - The purpose of this article is to develop a context-bound scale on student alienation around core problems experienced by students at the university level....     

Do chimpanzees reason logically?

Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to children: the two-, three-, and four-cup-task. Chimpanzees performed above chance in the two-cup-, but not in the three-cup-task. Furthermore, chimpanzees selected the logically correct option more often in the test than the control condition of the four-cup-task. We discuss possible interpretations of these findings and conclude that our results are most consistent with non-deductive accounts.     

The role of the history of mathematics in the teaching and learning of mathematics: Discussion Document for an ICMI Study (1997–2000)

In recent years there has been growing interest in the role of history of mathematics in improving the teaching and learning of mathematics. ICMI, the International Commission on Mathematics Instruction, has set up a Study on this topic, to report back at the next International Congress on Mathematical Education (ICME) in Japan in the year 2000. The present document sketches out some of the concerns to be addressed in the ICMI Study, in the hope that many people across the world will wish to contribute to the international discussions and the growing understandings reached in and about this area.This discussion document will be followed by an invited conference (to be held in France in April 1998), from which a publication will be prepared to appear by 2000. The next section of the present document surveys the questions to be addressed. Your views are solicited both on the questions and on how to take the issues forward as implied in the commentary.     

Higher Education Rankings: Evolution,Acceptance, and Dialogue

Departing from the usual ‘From the Editors' piece, Jamie Merisotis, President of the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Jan Sadlak, Director of UNESCO‐CEPES, reflect on the content of this issue of the review. At the same time, they outline the essential developments affecting ranking systems and methodologies in higher education. These developments made up the main topic of the meeting jointly organized by the Institute for Higher Education Policy and UNESCO‐CEPES for the project “Higher Education Ranking Systems and Methodologies: How They Work, What They Do”, and held in Washington D.C., USA on 10–11 December 2004. Most of the articles presented in this issue relate to the context of the above‐mentioned meeting.     

Collaboration, integration and change in children's services: critical issues and key ingredients

BACKGROUND: Government and state policy, irrespective of jurisdiction, increasingly require and indeed specify the nature of collaboration with regard to the delivery of child welfare services for maltreated children. The rationale for collaboration appears obvious in as much as it is aimed at promoting multidisciplinary practice in order to meet the needs of the vulnerable child. However, collaboration, whilst a useful and motivating concept, is in reality far from straightforward and contains complexities and ambiguities. AIM: The aim of this paper is to explore these complexities and ambiguities to provide an overview of key developmental frameworks relevant to the creation and maintenance of strategic high-level multiagency partnerships. COMMENTARY: The authors begin by exploring the characteristic features of different levels of multiagency collaboration that is communication, co-operation, co-ordination, coalition, and integration. As the emphasis in a variety of jurisdictions in the Western world is on the highest levels of collaboration namely coalition and service integration this is the focus of the paper. The authors synthesize the main literature in the field to consider the critical elements for effective collaborative endeavors at this level including predisposing factors, mandate, leadership, machinery, process, and outcomes. The paper concludes by recognizing that the drive towards integrated services is occurring in a climate of continuing change. The need to identify the impact of such an environment when managing multiagency partnerships is explored using five steps to change.