Family functioning and early learning practices in immigrant homes

Poverty‐related developmental‐risk theories dominate accounts of uneven levels of household functioning and effects on children. But immigrant parents may sustain norms and practices—stemming from heritage culture, selective migration, and social support—that buffer economic exigencies. Comparable levels of social‐emotional functioning in homes of foreign‐born Latino mothers were observed relative to native‐born Whites, despite sharp social‐class disparities, but learning activities were much weaker, drawing on a national sample of mothers with children aging from 9 to 48 months (n = 5,300). Asian‐heritage mothers reported weaker social functioning—greater martial conflict and depression—yet stronger learning practices. Mothers’ migration history, ethnicity, and social support helped to explain levels of functioning, after taking into account multiple indicators of class and poverty.     

Higher education development in Korea: western university ideas,Confucian tradition,and economic development

The features of Korean higher education development are related to sociocultural tradition (Confucian tradition), the model university ideas, and economic development in Korea. The modern university ideas adopted in Korean are based on the German model which was established by the Japanese colonial government and drawing on the US university model after the World War II. However, the modern university ideas are intertwined with socio-cultural factors and have been embedded in current Korean universities. As well as the western ideas and the Confucian tradition, the growth of Korean higher education has relied upon the rapid growth of the Korean economy. Education development is well aligned with economic development in Korea thanks to government policy initiatives. This framework can be applied in the analysis of higher education development in other countries. Higher education development cannot be solely explained by individual cultural, historical or economic factor. These three factors are interlinked and influence the development of Korean higher education.     

Tiny noise,big mistakes: adversarial perturbations induce errors in brain–computer interface spellers

An electroencephalogram (EEG)-based brain–computer interface (BCI) speller allows a user to input text to a computer by thought. It is particularly useful to severely disabled individuals, e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients, who have no other effective means of communication with another person or a computer. Most studies so far focused on making EEG-based BCI spellers faster and more reliable; however, few have considered their security. This study, for the first time, shows that P300 and steady-state visual evoked potential BCI spellers are very vulnerable, i.e. they can be severely attacked by adversarial perturbations, which are too tiny to be noticed when added to EEG signals, but can mislead the spellers to spell anything the attacker wants. The consequence could range from merely user frustration to severe misdiagnosis in clinical applications. We hope our research can attract more attention to the security of EEG-based BCI spellers, and more broadly, EEG-based BCIs, which has received little attention before.     

Horizons,not Boundaries,are the Language of Retirement: Sense of Fulfillment,Fears, and Life Trajectories of Faculty Extendees in the Philippines

This qualitative study probed into (a) the sense of fulfillment, (b) fears and anxieties, and (c) life trajectories of aged working professors recruited from one comprehensive university in the Philippines. Interestingly, findings of the study reveal that respondents were fulfilled and felt successful through the life outputs of their students; their self-worth was witnessed through continued employment and communication to students of ideas, work ethic, and values. Fears and anxieties were rarely felt because of religious commitments and prayers to God. Sense of delight was manifested through the satisfactory academic environment; the possession of supportive systems, including family, friends and community, and their plans of spending their remaining years with the family in leisure activities; and in joining religious organizations.     

Uses of cognitive science to science education

The paper looks for common ground between cognitive science and science education starting from historical roots. Topics critically scrutinized are: representation of knowledge with applications of the schema and frame concept to physics education centering around the hierarchical structure of knowledge, the qualitative-quantitative distinction, the declarative-procedural distinction, and the semantic-episodic distinction; the uses of network versus production system representations, stressing the distinction between outward and inward representation which is often neglected; a short discussion of the likewise often forgotten index and reference issue.The paper has been presented to the ATEE Symposium on Implications of Cognitive Science for the Education of Science Teachers IPN (Kiel) 29.–30.08.1985.     

Influence of university prestige on graduate wage and job satisfaction: the case of South Korea

ABSTRACT

Obtaining a tertiary degree no longer guarantees entry to the best occupational positions in today’s labour market. Success is no longer about ‘more’ education, but about ‘better’ education for university graduates. This study aims to understand whether university prestige in Korea accounts for occupational outcomes in both monetary and non-monetary aspects, such as salaries and job satisfaction. The study particularly focuses on the way different levels of university prestige are affected by gender. The fourth wave data from the Korean Education and Employment Panel were used, providing information from the results of a panel survey of university graduates in terms of their social and academic background and job employment status. Results show that university prestige continues to matters in occupational outcomes in particular, for wage, but it is not significant for job satisfaction. The effect is more significant among male graduates than among female graduates.     

Student response to tuition increase by academic majors: empirical grounds for a cost-related tuition policy

This study explored the responses of students in different academic majors to tuition increase, with a particular focus on the relationship between tuition increase, and future earnings and college expenditures. We analyzed effects of tuition increase on enrollment in six academic majors—Engineering, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Business, and Education—where disciplinary enrollment data were available. The main findings are that students are elastic to tuition level in Physics, Biology, and Business, but not in Engineering, where the rate of return is the highest among the six majors and the college expenditure are the highest. The findings suggest that student enrollment in various academic majors is affected differentially by tuition. Further, the findings support a cost-related tuition policy, one designed to charge students higher tuition for higher-cost majors and lower tuition for lower-cost majors.

Building a theoretical framework of web-based instruction in the context of distance education

This study attempts to analyze teaching and learning processes of web-based instruction (WBI) as shown in recent literature, and to develop a theoretical framework of WBI using a prominent existing distance education theory called Transactional Distance Theory in order to provide better understanding of the essential pedagogical components of WBI. Recent studies have shown that the key elements of the structure of WBI are (1) content expandability, (2) content adaptability, and (3) visual layout. And also three emerging types of interaction, or three aspects of dialogue, in WBI have been identified through the studies. Those types were: (1) academic interaction, (2) collaborative interaction, and (3) interpersonal interaction. Finally, both learner collaboration (or learner collaboravity, if we create a new term) and learner autonomy seem to have emerged in Web-based learning environments.     

English-medium teaching in Korean higher education: policy debates and reality

This study critically examined the effectiveness of English medium instruction (EMI) policy within the context of Korean higher education, putting a special focus on its implementation strategy. The data for this study were mainly drawn from student opinion surveys and focus group interviews conducted by the CTL (Center for Teaching and Learning) at KU. The research teams also carried out supplementary interviews with both professors and students. The results indicate that, although the EMI policy seems to have produced, in general, positive outcomes (i.e., with the overall satisfaction level with EMI or its overall effectiveness in improving students’ English proficiency), the compulsory enforcement of EMI without regard to students’/instructors’ language proficiency, the lack of a much-needed support system and appropriate instructors to conduct EMI classes, and the unilateral implementation of EMI across academic disciplines have brought about a number of side effects. Based on these findings, the study recommends for future EMI policy implementation (1) a more flexible approach, considering students’ language proficiency and career plans and the characteristics of various academic disciplines and (2) more thorough preparation to implement the EMI policy (i.e., examination of the human and financial resources available for the institution concerned).