Program Assessments: Success Strategies for Three Canadian Teaching Centers

Program assessments are an essential part of the ongoing survival of teaching centers performed by faculty development personnel at institutions of higher education. Little research is available to guide developers in performing these assessments. In this article we describe assessments conducted at three Canadian universities and highlight the theoretical models used to guide the process. Reflections on the strengths and challenges are discussed for each program assessment for the purpose of assisting faculty developers in performing similar program assessments of their faculty development offices.

Reviews

Making Sense of Standards and Technologies for Serials Management: A Guide to Practice and Future Developments for Librarians, Publishers and Systems Developers edited by Rosemary Russell. London: Library Association Publishing, in association with the UK Office for Library and Information Networking, University of Bath, April 2000. Pp. 192. Hardback, £39.95. ISBN 1‐85604‐338‐X Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy by Philip Evans and Thomas S. Wurster. Harvard Business School Press, 2000. Pp. 274, Hardback, £18.99. ISBN 0‐87584‐877‐X The Legal and Regulatory Environment for Electronic Information, 3rd edn by Charles Oppenheim. Infonortics In‐depth Briefings, 1999. Pp. 231. Hardback, £55.00. ISBN 1‐873699‐53‐0     

Writting for today’s child

Judy Delton, who has written numerous children's books, provides an author’s view of trends in children's literature, the role of series books, the importance of timing, the need for honesty in writing for children, and the rewards of being a children's book author. Judy Delton is the author of more than one hundred books for children and adults, among them thePee Wee Scout series,The Condo Kids, andAngel. She has four children who are also writers and artists.     

Talk with Your Mother or Your Sibling? Developmental Changes in Early Family Conversations about Feelings

Developmental changes in the pattern of family conversations and talk about feelings were examined in a longitudinal study of 50 families observed at home when the second-born children were 33 and 47 months old. Significant increases were noted in the total amount of talk and the frequency of talk about feelings between sibling pairs as well as decreases in the amount of mother-child conversation and references to feelings. Differences in whose feelings were discussed and in the context of references to feelings were found for mother-child and sibling-child dyads. Developmental changes in the children's use of feeling state language co-occurred with the increase in interaction between children and their siblings. The findings contrast the "complementary" nature of mother-child interaction and the "reciprocal" nature of child-sibling interaction and support the argument that the quality of particular relationships influences the use children make of their communicative competence.     

Investigating Differences in Cheating Behaviours of IT Undergraduate and Graduate Students: The maturity and motivation factors

Within the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering of Monash University concerns have been raised about the prevalence of cheating amongst the IT students. Many isolated reports from staff of different cheating incidents collectively present a view of a problem that is widespread and multifaceted. Although indications are that these practices exist across all year levels in both undergraduate and graduate programmes, the actual extent of the problem, and whether any particular groups of students are more inclined to cheating behaviours, is difficult to gauge. Many studies have investigated undergraduate cheating; however, there have been very few studies of graduate students. Furthermore, there is a scarcity of studies of the cheating behaviour of information technology students. In some reporting of student cheating there is a tendency to take a general view of the problem, and preventative or educative measures to address this problem do not differentiate between undergraduate and graduate students. It is of concern that strategies that do not focus on attitudes or behaviours that are exhibited by a particular group are not as effective as they could be. The results of the study reported here show that there are differences between the undergraduate and graduate IT students in regard to their attitudes towards cheating and practice of cheating. The study hypothesises a relationship between maturity and motivation, and cheating behaviour. The possible reasons for this are explored and implications for the design of future education programmes are presented.