AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE EFFECTS OF THE DES BURSARY SCHEME ON BOTH THE ‘QUALITY’ OF INTAKES TO PRE‐SERVICE TEACHER EDUCATION COURSES AND THE EXTENT OF STUDENT DROP‐OUT FROM THOSE COURSES

The DES bursary aims to attract people onto pre‐service education courses in order to train as physics, mathematics and CDT teachers. Perceptions of the effectiveness of this initiative, and its influence on the comparative quality of entrants to these courses are investigated with the tutors leading bursary courses. Responses in the three subject areas are presented. The drop‐out rate of students from the courses is shown to be in the order of 7%.     

PUBLIC OPINION AND CONFLICTS: A THEORY AND SYSTEM OF OPINION POLLS

Some years ago, major French firms and institutions joined forcesto develop the AGORAMETRIE system, which analyzes and followsup public opinion about controversial matters in French society.The system is based on annual comprehensive surveys of representativesamples of the French population. We present here the theoreticalbasis of the system, and its application as a decoding toolto the analysis of specific social problems, by consideringthe following points: the modelling of public opinion througha constructivist approach; questionnaire design and interpretationof structural factors; evolution of public opinion, effectsof date, age and generation; and the ‘grafting’procedure and its application, illustrated by opinion aboutAIDS.     

Examining stress reactivity in neonates: relations between cortisol and behavior

The association between cortisol and behavioral reactivity to a medical heel stick and a neurobehavioral exam was examined in 100 healthy African American neonates, who have been underrepresented in this area of research. Using continuous measures, behavioral distress was associated with cortisol reactivity to both stressors. High levels of behavioral distress, however, were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the neurobehavioral exam. In contrast, low levels of behavioral distress were associated with cortisol reactivity only in response to the heel stick. The results highlight potentially important parameters for exploring the relation between biological and behavioral reactivity to stress such as the operationalization of behavioral distress and the context in which a stress response is elicited.     

The effects of mandatory and optional use on students' ratings of a computer-based learning package

Continuing developments in educational technology and increasing undergraduate numbers in the UK have facilitated the use of computer‐based learning packages. One of the effects of the increasing use of these packages is the shift in teaching of material from being primarily lecturer‐led to student‐driven. This has a number of implications concerning using the package, since it is quite likely that students will be working in isolation, and the use of the package may be mandatory or optional. In this study we report on the usefulness ratings of a software package for undergraduate use within the context of whether or not students choose to use it. Level 1 students and lecturers in Economics were surveyed at three UK universities. Findings indicate that students whose use was mandatory rated the learning package as more useful than those whose use was optional. Reasons for non‐use centred on lack of instruction and on student apathy. These results have important implications for the use of computer‐based learning packages and for understanding user attitudes.     

Stability of repeated student evaluations of teaching in the second preclinical year of a medical curriculum

The second preclinical year of the medical curriculum at the Medical Faculty of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland includes nine multidisciplinary organ-system-oriented modules consisting of lectures and problem-based-learning tutorials. This study reports the experience accumulated with the evaluation of lectures during the academic years 1998–1999 and 1999–2000. The ratings of the different modules were highly variable, indicating the ability of students to have a critical view on the teaching and the teachers. There was a close to very close correlation between the ratings obtained during the two study years. The high discriminative capacity of students in evaluating the teaching and the teachers was also supported by their critical point of view expressed in free comments. Our observations stress therefore the reliability of teaching evaluations systematically performed by medical students.     

Analysis of conservative systems by approximating area-preserving point mapping

The reduction of the study of continuous dynamical systems to the study of point mappings was first effected by Poincaré, and later more generally by Birkhoff, in the conservative case. However, the analytical expressions of these mappings are, in most cases, rather complicated or even unknown. This paper deals with the construction of area- preserving polynomial point mappings in the plane osculating the actual one (also area preserving) to a certain degree. These mappings can be used for an approximate study of the behaviour of solutions in a neighbourhood of the origin taken as a fixed point. To illustrate this approach, some numerical examples are given.