Evaluating MBA-Program Admissions Criteria: The Relationship Between Pre-MBA Work Experience and Post-MBA Career Outcomes

It has become common practice among U.S. business schools to require potential students to have substantial work experience before admission to MBA programs. Yet, the benefits of this selection criterion have not been fully articulated nor empirically examined. This article explores the relationships between years of pre-MBA work experience and post-MBA career outcomes. Specifically, we examine the effects of prior work experience on cash compensation, career satisfaction, number of promotions, and individuals' propensity to stay with their first post-MBA employer. Results indicate that previous work experience is not significantly related to graduates' tenure in their first post-MBA position. Furthermore, counter to conventional wisdom, MBAs without prior work experience were more satisfied, had received more promotions, and earned more cash compensation than some of their more experienced counterparts. The implications of these findings for those responsible for admissions in graduate professional schools and for corporate recruiters are discussed, along with suggestions for future research.     

Seeking big ideas in algebra: the evolution of a task

In this paper we describe a strand of activities for teachers of mathematics that we used with two cohorts of participants in a professional development program called Revitalizing Algebra (REAL). We first discuss our goals and describe the participants, and then we describe the construction and selection of the tasks followed by teacher responses. Finally, we reflect on different iterations of the tasks, their impact on the teachers’ thinking and practice, and the role of school and department culture in the process of change.     

Secondary science students’ beliefs about class discussions: a case study comparing and contrasting academic tracks

The dialogue that occurs in science classrooms has been the subject of research for many decades. Most studies have focused on the actual discourse that occurs and the role of the teacher in guiding the discourse. This case study explored the neglected perspective of secondary science students and their beliefs about their role in class discussions. The study participants (N?=?45) were students in one of the three differentially tracked chemistry classes taught by the same teacher. Findings about the differences that exist among students from different academic tracks are reported. While it seems that epistemological beliefs focusing on content are common for the students in this study, the students' social framing in the different tracks is important to consider when teachers attempt to transition to more dialogic forms of discourse. Some key findings of this study are (a) students’ beliefs that science is a body of facts to be learned influenced the factors they deemed important for whole-class discussion, (b) students from the lower-level track who typically were associated with lower socioeconomic status were more likely to view their role as passive, and (c) students’ comfort level with the members of the class seemed to influence their decisions to participate in class discussions.     

The role of university-based induction in beginning elementary teacher enactment of effective mathematics teaching

The purpose of this paper is to describe the school-based contextual constraints perceived by beginning elementary teachers as they attempted to enact their visions of effective mathematics teaching and the components of a mathematics-specific, university-based induction program designed to support elementary teachers in their teaching of mathematics. A significant number of beginning teachers in the program indicated that curriculum pacing guides and grade level teachers often discouraged their enactment of effective mathematics teaching. We describe the components of the induction program in general and then discuss the specific ways that program mentors, who were elementary teachers with expertise in mathematics teaching, supported beginning teachers in navigating the constraints identified. Data suggest that supporting teachers’ pedagogical agency to navigate local school contexts should be an additional consideration in teacher preparation and induction programs.     

The role of IQ, expertise, and motivation in the recall of familiar information

High- and low-IQ children in the first, third, and fifth grades performed two free-recall tasks: a sort-recall task with sets of categorically related pictures, and a class-recall task, with children recalling the current members of their school class. All children were deemed to be experts concerning the composition of their school class, but, unlike experts in other domains, had no special motivation associated with their expertise. Recall and clustering on both tasks were high. The high-IQ children performed better than low-IQ children only on the sort-recall task. IQ was significantly correlated with measures of performance on the sort-recall task but not on the class-recall task. The results reflect the fact that the memory benefits associated with being an expert (here, elimination of IQ effects) are related to the greater knowledge the expert possesses and not to factors of motivation.     

Feasibility of the MTAI as a Selection Instrument for Pre-Service Teacher Education — A Pilot Project

The Institute of Education is the only institution in Singapore that trains and prepares individuals for the task of teaching. In order to ensure that its products, the teachers, are of a respectable calibre, not only should the training programme be reviewed regularly, but also the method of selecting trainees.     

Maintenance of keypecking in pigeons by a food avoidance but not by a shock avoidance contingency

Response key illuminations were followed by food delivery or shock, and keypecks were programmed to prevent the occurrence of whichever stimulus was scheduled. At high shock intensity, pigeons did not peck: at low shock intensity, pigeons pecked in about half of the trials. When different key colors signaled food and shock trials, pigeons pecked on food trials, thus preventing food delivery, but not on shock trials, thus failing to avoid shock delivery. That pecks occurred despite the fact that they avoided food but did not occur when they avoided shock is taken as evidence that the keypeck is frequently governed by biological predispositions, and not by its consequences.