Selection methods for undergraduate admissions in Australia. Does the Australian predominate entry scheme the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR) have a future?

This article considers the Australian entry score system, the Australian Tertiary Admissions Rank (ATAR), and its usage as a selection mechanism for undergraduate places in Australian higher education institutions and asks whether its role as the main selection criterion will continue with the introduction of demand driven funding in 2012. Admission strategies for undergraduate places in Australian universities have remained unchanged for many years. The author concludes that the current entry scheme, the ATAR, will continue as a dominant selection criterion particularly for courses where demand exceeds supply, but ATAR-based selection will be insufficient to meet the participation targets set by the federal government. There is now an opportunity for universities to differentiate themselves by their admission strategies and to improve participation of equity groups through the normalisation of alternative entry mechanisms.     

Inquiry-based learning in China: Do teachers practice what they preach, and why?

China is undergoing an education reform that calls for a change from a rigid, fixed curriculum and didactic pedagogy to a more flexible, school-based curriculum and more inquiry-based pedagogy. This study investigated the extent to which Chinese middle and high school teachers (a) endorse an inquiry-based approach and underlying learning principles, (b) practice this mode of teaching, and (c) believe that the approach is practically viable in the current educational contexts in China. A structured survey was developed to solicit Chinese teachers’ responses to the above three issues. A total of 582 valid responses were collected, representing middle and high schools in different geographic locations. The results show that Chinese teachers are receptive to inquiry-based pedagogy but find practical constraints in fully implementing it. Several cultural and pragmatic reasons are explored. Policy implications are discussed with respect to teacher education/development, capacity building for the new pedagogy, and teaching/evaluation alignment. Finally cultural issues are discussed regarding using inquiry-based learning to enhance critical thinking and nurture independent thinkers.     

THE FUTURE OF TWO‐YEAR COLLEGES: AN ADMINISTRATOR'S‐EYE VIEW

Individuals in eight different types of administrative positions in two‐year colleges were asked to rate the importance of a variety of external and internal issues in the next five years. The purpose of the study reported here was first to identify those internal and external issues that administrators viewed as being of high importance. A second purpose was to assess the degree of consensus among differing types of administrative positions. The third objective was to identify differences between public and independent two‐year college, between men and women, and minority and white administrators perceptions of issues identified as being most important. There was a high degree of agreement across administrative groups as to the importance of five external issues; and when asked to indicate the two most critical issues, administrators were almost unanimous in their assessment. There is less agreement on the two critical internal issues. Some differences by gender and racial/ethnic group were noted, but the differences were not as great as might have been expected.     

Treatment Fidelity Challenges in a Five-State Consultation Study

Consultation is a promising approach to creating change in early childhood programs, from innovations in instructional strategies to the enhancement of global program quality. Studies of consultation effectiveness have been hampered by limited reports of implementation fidelity related to consultation procedures. This article describes the challenges of supporting and measuring implementation fidelity in a 5-state study in which community consultants followed a collaborative consultation model to enhance global quality in childcare programs. The authors consider the limitations of using a randomized experimental design to study the effectiveness of consultation and share lessons learned in their efforts to enhance treatment fidelity without compromising the basic tenets of the model or the rigorous design.     

Providing access to electronic information resources in further education

This article aims to provide a baseline for future studies on the provision and support for the use of digital or electronic information services (EIS) in further education. The analysis presented is based on a multi‐level model of access, which encompasses access to and availability of information and communication technology (ICT) resources, access to and availability of EIS resources, and the third leg of staff skills and their development. The research was conducted within the third cycle of the JISC (Joint Information Services Committee) User Behaviour Monitoring and Evaluation Framework, in 2001/2002. Evidence was gathered from library and information service web sites and various stakeholders, including library and information service staff, academic staff and students to generate insights into the provision of access to EIS in further education. Sector‐wide funding initiatives have had a significant impact on ICT infrastructures, and these attract a positive response from students. EIS are represented on some library web sites but both web site development and EIS availability is very much less advanced than in higher education. Staff, however, lack sufficient dedicated access to ICT to be able to develop their own skills and use. There remains a low level of access to electronic information resources, with only limited access to these resources through library web sites. LIS managers face a number of challenges in enhancing this provision, including licensing arrangements, tight budgets that need to be spread across many discipline areas, and the absence of EIS designed specifically for the further education student. The other key challenge lies in the provision of time and opportunity for academic and LIS staff to develop their ICT and EIS skills, and, more generally in the further development of the role of Information and Learning Technology (ILT) Champions.     

Early manual communication in relation to the deaf child's intellectual, social, and communicative functioning

The basic impoverishment of deafness is not lack of hearing but lack of language. To illustrate this, we have only to compare a 4-year-old hearing child, with a working vocabulary of between 2,000 and 3,000 words, to a child of the same age, profoundly deaf since infancy, who may have only a few words at his command. Even more important than vocabulary level, however, is the child's ability to use his language for expressing ideas, needs, and feelings. By the age of 4 years, the hearing child in all cultures has already grasped the rules of grammar syntax that enable him or her to combine words in meaningful ways.     

Inter-parent agreement on four preschool behavior rating scales: Effects of parent and child gender

This study investigated inter-parent agreement on four preschool behavior rating scales. Sixty-four cohabiting biological parents rated their four and five year-old children's positive and negative behaviors. Results indicated low to moderate inter-parent correlations across all four preschool behavior rating scales for the total sample. Although mean score differences were not significantly different by parent or child gender, absolute differences between pairs of mothers' and fathers' ratings were large and consistent across instruments, as well as by gender of child and gender of parent. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.