Higher education in a vacuum: stress and reform in Ecuador

Ecuadors higher education system mirrors that of other Latin American countries in its many internal and external stresses. It also provides an opportunity to view a reform process occurring in a vacuum of central government influence and authority, one whose direction is largely set by the universities in response to perceived stresses. Those stresses arise from the differentiation of the system in the last decade, questions about the role of higher education in Ecuador, and the absence of governmental direction. Changes in higher education in Ecuador must be examined in the context of higher educations role in development. The paper notes the case for the importance of higher education and the new theoretical support for higher education that endogenous growth models provide. It then examines the self-generated reform process which is occurring in Ecuador in the areas of teaching, of student access and of university finance. The final issue addressed is the relation between these changes, with their important implications for transforming the higher education system, and the development needs of Ecuador. There are many positive elements to the reform process which will contribute to development. However, until the government policy vacuum is filled, their potential benefit will remain only partially realized.     

“ACCENTUATION EFFECTS” OF DISSIMILAR ACADEMIC DEPARTMENTS: An Application and Exploration of Holland's Theory

This longitudinal study of college students found accentuation of initial group differences among academic subenvironments for Artistic abilities of both male and female students and for Enterprising abilities of male students. It also showed that male and female students in Artistic subenvironments-for whom Artistic abilities and interests were each of the two gender groups' initially prominent characteristic-increased still further in score on the Artistic abilities and interest scale over four years of college; and parallel results were found for male students in Enterprising subenvironments in terms of Enterprising abilities and interests. Moreover, both male and female students initially high on Artistic and Enterprising abilities and interests gained more on these attributes if they entered congruent academic subenvironments (Artistic and Enterprising subenvironments, respectively) than if they entered any of the other subenvironments. Whereas these findings support Holland's theory, other data (primarily for Investigative and Social abilities and interests of students) were either less supportive or unsupportive of Holland's theory. Some implications of these results are discussed.     

MicroObservatory Net: A Network of Automated Remote Telescopes Dedicated to Educational Use

Many students have a deep interest in astronomy, but a limited opportunity to use telescopes to explore the heavens. The MicroObservatory Network of automated telescopes is designed to provide access to classroom teachers who wish their students to conduct projects over the World Wide Web. The intuitive interface makes it easy for even 10-year-olds to take pictures. Telescopes can be remotely pointed and focused: filters, field of view, and exposure times can be changed easily. Images are archived at the website, along with sample challenges and a user bulletin board, all of which encourage collaboration among schools. Wide geographic separation of instruments provides access to distant night skies during local daytime. Since first light in 1995, we have learned much about remote troubleshooting, designing for unattended use, and for acquiring the kinds of images that students desire. This network can be scaled up from its present capability of 240,000 images each year to provide telescope access for all US students with an interest in astronomy. Our WWW address is http://mo-www.harvard.edu/MicroObservatory/     

Scholarly Productivity of Editorial Board Members of Three American Counseling and Counseling Psychology Journals

The scholarly journals in professional and scientific fields serve the function of communicating new knowledge and informed discourse on the major issues affecting the field of counseling, and editorial board members (EBMs) serve as gatekeepers of what information will be communicated. The ability of EBMs to make sound judgments directly affects the quality of research and scholarship published. This study analyzed one important EBM qualification, the scholarly productivity of the editorial board members of three major American counseling journals (The Counseling Psychologist [TCP], the Journal of Counseling Psychology [JCP], and the Journal of Counseling and Development [JCD]). An analysis of the productivity rates of editorial board members on these journals was conducted using the PsycINFO database. The results indicated that editorial board members of JCP have significantly more experience publishing than members of TCP and JCD. The differential publication rates of editorial board members suggest that these three journals place different emphasis on scholarly productivity as part of their selection criteria for editorial board membership and may reflect that the three journals have different missions and serve different clientele. These findings have implications, not only for the profession of counseling in the United States, but also for the international counseling community.This article is dedicated to our esteemed colleague, Stephen G. Weinrach, who died after a long and courageous battle with leukemia on April 24, 2004. This article was the last that Steve was working on prior to his death. It was his brainchild. The contributions that Steve made to the counseling profession over the years are inestimable. He was truly through his numerous writings and professional association activities the “conscience of the couseling profession.” He is dearly missed.     

What does it mean to be an exemplary science teacher?

In order to provide a refreshing alternative to the majority of research reports, which malign science education and highlight its major problems and shortcomings, a series of case studies of exemplary practice was initiated to provide a focus on the successful and positive facets of schooling. The major data-collection approach was qualitative and involved 13 researchers in hundreds of hours of intensive classroom observation involving 20 exemplary teachers and a comparison group of nonexemplary teachers. A distinctive feature of the methodology was that the qualitative information was complemented by quantitative information obtained from the administration of questionnaires assessing student perceptions of classroom psychosocial environment. The major trends were that exemplary science teachers (1) used management strategies that facilitated sustained student engagement, (2) used strategies designed to increase student understanding of science, (3) utilized strategies that encouraged students to participate in learning activities, and (4) maintained a favorable classroom learning environment.     

The process of review: A levels of processing approach

This experiment investigated the effects of reviewing notes at a deeper level of abstraction, by means of reorganization. No differences in immediate recognition performance were found for subjects who reorganized notes into an instructor-generated matrix versus subjects who reviewed in their typical manner. An interaction between method of review and type of delayed test was apparent. Reorganization during review resulted in relatively higher achievement on a free recall test while unstructured review produced higher achievement on a cued recall exam. This interaction was unpredicted by the theory of encoding specificity but was explained in regard to the theory of episode matching. Instructionally, reorganization was advocated as a review technique for most learning situations in which retrieval cues are not imposed.     

Parent-Child Relationships, Family Problem-Solving Behavior, and Sibling Relationship Quality: The Moderating Role of Sibling Temperaments

In this study we sought to determine whether sibling temperaments moderated the associations of parent-child relationship quality and family problem-solving behavior with sibling relationship quality. Observational assessments of mother-child and father-child relationship quality, family problem-solving behavior, and sibling relationship quality were obtained from the families of 49 pairs of brothers and 46 pairs of sisters. Mean ages were 10-2 for older siblings and 7-6 for younger siblings. Parent-reported child temperament assessments were also obtained. The links among mother–older child relationship quality, father–older child relationship quality, and sibling relationship quality were moderated by the older sibling's temperament. The younger and older siblings' temperaments moderated the associations between the quality of the father–younger sibling and sibling relationships. The association between family problem-solving behavior and sibling relationship quality was not moderated by sibling temperaments.     

Laptop versus longhand note taking: effects on lecture notes and achievement

There has been a shift in college classrooms from students recording lecture notes using a longhand pencil-paper medium to using laptops. The present study investigated whether note-taking medium (laptop, longhand) influenced note taking and achievement when notes were recorded but not reviewed (note taking’s process function) and when notes were recorded and reviewed (note taking’s product function). One unique aspect of the study was determining how laptop and longhand note taking influence the recording of lecture images in notes and image-related achievement. Note-taking results showed that laptop note takers recorded more notes (idea units and words) and more verbatim lecture strings than did longhand note takers who, in turn, recorded more visual notes (signals and images) than did laptop note takers. Achievement results showed that when taking laptop notes, the process function of note taking was more beneficial than the product function of note taking (i.e., better image-related learning and similar text-related learning). When taking longhand notes, the product function of note taking was more beneficial than the process function of note taking (i.e., better text-related learning and similar image-related learning). Achievement findings suggest that the optimal note-taking medium depends on the nature of the lecture and whether notes are reviewed.