The implications of a connectivist learning blog model and the changing role of teaching and learning

While the use of Web 2.0 tools and specifically blogs is becoming increasingly popular within higher education (HE) and has been shown to promote learning, relatively little is known about the manner in which such tools may affect how teaching and learning may change as a result of the use of such tools. It is within this context that a connectivist learning model was created and has been further developed within this paper in order to consider the implications of how the use of blogs may change the manner in which teaching and learning occurs. Within this research, a case study of the use of collective student blogs utilized as part of a formally assessed module, undertaken within an HE institution, is utilized to explore the manner in which teaching and learning can be seen to change through a connectivist learning model of blog usage. From this case study, it appears that connectivism does provide a theoretical model for the way in which teaching and learning may change as a result of the use of blogs by learners. However, the experience of staff and students who undertook the project suggests that while a number of elements of the connectivist model can be identified, these are not seen universally among all students.     

Putting PhDs to Work: Career Planning for Today's Scientist

Individual development plans (IDPs) have been promoted nationally as a tool to help research trainees explore career opportunities and set career goals. Despite the interest in IDPs from a policy perspective, there is little information about how they have been used. The authors examined IDP awareness and use, the benefits of creating an IDP, and ways to facilitate its use by administering a survey to current or former postdoctoral researchers via the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) and University of Alabama at Birmingham email lists; individuals belonging to Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology member societies who mentored postdocs; and postdoctoral administrators at member institutions of the Association of American Medical Colleges and the NPA. Although most postdoctoral administrators (>80%) were familiar with IDPs, less than 50% of postdocs and only 20% of mentors were aware of IDPs. For those postdocs and mentors who reported creating an IDP, the process helped postdocs to identify the skills and abilities necessary for career success and facilitated communication between postdocs and their mentors. Despite the fact that creating an IDP benefits postdocs and mentors, IDP use will likely remain low unless institutions and research mentors encourage trainees to engage in this process.     

Developing a Curriculum Guarantee for Overseas Students

The intemationalisation of Australian higher education during the 1980s was largely a response to what was perceived as an economic imperative: the need to create an export culture. As a policy initiative, the response has been remarkably successful with Australian higher education institutions attracting a significant number of overseas students, particularly from the Asian region. Yet this economic policy context has often obscured the necessity to provide for overseas students in a way that is consistent with the liberal democratic values that are so much part of the culture of Australian universities. This paper argues that those values should be reasserted so that overseas students are regarded not so much as the end products of a business transaction but as individuals with real needs and concerns that must be addressed.     

Comparison of the General Ability Measure for Adults and the Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test with college students

Ninety‐four college students were administered the GAMA and KAIT. GAMA IQs were significantly and moderately correlated with KAIT Fluid, Crystallized and Composite IQs, supporting the convergent validity of this instrument. Although significant correlations between measures emerged and nonsignificant differences were found between mean scores across these instruments, GAMA IQ scores did not accurately predict KAIT Composite IQ scores when GAMA IQ scores were compared to KAIT Composite IQs. Similarly, when the sample was divided into two groups by ability level, GAMA IQs accurately estimated the intelligence for individuals of Average and Below Average intelligence, but underestimated the KAIT Composite IQ scores by 4 points for the Above Average group. Implications of the findings are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided. © 2002, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Platonic & Freirean Interpretations of W. E. B. Du Bois's, “Of The Coming of John”

In the current Neoliberal climate of educational reform, the enlightenment project in education is more susceptible than ever to the machinations of historical amnesia. The notion that education can be transformative in a positive sense represents a moral ideal that teachers in the foundations of education find increasingly difficult to integrate into their pedagogies. As an antidote to this cultural forgetting, the article makes the case that W. E. B. Du Bois's lone fictionalized chapter in The Souls of Black Folk, “Of the Coming of John,” can be used in classrooms to reinvigorate students’ thinking not only about the enlightenment project in education in a general sense, but more specifically, about the paradoxical and tragic dimensions that accompany this project and tradition. I argue that Du Bois's bildungsroman, or coming-of-age story, can be most fruitfully interpreted when read alongside Plato's “turning around of the soul” (periagoge) and Paulo Freire's concept conscientization. When these 3 enlightenment-oriented narratives are studied in concert, they have an enormous potential to help cultivate the moral, political, and aesthetic sensibilities of our students as they construct their vocational identity as teachers in relation to the enlightenment project in education.     

Religious engagement and attitudes to the role of religion in society: their effect on civic and social values in an Asian context

This paper explored the impact of religious engagement (religious background, religious service attendance and religious activities participation) on adolescents’ civic and social values. Attitudes towards the influence of religion on society were investigated as a possible mediator/moderator of religious engagement. A model based on Western literature was tested using a sample of over 2000 Hong Kong students. Secondary data were drawn from the International Civics and Citizenship Education Study 2009. Multi-level modelling was used to assess individual and school level effects on civic and social values. Results indicated that religious engagement exerted varied effects. Religious background showed small and negative effects on students’ civic and social values. Participation in religious services indicated a small, positive and significant effect on social but not on civic values. Participation in religious activities showed no significant effect on either social or civic values. These variables exerted a small moderating effect on social and civic values through attitudes to the influence of religion on society. The latter exerted a positive and significant effect on civic values and a negative effect on social values. These results suggested that Western models depicting the positive relationship between religious engagement and citizenship values may not hold for Asian societies.