The role of academic management in implementing technology-enhanced learning in higher education

ABSTRACT

This article addresses how technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is implemented in higher education institutions. The study is based on data collected from a nationwide survey and semi-structured interviews with academic managers. The findings suggest that: (1) members of the academic management staff have limited knowledge of institutional strategies; (2) there is a gap between what academic managers believe they do to support and implement TEL and what other academic staff perceive them to actually do; and (3) TEL is seldom discussed during performance assessment reviews. In addition, the study reveals that academic managers have different understandings of the use of educational technology. Those differences appear to be closely related to the individual managers’ assessment of TEL’s role in supporting teaching.     

Exploring the relationship between school discipline referrals and delinquency

There is a growing concern about violent and destructive behaviors of youth that require intervention by juvenile justice and youth‐serving agencies. This concern has led many to conclude that schools and community agencies must increase efforts to prevent juvenile delinquency and to provide programs that will facilitate rehabilitation, education, and vocational training for youth already involved. A clear understanding of the nature and range of behaviors that result in juvenile crime is needed in order to develop programs and interventions that can be expected to lead to beneficial changes for youth and for society as a whole. The purpose of this article is to describe the relationship between school behaviors and youth characteristics in school (e.g., discipline referrals, teacher nominations, nomothetic ratings) and referrals to juvenile authorities (e.g., illegal behaviors). We describe a strategy of using teacher nominations, school discipline referrals, and community arrest data to predict delinquent and violent behavior in youth. We outline data from a group of socially maladjusted middle school youth to illustrate the relationship between the two data sources and recommendations for identification and treatment of youth at risk for delinquency and antisocial behavior. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Stereotype Threat,Identification with Academics,and Withdrawal from School: Why the most successful students of colour might be most likely to withdraw

Claude Steele’s stereotype threat hypothesis posits that when there are negative stereotypes about the intellectual capacity of certain (stigmatised) groups, members of that group suffer aversive consequences; group members who are most strongly identified with the stigmatised domain in question (e.g., intellectual or academic ability) are those most likely to suffer the effects of stereotype threat. In education, it is widely held that personal investment in schooling should lead to more positive outcomes. However, highly‐invested individuals will most keenly experience the negative effects of stigma. Thus those most at risk for withdrawing from school among students of colour (who suffer a stigma of intellectual inferiority) could be those most invested in schooling. This hypothesis was tested by measuring identification with academics among a group of incoming students at a racially diverse inner‐city high school in the Midwest USA. Regardless of race, the students who most strongly identified with academics (they valued and considered academics central to the self) had higher GPAs, lower levels of absenteeism, and fewer behavioural referrals. However, among students of colour the most strongly identified were more likely to withdraw, while identification with academics did not significantly influence the withdrawal of Caucasian students. These results highlight the importance of providing a supportive environment that diffuses stereotype threat for all students, even those who appear to be academically successful.     

A Delicate Balance: Integrating Active Learning into a Large Lecture Course

A lecture section of introductory biology that historically enrolled more than 500 students was split into two smaller sections of approximately 250 students each. A traditional lecture format was followed in the “traditional” section; lecture time in the “active” section was drastically reduced in favor of a variety of in-class student-centered activities. Students in both sections took unannounced quizzes and multiple-choice exams. Evaluation consisted of comparisons of student survey responses, scores on standardized teaching evaluation forms, section averages and attendance, and open-ended student comments on end-of-term surveys. Results demonstrate that students perform as well, if not better, in an active versus traditional environment. However, student concerns about instructor expectations indicate that a judicious balance of student-centered activities and presentation-style instruction may be the best approach.     

Educational Configurations for Teaching Environmental Socioscientific Issues Within The Perspective of Sustainability

Education for Sustainability has become an institutional requirement in many countries. It takes many forms that can integrate the teaching of environmental Socioscientific Issues (SSIs). In this context, we present the French notion of Socially Acute Questions (SAQs). We develop a theoretical frame to analyse educational configurations applied to the teaching of SAQs within the perspective of sustainability. This frame is built with a reference to a matrix integrating attributes of knowledge (universal, plural, engaged or contextualised), teachers’ epistemological postures (scientism, utilitarianism, skepticsm or relativism) and various didactic strategies (doctrinal, problematizing, critical or pragmatic). To illustrate this frame, three situations of teaching-learning are compared.     

Comparing technology-related teacher professional development designs: a multilevel study of teacher and student impacts

This article presents a quasi-experimental study comparing the impact of two technology-related teacher professional development (TTPD) designs, aimed at helping junior high school science and mathematics teachers design online activities using the rapidly growing set of online learning resources available on the Internet. The first TTPD design (tech-only) focused exclusively on enhancing technology knowledge and skills for finding, selecting, and designing classroom activities with online resources, while the second (tech?+?pbl) coupled technology knowledge with learning to design problem-based learning (PBL) activities for students. Both designs showed large pre-post gains for teacher participants (N?=?36) in terms of self-reported knowledge, skills, and technology integration. Significant interaction effects show that teachers in the tech?+?pbl group had larger gains for self-reported knowledge and externally rated use of PBL. Three generalized estimating equation (GEE) models were fit to study the impact on students?? (N?=?1,247) self reported gains in behavior, knowledge, and attitudes. In the resulting models, students of tech?+?pbl teachers showed significant increases in gain scores for all three outcomes. By contrast, students of tech-only teachers showed improved gains only in attitudes.     

‘Earnest students anxious to acquire a practical knowledge suited to the trade of the district’: the growth and development of the mechanics' institute movement with particular reference to Huddersfield 1824–1890

The mechanics' institute movement of the British Isles has been underrated by some historians, who have argued that many of the institutes were attended by the middle and upper classes. In any case, they state that by the 1850s, they were declining in both popularity and usefulness. This paper questions these assumptions, concentrating on the developments at the Huddersfield Mechanics' Institute and comparing with other institutes both locally and nationally its responsiveness to local and national developments with regard to its contribution to education. Like many other institutes, Huddersfield provided a foundation on which twentieth-century further education was firmly established. Britain was not the only country to establish a mechanics' institute movement as similar developments were also taking place in other countries, particularly in Australia.     

Letter from the Editor

Getting help in understanding how to use and interpret a new information system is a crucial organizational and individual resource. Indeed, both informal and formal sources of information technology help are expensive and necessary, but largely unidentified, unmanaged, and underresearched. This study proposes that two types of factors influence the formation of information technology helping relationships: individual and structural. Based on a survey of employees in an organization implementing a new workstation‐based customer database system, the study compares influences on being sought as an informal source of IT help, and on types of help (individual or positional) that one seeks. One individual factor (some forms of computer expertise) and most structural factors (especially measures of employees’ perceived socialization, task interdependence, and communication networks) exerted weak but significant influences on employees’ IT helping relationships.