Publishing in Open Access Education Journals: The Authors’ Perspectives

Open access publishing is now an accepted method of scholarly communication. However, the greatest traction for open access publishing thus far has been in the sciences. Penetration of open access publishing has been much slower among the social sciences. This study surveys 309 authors from recent issues of open access journals in education to determine why they choose to publish in open access journals and to gain insight into the ways publishing practices within the discipline itself impact the willingness of authors to engage in open access publishing.     

Collaborating Over the Centuries: Creating the What Middletown Read Database

In 2003, library records from over a century ago were discovered in the attic of the Muncie Public Library. This finding led to a multi-year collaboration between the Muncie Public Library, the Center for Middletown Studies, and the University Libraries at Ball State University to create the What Middletown Read database, http://bsu.edu/libraries/wmr/index.php. This article describes the collaboration between various groups, focusing especially on the role of the Cataloging and Metadata Services unit at University Libraries in the project, and ends with lessons learned and recommendations for cataloging units.     

Perceptions of Women and Men Leaders Following 360‐Degree Feedback Evaluations

In this study, researchers used a customized 360‐degree method to examine the frequency with which 1,546 men and 721 women leaders perceived themselves and were perceived by colleagues as using 10 relational and 10 task‐oriented leadership behaviors, as addressed in the Management‐Leadership Practices Inventory (MLPI). As hypothesized, men and women leaders, as well as their supervisors, employees, and peers, perceived women leaders to employ nine of the 10 relational leadership behaviors significantly more frequently than men leaders. Additionally, the employees' perceptions of their women leaders' use of task‐oriented behaviors were significantly higher when compared to similar assessments from the employees of men leaders. However, the leaders as well as their supervisors and peers perceived men and women leaders' use of task‐oriented behaviors as approximately equal. Broader implications of these findings are discussed.     

Cross-Cultural Comparisons of Undergraduate Student Views of the Nature of Science

Past studies investigating university level students' views of nature of science (NOS) were relatively few and most of them were conducted in Western countries. This paper focuses upon comparing the quantitative patterns in Western (US Caucasian and African-American) and non-Western (Taiwanese) students' views of NOS (VNOS) by adopting a survey instrument. This analysis combined with qualitative data begin to uncover details of potential cultural differences in patterns specifically in the US educational context by comparing Caucasian and African-American student responses to a question from a commonly used assessment of VNOS. Results show different patterns of views along the four dimensions of NOS (social negotiation, invented/creative NOS, cultural impacts, and changing/tentative feature of science) according to student major, student gender, and student ethnicity. These differences and similarities have the potential to impact undergraduate education and underrepresentation of cultural minorities in science careers and call for further research into NOS views in the context of diverse student groups.     

Sex doesn't matter: the role of gender in the formation of student-university relationships

As competition intensifies, higher education providers are facing ever more complex challenges in attracting and retaining students. These new marketing challenges have necessitated a need to more comprehensively understand the factors that lead to positive perceptions of the institutions services, as well as positive referral of the brand. This research focuses on students' perceptions of the importance of satisfaction, trust, and commitment in the development of student loyalty. In particular this research examines whether or not these antecedents differ for male versus female students. A structural equation modelling approach was adopted using a sample of 447 students. Despite literature which characterises males as task oriented, and females as relationship oriented, gender did not influence the salience of the antecedents to loyalty. These results show that first and foremost both gender groups seek to form affective and emotional bonds with their institution and hence a sense of psychological closeness to it. Student satisfaction was found to be the second most important driver of loyalty across both genders. Conclusions, implications and opportunities for future research are presented. From a managerial perspective, it is expected that uncovering the importance of key relationship marketing constructs between genders will enable higher education institutions to develop more targeted relationship marketing programs.     

Life on the borderlands: action research and clinical teacher education faculty

Seeking to soften the gap between clinical and tenure-track teacher education faculty, a year-long action research seminar was conducted. Using data from observation notes, interviews and a taped seminar session, the authors explore the seminar from its very rocky beginning to its conclusion. Drawing on the concept of ‘communities of practice’, the authors explore reasons for the hesitancy of the clinical faculty to share the results of their studies and their struggle to find legitimacy within the university.     

A review and new framework for instructional design practice variation research

This article reviews practice variation in the field of instructional design. First, it compares instructional designer practice as reported or observed in several classic research studies. This analysis is framed by the standards established by the International Board for Training, Performance, and Instruction competencies for planning and analysis, design and development, implementation, and management. Although no certain causal linkages exist, we briefly review some of the reasons posited in the literature to explain instructional design practice variation (lack of time and resources, control in decision making, the designer's perception of a task, underlying philosophical beliefs, and designer expertise). Limitations of the literature base are explored, followed by a proposal for an alternative view of instructional design practice variation and recommendations.     

Estimating teacher effectiveness from two-year changes in students’ test scores

Using a dataset covering over 10,000 Australian school teachers and over 90,000 pupils, I estimate how effective teachers are in raising students’ test scores. Since the exams are biennial, it is necessary to take account of the teacher's work in the intervening year. Even adjusting for measurement error, the teacher fixed effects are widely dispersed, and there is a strong positive correlation between a teacher's gains in literacy and numeracy. Teacher fixed effects show a significant association with some, though not all, observable teacher characteristics. Experience has the strongest impact, particularly in the early years of a teacher's career. Female teachers do better at teaching literacy. Teachers with a master's degree or some other form of further qualification do not appear to achieve significantly larger test score gains. Overall, teacher characteristics found in the departmental payroll database explain only a small fraction of the variance in teacher performance.