A recipe for effective participation rates for web‐based surveys

One way many universities have approached the process of better understanding and meeting the needs of their students is through student evaluations. The evaluation data provide not only diagnostic feedback but also useful information in terms of the quality of learning and teaching experiences. In an effective quality cycle, the data gathered are analysed and used to make improvements. This is often referred to as ‘closing the loop’. However, for any evaluation data to be of value an important prerequisite for ‘closing the loop’ is that response rates should be sufficiently high to be representative of the student cohort. This paper describes how a faculty within Monash University utilising only web based surveys developed a successful communication strategy to elicit staff and student participation in the unit (subject) evaluation process which achieved a response rate as high as 83.2%.     

SOCIAL WORK DIALOGUES: TRANSFORMING THE CANON IN INQUIRY,PRACTICE, AND EDUCATION

Social work educators require textbooks and other teaching materials that can be used in research courses to enhance student learning. Likewise, social work practitioners require resource books that can be used to enhance practice. This article provides an essay review of four recently published books representing diverse viewpoints on social work research, and discusses these books in the context of the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) 2008 Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards and the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) Code of Ethics. The major aims, content, and scope of each book are reviewed as well as suggestions for their use in undergraduate or graduate courses, or as a resource for social work practitioners.     

Medical information provision in Seychelles: development,current state and future focus

Medical information in Seychelles is provided by a library and documentation unit within the Ministry of Health. This unit has been in operation for 10 years and during this time has expanded in the number and type of services provided. This short report describes the current situation at the library and the vision for the next 10 years.     

NO ONE LEFT TO PUSH: THE PUBLIC POLICY OF AGING AND BLINDNESS

The decline in psychometric measures of general intelligence (g) and performance of similar laboratory-based tasks has been pivotal in shaping psychogerontology's views of the aging intellect, and by extension, the ability to learn. However, parallel to this is the consideration that the motivation and intellectual needs of older adults may change. The study presented here found that levels of need for cognition are closely related to older adults' performance on Piagetian tasks, indicating an intellectual lifestyle preference that operates alongside, and interactively with, performance on traditional intellectual measures. The implications of this are discussed.     

IQEA and special schools

Projects focused on Improving the Quality of Education for All (IQEA) have been running for ten years. The Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project is the first to draw schools exclusively from the special education sector. In this article, John Beresford, IQEA's research officer; Hilary Stokes, co-ordinator of the Nottinghamshire special schools IQEA project; and John Morris, secondary inspector and IQEA co-ordinator for Nottinghamshire LEA, briefly outline the philosophy in which IQEA is grounded. They discuss the particular challenges encountered in a special schools project and illustrate responses by providing a case study of one school's engagement in the project. The article concludes with a tentative assessment of the benefits that participation in the project has brought to the special schools and units involved.     

Understanding achievement differences between schools in Ireland – can existing data-sets help?

Recent years have seen an increased focus on school accountability in Ireland and calls for greater use to be made of student achievement data for monitoring student outcomes. In this paper, it is argued that existing data-sets in Ireland offer limited potential for the value-added modelling approaches used for accountability purposes in many other countries. Some reasons for this include: few longitudinal studies of student achievement, few population data-sets and limited data on student home background in the State examination data-sets. A cross-sectional contextualised attainment model (CAM) is presented using Junior Certificate data from 2009. While the model offers some potential for identifying schools performing significantly above or below average, its explanatory power is limited by the availability of appropriate student background data. It is proposed that the use of statistical models for the purposes of identifying high or low performing schools in Ireland would need to take account of findings from other countries regarding technical difficulties such as variable selection, missing data, and the need to avoid aggregated data. Other practical concerns discussed include the appropriateness of publishing league tables and the usefulness of such information for informing parental choice.     

A comparison of teacher assessment (APP) with standardised tests in primary literacy and numeracy (WIAT-II)

Assessing Pupils’ Progress (APP) arose from a government drive to increase the amount of teacher-based assessment within school and to make this consistent across schools. We conducted semi-structured interviews with head teachers to gain insight into how their schools applied APP and we compared the APP levels for English and Maths, provided by teachers across 11 schools for 72 pupils, to a standardised assessment (Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-II; WIAT). There was a strong correlation between the APP and WIAT for literacy but not for numeracy. Head teacher interviews revealed that APP is used differently across schools and at times is used in a way inconsistent with government guidance, which raises the question of how teacher assessments are used and their purpose. Questions that should be considered are; how is moderation used in schools, what is the function(s) of teacher assessments and what is good practice in relation to these assessments? Clarity about the function of assessments is of vital importance as is ensuring that assessments are meaningful to teachers, pupils, families and schools, especially in light of the weight that can be placed on teacher assessments for all these groups.     

The World of Popular Music

Tony Palmer's All You Need is Love: The Story of Popular Music (New York: Viking Press, 1976---$15.00)

Ron Schaumburg's Growing Up with the Beatles (New York: Pyramid Books, 1976---$5.95, paper)

Paul Gambaccini's Paul McCartney in His Own Words (New York: Flash Books/Quick Fox Inc., 1976---$3.95, paper)

Ritchie Yorke's The History of Rock 'n Roll (New York: Methuen/Two Continents, 1976---$5.95, paper)

Sharon Lawrence's So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star (New York: Dell, 1976---$1.75, paper)

Geoffrey Stokes' Star-Making Machinery: The Odyssey of an Album (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1976---$8.95)

Dave Dexter, Jr.'s Playback: A Newsman/Record Producer's Hits and Misses from the Thirties to the Seventies (New York: Billboard Publications, Inc., 1976---$9.95)

Ralph J. Gleason's Celebrating the Duke, and Louis, Bessie, Billie, Bird, Carmen, Miles, Dizzy, and Other Heroes (New York: Delta Books, 1976---$3.95, paper)

Alec Wilder's American Popular Song: The Great Innovators, 1900-1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1975---$6.95, paper)     

The difficulties of defining development:A case study

In the current climate of change and expansion within higher education in the UK, there are various drivers for change in the way the curriculum is designed and delivered. In the recent past, within the UK, the QAA has presented a Code of Practice with respect to HE provision for students with disabilities and changes in the legislation relating to access to higher education for students with disabilities. These developments have prompted funding councils to resource major projects relating to accessibility. Such is the complexity of terms such as 'curriculum', 'accessibility' and 'disability', that these funded projects require a multidisciplinary approach. However, questions arise as to whether the key players in these multidisciplinary projects actually fully understand each other and have a shared understanding of the terms of reference. This case study highlights some of the difficulties experienced within a multidisciplinary team that did not ensure a shared conception of the complexities of the change management project in which it was engaged. What comes to the foreground is the problematic concept of academic development and how it is understood outside of its own community.