Faculty orientations toward institutional goals: A broken front with implications for planned change

The formulation of institutional goals in higher education often involves input from various campus constituencies including faculty. The faculty's viewpoint is typically treated as though it were a uniform perception. The research reported here tested the uniform nature of the faculty's goal orientations. Statistical comparisons were conducted on mean ratings of five discipline groups of 207 faculty from a major public university on the scales of the Institutional Goals Inventory. Although discipline groups shared common viewpoints on the importance of academic instruction, intellectual pursuits, and research, major differences among groups were found for goals involving university service, off-campus instruction, accountability, intercollegiate athletics, and humanistic values. Institutional planners desiring a change in one of these latter areas should expect different levels of faculty support and resistance from different discipline groups.     

Predictive text entry with PAL and children with learning difficulties

Nine case studies were conducted to evaluate the usefulness of a predictive text entry program within a classroom environment. The program, PAL, was found to be very successful in eight of the cases. For children with poor motor control, the key-saving aspects speeded up text creation. Of even greater significance was the extent to which children with severe spelling problems were helped. They were able to produce much higher quality written work with a substantial reduction in the number of spelling errors. This provided great motivation for the children, and teaching staff commented on their improved confidence and attention span, as well as stimulation of language and vocabulary development. One of the children was on the verge of being classified as a non-reader and, although progress was slow, a significant improvement in the child's work was observed.     

Students' estimates of knowledge gained as measures of the quality of teacher education

One set of measures of the quality of courses for the preparation of science teachers stems from the perceptions exit students have of their knowledge with respect to that teaching. The Discipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science surveyed these students late in 1988 on three broad types of knowledge-science content knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge. Some of these findings of the Review are described. In addition, the base for developing items to measure these three types of knowledge is discussed in this paper. The variety in the data that emerged is also presented and the consistency of the findings with other measures of quality is described. Specialisations: science and technology curriculum, environmental education, educational disadvantage. Specialisations: research and evaluation in teacher education, technical and further education and total quality management. Specialisations: research in educational systems.     

Museums and Indigenous People in Australia: A Review of Previous Possessions,New Obligations: Policies for Museums in Australia and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Previous Possessions, New Obligations was launched by Museums Australia Inc. in 1993, the International Year for the World's Indigenous People, as a policy framework to guide the development of relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. The policy was based on consultation with Indigenous people to develop protocols, policies and procedures for more sensitive collection management and for including Indigenous people in research and public programs; and to address issues of governance. It expressed the values that would underpin new relationships between museums in Australia and Indigenous Australians. An evaluation of the policy was conducted in 2000 in a collaboration between the Australian Museum Audience Research Centre, Sydney, and Museums Australia Inc., Canberra. The evaluation found that the policy had substantially met its goals, particularly in establishing the primary rights of Indigenous people to control their cultural material in museum collections. However, a range of substantially new issues emerged which require new policy responses and initiatives.     

IS IT WORTH USING CAS FOR SYMBOLIC ALGEBRA MANIPULATION IN THE MIDDLE SECONDARY YEARS? SOME TEACHERS’ VIEWS

The use of Computer Algebra Systems (CAS) in years 9 and 10 classrooms as a tool to support learning or in preparation for senior secondary mathematics is controversial. This paper presents an analysis of the positive and negative aspects of using CAS identified in the literature related to these year levels, along with the perceptions of 12 experienced secondary teachers who were working with years 9 and 10 students. The literature review shows that CAS is valued for calculation and manipulation capabilities, the option of alternative representations, the opportunity for systematic exploration and for prompting rich discussion. However, the technical overhead, initial workload for the teacher and unresolved questions about the perceived relative contribution of machine and by-hand work to learning currently pose obstacles to teaching with CAS in the middle secondary years. The teachers who contributed data to this study perceived that using CAS in their teaching is, on balance, worth the effort. However, they believed that CAS is of most benefit to their high ability students and may present an obstacle to their low ability students’ learning of mathematics.     

Historically Black Colleges and University students' and faculties' views of school psychology: Implications for increasing diversity in higher education

This study investigates Historically Black Colleges and University (HBCU) students' and faculties' knowledge related to school psychology. A total of 165 students and 14 faculty members completed inventories that assessed the understanding and views of various psychological disciplines. Results indicated that HBCU students rated their perceived knowledge of school psychology significantly lower than all psychological disciplines. In addition, these students have significantly fewer sources of information for school psychology than comparable disciplines. Although more than 90% of students stated that they would attend graduate school, the majority was only somewhat interested in school psychology as a career choice. Furthermore, HBCU psychology faculty members stated that the American Psychological Association and the National Association of School Psychologists do not actively recruit or provide information to their students. Results are discussed in terms of increasing the number of African American school psychologists. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Community violence,school‐related protective factors,and psychosocial outcomes in urban youth

This study examined the relationship of two putative school‐based protective factors—student identification with school and perceived teacher support—to psychosocial outcomes in a sample of urban youth exposed to community violence. Participants were 175 high school students ages 14–19 in grades 9–12 from a large urban school district. Results indicated that exposure to violence was positively associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Additionally, identification with school and teacher support were related to higher hope and lower psychosocial distress. Adolescents who reported higher identification with school and higher teacher support reported higher hope, regardless of the level of violence exposure. Results emphasize the importance of school factors, particularly feeling connected to and supported in school, in promoting hope and minimizing psychosocial distress for youth exposed to community violence. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A New Stopping Rule for Computerized Adaptive Testing

The goal of the current study was to introduce a new stopping rule for computerized adaptive testing. The predicted standard error reduction stopping rule (PSER) uses the predictive posterior variance to determine the reduction in standard error that would result from the administration of additional items. The performance of the PSER was compared to that of the minimum standard error stopping rule and a modified version of the minimum information stopping rule in a series of simulated adaptive tests, drawn from a number of item pools. Results indicate that the PSER makes efficient use of CAT item pools, administering fewer items when predictive gains in information are small and increasing measurement precision when information is abundant.     

In-season changes in ventricular morphology and systolic function in adolescent female athletes

Purpose: To evaluate the influence of physical maturity on the changes in ventricular morphology and function with sport training in female youth athletes.

Methods: Thirty-two female athletes (age 13–18 years) underwent height and weight measurement and 2-D echocardiographic evaluation immediately prior to, and following, a 20-week soccer season. Pre- and post-season left ventricular end-diastolic diameter (LVEDD), end-diastolic volume (LVEDV), ejection fraction (LVEF), stroke volume (LVSV), mass (LVM), and posterior wall thickness (LVPWT), right ventricular end-diastolic diameter (RVEDD), end-diastolic area (RVEDA), and fractional area change (RVFAC), and interventricular septal thickness (IVST) were compared. In-season change in each variable was compared across pre-season hours of vigorous physical activity (0–1, 2–3, >3 hours).

Results: Significant increases were identified in LVEDV (51.3?±?10.4?v 56.4?±?9.6?ml/m², p?=?0.001) and RVEDA (10.5?±?1.9?v 11.3?±?2.5?cm²/m², p?=?0.040), but not LVEDD, LVM, LVPWT, LVSV, RVEDD, RVEDA, RVFAC, or IVST (p?>?0.05 for all). In-season changes in echocardiographic variables did not differ across hours of pre-season vigorous physical activity (p?>?0.05 for all).

Conclusion: Among female adolescent soccer players, in-season training elicits changes in resting ventricular volume, but not wall thickness or systolic function. These adaptations do not appear to be influenced by pre-season physical activity level.