Investment in Higher Education: Do Labor Market Opportunities Differ by Age of Recent College Graduates?

This study examined the post-graduation labor market experiences of recent college graduates for evidence of age-related barriers to employment. Older graduates were considerably less likely than younger graduates to seek new jobs following graduation, but, among those who did, the two age groups showed little difference in their job-seeking behaviors or their susceptibilities to unemployment. Despite these similarities, older graduates, on average, had fewer post-graduation job interviews and fewer job offers than younger graduates. The relationship between age and number of job interviews disappeared after controlling for the effects of other variables, but the relationship between age and number of job offers remained. Nonetheless, older graduates appear to have been employed in better jobs one year after graduation. Their higher average salaries were not explained by sociodemographic, educational, or employment-related variables. Thus, findings are generally inconsistent with the view that older graduates face age-related barriers to employment.     

Genetically modified food in perspective: an inquiry‐based curriculum to help middle school students make sense of tradeoffs

To understand how students learn about science controversy, this study examines students' reasoning about tradeoffs in the context of a technology‐enhanced curriculum about genetically modified food. The curriculum was designed and refined based on the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration Framework to help students sort and integrate their initial ideas and those presented in the curriculum. Pre‐test and post‐test scores from 190 students show that students made significant (p?<?0.0001) gains in their understanding of the genetically modified food controversy. Analyses of students' final papers, in which they took and defended a position on what type of agricultural practice should be used in their geographical region, showed that students were able to provide evidence both for and against their positions, but were less explicit about how they weighed these tradeoffs. These results provide important insights into students' thinking and have implications for curricular design.     

Use of digital video technology in an elementary school foreign language methods course

This article presents a case study of the use of digital video technology with a new pedagogical approach under a constructivist framework in an elementary school foreign language methods course. Data were collected through interviews with the methods course instructor, field notes, analytical notes from videotaped student presentations of their learning from the video clips, students’ mid‐semester evaluation of the use of video clips, and end‐of‐semester student reflections on open‐ended questions regarding the use of video clips. A careful examination of the data identified themes that illustrate the characteristics of the use of digital video technology under a constructivist framework. Those themes include the flexibility and capability of digital video technology, the development of the video clips, students’ ownership of knowledge, feedback from the students, and evaluation of the use of video clips. This case reports the vision of technology integration being realized. It results from the presence of technology, the instructor's pedagogical knowledge, and his or her content expertise.     

Studying and Working: A national study of student finances and student engagement

Tertiary Education and Management - A key determinant of the new relationship between students and universities in Australia is the changing nature of higher education funding arrangements and the...