Relationships between student characteristics and self‐, peer and tutor evaluations of oral presentations

There are many influences on how assessors grade themselves and others. Oral presentations are useful for exploring such factors in peer, self‐ and tutor marked assessments, being rapidly completed and assessed, commonly used in HE and very difficult to anonymize. This opportunistic study examined the effects of gender and level of attainment on the triangulation of marks awarded to student presenters. Grades generated by peer assessment were associated more strongly with tutor‐awarded marks than those from self‐assessment. For self‐assessment there was a strong effect of gender (female students undervalued their performance compared with tutor grades). Peer assessment produced higher marks than from tutors, perhaps because of the close‐knit community developed during residential courses. For tutor marks, the greatest variability was at the lower end of the scale, whereas peer assessors were most variable when marking students who self‐evaluated or peer assessed highly. Students awarded a narrower range of marks to peers compared with tutors, but when self‐assessing used a larger range. Presentations by students who admitted to little sleep the night before received lower grades from both peers and tutors, but this was not reflected by self‐assessments, suggesting they were unaware of their poorer performances. Sessions with fewer talks (four rather than seven) reduced the ‘dip’ in marks previously observed in the middle of sessions. Findings are discussed in the context of bias in this mode of assessment.     

Why Don't More Students Major in IS?

The large increases in the number of information systems (IS) majors about 10 years ago have been matched by equally large decreases in IS enrollments over the last few years. This article addresses the question of why students choose any major in general, and why students no longer choose to become an IS major in particular. We used a validated survey instrument and the responses from 163 students to examine this question in detail. Not surprisingly, we found that "genuine interest" in the subject was the most salient factor affecting the decision to major in IS. More surprising were what factors did not appear to influence this decision—for example, the promise of good job salaries, job security, the advice of others, or even the image of those who become IS professionals. Students seem aware that information technology employment opportunities exist; if job and salary issues contribute to choosing majors  other than IS , it is due to the perception of an unfavorable work/salary ratio for our field rather than one of job security or availability. That is, the amount of work to get an IS degree (the perception of harder-than-average courses) combined with (for many students) the perception of an undesirable amount of continuous training to keep an IS career just do not seem to balance with salary levels. These findings have important implications for the recruiting efforts of IS faculty seeking to attract more IS majors.     

Talent identification and selection in elite youth football: An Australian context

We identified the perceptual–cognitive skills and player history variables that differentiate players selected or not selected into an elite youth football (i.e. soccer) programme in Australia. A sample of elite youth male football players (n?=?127) completed an adapted participation history questionnaire and video-based assessments of perceptual–cognitive skills. Following data collection, 22 of these players were offered a full-time scholarship for enrolment at an elite player residential programme. Participants selected for the scholarship programme recorded superior performance on the combined perceptual–cognitive skills tests compared to the non-selected group. There were no significant between group differences on the player history variables. Stepwise discriminant function analysis identified four predictor variables that resulted in the best categorization of selected and non-selected players (i.e. recent match-play performance, region, number of other sports participated, combined perceptual–cognitive performance). The effectiveness of the discriminant function is reflected by 93.7% of players being correctly classified, with the four variables accounting for 57.6% of the variance. Our discriminating model for selection may provide a greater understanding of the factors that influence elite youth talent selection and identification.     

Maintaining the moral order: a functional analysis of "The Jerry Springer Show"

The prevalence of verbal and physical aggression on daytime television talk shows has earned this genre the designation of “confrontainment.” In recent times academics, politicians, clergy, and media critics have frequently and publicly expressed their concern about the violation of moral values featured on the “The Jerry Springer Show.” On the other hand, sociologists in the functionalist tradition argue that commonly held moral values must be violated and the villains publicly punished for their transgressions to mark and reinforce moral boundaries. The goal of the study reported here was to assess the potential of “The Jerry Springer Show” for fulfilling these social maintenance functions. A content analysis of 100 episodes of the show over an eight-month period revealed that deviance from traditional family values is frequently featured on the show but that the studio audience and Jerry Springer played active roles in the public degradation of these transgressions, casting the show in a morally conservative light.     

Equalising schooling,unequalising private supplementary tutoring: access and tracking through shadow education in China

The global expansion of mass schooling has greatly increased opportunities for low-income families, and governments have devoted much effort to equalising access and quality in education systems. Alongside regular schooling, the so-called shadow education system of private supplementary tutoring has grown rapidly across the world. The fact that rich families can purchase more and better quality shadow education undermines the achievements of increased equality of opportunities in formal schooling. Drawing on a mixed-methods study in Shanghai, China, the article shows how shadow education has offset school equalisation policies through differentiation of access and through sorting mechanisms. Shadow education occupies a space beyond strict government control in which privileged families and elite schools ignore and mediate the equalisation policies, seeking competitive advantages. Uneven access to shadow education and tracking within it shape, maintain, and exacerbate inequitable schooling experiences at individual and institutional levels.     

Job change in later life: A process of marginalization?

Adopting a longitudinal approach, this article examines downward occupational mobility (DOM) later in working life and its effects on job satisfaction and perceptions of working conditions of older workers in Europe. The main aim was to test whether the risk that workers will be negatively impacted and marginalized in the labor market due to demotion into lower quality jobs is offset by benefits. Based on an ordinal logistic regression of merged Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe and English Longitudinal Study of Ageing datasets, the study found a positive significant impact of DOM on overall job satisfaction. Moreover, DOM was associated with a statistically significant reduction in workload pressure, although it did increase physical work demand. This article adds to the literature on marginalization of workers with indications that the lower income and status associated with DOM at older ages may have offsetting benefits.     

Longitudinal analyses of educational outcomes for youth transitioning out of care in the US: trends and influential factors

ABSTRACT

This paper draws on data collected from two of the most extensive longitudinal studies of care leavers in the US. The Midwest Study (2003–2011) included 732 youths in foster care in three Midwestern states, and the CalYOUTH Study (2012–present) includes 727 youths in California foster care. The paper has three objectives: (1) describe trends in secondary and postsecondary educational attainment at different ages; (2) summarise findings on predictors of educational attainment; and (3) summarise findings on the impact of extended foster care (EFC) on educational attainment. Results from these two studies show that by age 21, 77–85% of care leavers finish a secondary credential and 31–52% enrol in college. By age 25, about 8% have earned a college degree. Results from multivariate analyses find that youths’ educational background and parental status were consistently associated with later educational attainment. Specific aspects of social support also influenced college outcomes. Life demands after enrolling in college (e.g. employment, parenthood) played a more influential role in college degree attainment than did aspects of youths’ background. Characteristics of colleges also predicted youths’ odds of degree completion. Finally, existing evidence suggests that EFC promotes secondary credential completion and college entry, but not college persistence or degree completion.     

Algorithmic culture,networked learning and the technological horizon of theory

ABSTRACT

Going via Bernard Stiegler’s theorisation of technology, and his response to Chris Anderson’s claim that the era of hyper-networked, algorithmically driven digital technologies signals the end of theory, this paper aims to place the educational practice of networked learning as a space to think the edge, excess or limit of this proposed algorithmic dominance. The author discusses how networked learning can negotiate the border between educational theory, the practice of teaching and learning, and the processes and systems of educational technology, but suggests that to do this it must engage these disciplines through a thinking of technology which does not decide upon its status in advance. He argues that affirming this particular relation to technology is increasingly urgent given we are at a moment in which educational institutions are asking how to prepare our students for an age of continuing technological disruption.     

Context sensitivity of conditioned suppression following preexposure to the conditioned stimulus

Conditioned suppression in rats is often unaffected when the context (or set of background stimuli) is changed following conditioning. This suggests that responding to the conditioned stimulus (CS) can be relatively insensitive to the context in which the CS is presented. In two experiments, we examined whether sensitivity to contextual stimuli is affected by preexposure to the CS. In Experiment 1, when the CS was novel at the outset of conditioning, conditioned suppression was not affected when the context was changed following conditioning. However, when the CS had been preexposed, responding was weaker when extinction occurred outside of the conditioning context. In Experiment 2, responding was again sensitive to the test context, regardless of whether preexposure occurred in the conditioning context or in an alternate context. These results suggest that the extent to which responding is sensitive to context can depend on the conditioning history of the CS.