International Seminar on University Governance and Management: An Overview

Tertiary Education and Management -     

In the dark II: spatial choice when access to extrinsic spatial cues is eliminated

Rats were tested in a specially constructed radial-arm maze that eliminated access to extramaze visual cues and allowed any effects of intramaze cues to be controlled. Despite this, choice accuracy was controlled by the spatial location of previously visited arms. Part of this control was attributed to vestibular or kinesthetic cues. This conclusion was corroborated by the finding that when explicit visual cues were moved from their standard (trained) spatial locations to novel locations, control of spatial choices was completely disrupted. The latter finding indicates that cues intrinsic to the rat (kinesthetic or vestibular information) and cues extrinsic to the rat (visual stimuli) operate in an integrated fashion.     

Racialised Education in Singapore

The Singapore education system plays a central role in the mythology of the young country’s nation building project. The education system is portrayed as the cradle of Singapore’s multiracialism, fostering racial harmony and understanding. Yet this historical study of primary school English textbooks from the 1970s to the present reveals that since the beginning of the 1980s they have been systemically designed in such a way that they evoke high levels of racial consciousness, and at their worst have displayed a pro-Chinese bias that has deprived non-Chinese children of inspiring role models. This study helps to explain the results of recent sociological research that has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Singapore education system as an instrument for promoting racial harmony.     

College choice in the church-affiliated sector of higher education: The influence of congregational cultural orientation

The relationship between a Midwest church-affiliated institution and its supporting congregations provides an opportunity to investigate part of the sociological environment within which a college-choice decision is made for students of a strong denominational orientation. Applying the local-cosmopolitan dichotomy used by previous researchers, this study hypothesized that the cultural orientation of local congregational leaders reflects norms that are aligned to congregational enrollment support or nonsupport for the denominational university. The findings demonstrate that the concepts of cultural, social, and ecclesiological localism-cosmopolitanism are helpful in explaining an individual's support for the denominational university. Also, differing cultural orientations among congregational leaders are related to the degree to which the congregation supports the university with the enrollment of youth.     

Simians in the Shape School: A comparative study of executive attention

Executive functions (EF) have been studied extensively in children and adults. However, EF tasks for young children can be difficult to administer and interpret. Espy (1997, Developmental Neuropsychology, 13, 495–499) designed the Shape School task to measure inhibition and switching in preschool-aged children. Shape School presents cartoon-like characters that children must flexibly name by their color, their shape, or both, depending on cues that indicate the appropriate rule. Shape School has been found to be age sensitive as well as predictive of performance on other EF tasks. We presented a computerized analogue of Shape School to seven rhesus macaques. Monkeys were trained to categorize characters by color or shape, or to inhibit this response, depending on whether the characters had eyes open, eyes closed, or wore hats. Monkeys performed above chance on the inhibition and switching components of the task. Long runs of a single classification rule and long runs of noninhibition trials had no significant impact on performance when the rule changed or inhibition was required. This nonverbal adaptation of Shape School can measure EF in nonhuman animals and could be used in conjunction with other EF tasks to provide a clearer picture of both human and nonhuman executive functions.     

The credibility of online news: an evaluation of the information by university students / La credibilidad de las noticias en Internet: una evaluación de la información por estudiantes universitarios

Abstract

The spread of online disinformation is one of the 10 global risks of the future according to the World Economic Forum, and 51% of experts believe that this situation will not improve in the coming years. By 2022, half of the news will be fake news. In terms of users, young people and adults have problems understanding where the information they find online comes from and what sources to trust or not. In order to ascertain the degree of credibility that young users in Andalucía give to information, this study presents the results of the evaluation of online news by university students pursuing degrees in communication and education (N = 188), using the CRAAP test. The data reveal differences in gender and degree programme in the credibility assigned to the news. The conclusion is that university students have difficulty differentiating the veracity of the sources, in line with previous studies, with fake news earning higher ratings than real news.     

At the Intersection of Contemporary Descriptions of Science and Issues of Equity and Diversity: Student Teachers' Conceptions,Rationales, and Instructional Practices

Journal of Science Teacher Education -     

Sensors,programming and devices in Art Education sessions. One case in the context of primary education / Sensores,programación y dispositivos en sesiones de Educación Artística. Un caso en el contexto de Educación Primaria

The pedagogical integration of computing is interesting in educational contexts based on the contributions of Seymour Papert and Wing’s concept of computational thinking. Integrating arts in education can lead to the design of activities using Scratch combined with devices. The main goal is to evaluate the integration of computational thinking in art education making use of technological resources, sensor cards and minicomputers, with a student-centred pedagogical approach. This research assesses the results of a control group of 35 students and an experimental group of 109 students in four different schools, using Mann-Whitney’s U-test for independent samples assessing ‘Active Learning’, ‘computational concepts’ and ‘fun’ scales. Applying data triangulation, and consistent with design-based research, the results of interviews and focus groups reinforced the results obtained in the aforementioned test, providing validity to the study. There are advantages regarding student interest, motivation and commitment related to programming technologies in art and education, particularly pedagogical sessions with music. Handling devices, sensors and Raspberry Pi provides participating students with a factor of commitment and enthusiasm, with significant improvements. Working with coding and devices brings an additional advantage in the development of computational thinking and digital competence. The results show an increase in creativity and artistic competence related to the ability to create music from the activities and technological resources described in the technological intervention.