The decision to enter higher education: The case of polytechnic sociology students

This paper examines the decision to enter higher education by students who entered British polytechnic degree courses in sociology/social studies. It is concerned with the extent to which occupational considerations affect the decision to enter and with relating these findings to theories of occupational choice. The paper commences with an examination of three models of occupational choice and summarises the findings of studies that have focused on the entry into higher education and occupational decision-making. The results of our own study, based on questionnaire and interview data, indicate that occupational considerations are of limited importance in the decision to enter sociology/social studies courses at polytechnics. Rather our data favours a model emphasizing the role of socio-cultural background of home and school creating expectations for higher education. Data on past decisions which affect educational careers indicated that entry into higher education was seen in terms of an automatic process rather than a conscious decision made for particular goals. In our population there was, however, a small vocationally oriented group who differed from other students, in which females and those under 18 years of age were over-represented, and who were predominantly from two colleges which offered vocational training in their courses. Our results, we conclude, lend support to a fortuitous model of occupational choice in respect of the decision to enter higher education. Expectations derived from socio-cultural backgrounds of the students were more important in determining entry than conscious occupational goals.The research on which the paper is based is located in the Department of Social Science, Polytechnic of the South Bank, and supported by the Social Science Research Council.Work on this project has also been carried out by Dr I. C. Cannon and Ms. A. Scambler. An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the Standing Conference of The Sociology of Further Education, London, June 1975.     

数字时代的远程教育和终身学习——第16届亚洲开放大学协会年会主题报告

引言人们现在都一致认为:新的数字技术以其快速的信息存储和传输引起了世界经济、国家经济乃至整个社会的巨变。在数字时代,知道怎样获得信息并把信息转化为知识是经济、社会、个人发展的主要驱动力,个别人可能还会认为这也是政治发展的主要驱动力。对于知识产业、知识工人以及帮助人们在成指数增长的信息中找到定位感的知识系统的话题我们已习以为常。据统计,世界信息量每两年翻两番。知识爆炸使得我们所学的知识必须很快更新。例如,理工系的学     

Knowing,Believing, and Understanding: What Goals for Science Education?

Science &; Education - What is a teacher to do when confronted with a student who says “I understand that theory (e.g., evolution), but I don't believe it”? The purpose of this...     

Current conceptions of literacy – insights from work with children and older learners with sensory needs

There have been many efforts to conceptualise literacy, both in terms of its essence and component parts, but it has proved difficult to define. This paper considers work that is undertaken with children and older learners with sensory needs in order to promote the early stages of literacy. Recent government initiatives aimed at fostering literacy development have caused teachers of children with sensory needs to re-examine their practice. The paper discusses early literacy as part of children's attempts to communicate and describes children with sensory needs engaging in a range of activities that are termed 'literacy' by those working with them. By taking into account these activities, the authors endeavour to throw light on the broader questions around concepts of literacy.     

Emerging adult women’s career role modeling and wishful identification with female TV news personalities

This study investigated how emerging adult women perceive, role model, and wishfully identify with female television news personalities (TVNPs) in the contemporary climate of social media celebrity where a male-dominated newsroom persists. Participants (n = 138, M = 19.58 years) selected TVNPs and completed survey measures of exposure, personal work values, perceived TVNP work values, and wishful identification. Participants’ perceived extrinsic and intrinsic work values of TVNPs correlated with their own work values, extrinsically and intrinsically. Exposure to TVNPs predicted greater wishful identification. The discussion explores women’s perceptions of TVNPs as they formulate career plans.     

Observed peer victimization during early elementary school: continuity, growth, and relation to risk for child antisocial and depressive behavior

The rate at which 266 boys and girls ages 5 to 7 years old were victimized by peers was observed on multiple occasions in kindergarten and first grade. Individual differences in victimization were observed at kindergarten entry and in growth over the subsequent 2 years. Victimization increased for some children but decreased for others. Growth in victimization was reciprocally related to growth in teacher-reported antisocial and depressive behavior for boys. For girls, kindergarten victimization was related to growth in parent-reported antisocial behavior, teacher-reported depressive behavior to growth in victimization, and growth in victimization to parent-reported depression. At a short-term group level, antisocial behavior had a lagged suppressive effect on victimization for boys but a facilitating effect for girls.     

International organizations,educational development,and conflict: A (world) cultural perspective

PROSPECTS - Many analyses of globalized education have directed growing attention to a problematic local-global nexus, with a particular focus on international organizations (IOs) as coercive and...