Denying Traditional Senses: lessons about programme change

Abstract

Today, faculty are being challenged to rethink their course and programme offerings, and to bring them in line with the diverse needs of a new student population. In doing so, they are continually asked to confront their ‘traditional senses’ about teaching. This paper reports the struggles of faculty to build new notions about teachings, and learning styles and strategies as they recreated the real estate programme at Arizona State University. It then draws from their experience, certain lessons about programme change.     

Role of Self-Efficacy and Task-Value in Predicting College Students'' Course Performance and Future Enrollment Intentions

Predictive utility of self-efficacy and task-value beliefs was compared among 168 Korean female college students. The study assessed the constructs longitudinally and attempted consolidation of self-efficacy and expectancy-value theories. Self-efficacy perceptions were assessed at varying levels of measurement specificity. Exploratory factor analyses showed that self-efficacy items were reliably differentiated into separate factors of a priori specificity. These self-efficacy factors were positively correlated among themselves and, with an exception of problem-specific self-efficacy, also with the task-value factor. A correlation coefficient between any two self-efficacy factors tended to decrease, as these factors were associated with increasingly different measurement levels. Path analysis showed that students' midterm scores and enrollment intentions at T1 were better predicted by the task-value factor. However, the typically stronger links of self-efficacy to performance and of task value to intentions were observed with T2 variables.     

Exploring the validity of a teachers’ self-efficacy scale in five countries

The purpose of this article was twofold. The first purpose was to test the validity of the Teachers’ Sense of Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) in five settings—Canada, Cyprus, Korea, Singapore, and the United States. The second purpose was, by extension, to establish the importance of the teacher self-efficacy construct across diverse teaching conditions. Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis was used to better understand the measurement invariance of the scale across countries, after which the relationship between the TSES, its three factors, and job satisfaction was explored. The TSES showed convincing evidence of reliability and measurement invariance across the five countries, and the relationship between the TSES and job satisfaction was similar across settings. The study provides general evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy is a valid construct across culturally diverse settings and specific evidence that teachers’ self-efficacy showed a similar relationship with teachers’ job satisfaction in five contrasting settings.     

高中化学坐标图形题及解题策略探讨——以河南省2005-2014年高考化学试题为例

通过对河南2005-2014年高考化学题目的统计分析,发现化学坐标图形题几乎每年都出现,且有三种类型:化学反应速率和化学平衡类、反应体系中某种物质量的变化类、物质的溶解度坐标类,有必要对出现频次最多的坐标图形题——化学反应速率和化学平衡类进行解题策略的讨论.解答此类试题的思路在于:理解图中横轴和纵轴的化学含义,剖析图中曲线变化的意义,对要考查的化学问题作出正确的判断;熟练、系统地掌握题中所考查的化学反应速率和化学平衡的知识,并掌握看图形的基本方法与技巧.为此,在实际的化学教学过程中,教师应引导学生自觉地了解图形题所呈现的化学含义,掌握化学图形题最基本的分析方法;教师需多使用图形教学,让学生自己动手绘制图形并进行图形的分析与处理,培养学生良好的学习习惯,帮助学生在日常的学习中积累有关的化学图形知识.     

The Department as Double Agent: The Call for Department Change and Renewal

The well-known and respected Pew Foundation recently suggested four prerequisites for departmental change and renewal—a dedication to teamwork, collective dialogue and inquiry about effective teaching, a commitment to quality control and rewarding collective goals, and the leadership of a purposeful chair (Pew Foundation, 1996, pp. 7-9). Many realities that surround academic programs work against these critical conditions for renewal: conflicting faculty interests, turbulent environments, unclear institutional goals, to name a few. This paper examines teamwork, teaching, quality, and leadership as means to mitigate the contradictions and enhance department renewal.     

打赢新兴领域关键核心技术攻坚战——基于“863”计划相关项目的启示

新兴科技领域已成为当今大国战略博弈的主要战场,关键核心技术已成为塑造国际竞争优势的国之重器。文章在国家战略视角下深刻认识打赢新兴领域关键核心技术攻坚战的重大意义基础上,从“863”计划的实施背景与现实比较入手,系统归纳了有关项目开展新兴领域关键核心技术攻关的宝贵经验,基于此提出了新型举国体制下打赢新兴领域关键核心技术攻坚战的思考与建议。     

THE ACADEMIC DEAN: An Imperiled Species Searching for Balance

The academic deanship is the least studied andmost misunderstood position in the academy. The work ofadministration and the pursuit of scholarly endeavors donot make good bedfellows since deans' academic interests turn them firmly toward theirdepartments, but their leadership of the colleges andschools depends largely on directions from the provostand university. The resulting paradoxical situationcauses many academic leaders to burn out from thestrain of trying to be effective administrators, on theone hand, and attempting to protect the academicautonomy and independence of faculty on the other(Gmelch and Miskin, 1993, 1995). Many academic leaders,such as deans, end their administrative careers fatiguedand suffering from excessive levels of stress (Gmelchand Burns, 1994). The first phase of this study explores the sources of stress experienced bydeans in both Australia and the United States.     

A Non-authoritative Educational Metadata Ontology for Filtering and Recommending Learning Objects

Digital libraries populated with learning objects are becoming popular tools in the creation of instructional technologies. Many current efforts to create standard metadata structures that facilitate the discovery and instructional use of learning objects recommend a single, authoritative metadata record per version of the learning object. However, as we argue in this paper, a single metadata record — particularly one with fields that emphasize knowledge management and technology, while evading instructional issues — provides information insufficient to support instructional utilization decisions. To put learning objects to instructional use, users must examine the individual objects, forfeiting the supposed benefits of the metadata system. As a solution, we propose a system that includes multi-record, non-authoritative metadata focussed on the surrounding instructional context of learning objects.     

Strategic Leadership: A Model for Promoting,Sustaining, and Advancing Institutional Significance

This article presents the methods, materials, and manpower required to create a strategic leadership program for promoting, sustaining, and advancing institutional significance. The functionality of the program is based on the Original Case Study Design (OCSD) methodology, in which participants are given actual college issues to investigate from a leadership perspective. Participants in the program work in teams to maximize the development of their individual and group leadership skills. Program outcomes are demonstrated by formal presentations that identify an organizational problem and the design of a solution. The identification of problems and strategies for solutions occurs within the framework of strategic leadership development. It is argued in this paper that layered strategic leadership is the key element to promote, sustain, and advance institutional significance. Implications and recommendations for community college strategic leadership practice are also addressed in this applied research article.     

The Role of School District Science Coordinators in the District-Wide Appropriation of an Online Resource Discovery and Sharing Tool for Teachers

When introducing and implementing a new technology for science teachers within a school district, we must consider not only the end users but also the roles and influence district personnel have on the eventual appropriation of that technology. School districts are, by their nature, complex systems with multiple individuals at different levels in the organization who are involved in supporting and providing instruction. Varying levels of support for new technologies between district coordinators and teachers can sometimes lead to counterintuitive outcomes. In this article, we examine the role of the district science coordinator in five school districts that participated in the implementation of an online resource discovery and sharing tool for Earth science teachers. Using a qualitative approach, we conducted and coded interviews with district coordinators and teachers to examine the varied responsibilities associated with the district coordinator and to infer the relationships that were developed and perceived by teachers. We then examine and discuss two cases that illustrate how those relationships could have influenced how the tool was adopted and used to differing degrees in the two districts. Specifically, the district that had high support for online resource use from its coordinator appeared to have the lowest level of tool use, and the district with much less visible support from its coordinator had the highest level of tool use. We explain this difference in terms of how the coordinator’s promotion of teacher autonomy took distinctly different forms at those two districts.