Evaluating Flexible Delivery across a Tertiary Institution

An institutional evaluation of flexible delivery can lead to improvements in education practice, and gives the institution the opportunity to re-focus its strategic intent and correct practices that are contrary to that intent. In this paper, flexible delivery as a strategic emphasis of Universal College of Learning (UCOL) is outlined. The evaluation of the strategy's implementation is then described through the process, results and future directions of flexible delivery at UCOL. Flexible delivery was evaluated across the institution by interviewing heads of faculty and lecturers and mailing a questionnaire to students. The results are discussed not only in relation to distinct areas for improvement but also to the concept of drift from the original strategy. It is suggested that all tertiary institutions aiming to improve their practice when using flexible forms of course delivery should undertake similar evaluations on a regular basis.     

A historical sketch of intercollegiate debating: II

Mediaeval Artes Praedicandi: A Hand‐List. By Harry Caplan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1934; pp. 52. $1.50.

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“ ‘Henry of Hesse’ on the Art of Preaching,”; Publications of the Modern Language Association, XLVIII, No. 2, June, 1933. All by Harry Caplan.

The Making of a Pulpit Orator. By John A. McClorey, S.J. Macmillan, 1935. $2.00.

Public Speaking. By Donald Hayworth. New York: The Ronald Press Company, 1935; pp. 442.

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Language and Its Growth. By H. F. Scott, W. L. Carr, and G. T. Wilkinson. Chicago: Scott, Foresman &; Co., 1935; pp. 389. $2.00.

A Dictionary of Modern American Usage. By H. W. Horwill, New York: Oxford University Press, 1935; pp. ix+360. $3.25.

The Thorndike‐Century Junior Dictionary. By E. L. Thorndike. Chicago: Scott, Foresman and Co., 1935; pp. x+970. $1.32.

On the Teaching of Junior High School English. By Emma Glaser. New York: D. Appleton‐Century Co., 1935; pp. 307.

Stammering and Allied Disorders. By C. S. Bluemel. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1935; pp. 182.

The Gentleman from New York: a Life of Roscoe Conkling. By Donald Baer Chidsey. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1935; pp. 438.

How to Win a Sales Argument. By Richard C. Borden and Alvin C. Busse. New York: Harper and Bros., 1935.

Public Speaking for Everybody. By Charles W. Mears. New York: Harper and Bros., 1935.

French Pronunciation. By Jeanne S. Marie. Philadelphia: Plank Printing Co., 1935; pp. 70.

The Best English. By H. C. Wyld. New York: Oxford University Press, 1934.

So‐o‐o‐o You're Going on the Air. By Robert West, M.A. New York: Rodin Publishing Co., 1934; pp. 215.

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A Guide to Play Selection. By Milton Smith. New York: D. Appleton‐Century Co., 1934. $1.25.

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Speech Making. By F. J. Griffiths. New York: Oxford University Press, 1935; pp. 96.

The Technical Man Sells His Services. By Edward Hurst, S.B. New York: McGraw‐Hill Book Company, 1933; pp. 239.

Scenery Simplified. By Glenn R. Webster and William Wetzel. Eldridge Entertainment House, Franklin, Ohio, 1934; pp. 167. $1.50.     

Advancing Research Data Management in the Social Sciences: Implementing Instruction for Education Graduate Students Into a Doctoral Curriculum

Research data management (RDM) skills are vital yet often untaught in graduate programs, especially in the social sciences. In this article, the authors present a case study of how a research data librarian and an education librarian partnered to provide targeted RDM instruction for a previously unconsidered student group: education doctoral students. They discuss the design, development, and implementation of this focused RDM support. Assessment data from a workshop and in-class sessions are presented and contextualized. From this information, the authors offer practical suggestions that other social science librarians can use to create similar workshops at their institutions.     

Comparing Two Inquiry Professional Development Interventions in Science on Primary Students’ Questioning and Other Inquiry Behaviours

Developing students’ skills to pose and respond to questions and actively engage in inquiry behaviours enables students to problem solve and critically engage with learning and society. The aim of this study was to analyse the impact of providing teachers with an intervention in inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum in comparison to an intervention in non-inquiry pedagogy alongside inquiry science curriculum on student questioning and other inquiry behaviours. Teacher participants in the comparison condition received training in four inquiry-based science units and in collaborative strategic reading. The experimental group, the community of inquiry (COI) condition, received training in facilitating a COI in addition to training in the same four inquiry-based science units. This study involved 227 students and 18 teachers in 9 primary schools across Brisbane, Australia. The teachers were randomly allocated by school to one of the two conditions. The study followed the students across years 6 and 7 and students’ discourse during small group activities was recorded, transcribed and coded for verbal inquiry behaviours. In the second year of the study, students in the COI condition demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of procedural and substantive higher-order thinking questions and other inquiry behaviours than those in the comparison condition. Implementing a COI within an inquiry science curriculum develops students’ questioning and science inquiry behaviours and allows teachers to foster inquiry skills predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum. Provision of inquiry science curriculum resources alone is not sufficient to promote the questioning and other verbal inquiry behaviours predicated by the Australian Science Curriculum.     

Using Case-Based Pedagogy in the Philippines: A Narrative Inquiry

This study features use of case-based pedagogy as a context for exploring science teacher education reform. A central premise of the study is that science teacher education reform is a complex process characterised by the individual and collective narrative histories of teachers. The study was conducted at West Visayas State University in the Philippines as a collaborative research endeavour involving two US and four Filipino science teacher educators. The centrepiece of this study was a case experience prompted by reflection on prospective and practicing elementary teachers' written cases. Results of the study are presented here as a layered narrative. An initial layer explores how a case, written by a prospective teacher, was interwoven with her past and future life history. A second layer looks at sociocultural and professional tensions that mediated the participants' case experience. A third layer represents how the case experience provided a community that supported critical reflection among the research team members. Implications from the study emphasise that case-based pedagogy can serve as a basis for critical reflection to inform community-based approaches to science teacher education pedagogical and research reform.     

Intersectionality in higher education research: a systematic literature review

ABSTRACT

This paper presents a systematic structured review of recent research that explicitly adopts intersectionality as a theoretical framework to interrogate how tertiary institutions manage, cater for, include, exclude and are experienced in ways that produce advantage and disadvantage. The analysis addresses the following questions: Within research that uses intersectionality, what aspects of the HE context are the focus? What methodologies are employed and how do these contribute to the production of knowledge? What vectors of identity are included? We find that gender appeared as the primary identity with which other dimensions of difference were combined to produce intersectional positions. Furthermore, case study and auto-ethnographic designs were primary approaches. This systematic literature review of 50 papers demonstrates that, when considering the workings of multiple systems of (dis)advantage, academic participation is intertwined with social and personal aspects of the HE experience. While intersectionality challenges the dominant instrumental view of HE, our review concludes that there is considerable work to be done to actively address the workings of intersecting systems of inequity impacting on participation and outcomes of students and faculty.     

Browsing is a collaborative process

Interfaces to databases have traditionally been designed as single-user systems that hide other users and their activity. This paper aims to show that collaboration is an important aspect of searching online information retrieval (IR) systems that requires explicit computerised support. A number of systems offering varied approaches to supporting collaboration are surveyed and a structure for analysing the various aspects of collaboration is applied. The dominant form of collaboration in digital libraries is likely to be remote and asynchronous. Collaborative work in the digital library requires that both the search product and the search process can be captured and communicated. The ARIADNE system is introduced as an example of computerised support for collaboration between browsers.