Problem definition and thesis writing

The purpose of this paper is to present some innovative solutions to major problems experienced by coursework postgraduate students. The paper focusses on two key problem areas: the definition of the research problem, and the planning and writing of the first draft of the thesis. It is argued that one approach which can assist the student to overcome these problems is the workshop; research skills can be developed through the practical guidance, group-support, discussion and reflection which occur in the workshop context. The authors' experiences in conducting postgraduate workshops at Griffith University are discussed, and student evaluation of the workshops presented.     

The Reliability,Validity and Evaluation of the Objective Structured Clinical Examination in Podiatry (Chiropody)

The objective structured clinical examination (OSCE), initially developed for use in undergraduate medical training, has been adapted for use for the assessment of clinical skills in podiatry (chiropody) students. The introduction of this system of examination was accompanied by a 12‐month evaluation programme where issues of validity, repeatability, and stability of student performance over time were considered. The evaluation programme revealed relatively low levels of repeatability, high levels of construct and criterion validity, and good stability, of performance over time. Participating students were also surveyed for their level of acceptance of this format of clinical examination. Students demonstrated an overwhelming acceptance and support of the OSCE.     

Problematising the ‘Career Academic’ in UK construction and engineering education: does the system want what the system gets?

‘Career Academics’ are principally research-led, entering academia with limited or no industrial or practical experience. UK Higher Education Institutions welcome them for their potential to attain research grant funding and publish world-leading journal papers, ultimately enhancing institutional reputation. This polemical paper problematises the Career Academic around three areas: their institutional appeal; their impact on the student experience, team dynamics and broader academic functions; and current strategic policy to employ them. We also argue that recent UK Government teaching-focused initiatives will not address needs to employ practical academics, or ‘Pracademics’ in predominantly vocational Construction and Engineering Education. We generate questions for policy-makers, institutions and those implementing strategy. We argue that research is key, but partial rebalancing will achieve a diverse academic skill base to achieve contextualised construction and engineering education. In wider European contexts, the paper resonates with issues of academic ‘drift’ and provides reflection for others on the UK context.     

Orthographic consistency and individual learner differences in second language literacy acquisition

This study investigated whether orthographic consistency and individual learner differences including working memory (WM), first language (L1) background, and second language (L2) proficiency affect Chinese L2 learners’ literacy acquisition. Seventy American college students in beginning or intermediate Chinese classes participated in a character learning-and-reading experiment, and completed WM tasks and an L2 proficiency test. In the learning phase of the experiment, participants were asked to master 18 unfamiliar Chinese characters of three levels of consistency—consistent, semi-consistent, and inconsistent. Then in the transfer test of the experiment, participants read 60 novel, artificial characters analogous to the learned characters. Significant consistency effects for learning and reading new characters were found, with no effects of WM and L1. In particular, an interaction effect between consistency and L2 proficiency found in the learning phase indicated that participants with higher L2 proficiency learned the fully consistent characters better and faster than those with lower proficiency. These results suggest that L2 proficiency facilitates awareness of consistency, enabling learners to learn novel characters faster and more accurately. The findings of this study are compared with the character acquisition of beginning L1 Chinese readers and with L2 learners’ acquisition of other types of characters.     

The Development of Process Indicators to Estimate Student Gains Associated with Good Practices in Undergraduate Education

The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the development of psychometrically sound process indicators of student performance is described. Second, the results are reported of a test of the utility of these indicators with six samples of men and women students (n = 911 in each group) from 19 baccalaureate, 27 master's, and 29 doctoral-granting institutions. Process indicators represent behaviors associated with desired outcomes of college and estimate the extent to which students are engaged in these activities. Selected items from the College Student Experiences Questionnaire were used to create measures of three good educational practices: faculty-student contact, cooperation among students, and active learning. Active learning and cooperation among students in that order were the best predictors of gains for both women and men at all three types of institutions. Student background characteristics had only trivial influences on educational gains. Implications are discussed for institutional policy and further research.