Roommate Effects on Grades: Evidence from First-Year Housing Assignments

This paper estimates the effect of students’ background characteristics on the academic outcomes of their college roommates. It uses data from four classes of students at Wellesley College, where roommate assignment is credibly random, conditional on student responses to a housing preference form. In linear specifications, there are no peer effects on students’ grade point averages. There is some evidence that students’ SAT scores have nonlinear effect on their roommates’ achievement, but the results are not robust. We conclude that roommate peer effects might exist among small groups of students, but they are not a key determinant of students’ average academic outcomes at Wellesley College.     

Informal faculty-student contact and commuter college freshmen

Based on prior research conducted at residential colleges and universities, nonclassroom informal faculty-student contact appears to be an element of student socialization. This study extends this line of research to a commuter student population. The extent to which informal contact socializes students by influencing their educational aspiration level in a commuter setting is investigated using a longitudinal data collection with the student as unit of analysis. Ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares techniques are used to analyze the data. Significant interactions between informal faculty-student contact and race were found. White and nonwhite students were sbusequently analyzed separately. The ordinary least squares (OLS) multiple regression results suggest that informal contact makes a slight but significant contribution to the explanation of freshmen aspirations for whites, but not for nonwhites. The two-stage least squares (2SLS) analysis suggests that the assumption that contact influences aspiration may not be valid and, indeed, that aspiration level may cause students to seek to initiate informal contact with faculty.     

The long and winding road: A grounded theory of reminiscence among Filipino residents in nursing homes

Although reminiscence is a naturally occurring process in late adulthood, not all older adults reminisce effectively. Notably, feelings of guilt, loneliness, bitterness and regret lead to despair and remorse rather than integrity. In spite of this, little is known about the process of reminiscence among Filipino older adults. This grounded study aims to develop a model that describes how a select group of older Filipino patients residing in nursing homes in the Philippines experience reminiscence.

Strauss and Corbin’s (1990) grounded theory design was employed in this study. A total of eighteen (18) Filipino older adults in nursing homes were purposively selected to participate in one-on-one, semi-structured interviews. These were then transcribed into field texts and analyzed through open, axial and selective coding. Member checking procedure was employed to ensure that the emerged themes were sensible and consistent with the participants’ lived experiences.

Through constant comparative method, the findings of this study presented the development of a three-phase process (Reactivating, Reconstructing and Reframing) that describes the reminiscence experiences of a select group of Filipino nursing home residents. The emergent theoretical model invites nurses as quality care providers to renew and restructure interventions to promote effective reminiscence.     

重围之下的大学——当代学术领域中的信任和责任制

本文探索发生在欧洲高等教育中的变革:从冯堡的大学理念转变为在准市场压力下操作的大学模式。虽然促进了大学中的责任制,但是,与大学的资助制度和相关“使命”上的变化相联系的这种发展,是与传统信任机制的被侵蚀联系在一起的。本文主要从英国的经验出发,这种经验现已在国际上得到延伸和拓展,思考目前可能存在于英国和欧洲大学中的制度变革和问题的教训。     

Gamification and student motivation

The literature suggests that gamified learning interventions may increase student engagement and enhance learning. We empirically investigate this by exploring the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation on the participation and performance of over 100 undergraduate students in an online gamified learning intervention. The paper makes a number of contributions. First, by synthesizing the literature the central concepts required for a learning intervention to be considered gamified are mapped and the development of an online gamified learning intervention is described. Second, the effect of gamification on learning outcomes is examined using a pre- and post-intervention survey. We find that gamified learning interventions have a positive impact on student learning. Third, our results show that while generally positive, the impact of gamified intervention*ns on student participation varies depending on whether the student is motivated intrinsically or extrinsically. These findings will be of practical interest to teaching and learning practitioners working in a range of educational contexts, and at all levels of education, who wish to increase student engagement and enhance learning.     

The relative effectiveness of an inanimate stimulus and a live surrogate during imprinting in Japanese quail,Coturnix coturnix japonica

It has been demonstrated repeatedly that stimuli vary in their effectiveness in eliciting and maintaining imprinting. Agreement has not been reached, however, with regard to the ideal imprinting model for laboratory studies. This situation is in part a result of the inability to replicate precisely natural parameters in the laboratory. Thus laboratory results are often inconsistent with field research. In order to develop a more biologically appropriate imprinting stimulus, a live Japanese quail hen was conditioned to serve as an imprinting object. An imprinting study was then performed to assess the dimensions of effectiveness of the live model. Comparisons between the live model and a decoy yielded different patterns of imprinting in young Japanese quail.     

Multilevel Analysis of Multiple-baseline Data Evaluating Precision Teaching as an Intervention for Improving Fluency in Foundational Reading Skills for at Risk Readers

In this article, multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to evaluate the impact of a precision teaching (PT) program, within a Tier 2 Response to Intervention framework, targeting fluency in foundational reading skills with at risk kindergarten readers. Thirteen multiple-baseline design experiments that included participation from 35 kindergarten students were included in the current analysis. By combining data from a series of multiple-baseline studies using a multilevel model, we analyzed outcomes to determine an estimated treatment effect. The results indicate that across participants and across studies, PT showed an average increase of 15 correct responses in foundational reading skills per minute. This immediate influence on rates of core reading skills was statistically significant. Moreover, the treatment had a significant positive effect on the time trend indicating that rates in foundational reading skills increased more across time during the treatment phase compared to the baseline phase. The study provides evidence that the obtained rates in foundational reading skills at the end of the intervention were retained after removing the intervention. From the outcomes of the multilevel model, PT can be considered as a promising Tier 2 intervention to increase reading fluency with individuals who are at risk of reading failure.     

Students’ experiences of learning with iPads in upper secondary school – a base for proto-TPACK

This research focuses on Finnish students’ (n?=?84) experiences of using personal iPads in their studies through 3 years of upper secondary schooling. It is based on results from one of the first schools in Finland where all the new students were provided with iPads at the start of their studies. Data consists of: (i) 127 short stories written by students about how they would advise a new teacher and a new student to use iPads in teaching and learning, and (ii) four group discussions on the same topics. Qualitative thematic analysis of the data was guided by the TPACK framework. Results suggest that: (i) teachers’ pedagogical approaches changed little in response to the new devices and remained largely teacher-centred, and (ii) students do not have the confidence to radically change learning styles to take advantage of the affordances of the devices. The value that iPads add to teaching and learning is difficult to quantify because of the complex and often conflicting factors involved. Overall, the findings imply that teachers’ TPACK is generally resistant to change and students’ proto-TPACK is insufficiently developed to initiate change. An approach that systematically develops both students’ and teachers’ TPACK is advocated.