Collaborating with undergraduates: Obstacles and tips

An increasing number of educators have called for active learning strategies to educate college students. At the same time, college instructors are being called upon to publish at increased rates while maintaining high teaching loads. One way to merge the ideals of active learning with publishing is to engage students, particularly undergraduate students, in collaborative projects. Writing, re‐searching, and publishing with undergraduate students is not an easy task, however. In this paper, we address obstacles that likely keep faculty from working with undergraduate students in this manner. We conclude by suggesting strategies to facilitate student/faculty projects.     

Beyond teaching practice: Exploring individual determinants of student performance on a research skills module

The purpose of this study was to identify the extent to which intrinsic student factors such as cognitive learning style, learning strategies, motivation and statistics anxiety, as well as certain demographic factors, predict performance on a research design and analysis course (RDAIIA) in the Department of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, with a view to developing future interventions for improving student performance. Using a sample of eighty students, it was established that the factors most predictive of RDA performance were secondary school performance (p < 0.0001) and age (p = 0.0106). Excluding demographic factors, self-efficacy (p < 0.0001), help-seeking (p = 0.0531) and a reflective learning style (p = 0.0071) were also found to be predictive. Performance also differed between students who had completed Mathematics on the higher grade in secondary school and those who had completed standard grade (p = 0.016). These findings present both possible directions and substantial challenges for future performance-intervention strategies.     

Personality type and occupational preference: Testing Holland's theory in the Caribbean

Holland's theory of career choice, which predicts a relationship between personality type and occupational preference and satisfaction, was tested in Dominica, a small and relatively underdeveloped Caribbean nation. Data from 101 14–16 year olds in their final year of schooling were consistent with Holland's ideas in some respects, but the close relationship observed between Social and Realistic categories contradicted theoretical predictions. Explanations for this finding, and wider implications for use of North American materials in Caribbean guidance and counselling programmes, are discussed.This research was conducted by the second author in partial fulfilment of requirements for the B.E.d. degree, University of the West Indies, under the supervision of the first author who also prepared the article for publication.     

Changes in the Youth Labour Market, 1974‐1981

The paper uses time series data constructed from the annual General Household Survey to examine the impact of increasing qualifications, rising unemployment and growing government intervention on the labour market experiences of young people in Great Britain from 1974 to 1981. The data show that for those not continuing in full‐time education the rise in qualifications has been at the lower levels only. For young males growing unemployment after 1979 was associated with a loss of jobs at all skill levels, but the proportion in skilled manual jobs fell steadily throughout the period. For females growing unemployment was associated in the early part of the period with a loss of skilled white collar jobs and in the later part with a loss of less skilled jobs. The decline in the proportion in skilled jobs was particularly marked for the unqualified. While falling unemployment in 1978/79 brought more skilled jobs for 16‐year‐olds, including the unqualified, older teenagers gained only a rise in the proportion in less skilled jobs. Since 1979 the qualifications of young people in skilled manual occupations have risen faster than in other occupation groups. Some implications of these trends are discussed.     

Development of a ‘universal’ rubric for assessing undergraduates' scientific reasoning skills using scientific writing

We developed a rubric for measuring students' ability to reason and write scientifically. The Rubric for Science Writing (Rubric) was tested in a variety of undergraduate biology laboratory courses (total n = 142 laboratory reports) using science graduate students (teaching assistants) as raters. Generalisability analysis indicates that the Rubric provides a reliable measure of students' abilities (g = 0.85) in these conditions. Comparison of student performance in various biology classes indicated that some scientific skills are more challenging for students to develop than others and identified a number of previously unappreciated gaps in the curriculum. Our findings suggest that use of the Rubric provides three major benefits in higher education: (1) to increase substance and consistency of grading within a course, particularly those staffed by multiple instructors or graduate teaching assistants; (2) to assess student achievement of scientific reasoning and writing skills; and (3) when used in multiple courses, to highlight gaps in alignment among course assignments and provide a common metric for assessing to what extent the curriculum is achieving programmatic goals. Lastly, biology graduate students reported that use of the Rubric facilitated their teaching and recommended that training on the Rubric be provided to all teaching assistants.     

The NSEAD Survey Report 2015–16: Political Reflections from Two Art and Design Educators

In 2015 the (UK) National Society for Education in Art and Design (NSEAD) conducted their biggest and most comprehensive survey to date with art and design educators. Some 1,191 teachers and lecturers employed in early years to further education settings across England and Wales responded to the survey, which aimed to capture how government policy since 2010 has affected art and design education. Four key areas were examined: curriculum provision; value given to the subject within the school community; professional development opportunities; and well‐being and workload. The results are troubling, indicating a systemic marginalisation of art and design across all sectors, evident in a reduction in choice, provision and curriculum time, and evidence of falling standards in student attainment at primary to secondary transfer. We supported the NSEAD with constructing the survey and writing the report and in this article we utilise the Survey Report to fuel a broader discussion about our concerns regarding the demise of art and design education. Value is identified as an essential theme and we posit that our subject, largely due to neoliberalist policy, is currently perceived as a ‘bimbo’: attractive, but unintelligent and frivolous. In this article we pay particular attention to the value of art and design education from a political perspective, challenging narrow government agendas.