Personal Factors,Education and the Effectiveness of Professional Engineers

This investigation examines the career development of a sample of engineers from pre-degree to, in many cases, post-chartered status. Their personal and academic characteristics are evaluated and linked to their effectiveness as professional engineers, as measured by salary rewards. Although these personal and academic factors are commonly believed to be an important component of industrial effectiveness and a valid predictor of future performance, they appear to have only a marginal influence and questionable value as predictive mechanisms. None the less, the study gives insight into the personal motivations and aspirations of engineering graduates and makes a number of recommendations for educationalists. Whenever possible, the findings of this study are compared with those of other authors.

SOMMAIRE La présente recherche examine le profil de carriere d'une echantillon d'inginiéurs et techniciens, depuis la périod precedant l'octroi de la licence jusqu'au moment ou, dans un grand nombre de cas, ils ont obtenu le status d'experts brevetes. Les caractéristiques personnelles et academiques de chacun y sont évaluées et associées a lews capacityés professionnelles, mesurees selon lew niveau de rémunération. Bien que cesfacteurs académiques et professionals soient communement consideréres comme un élement important de leur efficacité industrielle et un indicateur valable de leurs performances futures, ils semblent n'avoir qu'une influence marginals et une valeur douteuse en tant que mécanism de prédiction. La présent etude permet cependant d'eclairer les motivations personnelles et les aspirations des ingénieurs et techniciens diplômés et offre un certain nombre de recommandations aux enseignants. Lorsque les circonstances le permettent, des paralleles sont etablis entres les resultats de cette recherche et ceaux obtenue par d'autres auteurs.     

Modeling Epistemic and Ontological Cognition: Philosophical Perspectives and Methodological Directions

We propose an integration of aspects of several developmental and systems of beliefs models of personal epistemology. Qualitatively different positions, including realism, dogmatism, skepticism, and rationalism, are characterized according to individuals' beliefs across three dimensions in a model of epistemic and ontological cognition. This model incorporates ideas from philosophical epistemology, including a focus on students' multiple means of justification. Concerns regarding the psychometric qualities of quantitative measures of personal epistemology inform this model and its proposed operationalization. We suggest a means of statistical analysis that can be used to assess the construct and predictive validity of this conceptual model by testing the relations among positions, dimensions, and covariates of interest. Future research directions include investigating how individuals choose among various forms of justification.     

LONGITUDINAL STUDIES OF TEST-WISENESS

Longitudinal studies were conducted to examine test-wiseness (tw) with respect to (a) grade differences, (b) grade by sex interaction, and (c) stability. Included in the tw measure were stem-option, absurd-options, similar-options, and specific-determiners. Ss were students in grades 5 through 11; 539 Ss were observed twice with a 2 year interval between observations.
Results indicated (a) significant increases on tw in four of five cases, (b) no sex by grade interaction, and (c) tw as a stable characteristic over the grade levels studied.     

THE EFFECTS OF INSTRUCTION FOR THREE MATHEMATICS ITEM FORMATS1

Different instructional programs were developed for three mathematics aptitude item formats to determine the relative susceptibility of each to special instruction. Subjects were male and female high school junior volunteers in 12 schools. In the seven weeks between a pre- and posttest, experimental Ss received 21 hours of instruction for one of the three formats; control Ss received no special instrucion. Each of the three formats was found susceptible to instruction directed toward it. The complex formats were most susceptible. Female Ss were slightly less able mathematically at the outset and benefited less from instruction than males. Mean gains of nearly a full standard deviation for groups instructed for the complex formats were considered to be of practical consequence.