THE IMPACT OF HISTORY,GEOGRAPHY, AND THE ECONOMY ON HIGHER EDUCATION POLICY: A COMPARATIVE SURVEY

Confronted with the rapid development of higher education in this century but particularly over the last twenty years, the author identifies a number of factors influencing this development and estimates their relative importance. The factors which he lists includes economic and technological factors, demographic factors, geographical factors, historical and political factors, and cultural and ‐ religious factors. The interplay of these factors over time and space leads to the diversification of higher education which in turn raises the major question of how diversification is to be regulated. This major question then leads to more specific questions related to the funding of higher education, the development of such forms as adult and continuing education, the guarantee of equal opportunity, the mobility of students and teachers, the link between higher education and employment, and the ways in which higher education can influence actors in the political arena to act in its favour.     

The Cambridge B.Ed.

This article was written in January 1970 for The Cambridge Review and appeared in the issue of 29 May 1970. The author had University readers chiefly in mind; the stress would have been differently placed had it been written in the first place for the present journal, but it seemed best to keep the article in its original form apart from small corrections. It is printed here with the kind permission of the Editors of the Review.     

Some Fundamentals of Engaging Stories

This paper discusses a form of information transfer referred to as story. It is suggested that stories serve as a singularly effective replacement for direct experience, a useful but sometimes difficult environmental education technique. The effectiveness of stories is argued to derive from their ability to engage the attention of the reader. The paper concludes with a list of elements that can be used to create cognitively engaging stories.     

Least Squares Models to Correct for Rater Effects in Performance Assessment

This study describes three least squares models to control for rater effects in performance evaluation: ordinary least squares (OLS); weighted least squares (WLS); and ordinary least squares, subsequent to applying a logistic transformation to observed ratings (LOG-OLS). The models were applied to ratings obtained from four administrations of an oral examination required for certification in a medical specialty. For any single administration, there were 40 raters and approximately 115 candidates, and each candidate was rated by four raters. The results indicated that raters exhibited significant amounts of leniency error and that application of the least squares models would change the pass-fail status of approximately 7% to 9% of the candidates. Ratings adjusted by the models demonstrated higher reliability and correlated slightly higher than observed ratings with the scores on a written examination.     

Using dialogical research methods to study Chicano college students

Using Freire's dialogical research method, it was found that Chicano college students could be seen as experiencing three contradictions: Isolation, achievement, and ethnic identity. These contradictions were codified by the research team into short vignettes that incorporated the main elements of each contradiction. The vignettes were used as the stimuli to initiate dialogs among the Chicano students about the contradictions. The dialogs constituted the raw data for analysis. Two generative themes were identified from the dialogical data: Education is experienced by the Chicano students within a context of struggle, and the students experience ethnicity within a context of cross pressures for assimilation and ethnic loyalty. Implications are drawn from the contradictions and generative themes for improving the academic achievement of Chicano college students.     

Highlighting and taking notes are equally ineffective when Reading paper or eText

Education and Information Technologies - The present study examined whether there is a difference in comprehension when reading from computer-based text versus reading from paper-based text and...     

Management perceptions of government incentives to technological innovation in england, Trance, West Germany and Japan

This paper reports on four studies (in France, Germany (FRG), Japan, and United Kingdom) exploring reactions of industrial managers to government incentives (GIs), laws, policies, regulations, and other interventions intended to stimulate technological innovation. Propositions supported by the results are: (1) there are significant differences among industrial managers in different countries in their attitudes toward government actions relevant to the RD/I process; (2) Government actions to stimulate innovation are not perceived as salient to industrial RD/I (R&D/Innovation) decision making; and (3) Government actions in general are perceived to delay introduction of innovations into the market.German and Japanese firms seemed most aware of, and favorably disposed toward, GIs. Low technology firms in the UK were more supportive of GIs than high technology firms. The opposite was the case in Japan and France, while little overall difference existed among firms in Germany. One must exercise care, however, in drawing inferences from such international comparisons; countries differ in the nature, scope, and administration of programs, as well as the effect of cultural characteristics. Managers in all countries were unanimous that general government policies (economic and otherwise) and general market and competitive conditions have a more significant impact on firm RD/I decision making than the specific incentive programs. Incentive programs were, with some exceptions, considered orders of magnitude too small to be of significance. The burden of administering procedurally complex and inflexible incentive programs and dealing with cumbersome government bureaucracy were considered significant detriments. General infrastructural elements such as the educational system, social recognition and support, and government standards-setting were considered more important than direct incentives.