Do students' style preferences differ by grade level,orientation toward college,and academic major?

Students' preferences for learning styles as well as their preferences for communication styles of their teachers are examined to determine if those preferences are related to gender, grade level, and major in college. A total of 327 adolescents in grades eight through twelve completed questionnaires measuring their preferred learning styles (Dependent, Independent, Competitive, Collaborative, and Participative) and their preferences for teacher communicator styles (Open, Attentive, Relaxes, Precise, Impression Leaving, Dramatic, Friendly, Animated, Contentious, and Dominant). Also, 235 college students in various majors were measured. The rank ordering of preferences was generally stable across all grade levels in the adolescent sample. However, the college students exhibited several important differences in preferences from the adolescents and across majors.     

我为何而活

三种简单却极其强烈的情感主宰着我的生活:对爱的渴望、对知识的追求、对人类痛苦的难以承受的怜悯之心.这三种情感,像一阵阵飓风一样,任意地将我吹的飘来荡去,越过痛苦的海洋,抵达绝望的彼岸.     

Exploring primary pupils’ experiences and understandings of ‘e-safety’

This paper examines the experiences and understandings of primary (K6) school pupils with regards to managing issues of risk and safety during their everyday use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). The paper is based on survey and interview data with pupils aged 7 to 11 years old in five English primary schools (n = 612). Analysis of these data shows that whilst most pupils recognised a general need to be mindful of ICT-related risks and dangers, their actual experiences of risk tended to be described in terms of operational problems encountered when using ICTs. Conversely, pupils’ understandings of potential risk were often based upon exaggerated fears deriving from a number of moral panics relating to child safety. These data suggest that official notions of ‘e-safety’ remain abstract and poorly understood concepts for many children. In considering what implications these data have for the ongoing ‘e-safety’ agenda in UK schools the paper concludes by suggesting three possible areas of change: (1) re-orientating the topic and tone of the official discourses surrounding e-safety; (2) increasing pedagogical interventions in primary schools aiming at enhancing pupils’ critical literacy skills; and (3) establishing a meaningful and sustained dialogue between pupils, teachers and parents about safety and risk when using ICTs.     

A longitudinal evaluative study of student difficulties with engineering graphics

We have previously reported in this journal that spatial ability influences academic performance in engineering. We have also reported that spatial ability is trainable, and can be increased through instruction focused on using perception and mental imagery in three-dimensional representation. In this article, we present the results of a longitudinal evaluative study of student difficulties with engineering graphics at our university, involving research over a 24-year period. Prior to our intervention, the first-year engineering graphics course at our university had a failure rate of 36% for all engineering students, and failure rates of 80% for African students studying at our university. In terms of outcomes, our study indicates that changed teaching practices have been associated with increased pass rates, which currently average 88% for all students. There is clear evidence that African students no longer experience major difficulties in passing the course. This can be attributed both to changes in teaching methodology, as well as broader contextual changes occurring in South Africa over the period reviewed.

Despite evidence of increased pass rates, our data suggest that there is a continuing relationship between three-dimensional spatial perception and academic performance in engineering graphics, as well as with aggregated first-year engineering marks. For this reason, many students still require academic support. There is also evidence that female students experience difficulties with engineering graphics due to lack of previous technical experience, and use a variety of strategies to overcome their study problems. The most effective appear to be use of peers and friends, and in particular students who had previously taken the course, as mediators of the course content and materials. Those female students who have not taken technical drawing at school level, and female students who do not network with other engineering students, are those at greatest disadvantage.     

New Issues,New Developments and New Challenges for Negotiating the International Rights Contract

A guide to basic contractual provisions and current publishing trends for consideration in negotiating a concise, successful International Rights Contract, which includes: assessing the rights available for sale and ways in which to successfully exploit and maintain those rights.