Who is listening? An examination of gender effects and employment choice in sustainability education in an undergraduate business school

Whilst universities acknowledge the importance of sustainability education, numerous problems exist in relation to the nature, delivery and outcomes of sustainability instruction. Many of these problems arise due to a lack of understanding about students’ perception towards, and knowledge about business sustainability. This article examines gender-specific perceptions of business sustainability issues, sustainability education and the importance students attach to sustainability in their choice of future employer. A paper-based self-complete survey was used to collect data from a convenience sample of 224 undergraduate marketing students at an Australian University. Factor analysis, T-tests, and multiple regression were used to test the hypothesised relationships. Results show significant differences between the female and male cohorts, supporting all but one of the hypothesised relationships. In addition, gender differences were observed across the constructs predicting employment choice. Implications for teaching practice and future research are provided.     

Motivational Factors and Predictors for Attending a Continuing Education Program for Older Adults

The objectives were to describe the stated motives of participants who enrolled in a program at the Open University for the Elderly (UnATI, in Portuguese), identify correlations between the stated motives and sociodemographic data, and find a set of predictors related to the listed motives. A total of 306 middle-aged and elderly adults aged 50 or older were surveyed through a sociodemographic questionnaire and a five-item scale to check their motives to enroll in the program. The following motivational factors were identified, in order of importance: enhancing general knowledge, investing in personal development, increasing social interaction, learning more in order to help others, and employing one's free time profitably. Age and years of schooling combined were strong predictors of participants seeking new knowledge. Being single and not retired was correlated with the motive Investing in Personal Development. Having attended elementary school only and being married was closely correlated to the motive Increasing Social Interaction. Employing One's Free Time Profitably was associated with single or widowed individuals with family income between 3.1 and 4.0 times the minimum wage. As for Learning More in Order to Help Others, no predictors were found for this motive. It was found that participants seek to satisfy a desire to learn/ know more, to be up-to-date, to exercise their rights as citizens, and to play an active role in society. Our data suggest that these are the assumptions that drive middle-aged and elderly adults to look for various types of educational programs.     

Los saberes docentes en el trabajo cotidiano de los maestros

Resumen

En el artículo se concibe a la docencia como un trabajo sustentado en los saberes que los maestros se apropian y generan en la resolution cotidiana de la enseñanza. Se presenta un análisis etnográfico de una clase de primer grado de primaria, donde los saberes docentes identificados son: cómo organizar al grupo, cómo involucrar a los niños en la actividad, cómo tomar en cuenta las intervenciones de los niños, cómo promover y cómo sostener la actividad individual. El interés del trabajo es contribuir al estudio de los saberes docentes que los maestros generan y se apropian en el ejercicio cotidiano de la enseñanza y que han sido escasamente abordados en la investigación sobre la docencia.     

Multilevel Interaction Models and their Use in the Analysis of Large‐scale School Effectiveness Studies

In the present paper we discuss the merits of a general multilevel approach to model analysis of large scale school effectiveness studies.

We briefly review previous research framework which have been used in school effectiveness research and examine critically the assumptions on which they were based and the methodological implications of these assumptions. The general interaction models presented in this paper provide an answer to many of these critiques. Findings from different types of modeling supported the claim that the modeling of school effectiveness studies must be both multilevel and interactive. Achievement is found to be dependent in a very sensitive, non‐additive way, on the particular combination of pupil's home background, his or her general ability, teaching style and other teacher characteristics, the class and the school context in which the pupil learns. Comparisons between parsimonious main effect models with parsimonious interactive ones show that although the explanatory power of interaction models might be slightly smaller, the use of interaction models causes changes in the specification of the models that cannot be ignored.