The Effects of Passage of Time on Alumni Recall of ‘Student Experience’

‘Student experience’ has become a popular term with higher education managers but is theoretically under‐developed. This paper conceptualises student experience as a construction from memory and advances previous discussion within the higher education sector by distinguishing between recalled academic and social experience. The results of a predominantly quantitative survey of 883 alumni indicated that recalled academic experience had greater effect on subsequent loyalty attitudes and behaviours than recalled social experience. Cluster analyses indicated that alumni having strong ties with their university were more likely over time to identify with the recalled academic experience of their university, while those with weak ties were more likely to identify with recalled social experiences. Implications for development of alumni associations are made based on targeting groups with different levels of ties with the university.     

Learning and building social capital in a community of family farm businesses

This paper analyses the processes that occur in a ‘learning community’ of Australian family agricultural businesses for evidence of use or generation of stores of social capital. The purpose of analysing processes that use or build social capital is to derive a framework or checklist of stages and characteristics that can be used to analyse the extent of social capital use and generation in other communities. The qualitative design is suitable for a study such as this, which investigates possible relationships and influencing factors concerning learning and changes to farm management practices. Data collection involved observing a learning activity session and interviewing 12 members in a focus group during the session and subsequently 14 individually at their farms. Data were analysed for themes and coded with the assistance of NUD*IST qualitative data analysis software. An understanding of how what is identified as social capital can be built in a formalized learning programme can be used to facilitate social capital building; in other formal learning settings, as well as more widely. The findings of the study reported here and findings from studies of informal learning in geographic communities have contributed to the development of the Centre for Research and Learning in Regional Australia's model of the simultaneous building and use of social capital. The model, presented in this paper, conceptualizes the way in which social capital is used and built in interactions between individuals.     

SUPPORT NEEDS OF CHILDREN WITH INTELLECTUAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES: AGE‐RELATED IMPLICATIONS FOR ASSESSMENT

The Supports Intensity Scale–Children's Version (SIS‐C) was developed to assess the support needs of children and youth aged 5 to 16 years with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Data from the standardization sample of the SIS‐C were analyzed to evaluate the impact of the age cohorts (5–6, 7–8, 9–10, 11–12, 13–14, and 15–16 years) used to stratify the sample on the measurement model, as well as the latent means, standard deviations, and correlations. The findings confirmed measurement invariance across age cohorts, but suggested that at the latent level, younger children, generally, have more intensive support needs and that as students with intellectual disability age, their support needs decrease. In addition, the 15‐ to 16‐year‐old cohort displayed differences in terms of the strength of correlations between support need domains, with stronger correlations than the other age groups. Implications for future research and practice are described.     

大型运动会志愿者培训研究

从近几年我国大型运动会志愿者队伍的招募、培训规划、培训类型与形式、培训内容等方面进行全面深入探讨,并结合我国运动会志愿者培养的特征,从招募制度、选拔程序等层面提出可操作性建议,使志愿者队伍充分发挥其能力为大型运动会提供更好的服务.