On-line Learning at Universities in Developing Countries: From Leap-frogging to Antelope-jumping—Specific Needs and Solutions

Virtual universities, or at least the on-line delivery of tertiary-level courses, offer tremendous possibilities to the developing countries of the South to raise their educational levels. Countries that lack a sound higher education infrastructure can thereby tap the resources of the more developed countries. They can also use the resources of the information and communication technologies to transmit educational offerings to isolated areas and/or areas in which local higher education possibilities are not available. But there are problems. The telecommunications networks, which are almost always owned and headquartered in the developed countries of the North, charge exorbitant rates for their services. Courses and courseware designed in developed countries are frequently not suitable, from a cultural point of view, for use in the developing countries in the South. These should be designed locally, and local teachers need to be retrained to work in a virtual teaching environment. Despite problems, virtual learning offers a chance for the developing world to surge ahead.     

‘Building up speed’, ‘trying to break free’, ‘pushing it through the pipe’: using metaphor to explore early career STEM researchers’ grant writing capability

This study demonstrates the use of metaphor analysis in needs assessment for developmental support and shows how it can be used to critically examine assumptions in the literature about the ways emerging researchers conceptualize their career trajectory. We investigated the professional development needs of a group of science, technology, engineering and mathematics early career researchers, to provide them with better grant writing support. Conceptual metaphor theory was used to explore interview data, in part to identify where training design could be modified. In the case of the group under investigation, close metaphoric analysis presented a richly embodied view of our participants’ research activity and suggested ways to provide a stronger focus on strategic and processual aspects of grant writing in such settings.     

Counselor Experience Related to Complexity of Case Conceptualization and Supervision Preference

The authors investigated the relationship among trainees' counseling experience, familiarity with specific client symptomatology, case conceptualization integrative complexity (i.e., the ability to differentiate and integrate knowledge related to specific client symptomatology), and preference for supervisor style. Data from 100 beginning practicum to intern‐level counselor trainees revealed that general trainee experience and familiarity with specific client symptomatology were related to trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity. However, contrary to developmental models of counselor supervision, neither trainee experience, familiarity with specific symptomatology, nor trainee case conceptualization integrative complexity significantly predicted preference for supervisor style.     

Latino student transition to college: Assessing difficulties and factors in successful college adjustment

The primary purpose of this study is to understand the factors that affect Latino student adjustment in the first and second year of college. The study examines data from a national, longitudinal survey along with the Student Adaptation to College Questionnaire completed by Latino students judged to have high potential for success upon entering a variety of four-year colleges. Results show dimensions of the campus climate affect all forms of student adjustment, as do transitional experiences that are common to most students in the first year. Implications of the findings suggest further college programming and monitoring of adjustment in the second year of college.An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Association of Institutional Research Forum in New Orleans, LA, May 1994.     

Defining moments: Developing culturally responsive dispositions and teaching practices in early childhood preservice teachers

This paper reports the results of a study that examined preservice teachers’ perceptions of which program experiences contributed to shifts in their culturally responsive dispositions and teaching practices. At the time of the study, participants were engaged in a teacher preparation program designed to prepare teachers to work with culturally, linguistically, socio-economically, and ability diverse young children and their families. The findings suggest that five types of experiences, interacting with each other, were instrumental in effecting changes in dispositions and teaching practiced. The experiences included material resources, diverse internship experiences, interactions with diverse families, critical reflection, and discussion and dialogue.     

The initial development of spelling in Spanish: From global to analytical

During a school year, samples of words written by three groups of children of successive ages were collected. Two groups of children were in first and second year of Kindergarten (4 and 5 years of age), when alphabetic rules were not taught in a systematic way. The third group was in first year of Primary School (6 years of age), and was being taught to read and spell in a systematic way. After classifying the words written by the children, seven categories of spelling were obtained, which may represent different stages in their learning process. Their analysis showed that they are related to different types of knowledge and processes, mainly phonological ones. The results show that the development of spelling in Spanish does not qualitatively differ from that of children who learn to spell in opaque writing systems. The differences mainly involve the time it takes to learn, and the rate of acquisition.     

Mediating HIV/AIDS Strategies in Children’s Literature in Zimbabwe

The Ministry of Education and Culture in Zimbabwe has introduced an intervention into the school curricula to complement the already existing mechanisms in the fight against HIV/AIDS. The literature in this programme is said to be designed to develop children’s knowledge of HIV/AIDS and to maximise both individual and community commitment to the safest protective behaviour possible. This paper argues that despite the Ministry’s efforts there is a dearth of such literature which would depict human relations and experiences in the context of HIV/AIDS in the corpus of Zimbabwean children’s literature in schools. It proposes that more fiction about HIV/AIDS could effectively complement the current non-fictional texts used in most Zimbabwean schools. This paper seeks therefore, to clarify the need for fictional narratives in which the disease plays a part since they will provide the main context in which young children learn to cope with the realities associated with HIV/AIDS through education. It posits that Zimbabwean children’s literature should also depict the conceptual framework within which health, human interaction and sexuality are understood in relation to the epidemic. Hazel Tafadzwa Ngoshi is with the department of English and Communication, Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. She teaches Renaissance and 20th century English literature and autobiography. A holder of a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe, her research interests include children’s literature and autobiography. Currently, she is writing a book on Zimbabwean female (auto) biographies. Juliet Sylvia Pasi holds a Master of Arts degree in English from the University of Zimbabwe. She teaches Communication and African literature in the department of English and Communication at the Midlands State University, Zimbabwe. Currently, she is researching on aspects of orality in Zimbabwean children’s literature and the mediation of gender identities in African literature.     

Examining the Impact of Pedagogy on Student Application of Learning: Acquiring,Sharing, and Using Knowledge for Organizational Decision Making

In this pilot research we examine the impact of two leadership development training programs on the ability of students to acquire knowledge, share knowledge, and apply knowledge for organizational decision making. One program emphasized concepts and case‐based application based on a technical learning paradigm. The other program used a game‐based computer simulation, Virtual Leader, grounded in an experiential or situated learning paradigm. After training, students from both programs engaged in a complex in‐basket exercise to examine the quality of their leadership and managerial abilities. In this exercise, participants from each training intervention worked with their trained cohort to accomplish a day of managerial work. Participants were observed and their individual and collective actions and decisions on behalf of the organization were evaluated. Using qualitative research we compared the organizational decisions associated with each group to determine which pedagogical technique resulted in the most effective application of student learning. While technical learning pedagogy was associated with greater information acquisition, the game‐based computer simulation (an experiential, social‐interaction oriented pedagogy) was associated with better decision quality and more shared cognition. Evidence suggests that students taught with the game‐based computer simulation collectively demonstrated a greater ability to apply what they learned.