Student learning approaches in the UAE: the case for the achieving domain

The deep versus surface learning approach dichotomy has dominated recent research in student learning approach dimensions. However, the achievement dimension may differ in importance in non-Western and vocational tertiary settings. The aim was to assess how Emirati tertiary students could be characterized in terms of their learning approaches. The study looked into emergent learning factors that may be important in Emirati students. The students were Emirati men in a first-year English for academic purposes programme at a tertiary college (N?=?252). The students completed the Revised Two-Factor Study Process Questionnaire (R-SPQ-2F) to determine learning orientation along the deep and surface approach dimensions. A factor analysis was carried out to assess emergent dimensions in the data. The results on the deep and surface dimensions were inconclusive. However, the factor analysis suggested a disposition towards a construct that we characterize as ‘attainment of satisfaction from learning’. In addition, the factor analysis suggested the possibility of the achieving domain emerging as a separate construct from the surface domain in this context, contrasting with previous research employing the R-SPQ-2F. The results suggest that the deep versus surface learning approach model may not sufficiently represent the complexity of student motivations and strategies in the current context. In addition, student affect tied to outcomes is discussed as an important though perhaps overlooked dimension in non-Western contexts. The implications of the results to future research are considered.     

Asserting the demand and needs for research as indicated by various groups in community colleges

This study investigates the future role of the community colleges in a southeastern state. Presidents, deans of instruction, deans of student services, representative department chairmen, state community college administrators, and educators in a state university formed a panel of 100 respondents in a four iteration delphi study. The panel rated the importance of meeting seven major demands: physical facilities, financial bases, curricula needs, system coordination, student services, personnel needs, and accountability, and also evaluated the importance of about 60 specific research projects. The use of multivariate techniques showed that: (1) agreement was obtained on the importance of meeting the major demands, (2) the importance of the various demands are differentially related to concerns about major types of research, and (3) there are significant differences between types of decision-makers on the needs for various types of research. These results show the need of additional efforts to obtain agreement concerning research priorities. They also reveal the relative predispositions of the various groups of decision-makers concerning research needs.     

Multicollinearity and testing questions of sex equity

Multiple regression is being used by some investigators to determine the unique statistical relevance of potential sex bias for various groups of individuals. The following article shows that the presence of multicollinearity among the independent variables can cause misleading interpretations of the resulting regression weight for sex coded as a dummy variable. An alternative approach is proposed with an example to demonstrate the interpretation of the results. Questions are raised concerning the interpretation of some previous research.     

Variations in goal priorities of academic departments: A test of Holland's theory

This study investigated the relative importance which six groups of academic departments attached to five institutional goal dimensions. The six groups were formed on the basis of Holland's theory of vocational choice and the five goal dimensions were developed from a factor analysis of eleven goal statements. A stepwise, multiple discriminant analysis revealed significant differences between the six groups of academic departments on the Research-Graduate and Quality Education goal dimensions. These two dimensions produced significant differentiation in eleven of the fifteen possible group comparisons. The findings suggest tentatively that Holland's theory of vocational choice can assist in the interpretation of varying goal priorities within the academic community. Suggestions are offered to indicate how this theory might be employed by university administrators and in subsequent research on the administration of academic departments and the complex roles of their chairmen.     

Bullets or butterflies? Teaching, research and knowledge creation

This article explores current debates about the development of teaching and learning in the UK. The author examines how these debates are mirrored in discussions about teacher education and notions of professionalism and professional development. There is an account of the history of thinking about pedagogy in the UK, with a particular focus on the work of Lawrence Stenhouse and his ??teacher as researcher?? conception of curriculum and teacher development. The author argues that this is a strong and useful model for the development of pedagogy. The ??teacher as researcher?? model is offered as a framework that integrates many different perspectives. The article concludes with a discussion of the blocks and facilitators to this vision of the teacher as researcher being adopted.     

Path analysis and residual plotting as methods of environmental scanning in higher education: An illustration with applications and enrollments

In this study we propose using path analysis and residual plotting as methods supporting environmental scanning in strategic planning for higher education institutions. As an illustration, path models of three levels of independent variables, that is, socioeconomic background, current economic variables, and educational variables, are developed. The dependent variables measuring applications and enrollments at a research university, Virginia Tech, and enrollments at four-year institutions in Virginia are regressed on the independent variables. The residuals from the multiple regression models are plotted on the county maps of Virginia to identify the geographic regions in which the applications and enrollments at Virginia Tech and the enrollments in colleges and universities of Virginia are higher or lower than expected according to the models. The implications of the variables in the models and the geographic distributions of residuals for strategic planning decisions are discussed.     

Flipped Classroom Implementation: A Case Report of Two Higher Education Institutions in the United States and Australia

Abstract

This case report explored the implementation of flipped classrooms at two higher education institutions. Experiences and publications from the institutions were used to identify and describe common themes, including successes and challenges encountered along with potential solutions to common misalignments, particularly as related to technology-enhanced learning. Strategies for selecting and delivering pre-class content, designing and implementing in-class activities, and identifying and using assessments to inform practice are described. Overall design considerations include instructor skill development, student buy-in, and institutional support for the model. This report highlights several critical approaches to effectively designing and implementing the flipped classroom model, with consideration given to the use of technology to support this innovation.     

The effect of blended instruction on accelerated learning

While online instructional technologies are becoming more popular in higher education, educators’ opinions about online learning tend to be generally negative. Furthermore, many studies have failed to systematically examine the features that distinguish one instructional mode from another, which weakens possible explanations for why online instructional technology can be beneficial. The current study isolates three benefits of the authors’ particular online instructional technology: (1) providing flexibility in how students learn, (2) offering immediate and targeted feedback and (3) increasing student participation and engagement with instructional material. Maximum benefits were observed when students used the online instructional technology to prepare for their face-to-face class – that is, students with this blended instruction learned twice as much content in the same amount of time in comparison to students with face-to-face instruction alone, without creating an atypically high workload.     

Teaching as a Practice and a Community of Practice: the Limits of Commonality and the Demands of Diversity

This paper examines some neglected aspects of the conceptualisation of teaching as a 'practice' and as involving a 'community of practice'. The concepts of a 'practice' and of a 'community of practice' are brought into focus by contrasting the differing senses of the notions employed in the work of Alasdair MacIntyre and Etienne Wenger respectively. Concepts of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which embody a coherent overall holistic vision of education are contrasted with senses of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' which relate to lower level, specific and subordinate elements of the educational process which are detachable from such visions. The possibility of specifying a single, common, overall, holistic conception of an educational 'practice' or 'community of practice' in the context of a pluralistic, diverse, liberal democratic society is discussed. It is suggested that the demands of diversity in this context open up the possibility of, and the need for, diverse forms of teacher education and training based on differing and partly competing conceptions of educational 'practice' and 'communities of practice' involving contrasting, coherent, overall, holistic visions of education.     

Primary prevention of child abuse and neglect: Identification of high-risk adolescents

Based on the result of the study, the following conclusions are made:

1. 1. The parenting inventory developed has adequate levels of content validity, construct validity, internal reliability, and stability over time.

2. 2. Approximately 13% (150) of the adolescents responding to the inventory had factor scores -1 or more standard deviations below the group mean. It is concluded that the further the score deviates below the mean, the greater the risk the adolescent becomes for practicing abusive parenting behaviors.

3. 3. Abused adolescents have significantly lower mean scores than non-identified abused adolescents, suggesting that abused adolescents espress attitudes towards parenting and child-rearing which are similar to the parenting and child-rearing practices of abusive parents.

4. 4. Female adolescents, whether members of the abused or non-identified abused group, have higher mean scores than abused or non-identified abused male adolescents. The results suggest that male adolescents of both groups express more abusive parenting attitudes than females of both groups.

5. 5. Each of the four group parenting constructs can effectively be used to discriminate between abused and non-identified abused adolescents. Construct B:

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, however, had the greatest discriminatory capability.

The results of the study have indicated the utility of the inventory in assessing the parenting attitudes of adolescents and in discriminating between adolescents identified as abused and those non-identified as abused. In its present stage of development, the inventory may only be validly used to identify adolescents' attitudes towards child-rearing and parenting. Before the inventory is employed to identify potential child abusers for treatment purposes, it is recommended that longitudinal research be concluded. Such research should be designed to provide data relative to the predictive validity of the inventory.