The Future of Higher Education in Australia: Ten Years On

During 1975 a group of Monash University academics, who became nicknamed the “crystal ballgazers” began to meet with the aim of forecasting the future of higher education in Australia in the nineteen eighties and nineties. The predictions were published and by 1983 many of the forecasts had already proved remarkably accurate — and few, if any, of the pro‐active strategies that were suggested as a way of influencing the future had been adopted.

This paper provides two retrospective analyses of that work. in the first we present some of the actual forecasts and their accord with reality, and then juxtapose the reasons for our forecasts upon the reasons being proposed now for the trends that have emerged. In the second analysis, we examine the failure of the work to influence the power brokers in Australian higher education to adopt a longer term and a more pro‐active planning role.     

Hierarchical confirmatory factor analysis of the Flow State Scale in exercise

In this study, we examined the factor structure and internal consistency of the Flow State Scale using responses of exercise participants. This self-report questionnaire consists of nine subscales designed to assess flow in sport and physical activity. It was administered to 1231 aerobic dance exercise participants. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test three competing measurement models of the flow construct: a single-factor model, a nine-factor model and a hierarchical model positing a higher-order flow factor to explain the intercorrelations between the nine first-order factors. The single-factor model showed a poor fit to the data. The nine-factor model and the hierarchical model did not show an adequate fit to the data. All subscales of the Flow State Scale displayed acceptable internal consistency (alpha > 0.70), with the exception of transformation of time (alpha = 0.65). Collectively, the present results do not provide support for the tenability of the single-factor, nine-factor or hierarchical measurement models in an exercise setting.     

Context matters: increasing understanding with interactive Clicker Case studies

Although interactive technology is presumed to increase student understanding in large classes, no previous research studies have empirically explored the effects of Clicker Cases on students?? performance. A Clicker Case is a story (e.g., a problem someone is facing) that uses clickers (student response systems) to engage students in understanding the meaning of the science contained within the story. Using an experimental randomized Solomon design across 11 institutions, we found that Clicker Cases increased student understanding more than PowerPoint lectures in large introductory biology classrooms, although there was variation across institutions and topics. By examining student performance in conjunction with faculty experience, we found that strong Clicker Cases created dissonance, captured attention and involved students in interpreting data or making decisions. This study provides a model for collaborative research across multiple institutions and demonstrates the need for using multiple institutions and topics in research on education.     

Phonological awareness skills in young African American English speakers

The purpose of this study was to examine African American children’s performance on a phonological awareness task that included items reflecting differences between African American English (AAE) and mainstream American English. The relationship between spoken production of AAE forms and performance on phonological awareness, vocabulary, and letter-word recognition tasks was also investigated. Analyses indicated that children who produced fewer AAE features in speech performed significantly different from those who produced AAE features more frequently on the experimental phonological awareness task. Furthermore, analyses showed that the relationship between spoken AAE production and phonological awareness was partially mediated, while the relationship with letter-word recognition was fully mediated. Overall, the results suggest a direct relation between spoken AAE use and phonological awareness and an indirect relation with letter-word reading.