Technological challenges and students with disabilities in higher education

This article is based on a previous Spanish study, which aimed to analyze the existence of barriers and aid for 44 students with disabilities enrolled at University. A qualitative methodology was used to collect data. The results analyze both the support and the obstacles provided by new technologies, the opinion students have of technologies in education, and how they affect their academic lives. Some of the training requirements of the faculty members regarding the pedagogical use of these technologies are also described. The conclusions display the university as an institution with potential for improvement, where certain technological limitations persist, thus leading one to believe that as an institution, it must exercise self-criticism and implement measures to facilitate an inclusive education.     

Changes in college students' perceptions of use of web-based resources for academic tasks with Wikipedia projects: a preliminary exploration

Motivated by the need to facilitate Net Generation students' information literacy (IL), or more specifically, to promote student understanding of legitimate, effective use of Web-based resources, this exploratory study investigated how analyzing, writing, posting, and monitoring Wikipedia entries might help students develop critical perspectives related to the legitimacy of Wikipedia and other publicly accessible Web-based resources for academic tasks. Results of survey and interview data analyses from two undergraduate courses indicated that undergraduate students typically prefer using publicly accessible Web-based resources to traditional academic resources, such as scholarly journal articles and books both in print and digital form; furthermore, they view the former as helpful academic tools with various utilities. Results also suggest that the Wikipedia activity, integrated into regular course curriculum, led students to gain knowledge about processes of Web-based information creation, become more critical of information on the Web, and evaluate the use of publicly accessible Web-based resources for academic purposes. Such changes appear more conspicuous with first year than with upper division students. The findings suggest that experiential opportunities to grapple with the validity of publicly accessible Web-based resources may prepare students better for their college and professional careers. The study results also indicate the need for integrating multiple existing frameworks for IL into one comprehensive framework to better understand various aspects of students' knowledge, use, and production of information from cognitive and technical perspectives and for a variety of purposes.     

The Ongoing Pursuit of Educational Equity in Japan: The Accreditation of Ethnic High Schools

In 2003, the Japanese Ministry of Education accredited the high school diplomas of most “ethnic high schools,” which are schools by and for specific ethnic minority populations, such as Korean, Brazilian, or Chinese students in Japan. Prior to this policy, diplomas from most ethnic high schools were not recognized by the Japanese government as valid, and if graduates wanted to apply to universities or colleges, specifically national universities, they were required to take a high school equivalency exam. This article examines the policy's evolution toward championing equity for equal treatment, a concept that ensures that individuals with similar levels of schooling have access to similar levels of status. Through heated debate and resistance, the policy furthered equity for some ethnic minority students while maintaining inequitable circumstances for others, specifically students in ethnic high schools that serve North Korean communities. The analysis reveals four important features of the policy's development that furthered equity: (1) protesting by non-governmental actors, (2) taking advantage of a policy window, (3) using strategic value-laden language, and (4) facilitating incremental change. Often, Japanese education policies rightfully are critiqued as assimilative and discriminatory. However, this article reveals some potential to move the conversation beyond these critiques and offers suggestions to promote and iteratively come closer to educational equity for ethnic minority students.     

Job search motivation of part-time or unemployed Japanese college graduates

We clarify how individuals actively interact with socio-cultural contexts to attain regular employment in Japan. Based on a large sample (N = 3,512) of part-time employed and unemployed college graduates (23–39 years old), we found that: Career decision making self-efficacy predicted job search; a lack of both hope and fulfillment motivated job search, while having hope promoted it; wishing for perfect vocation and being free from both inclination towards personal interests and passivity motivated job search. Clients’ desire for “a perfect vocation,” should not necessarily be considered as a career barrier but, perhaps, rather as an asset for motivating job search. Counselors should seek to better understand the influence of clients’ socio-cultural contexts on their career attitudes.     

Detection and Treatment of Fake Math-Dislikes among Japanese Junior High School Students

International surveys repeatedly showed that Japanese children were good at mathematics but disliking it. We hypothesized there were a considerable number of “fake math-dislikes” among Japanese students who claimed they disliked mathematics explicitly but accepted it implicitly. To examine this hypothesis, we administered questionnaires and paper-based implicit association tests (IAT) to 204 Japanese junior high school students (13–14 years old) and found 38 fake math-dislikes (Study 1). We hypothesized further that those fake math-dislikes would become real math-dislikes eventually and that informing of their implicit attitude toward mathematics might work preventing this undesirable transition. Then, in Study 2, we randomly assigned them into experimental and control groups and informed only the experimental students of their positive implicit attitude toward mathematics we revealed with the IAT. One year later, we found 15 of the 16 experimental students improved their math achievement scores while only 9 of the 17 control students did. The simple practice of informing of their implicit attitude worked effectively for improving their math achievement. As hypothesized, it prevented the fake math-dislike students from turning into real math-dislikes.     

Topological formulation of general linear network functions

This paper first discusses the corrections of the errors which Jong and Zobrist made in Ref. (1) and next describes the sign determination suitable forthese topological formulas. The technique for sign determination is based on the node partitioning algorithm which is also presented.     

Factors influencing pro-environmental collaborative collective behaviors toward sustainability transition – a case of renewable energy

The transformation to sustainable social systems requires both individual and collective pro-environmental behaviors. In this study, we quantified the impacts of factors that promote or impede collective pro-environmental behaviors around the use of renewable energy. An online questionnaire was completed by Japanese high school and college students, and covariance structure analysis was performed on groups with strong or weak intention to participate in collective behaviors and groups with rich or little experience with community activities. Our results revealed that the belief that a global environmental crisis can be avoided by individual efforts was negatively related to collective behavioral intention. We also found that environmental education that aimed to enhance attachment to community and social norms, would be effective for the youth with weak collective behavioral intention, but not so for youth with strong collective behavioral intention. It would be more effective for youth with strong collective behavioral intention to learn the practical approaches for community participation and raise awareness of the perceived importance of collective pro-environmental behaviors.     

Okano,Kaori and Tsuchiya,Motonori. 1999. Education in Contemporary Japan: Inequality and Diversity. Cambridge,UK: Cambridge University Press.

International Review of Education -     

Entrance examinations and remedial education in Japanese higher education

We are witnesses to two major shiftsin Japanese higher education – the changing roleof entrance examinations and the growth ofremedial education. The universalization ofhigher education and decreasing numbers oftraditional college-age youth are alteringlong-established notions about entranceexaminations and education itself. Thisarticle examines the function of entranceexaminations at private institutions andoutlines the newly established position ofremedial education in higher education.