LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION AND ITS OUTCOMES

The increasing diversity and internationalization of higher education in Europe require greater sophistication in the means of assessment of individual higher education institutions, individual units within given institutions, and learning outputs and outcomes. A short historical overview of assessment in Europe and in the United States is given followed by proposals to refine and to broaden specific aspects of evaluation. The authors suggest the development of instruments and procedures aimed at measuring learned abilities and adressing them in the context of curricula, learning environment, teaching, and learning; instruments which can measure both vertical and horizontal differences; and instruments suitable for measuring both outputs and outcomes. They further suggest a number of study design elements and conclude with a recommendation that CHER stimulate research in this crucial domain.     

The Big-fish–little-pond-effect Stands Up to Critical Scrutiny: Implications for Theory, Methodology, and Future Research

The big-fish–little-pond effect (BFLPE) predicts that equally able students have lower academic self-concepts (ASCs) when attending schools where the average ability levels of classmates is high, and higher ASCs when attending schools where the school-average ability is low. BFLPE findings are remarkably robust, generalizing over a wide variety of different individual student and contextual level characteristics, settings, countries, long-term follow-ups, and research designs. Because of the importance of ASC in predicting future achievement, coursework selection, and educational attainment, the results have important implications for the way in which schools are organized (e.g., tracking, ability grouping, academically selective schools, and gifted education programs). In response to Dai and Rinn (Educ. Psychol. Rev., 2008), we summarize the theoretical model underlying the BFLPE, minimal conditions for testing the BFLPE, support for its robust generalizability, its relation to social comparison theory, and recent research extending previous implications, demonstrating that the BFLPE stands up to scrutiny. Quotations (associated page numbers) to the Dai and Rinn (2008) article are based on a prepublication version of the article available to the authors of this article that may have changed during the final preparation for publication. The authors would also like to express thanks to David Dai and Anne Rinn for their encouragement and assistance to us in preparation of our article, whilst still acknowledging that they might not agree will all the views expressed here.     

在线远程教育:从试验到日常实践

文章介绍了德国奥登堡卡尔冯奥斯基大学远程教育中心自 1995年以来对在线教学的研究成果     

Self-managed leadership: An alternative school governance structure

This paper explores how the current governance structure of American schools detracts from their ability to solve the educational problems that confront them. The paper argues that the current structure restricts the problem-solving capabilities of teachers. Teacher empowerment is a step in the right direction, but is frequently too narrowly defined and thus falls short of maximizing the utilization of potential. An alternative structure, self-managed leadership, is proposed. Implications for principal and teacher roles and behavior are examined. Implementation and potential issues and problems are discussed.