A Problem-based Learning Approach to Civil Engineering Drawing

Civil engineering drawing courses need to relate to the students expectations, and discipline and maintain their interest. The main objectives of the drawing course in the Department of Civil Engineering at Monash University are: to teach students the main drawing techniques; to enable students to read and transmit the details on these drawings into understandable information and instructions; to develop the visualization skills of students; and to teach them to present their ideas using drawings. These aims are not uncommon, the main innovation in teaching this material was the introduction of a problem-based learning approach in the progressive assessment. A problem was set and the students asked to solve it progressively. The course was built around a particular civil engineering structure; a house. This allowed many of the students to relate the drawing to their experience and expectations. The house was used as a basis for the development of ideas and the presentation of these ideas using a large number of drawing types. Students' reaction to the course was positive. Statements like “This course is real engineering” were common. Areas for further improvement in the approach are highlighted.     

Reliability of Videotape-Assisted Recall in Counseling Process Research

The demand for naturalistic, fine-grained methods in counselor training and counseling process research has supported use of the videotape-assisted recall (VAR) method. By reviewing videotapes of counseling sessions, clients can, for example, provide ratings of specific counselor behaviors or of their own moment-to-moment experience. The reliability of ratings made with VAR is not well established. This article includes reliability data from a test-retest procedure. Twelve participants met individually with a counselor for 20 minutes each to discuss a “minor but real personal concern,” and the interviews were videotaped. The videotape recall was conducted twice. Participants made ratings of two types of recalled affect at times of occurrence of each of six counselor nonverbal gestures. Stimulus order was disguised from the first recall to the second. Reliabilities of ratings ranged from .508 to .822.     

The unit of analysis for situated assessment

We begin with a discussion of contemporary approaches to assessment highlighting their reliance on a static, linear model of knowledgeable performance. Next we describe an ecological psychology approach to problem solving. Then, we propose the adoption of an agent-environment interaction as the unit of analysis. We continue by describing the problem-solving process from an ecological psychology perspective, to clarify the intentional unit. We close with a discussion of functional validity, the value added by access to assessment information during the problem-solving process.     

Pioneering the community college movement in Hong Kong

As part of the reform of the overall education system in Hong Kong, the government set a target in October 2000 of raising the percentage of senior secondary school graduates who could receive higher education from the current 30% to 60% within a period of ten years. Prior to this announcement, however, the School of Professional and Continuing Education of The University of Hong Kong (or HKU SPACE for short) had already taken the lead by establishing the first Community College in March 2000. The Associate Degree programme of the College offered an alternative route to higher education to many aspiring young people. The broad-based curriculum with its equal emphasis on science and humanities (as well as solid generic skills) is a new attempt to produce people that can meet the challenges of the knowledge society. The first intake of 740 students in 2000 was followed by a second intake of more than a thousand in 2001. This paper examines the experience gained during the first two years of this new development, and explores the role of community colleges in general in the education reform movement and human resources development strategy of Hong Kong     

Three Educational Scenarios for the Future: lessons from the sociology of knowledge

This article draws on social realist approaches in the sociology of knowledge and in light of them constructs three scenarios for the future of education in the next decades. The primary focus of the article is on one of the most crucial questions facing educational policy makers — the relationship between school and everyday or common sense knowledge. The different possibilities for how the school/non-school knowledge boundaries might be approached are expressed in three scenarios —'boundaries treated as given', 'a boundary-less world' and the idea of 'boundary maintenance as a condition for boundary crossing'. The curriculum implications of each are explored and the article makes the case for the third scenario. The factors likely to make one or other scenario dominate educational policy in the next 20–30 years are also considered.     

Qualifications Frameworks: some conceptual issues

The aim of this article is to contribute to realising the progressive and democratic opportunities that National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) can offer. In doing so it will be critical of many of the ways that NQFs have been interpreted to date and the claims that have been made for them. The article has six sections. Section 1 considers some of the reasons for the recent growth of interest in NQFs. Section 2 is concerned with the widely shared goals of NQFs and some of the contradictions and problems that they involve. Section 3 discusses the very different forms that NQFs can take. Section 4 examines a number of issues that underlie all approaches to qualifications but are made more explicit by qualification frameworks and concludes by questioning the much lauded claim that NQFs can promote and accredit informal learning. The concluding section considers the longer term implications for the future of NQFs of the earlier analysis.