‘World-travelling’: a framework for re-thinking teaching and learning in internationalised higher education

In an era of unprecedented student mobility, increasingly diverse student populations in many national contexts, and globally interconnected environmental and social concerns, there is an urgent need to find new ways of thinking about teaching and learning. Static assumptions about so-called ‘Western’ versus ‘non-Western’ teaching and learning approaches or ‘local’ versus ‘international’ students are inadequate for responding to the complex histories, geographies and identities that meet and mingle in our higher education (HE) institutions. In this paper, I use María Lugones’ ‘world-travelling’ as a framework for discussing international and New Zealand women students’ reflections on teaching, learning and transition in New Zealand HE. I conclude with some suggestions as to what effective pedagogy might look like in internationalised HE if we think beyond culturalist them-and-us assumptions and recognise students’ complexity.     

Professors and examinations: ideas of the university in nineteenth-century Scotland

The separation of examining from teaching, pushed furthest in the ‘examining university’ of which London University, founded in 1836, was the model, was a much-debated principle in nineteenth-century Britain. This separation was generally rejected in Scotland, but only after complex controversies that illustrate how Scots defined their university tradition in comparative terms, and how Scottish developments interacted with those in England and Ireland. Among the issues involved were proposals for a National University or central examining board, and claims that graduates should have a right to give ‘extramural’ teaching in competition with professors. The paper traces this aspect of university reform in Scotland from the 1820s to the 1890s, and argues that the professorial model and the integration of teaching and examining were successfully consolidated and defended.     

An Examination of Nurses’ Intergenerational Communicative Experiences in the Workplace: Do Nurses Eat Their Young?

The modern workforce is becoming increasingly older, and because of this demographic shift, intergenerational interactions are more common. However, these interactions are often described negatively and could be exaggerated when housed in a workplace setting. This study explores intergenerational communication in the increasingly diverse nursing profession through the lens of communication accommodation theory. Specifically, 32 nurses were interviewed in order to understand how they experience and describe intergenerational communication in the healthcare context. Through an abductive approach to data analysis, we found three interrelated findings: (a) intergenerational hostility is commonplace, (b) intergenerational hostility is socialized, and (c) nurses are viewed as a dispensable resource. These findings were communicated and justified through the colloquialism “nurses eat their young.” Theoretical implications related to communication accommodation theory and the Communication Predicament Model of Aging were developed along with practical suggestions that focus on ways to disrupt the acceptance of intergenerational hostility, enhance intergenerational communication in the workplace, and create a space for structural change.     

Attentional inertia reduces distractibility during young children's TV viewing

The longer a look at TV is maintained, the conditional probability that it will be further maintained rapidly increases for about 15 sec, after which it increases slowly. This increase in the conditional probability of maintaining a look is called "attentional inertia." An external audiovisual distractor stimulus was presented during 3- and 5-year-olds' TV viewing. The distractor was less effective in eliciting a head turn from the TV if it was presented after a look at the TV had been continuously maintained for at least 15 sec. If a head turn to the distractor following such a maintained look did occur, moreover, its reaction time was significantly increased. Parallel effects were found for the nonviewing pauses between looks. The results provide evidence of increasing attentional engagement as a look at TV is maintained.     

Stepwise reductions in US density and intensity: Maintenance and extinction of conditioned suppression

Information was sought on how the strength of fear, acquired and extinguished in a classical conditioning paradigm, might be affected by certain of the circumstances that normally are associated with the course of avoidance learning. Following preconditioning exposures to the conditioned stimulus, one group of rats (Group PRF) was given continuous conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) acquisition trials followed by stepwise reductions in US probability (given the CS) over three phases to about 11% for the final phase. Another group, Group US(lo), was given continuous CS-US pairings throughout, but, following acquisition, received stepwise reductions in US intensity (to permit evaluation of a progressively changing feature of the US over a wide range without having to employ excessive shock) over the same phases. A third group, Group US(hi), received unchanging (from acquisition) CS-US pairings over these phases, and an explicitly unpaired control group (Group RU) was included. Although outcomes differed somewhat depending upon whether suppression ratios or absolute measures of responding were considered, the major findings were that suppression to the CS was complete by the end of acquisition and persisted thereafter throughout the three phases for all but control subjects. In contrast to Group US(lo), which showed relatively little resistance to extinction of suppression to subsequent CS-only exposures, Groups US(hi) and PRF displayed marked resistance over two separate, extended sets of extinction sessions. Suppression to context cues was pronounced only for Groups US(hi) and RU, and varied as a function of US parameters and not whether the shocks were or were not signaled. Theoretical reconciliation of these findings was most difficult for Groun PRF.     

Changing the metacognitive orientation of a classroom environment to enhance students’ metacognition regarding chemistry learning

Concerns persist regarding science classroom learning environments and the lack of development of students’ metacognition and reasoning processes within such environments. Means of shaping learning environments so that students are encouraged to develop their metacognition are required in order to enhance students’ reasoning and learning. Interventions should account for the nature of the subject material to be learned. This study employed a mixed-methods approach to investigate the efforts of university researchers and a classroom teacher to change the learning environment of a year 11 chemistry classroom. Changes in participants’ perceptions of their learning environment and corresponding changes in their metacognition and associated reasoning are documented. The teacher’s use of language that explicitly targeted students’ metacognitive knowledge altered their metacognition. Students reported changes in their learning environment and an increased awareness of how they considered chemistry might be learned. Classroom environment instruments can act as reliable indicators for monitoring changes in psychosocial dimensions of classroom environments that can be directly related to students’ metacognition.     

A meta-analysis of instructional systems applied in science teaching

This article is a report of a meta-analysis on the question: “What are the effects of different instructional systems used in science teaching?” The studies utilized in this meta-analysis were identified by a process that included a systematic screening of all dissertations completed in the field of science education since 1950, an ERIC search of the literature, a systematic screening of selected research journals, and the standard procedure of identifying potentially relevant studies through examination of the bibliographies of the studies reviewed. In all, the 130 studies coded gave rise to 341 effect sizes. The mean effect size produced over all systems was 0.10 with a standard deviation of 0.41, indicating that, on the average, an innovative teaching system in this sample produced one-tenth of a standard deviation better performance than traditional science teaching. Particular kinds of teaching systems, however, produced results that varied from this overall result. Mean effect sizes were also computed by year of publication, form of publication, grade level, and subject matter.     

A consolidation and appraisal of science meta-analyses

This article is directed to consolidating information on selected matters reported in two or more of the separate meta-analysis reported in this issue of the Journal and examining the relationship between the results of these meta-analyses and other work of this nature reported in other places. A high degree of consistency was found among the results of these various meta-analyses.