中外合作办学宿舍文化潜在课程及学生感受的实证分析——以广东某高校为个案

以广东省某中外合作办学高校为研究个案,对宿生发放了526份问卷,并对该校相关管理部门的负责人以及个别宿生进行了访谈,力求了解中外合作高校校方设计/引导的宿舍文化蕴含的潜在课程（含宿舍的物质文化、制度文化和精神文化三个层面）及学生对其的感受。研究结果表明：学生对中外合作办学宿舍文化潜在课程的整体评价大多数是正面而积极的,只有13.5%的学生表示不喜欢小镇的生活。大多数学生认同小镇生活,认为其让他们获得了独立的生活能力并学会了人际交往技巧,学生对于三个层面潜在课程功效的认同度由高到低分别为物质、制度、精神。     

Conceptualising the role of information and communication technologies in the design of higher education teaching models used in the UK

Despite the widespread availability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and some research into specific pedagogical practices using them, there has been little research on the role of these technologies in shaping broader pedagogical approaches in higher education (HE). Increased experimentation in using ICTs raises questions about their pedagogical role in teaching, learning and assessment provision, and in creating innovative pedagogies. An accepted approach is needed to compare the different ways ICTs and rich media are used in HE teaching models. Within the SusTEACH HE sustainability research project this was needed to support the carbon‐based environmental assessment of HE courses using ICTs. Building on a review of learning design theories and models, and ICTs used for pedagogical purposes, this paper considers several approaches to conceptualising the role of ICTs in HE courses, leading to the development of the Teaching Models Rating Tool designed to examine the role of ICTs in course provision. This tool characterises courses as using Face‐to‐Face Teaching Models, Distance Teaching Models, ICT‐Enhanced Blended Teaching Models or Online Teaching Models. Whilst this tool was designed to support research on sustainable HE teaching models in the UK, it has wider applications to support comparative assessments of pedagogical and economic impacts. Further developments will be informed by the complex and evolving role of ICTs in HE teaching models.     

Empowering or disabling? Emotional reactions to assessment amongst part-time adult students

This article focuses on emotional reactions to learning and assessment. It draws on a qualitative research project involving first-generation adult students on a foundation degree programme. Endorsing the notion of emotional reactions as situated in participants' lived power relations, we map out emotional patterns to Semester 1 and then explore in more detail, participants' particular emotional reactions to assessment. We found three key themes: higher education assessment as an unknown risk; assessment success ‘out of the blue’ and assessment as trauma and euphoria. A major aspect of the project was to offer socially constructed pedagogic developments in response to these themes and nurture emotion as positive energy for transformation.     

Machines to Think With? E-books,Kindles and English Teachers,the Much Prophesied Death of the Book Revisited

English teachers have a particular professional interest in developing their students as readers and this includes a very strong emphasis on literature. They are personal and professional enthusiasts for books and in the past have shown anxieties about threats to the book from computers and portable devices. The advent of e-readers, like the Kindle, brings a new dynamic to the field of reading with many teachers becoming enthusiastic users of such devices. This article reports on a research project examining the personal and professional attitudes of English teachers towards e-readers and seeking their views on their pedagogical implications. The project used an online survey and follow-up telephone interviews; this article focuses on the latter. Findings suggest some reservations but overall a strong enthusiasm for e-readers both personally and professionally and a definite conviction that such readers will be important in schools in the future.     

An Empirical Study to Examine for Androgynous Mentoring Behaviour in the Field of Education

Abstract

This empirical study focuses upon mentoring behaviour in the context of schools and colleges and is a continuation of an earlier empirical study which posited the theory that mentors will display androgyny—high levels of instrumental and expressive behaviour—whilst in their mentoring role. Sixteen mentors were invited to partake in a study that was designed to deploy both qualitative and quantitative methods in a complementary manner. Mentors reported the complementary nature of the mentoring role and other roles they performed and noted the positive, reciprocal nature of mentoring: such resulted in the mentors not seeing their role as a particularly demanding one. Evidence of mentors displaying expressive—or stereotypically feminine—behaviour within their role was apparent. The levels of instrumentality that the mentors felt others expected them to display were waived in favour of expressiveness when actual mentoring behaviour was reported: this was not mitigated by the gender of the mentor. Further, evidence emerged that the mentors would not alter their behaviour whether in a same or cross‐gender mentoring situation. The study concludes that mentors in education do not display androgynous behaviour whilst mentoring; rather they display high levels of expressive behaviour. Such would place mentoring as a stereotypically feminine role. The study further questions those who perceive cross‐gender mentoring as problematic, with mentor‐mentee age difference of possibly more concern. In order to allow full consideration of claims made, details of the previous study are given.     

Confirmatory analysis of the factorial structure and validity of the service provider sociality scale

This investigation assessed the factorial structure and validity of the Service Provider Sociality Scale (SPSS). The SPSS was administered to 455 customers, including 255 undergraduate students attending a small Midwestern college and 200 residents in communities surrounding the college. Confirmatory factor analysis results indicated that the service provider sociality measurement model had significant composite reliability and discriminant validity. Implications and recommendations for further research are provided.     

Transitioning to E-books: Usage and Attitudes Among Business Faculty

The authors discuss declining usage of print collections in business disciplines and describe a survey of business faculty conducted in fall 2009. Results indicate a preference for print books but a willingness to substitute e-books. Using these results, this article outlines reasons for faculty preferences and implications for future collection development.     

Assessing the impact of football-based health improvement programmes: stay onside,avoid own goals and score with the evaluation!

Health improvement is an important strand of the Premier League’s ‘Creating Chances’ strategy. Through community programmes, professional football clubs offer health-enhancing interventions for a number of different priority groups at risk from a range of lifestyle-related health conditions. However, while national guidance recommends evaluating health improvement interventions, concerns remain about how to do this most effectively. This study aims to investigate the popularity of football-based health improvement schemes and assess the challenges associated with their evaluation. Adapted from existing methodologies, a semi-structured questionnaire was administered to an ‘expert’ sample (n?=?3) of football-led health evaluators. The sample was selected because of their experience and knowledge of performing evaluations of football-led health improvement programmes. Our ‘experts’ offered reasons for the popularity of football settings as channels for health improvement (including the reach of the club badge and the popularity of football), the justification for evaluating such schemes (including confirming effectiveness and efficiency) and the challenges of implementing evaluations (capacity, commitment and capability). Finally, a selection of key considerations for the evaluation of the impact of football-led health improvement programmes (obtaining expert guidance, building capacity and planning for evaluations) are discussed.     

Shaping Literacy in the Secondary School: Policy, Practice and Agency in the Age of the National Literacy Strategy

This article examines the definitions of literacy in operation in secondary schools, and the relationship between official literacy policy and the practices of the agents responsible for implementing this policy. We trace the history of national 'policy' back to the Language Across the Curriculum movement of the 1970s as it provides an illustrative point of comparison with the first five years of the National Literacy Strategy. Drawing on empirical data which illuminate the views, perceptions and practices of key agents on a number of levels, we critically review the concept of 'school literacy' promoted in government policy, defining it as 'school–centric literacy' and question its ability to facilitate participation in the practices associated with the media and technological literacies which are increasingly a feature of school life. There is evidence of some unplanned effects of the current national policy but also that levels of agency, for literacy teachers in particular, may be rapidly diminishing.     

Educational change takes ages: Life, career and generational factors in teachers’ emotional responses to educational change

This paper examines the relationship of the emotions of teaching to teachers’ age and career stages based on experiences of educational change. Drawing on an analysis of interviews with 50 Canadian elementary, middle and high school teachers it analyzes how teachers respond emotionally to educational change at different ages and stages of career, and also how they attribute age and career-based responses to their colleagues.