Determining the level of inquiry in teachers' questions

The purpose of this investigation was to determine if an instrument, originally designed to classify levels of teachers' questions on the basis of logical operations, could be utilized to measure the level of inquiry present in a classroom discussion and to determine if the inquiry questioning behavior of the teacher influenced student achievement. The results of the study show that the modified classification scheme could accurately and reliably measure the inquiry level of teachers' classroom questions. The data also indicated that teachers who ask a greater proportion of high inquiry questions cause a greater change in students as measured by an achievement examination.     

Teenage pregnancy: a small comparison group of known mothers

To obtain confirmation of the findings of the authors' earlier comparison of ever-pregnant and nonpregnant Black high school students from Tennessee, 16 students confirmed to be pregnant were substituted for the 33 subjects in the original study whose pregnancy status was based solely on self-report. The nonpregnant control group of 251 teens was utilized in both analyses. Although the confirmed pregnant group was too small to repeat the regression analysis, striking concordance of findings between the 2 studies emerged for all dependent variables except the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire anxiety scale. The lower anxiety scores recorded among subjects in the original study may be either a statistical artifact or a reflection of the fact that these pregnant teens remained in school while subjects in the second study were enrolled in programs centered around their pregnant status. Sexual activity scores were strong or moderate significantly more often in both groups of pregnant teens compared to their nonpregnant counterparts. Interesting was the finding that 81% of pregnant teens regarded romance novels and soap operas to be accurate portrayals of real-life dating relationships compared to only 49% of nonpregnant teens. On the other hand, only 56% of the pregnant subjects regarded their own relationships to have this romantic quality. In a future study, the role of such uncritical romantic ideals in adolescent pregnancy risk will be investigated in a larger sample.     

WISC and WISC-R correlates of academic achievement

WISC and WISC-R test results were correlated with achievement test scores and school grades of 36 children who had completed two years of school. Global intelligence estimates from both scales correlated at significant levels with all achievement test measures. Individual subtests from the two scales were unevenly correlated with grades in specific school subjects over both school years. Data suggest that while the two scales may be grossly equivalent as global predictors of school achievement, the individual subtests from the two scales may not correlate equivalently with specific external criteria such as school grades.     

“I’m not the only victim…” student perceptions of exploitative supervision relation in doctoral degree

Higher Education - Drawing on a five-ethical principles framework, this study examines how the thirteen recruited doctoral students across disciplines in Hong Kong interpret the idea of and...     

Challenges of assuring the development of graduate attributes in a Bachelor of Arts

All universities in Australia are asked to develop various attributes in their degrees. From 2011, the Australian Qualifications Framework has stipulated some of these attributes for the various levels of qualifications. There are many challenges that face assuring the development of graduate attributes in a Bachelor of Arts as the degree typically has very few core units (if any), a wide choice of subjects, a limited prerequisite structure and, unlike many professional degrees, the BA does not have an external accrediting body. This paper describes an approach used to identify the pathway undertaken by each individual student in a History major of the Bachelor of Arts. This pathway was used to identify the graduate attributes that each student should have developed, as articulated by the lecturers. Student perceptions were then compared with the graduate attributes that were intended to be developed through each individual's combination of units studied. In summary, through analysing the two methods (student perceptions and unit pathway) we found that they concurred with respect to only three-quarters of the graduate attributes. Possible reasons for the discrepancies and future research are discussed. The need for multiple methods of providing evidence of the development of graduate attributes is confirmed.     

Using quality enhancement processes to achieve sustainable development and support for sessional staff

Abstract

Consistent with quality enhancement, we report on how we used a continuous improvement cycle to formalise and embed an academic development and support programme for our School’s sessional staff. Key factors in establishing and maintaining the programme included: local change agents supported initially by institutional project funding; School support for key academic and administrative roles; timely access to reports and tools from nationally-funded projects and sessional staff input. Reviewing our approach against national standards highlighted ongoing actions while collaboration with academic developers is critical for advancing our understanding and reviewing our approaches in our continuously changing context.