Heuristics for planning university study at a distance

A model was developed at Murdoch University, Western Australia, to describe distance students’ perceptions of their aims and plans for studying a course. The model follows Polya's Heuristic and Newell & Simon's General Problem Solver of students’ plans and sub‐goals for achieving those plans.

Verbal reports of four students were described using the model, and showed that students’ goals were different from those of the course academic, and that student goals influenced how they planned and organized their study. Implications for the formalization of the model for understanding student behaviour are discussed, as is educational relevance for design of external courses.     

Undergraduate students’ actorship in studying an educational sciences course in a Swedish context

The study aimed to investigate how students in an introductory educational sciences course experienced and understood their own actorship during the course, in relation to conditions for learning created by the teachers. The analyses were based on students’ answers to an evaluation questionnaire that produced both quantitative and qualitative data. Those students who experienced opportunities to influence the course activities also stated that they had contributed to the development of the course to a greater extent than did those who experienced no such opportunities. There was no correlation between not feeling informed about the conditions for the course and seeking complementary information. The analysis also generated five different categories based on how the students viewed their own actorship, varying from ‘no actorship since it is not meaningful’ to ‘Real actorship exists’. The results are discussed in relation to methodological reflections and as implications for increasing students’ actorship.     

Using Situational Interest to Enhance Individual Interest and Science-Related Behaviours

Situational interest is a relatively transient reaction to highly stimulating factors in the immediate environment, whereas individual interest is a relatively long-term preference for a particular subject or activity. It has been proposed that regular experiences of situational interest in a subject may eventually lead to the development of individual interest in that subject. Importantly, this should also result in an increase in behaviours related to that domain. For example, a student who develops an individual interest in science would be expected to spend more time on science-related activities such as reading about science, talking with other people about science, or watching science shows on TV. However, the extent to which this does happen has not yet been established. The purposes of this study were to find out whether regular experiences of situational interest in science classes can enhance individual interest in science and whether there is an associated increase in science-related activities. The participants were primary teacher education students who were enrolled in a semester-length science course. Data were collected using a survey, an interest inventory, open-ended questionnaires and interviews. It was found that regular experiences of situational interest during the course were associated with positive changes in individual interest in science and increased participation in science-related activities. These changes remained relatively stable over a delay period of 10 months after the end of the course.     

Whose Quality Conventions? The Application of Convention Theory in Higher Education

Tertiary Education and Management - Internationally, demands for greater certainty over the quality of higher education are multiplying. This article argues that convention theory offers insights...     

Reading and writing self-efficacy of incarcerated adults

This paper is the first to examine the Reading and Writing Self-Efficacy Scale among incarcerated adults. The aim was to examine whether performance of reading and spelling tests (Reading Speed, Nonsense Words and Spelling) explained individual differences in the participants' efficacy beliefs in reading and writing. Six hundred subjects rated their efficacy beliefs in reading and writing, and 92 of them were also sampled for a reading and spelling test. Factor analysis yielded a two-factor solution dividing the reading items and writing items into separate factors and hierarchical regression analysis revealed that education level and test performance accounted for 36.9% and 34.9% of the statistical variance in reading self-efficacy and writing self-efficacy, respectively. The results suggest that assessment of self-efficacy in reading and writing should be included in a screening procedure of reading and spelling difficulties.     

Protest: Critical lessons of using digital media for social change

How has student activism changed with the advent of the digital age? Kristin LaRiviere, Jeanette Snider, Alison Stromberg, and KerryAnn O'Meara consider the strengths and weaknesses of digital media in the organization of student activism.     

What every worker wants? Evidence about employee demand for learning

In order to boost learning, recent UK governments have invested in trade union‐led workplace learning. Investing in the supply of learning is useful but ignores the demand for learning by workers, about which there is little research. This paper addresses this lacunae by analysing worker demand for learning, which workers want learning, what learning is demanded and why, and what factors might best lever learning. Data come from two surveys of potential learners and union learning representatives. Findings reveal a large demand for learning and that unions can lever this learning. Findings also suggest further policy development to address problems associated with union‐led learning.