Learning orientations: Diversity in higher education

As teachers struggle to meet the needs of a highly diverse student body, technology holds out the promise of a solution. However, first the nature and scope of differences between students has to be identified. This study (n = 1811) takes a comprehensive approach, selecting differences from each stage in the learning process. These were termed learning orientations. Factor analysis (FA) produced ten learning orientations, which were then subjected to a second order FA. Three learning pathways emerged; cognitive voyaging, industrious pragmatism and multimedia collaboration. About 65% of students are high on industrious pragmatism, 15% high on cognitive voyaging and 9.2% multimedia collaboration. Both learning orientations and learning pathways were used in ANOVAS and t-tests to explore differences in age, gender and ethnicity. Students who were younger and/or of Asian or Polynesian ethnicity were more likely to follow a multimedia collaboration pathway. Older students are more likely to go the cognitive voyaging or industrious pragmatism way.     

Risks and Risk-Based Regulation in Higher Education Institutions

Tertiary Education and Management - Risk-based regulation is a relatively new mode of governance. Not only does it offer a way of controlling institutions from the outside but it also provides the...     

Identifying exemplary science teachers through students’ perceptions of their learning environment

The purpose of this study was to examine students’ psychosocial perceptions of their science classroom learning environment in order to identify exemplary teachers. This mixed-method study used the valid and reliable What Is Happening In this Class? (WIHIC) questionnaire with over 3,000 middle school students in 150 classrooms in Australia. Exemplary teachers were defined as those whose students’ perceptions were more than one standard deviation above the mean for three of the five scales of Student Cohesiveness, Teacher Support, Involvement, Task Orientation and Equity. The reliability of the WIHIC scales ranged from 0.75 to 0.87. Eta² showed that the WIHIC was able to distinguish between the perceptions of the students in the classroom. The construct validity of the WIHIC for identifying these exemplary teachers was confirmed through interviews with students and these views are reported in the article.     

Teacher expectations on the directiveness continuum in consultation

The study investigated the consultation approaches of collaborative‐directive and collaborative‐nondirective and the influence of teacher expectations for consultation on their ratings of consultation success. Teachers viewed videotaped consultation sessions of a collaborative‐directive or collaborative‐nondirective consultation session that either matched or mismatched their expectations. The study found significantly higher ratings for the consultants and interventions when the collaborative‐directive approach was used. In addition, teachers in conditions that matched their expectations for consultation rated consultants and interventions significantly higher than did teachers in mismatched conditions. The importance of this line of research lies in its practical application, allowing practitioners of consultation and trainers of school psychologists greater knowledge in selection of the appropriate consultation approach to maximize perceived consultant effectiveness and intervention acceptability. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

A macro-level analysis of SRL processes and their relations to the acquisition of a sophisticated mental model of a complex system

In this study, we used think-aloud verbal protocols to examine how various macro-level processes of self-regulated learning (SRL; e.g., planning, monitoring, strategy use, handling of task difficulty and demands) were associated with the acquisition of a sophisticated mental model of a complex biological system. Numerous studies examine how specific micro-level SRL processes such as judgments of learning or prior knowledge activation are related to learning outcomes. However, it is also valuable to look at these processes in macro-level aggregates because efficacy and use of micro-level strategies can vary due to individual differences. Two hundred and nineteen high-school and middle-school students produced think-aloud protocols while learning with a hypermedia environment. We transcribed and coded participants’ learning sessions for the use of micro- and macro-level SRL processes. Participants’ developmental level, prior knowledge, and monitoring behaviors were associated with posttest mental model sophistication. These results illustrate that monitoring is a key SRL process when developing an understanding of a complex science topic using hypermedia.     

A Case Study of Relationships between Organizational Culture and Curricular Change in Engineering Education

We examined two curricular change efforts at a small, midwestern engineering and science college in order to explore how organizational culture influences curricular change processes. We found that the failure of one effort (measured by inability to sustain the curriculum over time) and the success of the other (the curriculum continues to be offered by the institution) were directly linked to how well the change strategies aligned with the culture of the institution.     

The effects of a single reminder trial on retention of a motor skill

Two experiments investigated the effects of a single reminder trial on immediate and delayed retention. Experiment 1 determined if beneficial effects of a reminder trial were a function of task order immediate retention performance benefited only when the reminder trial was practiced in the first block of trials. Experiment 2 added a 24-hr delayed retention test to examine the long-term benefits of a reminder trial. Retention performance was enhanced over both delay intervals. The long-term effect extended previous research (Shea & Titzer, 1993) that documented effects after 10 min. The use of a single reminder trial established that intertask comparisons between multiple reminder trials were not a precondition for the reminder trial effect as postulated by Shea and Titzer.