Governance Paradigms of Public Universities: An international comparative study

Tertiary Education and Management - This study aims to develop a conceptual model of the wider influencing forces impacting the governance paradigms of public universities. It draws on the...     

Temperament and psychopathology: The “community” to which you belong matters

We utilized a community detection approach to longitudinally (a) identify distinct groups of children with common temperament profiles in infancy and at 2 and 3 years of age and (b) determine whether co-occurrence of certain temperament traits may be early predictors of internalizing problems at 5 years of age. Seven hundred and seventy-four infants (360 girls; 88.6% White, 9.8% Hispanic, and 1.6% other races) were recruited from the Boston area. Data collection spanned from 2012 to 2021. The analysis yielded three distinct groups of children with different temperament traits and was associated with significant variation in levels of internalizing symptoms and anxiety diagnosis rate. Our findings suggest that stable temperament “communities” can be detected in early childhood and may predict risk for psychopathology later in life.     

Social Integration and the Mental Health of Black Adolescents

The influence of family, school, and religious social contexts on the mental health of Black adolescents has been understudied. This study used Durkheim's social integration theory to examine these associations in a nationally representative sample of 1,170 Black adolescents, ages 13–17. Mental health was represented by positive and negative psychosocial well‐being indicators. Results showed that adolescents' integration into family and school were related to better mental health. In addition, commitment to religious involvement positively influenced mental health. Although the direct effect of religious involvement was inversely related to mental health, mediation analyses revealed a positive influence through religious commitment. Findings suggest a greater emphasis on all three social contexts when designing strategies to improve the mental health of Black adolescents.     

Investigating the sets of values that community members hold toward local nature centers

While nature center’s missions often point to connecting people to nature in various ways, their potential to provide a broader array of services to their communities remains largely unexplored. To better understand the values local community members hold for nature centers, we conducted survey research around 16 centers in the United States. Exploratory factor analysis identified four underlying values: environmental connection, leisure provision, community resilience, and civic engagement. Our limited sample of community respondents felt these values to be important and well-provided by local centers, suggesting centers may play broader roles in communities than inferred from their mission statements. The identification of these distinct value sets provides centers with food for thought regarding not only the services they provide, but also how they might communicate their roles to various constituencies in their communities. The values also provide clear conceptual categories for future research on the values of diverse community institutions.     

Is it all memory recall? An empirical investigation of intellectual skill requirements in Leaving Certificate examination papers in Ireland

The terminal examination of post-primary education in Ireland, the Leaving Certificate, is often criticised for the reliance on memory recall over higher order thinking skills in the assessment process. In order to examine the evidence base for these critiques, this article presents an empirical investigation of the intellectual skills and knowledge domains implicit in the tasks in the written examination papers of 23 subjects in the Leaving Certificate in Ireland from 2005 to 2010. Data were collected from two sources: examination papers and student interviews. In an in-depth document analysis of the examination papers, 14,910 occurrences of command verbs were coded for the intellectual skill and knowledge domains required by the assessment task. As the same verb can require different intellectual skills in different subjects and in different tasks, each occurrence of every verb was assigned a specific value depending on its context. The article presents the frequencies and distributions of intellectual skills and knowledge domains within and across subjects. In light of key points in the literature search, the findings indicate concern regarding the level of challenge and stimulation for the development of students of the Leaving Certificate.     

Developing a Heritage and ICT Project in 12 Irish Primary Schools

This paper outlines how a heritage and ICT project entitled ‘The Sligo Seashore Project’ was organised in twelve Irish primary schools from September 2001 to June 2003. The project was coordinated and supported by the ICT Advisor, Sligo Education Centre and the Heritage Officer, Sligo County Council. It was an extension of “Exploring the Field Fences of County Sligo”, a Schools Integration Project or SIP, one of the initiatives of the National Centre for Technology in Education (NCTE) in the Schools IT 2000 programme. The project sought to promote high levels of awareness and understanding of seashore heritage amongst the participants. It also gave them an opportunity to learn with and through ICT and in that way learn in a new and different way. The project was sponsored by a number of national and local organisations both public and private. The schools were situated on or close to the County Sligo coastline and were provided with resource material and computing equipment and received a number of supports including ICT training in digital media. The students studied the following areas: animals, habitats and plants, man and the sea and history of our coast. The students recorded their findings through essays, stories, written articles, artwork, crafts, puppets, models, photographs, maps and multimedia presentations. The second phase involved the collection and organisation of all the project material in preparation for the construction of a website, www.sligoseashore.com which developed a range of resources for teachers and students. The project was awarded first prize at the 2003 eSchola awards where the chair of the judging panel said it was “beautifully designed and perfectly integrated from a pedagogical point-of-view”. The project is ongoing.     

Interactive learning environments and games

Undergraduate psychometrics classes often use computer-intensive active learning projects. However, little research has examined active learning or computer-intensive projects in psychometrics courses. We describe two computer-intensive collaborative learning projects used to teach the design and evaluation of psychological tests. Course evaluations were significantly above the department average, and students perceived the projects as effective in meeting course objectives and improving computer skills. Grades on these projects were unrelated to self-reported computer background, suggesting that all students can succeed at computer-intensive projects when instructors provide adequate support and create a collaborative learning environment.     

Comparing Simple and Advanced Video Tools as Supports for Complex Collaborative Design Processes

Working with digital video technologies, particularly advanced video tools with editing capabilities, offers new prospects for meaningful learning through design. However, it is also possible that the additional complexity of such tools does not advance learning. We compared in an experiment the design processes and learning outcomes of 24 collaborating participant pairs (dyads) using 2 contrasting types of video tools for history learning. The advanced video tool WebDIVER supported segmenting, editing, and annotating capabilities. In the contrasting condition, students used a simple video playback tool with a word processor to perform the same design task. Results indicated that the advanced video editing tool was more effective in relation to (a) fostering student understanding of the topic and acquisition of cognitive skills, (b) the quality of student design products, and (c) the efficiency of dyad interactions. The implication of our experimental findings for constructivist design-based learning is that mediating functions of video tools may be used as cognitive and social supports, for example when students learn by solving design tasks in school.