Teachers’ conceptions of quality and organisational values in higher education: compliance or enhancement?

Teachers are often assumed to have a negative attitude towards quality endeavours of their institutions and to hold defensive organisational values. However, there is little empirical research on this issue. This study focuses on teachers’ conceptions of quality, on their preferred organisational values and on the relationships between the two. A written questionnaire was presented to the teaching staff from 18 departments of universities of applied sciences in the Netherlands (N?=?266). It comprised 18 questions about teachers’ conceptions of quality, representing two quality scales: compliance and accountability and enhancement and improvement. A further 24 questions, related to organisational values, represent two scales that typify flexible organisations, and two that typify control-oriented organisations. The results reveal a neutral score on the compliance and accountability conceptions of quality and on the control-oriented organisational values, and a high score on enhancement and improvement and on the flexibility-oriented values. Both pairs appear to be moderately positively correlated. Despite the need for further qualitative research, it can be concluded that teachers perceive quality first and foremost as enhancement and improvement, rather than as compliance to external standards and accountability. These findings offer interesting perspectives for the further development of an internal quality culture in higher education.     

The Cuban Model for Higher Education of Older Adults: Generativity,Social Commitment,and Collaborative Work

The present work is an approach to study the Cuban model for educating the elderly, and its aim is to describe the main features of the experience developed by this country. The University of the Third Age is more than three decades old in Latin America, but none of the countries in the region can show a state educational policy regulating and orienting its development. Cuba is the only country that has designed an educational program for older adults at a national level. The model is the most outstanding one among the rest of the countries in the American continent. This research is based on documentary analysis and interviews held with leaders and managers of the Chair for Older Adults, who were located in different towns of Cuba. Results led to a reconstruction of a set of dimensions of the Cuban model, such as the process of institutionalization, syllabus organization, the process of expansion and universalization, and educators' training strategies for elders. Finally, bearing in mind the features of Cuban political organization and gerontological positions, it was possible to draw the future evolution and challenges faced by the Cuban model for educating older adults.     

Intervención en estrategias de comprensión: un modelo basado en el conocimiento y aplicación de la estructura del texto

Resumen

En dos estudios complementarios se analizó la implantación y posterior evaluación de un programa de instrucción en alumnos con diferente grado de habilidad lectora. Este programa incidía básicamente en estrategias que requerían para su aplicación un conocimiento expreso sobre la estructura del texto. En un primer estudio, los 72 alumnos de 1.° de BUP que tomaron parte (36 con buen nivel y 36 con un pobre nivel de comprensión) se distribuyeron equitativamente en tres grupos: un grupo experimental y dos grupos control. A todos los grupos se aplicaron dos pruebas de recuerdo libre: inmediato y demorado (7 días). Los resultados indicaron una mejora sustantiva de los lectores que fueron entrenados en este programa respecto a sus compañeros homólogos de los grupos control, en la comprensión y recuerdo de la información relevante (macroestructura). En un segundo estudio, se evaluó el grado de transferencia de lo aprendido a situaciones nuevas. Los resultados indicaron que los sujetos entrenados en este programa experimental mostraron esta misma habilidad para organizar su recuerdo en textos cuya estructura organizativa no había sido previamente instruida.     

Actividad conjunta y habla: una aproximación al estudio de los mecanismos de influencia educativa

Resumen

El artículo presenta las principales opciones teóricas y metodológicas de un proyecto de investigación cuyo objetivo principal es el estudio de algunos mecanismos de influencia educativa que se manifiestan en, o actúan a través de, la interacción profesor/grupo de alumnos y adulterino. Utilizando como punto de partida el concepto de interactividad, término acuñado para designar las formas de organización de la actividad conjunta en torno al contenido o tarea que están llevando a cabo los participantes, se analizan dos mecanismos de influencia educativa: la cesión y el traspaso progresivos del control y la responsabilidad y la construcción progresiva de sistemas de significados compartidos.     

The Development and Application of Distance Learning Courses on the Internet

This paper presents the methodology, results and difficulties encountered in the development and delivery of a course through the Internet. The course, which is about the application of information technology to education, is being delivered using the AulaNet environment, which is groupware for the creation, participation and maintenance of Web-based courses. A model for group work is provided. This paper also shows how this kind of environment can be used to provide support, and to facilitate and manage cooperative learning.     

Pre-university Chemistry Students in a Mimicked Scholarly Peer Review

Peer review is a significant component in scientific research. Introducing peer review into inquiry processes may be regarded as an aim to develop student understanding regarding quality in inquiries. This study examines student understanding in inquiry peer reviews among pre-university chemistry students, aged 16–17, when they enact a design of a mimicked scholarly peer review. This design is based on a model of a human activity system. Twenty-five different schools in Brazil, Germany, Poland and The Netherlands participated. The students (n?=?880) conducted in small groups (n?=?428) open inquiries on fermentation. All groups prepared an inquiry report for peer review. These reports were published on a website. Groups were randomly paired in an internet symposium, where they posted review comments to their peers. These responses were qualitatively analyzed on small groups’ level of understanding regarding seven categories: inquiry question, hypothesis, management of control variables, accurate measurement, presenting results, reliability of results, discussion and conclusion. The mimicked scholarly review prompted a collective practice. Student understanding was significantly well on presenting results, discussion and conclusion, and significantly less on inquiry question and reliability of results. An enacted design, based on a model of a human activity system, created student understanding of quality in inquiries as well as an insight in a peer-reviewing practice. To what extent this model can be applied in a broader context of design research in science education needs further study.     

Detection of Misconceptions about Colour and an Experimentally Tested Proposal to Combat them

We study the misconceptions about colour that most people hold, determining the general phenomenological laws that govern them. Concept mapping was used to combat the misconceptions which were found in the application of a test specifically designed to determine these misconceptions, while avoiding the possible misleading inductions that could have arisen from the use of everyday language. In particular, care was taken to avoid the distorting effect that the use of the verb ‘to be’ applied to coloured objects could have on the responses. The misconceptions found were shown to have an internal consistency in the form of authentic mini-theories (implicit theories). We compared experimentally the results of two different teaching methods applied to combat these misconceptions. This study was conducted with 470 undergraduates of the University of Extremadura. We analysed the persistence over time of their learning made to overcome those misconceptions. The students were divided randomly into an experimental group (EG) and a control group (CG). To combat their misconceptions, EG were taught following a method based on the use of concept maps, and CG were taught following traditional teaching methods. The results of a pre-test and a post-test were compared for the two groups, finding statistically significant differences. The results allowed the principal working hypothesis to be accepted—concept maps are learning tools which foster conceptual change and allow misconceptions to be eradicated via meaningful learning maintained over time, i.e. EG acquired a relative long-lasting gain in learning that was superior to that acquired by CG.     

Students’ Understanding of the Special Theory of Relativity and Design for a Guided Visit to a Science Museum

The present paper describes the design of teaching materials that are used as learning tools in school visits to a science museum. An exhibition on ‘A century of the Special Theory of Relativity’, in the Kutxaespacio Science Museum, in San Sebastian, Spain, was used to design a visit for first‐year engineering students at the university and assess the learning that was achieved. The first part of the paper presents the teaching sequence that was designed to build a bridge between formal teaching and the exhibition visit. The second part analyses the potential of the exhibition and the aforementioned teaching sequence to influence the students’ knowledge of three aspects of the Special Theory of Relativity. The results obtained show that the design of the visit, with both pre‐visit and follow‐up activities, was effective as a means of increasing students’ understanding and stimulating their ability to argue scientifically.     

Some Internet Applications for Language Teaching: a Web-Assisted Course of English for Construction

The web expands the possibilities of language teaching, particularly in the field of specific areas, like engineering, architecture or the construction industry. It facilitates easy, instantaneous access to sources of information, specialized texts and data that were either unavailable in the past or took a considerable amount of time to access. In addition to providing these specific texts that can be used as teaching and practise material, and serving as an electronic board with information on classes, deadlines, contents, syllabus, etc., the web should also affect the way languages are taught, as well as the learning styles of the students. As many of us start using the web as a teaching resource, we should move from a phase of simply using the new media with the old content, on to developing not only new contents but also new teaching procedures and strategies based on these new media. By showing some of the web pages (http://www.ugr.es/~jmperez/Aparejadores1.html) developed for an English for Construction course at the English Department at the University of Granada, I will comment and reflect on how the Internet is beginning to affect our ways of teaching and learning. Quelques applications d’Internet À l’enseignement des langues. Un cours Web d’anglais pour la

construction. Le Web offre de nouvelles possibilités pour l'enseignement des langues, en particulier dans les domaines particuliers tels que l'ingénierie, l'architecture, ou l'industrie du bÂtiment. Il rend l'accès aux sources d'information facile et instantané notamment pour les données jadis difficilement accessibles voire totalement inaccessibles. Le Web met À disposition des matériaux de cours mais aussi des informations relatives À la gestion de ceux-ci (horaire, programmes, contenus, etc.). Il devrait de plus affecter les faÇons d'apprendre les langues autant que les styles d'apprentissage des étudiants. Comme notre propre pratique d'enseignant nous le montre, nous avons tendance À " faire du vieux avec du neuf ". Nous devrions progressivement arriver À développer de nouveaux contenus mais aussi de nouvelles procédures et stratégies d'apprentissage adaptées aux caractéristiques de ces nouveaux médias. Sur la base de l'analyse de certaines des pages d'un cours d'anglais pour la construction développé au Département d'anglais de l'Université de Grenade, (http://www.ugr.es/~jmperez/Aparejadores1.html), nous tenterons de montrer comment Internet progressivement modifie nos faÇons d'enseigner et d'apprendre. Quelques applications d’Internet à l’enseignement des langues. Un cours Web d’anglais pour la

construction. Einige Internet-Applikationen für den Sprachunterricht. Ein Web-unterstützter Englischkurs für den

Konstruktionsbau. Das Web erweitert die Möglichkeiten des Sprachunterrichtes, insbesondere in spezifischen Bereichen wie denen der Ingenieurwissenschaften, Architektur, oder Konstruktionsbau. Es ermöglicht den einfachen und schnellen Zugang zu Informationsquellen, speziellen Texten und Daten. Diese waren vorher nicht verfügbar, oder ihr Zugang war nur mit grossem Zeitaufwand verbunden. Das Web stellt nicht nur Kursmaterial zur Verfügung, sondern auch Informationen bezüglich deren Verwaltung (Stundenplan, Programme, Inhalt, etc.). Das Web kann auch die Art beeinflussen, wie Sprachen gelehrt werden, und hat somit auch Einfluss auf den Lernstil der Studenten. Wie die eigene Praxis uns zeigt, tendieren wir zum Einsatz der neuen Medien, allerdings mit altem Inhalt. Wir sollten daher nicht nur progressiv neuen Inhalt entwickeln, sondern auch neue Unterrichtsformen und-strategien, die auf den neuen Medien bauen. Anhand von einigen Web-Seiten (http://www.ugr.es/ ~jmperez/Aparejadores1.html), die für einen Englischkurs im Konstruktionsbau vom English Department der Universität von Grenada entwickelt wurde, werde ich kommentieren bzw. reflektieren wie das Internet die Art und Weise wie wir lehren und lernen, uns bereits beeinflusst.