China's cooperation in education and training with Kenya: A different model?

This is the first detailed study of the character and particularity of China's rapidly growing education and training cooperation with Kenya. Set against the 50-year history of Kenya's engagement with China, it pays special attention to the human resources targets of the Forum for China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) from 2000. It argues that the growing popularity of China as a destination for both short- and long-term training for Kenyans, and the increasing interest by Kenyans in learning Chinese, cannot be separated from the wider involvement of China in Kenya's infrastructure development, the growth of Chinese business and foreign direct investment, and Chinese migration to East Africa.     

Canadian University Rankings: Buyer Beware Once Again

We present a data-based perspective concerning recent (e.g., 2008) Maclean’s magazine rankings of Canadian universities, including cluster analysis of the 2008 data. Canadian universities empirically resemble and relate to each other in a manner different from their formal classification and final rank ordering in the Maclean’s system. Several pitfalls in ranking procedures, related to invalid and unreliable relationships among indices underlying the final ranks, are outlined, along with relevant findings from previous studies. In their present format, although they have become increasingly publicized and promoted, data based on the Maclean’s system can seemingly be of only limited practical use to students. Perhaps more important, in our opinion, ranking exercises have unintended though potentially serious consequences for the intellectual and personal well-being of students.     

An empirical analysis of an alternative configuration of the Academic Motivation Scale

The purpose of this study was to examine an alternative configuration of the Academic Motivation Scale (AMS), a psychometric instrument used as a measure of academic motivation in various academic environments. The analyses utilised data from a convenience sample of 2354 business students, broken into two random subsamples of 1177 cases. Exploratory factor analysis of the 28 AMS scale items was conducted on the estimation sample. The results indicated good model fit for a four-factor configuration consisting of amotivation, external regulation, identified regulation, and intrinsic motivation as indicated by factor loadings, as well as internal consistency and reliability statistics.

Confirmatory factor analysis was conducted on the holdout sample to independently assess the construct validity and internal consistency of the item loadings on the reconfigured scale. Results indicated good model fit for the four-factor configuration and a significant loss of fit for competing three- and one-factor models. The uncovered factor structure advances our understanding of how the items on this scale cluster into theoretically meaningful constructs. This knowledge may be utilised in research designed to further assess the impact of motivational states on educational outcomes such as academic performance, absenteeism, dropout rates, etc.     

Still humble and hopeful: Two more recommendations on welcoming first‐generation poor and working‐class students to college

Following up on his 2007 About Campus article, Kenneth Oldfield shares six more lessons he wishes he had known as a working‐class, first‐generation college student and argues that higher education should pay more attention to first‐generation and class status among students, faculty, and staff.     

Phonological awareness, reading skills, and vocabulary knowledge in children who use cochlear implants

In hearing children, reading skills have been found to be closely related to phonological awareness. We used several standardized tests to investigate the reading and phonological awareness skills of 27 deaf school-age children who were experienced cochlear implant users. Approximately two-thirds of the children performed at or above the level of their hearing peers on the phonological awareness and reading tasks. Reading scores were found to be strongly correlated with measures of phonological awareness. These correlations remained the same when we statistically controlled for potentially confounding demographic variables such as age at testing and speech perception skills. However, these correlations decreased even after we statistically controlled for vocabulary size. This finding suggests that lexicon size is a mediating factor in the relationship between the children's phonological awareness and reading skills, a finding that has also been reported for typically developing hearing children.     

Skype Synchronous Interaction Effectiveness in a Quantitative Management Science Course

An experiment compared asynchronous versus synchronous instruction in an online quantitative course. Mann‐Whitley U‐tests, correlation, analysis of variance, t tests, and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) were utilized to test the hypothesis that more high‐quality online experiential learning interactions would increase grade. Quasi‐experimental controls included prior ability and demographic factors (gender, age). The control group used asynchronous discussion forums while the test group held synchronous sessions in Skype (chat, audio, and document sharing). A statistically significant MANCOVA model was created, using teaching method as a factor, and a count of online interactions (as a covariate), with assessment timing (as a blocking factor), to measure effect on grade.     

Accounting for Beneficial Effects of Worked Examples in Tutored Problem Solving

Recent studies have tested the addition of worked examples to tutored problem solving, a more effective instructional approach than the untutored problem solving used in prior worked example research. These studies involved Cognitive Tutors, software designed to support problem solving while minimizing extraneous cognitive load by providing prompts for problem sub-goals, step-based immediate feedback, and context-sensitive hints. Results across eight studies in three different domains indicate that adding examples to Cognitive Tutors is beneficial, particularly for decreasing the instructional time needed and perhaps also for achieving more robust learning outcomes. These studies bolster the practical importance of examples in learning, but are also of theoretical interest. By using a stronger control condition than previous studies, these studies provide a basis for refining Cognitive Load Theory explanations of the benefits of examples. Perhaps, in addition to other reasons, examples may help simply because they more quickly provide novices with information needed to induce generalized knowledge.