Dynamic characteristics of mental models and dynamic visual displays

Mental models are hypothetical constructs for explaining human cognitive processes of understanding external reality, translating the reality into internal representation and utilizing it in problem solving. Three experiments were conducted to investigate important characteristics of mental models, their influence on task performance, and instructional strategies facilitating their formation. The experiments were conducted in computer-based training environments designed to teach troubleshooting electronic logic circuits. The results suggested: (a) dynamic characteristics of mental models are important for solving problems if understanding functional behaviors of the system is required to perform the task; (b) dynamic characteristics of mental models are determined primarily by subjects' understanding of the system features and functions more than by the visually presented training contents of the system; and (c) motion simulating system functions in visual displays is more effective than static visual displays in facilitating the formation of dynamic characteristics of mental models. Consequently, dynamic visual displays are more effective than static visual displays for teaching electronic troubleshooting skills. These findings provide direct implications for the development of training programs.     

For Me or Not for Me? Fragility and Risk in Mature Students' Decision‐Making

Drawing on a research project which investigated the recent decline in mature student recruitment to higher education in the UK, this article explores the decision-making process among samples of potential and new mature entrants to nine case study higher education institutions. It compares the emphasis in public policy on higher education as a private investment with the understandings and interpretations of individuals in the act of applying for entry. It concludes that while at a generalised level mature learners believe that the private return on investment will be high, at a personal level the concepts of fragility and risk are more pertinent to understanding the complexity of their decision-making process, particularly for those over 25 years of age.     

Response to comment on estimating school efficiency

After correcting errors in our paper ([Bifulco and Bretschneider, 2001]), [Ruggiero, 2003]) finds that efficiency estimates provided by DEA and COLS have higher correlations with true efficiency values than indicated in our analysis. However, because Ruggiero only considers cases without measurement error, his analysis leaves the primary question of our study unanswered. Using the corrected data generation process proposed by Ruggiero, we find that the presence of measurement error substantially reduces the correlations between estimates of efficiency provided by DEA and COLS and true efficiency. Thus, the primary conclusions of our original study remain. If the administrative data sets used in school accountability programs have significant amounts of measurement error, and if the methods used to estimate efficiency require exogenous inputs, than measures of school efficiency can be quite misleading.     

A Rhetoric of Electronic Instruction Sets

This article offers a heuristic for conceptualizing the broad contours of electronic instruction sets as they have developed for and in online environments. The heuristic includes three interconnected models: self-contained, which leverages the features of fixed instructional content; embedded, which leverages the features of user-generated metadata; and open, which leverages the features of mutable instructional content. Although the models overlap to some extent, their distinctions help to illustrate the changing nature of online how-to discourse.