Students’ feedback preferences: how do students react to timely and automatically generated assessment feedback?

This study assesses whether or not undergraduate and postgraduate accounting students at an Australian university differentiate between timely feedback and extremely timely feedback, and whether or not the replacement of manually written formal assessment feedback with automatically generated feedback influences students’ perception of feedback constructiveness. The study demonstrates that students do not differentiate between timely feedback and extremely timely feedback. This result holds for both on-campus as well as off-campus students, although undergraduate on-campus students have significantly higher timeliness expectations than undergraduate off-campus students. In addition, the study demonstrates that a replacement of manually generated feedback with automatically generated feedback improves students’ perception of the constructiveness of the provided feedback substantially (undergraduate) or significantly (postgraduate). Instructors may consequently be able to exploit the advantages of automatic feedback tools without having to be concerned about the impact of such feedback on student perceptions. In addition, instructors should only aim to provide extremely timely feedback rather than timely feedback, if sound pedagogical reasons are available to justify the required effort.     

K-12 teachers’ perceptions of and their satisfaction with interaction type in blended learning environments

Blended learning is an effective approach to instruction that combines features of face-to-face learning and computer-mediated learning. This study investigated the relationship between student perceptions of three types of interaction and blended learning course satisfaction. The participants included K-12 teachers enrolled in a graduate-level course. Results indicate that students (a) perceived interaction as important to their learning experiences and (b) were moderately satisfied in their blended learning course. The predictive model of student satisfaction including three types of interaction was reliable. Of the three types of interaction, learner–content interaction was the strongest predictor of student satisfaction when the course design involved a low amount of collaborative activities. Additionally, student personality was found to be a vital factor for interaction and satisfaction in this type of course design. Students who reported having an extroverted personality noted more interaction and a higher level of student satisfaction than those who self-reported as introverted.     

Development of a Questionnaire Assessing School Physical Activity Environment

This study was designed to develop the Questionnaire Assessing School Physical Activity Environment (Q--SPACE) based on student perceptions. Twenty-eight items rated on 4-point Likert scales were administered to 244 middle school students in 9 schools. Exploratory factor analysis was used to evaluate the underlying structure of the items and 2 factors were extracted: physical environment (PE) and social environment (SE). Twelve and 8 items loaded saliently on PE (e.g., gym classes available) and SE (e.g., teacher encouragement), respectively. Factor scales had alpha coefficients of .86 (PE) and .81 (SE). One-week test–retest reliabilities for the factor scales of PE and SE were .78 and .72, respectively. Differences in PE scale scores across schools and PE and SE scale scores across student school physical activity behavior (e.g., participation on school teams) provided some evidence of scale construct validity. Overall, Q–SPACE demonstrates acceptable reliability for capturing middle school students' perceptions of school physical activity environment. The factorial validity needs to be assessed with confirmatory factor analysis and invariance testing procedures.     

Knowledge and perceptions of sport psychology within English soccer

The aim of the present study was to examine knowledge and perceptions of applied sport psychology within English soccer. National coaches (n?=?8), youth academy directors (n?=?21) and academy coaches (n?=?27) were surveyed using questionnaire and interview methods. Questionnaire results revealed a lack of knowledge of sport psychology that appeared to underpin some of the most significant barriers to entry for sport psychologists. These included lack of clarity concerning the services of a sport psychologist, problems fitting in and players' negative perceptions of sport psychology. Overall, however, lack of finance was the highest rated barrier. Six barrier dimensions emerged from the interview data: negative perceptions of psychology, lack of sport psychology knowledge, integrating with players and coaching staff, role and service clarity, practical constraints, and perceived value of sport psychology. These findings were broadly compatible with the survey data, with finance emerging as a major barrier and misconceptions of sport psychology being common. Our conclusions are discussed in relation to the practical implications of the study for both applied research and the provision of sport psychology services within English soccer.     

Talent development: linking the stakeholders to the process

Abstract

The three stakeholders (coaches, parents and the National Governing Body) in Talent Identification and Development (TID) are important factors in athlete development. How each of them perceive the key constructs of Talent Identification and Development (i.e. sport specialisation and selection, practice, athlete development, junior and adult success, and the role of the stakeholders), and the coherence of that understanding is not well understood. This study focuses on junior performance tennis and investigates the perceptions of coaches, parents and sports organisations (a National Governing Body) of the five key constructs of Talent Identification and Development. We were interested in examining (a) the extent to which stakeholder perceptions relate to research, (b) the coherence of each stakeholder's perceptions and (c) the extent to which there is coherence between what stakeholders understand each other thinks. Seventy-five coaches, parents, and National Governing Body staff completed a questionnaire that asked participants to rate their degree of agreement/disagreement with researched ‘principles' of Talent Identification and Development. The results suggest that stakeholders do not strongly agree with the research supporting principles of Talent Identification and Development. Furthermore, a significant lack of coherence of stakeholder perceptions was evident. This lack of coherence was also evident in each group's understanding of what the other stakeholders believed. The impact of these results on the Talent Identification and Development process is discussed.     

‘Drop-outs’ or ‘heritage learners’? Competing mentalities of governmentality and invested meanings at a weekend Japanese language school in the USA

Based on fieldwork at a weekend Japanese language school in the USA in 2007–2009, this article illustrates the ways in which different regimes of government arise from an activity depending on meanings individuals invest in it. We examine how two students in the same classroom experienced two different regimes of government: one of a low-track class for ‘native speakers’ and the other of a heritage language class for bilingual speakers. Building on Mitchell Dean's reworking of Foucault, we suggest a new approach to ethnographically studying governmentality which focuses on invested meanings.     

The planning illusion: does active planning of a learning route support learning as well as learners think it does?

Is actively planning one’s learning route through a learning domain beneficial for learning? Moreover, can learners accurately judge the extent to which planning has been beneficial for them? This study examined the effects of active planning on learning. Participants received a tool in which they created a learning route themselves before accessing learning material and, for comparison, also worked with a tool in which the route was planned automatically. Eighty-three participants participated in learning sessions with both tools over two topics in statistics. Both tools were found to influence the learning process. However, results indicate inconsistency between participants’ judgement of the relative effectiveness of the two types of tools and their actual learning outcomes. Although participants thought they had learned more when they actively created a plan themselves, knowledge tests showed no differences on performance between actively planning a learning route or receiving it ready-made.     

Recent changes to students' perceptions of their key skills on entry to higher education

Students arrive in higher education (HE) with a range of generic and subject‐specific skills which they are expected to use and build upon during their degree courses. In order to ensure that undergraduates are able to make a successful transition to HE, it is important that teachers and course designers understand the level and range of skills with which they arrive, and where support and remediation may be required.

For the last nine years, 2065 first‐year undergraduates entering Leeds medical school have completed a questionnaire asking them to self‐assess the number of opportunities to practise a range of 31 generic skills experienced in the previous year, and how confident they feel about their ability to perform these skills. Over this period, a number of trends have become evident. Increased reported practice in a range of information technology (IT) skills might have been expected as a result of improved availability of technology. However, a significant decrease in both practice and confidence in laboratory, data handling and numeracy skills would suggest that changes to post‐16 education are adversely affecting the skills with which undergraduates arrive at university. Other skills, particularly those which relate to students' experience in managing their own learning, have shown no consistent change in reported levels of practice during the period of study, despite increased emphasis on these skills within post‐16 qualifications since the introduction of Curriculum 2000. These observations have implications for course design across a range of courses, particularly in science programmes with significant practical and numerical components.     

天堂寨景区社区领导与普通居民旅游感知的差异

天堂寨农村社区旅游感知主要表现在社会收益、社区成本、文化收益、自然保护、经济期望、旅游支持、社区满意、社区议题、经济收益等方面。社区领导与普通农民在社区成本与自然保护感知两个维度有显著差异。普通农民对旅游发展社会成本的感知与自然保护的感知显著高于社区领导,其它维度则差异不显著。其研究说明了社区领导与普通居民是两个有不同利益诉求的利益群体,社区领导并不能完全代表普通居民,发展中国家农村社区愈来愈是一个多元化的权力空间。