The dubious promise of postsecondary vocational education: Its payoff to dropouts and graduates in the U.S.A.

The longitudinal study described in this report investigated the effects of postsecondary public and proprietary school vocational training on students' subsequent job success in the United States. The study surveyed dropouts and graduates from public and proprietary schools in six vocational programs in four major cities, and compared their personal characteristics, job placement and earnings. Results showed that, compared with graduates, dropouts were more frequently males who were black, older, of lower socioeconomic status, and more likely from public programs. Also, few students who studied for upper status jobs (accountant, computer programmer, and electronic technician) got those jobs, regardless of whether they had graduated from or dropped out of their vocational programs. On the other hand, the majority of students who studied for lower-status jobs, in which women typically predominate, (secretary, dental assistant and cosmetologist) successfully found those jobs. Further, graduates fared significantly better in job placement than dropouts. Finally, persistence in, and graduation from a program (persistence and graduation) were unrelated to students' first earnings. However, students in lower-status occupations had higher later earnings if they completed their programs. These results suggest that vocational training, which may be done more efficiently in proprietary than public schools, enhances placement and later earnings only in lower-status jobs.     

Computer-aided Hypermedia for Learning and Self Studies

A complete coverage of the course content does not lead the student to explorative curiosity and to a scientific attitude to knowledge and learning. Interactive hypermedia use will lead to an epistemological quality raising since in that way students’ independence in planning, knowledge acquisition and problem solving might be facilitated and since at the same time tutorial supervision and guidance can be included. Hypermedia have possibilities to provide students with large quantities of information. With network interfacing learning can take place independent of time and place and individualized education will be possible. Combined with CMC (computer mediated communication) and educational software the student has a tool for life-long education within the classroom. At the Växjö University text, images and simulations have been integrated within a hypertext system: Hyperbook (for Macintosh). At the Royal Institute of Technology we develop this concept to use it with computer-based self-study material in mechanics, a project which started in autumn 1990 using HyperCard. At the University of Lund a development of hypertext material in the form of computer illustrated text for a thermodynamics textbook has just started. An example of limits of models will be demonstrated by a computer simulation of a linearized and a non-linearized pendulum.     

The Relationship Between Some Psychological Factors and their Effect on the Performance of Grid Questions and Word Association Tests

This paper reports: (i) the relationship between certain psychological factors (i.e. field dependence/field independence, convergence/divergence and working memory capacity); and (ii) the effect of these factors on the performance of the grid-type of questions and of word association tests in biological concepts.     

Establishing documentary production support for 21st century campuses

As a response to the growing trend of academic assignments that involve some type of video production, this paper advocates that campuses need to provide instructional as well as technical support for such projects. Universities invest in writing centers to help cultivate writing skills because they understand that providing the latest word processing programs doesn’t ensure students become better writers. Similarly, students with flip/cell video cameras and editing software are not likely to produce quality projects without guidance and thus need a similar network of support for these 21st century forms of communication. This paper presents a model for offering documentary services to entire campus communities - including technology, technique, and pedagogical considerations that lead to educational film productions with strong academic content and integrity.     

Liminality,disruption, and change: A prismatic look at pandemic education

PROSPECTS - Using prismatic inquiry, a team of researchers documented a variety of personal experiences that spanned elementary through higher education, with the goal of determining what helped...