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.     

On the influence of the architecture of poly(ethylene glycol)-based thermoresponsive polymers on cell adhesion

Thermoresponsive polymer surface coatings are a promising tool for cell culture applications. They allow for a mild way of cell detachment that preserves the activity of membrane proteins—a prerequisite for reliable cell analysis. To enlarge the application range of these coatings to cells with different adhesion properties, we synthesized various novel poly(ethylene glycol)-based thermoresponsive polymers and describe how (i) their chemical structure and (ii) their surface density affect their efficiency. In order to quantify the influence of both factors, the time for cell spreading and rounding efficiency were observed. As a result, efficiency of cell rounding, which is closely correlated to cell detachment, is less affected by both factors than the time needed for cell spreading. This time can effectively be adjusted by the molecular architecture which includes the length of the polymer backbone and the side chains. Based on this work, recommendations are given for future optimization of functionality of thermoresponsive polymer coatings for cell culture applications.     

Decentralizing and deschooling job training: Implications of selected studies from the USA

Vocational education is assumed to equalize opportunities for low-achieving youngsters by providing them with necessary job training with the expectation it will enhance their employability, productivity, and hence, community and national economic development. Increasing evidence suggests that vocational education, when developed as part of a nation's formal school structure, tends instead to be an expenisve, ‘second-class’ educational track with limited educational and economic benefits. Increasingly, developing nations, pressed by slow-growing modern sector economies and burgeoning youth populations, are as a consequence investigating the potential of non-formal institutions to supply vocational job training.The paper seeks to improve educators' and planners' understanding of non-formal vocational programs by reporting on three recent studies from the United States. Further, the paper draws on organizational theory to explain how non-formal programs' characteristics that account for efficient job training appear to be shaped by market forces that are unimportant to formal programs.The paper suggests that educators and planners distinguish between job training and education, the ends and means of which are considerably different, and give serious attention to shifting job training more to non-formal institutions. Besides apparent efficiencies that appear to characterize non-formal job training, the paper suggests that by removing job training from formal schools and credentialling, greater social equity may result. Formal schools would be thus deprived of an important part of their social selection role. Being freed of the dual function of training and education, schools could be more easily focussed on more fundamental educational reform to provide a common educational experience for all students to improve their literacy and arithmetic abilities and guide their general development to adulthood.     

The (mis)interpretation of teaching evaluations by college faculty and administrators

Student evaluations of teaching are ubiquitous and impactful on the careers of college teachers. However, there is limited empirical research documenting the accuracy of people’s efforts in interpreting teaching evaluations. The current research consisted of three studies documenting the effect of small mean differences in teaching evaluations on judgements about teachers. Differences in means small enough to be within the margin of error significantly impacted faculty members’ assignment of merit-based rewards (Study 1), department heads’ evaluation of teaching techniques (Study 2) and faculty members’ evaluation of specific teaching skills (Study 3). The results suggest that faculty and administrators do not apply appropriate statistical principles when evaluating teaching evaluations and instead use a general heuristic that higher evaluations are better.     

An Evaluation of the Instructional Effectiveness of a Computer Lesson in Biomechanics

Abstract

The effects of augmented feedback on perceptions of ability (SPA), practice behaviors, and performance during motor skill instruction of a novel task were investigated. Fourth-grade students (N = 103) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: (a) no feedback; (b) motivational feedback; (c) task feedback; or (d) motivation and task feedback. They then practiced simple and complex cupstacking skills. On a relatively simple task, the type of feedback did not have a significant effect on children's SPA, practice behaviors, or performance; but on a more complex task, differential effects of feedback were evident. Results indicate that informational feedback is an important factor in facilitating student engagement, fostering positive perceptions of ability, and ultimately improving performance on a challenging task.     

Statistical knowledge and the over-interpretation of student evaluations of teaching

Research shows that teachers interpret small differences in student evaluations of teaching as meaningful even when available statistical information indicates that the differences are not reliable. The current research explored the effect of statistical training on college teachers’ tendency to over-interpret student evaluation differences. A sample of 225 English, mathematics and psychology teachers evaluated statistical reports of student evaluation data corresponding to a fictional teacher’s courses. Teachers from the three disciplines varied significantly in their statistics training, but there were no differences in their tendency to rate small, non-significant differences in student evaluations as indicative of the need to make improvements in a course. These results illustrate that statistical knowledge alone does not prevent the over-interpretation of student evaluation means.     

To Share or Not to Share: A Study of Educational Dilemmas Regarding the Promotion of Creativity and Innovation in Entrepreneurship Education

ABSTRACT

Within both society and education, economic and social entrepreneurship is considered to be of great importance. However, there appear to exist different and contradictory principles regarding the essence of this entrepreneurship. On the one hand, entrepreneurship is associated with economical concepts like competition, individual achievement and commodification. On the other hand, entrepreneurship is associated with collaboration, sharing and collective endeavors. The different notions and rationales represent a dilemma from an educational perspective, in the sense that the students may find themselves split between individual and collaborative methods and ideals. In this study, this dilemma is explored through a case study conducted in collaboration with students from the field of Social Education. The case study indicates that ambivalent notions about entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation entail a number of pedagogical challenges and produce occasional frustration among students. Especially, the students demonstrate different attitudes towards the concept of sharing ideas with their peers. At the end of the article, further educational implications of the study are discussed.