Confronting the biases in connoisseur review and performance indicators in higher education: A structural modelling approach

Scholarly productivity and the research reputation of academic staff frequently dominate as criteria in the review of higher education courses, disciplines and institutions, a bias which represents a profound hazard for plausible evaluation. Three distinct outcome constructs were identified from analyses of performance indicator data gathered on the accounting discipline in Australia. They were the scholarly productivity of the academic staff involved, the quality of teaching and learning as perceived by students and graduates, and the academic efficiency, in terms of subject completion rates, with which the courses were conducted. Each outcome was shown to be related in a different manner to various characteristics of the courses investigated. The results challenge the orthodox view that scholarly productivity will lead naturally to other desired outcomes of higher education, question the usual surface level interpretation of performance indicators, and suggest that evaluation in higher education might combine connoisseur and performance indicator approaches within the framework of a realist epistemology, placing emphasis on the structures and mechanisms which generate the diverse and distinct outcomes of different courses.     

Generic Interests and School Subject Choice

While empirical research on school subject preferences and choices has a long history, ‘interest’ has infrequently been invoked as an explanatory construct. Three levels on which interest is conceptualised in educational research are identified. The most general derives from vocational psychology and may be characterised by the themes of Holland’s RIASEC typology. The results of five recent Australian studies in which interests were related to school subject preferences and choices are reviewed, and a series of multi-level models of data from the most recent are presented. The models offer a coherent summary of interest – school subject choice relations and enable accurate estimates to be made of their relative importance across the curriculum fields typically available in the senior secondary years. The consistency in the results of the five studies provides strong support for the hypotheses that school subject preferences and choices are systematically related to interests, and that Holland’s RIASEC themes provide a coherent account of preferences and choices across a broad range of objects, activities and contexts encountered in school and work.     

Relationship between Percent Maximal O2 Uptake and Percent Maximal Heart Rate in Women

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the health and safety concerns of the secondary school physical educator. A list of 137 possible health and safety concerns was compiled. These were secured from the professional literature, through interviews with experts in the field, and through introspection. This list was submitted to a jury of experts in physical education and health education to determine the relative importance of these concerns in contributing to the success of the physical education program. Fifty-one percent of the judges found that 83 of the statements represented health and safety concerns that were essential to the fulfillment of the objectives of secondary school physical education.     

An investigation of cognitive skills and behavior in high ability students

The purpose of this study was to investigate the cognitive and behavioral profiles of high ability students. Performance on measures of verbal and visuo-spatial working memory and general ability (vocabulary and block design) was compared across the following groups: high, average, and low ability students. The behavioral profile of high ability students was also compared with those with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD. The working memory performance was superior in the high ability students compared to the low and average ability groups, though the relationship between working memory and IQ weakens as a function of increasing ability. The findings are discussed in light of Spearman's law of diminishing returns. The behavioral profile of this group indicates similar features in some respects to those with a clinical diagnosis of ADHD, however, underlying explanations may differ and should be taken into consideration in future research on dual needs in high ability students.