The role of assessment feedback in developing academic buoyancy

This research focuses on the everyday challenge in academic learning of assessment, and argues that academic buoyancy is a key factor in academic success. To scaffold students’ learning and effectively support academic buoyancy, there is arguably a need for a better understanding of: (i) what students find most and least useful in their assessment feedback; (ii) how students use feedback to approach future assessments; and (iii) how students respond to feedback in terms of what they think, feel and do. Key findings from survey responses of 91 undergraduate students were that students use their feedback more than anticipated and look for specific information to help their future performance. In addition, five indicators of academically buoyant behaviour were identified: an internal locus of control, understanding the grade, being forward looking, being improvement focused and being action orientated. These indicators suggested a distinction between students who were academically buoyant because they were constructive in their response to feedback, and those who appeared less so because they were not action orientated, but more focused on their emotional response. These findings have implications for the provision of assessment feedback in higher education and offer insight into opportunities for the development of academic buoyancy.     

“亲产业”之大学生电子模拟招投标竞赛开发与研究

通过校企合作将大学的综合智力资源与社会优势资源相结合,探索搭建造价从业人员实践平台,通过模拟造价从业工作中的预算和招投标等完整过程,消除人才供需双方信息不对称的现象,促进产学研用紧密结合。     

Making the School Environment Safe: Red Rose's Formula

The purpose of this study was to assess the school environment of an urban school to illuminate what teachers felt to be important factors in developing a safer school environment. Responses to the School Level Environmental Questionnaire (SLEQ) suggested that teachers wanted more student support, more resources and less work pressure. To decrease work pressure, teachers adopted the work conservation strategies of working without reserves of time and energy, processing curriculum, and working in isolation in order to survive. Yet, when work conservation strategies were used, especially safeguarding time, student aggression surfaced. A School Improvement Committee developed a three-step plan to decrease work pressure. Teachers were concerned with lack of resources and used personal income to buy supplies and shared materials with students, using three styles of sharing. While some teachers were reluctant to share, others shared freely and still other teachers developed responsible sharing systems. Those who shared reluctantly had more behavior problems. Teachers' gravest concerns were students' aggressive behaviors. Teachers thought that student aggression was coming from home and the community. Observations showed that students often came to school angry. Yet, interviews verified that students at Rose more frequently became angry once they were at school. Red Rose's school environment was in the midst of change, but no attention was given to how change affects teachers. Many teachers were not prepared for the amount of change that they were experiencing and they had mixed feelings and opinions and became resistant.     

丹尼尔论远程教育基础(下)

该文考查了远程教育的基础,它的发展历史和它赖以发展进化的技术。历史上有两种传统的远程教育:远程课堂教学和函授教学。它们具有不同的教育学特征和成本结构。然而,新一代技术即知识媒体,作为计算机技术、电子通信技术和认知科学汇同结合的产物,正在将远程教育的两大传统结合在一起。知识媒体将通过进一步发展远程教育对大学的革新作出重大贡献。     

A tale of two representations: the misinformation effect and children's developing theory of mind

The present research investigates representational ability as a cognitive factor underlying the suggestibility of children's eyewitness memory. The misinformation effect is used as an index of children's suggestibility, and performance on the false belief task is used as an assessment of children's representational abilities (N = 117). Analyses that considered the effect of representational ability and general memory ability on children's susceptibility to misleading information showed that differences in representational ability and general memory ability predicted participants' susceptibility to misleading information. These results demonstrate that the eyewitness memory of children who lack either multirepresentational abilities, sufficient general memory abilities, or both (i.e., most 3- and 4-year-olds) is less accurate than the eyewitness memory of children with both multirepresentational abilities and sufficient memory abilities (i.e., most 6-year-olds and adults). Thus, it appears that the earliest age at which children's eyewitness memory can be considered to be similar to that of adults is 6 years of age, when children's mental representational abilities are similar to those of adults. These results suggest that one factor underlying children's vulnerability to misleading information is the number of representations of an event that they can simultaneously hold and compare.     

Gathering the views of children and young people to inform practice in a psychological service

This paper describes the process employed by a psychological service to gather the views of children and young people using guided discussion groups and questionnaires. Pupils in the guided discussion groups were asked to identify issues that affect them and how adults could help. This information was analysed using thematic analysis. Seven themes were identified as issues: managing feelings; friendships; behaviour; specific difficulties that can affect learning; not being accepted; bullying; and ‘other important issues’, including bereavement and family difficulties. In relation to each of these themed issues, several sub‐themes regarding how adults could help were collated. Questionnaire data was analysed using inferential statistics. The questionnaire rated the importance of help from adults in the areas of learning, friendships and feelings. Results suggested that these were equally important to primary‐aged pupils. Findings were used to contribute to the development plan and shape future practice.     

Creating Cultural Competence: An Outreach Immersion Experience in Southern Africa

With disasters on the rise, counselors need to increase their cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills to work with affected communities. This study reports outcomes of a four-week immersion experience in southern Africa with six counselor-trainees. Data sources for this qualitative study were: daily journals and demographic forms. Outcomes suggest that sustained contact with community residents and daily supervision experiences served to improve cultural awareness. Recommendations include pushing through students?? resistance using a non-linear dynamic model of transformation.     

Collaboration or confrontation? An investigation into the role of prior experiences in the completion of collaborative group tasks by student teachers

This paper describes research which investigated how a group of 23 postgraduate student teachers from a wide variety of international backgrounds with a broad range of previous experience perceived the significance of their own and others’ prior experience in accomplishing directed collaborative tasks, related to their coursework, in pre-determined groupings. The students were asked to comment on how they valued their own and others’ prior experiences and how they considered prior experience informed the completion of the tasks. They were also asked to comment on the dynamic of groups in which they worked and how they felt others’ prior experiences affected the management and achievement of the task. The students rated some experiences more highly than others and almost all appreciated the predetermined nature of the groupings as benefitting them socially as well as educationally. However, they raised practical, attitudinal and personality issues, suggesting that more structured guidance from tutors at the outset would be beneficial.