Student Involvement in University Life — Beyond Political Activism and University Governance: a view from Central and Eastern Europe

Since the 1980s and early 1990s, much attention has focused on the position of students as stakeholders in the process of higher education. The importance of student evaluation is now widely recognised; in many countries, the move toward fee‐based funding has increased the power of students as ‘consumers’ of their education. At the same time, it is often asserted that students are reluctant to participate in university life, concerned primarily (sometimes exclusively) with obtaining their formal qualification and less with wider aspects of higher education. The views and attitudes prevalent in the student population and within institutions themselves on such issues vary widely. This debate is an international one, but is especially relevant in the rapidly changing higher education systems of Central and Eastern Europe.     

Content and Criticism: the aims of schooling

A number of recent writers have urged that schools not try to foster critical thinking in students, and this attack on what had lately emerged as very widely held to be a central aim of schooling is examined and found wanting. The debate is placed in the context of the evolving discussion in twentieth-century philosophy of education of critical thinking as an educational aim, and it is argued that the distinctions and arguments which are needed to rebut the attack on critical thinking can in large measure be found in the literature from Dewey on.     

Perceived and Measured Needs Levels of Counselor Education Students

Because the counseling profession places high value on counselors possessing accurate self-awareness, this study investigated the differences and relationships between counselor education students' self-perceived and measured needs levels. A sample of 107 counselor students estimated their needs levels and then completed the Personality Research Form (PRF). Significant differences between their perceived and measured needs levels were found for 10 of the 14 PRF scales. Wide variations were evident in both perceived and measured needs levels. Significant correlations between perceived and measured needs levels percentiles for all 14 scales indicated consistency in over or under estimation of needs levels. Age and number of quarter hours completed were generally unrelated to accuracy of needs level estimation.     

PRIORITIES OF TEST PUBLISHERS

The profiles of seven major publishers of elementary-level tests were prepared from systematic ratings of the qualities of their tests. Meaningful rating differences among the publishers' priorities were found and three types of publishers could be identified and described.     

Examining Engineering Students in Developing Countries: the case for three-part questions

This paper presents a method for assessing the three major objectives in the teaching of vocational and technical courses. These objectives are identified as material assimilation, application to real practical problems and resourcefulness of the student. The method was developed and tested over a period of more than 10 years on the Applied Electricity course, taught to first year engineering students at the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria. Analysis show that with the three-part-question method of examination the distribution of student scores is normal and the information deduced can be useful to both lecturer and student.     

Pastoral Care, Spirituality and Physical Education

Within the sphere of Physical Education (PE), many observers ( Shields and Bredemeier, 1995; Capel, 2003; Green, 2003 ) have identified PE staff as having a special empathy for children's pastoral care needs and the development of Personal, Social, and Health Education (PSHE). Such factors as the varied situations and venues in which the subject is delivered, including off-campus and extra curricular activities, perhaps lead interested staff into work that locks into the welfare and personal development needs of children. Accordingly, one of the more interesting challenges posed by National Curriculum Physical Education (NCPE) in England and Wales is that it requires the teacher to address the spiritual development of the pupil; this obligation is made clear through the Spiritual, Moral, Social and Cultural (SMSC) elements of the subject. This paper focuses attention on the merging of this separate spiritual dimension with the other three concepts. While the moral, social and cultural elements of SMSC are recognized components of PE participation, the grouping raises the question of whether PE teachers can develop children's spiritual growth. This paper argues that such a pathway may be possible but that at present there is considerable confusion related to the challenge.