Showing papers on "Higher education published in 1981"

Student Ratings of Instruction and Student Achievement: A Meta-analysis of Multisection Validity Studies:

Abstract: The present study used meta-analytic methodology to synthesize research on the relationship between student ratings of instruction and student achievement. The data for the meta-analysis came from 41 independent validity studies reporting on 68 separate multisection courses relating student ratings to student achievement. The average correlation between an overall instructor rating and student achievement was .43; the average correlation between an overall course rating and student achievement was .47. While large effect sizes were also found for more specific rating dimensions such as Skill and Structure, other dimensions showed more modest relationships with student achievement. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that rating/achievement correlations were larger for full-time faculty when students knew their final grades before rating instructors and when an external evaluator graded students’ achievement tests. The results of the meta-analysis provide strong support for the validity of s...

Effects of academic departments on students' approaches to studying

Abstract: Summary. 2208 students from 66 academic departments in six contrasting disciplines from British universities and polytechnics completed an ‘approaches to studying’ inventory and a course perceptions questionnaire. Factor analyses of these instruments confirmed the factor structures previously reported. Approaches to studying can be described in terms of three main factors—orientations towards personal meaning, reproducing, and achieving. In the present analysis the final factor split into two: achieving orientation and a factor labelled ‘disorganised and dilatory’ which showed a close relationship with self-rating of academic progress. The course perceptions questionnaire produced two main factors. One described formal teaching methods, vocational relevance, and clear goals and standards, and the other represented a favourable departmental evaluation with the highest loadings on good teaching and openness to students. Subsequent analyses examined links between students' perceptions of their main academic departments and their reported approaches to studying. Departments with highest mean scores on meaning orientation were perceived as having good teaching and allowing freedom in learning. Departments with the highest mean scores on reproducing orientation were seen to have a heavy workload and a lack of freedom in learning. The implications of these statistical findings are discussed in relation to continuing analyses of interview data which clarify the ways in which the organisation of teaching and courses may affect students' approaches to learning.

A Model of Student College Choice

Abstract: (1981). A Model of Student College Choice. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 52, No. 5, pp. 490-505.

Supervision of Instruction: A Developmental Approach

Abstract: Each part ends with 'Conclusion,' and each chapter concludes with 'Exercises,' 'References,' and 'Suggested Readings.' I.INTRODUCTION. 1.Supervision for Successful Schools. Supervisory Glue as a Metaphor for Success. Who Is Responsible for Supervision? Organization of This Book. The Agony of Thought and Feeling. II.KNOWLEDGE. 2.The Norm: Why Schools Are as They Are. The Work Environment or Culture of Schools. The Legacy of the One-Room Schoolhouse. Blaming the Victim and Structural Strain. To Qualify, Summarize, and Propose. 3.The Exception: What Schools Can Be. Background to School Effectiveness Studies. Early Effective School Research. More Recent Effective School Research. Should All Schools Apply Effective Schools Research? The 'How' of Effective Schools. A Cause Beyond Oneself. What to Do with Successful Schools Research: Some Propositions. 4.Adult and Teacher Development within the Context of the School: Clues for Supervisory Practice. Adults as Learners. Adult and Teacher Development. Developmental Theories of Motivation. Development: Ebb and Flow. Considering Teacher Development within the Context of the School. Influences on Teacher Development. Propositions. 5.Reflections on Schools, Teaching, and Supervision. Effective Teaching Research: A Historical Perspective. Cautions Concerning Effective Teaching Research. The Coast of Britain. Effective and Good Schools: The Same? Instructional Improvement and Effective Teaching. Beliefs about Education. Supervision Beliefs. Supervisory Platform as Related to Educational Philosophy. Checking Your Own Educational Philosophy and Supervisory Beliefs. What Does Your Belief Mean in Terms of Supervisor and Teacher Responsibility? The Authors Supervisory Platform. Summary, Conclusions, and Propositions. III.INTERPERSONAL SKILLS. 6.Supervisory Behavior Continuum: Know Thyself. Outcomes of Conference. Your Own Interpersonal Behavior Approach. Valid Assessment of Self. Johari Window. Cognitive Dissonance. Summary, Conclusions, and Preview. 7.Developmental Supervision: An Introduction. Case Study One. Case Study Two. Case Study Three. Case Study Four. Developmental Supervision. Summary and a Look Ahead. 8.Directive Control Behaviors. Directive Control Behaviors with Individuals. Directive Control Behaviors with Groups. A History of Overreliance on Control. Issues in Directive Control. When to Use Directive Control Behaviors. Moving From Directive Control toward Directive Informational Behaviors. 9.Directive Informational Behaviors. Directive Informational Behaviors with Individuals. Directive Informational Behaviors with Groups. Issues in the Directive Informational Approach. When to Use Directive Informational Behaviors. Moving from Directive Informational toward Collaborative Behaviors. 10.Collaborative Behaviors. Collaborative Behaviors with Individuals.

Returns to education : an updated international comparison

Abstract: The question of the profitability of investing in human capital remains controversial. Three main methods for estimating the rate of return to investment in education are described: the elaborate method, the earnings function method, and the short-cut method. Application of cost-benefit analysis measures in 44 countries yields four patterns that have important policy implications: (i) top priority should be given to primary education as a form of human resource investment due to high returns, both social and private; (ii) secondary and higher education should also be pursued in a program of balanced human resource development; (iii) the larger discrepancy between the private and social returns in higher education indicates room for private finance at the university level; and (iv) falling returns to education that result as a country develops and/or the capacity of its educational system expands are minimal under time-series analysis and do not warrant abandonment of educational expansion.

Coherence, Cohesion, and Writing Quality.

Abstract: A question of continuing interest to researchers in writing is what internal characteristics distinguish essays ranked high and low in overall quality. Empirical research at the college level has for the most part taken two approaches to this question, examining errors1 and syntactic features2 while generally ignoring the features of texts that extend across sentence boundaries.3 Neither the error approach nor the syntactic approach has been entirely satisfactory. For example, Elaine Maimon and Barbara Nodine's sentence-combining experiment suggests that, as is true when other skills and processes are learned, certain kinds of errors accompany certain stages in learning to write.4 Because the sources of error in written discourse are often complex and difficult to trace, researchers can conclude little more than what is obvious: low-rated papers usually contain far more errors than high-rated papers. With regard to syntax, Ann Gebhard found that with few exceptions the syntactic features of highand low-rated essays written by college students are not clearly differentiated. Indeed, research in writing quality based on conventions of written English and on theories of syntax, particularly transformational grammar, has not provided specific directions for the teaching of writing. Such results come as no surprise in light of much current research in written discourse. This research-published in such fields as linguistics, cybernetics, anthropology, psychology, and artificial intelligence-addresses questions, concerned with extended discourse rather than with individual sentences, questions about how humans produce and understand discourse units often referred to as texts.5 One such effort that has attracted the attention of researchers in writing is M. A. K. Halliday and Ruqaiya Hasan's Cohesion in English.6 Although Halliday and Hasan do not propose a theory of text structure or examine how humans produce texts, they do attempt to define the concept of text. To them a text is a semantic unit, the parts of

Controlling Acquiescence Response Bias by Item Reversals: The Effect on Questionnaire Validity:

Abstract: The prevailing conventional wisdom is that it is advisable to mix positively and negatively worded items in psychological measures to counteract acquiescence response bias. However, there has been virtually no unambiguous empirical evidence to support this recommendation. Thus, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the ability of subjects to respond accurately to both positive and reversed (negative) items on a questionnaire. Items from the LBDQ—XII Initiating Structure and Consideration subscales were used to create a written description of a fictitious manager. One hundred-fifty subjects, all upper-division business undergraduates, were given the written managerial description and then asked to complete a questionnaire containing the twenty Initiating Structure and Consideration items. The managerial descriptions were in two forms (to portray high and low Initiating Structure), and the questionnaires contained items in three forms (all positively worded, all negatively worded, and mixed). The data wer...

Towards a definition of disciplinary cultures

Abstract: The paper describes an empirical enquiry into the nature of academic disciplines. It focuses on the main similarities and differences within and between six academic disciplines—physics, history, biology, sociology, mechanical engineering and law—and concludes by suggesting a possible way of portraying different research styles.

The Academic Career as a Developmental Process: Implications for Higher Education.

Abstract: (1981). The Academic Career as a Developmental Process. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 52, No. 6, pp. 598-614.

Strategic Planning for Higher Education

Abstract: (1981) Strategic Planning for Higher Education The Journal of Higher Education: Vol 52, No 5, pp 470-489

A theory for distance education

Abstract: Distance education has managed very well without any theory. It has been used to bring education, through print, radio or television, to thousands and thousands who would never get to school or college. And, as practitioners, at the British National Extension College and at the International Extension College, we have shunned theory, arguing that we were interested only in practice. Partly that is policy – though one man’s policy is another’s prejudice – and a desire to keep out in the wide open spaces of educational innovation rather than creep into the house of theory, seen as an annex to the ivory tower of academe. Partly it is a reflection of our intellectual tradition; ‘The British were never ones for theory in any case. We have always been empiricist, anti-metaphysical in philosophy, mistrustful of theoretical systems.’ 1 And partly it is a suspicion of two kinds of theory – of those which try to simplify education to a theory as grand as E = MC2 and those who try to restrict it to a theory which ‘is neutral with regard to ends but exhaustive with regard to means’. 2

The learning processes of australian university students: investigations of contextual and personological factors

Abstract: Summary. Two studies are reported which investigate sex, faculty, and age (academic year) differences in the study methods of students at an Australian university. Significant main effects were found, but there was little evidence of any interactions. Correlations with grade point average indicated that success in Science-based faculties was related to using a deep-level approach to study relatively infrequently adopted by these students. It would seem that it was the young students, the male students, and the students enrolled in Science-based faculties who were most in need of study methods counselling.

Three investigations exploring relationships between perceived teacher communication behaviors and student learning

Abstract: This essay reports three investigations which examined the relationship between perceived teacher communication behavior and either student perceptions of teaching effectiveness or student learning. Teachers who were perceived as having greater interpersonal solidarity and a more positive communicator style (more dramatic, open, relaxed, impression leaving, and friendly) were perceived as more effective. Furthermore, positive perceptions of teacher communicator style resulted in greater student affect toward the instructor, the course content, and the overall course. It also resulted in greater student behavioral intent to use the course. The relationship of communicator style to cognitive learning, however, was less clear and basically nonexistent. The relationship between perceived teacher immediacy (a variable previously demonstrated to be highly predictive of affective and behavioral commitment) and communicator style was also examined and discussed.

Necessary English: A Faculty Survey

Abstract: An Academic Skills Questionnaire was distributed at San Diego State University to 200 randomly selected faculty from all departments in order to determine which skills (reading, writing, speaking or listening) were most essential to non-native speaker success in university classes. The receptive skills, reading and listening, were ranked first by faculty teaching both lower division and upper division/graduate classes. The faculty of all departments but Engineering ranked General English above Specific Purposes English. This study concludes with implications for testing, literacy requirements and curriculum development.

When Is an Animal, Not an Animal?.

Abstract: The concepts of ‘animal’ held by some New Zealand primary, secondary, and tertiary students were explored using both an interview and multiplechoice survey approach. The results indicate that many students of all ages have a restricted concept of ‘animal’ compared with that of a biologist. The implications of these results for teaching are discussed.

Research Productivity in Academia: A Comparative Study of the Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities.

Abstract: Though a significant number of studies of scholarly productivity have accumulated in the past decade, the majority have focused on limited samples of specialists in one or only a few scientific disciplines, making it difficult to generalize findings across dissimilar academic disciplines. This paper tests a model incorporating both academic and nonacademic factors as determinants of productivity with samples of physical and biological scientists, social scientists, and humanists taken from the 1972-73 American Council on Education survey of J'aculty at U.S. institutions of higher learning. We find considerable variation in the process determining productivity both across the broad disciplinary categories as well as within categories when article and book productivity are compared. We also examine the relative influence of the disciplinary context and attributes of scholars on productivity. Our evidence suggests that the decisive edge that physical and biological scientists enjoy over social scientists and humanists in article productivity is largely the result of the nature of work or a favorable disciplinary milieu, while the lower rate of productivity among humanists is more heavily determined by their attributes.

Sponsorship and Academic Career Success

Abstract: (1981). Sponsorship and Academic Career Success. The Journal of Higher Education: Vol. 52, No. 4, pp. 369-377.

Community Colleges and Tracking in Higher Education.

Abstract: The concept of tracking has provided an important toolfor understanding stratification within educational systems and has been applied to higher education by distinguishing between two-year and four-year colleges. In this paper, we make use of a natural experiment from the open-admissions program at the City University of New York to determine whether two-year colleges function as a separate track within higher education. We compare students who applied and were accepted to four-year colleges with others who applied but were placed in two-year colleges. Controlling for differences in academic background, we find that community colleges generally deter students from attaining their educational ambitions, but the effect is modest overall and varies notably from one community college to another. From the year-by-year academic progress of students in the two different contexts, it does not appear that there are special academic hurdles in the community colleges. Rather, students placed in them appear to become discouraged over time. Thus, the community colleges at CUNY do appear to function as a separate track, but their diversity persuades us that little is known about the specific mechanisms producing a community-college effect.