Leo H. T. West

The use of cognitive mapping in teaching and learning strategies

SummaryIn this exercise the first five criteria of Table 3 were probably met. Our subsequent checks may enable us to claim that criterion 6 is also met, and there is little doubt that without it most chemistry teachers would remain sceptical about the worth of such an “extra” set of activities.The exercise also indicates that it is possible with modifications to move research techniques like 5 and 8 in Table 3 into at least the realm of possibility of teacher-centred or didactic classrooms.

Differential Prediction of First Year University Performance for Students from Different Social Backgrounds.

In all States in Australia, the Higher School Certificate (HSC) or its equivalent is used to select students for entry to higher education, and it is generally considered to be the best predictor of first year performance. However, Dunn (1982) demonstrated, at the University of Melbourne, that HSC was a biased selector with respect to type of school attended. The present study tested that hypothesis at Monash University. In addition, an examination of selector bias was undertaken for other social background variables: fathers occupational status as a surrogate of socio-economic status, and students country of birth as a surrogate of ethnicity. It is shown that HSC is a consistently biased selector with respect to type of school attended but not with respect to fathers occupational status or students country of birth. Students from government schools perform as well in first year as those from independent schools who have an HSC score of the order of 10–25 marks higher (or about one quarter to one half of the standard deviation in HSC score).

Successful achievements by girls in physics learning

Abstract Girls and boys are participating equally in the senior secondary levels of schooling in Thailand. After major reforms of the science curricula at all levels in the 1970s, about 10% of each age cohort are now studying physics, chemistry and biology in each of the three years of senior high school. The learning in physics of these students has been assessed with practical tests involving manipulative skills and problem solving, theoretical tests of physics knowledge and of source of evidence and an attitude to science test. The girls performed at least as well as the boys in all these measures of learning. In the practical tests, the girls in single‐sex schools outperformed both girls and boys in co‐educational schools and the boys in single‐sex schools. In conjunction with earlier evidence of girls’ superior learning achievements in chemistry, these results negate suggestions of biological bases for the widespread under‐achievement of girls in the physical sciences elsewhere. Organizational aspect...

The impact of higher education on adult students in Australia

This article is part of a study of the impact of higher education on aspects of the employment of a national sample of adult students (25 and over) who enrolled in higher education in Australia in 1978. The study shows that from the point of view of employment these adult students drew much benefit from their higher education. Females tended to benefit more than males. A further article in a later issue will consider for the same group the impact of higher education on the person.

Students' estimates of knowledge gained as measures of the quality of teacher education

One set of measures of the quality of courses for the preparation of science teachers stems from the perceptions exit students have of their knowledge with respect to that teaching. The Discipline Review of Teacher Education in Mathematics and Science surveyed these students late in 1988 on three broad types of knowledge-science content knowledge, curriculum knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge. Some of these findings of the Review are described. In addition, the base for developing items to measure these three types of knowledge is discussed in this paper. The variety in the data that emerged is also presented and the consistency of the findings with other measures of quality is described.

A comparative critique of several methods of collecting data for cognitive mapping

SummaryCognitive mapping by learners for various research purposes is assisted if the appropriate technique is used with learners at different stages of schooling and with varying degrees of understanding of a content field and of related content fields. There are however, techniques now available which appear to be usable by learners in primary, secondary and tertiary education.The use of the elucidatory interview is an exciting new tool for science educators. It is not, however, an easy one to use and our own experience suggests that a challenging combination of experince and naivety is needed for it to have optimal benefit as a means of rich data.

Strategic Planning, Performance Indicators, Research Policy: the New Issues Facing University Management

ABSTRACT Higher education systems throughout the world are coming under the joint influences of continuing reduced resources, demand for research to solve short term economic problems, and the perceived value in the application of business models of management. These influences have given rise to several related movements: strategic planning, performance indicators, research policy. The paper provides a discussion of each of these movements.

The Future of Higher Education in Australia: Ten Years On

ABSTRACT During 1975 a group of Monash University academics, who became nicknamed the “crystal ballgazers” began to meet with the aim of forecasting the future of higher education in Australia in the nineteen eighties and nineties. The predictions were published and by 1983 many of the forecasts had already proved remarkably accurate — and few, if any, of the pro‐active strategies that were suggested as a way of influencing the future had been adopted. This paper provides two retrospective analyses of that work. in the first we present some of the actual forecasts and their accord with reality, and then juxtapose the reasons for our forecasts upon the reasons being proposed now for the trends that have emerged. In the second analysis, we examine the failure of the work to influence the power brokers in Australian higher education to adopt a longer term and a more pro‐active planning role.