Delving into alumni perceptions about the impact and effectiveness of two certificate programs: meeting their mission?

The purpose of the study was to analyze two certificate programs in regard to the impacts on alumni professional career and strengths and weaknesses of certificate programs in the views of their alumni. The sample consisted of 58 participants who completed one of the certificate programs. The results showed that alumni rated self-improvement as the biggest benefit, career advancement benefit as average, and career change benefit as low from the certificate programs. Also, alumni thought that all program components were of strong quality, but the majority of alumni still wanted to see an increased emphasis on teaching, interaction with other students, support, and assessment feedback focus of the program.     

Evaluating Undergraduate Education: the use of broad indicators

The aim of this study was to examine the extent to which broad indicators of performance, such as student satisfaction with program, teaching, student life and experiences after graduation, could be used for program improvement. Information was obtained from graduates of a major research university in Canada who had received an undergraduate professional degree during the period from 1983 to 1992. Perceived quality of teaching was found to contribute significantly to graduates' rating of the overall quality of their academic program. The most frequently mentioned meaningful feature of their undergraduate education for alumni was the development of the ability to think. The results suggest the need for policy changes to improve teaching and the need for greater organizational coherence in post‐secondary institutional evaluations.     

美国院校研究中的校友研究

在美国院校研究中,校友分为学位校友、非学位校友、朋友(或准校友)三个群体.美国校友研究最初将校友视作学校服务的“消费者”,而后随着社会的发展,开始将其视为学校的“供给者”.校友研究产生于20世纪30年代,新公共管理运动后进入快速发展阶段,由主要关注学校内部公众,转为更多关注外部公众.近年来校友研究的主要内容是校友产出、参与及能力发展、校友捐赠.校友研究主要应用于经费筹集,招生就业,提高学校声誉,为政策制定提供信息,改善与政府、市场和社会的关系等方面.     

Alumni from one external degree program: Profile,perceptions, and preference

This study attempted to determine why a nontraditional program was important to alumni, and the negotiability of this degree to alumni, employers, peers and graduate schools. Data indicated that the main reasons for selecting a nontraditional program were a flexible schedule and the need to maintain a regular working day. In terms of negotiability, the degree provided recipients with higher job security, pay and responsibility. Generally the alumni initially had a low perception of what the degree would provide and were subsequently pleased with the credential, viewing it as a positive vehicle for job mobility and further study.     

Continuing professional and career development: the doctoral experience of education alumni at a UK university

This article reports on a study of alumni who completed their doctorates 2, 5 and 10 years ago at a Graduate School of Education in the University of London (n=162). It investigates the circumstances within which these research students started and completed their research and how they have subsequently used their studies, showing the particular place of the Ph.D. and the new Ed.D. in professional development in the field of education internationally. It questions current national proposals to ‘improve’ doctoral ‘training’ in the UK by enhancing students' employability and suggests that policy should be based on the actual employment and other life needs of postgraduate students in different disciplines. It argues that research students are paying for the privilege of satisfying their intellectual curiosity and making an original contribution to knowledge and are as concerned with personal growth as with vocational development.     

Canadian Policy Responses to International Comparison Testing

This paper examines policy responses across Canada to international student assessment programs such as the program for international student assessment, trends in international mathematics and science study, and progress in international reading and literacy study. Literature reviewed included refereed and non-refereed journal articles, proceedings from academic conferences, ministry of education research reports and policy documents, books and other monographs, achievement data from various statistical databases, critiques published in newspapers, and other widely disseminated research reports. The comparative analysis suggests a variety of factors influence the nature and degree of policy responses to international comparison testing within various Canadian provinces.     

高职院校“工业设计竞赛”实践与思考

竞赛是强化竞争意识的一种激励方式,对高职院校人才培养有很大的提升作用。分析高职院校开展＂工业设计竞赛＂的意义,针对设计竞赛教学面临的专业定位、师资、策略问题,结合教学实际情况,根据高职人才培养目标,从改变教学模式、提升教师实践能力、开展专题研究、竞赛策略等方面进行探索,并提出设计竞赛建议。     

Science Teachers’ Professional Development and Changes in Science Practical Assessment Practices: What are the Issues?

This paper considers the circumstances under which science teachers can respond positively and productively to educational policy reforms in the area of science practical assessment. To understand what might be involved in linking science teachers’ assessment capacities and their professional development, we present illustrative data from recent research studies conducted in Singapore and Hong Kong showing contrasting approaches taken in the implementation of reforms in science practical assessment. In Singapore, teachers worked together to select, discuss, clarify and refine their practices as they made decisions about what to teach and assess. In Hong Kong, teachers took a critical stance towards the new policy and learnt from their own experiences in order to build their confidence. With the same policy initiative, one group of teachers focused more on the technicalities of complying with requirements imposed on them while in the other group had their professional consciousness of what they thought was best for their students provoked so that their practices would be transformed. In an attempt to draw lessons for other contexts in supporting the implementation of assessment policy reforms through professional development work, we identify and discuss a range of factors in science teachers’ professional development that arise once in situ professional development work has started. Overall, our intent in this article is to recast assessment reform as a driver or pivot in teachers’ professional development and learning. To do this it is necessary, we argue, to afford teachers’ experiences and the processes involved in learning from them greater emphasis in order to ensure the continuance of innovation in the assessment of laboratory-based work.     

A mixed method study of ethical issues in classroom assessment in Chinese higher education

The purpose of this study was to explore Chinese university professors’ decisions about ethical issues in classroom assessment. A survey with fifteen scenarios that describe professors’ thoughts about ethics in assessment practices was administrated to 555 professors from 143 colleges and universities in 29 provinces in China. The results of the quantitative analysis indicated that professors’ interest in professional development related to classroom assessment, and their dispositions were significantly associated with their agreement with experts in the field of classroom assessment. Professors’ gender, highest degree, professional rank, and years of teaching experience did not significantly predict their agreement. The qualitative analysis revealed that maintaining fair assessment vs being caring to students and asserting professors’ rights vs abiding by university policy were the crucial aspects for professors to consider in classroom assessment. Findings of the study could help educators identify ethical issues in assessment, develop guidelines to ensure fair assessment, and incorporate differentiated strategies in professional development workshops in higher education.

     

面向成人的网络教育专业教学计划的设计思路和方法

教学计划是网络教育人才培养的纲,对能否实现人才培养的目标起着重要作用。然而,网络教育中,如何制定符合成人需要的专业教学计划？本文针对此问题展开讨论。本文采用了文献研究法、实地考察法、访谈法等研究方法。作者提出了网络教育专业教学计划的设计思路,教学计划内容和组织机构的设计方法,并总结了符合成人需要的灵活教学计划的设计策略。希望本文能够为我国网络教育实践机构的教学计划改革提供思路和方法上的帮助。     

Conjoint Analysis:

In a time of growing competition among colleges and universities for the most able students, degree-granting programs must be designed with the needs of the prospective student in mind. Traditionally, the development of academic programs relied on the energy and enthusiasm of a few faculty champions who saw new degree programs as a reflection of faculty interest and competence rather than of market demand. Conjoint analysis is a tool that has been used extensively in developing products since 1971. During the 1980s its use was expanded to help design services in such industries as banking, health care, computers, and hospitality and tourism. This multivariate technique allows prospective customers to make trade-offs on various product or service attributes. Those customer choices enable the development of utility functions for each service feature and thereby form the basis for configuring offerings that may optimize customer preference and market share. This article reports the use of conjoint analysis to determine the graduate management needs of undergraduate business alumni. At question was the type of degree program preferred by this growing population. The results of this study suggest that an accelerated and abbreviated M.B.A. program would be preferred to an M.S. degree. Such a new program would not substantially cannibalize existing programs nor would this shorter M.B.A. program be perceived negatively by potential students.     

Assessing student teachers: The promise of developmental portfolios

Abstract

This article describes the results of qualitative research using portfolios in a preservice teacher education program. Our study involved participant observation of 26 portfolio review sessions, and open‐ended interviews with 13 student teachers and 13 cooperating teachers. We sought to understand how portfolios might contribute to the assessment and professional development of prospective teachers. We discuss potential benefits and identify several important practical issues that others might consider when introducing portfolio assessment into their own preparation programs.     

Large-scale assessment as professional development: teachers’ motivations,ability beliefs,and values

In this study, conducted in the United States, the authors examined the motivational characteristics of teachers in the context of a large-scale performance assessment program. Teachers received professional development through their participation in the assessment program by writing items, reviewing items, and reviewing scoring criteria. An expectancy-value theory framework and embedded mixed-methods design were used to examine teachers’ (n = 119) motivations, ability beliefs, and values related to their professional development. Survey results showed that teachers generally had a high degree of intrinsic motivation for and associated social and pedagogical utility value with the professional development. Teachers reported positive ability beliefs, a high degree of usefulness, importance, and interest associated with the professional development, and positive changes to instruction and assessment. Results of multiple regression analyses showed teachers’ intrinsic motivations and ability beliefs predicted changes to instruction and assessments. Interview results illustrated the ways in which knowledge gained from involvement in the assessment program translated to practice. Results provided insight into the complexity of participants’ values, identifying factors that enabled or constrained changes to instruction and assessments.     

An educational framework for participatory action learning and action research (PALAR)

The purpose of this article is to provide an educational, theoretical, and methodological framework for using a special kind of action research, namely PALAR (participatory action learning and action research). This integrated methodology of lifelong action learning (AL) and participatory action research (PAR) has been developed over the past 25 years. It has been proven to be an effective approach to individual, professional, organizational, community (and generally practice) development. PALAR can be instrumental in pursuit of social justice and is well suited for both experienced and beginning researchers interested in researching and improving their own practice. The article illustrates with case examples how this framework has been put into practice for various programs in a variety of fields and countries. The PALAR framework is the basis for a generic program design, structure, and content, and for processes of learning, teaching, assessment, evaluation, and leadership development. It is a systemic and systematic program on how to design, justify, conduct, evaluate, write, and publish research that is particularly useful for community or work-based theses at master’s, professional doctorate, and PhD levels. An original feature of this article is its comprehensive overview and summary of the theory and practice of PALAR for the first time, with references to further readings.     

Changes in Follow-Up Data Following Marked Changes in a Counselor Education Program

This study compared follow-up data for two groups of master's degree alumni of a counselor education program, one of which graduated before marked changes in the program occurred and the other thereafter. The questionnaire data represented 83.5 percent of the first group and 89.6 percent of the second. Findings concerning the instructional program, advisement, and library services showed significant improvement in appraisal reactions of alumni in six of 12 cases, some deterioration in one. equivocal results in another, and no change in four. Employment data showed an increase from 42 to 71 percent of alumni in counseling and guidance positions. Professional membership data revealed a significant trend toward identification with national organizations. It was concluded that significant changes in much follow-up data occurred after marked changes in the counselor education program studied and that these changes were generally in the direction of further professionalization of counseling and guidance.     

Alumni Perspectives on Career Preparation during a Postdoctoral Training Program: A Qualitative Study

Published evaluations of career preparation of alumni from long-standing postdoctoral fellowship programs in the biomedical sciences are limited and often focus on quantitative analysis of data from extant publicly available sources. Qualitative methods provide the opportunity to gather robust information about specific program elements from structured postdoctoral training programs and the influence of this training on subsequent career paths of alumni. In-depth interviews with a subset of the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (CPFP) alumni (n = 27), representing more than 25 years of the program’s history and multiple career sectors, were conducted to assess alumni reflections on the training environment and career preparation during their time in the CPFP. NVivo software was used to analyze data and identify major themes. Four main themes emerged from these interviews, including: the value of structured training curriculum, mentorship, transdisciplinary environment, and professional identity. Even when reflecting on training that occurred one to two decades earlier, alumni were able to highlight specific components of a structured postdoctoral training program as influencing their research and career trajectories. These results may have relevance for those interested in assessing how postdoctoral training can influence fellows throughout their careers and understanding salient features of structured programs.     

对高校校友资源的再认识

本文首次给出“校友资源”的定义，旨在从“资源”的角度重新认识校友问题。文中对校友资源提出的历史背景和现实意义、校友资源的功能体系，以及对开发校友资源值得重视的若干问题进行了深入的分析，旨在对我国高校校友工作的发展有所参考、借鉴。     

Scientific Teaching Targeting Faculty from Diverse Institutions

We offered four annual professional development workshops called STAR (for Scientific Teaching, Assessment, and Resources) modeled after the National Academies Summer Institute (SI) on Undergraduate Education in Biology. In contrast to the SI focus on training faculty from research universities, STAR''s target was faculty from community colleges, 2-yr campuses, and public and private research universities. Because of the importance of community colleges and 2-yr institutions as entries to higher education, we wanted to determine whether the SI model can be successfully extended to this broader range of institutions. We surveyed the four cohorts; 47 STAR alumni responded to the online survey. The responses were separated into two groups based on the Carnegie undergraduate instructional program categories, faculty from seven associate''s and associate''s-dominant institutions (23) and faculty from nine institutions with primarily 4-yr degree programs (24). Both groups expressed the opinion that STAR had a positive impact on teaching, student learning, and engagement. The two groups reported using techniques of formative assessment and active learning with similar frequency. The mix of faculty from diverse institutions was viewed as enhancing the workshop experience. The present analysis indicates that the SI model for training faculty in scientific teaching can successfully be extended to a broad range of higher education institutions.     

Portfolios for learning,assessment and professional development in higher education

This article focuses on the use of portfolios for learning and professional development in Higher Education (HE). Recent research findings related to learning and assessment help to contextualize the study. The use of portfolios for summative assessment and development of teaching and reflective practice dominates the literature. What is lacking is research that provides insights into how a portfolio for learning can be used in HE to develop understanding into one’s own learning, assessment and professional practices. The action research findings related to portfolio use for learning purposes identified in the three case studies include: the importance of establishing the purpose of the portfolio; the impact of portfolio use on the approach to learning, to teaching and to professional development; the changes to professional practice brought about as a result of the learning; and the need to consider issues related to ethics and confidentiality.