Our purpose is to provide an exploratory statistical representation of initial teacher education as a complex system comprised of dynamic influential elements. More precisely, we reveal what the system looks like for differently-positioned teacher education stakeholders based on our framework for gathering, statistically analyzing, and graphically…

High-ability students have special education needs that are often overlooked or misunderstood (Blaas in "Aust J Guid Couns" 24(2):243-255, 2014) which may result in talent loss (Saha and Sikora in "Int J Contemp Sociol Discuss J Contemp Ideas Res" 48(1):9-34, 2011). Educational acceleration can help avoid these circumstances…

State support in higher education (HE) is often justified on the grounds that HE is important for the development of the country. However, little analysis is normally done in order to assess the impact of education quality initiatives. The Mexican government has been engaging in a policy of HE quality improvement that can be traced to 1989. In…

The authors discuss empirically determined competence areas to K-12 computer science education, emphasizing the cognitive level of competence. The results of a questionnaire with 120 professors of computer science serve as a database. By using multi-dimensional scaling and cluster analysis, four competence areas to computer science education…

The present investigation used an emic approach to develop a set of Icelandic indigenous basic interest scales. An indigenous item pool that is representative of the Icelandic labor market was administered to three samples (N = 1043, 1368, and 2218) of upper secondary and higher education students in two studies. A series of item level cluster and…

The purpose of the study was to examine grade-level differences in coping behaviors among adolescents using a probabilistic multidimensional scaling (MDS) single-ideal-point model. Using data from students in middle school and at college, this article illustrated the MDS single-ideal-point model as an alternative to examine students' typical…

Research shows that carefully planned acceleration offers academic benefits with little social or emotional risk to high-ability learners. However, acceleration is underutilized and little is known about students' motivations to accelerate. In this study, 21 high-ability high school students in Grades 11 and 12 took part in a structured…

With approximately 30 million students the Chinese higher education system is the largest in the world. In every publicly funded institution there is a communist party secretary, however, little is known about these party secretaries. The purpose of the study was to understand who these people were. We collected data from 1,751 party secretaries…

Purpose: This study presents institutional research and aims to explore the underlying factors that contribute to hospitality management students' satisfaction and perceptions of service quality at a higher education college in Ireland. Research focusing on hospitality and leisure management education argues for greater cognisance of the relevance…

Objective: Empathy is a prominent goal of medical education that is too often underachieved. Using concept mapping, the authors constructed a student-generated conceptual model of factors viewed as affecting empathy during medical education. Methods: During the 2005-2006 academic year, 293 medical students and interns answered a brainstorming…

Faculty, staff, and administrators at a small independent college determined that planning with a Concept Mapping process efficiently produced strategic thinking and action plans for the accomplishment of a strategic goal to expand experiential learning within the curriculum. One year into a new strategic plan, the college enjoyed enrollment…

Personal and Professional Development (PPD) is now key to the undergraduate medical curriculum and requires provision of appropriate learning experiences. In order to achieve this, it is essential that we ascertain students' perceptions of what is important in their PPD. We required a methodological approach suitable for a large medical school,…

Objective and Participants: The authors examined the experiences of primary care providers participating in an integrated healthcare service between mental health and primary care in a university health center. In this program, behavioral health providers work collaboratively with primary care providers in the treatment of students. Participants…

This paper reports the findings of an exploratory study of position vacant announcements appropriate for library and information studies (LIS) graduates appearing in the "Sydney Morning Herald" over a four week period in each of the following years: 2004, 1994, 1984 and 1974. The period studied witnessed change-demanding developments in…